In order for your business to keep growing and prospering, you need to continually find new prospects, and close new deals. To achieve this, you need to be able to land as many meetings with key decision-makers as possible.
Just like with any other kind of prospecting, you will hit many dead ends while attempting to book appointments. However, there are ways you can improve your chances of landing more appointments.
Allow customers to schedule appointments themselves
Many businesses focus on creating great lists of prospects and warming up their leads. However, they often forget about potential customers who are interested in connecting with their sales team but don’t know how. These people are more likely to make a purchase than any cold prospect, so you need to make it as easy as possible for them to connect with you.
Today, customers are accustomed to having everything at their fingertips and they expect to be able to book an appointment with one click and without too much fuss.
Make sure to add an appointment booking button to your website and clearly display it on every page. Keep your call to action short and clear to prompt more people to book appointments.
You can also integrate scheduling software so your visitors can easily book a convenient time slot directly on your website.
Read More: What Makes A Top Sales Rep Tick?
Make better calls
Making a lot of calls can certainly give you great results. However, not everything is about quantity. You also need to make sure that your calls are actually good if you want to book more appointments.
While you should have an outline of what you’re planning to say, you shouldn’t just blindly follow a generic script. One of the most effective ways to improve your calls is to personalize them. Do your research on the person on the other end of the phone line so you can address their specific pain points.
Make sure your call sounds more like a conversation, and less like a sales pitch.
Don’t sell the product, sell the appointment
When you’re on a call with a prospect, it can be easy to get carried away and forget what your goal is. It’s not always about the product, so don’t overwhelm them with talk about product features on the first call if your goal is to set an appointment.
Use the initial call to warm them up and tease just enough about the product to get them interested in another meeting.
Try to be as concise and straightforward as you can. That way, you’ll show that you respect their time and won’t overwhelm them with unnecessary details about the product until the appointment.
Make sure to either book the appointment right there on the call, or leave prospects with clear instructions on how to book it after the call.
Automate appointment scheduling
Once you capture your prospect’s attention and get them interested in your product, you can’t afford to lose them due to a slow and complicated booking process.
It’s best to find a sales engagement platform with appointment setting features to avoid any friction during the booking process. That way, you will minimize the risk of errors and maximize efficiency. You won’t have to worry about double bookings and time zones and will have more time to research your prospects and personalize your approach.
Implement a multichannel approach
While the phone is still reigning in sales, you shouldn’t completely overlook other channels. As customers rely on multiple devices and multiple different communication channels, they also expect businesses to implement a multichannel approach.
Email is still a relevant channel that allows you to reach many prospective customers quickly. While many people receive too many email messages to handle, there are ways to cut through the noise and make your email stand out. To improve your email open rates, make sure to:
- personalize your subject lines
- offer helpful content
- include a strong call to action
- learn exactly how to end an email in order to capture the recipient’s attention and spark their interest in attending the appointment
You can also use social media platforms like LinkedIn to reach a highly targeted demographic or even send messages with a handy “Book Now” link on messaging apps such as Whatsapp. Your prospects are probably spending multiple hours a day on their phones, so use this to capture their attention.
Don’t forget to follow up
Warming up prospects takes a lot of work. Once you get to the point of booking an appointment, your job is not yet done. Just because you scheduled a meeting doesn’t mean your prospects will actually show up. That’s why it’s important to always follow up and remind them about your appointment.
No-shows are unavoidable, but you can minimize them by sending a friendly reminder and keeping in touch with your prospects until the meeting happens.
Landing appointments is a nuanced process that requires a lot of work. From the initial contact with your prospects to touching base after the appointment is done, you need to continuously work on building and maintaining relationships if you want your appointments to be effective.
Follow these tips to land more appointments and fewer no-shows.
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