Episode 235
Ghosted, Canceled, Ignored? Not Today!
In episode 235 of The Business Development Podcast, Kelly Kennedy tackles one of the most frustrating realities in business development: cancellations, no-shows, and the dreaded ghosting. Whether it’s a last-minute calendar drop or total silence after a confirmed meeting, this episode delivers a practical, no-nonsense approach to taking back control and turning lost meetings into new momentum. Kelly walks through the emotional side of these setbacks and shares why persistence, process, and empathy are your greatest tools for the turnaround.
Listeners will learn how to strengthen their pre-meeting preparation, use marketing materials and LinkedIn to build stronger buy-in, and implement a follow-up strategy that rebooks meetings with confidence. It’s not about never getting ghosted—it’s about knowing exactly what to do when you do. If your calendar’s been hit with cancellations lately, this is your playbook to come back stronger.
Key Takeaways:
1. Cancellations and no-shows are part of the game—how you respond determines your success.
2. Most canceled meetings aren’t a “no,” they’re a “not right now”—don’t give up too soon.
3. Building real interest upfront through strong marketing materials reduces flake rates dramatically.
4. Always confirm meetings with a calendar invite—if it’s not accepted, it doesn’t exist.
5. A clear, respectful follow-up process is key after a cancellation or ghosting.
6. LinkedIn is no longer optional—your personal profile builds credibility and warms up leads.
7. Never respond emotionally to a canceled meeting—lead with empathy and professionalism.
8. Custom brochures and cut sheets tailored to each industry significantly boost meeting conversions.
9. A good CRM process keeps your pipeline organized and makes rebooking easier.
10. Almost any missed meeting can be rebooked—if you keep following up with kindness and consistency.
Transcript
Welcome to episode 235 of the Business Development Podcast.
Speaker A:And if you've ever got ghosted on a meeting, hit with a last minute cancellation or stuck in the endless reschedule loop, this episode is for you.
Speaker A:Today we're going to talk all about how to take back control and turn those no shows into next steps.
Speaker A:Stick with us.
Speaker A:You are not going to want to miss this episode.
Speaker B:The great Mark Cuban once said, business happens over years and years.
Speaker B:Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.
Speaker B:And we couldn't agree more.
Speaker B:This is the Business Development Podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and broadcasting to the world.
Speaker B:You'll get expert business development advice, tips and experiences and you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs and business development reps.
Speaker B:You'll get action actionable advice on how to grow business brought to you by Capital Business Development capitalbd ca.
Speaker B:Let's do it.
Speaker B:Welcome to the Business Development Podcast.
Speaker B:And now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.
Speaker A:Hello.
Speaker A:Welcome to episode 235 of the Business Development Podcast.
Speaker A:Holy cow.
Speaker A:235 episodes and my gosh do we have some news for you guys today.
Speaker A:It has been a wild, wild couple of weeks here on the Business Development Podcast with Capital Business Development.
Speaker A:Just lots going on guys.
Speaker A:Quill Podcast Awards is going on.
Speaker A:They are still taking nominations until May 8th.
Speaker A:Guys, we are in the top five for best business Podcast and Podcast of the year and we could 150% use your vote.
Speaker A:So if you're hearing this and it is coming out on May 7th, if you are hearing this on May 7th we need your vote.
Speaker A:Please head on over to Quill Podcast Awards.
Speaker A:Google it.
Speaker A:Easy to find and you will see right on the homepage.
Speaker A:Vote now.
Speaker A:And please throw a vote for your favorite business development show in best Business Podcast category as well as best Best Podcast of the year.
Speaker A:We would appreciate it immensely.
Speaker A:Awards are not everything but my gosh, they are sure nice when you win them.
Speaker A:So we would appreciate the help of our rockstar community on that.
Speaker A:If you have some time today, if you were Hearing this after May 8, disregard it all, it is over.
Speaker A:And who knows, maybe or maybe not, we may or may not have won but it's still pretty cool to be there and be on a list of a top five for those categories.
Speaker A:There's another really big thing that actually just happened a couple of days ago and that is that the Business Development Podcast has rolled over 250,000 downloads.
Speaker A:Guys.
Speaker A:250,000 downloads.
Speaker A:Actually, 252,400 as of this very moment.
Speaker A:But we have had an incredible, incredible couple of weeks here on the business development podcast.
Speaker A:Massive uptick in listeners.
Speaker A:And I know it's because of you guys are incredible Rockstar community.
Speaker A:Telling your friends, your family members, your coworkers, that is how this show grows.
Speaker A:And I could not, could not, could not appreciate you guys more.
Speaker A:You are incredible.
Speaker A:You're the best listeners ever.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for being part of our community.
Speaker A:Thank you for believing in me and thank you for showing up to this show, whether it is your very first episode of the business development podcast or whether we've had you for 235 powerful episodes at this point.
Speaker A:Honestly, guys, it's incredible.
Speaker A:You are amazing.
Speaker A:I could not do this show without you.
Speaker A:I could not have seen the success of this show and this show wouldn't be successful without you, without our Rockstar listenership.
Speaker A:And so thank you so much.
Speaker A:Thank you for believing in me, thank you for supporting the business development podcast journey, and thank you for making the business world a better place and making business development a priority in your organizations.
Speaker A:It makes a huge difference.
