3 Techniques for Scheduling Sales Appointments

Wouldn’t it be great if every email you sent out resulted in a booked sales appointment? Of course, you’d be perfectly happy with a healthy increase as well. Luckily, there are three ways to achieve it, and more easily than you’d think.

Person using laptop computer.
Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

Of course, the technique you choose will depend on the type of business you’re running or the type of team you’re leading. But the goal will be the same - getting more prospects to say yes when you offer them a specific date and time for the sales meeting.

So what exactly can you do to achieve this? There are basically three techniques, all of which we’ll cover in the following paragraphs. While the first two take into account the more traditional way of setting sales appointments, the other introduces software-enabled automation.

How to Schedule Sales Appointments Like a Pro

There are many ways to increase the number of sales appointments you manage to set up. But the most successful ones include delegating the work, improving your own method and using advanced scheduling software.

Technique #1: Delegate the Work

Are you running a high-volume project or business? If that’s the case, maybe your salespeople or yourself would benefit from focusing on nurturing leads instead of scheduling appointments.

And to make it an even smarter business move, you can always use software to launch a sales incentive program for the appointment setters. By giving them a cash incentive for every qualified lead, you significantly improve your chances of growing your business.

Technique #2: Improve Your Method

What if you think it wouldn’t make sense for your team or business to delegate appointment scheduling? There are still plenty of things you can do to improve your results.

Do Research on Your Ideal Prospect Profile

If you want to increase your conversion rates, take some time to think. What kind of person or business would jump at the opportunity to work with you? List their goals and pain points, and see if your product or service provides a solution.

Have an Extremely Personalized Message

According to Gartner, only 24 percent of all sales emails are ever opened. This means that 76 percent of the time, you’re shouting into the void. But not if you personalize the message.

The best subject lines include the prospect’s name. As for the message itself, do some research on the person or the business, and try to find something you have in common.

Pro-tip: Don’t ask your prospect if they’ll meet you for a sales appointment. Offer them a specific date and time instead. This will increase your chances of success.

Use Referrals to Get Credibility

Suffice to say that 73 percent of buyers prefer working with salespeople referred to them by someone from their network.

Technique #3: Use Scheduling Software

You don’t necessarily need a human being to set up your sales appointments. You can have scheduling software do it for you.

In fact, this can result in a sales potential increase of up to 10 percent. We also have examples of sales teams growing their leads by 25 percent specifically through online scheduling.

Also, sales prospecting software allows you to automate most of the scheduling process, freeing up your time and resources to focus on other important aspects of your business.

Some key features to look for in sales prospecting software include:

Advanced Software for Scheduling Sales Appointments

If you choose to automate your appointment scheduling, here are some of the best options out there.

YouCanBook.me

YouCanBook.me scheduling software is excellent in terms of versatility and sophistication. You can both send links and embed the booking page into your own website. But it also has:

See how it works.

Schedulista.com

The scheduling software by Schedulista is simple and visually appealing. You can use it as a stand-alone tool or a booking page on your website. It also offers:

Setmore.com

Setmore’s scheduling software is a great choice for those looking to reach a wider audience. Apart from the booking functions, it also features:

Calendly.com

The scheduling software by Calendly is especially efficient for working in teams. You can add it to your email or website, but you can also use:

Things to Avoid When Scheduling Sales Appointments

Managing to schedule a sales appointment is no small feat. But one way to increase your chances of success is to learn about the type of mistakes that are both common and easily avoidable.

Do Not Set an Appointment With a Wrong Person

It’s not that salespeople make these mistakes when they’re obvious. Sometimes it can be really tough to figure out who the decision makers really are.

After all, there are so many different types of businesses. There are large companies in which a department head would be your ideal target. But when prospecting a startup, you might need to go all the way to the CEO. And that’s why research matters.

Pro-tip: LinkedIn is a great source of information when it comes to company hierarchy. It won’t always give you what you need, but it’s definitely worth checking out.

Avoid Uncertainty Regarding the Future Steps

Don’t just write an email offering your product or service. Make it clear to your prospect what they need to do to move on to the next step. And whatever you do, don’t forget to include information on how the collaboration would proceed from there.

If you don’t do this, you risk all your effort going to waste, simply because the person is unclear on what’s next.

Do Not Limit Yourself With Just Plan a

Not every strategy to turn qualified leads into potential buyers will work, and that’s perfectly normal. But it could mean that it’s time to switch it up a bit.

As we’ve already seen, you can start using scheduling software as part of your outreach strategy. But you can also embed a booking page into your website, incentivize your team to schedule more meetings, try to tempt your prospects with special offers etc. You need to think about all of these things initially during the development phase of the website.

As long as you don’t allow yourself to get stuck in a sales process that just isn’t working for you. And the best way to free up resources so you can develop a more creative strategy is to automate sales meeting scheduling as much as possible.

Conclusion

When it comes to scheduling sales appointments, there are many things you can do to set yourself up for success. Which technique you’ll end up choosing is entirely up to you, but the more suited it is for your own goals, the better.

And of course, if you manage to connect with your prospects in a unique way, and offer them scheduling options that are functional and easy to use, the sky’s the limit.