Most sales people are very reluctant to set up an appointment with someone they have never met or know who they are. But then anyone in business must go through this process if they want to achieve their goals at work. Appointment setting skills to maintain business relationships or close sales contracts greatly affect the work efficiency of sales people. But how to plan in detail and set up an appointment effectively? This article will provide interactive tips in the communication process to help you improve your work efficiency.
To go into detail, there is one first thing you need to understand if you want to be successful at setting appointments: Understand the pressure customers feel when receiving calls.
___”In a day, your customers can receive many similar calls that make them feel annoyed. The secret to your success is to make a difference. How can you make your customers feel impressed in just the first few seconds?” ___
Preparation is very important.
Many businesses, when asking their sales staff to set up appointments with customers, only provide a very long list of raw data (including phone numbers and names), but lack the investment to make the list more valuable.
This inadvertently causes the caller to lack the necessary information to approach and impress the customer more effectively. In this case, as an appointment setter, you can exploit the information based on the phone number obtained by searching for the customer's personal information through the available search engine of Social media channels.
If you already have customer information – great. Now Don't call the customer right away., instead analyze their profile carefully:
- How old are they?
- Where do they live?
- What do they do?
- Do they have family?
- What are their hobbies?...
The more information you have, the easier it is to know what their tastes and needs are, and from there, have a suitable approach. If you know what your customers are lacking - start by offering your solution to that customer.
Telephone interaction techniques.
Once you have your customer information, the messages you want to convey must be delivered artistically. There are three factors you need to keep in mind:
1. Voice.
Modulate your voice to make it comfortable for the customer to hear (There are three main factors: Volume, intensity, and rhythm). Many people do not modulate their voice, especially when there is a problem with the connection. Trying to shout into the phone will not solve the problem, it will only make the customer feel more uncomfortable.
Approach with a soft voice, you can ask the customer directly to know if your voice volume is loud enough to be heard.
2. Allow customers to control calls.
Many people have a bad habit when making phone calls, the most common is after greeting, they will go straight to the point with a very long content. At this time, the other end of the line will feel passive, and customers often do not like such calls.
Many sales people often make calls like this: Hello Mr. A, I'm B, from company C. We have a solution that we would like to introduce to you....
These types of calls can be stressful for customers, as they are receiving so many of them. To be more effective and make customers want to hear from you, there is no better way than giving them control over the call.
“Let's go back to the first problem, the key to success comes from exploiting and understanding customer Insight.”
You are directly addressing the customer's need for increased coffee production efficiency. stimulate customer curiosity and interest helps increase your ability to listen further. In addition, you "bullet point" 3 things you want to present Help customers know the basic content of the call and the planned duration, helps them have control, thereby absorbing information more effectively.
3. Choose the time and place of the appointment.
Select appointment time.
- When setting a date and time, don't stop at one option, for example: "I want to meet you tomorrow at 9am". This is ineffective!
- Give the customer at least two time options, along with your suggestion, and let the customer choose. This is a necessary skill!
Select meeting location.
Ask your customers directly if they prefer to discuss business in the office, at a cafe, at lunch, or wherever they find convenient.
There is a habit that many Vietnamese people often do, which is to choose a place to discuss business at a drinking place. Many people believe that when they are "drunk", it will be easier to negotiate and at this time, customers often make decisions that are beneficial to the seller. However, in reality, meeting customers at a drinking place tends to lead to half-hearted decisions that are difficult to implement thoroughly.
Therefore, from the perspective of choosing a meeting location, places like offices, cafes or restaurants are a civilized choice and can easily reach an agreement that is beneficial to both parties.
Should we give gifts to customers?
Giving a gift to a client during a meeting is an initiative that you can apply to increase goodwill with the client. The gifts given should have more meaning than material value, and the best time to give them is before starting the conversation.
After appointment.
Whether the customer appointment process achieved the goal you expected or not. After meeting the customer, send an SMS/Email to thank the customer for the appointment, and summarize the important content of the contract if any. This action shows professionalism, helping the customer to be more impressed with you.
