Setting up an appointment might seem like a straight-forward thing to do: simply establish a date, time, and a place, and you should be all set to meet up with a prospect in the hopes of making a sale. But sales reps face a number of issues when it comes to setting up appointments with prospects, whether they are dealing with someone unwilling to commit, or to set up an appointment only to have the prospect not show up at all.
No-shows and lukewarm prospects end up wasting the valuable time of salespeople – time that could be better spent committed to actually qualified prospects that fit well with your business. Click here to learn more about why it’s important to qualify your leads and prospects to ensure you are investing your time wisely.
Spend More Time Qualifying
If your sales team isn’t having much luck with setting and keeping appointments with clients then that probably means that they need to approach their time with their prospects differently. Whatever method they are using to contact them (phone, email, etc.) more time needs to be spent finding out what the prospect’s needs are and whether or not the product or service being offered can fill those needs.
Simply focusing on making up numbers or meeting a quota usually won’t get a sales rep anywhere. Setting up appointments out of desperation will lead to wasted time with poor prospects that were never given the chance to get sold on the idea that the product or service presented can help them in some way. Often enough, a prospect will agree to a meeting just to get a badgering sales rep off the phone, but might not follow up or may even ditch all-together.
That’s why every interaction should be focused on finding out more about the customer. This is accomplished by asking questions and providing informed answers that will eventually sell the prospect on the idea that it is in fact worth meeting with a sales rep to learn more.
Use Call Center Scripting Software
The more information available to a sales rep, the more likely they are able to engage effectively with a prospect and book a solid appointment with them. Equipping them with the right tools to ensure that they are constantly informed and on top of their game will help them to respond to inquiries and connect the prospect’s needs to the product or service that they are trying to sell. Maybe equipping them with something like CloudTalk.io can also be beneficial.
Call scripting software that is designed with branching scripting options is a powerful tool that enables sales reps to respond to changes in conversation on the fly. All they need to do is click on an option and the script will produce a response that the sales rep can give, creating an organic conversation that is adaptable and natural sounding.
Engaging prospects with branched scripting means that sales reps will have the flexibility to customize the way they talk to prospects based on the responses they receive. When prospects feel like they are being talked to by a person instead of a scripted pitch, they will be more receptive and willing to meet for an appointment.
By focusing on the experience for potential customers, sales reps will see more success when trying to book face-to-face appointments with them – all it takes is a little more time and the right software solution.
Nicola Holder 