Appointment Setting and taking the long view of building territories.
Sales professionals seldom take the long term view of their jobs, and hence. the concept of building their territories over time. As sales managers, we also tend to focus on this month, this quarter, and certainly this year. It’s how compensation plans are built. Companies also tend to change compensation plans and territories at the end of the year and sales professionals change companies, so it’s no wonder that no one pays attention to multi-year planning.
I believe that it our job as senior management to build processes and compensation plans that support the long term growth of the company. What do I mean by that? Look at your compensation plans. Do they encourage making the territory a bit warmer in the future?
Even if the compensation plan doesn’t explicitly encourage this approach, build appointment setting Best Practices that support warming up targets over time. Leave or send consistent voicemails and emails that build and tell the story you want the target to understand. Build into those Best Practices the ability for the target to request written information instead of taking an appointment at the moment. And make sure to follow-up on a consistent basis. Don’t waste the effort, even if the sales professional changes.
Why do that? Simple: next year your goal will be higher won’t it? Taking the same approach year after year will finally become a scaling challenge. There will be no efficiencies of scale, so your cost of sales cannot be successfully reduced.
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called The Prospector’s Academy™ under the brand name Coldcalling101. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations – the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 214 483-5800 or at barry@coldcalling101.com.
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