Speaker A:Guys.
Speaker A:I set out with this show to, to make a global impact and I think, I think we continue to do that with your support week over week, month over month and year over year.
Speaker A:So thank you.
Speaker A:I'm committed to you.
Speaker A:I'm committing to keep showing up as long as I can here, as long as there are people listening, taking value from this show.
Speaker A:Love to hear from you.
Speaker A:Love to hear the impacts that you have made with the knowledge you got from this show.
Speaker A:Guys.
Speaker A:It's, it really keeps me motivated and it helps me to keep showing up week over week.
Speaker A:Could not, could not do it without you.
Speaker A:I never thought that we could come this far in a little over two years and it's you that helped us get here.
Speaker A:So once again, thank you so much.
Speaker A:And last but not least, if you have not done so yet, please do follow us on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen.
Speaker A:And if you can do it, enable automatic downloads.
Speaker A:It really, really helps the growth numbers on this show and helps us to get high download numbers and be able to reach far and wide, which will definitely help with the longevity of this show over time, guys.
Speaker A:So please follow us, please enable automatic downloads if you can.
Speaker A:And once again, tell a friend, family member, coworker, tell them about the podcast.
Speaker A:It helps us grow.
Speaker A:All right, thank you for that.
Speaker A:I know we haven't done a pre show update in a While.
Speaker A:So thanks for bearing with me.
Speaker A:Let's just get into it today.
Speaker A:I want to talk all about the reschedule and the original title for the show was Don't Give up Reschedule.
Speaker A:I'm not sure if it's going to continue that, but that is absolutely, absolutely the topic for today and it's a relevant topic.
Speaker A:Guys, it's been a crazy couple of months here in Canada.
Speaker A:Obviously with the trade war, the tariffs, uncertainty, an election, trying to lock people down for, for an introduction meeting over the past couple months has been really fun.
Speaker A:If you're in business development in Canada, I'm sure you've been experiencing something similar.
Speaker A:And I know a lot of people are having meetings either cancelled or rescheduled or no shows.
Speaker A:And today I wanted to talk all about that because guess what, these are par for the course.
Speaker A:And you can absolutely, absolutely turn these around.
Speaker A:If you are like getting rescheduled or you're having no shows and you're giving up, I hope this episode changes everything for you because something I've realized over time is you can nearly always rebook these meetings and they tend to go better than they ever could have.
Speaker A:So today I want to talk all about meeting scheduling and specifically the dreaded cancellation or no show.
Speaker A:This subject, like I said, is very specifically relevant to me in this moment as I've experienced quite a few cancellations or reschedules in the past month with some of my clients.
Speaker A:And obviously with, with, like I said, the tariffs, the trade wars, an election, there's a lot of uncertainty and uncertainty makes people do crazy things.
Speaker A:But with a little elbow grease, I've been able to turn these around, set those back up and get them right back into the calendar.
Speaker A:And I hope that I will be able to do the same for you.
Speaker A:First, though, before we get into this, we have to talk about what we can do up front.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:It's about what can we do up front.
Speaker A:If you guys are having lots of challenges, there may be things that we can do ahead of these meetings to make them more solid for you, to solidify them, to make those people way more likely to show up to that meeting.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:Because one, you've built enough interest in it, they actually want to attend that meeting, and two, you've hopefully locked it in properly in a way that's easy for them to be reminded and easy for them to remember that, hey, they have a meeting with you and that should be top of their priority.
Speaker A:So, number one, before we get into this, and you know I'm not going Deep into the active marketing process.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Lots of shows on that.
Speaker A:We will dive deep into it, I'm sure at another show this year, but this isn't it.
Speaker A:But I can't really do this with you guys if I don't dig a little bit into the active marketing process.
Speaker A:And by doing things in a structured way up front, by making sure we have our I's dotted and our T's crossed ahead, it's going to make life for us a lot easier and it's going to make these clients way more likely to show up to that meeting in the first place.
Speaker A:So before we talk about what do we do in, in the worst of cases, let's talk about how to make the worst of cases way less likely.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Number one, we must, must, must follow the business development process.
Speaker A:Now, once again, you can follow my process that we teach on the show.
Speaker A:You can follow your own process, whatever that is, but follow a process, do the same thing repeatedly, week over week, month over month, year over year, to make sure that you have consistency and consistent success over time.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Like if you're struggling to get meetings, very likely there's some gaps in the process itself.
Speaker A:And if you go back to that process and do some digging into it, you might be able to correct those ahead, making your meetings way, way, way more successful for you.
Speaker A:Okay, but let's dive into it quickly here and go over some of the things that you need to consider before you start asking for these meetings.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Number one, identify the industry, sub industry and best locations for your organization and for yourself.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:You're always most competitive where you are at.
Speaker A:Make sure that you're targeting industries, sub industries that need your products and services, understand your products and services, and make sure that you're doing it in a location that you can be competitive in.
Speaker A:Because if you can't be competitive, that's almost immediately going to make people less likely to want to meet with you.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Number two, you have to evaluate your marketing materials.
Speaker A:Make sure your website is beautiful, bold, visually appealing, has maybe a little bit of video in it, is modern, is concise, speaks to who you are, what you do in a powerful, visually appealing way that isn't too messy, that isn't too wordy.
