October 16, 2020

How to book more calls and meetings? 11 tips for sales teams

More meetings lead to more sales. But how do you make meetings happen in today’s busy world? Here are 10 pro tips from Cognism to help you to book more calls and meetings.

Joe Barron

Content Manager @ Cognism

Reading time: 5 minutes

Having a sales meeting has never been easier.

We’ve all become accustomed to using Zoom, Skype, or even Discord. You can talk with prospects half a world away, in real-time.

Yet, when it comes to booking more meetings, things aren’t that simple. Finding the right people to have meetings with is something else entirely! On average, it takes 6 hours of work to book 1 meeting.

That said, there are some things you can do to speed up the process. We asked our SaaS sales team for their 10 top tips for minimizing rejection and filling your calendar with meetings.

Let’s dive right in!

1. Have a plan to book more calls meetings

You need a plan to book more calls and meetings. Otherwise, you’re just fumbling in the dark.

Firstly, ask yourself who you’re looking to schedule meetings with. Who are the types of prospects you think will be receptive to your product?

Start by drawing up a detailed profile of your ideal customer. Take that profile and use it to find others that match their characteristics. You can do this either manually, or better yet, with the up-to-date outbound sales software.

Once you’ve built up a highly targeted list of prospects…then what?

Decide which channels you’ll use to make contact.

Will it be by phone, social media, email outreach services, or something else? Work out a message that will resonate with your narrow target audience.

Set yourself some goals for the number of meetings you want to make. Top tip – your goal must relate to the number of sales you need to hit your quota.

2. Coordinate with your marketing team to build your target list

Sales 101 – you’re more likely to get a date for a meeting if the prospect has already interacted with your organization.

Make sure your marketing team shares its data on who has engaged with your brand.

For example, if a B2B prospect has signed up for your newsletter, or downloaded a whitepaper, they may be thinking of buying. Arranging an appointment could be just what you need to close the deal.

3. Warm up your prospect before you ask for a meeting

Calling your prospect and asking for a meeting could work, but you’ll have more success if you start a dialogue with them first.

You could warm them up with a sequence of automated sales emails.

You could share relevant and helpful content with them.

You could engage with them on social media.

Anything that makes your prospect feel well-disposed to your brand before you ask for a meeting is great.

4. Know the best time to contact your prospect

Catching your prospect at a time they’ll be most receptive to your offer is a key factor in booking a meeting.

Here’s the thing: contacting them when they’re too busy only means that they won’t take your cold call or open your email.

Experiment with different days and times to find the optimum times for your industry.

A top tip from Cognism Sales – “out of hours” times, such as 8 am, can be especially effective in reaching C-suite decision-makers. Often, they’ll start work earlier than their junior colleagues.

5. Automate the meeting scheduling process

Businesses take about 42 hours to respond to a lead’s inquiries. By the time the companies respond, the lead is likely to have already gone to seek out your competitors.

This is why minimizing your lead response time is essential. Use automation software to address this issue.

Novocall is a callback widget which automates a callback between a lead/customer and your sales rep. — Novocall is a Click-to-Call widget which automates a callback between a lead/customer and your sales rep.

For example, Novocall is a click-to-call software that automates a call between the sales rep and the lead.

Interested leads can fill in their contact information and select a timeslot in which they wish to receive a call-back from your company. When the time arrives, the lead’s phone will ring and the sales rep will be on the line.

This reduces lead leakage from your sales funnel as they are guaranteed a call from your sales team that will definitely happen. This, in turn, allows you to book more calls.

6. Be on the lookout for referrals

When a happy customer refers you to someone they know, you leverage the trust that the referrer has built up with them. This is a massive advantage if you’re trying to book meetings.

Your new prospect will be much more open to speaking with you, because of their relationship with the referrer.

A good starting point is to ask your current customer base for ideas. Who else do they know who might benefit from your product? If you can, get them to make an introduction for you.

7. Build your domain expertise

The idea here is to be someone that prospects actually want to meet, rather than someone they feel they have to.

Position yourself as an authority in your industry. Write articles for your company and external websites and share them on LinkedIn. Get involved in sector-wide social media groups. Post comments regularly.

When your prospects see that you know what you’re talking about, they’re much more likely to want to meet you.

8. Leverage the power of content marketing

If your data-driven marketing team is doing their job well, then you should have a ready supply of warmed-up leads in your pipeline every month.

What brings those leads into the pipeline? It’s content – in the form of blog posts, ebooks, webinars, and podcasts.

So, if your business isn’t publishing a blog or hosting online webinars – then you need to get them started! Begin the process of pushing out relevant content aimed at your ideal buyers.

Gradually, you’ll build up your brand’s awareness and soon, the prospects will be coming to you for a meeting, not the other way around!

9. Use sales triggers to reach out at the best times

Sales triggers are events that happen in an organization, such as appointing a new CEO or moving headquarters.

These events signal that a company may be looking to spend money in the B2B marketplace.

Use high-quality data to stay informed of these sales triggers. Then, when you contact your prospect to arrange a meeting, you will have called at the right time. If you want to book more calls, timing is everything.

10. Monitor your progress constantly

As you progress through your plan to book more calls and meetings, it’s important to regularly assess whether you’re on track for your goals.

Study your B2B data weekly. Which channels are working well and which aren’t? If you’re sending email sequences, use your automation software to log opens, clicks, and replies. Learn from what the results tell you.

If something’s working well, double down on it. Experiment with different channels and messaging to continuously improve your success rate.

11. Ask questions. That includes asking for the meeting!

Booking a meeting is great, but to have an effect on your revenue, they need to be with prospects who are highly likely to convert into customers.

During your contact with your prospect, ask questions to determine if they will benefit from what you’re selling.

Finally, make sure you actually ask for the meeting! You need to do this if you want to book more calls. You’d be surprised how many salespeople don’t get to this stage. Explain why you believe a meeting would be of benefit to the prospect.

Then, book it in. Be proactive and suggest a date and time; don’t leave this up to the prospect.

Cognism’s SaaS sales tips

We hope you enjoyed this article on how you can book more calls and sales meetings!

We have even more sales insights to share with you – a whole eBook, in fact!

Download Cognism’s guide How to Sell SaaS. It contains 3 simple ideas to help your sales team sell more effectively. From improving your demos to taking advantage of social proof and focusing on customer pain points, it’s all here!

Click the link to get your SaaS sales guide.