Whether you're talking with your spouse, your child, your best friend, your boss, or a real estate prospect or client, there's a phrase you could do well to avoid.
What is it?
"I didn't get a chance to..."
You might get away with it if someone made a request of you within the last hour or so and you've been in a meeting with a client or tied up on the phone.
But if you promised to do something yesterday - or last week - and you still haven't done it, the person you're speaking with will probably (correctly) interpret "I didn't get a chance to..." as "I didn't take time to..." or worse, "I didn't bother to..."
Granted, if the request was for something that would take a whole day, you might be trying and simply not finding time to do it.
But usually, that's not the case. Quite often, it's something that would take an hour at most.
And you know - if you wanted to get it done, you could have "gotten a chance" to do it. You might have to skip a TV show or stay up later than you like, but if it was important to you, it would have gotten done.
What's the cure? Learn to say no.
People may feel cross at you for refusing some unwanted task, but they'll be a lot less cross if you say no than they will if you say yes and then don't get it done - especially if you come up with the highly insulting "Didn't get a chance" excuse.
Or - if it's something you really must do for a client, just do it!
Image courtesy of africa at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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