You're as cold as ice

10.00am was when the sales person was meant to show up. We were excited to see her, my business colleague had given her a good wrap, her follow up emails prior to the meeting were great, we were excited to know more about her product.

10.05.
10.10
10.15
10.20 – still no salesperson.

Our mood had shifted. We were impatient. We had other appointments.

10.25am and the sales person breezed in our door. Everything would be ok we though, she would apologize, say her flight had been delayed, apologize for not calling the instant she got off the plane.

We waited with anticipation for the apology… that never came.

The salesperson simply ignored the fact that she was nearly half an hour late to the appointment. And with every minute she ignored it, the room and the reception got colder and colder.

I’m crazy about being on time and did have another appointment to get to at 11 so I was of course peeved. But the most interesting thing about the whole situation to me was the reaction of my business colleague. Now if I say this lovely lady is canned sunshine, I wouldn’t be over stepping the grounds. I’ve recounted the fact that she didn’t smile at the salesperson and wasn’t her usual warm self to others in the office and they flat out don’t believe me!

But failing to acknowledge her lateness with an apology that, I predict, would have smoothed over the waters almost completely had such a profound impact on my incredibly friendly colleague and friend that even she couldn’t help but be “as cold as ice”.

We all mess things up. We’re human. But I do wonder how different this meeting would have been if the salesperson had called from the airport, or apologized the instant she walked through the door.

Until then…. She turned my bucket of sunshine into a bucket of ice (but thankfully, she thawed about 4.5 seconds after the meeting).

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments