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Shoutout to the 3 client calls last month that ran past 45 minutes and went nowhere
I tracked my time in a spreadsheet for 6 weeks and found out 11 of my 40 scheduled client calls were basically me listening to people think out loud with no decision at the end. That's almost a full workday a week I'm not billing for, which stung more than I expected when the number popped up. How do you all cut a call short without sounding like you're rushing the client out the door?
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foster.tessa1d ago
Just set a hard stop at the top. Tell them "we got 30 min, want to lock in next steps by then" and stick to it. People ramble less when they know the clock is real.
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max_brown1d ago
Used to roll my eyes at the hard stop thing, figured it was just a trick people pulled to look busy and bail early. Then I sat through way too many calls that ran 20 minutes over and ended with nothing written down, and it clicked. The clock being real is the whole point, because everyone starts wrapping up when they know time is almost gone. Now I say it upfront and hold the line even when the talk is good, and we somehow still get more done. Turns out a fake deadline just makes people talk longer.
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