Vendor Messages

A vendor cancelled a meeting twenty minutes before it was supposed to start. Double booked. It happens. I get it. We rescheduled at their request. I moved things around. Blocked the new time. I showed up. They didn't. No call. No message. No heads up. Just nothing. The kind of nothing that isn't peaceful or productive. The kind that just costs you thirty minutes and your willingness to give someone the benefit of the doubt a third time.

Then - after I sent an email - they reached out later that day asking if I could "jump on a call" like I was sitting by the phone in a rocking chair just waiting for them to become available. I wasn't.

Here's what I want to say to every vendor and partner who operates this way - your calendar is not the center of mine. And every time you treat my time as flexible while protecting your own - you are making a decision about this partnership. You just don't realize it yet.

I don't need perfect. I need consistent. Cancel when you have to. Reschedule when you must. But show up when you commit. And if something goes wrong - own it. Fast. Directly. Without acting like it didn't happen. Because here's the truth about vendor relationships that doesn't get said enough - trust isn't built in the contract. It's built in the calendar.

It's built in whether you show up when you say you will. Whether you respect the time of the person you're asking for business. Whether your follow-through matches your pitch.

The product might be great. The pricing might be competitive. The deck might be polished. But if I can't trust you to show up for a thirty minute meeting - I'm not trusting you with the area of the business that I manage.

Small moments. Big signals.