Speaker A:Here's the thing, if you are marketing to people and they're not wowed a little bit by your website, they don't think, wow, that's kind of cool.
Speaker A:I think I want to learn more about this.
Speaker A:Remember, all of our marketing materials are just to build interest.
Speaker A:If your website is not building Interest, you need to start there.
Speaker A:And I get it, I get it.
Speaker A:As somebody who has a ton of websites, like, you know, between the business development podcast, Capital Business Development, the business development mastery coaching programs, I have multiple, multiple websites going on at any given time.
Speaker A:So I completely understand how you can feel like, oh, another thing I have to manage.
Speaker A:I get it.
Speaker A:But if you cannot lock down a little bit of interest in those websites, if it isn't helping you to compete with your competitors, to stand out a little bit, to be able to engage millennials who are probably your target market audience at this point, Gen Z maybe, who have attention spans of eight seconds.
Speaker A:Eight seconds, you're going to struggle to build enough interest to make your client want to meet with you in the first place.
Speaker A:So if we haven't evaluated our marketing materials in some time, we're struggling to lock down meetings.
Speaker A:Let's start with the website.
Speaker A: story skyscraper in: Speaker A:20 story skyscraper, guys, make sure they're done.
Speaker A:Well, the second thing you need, you absolutely need it.
Speaker A:Brochures, okay?
Speaker A:I know many of you are like, oh, I don't want to do brochures or I don't have brochures, I don't need them.
Speaker A:I got a website.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:No, it's not enough on its own.
Speaker A:Make sure that you are creating once again, just like your website, bold, beautiful, visually appealing brochures, concise, modern, laid out, well structured, well designed to build interest.
Speaker A:With millennials and Gen Z guys, the people you are marketing to these days, okay, they have to be visually appealing, especially those front covers.
Speaker A:They have to be easy to look at.
Speaker A:Not a lot of words, words don't get read.
Speaker A:Remember, it doesn't matter how good the wording is.
Speaker A:If you have too many of them, people are not going to read it.
Speaker A:And if they don't read it, they're not going to get the message anyway.
Speaker A:Write everything as short and concise as you can.
Speaker A:Make sure that the word choices are powerful, they're gripping, they're engaging.
Speaker A:You have to be able to say what you're going to say as short as humanly possible and do it in a way that is appealing to millennials and Gen Z.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:It's going to help you as you move forward.
Speaker A:I always like a folder style brochure myself.
Speaker A:That's my personal preference.
Speaker A:I like the title page, first page on the inside to maybe have like an about us, some values, something about your value proposition, the right page, maybe have a little bit on your services, the back page, once again, just a visually appealing picture.
Speaker A:Maybe your address is your contact details, whatever.
Speaker A:And then what I like to have is a pocket in this folder style brochure.
Speaker A:The pocket is really important because it's going to hold actually the most important part of your brochure.
Speaker A:And that is something we call cut sheets.
Speaker A:Cut sheets are essentially one page product sheets.
Speaker A:They can be one page or double sided.
Speaker A:And what they do is they speak specifically to the industry that you are marketing to.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:And it's important that for every product and service you have, if you're marketing it to multiple industries, that you have a separate cut sheet for each one.
Speaker A:Speaking to them in terms they understand, showing them images of things that are relevant to them.
Speaker A:Making sure that every single cut sheet speaks to the customer specifically.
Speaker A:Okay, this is really critical because if you're marketing, let's say to forestry and then you're marketing to oil and gas, but you have the same product and it works in both situations, you still have to speak to them in a way that they understand.
Speaker A:You have to explain to them why that product is relevant to their industry, how it is going to help them, benefit them, save them money, make them money.
Speaker A:You have to speak to people in ways they can understand.
Speaker A:So like I said, you might only have one product.
Speaker A:Great.
Speaker A:But that product might be relevant across multiple industries.
Speaker A:And you need to make sure that you are creating individual cut sheets that speak to each industry.
Speaker A:And when you market them, you just attach the main brochure and then you attach the cut sheet specific to that industry.
Speaker A:And it is going to build interest much, much better than a generic brochure.
Speaker A:So getting these brochures right, not only are they not dead, not only are they super relevant, but if you do them right, they're going to supercharge your interest building and make those meetings way more likely to happen.
Speaker A:Take my word for it, guys, I've been doing this for many, many, many years.
Speaker A:I've been using this with all of my clients.
Speaker A:It works extremely well, maybe better than ever because less people than ever are using brochures.
Speaker A:And last but not least on the marketing front, guys, your LinkedIn, okay?
Speaker A:Your LinkedIn is absolutely, absolutely critical.
Speaker A:You cannot, cannot leave this alone anymore.
Speaker A:Whenever you're marketing something most people are going to not Google you, check you out on LinkedIn.
Speaker A:I don't care what position you're in, what company you work with, it's very likely the people you're marketing to are also checking you out on LinkedIn.
Speaker A:And so if you want to stand out, you need to put in a little bit of effort here making sure your profile is done better than ever.
Speaker A:It is not enough to market your company anymore, guys.
Speaker A:You have to market yourselves too.
Speaker A:And you market yourselves by doing your LinkedIn pages, right?
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Your LinkedIn profile must be fully completed.
Speaker A:This includes all prior job history, all awards, all certificates.
