6 Tips for Landing More Appointments with Prospective Clients

Do you find it tough to get a prospect to say “yes” to setting up a sales appointment with you?

Sales appointments are a critical part of a successful sales process. If you’re in sales, setting meetings with prospective clients is one of the most important parts of your job.

You want to get more appointments because it’s how you make sales.

However, setting sales appointments with prospective clients can be difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing.

That’s why we’ve created this blog post with 6 tips on how to get more sales meetings with prospective clients!

Let’s get started!

How To Get More Sales Meetings with Your Prospects

When setting up an appointment with a prospective client, there are many things that you can do to increase the likelihood of securing the meeting and setting yourself up for success.

If you are struggling to get your foot in the door when setting up sales appointments, these tips will be of great use to you!

1) Get To Know About Your Prospective Clients First

The most frequent reason why so many salespeople are unsuccessful in obtaining appointments is that they continue to use the same rehashed email template or cold calling script. The secret? You need to add some personal touches to your emails. Make them feel like you’re talking just to them and no one else.

That is why you should establish a relationship with prospective customers before hitting send by following an email prospecting best practices. Otherwise, your email will go unread, deleted, or marked as spam, like the majority of the other emails received every day.

Here are some tips for learning more about a potential client:

• Take a look at their LinkedIn profile for job descriptions, endorsements, recent accomplishments, and other topics that you may utilize to customize your conversation.

• Use a search engine like Google to look for public social media profiles so you can learn more about their hobbies, aims, values, influences, and personalities.

• Read the company’s website for news announcements, mission statements, product announcements, information about us, and any other content on the site for basic background. It has information that can help you understand more about your prospective clients.

• Talk with your connections in that particular industry.

2) Be an Expert, Show Confidence

Second, make sure you are an expert on your product or service!

If you show your potential client that you are confident in your product or service, they will be more likely to agree and this will help you to get more appointments in sales with your prospective clients.

Another tip is to value your own time, have confidence in yourself, and believe in your product or service. If you truly believe what you have to offer may solve their problem, your call or email may be the most important thing they receive that day. If you have a good and positive approach when talking to people, then more people will want an appointment with you.

3) Start a Conversation

Via Phone

Start by introducing yourself and your company and acknowledging they’re busy.

You may start by saying: “Hi, my name is Thomas from ABC Corporation. I’m certain I caught you in the middle of something.”

Why do you need to introduce yourself? When people pick up the phone, they are naturally suspicious, so the simplest approach to get them to lower their guard and relax is to introduce yourself right away and where you’re calling from.

This will make them stop whatever they are doing and listen to you.

Via Email:

People don’t want to talk to a salesperson they just met.

So, if you want to start a conversation with someone via email, first ask how they are and what they’re doing this week. Talk about the weather or a local event.

Creating a quick connection like this breaks the ice, makes them feel friendly, and may get you their attention for a few more seconds.

The objective for the first two to three interactions should be to begin a discussion.

The questions you ask should accomplish two things:

1) To determine whether the lead is qualified.

2) To make the lead interested

When your prospects are interested, engaged, and qualified, you may start sharing stories of clients who had similar issues who have benefited from meeting with you.

3) Ask for an Appointment

The next step is to go right into your goal – requesting a meeting. For example, a rep might say, “The purpose of this call is to gain 20 to 30 minutes of your time to discuss how we can automate your sales process and reduce your operating costs by 20%.”

Let the person know how the meeting would help them. Whether you can assist them in solving an issue or provide guidance, let them know what they’ll get out of the meeting.

Be concise and clear about why you want an appointment. Give all of the appointment information—date, time, and place if you’re meeting in person.

The goal is to ask for only a small amount of time. You should only take up 15-20 minutes of their time. If they want to meet with you again after the first appointment, you can take up more of their time.

If you take it slowly and methodically by asking the proper questions, emphasizing potential clients’ problems, and consistently piquing their interest, this strategy entails starting a conversation, increasing suspense, and adding credibility until finally, they ask for the meeting.

5) Use Appointment Scheduling Tools

Using software to schedule the appointment saves you the time and hassle of setting up meetings.

There are a few different tools out there that help with setting appointments, such as Doodle and Calendly.

It also ensures that both parties have an equal chance to pick their ideal times for setting up meetings.

To increase your chances of closing the deal, use appointment scheduling software.

6) Don’t Forget To Follow Up

The crucial step in preventing no-shows is following up strategically.

Use the email or phone to convey new information, provide news, or ask an important question.

If they still don’t show up, follow up tactfully.

If you don’t hear from them, here is a list of best practices for following up:

• Send an email to confirm the next steps.

• Call and ask if they have any questions about the conversation. This shows that you are dedicated to setting this appointment with them.

• Send a personalized email after the first follow-up with some questions that relate to what they said or shared during your conversation. This shows you were listening and engaged in their business needs, not just trying to get an appointment on their calendar.

Appointments with potential clients take perseverance and willpower. You’ll hear “no” a lot more than you’ll hear “yes,” and there will be plenty of no-shows. But that doesn’t have to stop you.

Personalize your approach, radiate confidence at all times, engage in thoughtful value-rich discussion, and perfect the skill of following up. If you can do that, you’ll automatically book more appointments—and close more deals.

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