It's Not What You Say, But What You Do

Today I taught a training session for BNI -- for one person. The training was about how to give a 10 minute presentation which is a major benefit of membership in BNI.

Because only five people were registered for this session, the BNI staff personally talked with each of the five last Wednesday (Before Thanksgiving) to confirm that they would be attending. They received confirmations from all five.

The session was supposed to begin at 7:30 AM. I have to get to the training location about 30 minutes ahead of time to make sure I am set to begin on time. The location is 30 minutes from my home, so I drove out my driveway at 6:30 AM. At 7:35 AM the first person arrived. He was the only person to arrive. At first I was just going to cancel the training till next month, but I asked Charlie Rice of The Carpet Spectrum when he was scheduled to give his 10 minute presentation. Of course, it is next week. So Charlie got a private coaching session on the topic.

The other four -- I know who you are. Your credibility is going the wrong way with me. Now, I realize that they could have left a voice mail on the BNI answering machine over the weekend, but they did not. All four were no call, no shows.

How do you think any of those four would act if I decided that I didn't want to show up to train on an early Monday morning when they decided to be there. Somehow, I think they would be the ones to scream the loudest.

Help me to understand why people don't think they have to keep commitments. Do they think they are invisible? Don't they realize that doing what they say they're going to do is a prime building block of a referral relationship?