Taking care of the logistics of ensuring everyone involved in a deal shows up is notoriously tricky. While appointment setting may seem simple, it is one of the most complicated components of closing a deal. Sometimes, people who agree to show up never arrive, or you may encounter unexpected sales objections. Other times, another vendor intercepts your prospects’ decision, or they simply take back the commitment they made to work with you.
Given the many possible outcomes, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. However, backtracking from the vital task of appointment setting isn’t the right approach. Instead, you can refine your process to reduce these sudden cancellations and no-shows and improve the overall quality of your appointments. Here are five tips to help you do that:
Understand Your Target Audience
As a sales representative, your goal is to ensure that your prospect sees all the benefits of doing business with you, resulting in a closed deal. However, when sales representatives aren’t prepared, they struggle to explain the company’s products and services adequately or the benefits they offer to their customers, impacting the reputation. The potential buyer will end up having second thoughts about their decision to purchase, as they see no reason to buy from a company whose employees can’t explain their own offerings.
Apart from learning everything about what your company has to offer, you’ll need to understand your audience, know what they’re looking for, and how you can present the company as a viable solution. Check your prospects’ website and social media profiles and comb through their content, which will give you a good idea of the tone they prefer. You can use their social media to find out more about their connections, allowing you to predict the questions they may ask and develop the most satisfying answers. Today’s B2B buyers do not like generic promises, so be as specific and concrete as possible using the information you’ve gathered on them.
Be Sincere in Your Discussions
B2B buyers often get turned off by aggressive sales reps that don’t allow their prospects enough space to mull over the deal and ask questions. They often feel irritated by pushy sales executives who rush to finish the conversation and push the prospect into signing a contract. While this worked several decades ago, this is no longer the case.
To avoid this scenario, prepare a personalized pitch using the information you’ve gathered on the prospect. Practice your pitch, anticipate the questions and possible objections the prospect may raise, and do everything to give the prospect the details they need. Your buyers will know if you’re genuine, especially if you allow them enough time to speak. Start your conversations with open questions, like asking the prospect about how their company is dealing with the current market. They want to find an expert who can help them fix their problems, which is where you’ll step in to offer them an excellent solution.
Additionally, remember to relax and be human. If you’re too rigid and robotic, your prospect will likely respond the same way to the deal, leading to a failed deal. Maintain a warm tone, and be sure to make your prospect feel welcome during the conversation. Sometimes, the conversation may derail into a more casual territory, like if your prospect talks about their day. When this happens, act as an understanding, amicable professional who is genuinely invested in helping them solve their problems. Eventually, you can segue into your appointment setting: “Our CEO Sophia knows a lot about that kind of situation; it’ll help to talk to her about it. How about we schedule a meeting next Thursday?” Just like that, you have a qualified appointment.
Time Everything With Purpose
To improve the quality of your appointment setting, try catching your prospects at opportune moments. Avoid reaching out to them when you know they are busy or out of the office, as they’re more likely to ignore your emails or forget to reply to them.
For example, if you were to introduce yourself through an email, be sure to send it during the morning, preferably when you know your recipients are looking through their inbox, like 9 to 11 AM. If you’d like to schedule a sales call, opt for 11 AM to 12 PM and 4 to 5 PM on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Most people use Mondays and Tuesdays to gear up for the rest of the week, so they may bristle at the prospect of scheduling a call on those days. You will also want to stay away from Fridays since most people are already on weekend mode.
Outsource Your Appointment Setting
It never hurts to ask for help, so you may want to outsource your appointment setting. After all, you have other roles and responsibilities to take care of, so it’s best to leave the appointment setting to the professionals. Assigning it to an experienced person will ensure that the process is done correctly from start to finish, improving your chances of successfully closing a deal.
Qualified appointment setters know how to communicate properly with prospects, turning into their mood, worries, and goals to guide them towards doing business with you. They can also analyze your sales process and inform you of what you may be doing wrong, allowing you to refine your tactics. Hiring an appointment setter can ultimately spell the difference between a series of failed deals to numerous successful ones.
Chalk It Up to Experience
Getting everything right the first time is always more convenient, but the reality is that we’re all human and we’re bound to make mistakes. Instead of agonizing over these slip-ups, chalk it up to experience instead. Making mistakes is inevitable, but it also shows you the most effective way to do things and the approaches you should avoid. Knowing what worked for you and what didn’t is the best way to cultivate a winning strategy, setting you up for success in the long run.
Conclusion
Setting appointments with qualified prospects is always an exciting opportunity for your business since it may be the start of a long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationship. However, you may have run into a few road bumps in the process without understanding why. By following these five tips, you’ll enjoy smoother meetings and close more deals.
CrewBloom outsources appointment setting for various businesses of all sizes by connecting professionals to affordable, premium sales and support talent. Our extensive screening process ensures that we provide only the best of the best to our clients, giving only top-notch applicants to your team in a matter of days. Contact us today to learn more about what we can do for you!
