That time my old boss told me to stop prepping for interviews before meetings

I had this manager at a tech firm in Austin who swore up and down that I was wasting time by rereading notes and questions before every single client call. He said just wing it, you know the stuff well enough. So I took his advice one time for a big quarterly review with a group of executives. I walked into the Zoom call totally blanked on a key stat about their previous contract and spent five minutes fumbling through my browser tabs. We lost the renewal worth about $12,000 because they thought I looked unprepared. Has anyone else had a 'trust your gut' piece of advice backfire this badly?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph_murray83d agoMost Upvoted

$12,000 is a brutal way to learn that lesson. I prep the same way before every call. Write down three key numbers on a sticky note. Stick it to my monitor so I can glance at it without clicking around. The gut feeling stuff works for standup comedy not for client renewals. Your boss was wrong. Preparation shows respect for the client's time and money. Always have your facts within eyeshot.

ben4863d ago

Right, sticky notes are my whole system too. Saved my butt more times than I can count.