When people call you, if you're not careful, it's really easy to get sucked into wasting time. If people don't value their own time, they're never going to value yours. The quicker you can figure that out, the better it is for all parties involved.
A client of mine who is in real estate got a phone call from someone looking for office space. He was looking at purchasing a specific building. He really wanted to go look at the property with my client, but my client never goes to look at property without really talking to the person first.
The prospect put a lot of pressure on my client. My client reversed the pressure, sharing with the prospect, "Listen, I don't think the owner is going to take the price you're offering. I don't think it will work out. Should we still meet?"
Despite that, the prospect still wanted to meet. My client ended up turning him down, because it was obvious the guy didn't value his own time.
And I run into that myself as well. A while back, I got a call from someone wanting to know more about our services. We played phone tag for a while, then finally got on a call together.
He shared, "I'm buying a business. The last few businesses I owned failed, so I was referred to you to make sure we can get better guidance this time."
"Okay," I replied, "I can let you know about our training generically, or would you rather I ask a few questions, to see if there's something that really makes sense for you."
"Let's do that second one," he said.
It quickly became obvious that he thought he didn't need training. And yet he was wasting her time talking with me on the phone! Finally, he hung up.
Both of those stories are great examples of how quick people are to waste their own time. If my client and I had decided to do business with the people we were talking to, do you think they would have wasted more of their time and ours during the relationship?
Absolutely! If the person you're talking to fits all of your normal qualifications, but has no respect for their own time, don't do business with them.
