How to Handle a No Show | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast | Ep. 152

Hello, everyone. Welcome to this week's podcast. I am Chad Owen, and this is Wonderboy Caleb North. And I know you like when I say Boy Wonder better, but I do.

Like Boy Wonder better, but when you say Wonder Boy, it just makes me want to address you as Wonder Bread.

So you call me White Bread?

I didn't say it, but if that's.

What'S implied, I'm a wonder. Because I give you bread and you sit there and you go, how can he possibly provide that for me? Yes, that's. That's where it goes. Okay, so what are we talking about today?

We're gonna talk about no shows today.

Can we pick a better subject?

Yeah, I know, right? Like, can we talk about something that isn't depressing?

Exactly.

You're like, we just got done with, what, four weeks of 25 reasons agents fail, and now we're gonna go into no show.

Now we're going to 25 reasons why agents no show. No. Why clients no show.

No. Not. But, but really more practically, Chad, how to handle those. Well, I mean, there's, There's. I mean, a couple of different ways you go about it, right? Your stance on this is as a 25 to 30 million dollar producer per year, where the thing just gets reloaded. There are plenty of agents out there who are a million to two to five.

You lose one appointment and you have three, That's a big deal.

Yeah, yeah, it's. It's a monster.

I carry a pillow in my truck and I scream into it as loud as I can.

But tell us first how you. Well, how do you handle no shows? And what does that process look like?

I mean, when I have a no Show, I own 10 companies. I always have something to do. That's true. And sometimes, honestly, it's pulling over to the side of the road, finding a place to relax and watching the river. I mean, it can be something that simple. I do a lot of exploring. When I have no shows. I just go for more drives and see what's around in that area. And a lot of times I found really cool parks my wife and I could go to or I could take the family to. I mean, I just. Or pack when there. There's this thing they used to call movie theaters. And, you know, you actually sit down in this big room and you watch on a big screen.

Seems like ages ago that we used.

To do that, but I used to stop and, you know, if there was a decent movie, which, that's kind of a joke, but if there was a decent movie, I'd Watch a movie now. I might put a movie up on Netflix or whatever. I.

Back when they were releasing things like tombstone and 300.

Good stuff. But, you know, I really, you know, I did see something really good as a movie called Midway. That was, that was a really good one. And then I saw another one where it was Tom Hanks, things called Greyhound. Yeah, Greyhound was really good. It was kind of, you know, is about this, this military.

I think they had three destroyers or something. Their whole job was to get all these transports from one to the next. It was pretty amazing. But, you know, I try and make the most of a no show because if I sit there and I get all ticked off. Now when I get ticked off is when it's the third no show. And I'm just like, man, you're not honoring time. You're not honoring anything. And even if there's. I mean, I've never had three that I can think of that were just out of their control if I have one. That's why I don't get upset about a no show. If it's the first one, what are you gonna do? Anything could have happened. No, I mean, they could have gotten a car accident. They could have something, you know, you just don't know.

Don't assume they're just skipping out on you for the sake of skipping out.

And even the second one, I often don't. But if they say, hey, I just totally forgot.

It'S hard to not be very frustrated of that because my time is very precious. And, and when I block two or three hours out for an appointment, you know, show me. That's not good. I have a three strike rule, you know, show me three times.

Right?

It's done. I'm not helping out. If you got $2 million, I'm not helping you. That's just how that works.

Now I, I know, I know of a recent time where somebody no showed and they're like, hey, you know, whatever, whatever, I hope it's okay. And you, I think you might have even responded. Well, no, actually it's not okay.

Yeah, because the excuse was, well, I didn't read all the material. And I'm just. I had someone kind of freak me out a little bit and I said, no, it's not okay. I said, I've spoken to you four times in the last six days, and you've said how much you like this product, how much you want to. Do you understand how it works? And literally all that happened is he just got freaked out because somebody was talking about putting all their money in under a mattress and that the dollar is going to collapse. It put all your money under a mattress. Which didn't make sense to me.

The dollar collapses. It's not safe under a mattress.

Anyway, it just really freaked him out. And we talked again. He's like, man, this makes so much sense. But no, it wasn't okay, right.

Well. And if you had said, yes, that's fine. Who knows what would have.

I answered one of his calls on a Saturday. Why? I'm not on a date with my wife. I wasn't out with my family and on an appointment. I'm not at church, and I'm not sleeping. So I answered the call right, and I answered his questions. And every single time, it's like, I like it. So when he called me the morning of and said, you know, hey, I hope it's okay, I'm like, no, it's not okay. Long story short there, I met with him and explained everything. He's totally at ease. And now he's like, oh, yeah, absolutely, I want to do this. So it's $188,000 deal. And some say that's me. Maybe isn't a big deal. To me, that is a big deal because I got someone who somebody else was trying to freak out, and I was able to protect their money. So of course it's a big deal. Yeah. Don't let your mind.