Speaker A:Make sure that your featured section is filled out with all relevant links that you may want to share with potential prospects.
Speaker A:Make sure that your banner image and your profile picture have synergy that they match.
Speaker A:If possible, speak to what you want to do in your banner image.
Speaker A:Guys, most of the time when people check out a LinkedIn profile, they don't necessarily scroll the whole thing.
Speaker A:They always look at your profile picture and your banner image.
Speaker A:So if you want to market your products and services, a great place to do it is in your banner image.
Speaker A:And if you look at anybody who's doing like, personal branding or personal branding expertise on LinkedIn, they are selling just as much on their banner image than they are on anywhere else on their page.
Speaker A:Make sure that you have synergy and synchronicity between your banner image and your profile picture.
Speaker A:If you can use the same background, it really helps you pop and makes you stand out in a sea of people on LinkedIn.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:LinkedIn must be done correctly.
Speaker A:And last but not least, if you are in business development, sales, anything along those lines.
Speaker A:If you have clients, LinkedIn has a feature you may have never heard of and it is called their recommendation section, guys.
Speaker A:And it's like a review for you.
Speaker A:And you can ask all of your past clients to leave you recommendations on LinkedIn.
Speaker A:And this is powerful, guys, because it's word of mouth.
Speaker A:It's word of mouth.
Speaker A:It is a review of you as an individual.
Speaker A:And it is powerful to show that you are a trustworthy, great individual.
Speaker A:Ask for those recommendations from your past clients, from your past employers, from friends, family, whatever.
Speaker A:Get those recommendations on LinkedIn.
Speaker A:They are going to be powerful for you long term.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:The other thing that we have to really, really focus in on here, guys, is making sure that we are identifying the buying positions at the companies we want to work with, okay?
Speaker A:It's not good enough just to reach out to someone at the organization, say, hi, I'm Kyle with XYZ Company and we sell this.
Speaker A:Who do I speak to?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You don't want to do that.
Speaker A:That like, never works well for you and it's going to send you down a rabbit hole of either just getting blown off completely or you have to speak to six people before you get to where you need to go.
Speaker A:No, this is your job as a business developer, as a salesperson, to do that market research upfront.
Speaker A:Who are the buying positions at the organizations you want to work with?
Speaker A:This should be pretty easy for you.
Speaker A:If you've been in an organization for any length of time.
Speaker A:You can pretty easily go through your, your emails and see who were the people who were reaching out to you, what positions?
Speaker A:Were they presidents, Were they procurement managers?
Speaker A:Were they directors of operations, directors of safety, whatever.
Speaker A:What are the buying positions?
Speaker A:And just start to write them out.
Speaker A:You know, director of safety, quality manager, purchasing manager, procurement manager, CEO, president, whatever.
Speaker A:Who are the people who are reaching out to you?
Speaker A:Make sure that you create a list of the buying positions and start targeting these positions specifically at the organizations that you want to work.
Speaker A:Guys, getting the right person upfront is half the battle.
Speaker A:Seriously.
Speaker A:If you can get the person at the organization who knows what your product and service is, why it's valuable to their organization and where they can use it, they are going to be like a hundred percent more likely to want to meet with you than somebody who may not be aware of your product and service and why it's relevant to their organization.
Speaker A:So targeting, doing that work upfront front, making sure that you can figure out who buys these products and services at that organization is going to save you a lot of time and a lot of advertising dollars to get the meeting that you need in the first place.
Speaker A:Okay, so if you're struggling to get meetings right now and you have not done this exercise, this could be the biggest thing right now holding you back.
Speaker A:Do this exercise, identify who are the buying positions at the companies I want to work with?
Speaker A:What are they for the industry?
Speaker A:Remember, they change industry to industry too.
Speaker A:What works in oil and gas might not work in forestry.
Speaker A:What works in forestry might not work in manufacturing.
Speaker A:What works in manufacturing may not work in food, safety, whatever.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Point is, identify those positions at each of the industries that you want to work in.
Speaker A:And you have a lot of new targets to reach out to.
Speaker A:It's going to help you massively long term.
Speaker A:Trust me on this.
Speaker A:Qualifying people figuring out the buying position, that is half the battle.
Speaker A:If you can do this, you're going to book way, way more meetings with way less cancellations.
Speaker A:So let's say that we've done all this, we've figured out what the buying positions are.
Speaker A:We have awesome marketing material.
Speaker A:Our website is killer, our brochures are killer.
Speaker A:We've identified the locations, we can work at, the industries, we can work at, the people who buy our products and services.
Speaker A:Yes, you are killing it.
Speaker A:Pat yourself on the back.
Speaker A:But there is the next step.
Speaker A:We now have to warm these people up.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Going in cold is so pre LinkedIn.
Speaker A:We're not going to do that anymore.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Calling people up out of the blue without getting some information or a brand in front of them somehow first we don't do this.
Speaker A:We live in a time where it has never ever been easier to get your products and services in front of the right people utilizing technology, I.
Speaker A:E.
Speaker A:LinkedIn.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:LinkedIn is now non negotiable in business development, guys.
Speaker A:We absolutely have to be using it.
Speaker A:I would never want to go back pre LinkedIn at this point it's basically like having your hand tied behind your back.
