Appointment Making Cheat Sheet
Now if you have to make cold calls to set up appointments the following cheat sheet will really help you outt.
Here’s my appointment making cheat sheet! Follow this guidance and you can’t go far wrong when setting up appointments.
STEP 1 – Qualification Is Key
Make sure the prospects that you call are qualified leads
STEP 2 – Do Your Homework
Before you call, check out their company website and find out some information about them. Be prepared.
STEP 3 – Set Your Objectives For The Call
Now you might think this is obvious i.e set up an appointment. But what about your secondary objectives if an appointment is not set? Could it be to gather further info? To find out if they are using someone already? This is really important.
STEP 4 – Tone Down The Smile And Dial
When you open your call tone down the enthusiasm initially until you’ve got something to be enthusiastic about. All sales calls sound the same and if you sound like a “smile and dialler” your prospects barriers will go up “Not another cold caller!”
STEP 5 – Have A Well Planned Not Canned Script
Know how you are going to open your call and how you are going to ask for the appointment and so on.
Don’t be too rigid with a script though because if you get thrown off the script you may get into trouble!
STEP 6 – Sell The Appointment
Don’t sell your products and services just sell the appointment and why you should get together.
STEP 7 – If You Are Faced With Any Objections Then…
State that’s why you need to get together.
“Tell me about your services now…”
You reply with:
“All of our services are completely bespoke John that’s why we need to get together so I can understand about your business and then I can recommend which one of our services will be best for you. Would next Wednesday at 2pm be ok for you?”
STEP 8 – CEMENT Your Appointment
So the prospect has said yes to an appointment. Don’t just rush off the phone in excitement. Instead make sure that you confirm all of the details with the client.
CEMENT stands for:
Confirm the details
Explain what will take place in the meeting
Many thanks
Exonerate – tell them they are making a good decision and the reasons why
Numbers – provide some benefits to the client
Terminate the call with tact
STEP 9 – CONFIRM Your Appointment Just Before
A couple of days before the appointment call or email to confirm that all is still ok.
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So there you have the appointment making cheat sheet!
You don’t need any fancy techniques to be a success at setting up appointments – you just need a proven approach. Follow my appointment making cheat sheet and you’ll start to see some real improvement in your prospecting.
Happy Appointment Making!
Sean
Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training
Sean McPheat is the Sales Jedi! Follow his daily tips at MTD Sales Blog
Telephone: 0800 849 6732
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Another very important tip is never to put the receiver down before the prospect does.
I always teach my students not to ask “How are you?” when calling someone for the first time. It comes across as really phony and puts their backs up straight away. Unbelievably this happened to my dad just a few days ago! (He put the phone down on them.)
Hi Louise
You’re so right. You can just cringe when you hear “How are you?” you feel like saying:
“I’m awful, my head hurts, I’m behind on my rent, my wife is having an affair and I just had a car crash. Now, what would you like to sell to me today?”
Here’s a good posting about that very subject:
http://www.mtdsalestraining.com/mtdblog/the-how-are-you-controversy.html
Thanks for your contribution Louise
Sean
The only thing I would really do differently here is the ‘calling to confirm’ a few days ahead of time.
If you scheduled the meeting some time back, and call to ‘make sure everything is still ok’, this really gives the prospect an VERY easy way to back out or question what you’re meeting about (you may have to pitch all over again).
What I tend to do is confirm while I’m on the phone with him that my prospect has entered the meeting into the calendar, and then also tell them that I will be sending a meeting planner with a brief agenda to him and his assistant, and could he please accept the meeting planner when received. In the meeting planner, I emphasize to please call me or send an email if his plans or schedule changes. This has not failed me.
Also, depending on what level prospects you are calling, a senior level executive or C-Level might be annoyed that you can called back to confirm rather than trusting him that he put it on his calendar.
If you feel you must confirm a few days in advance, don’t ASK if everything is still all set (it’s an easy out), just actually confirm. For example, send an email that says something like ‘I just wanted to send a quick note to say I look forward to meeting you on XYZ date at 2:00pm.” You’re being confident and firm, rather than “Is everything still on for XYZ date, 2:00pm?”
Just my 2 cents.
Really good points Beth.
If I’m travelling 300 miles for example to see someone where I need to arrange trains, flights or are travelling for a long time in the car I want to confirm!
The CEMENT part of the sheet confirms everything on the phone at the first stage.
When calling a C-Level to confirm you should never ask to be put through to them. Just check with their PA that the appointment is in the diary.
I don’t have a problem with an “easy out” possibility. If you’ve done your job properly then you’ll be seeing a qualified prospect who has the ability and motivation to buy. If they are making excuses etc then they might have just said a yes to the meeting to get you off the phone which will waste your time.
You’ll win some and you’ll lose some with this.
That’s the beauty of sales!
Sean