The Challenge……..
Why You MUST Qualify Your Appointments
Whenever I’m running my cold call training or appointment making courses, I’m usually asked the question “Andy, should I attempt to qualify my appointments, or should I just make as many as possible, no matter what the quality?”
Now if you ask the question to a group of salespeople or sales managers, they’re usually divided – some say that they won’t turn out for an appointment unless there’s a genuine interest or opportunity there, whereas the rest say that they’ll take any appointment that’s going!
Now whilst I realise to a degree it is going to depend on your marketplace, your industry, your average order value, your geographic target areas, the length of your sales cycle etc, there are some basic “truths” that you can apply no matter what your situation.
I do understand the need to book appointments (and the pressure from bosses to do so), but I firmly believe it’s crucial to qualify any appointment you make! By the way, this isn’t an excuse for the lazy salespeople out there to give to their bosses – “well, Andy said….…” I mean I still want the same number of appointments, just make sure they’re qualified properly!
I’m sure anyone who’s been in face-to-face sales at some point has had the experience of turning up for an appointment when the person you’re meeting doesn’t really know why you’re there, had forgotten you were coming, or worse still – wasn’t even there when you showed up!
Surely this has to be a “warning flag” of how much value they placed in the appointment in the first place?!
And while I realise that sometimes a salesperson can generate a sale at a meeting from “nothing”, this becomes more difficult the higher the price you are asking, the more people it involves and the more you are selling a “service” rather than a “product”.
Here are some reasons why qualifying your appointments properly might be a useful idea for you……
1. It makes the face-to-face selling part much easier.
If you’ve taken the time to qualify the appointment properly over the phone, you’ve already found out some of the prospect’s potential needs and identified areas to explore through questioning at the meeting. This should mean that at the meeting, your questions are more relevant and are of more value to the prospect.
2. It raises the prospect’s perception of you.
The more you qualify properly, the higher the perception of you in your prospects eyes. Unlike the usual “desperate” salesperson they come across, you’re not going to waste your time (and often your manager’s time) chasing half-way across the country to a meeting with someone who turns out to have no need for what you offer, nor turn out to be the real decision maker anyway! Not that you’ve had that happen to you in the past…have you? 
3. It reduces the risk of a cancellation, a “no show” or an “I forgot”.
I realise that sometimes people do genuinely forget, but if this is happening to you on a fairly regular basis, then either they are avoiding you, or they didn’t see enough value to even put it in their diary! Not the best start to a sales call, is it? How many more times does the average salesperson need this to happen to them before they’ll learn?
4. You can find out if they are the real decision maker or not!
You’d be amazed how many salespeople have meetings with people who can’t decide! Unless this is a defined part of your sales strategy (and you have a long sales cycle with lots of people you need to influence), this is pointless! You might be looking “busy” in the short term or be hitting your meetings targets, but when it comes to your sales figures, you’ll be somewhat short.
5. You’ll be making the best use of your time.
Your personal time management is crucial in sales. You only have a certain amount of time in which to be as effective as possible, so don’t waste it! The time you’re spending in meeting with the wrong people who have no need for your product or service could be better spent prospecting for new business, or preparing for your crucial appointments (you do prepare for your appointments, don’t you?)
Listed above are 5 good reasons why you should take the time to properly qualify your appointments. You should also have an idea of the criteria you’re going to use to qualify them too. If you get the appointments made for you by an in-house or an external telemarketing team, it’s even more important that you set the criteria by which they qualify your appointments! Otherwise, you’re losing control of a vital part of your sales process and hampering your sales effectiveness into the bargain!
