In new business sales? Stop 1st meeting cancellations
One of my biggest challenges as a technology new business sales guy was overcoming the high drop-out rate of 1st appointments with new prospects. It took me a while to learn why, but when I did, I found a simple nurturing phase helped reduce drop outs significantly.
Does the following scenario sound familiar to you? You’ve emailed, called, spoken, agreed diary dates and your new prospect has finally agreed to meet you. The first time they’re free is four weeks away. You’ve probably agreed an hour slot at 2:30pm on a Thursday. You sent an electronic diary invite and the prospect accepted, 'get-in'.
Guess what? You’re now at a 70% chance this appointment will be cancelled at short notice, irrespective of an agenda being agreed or not.
So, here's a simple easy to follow nurturing phase that will see a reduction in cancellations. Please use this method and let me know how you get on ....
Firstly, remember the rapport building and relationship started the minute you clicked into the prospects LinkedIn profile.
1/ The minute your meeting time and date is agreed with the prospect, you must send an electronic diary invite. And only schedule 30 minutes, not an hour.
2/ Your electronic meeting invite must already detail the agenda. An agenda that's all about the prospect, not you. Expect your meeting invite to be accepted the same day.
3/ 4-5 Days after agreeing to and accepting your appointment, reach out to your prospect and her/his company on Twitter. Follow them both and retweet something relevant if possible.
4/ 2 weeks after agreeing the meeting, find your prospect on LinkedIn. Send a highly personalised invite to connect, check out their recent LinkedIn activity, see if you have any connections in common.
5/ 3 weeks after the meeting was agreed. Send your prospect a whitepaper or case study that's relevant to their current situation. At the same time, ask the prospect if they’d like to add anything to the agenda.
6/ 3 days prior to the meeting call or send an email confirming: That you’ve finished your planning and looking forward to meeting. Ask if anything has changed since you last spoke, and if so, confirm how the agenda should be tweaked accordingly. Reconfirm the objective of the meeting from your and their perspective. AND ALWAYS confirm to them your travel plans, e.g. "I’m booked on the 7:10 ‘rattler’ into Paddington and scheduled to be local to your office with 20 minutes spare to our start time" .... e.g. "I’m leaving home at 6:45, and taking the M40 via oxford and will be with you in good time for our 10am start".
The above process and cadence is super-simple to implement. It’s effective. And it’s amazing how many new business sales people still try and shortcut this phase of the process as they're 'too busy'.
Follow these steps and you’ll gain trust and confidence with your prospect. You’re also building rapport with your prospect. If your piece of nurturing content is good and well targeted, you’re already giving them value. And most importantly; you’re doing all the right things to reduce the amount of 1st meetings that drop-out.
Any questions please shout. Good Luck
Darren
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