Do you have your calendar laid out for each day between now and Jan. 10, 2011? Nothing can hurt a person’s sales motivation than finding cancellations on the calendar — or worse yet, an inability to get sales appointments on the calendar. The next few weeks is the worst time for both scenarios.
To help you maximize your sales motivation, I suggest you look at each day and each appointment and do the following to ensure the appointments don’t get cancelled.
2 – 3 days before the appointment you should do the following:
Send the customer or prospect several critical questions to get them thinking about their business. However, unlike other times of the year, make the questions more timely in nature, meaning something that keys in on the next 8 weeks. The reason is simple: If you get the customer or prospect thinking too much about 2011, they may very well think they can delay the meeting until January.
Send the customer one important piece of industry information to see you as a person who is truly interested in helping them.
1 day before the meeting:
Contact the customer or prospect using voicemail to confirm the meeting. With enthusiasm quickly state one short-term benefit you intend to share with them. Using voicemail is preferred over email. If you send them an email to confirm, you’re making it too easy for them to cancel the meeting by merely hitting “reply” to the email.
Day of the appointment:
Don’t hesitate to take something with you such as cookies, fruit or something else the office can enjoy while you’re there. More important than the food you take is the interaction you will most likely be able to have with others in the office.
During the meeting, don’t hesitate to engage the customer in a discussion on their year-end budgets and how the year is shaping up. The idea is to learn quickly if there is an opportunity or need you can leverage immediately.
Copyright 2010, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
