by Bill Cherry
Getting Appointments: The First Steps to Selling Success
How to qualify a prospect
How to create a target list
Why use a telephone script
Voice mail, screeners, receptionists, never in office,
Approach: letters, cold calls, email, voice mail, referrals,
Nothing happens until you get in front of the prospect. Ever since there have been sales persons there has been the problem of getting in front of the prospect. And ever since there have been salespersons there has been prospects who want to avoid sales persons.
Why is this the case? If you have ever been on the receiving end of sales people hounding you, you understand. Sales people have earned the reputation of being high pressure, fast talking, lying, and rude.
In truth, all sales people are different. There are some that are high pressure, but there are many more that are respectful, knowledgeable, and interested in the welfare of the prospect.
Nevertheless, prospects don’t want to be bothered by the many sales persons that call each day. They need protection from them and have become creative avoiding sales people.
That causes a large problem for sales people like us. So what can we do? How do we get through to the prospect we want to sell? Let’s take one problem at a time.
First create a target list of potential customers. Identify your best customers who buy your kind of products in large amounts? Who else needs your product? What kind of business are they in? What size business is more likely to buy, three million to five million in annual sales? Ten to twenty million?
Qualify the businesses and learn who the buying decision maker is.
Use the telephone to get appointments:
The telephone is the most widely used tool to reach a prospective buyer. With the telephone a sales person can cover a lot of ground in terms of the number of prospects contacted. But before we move forward with the telephone we need to discuss qualifying the prospect.
Qualify your prospect:
Don’t sell the wrong person. That sounds obvious but it happens thousands of times every day. Who really has the power to buy? Often it is not the person you think. Even if you ask the person you are talking to if they will make the buying decision, they often are out and out lying or perhaps they don’t know they didn’t have the authority to buy.
1. Ask” Who makes the buying decision?” Verify their response if possible. Ask if there are any others who help with buying decisions.
There is a right way and a wrong way to get appointments using the telephone.
Telephone script. Use a script for the first hour of calling for appointments.
1. Sell the appointment not the product-Don’t get drawn into telling the prospect all about your product or service. Don’t sell, just get the appointment.
2. Make the script short-No more than a minute or two.
3. Practice-At lease 30 minute.
4. List objections you will get and what to say.
Setting goals
1. Number of calls per hour.
2. Number of dials vs. contacts with decision makers vs. appointments set.
3. After about three hours of calling a pattern will appear. You will be able to predict for example: that of every 20 dials you will get 3 decision makers and one appointment. It’s like clock work.
4. Now you know how many dials must be done to get one appointment.
Example:
“Hello my name is Bill Cherry with ABC Company, who is the person who manages the office equipment?”
Mary
“Thank you, does she also purchase the new equipment?”
Yes.
“Great may I speak to Mary?”
“Mary, this is Bill Cherry with ABC Company and we have a new piece of equipment that has proven to save businesses like yours as much as 25% over your current machine’s cost. Do you have 10 minutes Tuesday or Wednesday where I could show you how much you can save?”
1. Don’t deceive them or appear to deceive them
2. Make the script short and to the point don’t chit chat.
3. Introduce yourself at the beginning. If you don’t they will be distracted from your message trying to figure out who you are. Also they will wonder what you are hiding.
4. Be warm and conversational. Practice until you can say the script naturally.
5. Don’t pause at the expected time; it gives them a chance to interrupt you with a no.
6. Sell the appointment not the product. Don’t get trapped into discussing your product over the phone. If she asks,” What is the machine you have?” Give just enough answer to satisfy her. “How much does it cost?” “Mary there is a whole range of prices depending on your business needs. That’s why I need 10 minutes to evaluate your specific needs. Is Thursday a good day or is Friday better.
7. Alternative close.
Give them a CHOICE, Monday or Wednesday?
“Is Tuesday or Thursday better for you?”
“Will you have 10 minutes Monday or Wednesday?”
When she says Tuesday then offer a choice of time: morning or afternoon? or “Afternoon? Great around 1 or is later around 4 better for you?”
Appointment blockers:
Receptionists- if she won’t let you through, make friends with her. Call every few days and chat a little. “What’s your name? Oh I have a niece named Mary. She’s a great soccer player. Do you like soccer?” (Don’t ever ask if they are married- they may be going through a divorce, don’t ask if she has kids- she may be embarrass she doesn’t.
“Are you from around here?”
Make each little chat short, just a minute or two, don’t be a pest if she is busy. Over a two week period you can become friends and will get in to see the boss.
Drop by to meet her, leave some donuts or goodies for the office.
Voice mail screening:
Some people never answer the phone. They listen to the messages then return the calls they want. Good tool. How do we handle that?
First call: “Hi Mr. Jones, this is Bill Cherry calling with KBYU FM. It looks like you are out of the office. I’ll call back tomorrow. Thanks have a good day.”
Second day: “Hi Mr. Jones, Bill Cherry from KBYU again, looks like I missed you again, I’ll try again tomorrow. Thanks”
Third day: “Hi Mr. Jones… guess who? Laugh ha ha… right Bill Cherry. I was just calling to see if you had five minutes sometime this week I could talk with you about increasing your advertising coverage without increasing your budget. I’ll give a call back tomorrow. Thanks.”
Keep calling each day, and each message state that you will call again tomorrow. After he sees that you are not going to stop calling he will either return your call or answer your call. Most business people respect persistence.
These are some basic selling skills not rocket science, but all your success hinges on getting the appointment. If you don’t do any more than use a script, practice it, and dial the phone you can be successful.
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