10 Ways to Prevent Sales Appointments with Prospects from Getting Canceled
Canceled sales appointments are on the rise — more and more appointments has been canceled this year than ever before. Here’s why:
Scenario: You’ve been chasing a prospect, Bob Smith, for months, and you finally get an appointment. He agrees to a phone meeting and wants his team to join him. They work as a committee of decision-makers. The first available appointment is Monday, August 19th, a month away. You book it.
You just send out an Outlook appointment request and ask for a 60-minute meeting. You plan on sending a reminder 24 hours before the meeting.
Follow these rules to help ensure that your next appointment doesn’t get canceled:
1. Your appointment really starts the minute you schedule the time with your prospect. Get moving.
2. Right away, send Bob and his team an agenda that outlines the PPP — Purpose, Process, and Payoff — they will get from the meeting. Add a “p.s.” that alerts them to the “visual bling” you plan on sending them during the month.
3. Reserve no more than 20 minutes of their time. Believe it: If you start with less, you will get more.
4. Send Bob and his team LinkedIn invitations. Personalize the invite to say that you are “excited and look forward to meeting them on your March 12th meeting.”
5. One week later, send them a fun video about your solution, with one sentence explaining why it is so interesting.
6. The week after that, send them a copy of a research report — preferably Gartner — that highlights your strength in the market.
7. The week after that, send them a fun little infographic on the state of the industry.
8. A few days before the appointment, reach out to them through LinkedIn and send them an interesting news article.
9. 24 hours prior to the meeting, resend the agenda and ask them to review it in preparation for your meeting.
10. The morning of the meeting, send them a quick email that says “Perfect timing for today’s meeting.”
Make “No cancellations!” your mantra from now on.