Jeopardize your normal system and process. You know, I think about pilots. You know, I used to. I don't do it as much anymore, but I used to watch those shows when accidents happen. Disaster, Air disasters, and very rare. Do you ever hear a pilot going, we're not going to die? They're like, okay, engines on, check. Fuel, check. Yep, we're going to die. They're just calm the whole time.

This bird's going down.

Yeah, exactly. It's like, yeah, we're going straight into the ground. And, you know, I. I've always said, I don't want to die screaming.

Is that why you get quiet when you feel more pain?

That is probably true. You know, it is true.

420 degree bacon grease on your leg and you just get quiet.

Well, that was a God thing, man. That did not. That hurt. But that didn't blister. That didn't do anything. He was right there. And I pull these jalapeno poppers out of the oven, and they are as the oven's 425 degrees, and I tilt the pan and a whole bunch of bacon grease went from my right above my knee, all the way down my leg and I didn't make a noise.

Yeah, it just gets quiet and it's like. It's, it's, it's funny.

It hurt, but it didn't burn. It's like. But yeah, that's true. That maybe is so. I will not scream when I die. Hopefully. I just want to die when I'm asleep. Yeah, actually, I just want to be raptured. That's what I'd rather.

There you go.

How do we get to that From a no show?

You don't want to scream when you die, which is. We got to that from the pilot. And we got to the pilot. You know, you don't freak out.

So, you know, no matter what the circumstances, you stay professional, you stay calm.

Right.

And that's, that's usually, I mean, I usually don't have a reason to get worked up about things. You know what gets me? If you want to know my triggers, it's when somebody doesn't show honor or they just, they don't appreciate authority. In other words, they just totally don't honor. It all goes down to honor. If you don't honor that, that's a trigger. If my kids do something that dishonors my wife or someone does something dishonors my kids, or it's, it's an immediate trigger for me. So no showing to me if it's just something you simply forgot about one time. Hey, I forgot things. Can't recall any appointments. I've forgotten because I, I know what that feels like. What's the worst is when someone says, yeah, I'm in sales too. And I hate it when somebody doesn't show up. And I'm sorry, but I have to. I'm going. You.

I remember one time this guy did it to me. This was when I was pretty. I needed sales. So this is fifth time. He had, he had. I'd met with him seven times and of those seven times, five times I either showed up at the house or he'd forgotten. And the last time I just laid into him, I said, you know what? You respect nobody. You haven't five times I've been here. You either forgot, haven't shown up. And you wonder why you're having problem with your sales business. It's because you don't honor people that are trying to do their job.

And.

And I just went off on him. Not yelling, not. I just was very logical.

Just true.

I mean. Yeah.

Well, that brings up an interesting concept though, actually.

What's that?

Because that's Kind of the other side of the coin here. You've got agents that are producing, you know, well into the tens to $25 million range. Not tons of them, but there's. There's some out there.

Yeah. It's very rare to find something that writes over 50, 10 million.

Sure.

But.

But most of the agents are finding themselves under that 4 to 5 million mark by the vast majority. So what do you do in. I mean, you. You said this particular instance with that gentleman was when you were obviously not producing what you are now, and you had scheduled seven. So does your approach. Does your idea of how to handle those no shows change if you're a lower back.

If I was to go back then, I mean, if you have someone that knows shows you three times or forgets they're not a client you want. So I really learned that if it's someone that doesn't honor. No, they're not someone you want anyway. And you just.

So you just don't get emotionally attached.

Don't get emotionally attached and just say, you know, I don't want this relationship. I don't have to have this relationship.

Right.

You know, I want clients that want me to help them. I want clients that understand the value of what I can provide. Provide for them. And if they don't show up or they know show, that just tells me they don't value me and they don't value what I bring.

Right. So, yeah, so you start having direct conversation about things at the second so that if you go for a third, you know, pretty stinking, well, they're going to be there because you. You very well addressed it on the second.

Oh, yeah, okay. Hey, you know what? I address it on the 1st. I just had a client that I went to meet with last week, and they said, hey, I had something come up. I need to do this. I said, hey, I'm not calling you till Monday to reschedule, but when we reschedule, I need to make sure you're gonna be. Be there. And when I made the appointment today, I said, is there anything that could come up that would make you not be able to be there? And he said, no. And I said, remember what I said? I blocked three hours where he is. I have to go out. I mean, it's just two hours to get to his place, right? And I said, so two hours driving out there, an hour to two hours at the house, probably an hour. I mean, I met with this guy five times, and two times he just. He got sick with COVID and two times I Called and he just was not recovering and I was not. Now there's a difference, right. He was not in the mindset to where he'd probably remember anything. So when it was two times he said he wasn't doing well, I was like, hey, I get it. Right. You know, that's, that's an exception because if you feel miserable, you're generally not going to go, what are you going to do? I have an appointment, I'm going to call you. Yeah. So there's, there's exceptions to that.

