How To Get More Qualified Appointments: 5 Guidelines to Up Your Appointment Setting Game

How To Get More Qualified Appointments: 5 Guidelines to Up Your Appointment Setting Game

 

Qualified appointment setting is one of the most difficult tasks as you make your way toward a sale. Creating instant rapport on a cold call and leading the prospect toward the next step of commitment is tricky and requires your contact team members to be creative, knowledgeable, and adaptable. Every call is different, but having a basic roadmap to follow produces better results.

Are you ready to have more success with your appointment setting game? 

We thought so. 

1. Be Prepaaaaaaared

The power-hungry, lion-king-wanna-be Scar had his issues, it’s undeniable, but his message of “be prepared” is one to be followed when it comes to appointment setting. The ability to personalize a call and lay a good starting foundation depends on the research you do before you even lean toward the phone.

Basic info includes:

• Contact name
• Contact title
• Company name
• Company industry

This information alone is hardly enough to secure a successful interaction. Stir up your inner Sherlock Holmes and do a little sleuthing. Company/contact social media accounts are a great place to start to get a sense of company culture and how you should frame your approach. You can also search for little personal tidbits about your contact specifically to use as connecting points or conversation starters. This also helps show your lead that you invested time and cared enough to make things personal.

You’ll want to have a list of qualities you’re looking for in your ideal lead. Location, industry, need for your services, etc… whatever helps you narrow down your prospects to those most likely to qualify and convert. Having a large quantity of leads might look impressive and feel exciting, but if they aren’t quality leads you’re going to be wasting a lot of time that could be spent on appointment setting with a great lead. And wasted time = revenue lost. We know you don’t want that.

2. Establish a Connection and Build Relationships

After a successful info-gathering sesh, you should have a solid roadmap leading you forward towards the goal of successful appointment setting. Now you just have to take that first step and make the call!

Any personal info you have on your lead is most effective when used at the beginning of the call to establish a connection quickly. For example, If you find you have a mutual connection on LinkedIn, and they seem to have an active friendship, name drop! A shared connection is a very natural way to create immediate familiarity and relationship. 

It’s also important that you’re able to “read the room” and get a sense of where your lead is at when the call is placed. Do they sound tired, frustrated, and give one-word answers? Or are they engaged, responsive and chatty? 

You want to build trust by showing respect and care for your lead wherever they happen to fall on the emotional and communicational spectrum. Don’t force them to change for you—it’s your job to meet them where they’re at and adjust accordingly. Show special consideration of their time and get to the point if it’s clear they aren’t in a conversational mood.

This is more than just moving a lead toward an appointment setting…it’s about creating a positive experience for your lead, whether they close or not.

3. Ask Qualifying Questions and LISTEN

Once your lead is sufficiently warmed up, you turn your lead into a qualified lead by asking questions and listening carefully. While you have your pitch to consider, you want to make sure you give your lead the chance to speak first. This will give you additional information that can help seal the deal as you move toward appointment setting. 

Open up the floor for your lead to talk about the problems they are trying to solve. Ask questions that revolve around pain points. With your knowledge of the products or services you offer, you can empathize with the issues your prospect is dealing with while also delivering a solution. Plus you’ve given yourself a leg-up as you can now personalize and customize your pitch around this new shared information. 

4. Offer Value and Seek to Solve Problems

With your newfound insight into your prospect’s problems and pain points, your pitch becomes much more effective as you seek to move closer to appointment setting. While the goal is to close, the language and tone of your pitch should be focused on providing solutions. An overly sales-y pitch can put off a lead, and since you only have so much time to draw them in, you have to make the most of every word. 

For the vast majority of businesses, there’s a constant push to conserve three key resources:

• Time
• Money 
• Energy

A company becomes exponentially more efficient when conserving those resources, and many times their largest problems revolve around the failure to make the most of their time, money, and energy. 

Using the info you’ve gathered through your brief conversation, hone in on how your product/service will improve their life and bring relief to those exposed pain points. STAY FOCUSED and avoid wandering down rabbit trails. You may be tempted to throw out a bunch of details or impressive statistics, but keep yourself in check (unless you’re answering a specific question from your lead…but even then make it brief). 

Your goal is to create an image in the mind of your lead highlighting their current situation, how much better things would be if they moved forward with you, and what the cost would be if they don’t. 

5. Move Into the Appointment Setting Stage

Congratulations! Now that you’ve built relationship and shown the worth of your offer, your lead might be ready to take the next step into appointment setting. This could be a demo, meeting, presentation, etc—whatever takes your lead into the next part of the sales process. 

Give the lead the basic run-down of what to expect and ask when they would like to schedule. Once you have the date and time set, follow up with a confirmation and any necessary links to have on hand. 

Even with the date scheduled, make sure to send a friendly reminder at least the day prior to the actual meeting. Take every opportunity you have to ensure the lead makes the appointment. We all know life gets cray cray, and any out-of-the-ordinary-everyday appointments can slip the mind. 

 

Leave It To Squeeze

Another option? Let Squeeze take on all your appointment setting tasks. They’re time consuming and we know you have PLENTY of other things to do. We’re the sales experience experts, and making calls and setting appointments is our jam. 

Our team works directly with you so you know your leads are being handled in the way that best represents your company and brand. And since we operate with a pay-for-performance model, your success in appointment setting is our motivation to succeed. 

It’s a beautiful cycle of satisfaction—contact us and come join that cycle today!