Why Do Prospects Book a Meeting and Then Not Show Up?
Prospects book meetings and don't show up when the way the meeting was booked gave them no reason to keep it once other work arrived. Four booking patterns do that. They agreed to end the call, the invite holds no reason in their words, you picked the slot, or the date was too far out. The fix happens at the booking, by giving the prospect a reason to keep the meeting and letting them choose the time.
The calendar accepted, the reminder went out, and the meeting link stayed empty.
Why Is Saying Yes to a Meeting Easier than Showing Up?
Saying yes in the moment is easy, because turning down a direct request is uncomfortable.
Vanessa Bohns, reviewing a body of research in Current Directions in Psychological Science in 2016, found that people asking for something consistently underestimate how often others will agree. They miss how awkward it is to refuse someone directly. A quick yes to a calendar invite at the end of a cold call can be that kind of yes.
Showing up is harder, because the meeting has to beat everything that lands between the booking and the slot. When the reminder arrives, the meeting competes with whatever their manager asked for that morning.
Which Booking Habits Lead to No-Shows?
Four patterns produce fragile meetings. Each one leaves a trace you can find later.
Agreeing to end the call. The prospect agreed while trying to get off the phone. Later you'll find no question from them anywhere in your notes.
No reason in their words. Nothing in the invite reminds them why they agreed. Your notes say what you wanted to show them, and nothing about what they wanted to learn.
A slot you picked. You proposed a time and they didn't object.
Delia Cioffi and Randy Garner, in a 1996 study in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, found that people who made a choice by actively doing something stayed more committed to it, for weeks, and were more likely to show up, compared with people who made the same choice by not opting out. A slot they picked is an active choice. A slot you picked and they accepted is a passive one.
A date too far out. Will Aitken's guide to no-shows for Chili Piper names the gap between agreeing and the meeting itself as a cause, since new priorities fill it. The same guide recommends booking within a week where you can.
A far date is also easier to accept. Gal Zauberman and John Lynch, in seven experiments reported in 2005, found that people expect to have more spare time in the future than they have now, and that this expectation is stronger for time than for money. A slot two weeks out gets weighed against that expected spare time.
How Do I Check My Own Booking Notes?
Pull your last five no-shows and read the notes from each booking call. For each one, mark which of the four patterns shows up. Some will match more than one.
If one pattern keeps appearing, that is the booking habit to change. If you can't tell because your notes don't say, start by writing better booking notes.
Each pattern has its own fix at the booking. For agreeing to end the call, ask what they want from the meeting before you send the invite. For a missing reason, write their reason into the invite. For a slot you picked, send two or three options and let them choose. For a date too far out, book inside a week or set a reminder to book later.
What Makes a Prospect Show Up?
A question they want answered. When the reminder arrives, it should remind them of something they want, so the meeting competes with the day's deadlines as a task with a payoff.
Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran, in a 2006 meta-analysis of implementation intentions, found that forming a specific plan for when, where, and how to act made people noticeably more likely to follow through on an intention. A slot they chose, a link, and their question in the invite make that kind of plan.
So the work moves into the booking call. Get the prospect to say what they want from the meeting. Let them pick the slot. Put their reason in the invite, in their words.
Reminders help, within limits. Per Hasvold and Richard Wootton, in a 2011 systematic review of appointment reminders, found that reminders cut missed hospital appointments substantially without eliminating them. A call from a person worked better than an automated message, and a reminder the day before worked about as well as one sent further ahead.
What the reminder says matters as well. Michael Hallsworth and colleagues, in two 2015 randomized trials of text reminders sent to UK hospital outpatients, found that adding the specific cost of a missed appointment to the health service cut missed appointments compared with the standard reminder. The same point stated in general terms worked less well.
The trials tested one kind of content, and they show that a specific line in a reminder can change attendance. In a reminder for a sales meeting, put the prospect's reason in their words.
What Should I Send after a No-Show?
A short note with no guilt in it. Include the reason they gave for the meeting and a link to pick a new time, and leave room for them to say the reason has gone away. A note that sounds disappointed makes replying harder.
Send it the same day. If you have a number for them, a short call works too, since it gives them the easiest way to say what happened. If their reply names a new reason, such as a different problem or a different person who should attend, book the next meeting around that reason.
When Should I Stop Trying to Rebook?
After the second attempt to rebook goes unanswered, or after a second missed meeting. Stop rebooking. Note what they said they wanted and when to check back, and give the slot to someone with a question they want answered.
Add one line to your booking notes for every meeting you set this week. The reason the prospect gave, in their words. If the line is blank, ask what they want from the meeting before you send the invite.
If you want to know who can approve the buy before a deal sits in your pipeline for a quarter, Find Who Can Say Yes gives you a process for finding that person early.
References & Related Reading
- (Mis)Understanding Our Influence Over Others: A Review of the Underestimation-of-Compliance Effect, Vanessa K. Bohns, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2016.
- On Doing the Decision: Effects of Active versus Passive Choice on Commitment and Self-Perception, Delia Cioffi and Randy Garner, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1996.
- Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes, Peter M. Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 2006.
- Resource Slack and Propensity to Discount Delayed Investments of Time versus Money, Gal Zauberman and John G. Lynch Jr., Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2005.
- Stating Appointment Costs in SMS Reminders Reduces Missed Hospital Appointments: Findings from Two Randomised Controlled Trials, Michael Hallsworth, Dan Berry, Michael Sanders, Anna Sallis, Dominic King, Ivo Vlaev, and Ara Darzi, PLOS ONE, 2015.
- Use of telephone and SMS reminders to improve attendance at hospital appointments: a systematic review, Per E. Hasvold and Richard Wootton, Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 2011.
- No More No-Shows: Will Aitken's Guide to Getting Your Prospects on the Call, Will Aitken, Chili Piper, 2024.
- 8 Simple Tricks to Improve Your Show Rates, Chili Piper, 2020.
