Are you hooked on ‘Hopium’ when it comes to your team’s ability to set appointments? Six Questions to ask yourself to determine whether your team needs some help.
It’s no secret that how well your team sets appointments to begin a new sales process has a direct impact on your new business revenue stream. Where their ability to set appointments with new targets can be hidden is where reps have responsibility to sell into existing accounts as well. The ‘new customer’ Initial Appointments are mixed in with the calls into existing accounts. Additionally, most of us at a team level are measured on revenue and not on the acquisition of new customers, so we’re not even that concerned about it as long as the revenue keeps rolling in. But if you are a senior sales manager, you know that new customers are the lifeblood of any organization.
If the acquisition of new customers (and the process to get in front of new potential customers is such a critical piece to the selling process, then why can’t most sales managers we talk to articulate what their reps are saying on the phone to set those appointments? They view the steps between dialing the phone and getting the appointment as another example of the proverbial ‘black box’. They have no idea how their team is actually performing on the calls.
Here’s a way to test whether they need help or not.
Have each of your team call you on the phone to ask for an appointment just as they would a target and then ask yourself the following questions:
- If you weren’t there, what kind of voicemail did they leave?
- What was their value proposition? Was it consistent across your team or was each one ‘winging it’?
- Did they sound confident and like they believed in what they were selling?
- Did they talk about what they had done for others to generate interest or did they talk about what they could potentially do for you? (Remember, > 95% of targets your team is calling don’t believe they are in the market for you solution when you call – ergo, what you can do for them falls on deaf ears until you can get them into an open minded discussion.)
- Was it all them talking or did they engage you?
- When you said ‘no thanks’ were they able to consistently handle that and still get the appointment?
And, of course, if you come to the conclusion that you need some help with this process, give us a call!
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called The Prospector’s Academy™. 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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