The No Police

A couple weeks ago I sent an e-mail to a client that I was having troubles getting a meeting with.  In my e-mail I wrote something like this..."I love lunch, do you?  If so I'd love to treat you to lunch and we will have to talk a little about business".  The response back was "No thanks".  I was shocked!  I am pretty sure that the most annoying person on the planet could ask me to lunch with the promise to pay and I would be there with an empty belly!  I didn't even tell him where I was suggesting to go to lunch.  He could have said The Keg and I would have had to agree.  I certainly could not come back and say "No, no I think we should go to Wendy's".

From that e-mail I was thinking about how many other meetings in life people jump to say no!  Back when I was dating I was under the mindset of quantity vs. quality.  Now don't take that too literal all of you out there.  I would go on a coffee date with pretty much anyone.  You really never know who you are going to meet and there is a lesson from every encounter.  Yes, there are times that you may want to poke your eyes out, but the other person may feel the same way as you.  Some clients jump on the "yeswagon" to meet every time a call is made as well.  I say hats off to those clients!  I find it hard to understand why someone wouldn't want to meet, even for 10 minutes.  By saying no and shutting someone out without knowing what the intention is seems foolish to me.  How do these people know that I am not from some gameshow where they could be winning a million dollars.  It makes me sad actually.  If you cannot plan your day well enough to squeeze in a coffee or lunch then that is poor time management.  You may not need that person that you are rejecting today, but you may certainly need them in a different life.

We justify rejection in all aspects in life with this magical rationale "that's their loss" or "it's not you, it's them".  Sound familiar? To that client that wouldn't go for free lunch with me, "that's his loss".  Clearly he doesn't know how great of a sales gal I am.  That is a joke.

I was called the no-police once and I thought they were calling me the know-police.