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Appointment Setting made easier with 5 simple tips!
Personal meetings can work wonders for your business. Here are five tips to help you to crack the code of appointment setting effectively.
The advent of technology has led to many ways that people can communicate. Emails, telephone and video calls can still not measure up to the impact that a personal meeting can have. A meeting by way of appointment is the best and the most professional way to put your point across. Appointment setting, however, is not as easy as it may sound.
It takes months to break into new accounts and set appointments. Ask a seller, and he will say that this is one of the most difficult tasks out of all that he is expected to do. Keeping customers in the pipeline is one of the ways which leads to a higher frequency of communication with them. Subsequently, it takes less time for them to thaw up to you and your business and appointment setting may be relatively easier.
Here are five tips that can help you crack the difficult part of getting appointments with prospects:
- Be active in ‘off hours’: Nine to five timings may not always work for your customer. If your prospect is an insulate executive, it is best to reach out to him before 8 AM, just when his day starts. It may also be a good idea to call up after 6 PM or during lunch hours, when the mind is free from the regular office jobs and open to ideas and meetings.Many have also tasted success in setting appointments when they send emails early in the morning before 4 AM, and then follow up during the day. Also, chances of receiving a response from the prospect increase if your mail already features in his inbox when he checks his mail.
- Use varied mediums: Talk about appointment setting and cold calling is the first method that comes in your mind to reach out to the prospect. Next would be emails! The principle to be followed here is that there should be multiple media that should be used to get in touch with your prospect.Use voicemails, send invitations through mail, send hand written notes, and send articles that may capture the interest of your prospect. Cold calling may off set your successful appointment setting, and therefore, this is to be used sparingly only.
- Piggy back on marketing’s leads: Prospects who have had some level of communication with your company are most likely to be open to setting appointments. So, take leads from your marketing team and build on those. The categories that you can look for as your prospects are website downloaders, website visitors and event attendees. Following up with these three sets based on the information provided by your marketing team is most likely going to be lucrative for your future appointment setting.
- Use referrals: Referrals are most useful since they already come from a trusted customer set. Your regular customers will not refer someone who they feel is not interested in your business proposition. Keep your referral network happy and you will see them working as influencers for you. If you have CEOs of a business acting as a referral, even better. You can get a whole pool of prospects from him.
- Do not be afraid to ask: Many a time, it happens, that you may touch base with your prospect, but still not ask him for a future appointment. This may happen due to fear of failure of fear of losing the lead. However, this situation is better than chasing a prospect that may never yield any business for you. After you have captured the interest of your prospect, ask for a meeting straight away.
Setting appointments requires patience, hard work and perseverance. Never lose hope in this pursuit. Keep a track of your leads and you will see that appointments will follow.
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