Speaker A:If you do not have access to LinkedIn or know how to use it, at this point it's absolutely mandatory.
Speaker A:You can't even teach business development properly anymore without teaching how to utilize LinkedIn and social media strategy.
Speaker A:So we have to use our technology to make our odds of closing these people go through the roof.
Speaker A:What do we do?
Speaker A:Easy.
Speaker A:You now have all of these buying positions, right?
Speaker A:You know what the positions are?
Speaker A:Is it the president is the director of operations?
Speaker A:Is it the safety manager is the procurement manager.
Speaker A:Who are those buying positions?
Speaker A:Now we need to identify the people who work in those positions at the companies we want to work at.
Speaker A:Easy peasy.
Speaker A:You can search by position on LinkedIn, you can then narrow it by location and you can just scroll until you find the companies that you want to work with.
Speaker A:This is absolutely incredible.
Speaker A:This is something that just never existed before, guys.
Speaker A:But in the old days we used to have to drive around place to place call maybe.
Speaker A:But even then you get screened nine times out of 10 and you had to go in, leave a brochure, grab a business card, go back, call them later.
Speaker A:It was a whole ordeal.
Speaker A:You don't have to do this anymore.
Speaker A:You can now search by position on LinkedIn, narrow it to the area that you are most competitive in and literally just find the person at the company you want to work at and connect with them.
Speaker A:And that is what we are going to do at a fairly mass scale.
Speaker A:Guys, we can do this at a hundred a week.
Speaker A:You can send a hundred connection invites every Single week on LinkedIn.
Speaker A:Every Monday.
Speaker A:This is what I'm doing.
Speaker A:I'm on there connecting with prospects that need my products and services, qualified prospects that I know understand what I do, understand what my clients do and will be receptive when I reach out to them and connect.
Speaker A:So we need to connect with these people.
Speaker A:We need to then send a digital introduction once they accept brief personal.
Speaker A:Introduce yourself, introduce the company very briefly and attach a brochure.
Speaker A:Remember, all you're looking to do, you're not selling shit on LinkedIn.
Speaker A:You are not selling anything on LinkedIn.
Speaker A:Stop that.
Speaker A:You aren't.
Speaker A:Not in B2B.
Speaker A:What you're doing on LinkedIn is building brand awareness and warming up a prospect for when we make direct contact later.
Speaker A:So what you want to do is essentially just introduce yourself in a personal way.
Speaker A:Hi, my name is Kelly.
Speaker A:I work with XYZ company.
Speaker A:I have some products and services that you might be interested in.
Speaker A:Attach to brochure.
Speaker A:Look forward to connecting down the line.
Speaker A:That's it.
Speaker A:It doesn't have to be more complex than that.
Speaker A:Attach the brochure, let the brochure do the talking.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:At the end of the day, all you want them to do is know who you are and what your company is and what it does.
Speaker A:Those two things are enough to make your meeting closure rates in the future go through the roof.
Speaker A:After that, we move them to our CRM, our digital introduction stage and we are ready to track down contact information and follow up weekly until we get that meeting.
Speaker A:Okay, so there we go.
Speaker A:I can't really speak to what to do in a challenging situation unless we really lock down.
Speaker A:How do we book meetings properly in the first place?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:If you're having cancellation after cancellation after cancellation.
Speaker A:If you're struggling to lock down the meetings, guaranteed.
Speaker A:One of the things that I talked about here is your challenge.
Speaker A:You are struggling to build the right amount of interest with the right people.
Speaker A:If you have interest plus the right people, the meeting is the is the obvious outcome.
Speaker A:It's like two plus two equals four.
Speaker A:If you have the right people and your marketing materials are great and you can build interest, the meeting is almost inevitable.
Speaker A:But you have to have that locked down first to make your meetings easier to secure in the first place.
Speaker A:Remember, marketing is all about building enough interest to get you to the meeting.
Speaker A:Typically doesn't sell anything.
Speaker A:Selling is done in person once trust is established.
Speaker A:But you need to build interest to get to that in person meeting in the first place.
Speaker A:So hopefully this has been clear.
Speaker A:Hopefully you have a good idea of what to look at.
Speaker A:If you've been struggling with this.
Speaker A:But what do we do next?
Speaker A:The next part we have to talk about is the actual scheduling of the meeting.
Speaker A:I know some people might be struggling at this part.
Speaker A:They actually have great marketing material they work for.
Speaker A:Big organizations have spent a ton of money creating the best marketing material.
Speaker A:So getting interest hasn't been the challenge.
Speaker A:The challenge has been in the locking down of the meeting in the first place.
Speaker A:Scheduling of the meeting.
Speaker A:Okay, here's the thing.
Speaker A:If we don't schedule the meeting right, we're going to run into the same challenges.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Scheduling the meeting is just as important as having all the right marketing materials.
Speaker A:So let's get into it.
Speaker A:Always schedule the meeting on the phone or by email right in that moment, right in the moment that they reach out to you and say, yeah, I'd love to meet.
Speaker A:Don't wait, don't put this off by days, whatever.
Speaker A:If you're on vacation, I don't care.
Speaker A:Just get to a computer quickly and lock it down.
Speaker A:The faster that you can lock down this meeting, the higher chance they are going to just accept the calendar invite and move forward.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Make sure that you have the date right, the time right.
