# Why a meeting booked by phone falls through while you wait [Home](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en) › [Study](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/study) › [Articles](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/study/articles) author: [Axel Jedlitschka](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/about) published: 2026-10-13 updated: 2026-10-13 language: en reading time: 5 min topic: Marketing & sales source booklet: [Booking the Meeting by Phone](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/shop/introduction/phone-appointment) The time between the call and the meeting works against you, because the customer's objection builds during it. What you do right after the yes decides whether the meeting happens. Once the customer has agreed to meet, it feels as though the work is done. The date is in the diary, the call has ended, and all that remains is turning up. The booklet shows that the gap from call to meeting is the most dangerous stretch of the whole process. Three things happen in that time. The customer waits for confirmation from you, their objection starts to build, and sometimes something real happens to them that cancels the meeting. For each of the three the source has its own instruction. ## Book at once, then inform The source gives a short, exact sequence. Whoever takes the enquiry schedules the person a time quickly, informs them, and invites any correction of the date. Each of the three parts has a reason. You schedule at once, because a promise to come back with a time later leaves the customer holding nothing in the meantime. You send the details in writing, since a phone leaves no record. And you invite a correction, because when the customer can change the date, it becomes theirs. The invitation to correct is the part people drop. It looks unnecessary once the customer has agreed. Yet it is what turns the booking from a notice into an agreement. The opposite is the owner who ends the call by saying he will check and come back with a time. That sentence moves the initiative to him and leaves the customer holding nothing. ## Why silence breaks things The source explains the stakes in two lines that apply to everybody. First: “They originated an intention and it wasn't given attention.” As a result, the source adds, they cannot complete a cycle. Someone who got in touch with you opened something. While nobody responds, it stays open, and that feels unpleasant even if in the end they do not get what they wanted. Next time they will initiate less. Picture a customer who left a message and heard nothing for two days. By the time anyone replied, he had gone cold, even though the answer was yes. The opposite is an owner who replies within the hour, saying she has the message and will come back tomorrow at ten. The full answer arrives tomorrow, and the cycle closes today. So a partial answer beats silence. It does not yet give the customer what they wanted, and it already closes what they opened. ## The objection builds while you wait Here comes the part that surprises people. The sales book describes the customer wrapping themselves in a brick overcoat as the meeting draws near. Elsewhere the book is more precise still: when the meeting is at the customer's own office, they pull it on in the last few minutes before you walk in. The conclusion is simple. The shorter the gap between the call and the meeting, the less time the objection has to build. A meeting a few days away is likelier to take place than one a few weeks away, even if both were booked with the same enthusiasm. This also explains why a meeting booked with great enthusiasm can still be cancelled. The enthusiasm belongs to the moment of the call, and the objection builds in the days after it. Picture a consultant who changed her default from next week to this week, whenever possible. Her cancellations fell by a third. The opposite is a meeting that was booked three weeks out, in high spirits. Two days from the date, a message arrived asking to postpone. A long gap looks like convenience and works as a risk. So book as close as you can. ## When they really do cancel Some cancellations are genuine. The sales book admits that in the rare case the buyer is telling the truth: something has happened that stops them buying right now. In that case the book advises accepting the cancellation gracefully, because the customer may come back when they can buy. Picture a customer who cancelled over a genuine family event and was told there was no problem, and that you would be in touch in a fortnight. He came back. The booklet is precise about what it lacks, too. The material contains no doctrine on a customer who fails to show up, and the booklet does not invent one. What it does contain is an instruction for the moment you cannot reach the customer by phone. Instead of chasing with more calls, you send a written message, so that contact is made quickly. Picture an owner who failed to reach a customer after three calls and sent one short message. The reply came within the hour. Most cancellations hide something other than what they say, and a small share are exactly what they say. Grace costs little, and now and then it brings a customer back. The booklet gives this chapter a closing practice with two exercises, one to do and one to measure, plus self-check questions. After it comes a practice and application section for the whole booklet. The meeting you booked begins to wear away from the moment you hang up, so what you do right after the call decides whether it takes place. - [Booking the Meeting by Phone](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/shop/introduction/phone-appointment): A whole call, from the moment you decided to ring to the date in the diary. --- [עברית](https://theonlyaxelj.com/he/study/articles/the-gap-between-the-call-and-the-meeting) · [Español](https://theonlyaxelj.com/es/study/articles/the-gap-between-the-call-and-the-meeting)