The global pandemic has made it challenging to schedule physical appointments. Today, meetings are done digitally, but how can you adjust to this? Some business owners are reluctant to virtual appointment settings because they feel like they’re less sincere and genuine. However, if you think about it and consider the changing times, virtual appointment setting is very easy. Plus, it’s cheaper, easier, and more profitable than the regular one.
If you want to make the most out of your virtual sales appointments, we will share with you some tips:
1. Send an Email First
All appointments need an introduction. When your prospect opens your first cold email, it’s time to put in the work. This is when you need to make sure your email outreach is on point, and your emails are compelling.
An excellent introductory email is the one that will communicate your brand’s values and goals. This will help you stand out from the crowd. The good news is, you have various templated messages to choose from, and you can take the time to craft an appealing message that your target audience will love.
2. Make Sure You Follow Up
If you wait for a response, you could wait forever. This is a common mistake newbie email marketers make. Yes, you don’t want to be pushy, but that doesn’t mean you should just wait for the recipient to get back to you.
Don’t let your email campaigns be limited to introduction emails only—follow up, whether that’s passive or dynamic.
How do you do this?
If the recipient is chatty and responsive, include some materials and collaterals, like pricing pages and case studies that the user might be interested in. Make sure to choose the case studies in your collection carefully—it needs to resonate with the user.
On the other hand, you need to do general follow-ups, which are more common. This is the kind of follow-up you do for unresponsive recipients. This type of follow-up aims to send a reminder to prospects about the previous message. Keep in mind: any answer is good here, so manage your expectations.
One of the things that hold back email marketers from making a follow-up is that they’re afraid they could get on their prospects’ nerves. The good news is, this is avoidable; what you can do is know their work routine and adjust your email accordingly, so they receive the emails when they’re on breaks.
3. Confirm the Appointment
Okay, the email outreach is a success, and the prospect has agreed to schedule a virtual meeting with you. Although this may seem like a good thing, you need to remember that some things can still go wrong here.
One downside of virtual meetings is that they have a lot more no-shows than in-person meetings. This happens for many reasons, including those beyond your control, like random incidents and technical issues.
What you can do is to impact your prospects’ attitude towards the appointment—you need to make the prospect look forward to it and show up.
To do this, you need to start with your own approach because when they see that you treat virtual sales appointments like how you would personal meetings, that will change their mind.
Another tip when confirming the appointment is to never assume that the prospect will show up with no reminders. This is because people forget, and they tend to lose their focus. Don’t hesitate to send them small reminders to refresh their memories. The ideal times to send reminder emails are within a week, two days, and an hour before the appointment.
4. Use an Online Calendar
There are now many tools to set virtual appointments a lot easier. Use these tools to allow you to quickly book appointments and add participants. Additionally, an online calendar allows invited users to change their attendance status, confirm, and stay updated on the upcoming appointment.
Another thing is that online calendars will give you a clearer vision of your schedule; therefore, you can choose the best free time slots.
5. Let Them Know You Offer Virtual Appointments
Some sales reps are vague about how they schedule meetings to the point that they fail to mention the digital format of the meeting until the last moment. On the other hand, some mince their words in the most professional way possible. Usually, sales reps do these things because they’re scared no one will take them seriously and get a no-show.
The thing is, if you don’t tell the truth, it could only make things worse. Remember, your prospects won’t mind having a meeting online, but what would piss them off is when you don’t speak honestly.
6. Ensure the Email Is Delivered to the Right Prospects
You need to make sure that your emails go to the right inboxes. There are cases when business emails go directly to spam folders. If you don’t want to end up there, you can use tools to track your performance, get reports on your domain, and eliminate deliverability issues.
7. Outsource Virtual Appointment Setting
Most business owners tend to do everything because they think they can until they’re struggling and they lose focus on the important aspects of their business. That is why outsourcing is highly recommended.
If you want to start with your virtual appointments, but you don’t know where to start, you can always seek a professional. Additionally, outsourcing will free up your time to let you focus on other important things and other aspects of your business.
Conclusion
Now that virtual appointments are a thing, you need to adapt and step up your game. Setting virtual appointments may seem like a mountain for some business owners, but setting appointments efficiently can be done with these tips.
You also have the option to outsource the appointment setting to professionals instead. That way, you get to have more time to focus on other business aspects that can move your brand forward.
Are you looking for reliable sales appointment setting services? We can help you here at CrewBloom! Join us now.
