Hi my name is Flyn Penoyer. The purpose of this blog is to give you sales, communications, and management tips. One of the worst parts about telephone sales is that because it’s not a physical appointment you are much more likely to get stood up. If you were showing up in the prospect’s office they would be forced to keep the appointment solid where in telephone selling you have much less control.
Let me share with you a simple little technique that I have found that makes a difference in how often you get stood up or end up in a phone tag.
Make an appointment.
Most telephone sales people do set up a time to call back. What they don’t do is start that conversation by asking the prospect to get out their calendar and put the appointment down for a specific time and allocation of time for the meeting.
When you make the appointment make the case that you don’t want to be playing phone tag with them wasting both your time and theirs. Ask if they would get their appointment book out and log the meeting allowing for X number of minutes so that you have time to complete the task at hand.
It doesn’t hurt to send an email on the morning of the appointment as a reminder as well.
I think it’s the part about making a deal out of it that helps. It’s doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it seems to save some missed meetings. Give it a try.
