Appointment Making

A development director seeks to make an appointment.

What she did right:

1. Professional, self-assured
2. Determined in advance that a meeting was the next step
3. Established reasons for the meeting; in this case to share work load and provide updates
4. During the call, established the need to be brief. She had an appointment arriving shortly.
5. Created urgency. She established a deadline—meet by the end of the month in order to bring the information to another group
6. When the appointment was not made, it was because the contact lacked time, not that the contact lacked interest in her cause.

What needed work:

1. The Development Director was unable to hear information presented during the call that made one of her key objectives impossible.
2. Refusal to flex. When she was presented with the idea of moving a meeting to a later timeframe, she refused.

Two Leanings:

• Excellent plans need to give way to contingencies that result from being in the moment
• Sometimes you can meet your objectives--but the route is different than your ideal