Make yourself sound busier?

It works...Perception becomes reality...I routinely let people know how busy the company is because people want to do business with (and be around) sucessful people....and if lots of people are using you they also want to use you.

On the flip side...If things are slow I never say things are slow we can start next Tuesday, I say let me rearrange some things so I can squeeze you in Tuesday.

Simply checking your calendar and taking a moment before saying yes to an appointment may work as well.

In our society we view busy as important. So if you are busy you are important. It doesn't matter that you can get more results in 4 hours vs. 3 others at 40 hours each(paraphrasing Tim Ferriss).

So what he is doing is helping build that perception that he is busy and that his time is valuable.

I think it works well. Of course if you want to maximize your time you would be trying to get all your meetings for the week done on one day so you might nit be bsy on tues but want to do four meetings on wed so you ask if he is free at 1pm on Wed vs. 8am on Tues which he wanted.

There are certain personality types this will work on. Its just an "approach" and it appeals to a certain type of person like ALL approaches appeal to the type of person they appeal to. Yes it works. I have used this alot in recruiting (selling opportunities) , scarcity....shuffling paper work while you are talking and telling them you have a million apps in front of you, and only a few positions "I have another interview in a minute, and I only have two slots open, if I give this opportunity to you are you prepared to start today?"

"Great. Hang on a sec before I speak too soon, and let me see if the slot is still open or not " (The take away).

Different approaches work on various personality types. Yes its a successful approach, but then so is yours, and yours probably appeals to a wider audience. some programs work better with certain approaches too. For what WE do0, make the customer more important than yourself. Set the precedent that they are going to get the attention they need when they need it, not that you have too much going on to pay attention to them.

Either way will work, but one works better.

There are exceptions we can play on , and there are 43...You get more success playing to the rule than to the exception.

Instead of just sounding busier, why not BE busier?

In our society people think that The one who is busy with his work is doing well because a lot of people hiring his services.

when i have to fix a appointment with client i dnt say yes to their purposed day, i says let me check if i can spare 1 hr from your mentioned day.

People don't make me late to meetings. they prepare for meeting in time.

I do this all the time, mostly for clients who DON'T have a busy schedule. Normally though I say the day, if they say yes, I ask if morning is good - around 10. They say yes or no, if they say no, I tell them I have an appointment at 2 instead. Usually at this point (when they have their calendar up), you aren't going to lose the appointment, so you have free range in working together to find a time.

No one cares if you are busy or not. Sometimes it can backfire if you sound like an a&$ about it.

I can hear it now. "Are you so busy that you can't talk to me about us working together? Yes...I'll find someone else then."

It probably can work but not everyone is going to fall for that. You can really be busy and people may assume your pretending so they will never know if the person is really busy or not, no matter what the sound in the background, lets say you heard kids in the background it doesn't mean it's their kids or could be a kid on tv, some will fall for the illusion.

And nobody ever thinks, "that other stuff he has can't be that important if he can rearrange it just like that" or "wonder if he's gonna bump me around too if some other guy wants to see him next Tuesday" and "if he's so damn busy, how come he took my call / why does he have time to call me"?

So let me see if I have this correct. No matter when the prospect wants the appointment for, your friend says they have a conflicting appointment and offers a different date/time, right?

So now if that new date/time doesn't work for the prospect, what does your friend do? They can't say, "In that case let me see what other times I have available" because now they'll look like they're not so busy after all and the first conflicting appointment was probably a coincidence.

Then if that second date/time doesn't work for the prospect, what does your friend do? offer another time? By now the prospect knows your friend's full of it.

If I were to make a pretense of being busy BUT wanted to make an appointment with the prospect, I'd say, "My schedule's a little tight but how is next Tuesday for you, or is Thursday better?" and do the "either or" type of appointment set.

And then when they pick one and we set the time also using the either/or method, just for flair, just to tweak up the sense of me being busy... and let's assume form illustration purposes the appointment is for 2 o'clock, I'd say, "oh! Can we make it for 2:15? I have something earlier and I want to make sure it doesn't cut into your time."

Question... do you want the type of client this would work on?
I don't...

This 'technique' also forces the other person to also show their importance and tell you how busy they are, thus you losing the focus of why you're there... to get down to helping your client.

I guess this concept will work. I try to be as flexible as possible with my customers. Sometimes if I see that they choose a date with an evening time, I try to reschedule a day that's around the same time as they requested.

An old adage is that if you ever want anything in life done for you - ask a busy person.

As for the sales tactic I guess it depends on what you consider to be important....ethics or results...or both?

Personally I provide options by stating when I am available and as such provide options for them to choose.
This demonstrates i'm controlling and managing my business...not vice versa. It also demonstrates that I do have existing appointments and that I am prepared to work with them.

Thats said, flexibility and adaptability are important in my opinion.