The 4 elements of the appointment setting process we can improve. (Part three of four.)
What are they and how do we improve them? Part three of four – Best Practices (process and messaging).
Are you like a lot of us ‘Hooked on Hopium’ when it comes to the success of your new prospect acquisition strategy? Do you concentrate most of your energy and focus on pursuing prospects that are already in the pipeline? After all, that’s how we get paid, right? We don’t get commissions for finding prospects; we get paid to close them. Our teams are good at closing, but suck at consistently filling the pipeline with quality prospects.
This series of four blogs focuses on the four main elements of a prospect acquisition process and how to improve move the needle in a positive direction on each.
The four parts are:
- Target Acquisition (who do we call?)
- Art Skills (what do we say and how do we say it)
- Best Practices (process and messaging)
- Science Skills (efficiency and improvement)
Part 3 – Best Practices
The concept of Best Practices contains a lot of different disciplines, but let me address at least a few key ones:
- Are you managing your particular area of responsibility with the concept of territory management in mind? In other words, regardless of who is in a specific territory (virtual or geographic), are you employing a process that will leave the territory better defined and warmer a year from now regardless of whether your current sales professional is even still here or not?
- Do you have a Best Practice that defines the number of times a Target will be called, how frequently, and if no contact is made, how long will you wait to begin the cycle again?
- Do you have your team professionally disengage, asking for permission to check back again in the future if the Target is not ‘in the market’ right now, or do they take the no they hear as a never?
- Do you have your team leave voicemails? Are they different for each attempt in the cycle? It is a great way to leave a commercial message if it is crafted well. And who knows, if the messages are different, sometimes we actually do hit on a hot button by varying our value proposition between several of our strongest.
- Does the Target know that the last attempt is the last attempt for a while? In other words, are you giving the Target a last chance to respond if they want to but are busy?
- How do you on-board new sales professionals? How do you provide them with the Best Practices that are working for your current team?
- Can you tell within the first 30 to 45 days whether your new team member has the aptitude and attitude to succeed or do you wait for the revenue attainment (or lack there of) to tell you that several months down the road?
There are actually a lot more questions I could ask here that we step our customers through to determine how best to tackle this key part of the selling process, but any more at this time I’d either bore you or depress you!
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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