Yeah.

But no shows generally you've got to stand your ground and you've got to set a standard and you don't make exceptions. Right.

Well, what's interesting is just simply by having the conversation explaining to them what you put into this thing for them, it, I mean, I've seen it in your process. It shores up those second and third appointments that you set, which rarely do you ever actually meet with somebody three full times. It's. If you go to a third, it's usually because one was a cancellation or a no show or whatever.

Most time I close the deal by the second.

Yeah, by the second. But if you're gonna go into your second or third, even having the no show on the first, it really shores those up. So I would think that there, for the most part, yeah, there could be an element of having a no show. If you play it right and you handle it well and you handle it professionally and you handle it truthfully and candidly and directly, you can actually set.

Yourself up for some really good no shows happen because you didn't do the appropriate mini fact finding. You didn't explain the importance on the phone and why you need to meet. You know, you called me or you reached out to me, you said you had concerns about the market.

Right.

So it's really important if you have these concerns, we need to address them. Yeah, that's where you know, if somebody gets a lot of appointments but they have a lot of no shows, they just are not bought into you. You're not doing something in your phone conversation that makes them think that you're valuable enough to them, so why would they want to be meet with you?

So there, it's actually, there's a lot of telling things then.

Yeah, if I see somebody with a high amount of no shows, that means their phone script needs a lot of help.

Interesting, that's good. Or if they're having. Let's take it the next step further. Maybe they're having a lot of first appointments, but they're Having a lot of second appointment, no shows. Maybe something is off in that first appointment that they don't even see the value in being there for the second.

That's why we go through. In our academy, we go through the complete phone process, complete appointment process. You know, it's. I can tell you generally by your situations where you need help. So good. And that's why our inner circle people do so well. Because I'm literally telling, hey, this is. Why didn't they meet with you? Well, let me tell you, you need to be more direct in this area. And why should they value you if you didn't give them valuable information?

Yeah.

So. Yeah.

So a few key takeaways then. If you have a no show, don't assume the reason that they no showed.

Yes.

Handle the. Handle it professionally. Explain to them truthfully and directly what you commit to this thing for them so that when you book a second, they should be there. If they're not there now, it's another real conversation. If they show up or they don't show for a third, be done with it. It's a waste of time.

And it's also so important when you have a no show, don't take it out on your next client. That's, you know.

Well, that's why you don't assume. Because if you assume, oh, man, they.

Didn'T want to fight with me. Whatever. Even if I'm ticked off, even if they told me for the second or third time, they just planned, plain forgot, I'm not taking it out on my next client.

What goes back to no excuses.

Yeah, there's. I want to go into my next appointment with the same energy and effort that I did with anybody. Yeah. Don't let it emotionally affect you. That's really what it comes down to. And, you know, no shows, honestly, they're gonna happen. I remember one time this guy flew in from out of town, run appointments with me. I had 13 appointments. I was now down to three appointments. Either 10 either canceled. Something came up. They were sick. I mean, it was just weird stuff. Sat on three. The very last appointment was a one set one close $300,000 deal. This guy was with me for two and a half days and I said, I'm so sorry. I mean, we ate so much food because I took him out to restaurants and whatever. I mean, we ate so much food, we saw so much Texas. We went and saw the Alamo. Yeah. I mean, we just made the most of the time.

That's good.

And I said, I'm so sorry. And he goes, are you kidding me? I've thought this entire time that you literally showed up to appointments and people just signed applications. I'm like, what? Are you kidding me? Do you know how hard I work to do this? And he goes, this taught me more that you have the same issues and the same problems that we have. You just gotta learn to get old. No, people. I don't just show up to the house and people say, you know, hey, where do I sign? On the dotted line.

Here's my. Here's my quarter of a million dollars for you, Chad. Do with it as you please.

It's very hard work. And you do have times. And you'll have. You'll have sometimes. I mean, I consistently have 12 appointments a week, and there will be times where I sit on four. I don't know what happened. It just was weird how everybody went full moon, whatever you want to call it, there's something happening. Then there's times where I have 12 appointments and I sit on 12. And those are long.

Those are serious weeks.

There's no rhyme or reason, but if you're consistently getting a lot of appointments and you get a lot of no shows, there's something that needs to be fixed in the process.

Yeah.

So good deal. I hope this helps you guys. You have a great day. And, of course, happy selling.