Speaker A:Consider your time zones.
Speaker A:If you work in Canada, you work across three time zones.
Speaker A:Nine times out of 10, consider the date, consider the time zone, consider your location.
Speaker A:Are you meeting them in person at their office, at a, at an event?
Speaker A:Consider whether it's virtual or in person.
Speaker A:Leave nothing to misunderstanding or chance.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Anytime something can be misunderstood, it will be misunderstood.
Speaker A:Anytime you leave it to chance, it's probably going to go negative for you.
Speaker A:Just do everything in the moment that you can to lock down that meeting.
Speaker A:Make sure all of the data is there.
Speaker A:Make sure you let them know in the description what you're looking to do, what you want to talk about, where the location is.
Speaker A:Is it virtual in person?
Speaker A:If it's virtual, is it on teams?
Speaker A:Is it on Google Meets?
Speaker A:Have everything, every piece of data that you can in that meeting invite.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Don't leave anything to chance.
Speaker A:Schedule all your meetings into your calendars immediately and send meeting invites.
Speaker A:Do not rely on verbal confirmation.
Speaker A:Please, please, please.
Speaker A: It's: Speaker A:Do not rely on verbal confirmation for anything.
Speaker A:Every single formal meeting should be scheduled.
Speaker A:Every single lunch should be scheduled.
Speaker A:Every single event should be scheduled.
Speaker A:Frankly, your coffee should probably be scheduled at this point.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Schedule everything.
Speaker A:It will make sure it doesn't get forgotten.
Speaker A:It will make sure it doesn't get lost.
Speaker A:Everybody will know where it is.
Speaker A:Do not rely on Verbal confirmation.
Speaker A:Remember, if it is not in the calendar, it does not exist.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Always verify that the meeting is confirmed and follow up next day if it has not been accepted.
Speaker A:An unaccepted meeting invite is not a confirmed meeting.
Speaker A:If they do not accept the meeting invite, you do not have a meeting.
Speaker A:Period.
Speaker A:You don't, okay?
Speaker A:You have to have to have to get that confirmation by any means necessary.
Speaker A:If they haven't accepted your meeting invite the next day, give them a courtesy call, say, hey, I'm just reaching out.
Speaker A:I just noticed you haven't accepted the meeting yet.
Speaker A:Do you mind accepting that for us?
Speaker A:That would be incredible.
Speaker A:If they give you a reason or say why they can't you, once again, you still don't have a meeting, so you need to keep maybe following up with them until you lock it down.
Speaker A:Or just expect that they may or may not show up to that meeting, which is not valuing your time.
Speaker A:You have to value your time to make sure that you are getting an accepted meeting invite.
Speaker A:That's the thing that says you have it.
Speaker A:Until it's accepted, you don't have a meeting.
Speaker A:If the meeting invite is not confirmed within two days, follow up again by phone or direct email to remind them, okay?
Speaker A:You have to get it.
Speaker A:You have to get that meeting locked in.
Speaker A:If they are not accepting the meeting, there's a reason.
Speaker A:Try to get to the bottom of it.
Speaker A:Try to figure out why they haven't accepted that meeting and if you can rectify it for them.
Speaker A:Rectify it.
Speaker A:If you need to push it a week, offer to push it a week.
Speaker A:Do what you can to get them to accept the meeting.
Speaker A:Because like I said, until they accept it, it's going to get missed.
Speaker A:Trust me, if you got to rely on memory, it's going to get missed.
Speaker A:By doing your due diligence upfront, you will secure more confirmed meetings and run into less trouble down the line.
Speaker A:Look, it's pretty rare for someone to accept a meeting and then back right out of it or be a no show.
Speaker A:Typically when I've run into people that are being flaky, they'll cancel the meeting.
Speaker A:You know, a couple days before, maybe the morning of something like that.
Speaker A:It does happen on occasion, but most of the time, I would say like 90%, 95% of the time, if I get a meeting confirmation, I get the meeting.
Speaker A:That's the secret.
Speaker A:If I don't get the meeting confirmation, my odds of getting that meeting go way, way, way down.
Speaker A:Like down, down, down.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:The you have to get the confirmation just Trust me on this.
Speaker A:You have to get the confirmation, do what it takes.
Speaker A:If you don't have the confirmation, follow up on it.
Speaker A:Always follow up by phone if you can first.
Speaker A:If you can't get them on phone, follow up by email.
Speaker A:But if you can get them on the phone, they're going to be more likely to accept it right there in the moment.
Speaker A:All right, so now let's get into things.
Speaker A:Maybe you haven't had to deal with too much.
Speaker A:If you've gotten this far, you've, you've booked the meeting, you're probably not having a whole lot of trouble booking the meeting, which is great.
Speaker A:That's, that's really the challenging part.
Speaker A:If we can do everything right in the first place, getting the meeting is much, much easier.
Speaker A:But what happens if we get the meeting and now we're running into no shows, we're running into last minute cancellations, things like that.
Speaker A:Okay, before we get started on this, let's just, let's just address the elephant in the room.
Speaker A:Cancellations are super, super frustrating.
Speaker A:In business development this past couple months, like, I've struggled with cancellations.
Speaker A:Like, this has nothing to do with experience.
Speaker A:This is just people and life and circumstance, okay?
