337 - Late To The Meeting? You've Already Lost!

0:00Late to the meeting, you've already lost. Let's talk about being late or conversely, more importantly, being on time. So today I do want to talk about something simple yet critical, and that is being on time. First, why is it important to be on time? From an aspect of respect, being punctual shows respect for the other person's time and demonstrates you're professional. and you do not have a second chance to make a first impression. And people often judge you based on your reliability and seriousness by your punctuality, especially in the acquisition world. So what's the negative impact of being late?

0:47When you're late, it immediately creates doubt about your dependability. And you start your meeting from a position of weakness. Often you say, oh, I'm sorry I'm late, whatever the reason. And negotiations suffer because you're psychologically at a disadvantage from the outset. I love it if I'm in a negotiation and somebody is late because they're going to be apologizing. So let me give you a couple examples. My mentee, Gabriel, arranged to meet his father for lunch. and Gabriel arrived only a few minutes late, but his father was not there. So he called his dad, and he said, I thought we were going to have lunch together, and I'm at the restaurant.

1:31And his father said, I was there. I was on time. You were late. I left. So did he learn a lesson? Yeah, he did. And as a result of that, much like myself, he's on time. When I used to do a lot of interviewing, if a person literally was a minute late for the interview, I would tell HR, I don't need to see that person. And they said, well, they got lost on the way here. And I said, you know, they came in last night, they flew in to headquarters, and they could have driven here to know how to get there. So they weren't late. So that was, for me, that was a go, no-go decision point. On time or early?

2:20Better yet, obviously. Great. Minute late? Nope, not going to see you. So what's an application of this to business acquisitions? So sellers and professionals, and by that I mean lawyers, accountants, investors, bankers, view punctuality as an indicator of how you'll handle business. If you start a negotiation by apologizing for being late, you really have already lost valuable credibility. And when you think about it, being on time is almost always entirely within your control. So failing here raises a ton of unnecessary doubts about what it's going to be like with you meeting deadlines, getting things done, etc.

3:05So how do you solve that problem? A few suggestions. One, always plan to arrive 10 to 15 minutes early. I can't tell you how many times that has saved me with Zoom calls in particular, where you find out that for some reason you can't connect or you've got a problem with a microphone or whatever it is, and that 10 to 15 minutes gives you a chance to reset and be ready. Maybe your computer freezes. If something unexpected arises, and that can happen, you can get in a car accident or whatever it is, immediately notify and provide an explanation to the other side. Look, I was just in a car accident.

3:51Whatever it is, I'm going to be late to this meeting. If that's a problem for you, we can reschedule, but I wanted to give you a heads up. Do it ahead of time. Doing it after the meeting to say, oh, sorry I missed the meeting. No, that doesn't work. And then value punctuality as a fundamental part of your professional reputation. It absolutely can make or break deals. So to me, being on time, super important. And I think, you know, closing thought maybe, being on time is about respect, credibility, and confidence. And it does set the tone for your success in business acquisitions. So don't let something as simple as that be an obstacle to your goals.

4:39You will find that this process is hard enough. Don't give yourself something out of your control that a lot of people think it is when it's clearly inside your control to be on time. So I would highly encourage you to do that. Remember, late to the meeting, you've already lost. Okay, I hope that helps. If you don't know the steps, if you don't know how to do this, go over to BruceWhipple.com. We are in the halfway point of the Acquisition Advantage Boot Camp. Three of those weekly meetings are done. The lessons are up in Kajabi, so if you join us now, you will still be able to attend the last three live.

5:23Those are Tuesdays at 6 p.m. East Coast time. and the first three are, as I said, on demand, loaded in your Kajabi so you don't miss anything. You'll miss the opportunity to ask live questions after my presentation on those calls, but you can certainly do that for the last three. So that, I hope, is helpful, and I hope going forward you stress to yourself the importance of being on time.