We are now in the beginning of the fall push on your canvassing and show and event calendar. I find these weeks before Thanksgiving to be the most profitable for companies who are focused and prepared.
By prepared I mean they know how to get an appointment to stick.
Have you ever had a prospect that set an appointment with you, but you can just tell they’re not ready. They’re not really serious enough or committed to the appointment. Yes they set the appointment, but you have this feeling they won’t make it to the appointment.
We’ve all been there, many times before. That’s why you have that feeling. You set the appointment and hope that it sticks.
In this article I’ll share the magical tool I use to make those appointments stick; it’s a fairy dust of sorts you can easily adopt and use to increase the number appointment ‘sits’ your sales people are able to get in front of.
In my system I call it the ‘Wrap Up’. It’s the thing you can do as a marketer to increase the percentage of sales presentations that occur out of the appointments you made.
It might go against your experience, even your beliefs, though I’ve seen passive prospects become viable buyers. When I say passive prospects it’s the person who doesn’t seem that serious at the point of setting the appointment. There is a way to move them from a passive position to an active role in the buying process. You as a marketer can control this and when you learn how to use my system, including the wrap up, you’ll move more people from prospect to a qualified buyer your sales people will be eager to get in front of.
Here’s a fundamental reality every face to face marketer must understand about their leads. Whether you obtain them at the front door or at a show or event, the moment you walk away from them that lead gets colder by the minute. There will be a lot of factors that will affect that lead, which you won’t be able to control.
The caveat is that you can’t save every lead, but there are things that you can do to keep the prospect motivated to meet with you, or, what I call, ‘keeping them in the maybe’. Keeping them in the mindset that ‘maybe’ there’s a way we can afford to buy your product or service. There are things you can do that will plant-the-seed, influence and persuade people to keep your appointment.
Top 3 Reasons
Here are the top reasons why people miss or cancel their appointments with your company.
- After you leave, the prospect develops the perception they can’t afford your product/service or a subset of that: they’re not ready (The issue is money and/or time)
- They’re confused – they don’t know who you are or what this appointment will be about. With my approach of offering a free ‘information guide’ prospects won’t be confused about how the dots connect between free information about a product or service and an in-person appointment. The system lowers the threshold in obtaining more leads, but if the marketer doesn’t do a good job of clarifying what will happen on the appointment the prospect can be left confused; and a confused prospect will rarely keep their appointment.
- They forget about the appointment or they don’t communicate the appointment with their spouse.
Knowing these I created the wrap up segment of my presentation. The wrap up hinges around the ‘Appointment Reminder’ sheet, which addresses these 3 reasons and eliminates a majority of appointments falling out. Again, you can’t save every appointment, but my appointment reminder gives you a fighting chance at an increased number of appointments sticking.
This is something I go over with prospects verbally and is a printed ‘leave-behind’ to keep them connected to the appointment they set with me.
Clients who adopt this component of the presentation see their sales skyrocket. When they use the template I developed and the corresponding script that goes along with it (yes, even my wrap up is scripted) they see dramatic changes to their results.
Canvass King Silver members or higher can hear my telecoaching call where I cover my complete strategy and template for the ‘wrap up’ on the audio CD shipped to you or posted on the membership site.
Zig Ziglar said, “People don’t change their minds about something, they simply make new decisions based on new information.”
My wrap up system and appointment reminder is a tool that keeps the prospect connected to the appointment and gives them that new information upon which to make a new decision.
If you adopt my system, practice it and perfect it I guarantee you will increase your sit-rate. As that percentage increases so too will your sales proportionately.
If you’re interested in the recording from my live coaching call you can email me at cthompson@canvassking.com. Silver membership will give you access to the call and archives to recordings and articles of each bimonthly live Telecoaching call.
Committed to your canvassing success,
Chris Thompson, The Canvass King