Speaker A:Cancellations happen.
Speaker A:They're super frustrating, but they are absolutely, absolutely par for the course.
Speaker A:So before we move into this, I just want to address this for my rock stars out there.
Speaker A:There's nothing wrong with you if you are struggling with people canceling on you.
Speaker A:It's not you, okay?
Speaker A:It's not you.
Speaker A:This happens to every single one of us across all industries.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter how long you've been in the game or how new you are in this game.
Speaker A:Cancellations happen to all of us, okay?
Speaker A:It's how we deal with these cancellations that separate the wheat from the chaff, okay?
Speaker A:We have to have to have to deal with them in the right way to make sure that we have the highest chance of rebooking the meetings.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Now once again, it doesn't matter how long you've been in business development, cancellations are not, and once again, let me repeat, are not a reflection of your skill or lack thereof.
Speaker A:It is just part of the job.
Speaker A:And once you realize this and accept it for what it is, it's going to be a lot easier for you to handle them in the right way.
Speaker A:Cancellations suck in the moment, but they are part of the game.
Speaker A:If a meeting invite gets canceled without explanation, do the following.
Speaker A:Number one, take a deep breath and relax.
Speaker A:If you need to, like, wait a minute before you respond, that's fine.
Speaker A:I get it.
Speaker A:This can be hard, especially if you had like a team meeting set up.
Speaker A:You invited a ton of people.
Speaker A:It can be really, really frustrating.
Speaker A:So let me, like, just like, let me acknowledge and accept that that might be how you're feeling in this moment.
Speaker A:This is not the time to respond.
Speaker A:If you need to go and take a little walk, if you need to go for lunch, if you need to, like, just like chill for a minute.
Speaker A:If you need to scream in your truck, go do that.
Speaker A:I've been there, done that, got the T shirt.
Speaker A:Totally, totally understand.
Speaker A:So first, first things first.
Speaker A:Relax, take a breath and then come back to it.
Speaker A:Number two, send an email stating that you've seen the cancellation and you hope that they are okay.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:First off, you don't know what happened.
Speaker A:You don't.
Speaker A:And there's a million different things I've had.
Speaker A:I've had every situation in the book, from car accident to death of a family member to, you name it, like tons and tons and tons of real world challenges, okay?
Speaker A:You never know what your prospect is dealing with on the other side of that line.
Speaker A:And the human experience is massive and varied and challenging.
Speaker A:We need to show up with courtesy, kindness and empathy, okay?
Speaker A:You have to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker A:You do not know the circumstances at which they had to cancel your meeting or were no shows to your meeting, okay?
Speaker A:This works in either scenario.
Speaker A:Always start from a place of empathy and always give them the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker A:I would say in that email, just reach out, say, hey, I'm sorry I missed you.
Speaker A:I hope that you are okay.
Speaker A:I would absolutely love to reschedule this meeting at your convenience and I look forward to chatting again real soon.
Speaker A:That's it?
Speaker A:That's all you need?
Speaker A:You don't need anything crazy.
Speaker A:You don't know what's going on.
Speaker A:You don't know how long it's going to be until they get back to you.
Speaker A:Just trust me on this.
Speaker A:Give them the benefit of the doubt until they prove you wrong.
Speaker A:Until they say, no, I just wasn't interested or whatever.
Speaker A:You don't know the situation.
Speaker A:If you give them the benefit of the doubt, they're going to be much more likely to rebook that meeting with you.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Don't apply excess pressure in this situation.
Speaker A:Okay, guys, what I always do.
Speaker A:Let's say that we're using my CRM format that I've talked about before.
Speaker A:So in my CRM format, we have our LinkedIn digital introduction stage, our weekly contacted stage, our Back burner stage, our future opportunity stage, our meeting book stage, our next step stage and our client stage.
Speaker A:Okay, by this point, if I've had them in the meeting, they're in the meeting book stage.
Speaker A:So if I get a cancellation last minute, what I will do is I won't.
Speaker A:I'll send that email that I just talked about.
Speaker A:Benefit of the doubt.
Speaker A:Kind empathetic, making sure they're okay first.
Speaker A:Then I will move them from meeting booked back into weekly contacted stage.
Speaker A:This is not the time to give up on your client, okay?
Speaker A:You don't know the situation, you don't know why they canceled until they let you know.
Speaker A:And sometimes they don't let you know because maybe it is personal, maybe it is something they don't want to talk about.
Speaker A:So you have to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker A:Move them back to weekly contacted stage and if it's not urgent, follow up again next week to rebook.
Speaker A:Get them on the line and say, hey, totally sorry that we weren't able to connect last week.
Speaker A:I hope you're okay.
Speaker A:I would absolutely love to reschedule that meeting.
Speaker A:Is there a better time that works for you?
Speaker A:Period.
Speaker A:Just be quiet, let them speak.
Speaker A:They will likely tell you what happened and if they're still interested or if it's something they are interested in, they will likely rebook in that moment.
Speaker A:Many, many of you are giving up the moment.
Speaker A:You lose the meeting.
Speaker A:Trust me, this isn't the time to give up.
Speaker A:I bet you that at least 80% of meetings can be rebooked after a cancellation.
Speaker A:If you treat them with respect, if you treat them with kindness, if you come to it with empathy, and if you actually reach back out and ask for that meeting again.
