Sales is the lifeblood of any company. After all is said and done, we will always look at the bottomline. That is why sales leads are hugely important. But how do you effectively use these leads and reach out to potential customers? Let’s explore the various strategies and tips for effective appointment setting with leads and converting them into actual customers.
From lead generation to appointment generation
Before we move into how appointment setting should be done, it would be a good idea to look into the difference between it and lead generation. This will give you a better picture of how the former bounces off from the latter and help you create a better strategy.
The first thing to look into is the difference between leads and prospects, two terms that are often interchanged with each other. In its simplest definition, a lead refers to a person who has provided their contact details to the business. Meanwhile, a prospect is someone who has shown interest in the business’ products to the point that they are willing to connect with sales agents.
Based on those definitions, you can see that prospects go further down the sales tunnel. This is where the appointment setting process comes in. While it follows the same principles as lead generation, there are also several key differences.
Goals
With lead generation, your goal is mainly to find potential clients for the business. In appointment setting, you take the next step and introduce the business in front of those that showed greater interest. This is where you begin the task of booking these prospects for meetings with your salespeople.
Strategy
With appointment setting, you now have a definite time frame for speaking with prospective clients and making a deal. That time frame appears in your sales calendar and your team discusses how to close the deal for the specific prospect. Thus, it requires the sales team to have a definite result.
Influence
Both lead generation and appointment setting have other important purposes for the businesses. Aside from gathering contact information, lead generation can be used to make a few quick sales along the way. Meanwhile, appointment setting is vital for fostering a long-term relationship with prospects for future deals.
The appointment setting process
While the appointment setting process might look simple at a glance, it requires careful planning by companies. Since their goal is to secure a deal with the prospect, the sales team needs to effectively set up the conversation and direct them into making the appointment. As such, you would want to create an effective strategy here.
Identifying and profiling prospects
During the lead generation stage, you likely have collected a ton of information about prospective clients. Trying to go after all those contacts will be challenging if you don’t know which ones would fit your business. To avoid that, you would want to identify and profile your desired prospects.
The key to doing this is focusing on high-value prospects that would most likely become customers. Here, you would want to outline the qualities you want most in an ideal client. For example, you might want to go after those who can purchase your products outright. Or you might also want to target those leads that explicitly expressed pain points your services can resolve.
Once you have created your ideal customer profile, start comparing your list of leads to it. If a lead does not fit into the profile, you move on to the next. After that assessment, you will have a shortlist of leads that have a greater chance of yielding sales.
When you have that shortlist, start researching each lead further. Look into their previous interactions with other brands to see their preferences. By comparing all your prospects, you can identify patterns in their purchasing behavior. Use these patterns to plan out and conduct the appointment. For example, you can center these sales appointments on the specific benefits that your group of leads most likely look for.
Getting prospects to notice you
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of appointment setting is convincing your prospects to agree on the meeting. While they might already show great interest in your product, they are not going to immediately accept your invitation. Instead, they will wait until you convince them of your product’s worth.
Here, you need to first gain their trust. As such, when engaging them on different marketing channels, build a good rapport with them. You can do this by engaging in small talk with them. Warmly introduce yourself. From there, converse with them about various topics while looking for emotional cues, such as happiness or annoyance. Use these cues to adjust your initial conversations and better connect with them.
You can also determine whether they are now ready to talk about appointments based on these cues. Note that this might take some time and several conversations. Remember to empathize with their current situation and offer to move that conversation for next time.
Making your proposition
Once your prospect is ready to talk, start laying down your business pitch. Ask questions that will reveal their problems. For instance, you can ask about their daily responsibilities. From there, ask about the pain points they experience when meeting these responsibilities.
Based on their responses, you will be able to discern how your business will fit in with their needs. But don’t be afraid to ask up front how you can help. This encourages them to speak further since they now have someone who will listen.
When presenting your pitch, it should adequately address all the concerns they have already expressed. This is where your earlier research will come in handy. Since you already know how your business will fit into their needs, you can better articulate your offer’s value
Don’t forget to keep everything conversational. You don’t want them to become bored while you talk like an eager car sales agent. Pause from time to time and let them ask their questions. This helps them further warm up to the idea of setting up a meeting with you.
Getting the appointment
When your prospect gives the nod that they are willing to know more, then you can offer a follow-up meeting to further present your business. This is the ultimate goal of the whole appointment setting process. When offering that meeting, you need to appeal to their sense of convenience.
Outline what they will need to do for the meeting, like whether they would simply be there or if they need to register. If it’s the latter, make that registration simple and quick for them. You should also state how fast the meeting will be and what activities will be done there.
Another handy tip when creating the appointment is to offer two different dates. This gives them more options to choose from. It also lessens the likelihood of them saying “I’m busy.” Try to make both dates as convenient as possible based on their preferences.
When they finally agree on an appointment scheduled, make sure that they get a reminder. You can send them a link to your calendar so that they can mark the date. It would also be helpful to follow up on them a day before the scheduled meeting. See if they have concerns and clarify these before getting final confirmation of their appearance.
Get appointment setting right and attract more prospects into your fold
Appointment setting might be a small part of the sales process but the amount of work you put into it will have an impact on the later stages. Done right and you will be able to capture the interests of your prospects more and get them down the funnel faster. Follow these strategies and convert more leads into successful sales.