One consultant here was justifying his lack of appointments by claiming his client was notoriously busy and difficult to get to hold of.

He was asked, “Do you think his wife or best friend struggles to get him to call back?”

“Er.. I guess not, no”

Sadly, because people act in their own best interests, the sole reason that anyone fails to return your call is that they just don’t see enough benefit in doing so.

Accepting you’re responsible for not showing the benefit of your service is a vital step in increasing your consulting performance when working with clients.

The speed and percentage of your calls that are returned is a useful gauge of your consulting effectiveness in your business.

A slow down in the speed of returning calls by any individual client is also an early warning sign that you are offering less value to this person than you once were.

What is the benefit to this client from this call? If you can’t think of one then I suggest you don’t make it.