The Six Weeks Before Starting

Dear friend,

The riddle first, as ever. Your century today, and the trouble in it happens entirely after the customer has said yes.

Two firms both win the work in May,
Same job, same start six weeks away.
One takes the yes and then goes still,
One writes on Friday, writes until.
One start day comes, one cancels first.
The yes was equal. Which grew worse?

Hold your answer. Story time.

The Story

Two firms in the same trade, and the work, all together now, was equally good. Both were told yes in May for jobs beginning at the end of June, and both took a deposit.

The first, having won it, went quiet, as most people do. The selling was over, the diary was marked, and there was nothing to say until the van arrived.

What happened in those six weeks happened out of his sight. The customer, who had felt certain on the Tuesday she agreed, spent the following fortnight noticing what she had committed to. Her husband asked what it was costing. A neighbour said her cousin had paid rather less for something that sounded similar. An advertisement from a rival arrived, as advertisements do, at precisely the wrong moment. And nothing at all came from the man she had chosen, so there was nothing on his side of the scale except a decision made a fortnight ago by a version of herself who had been in the room with him.

Doubt after a decision is a different animal from doubt before one, and worse, because there is now money attached and a mistake to be feared rather than merely a choice to be made.

She did not cancel, in the end. What she did was arrive at the start of the job braced and watchful, asking about the price twice in the first morning, which made the whole thing harder than it needed to be. Two of his other customers that season did cancel, and both told him it was a change of circumstances, which is what people say.

The second firm treated the six weeks as part of the job.

On the Friday she sent a short confirmation that repeated the customer's own words about what she wanted, since a person reading her own reasons back is reminded why she agreed. It said what happened next and when, named the start date, and gave one small thing to do before then, which took ten minutes and made the customer a participant rather than a person waiting.

In week three she sent a note about something related and useful, worth reading on its own account.

And a week before starting she confirmed the day, the hour, and what would happen first.

Nobody cancelled. And the customers arrived on the day already in the middle of something rather than at the start of a risk, which is a different mood entirely and shows in every conversation afterwards.

The Lesson, Since You've Earned It

The doubt does not end when they say yes. In most trades that is where it begins. Before the decision a customer is comparing options and can walk away from all of them at no cost. After it, she owns a commitment, and every passing week gives her cheap opportunities to wonder whether she chose badly: an idle remark, a rival's advertisement, a spouse's question. Meanwhile the seller, having won, falls silent, and silence is read as indifference by a person actively looking for evidence.

So the gap between the yes and the start is not dead time. It is the most dangerous stretch of the whole transaction, and it is the one nearly every trade leaves entirely unattended.

Note that this is a different complaint from the one the ferryman answered. That was about not knowing how long a wait would be. This is about wondering whether the decision was right, and it wants a different remedy: not merely information, but reminding. Send her own reasons back to her, in her own words, since the strongest argument for your work is the one she made herself in May and has since half forgotten.

Three things fill the gap, and none of them is expensive. A written confirmation that repeats what she said she wanted and names what happens next. One small task that makes her a participant, since a person who has done something is harder to unsettle than a person who has merely paid. And a word before the start, so that the day arrives as an appointment rather than an intrusion.

Two cautions. Do not fill the gap with selling, which reads as anxiety and reopens the question of whether she should have chosen somebody else. And do not go so silent that your reappearance is a surprise, since a customer who has to remind herself who you are has spent six weeks with nothing but her own second thoughts for company.

Three questions, and count the days on a real job:

1. How long is your gap? From the yes to the start. Write the number down. If it is more than a fortnight and nothing at all crosses it, you have a hole in your business that shows up as late cancellations and difficult first mornings.
2. What do you send on the day they agree? If the answer is an invoice, that is the only thing standing between her decision and her doubt. Add the confirmation in her own words, the next step, and the date.
3. What could they usefully do before you start? One small task, ten minutes, genuinely useful to the job. Not busywork, which is spotted at once, but the thing that would have delayed you on the first morning anyway.

The Answer to the Riddle

Which yes grew worse?

The one left alone. Both customers agreed in the same week for the same money, and one of them spent six weeks with her decision sitting unattended while the world offered her reasons to regret it. Nothing went wrong, nobody misled anybody, and no work had yet been done badly. She simply had a fortnight of second thoughts and nothing on the other side of the scale, because the man she had chosen believed the selling was over when she said yes.

The verse:

The yes is not the end of doubt,
It's where the doubting starts to grow.
Write back the reasons she set out,
And name the day, and let her know.

Until next time. Go and look at the jobs you have won but not started, and send each of them the confirmation, the small task and the date this week.

P.S. The same gap exists after the work is finished and before the result is visible, and it is filled the same way. A customer waiting to see whether it worked is doing exactly what a customer waiting to start is doing, and a single word from you at that moment is worth more than a page of anything sent later.

Also in the archive: The Deposit, The Piano in the Parlour and The Bell on the Far Bank.