349 - Want To Lose Trust In 30 Seconds? Do This!

0:00Hi, this is Bruce Whipple. Today's message is simple, but it may be costing you more than you think. It's about the fastest way to lose trust in 30 seconds or less. So what is it? It's being late. In business acquisitions, sellers are looking for someone they can trust with the business they spent a lifetime building. They're asking themselves, often subconsciously too, will this person show up when it matters? And here's the truth. If you show up late to a caller meeting, you've already failed your first test. Punctuality may seem minor to you, but to a seller or really anyone else you deal with, it signals your discipline, respect, and reliability.

0:45And the higher up the ladder you go, the more it matters. So take Warren Buffett as an example. Reasonably successful guy, I would say. Buffett is known for being absolutely punctual. Meetings with him start exactly on time, never late. Why? Because he values time more than money. He once said, the rich invest in time, the poor invest in money. Worth remembering. He understands that punctuality is a sign of respect for himself, for the other party, and for the deal. And he expects others to treat it the same way. People who are late to meetings with Buffett often don't get a second chance. Probably never, actually.

1:29You want to be seen as serious, be like Buffett. Be early, be ready. For me, I have an example as well. When I was doing a lot of interviewing in my corporate career, if someone was a minute late to the interview, I said to HR, I don't need to see them. So they would say, well, they got lost on the way over. Yeah, they got lost on the way over, But guess what? They flew in last night. They were 10 minutes away from our corporate offices where they stayed in the hotel. Why didn't they drive it? What else were they going to do the night before? They could have driven it. They could have made it so they weren't lost the next day and showed up on time.

2:12And that's a honeymoon period. That's the best it ever gets. So if they're late for that, they're going to be late for everything else. So what can you do? Make it non-negotiable. On a Zoom call, log in five minutes early. Plenty of people have had trouble logging into Zoom and had to restart. Maybe five minutes isn't enough if you've got a PC and you're restarting. Probably with an Apple, you're okay in five minutes. In-person meeting, be in the parking lot 15 minutes early. Review your notes for the meeting that you're going to have. As far as a phone call, be sitting with your notes open, ready to go.

2:50And you should have notes for those meetings. Because the seller really is watching, even before you speak. And when they see someone who respects time, they start to trust that you'll respect their business as well. Oftentimes, if someone is late, they will start apologizing. Oh, sorry, I'm late. And I don't want to be in that position, but I kind of like it when someone else is in that position, especially in a negotiation, because they start off by apologizing. So remember that first impressions are hard to change. And if you want to be taken seriously, close deals and earn trust, be on time every time.

3:34Make it non-negotiable. And remember, if you can't manage your own schedule, how can you be trusted to run a business? Short answer is you can't. So I hope that you are on time and make that a non-negotiable item. It will serve you well as opposed to being late. And if you don't know what to do in this business acquisition, go over to brucewhipple.com, look at what is there. It's really critical in my opinion to follow the steps and there's a simple way with that acquisition advantage boot camp where you can do that. So I hope that helps, but be on time. It will serve you well.