Speaker A:And most of the time they won't burn you twice.
Speaker A:So don't worry about it.
Speaker A:Don't let the meeting cancellation be the end.
Speaker A:It doesn't have to be the end.
Speaker A:You can absolutely, absolutely, eight times out of ten rebook this meeting.
Speaker A:Just go for it.
Speaker A:Give them the benefit of the doubt, move it back to the weekly contacted stage and follow up weekly until you reschedule that meeting.
Speaker A:I think you can do it, guys.
Speaker A:Personally, I've done this three times in the last month.
Speaker A:This happens to all of us.
Speaker A:You can absolutely, absolutely rebook those meetings.
Speaker A:The other one that I wanted to speak to was what if they don't accept the calendar invite and you kind of realize too late, which happens to me too on occasion.
Speaker A:I realized this and then I couldn't get a hold of them and I'M trying to figure out why can't I get them on email?
Speaker A:Guys, I had the wrong email, right?
Speaker A:Like, I'm human, I'm human, I make mistakes.
Speaker A:I literally sent the invite to the wrong email and when I got them on the phone and said, hey, sorry, I'm sorry I missed you, they're like, oh, shit, we had a meeting.
Speaker A:I didn't get the invite.
Speaker A:They didn't get the invite because I had the wrong email.
Speaker A:It was my fault, it was on me.
Speaker A:So sometimes that's going to happen.
Speaker A:It's going to happen to you.
Speaker A:It's happened to me.
Speaker A:It's happened to me before and it'll happen to me again.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:We're all human, we make mistakes at times.
Speaker A:Nearly every meeting, guys, is available to you.
Speaker A:If you can lock it down once, most of the time you can lock it down twice.
Speaker A:So just go for it.
Speaker A:Always try to rebook that meeting.
Speaker A:Don't give up on them if you miss it the first time around.
Speaker A:Now if you have a no show, guys, take the exact same approach that I talked about.
Speaker A:Lead with benefit of the doubt, you don't know what happened and move them back to weekly follow up stage, follow up weekly until you really disqualify them or you rebook that meeting.
Speaker A:If you have someone who's not confirming, just remember, follow up by phone if you can.
Speaker A:Literally just this month I ran into the exact same problem where didn't get a confirmation, weren't responding to my emails.
Speaker A:I literally had the wrong email.
Speaker A:So that was on me.
Speaker A:It was my mistake.
Speaker A:When I got the prospect on the phone, I confirmed the right email, sent them the invite, they immediately accepted and boom, we're off to the races on the reschedule.
Speaker A:So you can absolutely do this.
Speaker A:It could be your error, it could be something going on in their world.
Speaker A:But most of the time I think you're going to be able to reschedule that meeting.
Speaker A:Don't give up.
Speaker A:The reschedule is nearly always possible.
Speaker A:Now, what not to do.
Speaker A:I can't really do this show without telling you guys as well what not to do.
Speaker A:Look, do not get upset.
Speaker A:Do not.
Speaker A:It is the worst thing you could do.
Speaker A:If you send a snarky email, if you leave a snarky voicemail or get them on the phone and be like, what the hell?
Speaker A:Why didn't you show up?
Speaker A:Your odds of getting that meeting, it just, they're gone.
Speaker A:They're gone.
Speaker A:Guys.
Speaker A:You have to show up with kindness, with empathy, with respect, with understanding, with benefit of the doubt.
Speaker A:Top of mind.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:This is the only way to proceed.
Speaker A:If you proceed with any negativity, anything like that, you're going to push them away.
Speaker A:Your chances of getting that meeting are out the window, out to lunch.
Speaker A:You're never going to get it.
Speaker A:Never, ever, ever, ever get upset.
Speaker A:It's the worst thing that you could do and you will burn the bridge and kill any chance you have of landing that meeting.
Speaker A:Meeting.
Speaker A:So don't get upset.
Speaker A:Always respect the client.
Speaker A:Always assume something came up.
Speaker A:Come to reschedules and cancellations with empathy and kindness and you will be surprised at how many reschedules you will get.
Speaker A:A cancellation is rarely a flat out no.
Speaker A:It's just I'll see you at a later time.
Speaker A:If you take it with that in mind, you are going to book a lot of meetings.
Speaker A:That takes us to the end of today's show.
Speaker A:Guys.
Speaker A:Shout outs this week Jason Chakalakal, Jamie Steffens, Colin Harms, Rodney Lover, Adam Kimmel, Rudy A.
Speaker A:Zacharias, Gabriel Puelo, Mike Hayes, Sherry Allen, Eric Portillo, Chloe Wu, Sean Neils, Eric Williams, Aaron haberman, Eduardo Kano, McKinley Hyland, Carmen LaBelle, Kelsey Watt, Abe Duik, Susan Paseko and Gary Noseworthy.
Speaker A:Until next time, you've been listening to the Business Development Podcast and we will catch you on the flip side.
Speaker B:This has been the Business Development Podcast with Kelly Kennedy.
Speaker B: business development firm in: Speaker B:His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development.
Speaker B:The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your business development specialists.
Speaker B:For more we invite you to the website at www.capitalbd.ca.
Speaker B:see you next time on the Business Development Podcast.
