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Chill Out Guide to opening the call to get an appointment

Written by: Paul Butler

Article Overview: Always having problems making an appointment over the phone, 9 times out of 10 it's a wasted call. I will not try and kid you that there is a magic formula, because if there was, no one would ever tell you. If all else fails try this one.

Chill Out Guide to opening the call to get an appointment

Once you have got through to the MAN ( money, authority, need ) try this approach.
Hi and good morning my name is PJ from Copier Solutions, the reason why I'm calling, we have developed solutions that have helped companies within your marketplace to increase their customer response rate by up to 20%. if we could achieve the same results for your business would you be interested in finding out how? wait for customer response?..............
It will only take about 15 to 20 minutes, when can I pop in to find out if we can help.

Make sure what your selling, can do as you say, have case studies available to back up your claim.

Best of luck, regards,PJ

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Article Tags: case studies, copier solutions, customer response, man money, marketplace, response rate



Related Forum Posts
Re: Placemat / Table Top Advertising - Daniel, How about this for a script to call or talk to prospects face to face: [i:3ph904rk]"Hi, my name is Daniel and I'm a business owner here in ______, just like you. I'm calling on behalf of the ___________ (restaurant name) because we have designed a exciting new promotion to increase traffic for local businesses. If you want or need more people calling you on the phone and more customers walking through the doors of your business then this may be something you want to know more about. I'd be glad to show you how this works. It will only take 5-10 minutes to learn the details and how it can help your business get more customers. When on Friday, would be a good time for us to get together so I can show you how to get more business?"[/i:3ph904rk] This is the type of script I use irrespective of the service or product. You need to sell the appointment, not the service or product to set the appointment. The purpose of an appointment call is to set an appointment. So, don't tell them anymore than necessary for them to say "Yes, I'll meet with you." Hope this helps. The Mayor
Crafting a script - Hi Andrew This is actually a pretty big topic. And it's so unfair to dump it on you because I've seen even experts mess up a telephone strategy. The trick is to develop a reason for calling that really is to the callee's benefit. If you can do that, and if you have a good backup document, you can often get an excellent appointment hit rate right from the first, ice-cold call. I don't generally recommend going for the appointment on the first call because here are the average stats for appointments on a call cycle of every 60-90 days: 1st call, less than 1% will agree to see you 2nd call, maybe 3-5% will see you 3rd call, maybe 7% will see you 4th call, maybe 60% or more will see you So if you go pushing for appointments too soon in the call cycle, you could well be turning them against you and ruining that beautiful 60% later on. Here's an example of a strategy that I did for a client - a recruitment agency, just recently. I discovered just by chatting to employers and hr managers (I asked them what their biggest staff challenge was) that they lived in fear of staff quitting on them. Staff retention was their biggest issue. So the spiel went "I'm calling because we've noticed that staff poaching is a bit of a problem in Perth right now, and that's not helping us either. That's why our MD is visiting local businesses to explain a simple strategy you can put in place to help stop poaching. He's going to be in Xville next Thursday afternoon, and again on Friday afternoon - which is best for you?" If they said they didn't want to have a meeting the spiel continued "Oh that's fine, of course I know you're busy. Would you like me to just email the report to you instead so you can read it when you've got time?" Most people said yes, they'd like the report. And of course the report contained a strong call to action (to have the MD visit). Lots of times even when they'd said no to the telemarketer, they called back to make the appointment after all. This is what I mean by a strategy, it's not just a call by itself. This particular strategy got an appointment rate of 3:7 calls. Pretty good for ice-cold. Three provisos with this: 1 The reason for your visit, and the content of the backup info, must be critically relevant to a crushing need your client has 2 You need to have a mature professional making these calls, not a teenybopper who sounds like they're just out of school 3 When you do go out to that appointment, make absolutely sure you deliver on what they're expecting -- if you turn it into "bait and switch" you'll lose them forever. Give them even more than they were hoping for. Hope that helps, and good luck. Best wishes Christine
Re: Placemat / Table Top Advertising - I agree, the revised script by The Mayor is much better and more focused on the appointment rather than the product. You are not going to sell the product over the phone, so sell the appointment. I believe that anyone who is selling to other people directly would benefit from learning about body language and the signs that we give off when we are being sold to. You'll be amazed at the little things we all do or say (and in most cases without realizing it) that relay messages about whether we are interested or not.
Re: Marketing strategy - I'm assuming by your question, you would like the cinemas to sell your product. One of the best marketing strategies is the use of sampling. Here's how you might go about doing it with cinemas... Rent a list of local cinema managers in your area and mail them a sample of your product (along with a sales letter). Follow up with a call to set up an appointment to discuss your idea with them.
Re: Funding Question - I have a friend that works at a bank, and he specifically deals with small businesses and individuals. Let me suggest that you make an appointment with one of your financial advisors at your local branch. If they have a commercial advisor, try and schedule an appointment with them. They will actually sit down with you and assist you in the process of acquiring a loan or credit. They will work with you to devise a proposal in conjunction with your business plan, and give you sound advice to your specific situation. They will be the best contacts to work with as you seek startup capital. Good luck!


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