Do you find that it is difficult to schedule appointments with prospects?
Do you find that although you are scheduling appointments, not many of those appointments stick?
Do you find that while you are scheduling appointments, not very many of those appointments turn into sales?
If you answered, “yes” to any of the questions above, the solution is most likely in how you are prospecting.
I started to think about this last week after a conversation with client who owns an independent insurance agency. My client told me that his new salesperson was getting a lot of appointments, he just wasn’t closing any sales. My client thought that his new salesperson needed help with his closing skills.
Upon diving more deeply into the conversation with my client, it turned out that the new salesperson also worked part-time, at night, as a bartender. He met a lot of people at his nighttime job and he set a lot of appointments with the people that he met. Unfortunately, many of those appointments did not stick and almost none of them turned into sales. (And yes, this is a true story.)
My client thought, as many do, that more appointments should equal more sales.
The real issue was, however, that while the new salesperson was making a lot of appointments, most of them were completely inappropriate. The people he had made appointments with were just not good prospects.
This new salesperson does not actually have a problem with closing. He has a problem with prospecting. He is not likely to close a lot of sales, because he is making appointments with folks that are unlikely to need, want or say yes to his offering.
Effective appointment-setting always starts by identifying the target. The answer to “what makes a good lead?” is not, “Everyone.” Step one is to identify the parameters that define the “best fit” type prospect for you in your market with your offering.
According to research done by InsideSales.com, and outlined in their report, The Power of Prioritization, “Higher-rated prospects convert 2.6x better than lower-rated prospects.” In other words, “best fit” leads convert almost 3 times better than leads that are not “best fit.”.
When the lead you are reaching out to is well targeted and a “best fit” you are much more likely to 1.) Schedule an appointment and then, 2.) Close a sale.
More appointments do not necessarily equal more sales. Better prospecting, however, will lead to more qualified appointments which will then lead to more closed sales.
© 2019, Wendy Weiss
