Short course on securing appointments via telephone. Get that all important meeting.

1. Securing Appointments by Telephone

2. Introductions
• Who am I?
• What do I do?
• What is my experience and interest in
appointment setting by telephone?
• What do I want to achieve from the
workshop?

3. Workshop Principles
• Participate
• Have Fun
• Safe Environment
• Everyone is equal
• If you don’t understand seek clarification
• No mobile phones please

4. Where do Sales Come From?
33, 34%
33, 33%
33, 33%
Sales
Luck
Attainable
Unattainable

5. Why Cold Call?
• Still Works!
• Gain Access to Decision
Makers
• All businesses need a
pipeline of fresh leads
• Active part of any
marketing/promotional
strategy
• Done well it impacts
positively on your success

6. Why Cold Call?
Calls
Appointments
Opportunities
$SS Sales £££
100 calls 30 Appts 20 Opps 5 Sale
TIMEandEFFORT

7. Right Frame of Mind
• Confident
• Prepared = Professional
• Focussed on your
objective
• Stand Up
• Smile
• Speak slowly
• Use a headphone
Failure and Rejection is Part of the Journey to Success
Calls = Appointments = Sales

8. Pre Call Research/Activity
• Stage One
– What is a an Ideal
Prospect?
– Size, Geography,
Industry, Products
– Exercise
• Stage Two
– Build clean list of
prospects
– Exercise

9. 5 Steps to Appointment Making
Get The Person’s Attention
Identify Yourself and Your Company
Give The Reason for the Call
Ask for the Appointment
1
2
3
4
Send Confirmation5

10. 1 Get The Person’s Attention
• Avoid Gimmicks
• Are you interested in
saving on print costs?
• Are you interested in
increasing productivity?
• If I/We could save you X
would it be worth
meeting?
Good Morning/Afternoon Mr Smith
Hi John, Hello Jane
Use people NAMES wherever possible

11. 2 Introduce Yourself and your Company
• Personal Name
• Position or what you do
• Company
• Location if relevant
• Brief Infomercial.
• Explain why client should be
interested in meeting with
you.
• One or two sentences
– Paint a positive picture
• Keep short, relevant and to
the point – avoid waffle.
Keep Track of Time – Max 3-5 mins

12. 3 The Reason for your Call
• “To set up an appointment
to show how a product or
service will add value to the
prospect”
• Provide reference
• Seek qualification/interest
• If possible in less than one
or two sentences
Mr Smith; The reason I am calling you specifically today is to arrange an
appointment to stop by and show you how we have ……I am sure that you
like ABC (reference) would be interested in seeing how we
can/saved/improved/reduced etc.

13. 4 Ask for The Meeting
• Always ask for the
meeting.
• Be specific and direct
– Date
– Time
– Location
• Focus on when we will
meet
– Not whether we will meet
You are interested! That’s great.
How about Thursday 3pm?

14. 5 Confirm The Meeting
• Thank them for taking the
call.
• Confirm verbally date time
and location of the meeting
• Details of any equipment
required
• Follow up immediately in
writing
– Email, letter as appropriate

15. Why should they agree to meet?
• Putt yourself in their shoes
• What is in it for them!
• Benefits
• Talk benefits to increase
chances of securing an
appointment.
• Exercise
We have recently worked with … and increased their client base by
25%. I am pretty confident we can do the same for you. Would you
be interested in meeting to have an open discussion on what we did
to help ABC?

16. Handling Negative Responses
Five most common responses
1. Happy with what I have
2. Not Interested
3. Too Busy
4. Send me some literature
5. Can’t Afford It, No Budget
Most sales people give up at this point.
Effectively handle these five responses and watch
your appointment rates increase dramatically

17. Happy With What I Have Got
• Status Quo/ Safe
• Doing it in house
• Find out what is the
status quo?
• Offer something that
compliments what they
have got!
You know something Mr X, a lot of clients tell me the same thing before
they have a chance to see what we do actually compliments/enhances
what they are doing right now- especially our program …..which really
helped them to …….We should get together so I can show you how we
helped them…………... How about Thursday at 3pm?

18. Not Interested
• Means Not Convinced
• Natural Reaction
• Need to understand why
they should meet with you!
• Provide some benefits
– Comp ABC, XYZ achieved.. etc
Well Mr Smith, ABC and XYZ had the same reaction you did
when I first called them - before they saw how what we do was
beneficial to them. However they are now delighted customers
because we were able to meet up and demonstrate how we
improved their….
We should get together. I am convinced we can help you…. How
about Thursday 10pm?

19. Too Busy
• Fob off!
• Offer to schedule an
appointment
– Should flush out another
objection or a meeting
– Happy with what I have
got etc!
Mr Smith. The reason for the call was to arrange a
mutually convenient time to meet. When would be
convenient to you? What about getting together the week
after next. What about Monday 20th at 3pm. Is that more
convenient for you.

20. Send Me Some Information
• Dangerous
• Is the Info relevant?
• Will they read it?
• Risk the customer
misinterpreting the info.
• Lose control and
momentum!
Can’t we just get together. It will only take a few minutes to
“show” you how we have helped others improve their
business performance. That way we can really gauge by how
much we can help your business. How about Friday at 3pm?

21. Can’t Afford it - No Budget
• Does not see the value
• Do not challenge
– If we can provide
evidence of savings…
• Use a bridge to get you
where you need to go.
Mr Smith, I am just curious, How do you go about justifying/setting/allocating a
budget?
We have to justify savings, productivity etc….
Well on that basis we should get together. I am confident we can resolve the no
budget issue at our meeting. How about Monday at 3pm

22. Getting Through Gatekeepers
• Role is to protect decision
makers
• Do not offend them
• Sound Senior- They might
just put you through!
• Seek their advice where
appropriate!
• Do not let them sell on your
behalf unless you are 100%
confident they will do it as
well as you!
– Go to voice mail instead.