October 25, 2016
By Stefania Viscusi, Assignment Desk, Content Management
Getting the attention of potential customers so you can pitch them is key to sales for so many businesses. So much so that companies today are even employing appointment schedulers tasked solely with scheduling potential leads to meet with sales team members to hopefully close a deal.
While this may be a great way to bring in more potential clients, businesses should remember that there is so much more to a sale than just scheduling appointments. After you set an appointment, there are still a number of things that need to be done – and done right – to capture the lead and get them on board. And what happens if those appointments are a no-show? There is also that to consider.
I recently attended a Wedding Expo and have since had a barrage of incoming pitches and appointment schedulers looking to get me on the phone to talk to me about why I need the product they are selling. As the person on the other end this time, it’s easy to see how frustrating some of these calls can get. To get the pesky caller off the phone you might even schedule the appointment, and just not go, or go even with zero intention of buying the product whatsoever. That puts the company’s goals back at square one and with a lot of wasted time and energy on everyone’s part.
So how do you change this? The dialogue needs to move away from setting an appointment to getting the person on the phone to understand how your offering solves a problem for them, and, most importantly, getting them to trust that you have their best interests in mind.
A recent VanillaSoft blog post describes how the company’s appointing-setting module helps sales teams get organized, productive and efficient.
Tools like intelligent calendars, better scripts and quota management are all important in getting this piece in the sales process right.
Not only will properly trained staff work better at showing leads compassion, but having tools to gently remind them about appointments and keep things simple and personable will make no-shows no longer a thing of worry.
Edited by Alicia Young