The Secret To Confirming Appointments
Jeb Blount offers 5 secrets for making sure your prospects keep appointments with you.
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The Secret To Confirming Appointments
It is frustrating to set a meeting with a customer or prospect who is a no-show. I get asked all of the time by salespeople how to make sure that prospects keep their appointments. This week I’ll share my five secrets for confirming appointments.
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What to do When a Prospect Doesn’t Show?
You spent weeks calling this prospect. You sent emails and left voice mails. You got to know the receptionist like a friend. Finally two weeks ago you got through and he agreed to see you. This morning you dressed in your best suit and drove two hours to his office. Now you are walking back to your car dejected. It seems that your prospect had a “very important meeting” and forgot about your appointment. Now you are so mad you’re ready to explode because this means starting the process all over again. What could you have done differently to ensure that your prospect showed up to that appointment?
The unfortunately reality is that sometime your prospects do get called away, and seldom do they respect you enough to call and reschedule– or even just let you know they can’t make it. It is also a reality that the prospects forget about appointments they set or –in many cases– conveniently ignore the appointment because they don’t want to talk to a salesperson. Regardless, there are some steps you can take to increase the probability that they show up. I’ve used these tactics most of my career and for me they work great.
Tips for Getting Prospects to Show Up
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Tip 1: Try not to set appointments more than two weeks out. The longer the period between the time you set the appointment and the appointment date, the higher the probability that your prospect will run into a conflict. My rule of thumb is to set my appointments for next week this week.
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Tip 2: While you are on the phone with your prospect confirm the date and time, repeat it back. I usually say something like this, “Okay, Joe, so just to confirm, we are meeting on Monday, June 29th, at 3pm, is that what you have?” This step ensures that there is no gap in communication.
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Tip 3: Follow up with an email confirmation and/ or meeting request immediately after you hang up the phone. That just provides one more layer of confirmation and a meeting request gets the time and date into your prospect’s calendar.
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Tip 4: Send a hand written note confirming the appointment. For twenty years I have kept a stack of pre-stamped post cards on my desk. On the front of the card is my company’s logo. On the back I simply handwrite, “Dear Joe, I’m looking forward to seeing you on Monday, June 29th, at 3:00pm. Have a great week. Jeb” At the end of the day I just drop the cards I have written into the mailbox. This is an extremely effective tactic and it will improve your show rate tremendously.
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Tip 5: Call and leave a voice mail the evening before your appointment. To do this, just call after hours so that you know your call will go to voice mail. Say something like this, “Hi Joe, this is Jeb Blount with SalesGravy.com, I’m just calling to tell how much I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow at 3pm.” Why do you want to leave a voice mail? The answer is a voice mail won’t cancel your appointment. If you call Joe directly to confirm your appointment, my experience is there is a 30-50 percent chance that Joe will cancel or reschedule. And if that happens you may never get into see him again. However, if you leave a message Joe will be reminded of your meeting in the morning, and will in most cases honor your appointment.
The most important thing you can do is to be disciplined to execute this process with every appointment. And though it may seem a bit tedious, in the long run it will save you time and put more qualified prospects in your pipeline. What do you think? Why not share your thoughts on the Sales Gravy group on LinkedIn. Just search for us in groups on LinkedIn.
This is Jeb Blount, the Sales Guy.
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