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An idiotproof guide to scoring a sales appointment with anyone

Trying to make an appointment is easier said than done. Here's how you can score sales appointments via your website, phonecall, or email.
Ishwar Singh
Ishwar Singh

Content Marketer

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An idiotproof guide to scoring a sales appointment with anyone

Trying to score an appointment can be easier said than done.

Just because you’ve managed to get hold of your prospects’ contact details doesn’t mean that you’ll definitely book demo calls.

Sometimes, it’s not that you’re not putting in enough effort. Instead, you may not be focusing on the important things.

But fret not. We’re here to help learn how to make scoring more appointments by focussing on 3 things:

Scoring sales appointments through your website

Invest effort into optimising your content for search

If your website design isn’t user-friendly or aesthetically pleasing, you’re on a downhill battle with visitor retention on your website. And fewer visitors means lesser sales appointments made.

It is of utmost importance to have a website that is easy to navigate and easy on the eye. This means utilizing appropriate color schemes, adequate white space, imagery, and readable fonts.

An aesthetically pleasing website plays a key role in conversion rate optimization. Otherwise, you’re looking at losing 38% of your visitors!

Another must – Ensure your website has a mobile-friendly interface.

Mobile devices have generated around 50% of global website traffic consistently since 2017. You really don’t want to neglect half your potential customer base!

💡 Quick tip: If you’re not sure if your website’s UI/UX is good, ask the people around you for feedback! You can also prepare a list of websites you personally like and ask them to rate the sites. Use the best-rated ones as inspiration to improve your own 😉

Invest effort into optimising your content for search

Search-optimized content pieces were created based on search intent. This means that they were written based on what searchers are looking for.

 

 

We use a search-optimized blog to draw in organic traffic.

 

Using search-optimized content brings organic traffic to your website. When writing your articles, make sure that you include calls to action (CTA) at the end of all your content pieces. This is done to inform your readers on what to do next after reading your article.

Maybe you want them to subscribe to your blog? Or perhaps schedule a demo? Each CTA should depend on which stage of the marketing funnel your content belongs to.

Informational articles belong to the top-of-funnel (TOFU) stage and tend to use CTAs that encourage readers to subscribe to your blog rather than schedule a demo. That’s because the type of readers TOFU articles attract are people looking to learn more and not those looking to make a purchase.

Articles meant to drive conversions belong to the bottom of the funnel (BOFU). Creating more BOFU articles optimized for search attracts readers looking to buy. This can in turn lead to you scoring more appointments as they end up clicking your CTA to schedule a demo.

💡 Quick read: Find out what some of the most common SEO mistakes are!

Prepare gated content

Gated content pieces are generally more in-depth and require more work to put together. Examples include white papers, infographics, templates, and ultimate guides.

 

Gated content lets your site visitors exchange their contact details for a copy of the content.
Site visitors can only obtain a copy of the gated content if they provide you with their contact information. Source: Workstream.

 

And because they are gated, your site visitors would have to exchange their contact details for a copy of the content. You can then use the contact information they provided to automated email drip campaigns to nurture them until they schedule an appointment with you.

Use lead capturing software

Having a user-friendly website that brings in organic traffic is great. But what’s the point of attracting potential leads if you do not have lead capturing capabilities on your website?

 

 

Novocall’s click-to-call widget is embedded onto your website and helps you capture leads.

 

Click-to-call software like Novocall is embedded onto your website and helps you capture leads.

Your site visitors can simply select a time slot at which they want to have a call with your team. Once a slot has been confirmed, the lead will immediately receive a notification informing them of their upcoming call.

This essentially reduces lead response time and reduces the odds of your leads seeking out your competitors before they get in touch with you.

Scoring sales appointments through emails

Eye-catching subject line

The barrier to overcome for email outreach is getting your leads to open the email. Just 18% of marketing emails sent in 2020 were opened.

Chances are, most recipients of your mass email are going to ignore it, that’s just the fact of the matter.
So it is very important to make your subject as eye-catching as possible.

35% of email recipients open an email simply because of the subject line, never downplay its importance!

Here are some ways to you can craft eye-catching subject lines:

  • Incorporate emojis
  • Write interesting fun facts
  • State something controversial
  • Ask an open-ended question to spark interest.

Whatever you decide on, know that there is never one fixed solution. Try out different methods, monitor the statistics, and make changes based data of your target audience for optimal results 🤓

Only when you are able to get your email recipients to click into your emails can you ensure that they’ll eventually see the link asking them to schedule an appointment with you.

Focus on building rapport

Once you’ve gotten your lead’s attention, you don’t want to repulse them with a cliche call-to-action in the first few emails you send.

You want to build rapport with them. You could send interesting events and the latest news or simply hope for their well-being. Whatever you choose, the key idea is to humanize your approach!

Take them through related topics that might interest them, or highlight possible pain points that they might relate to.

Don’t neglect the power of giving tips and suggestions along the way that is not related to your product or service. This helps to build trust!

Once your leads see you as a trustworthy business, they naturally will be more open to your sales pitches and requests to schedule more appointments.

Set an appointment outside the email chain

Once you’ve successfully got them to read through your email, you want to end off with a call-to-action.
You can include a link to an appointment scheduler to automate the scheduling process.

TimeSync allows you to include meeting links in your product demo invitation emails.
TimeSync helps make the process easier! 😉

Using meeting schedulers like TimeSync allows you to insert a customized meeting link in your emails and streamline the scheduling process.

More than anything, this omits the constant back-and-forth emails that are lengthy, too manual, and time-consuming for both parties.

Scoring sales appointments over the phone

Determining interest

When contacting a lead or potential client, it is vital to first understand their interest. You do not want to be too pushy or forceful at the get-go.

Not only is being pushy and forceful troubling for the desired client, but also a waste of time and effort for the salesperson if the prospect is not interested.

You should always be brief and concise with your pitch to the prospect and gauge their interest level thereafter before proceeding into more details.

💡 Quick read: Top telemarketing tips to help you score more sales appointments.

Addressing pain points

Once you’ve established some level of interest from the prospect, you should immediately seek to understand their pain points. Then, highlight how your product or service can alleviate their pains.

Being too quick to push a product or service without understanding your prospect gives off the impression that you just want to sell your product or service – you don’t want this!

To succeed at addressing pain points, you have to personalize your message. This can only be done by first understanding them very well.

You have to engage in some small talk and understand their motivations. Only after building some trust should you gradually slide in your product and service, be smooth! 😉

Close your interaction smartly

If everything goes well, you’re probably waiting for the right opportunity to ask them whether or not they would like to proceed.

But that isn’t the best way to score an appointment. It’s too open-ended. You want to leave them with two appointment slots to choose from, not a choice to back out.

More often than not, the prospect is probably at the very least on the fence regarding your proposal since they stayed on to have the conversation.

Giving them two possible appointment slots increases the likelihood of setting up an appointment as opposed to asking them a yes or no.

Note: This might not always work, especially if they were just being polite in having the conversation.

💡 Quick read: Find out how else you can close the sales cycle in our in-depth article on the 7 sales cycle stages.

Conclusion

Regardless of website, phone or email outreach methods, realize that small changes to your current sales approaches can make a big difference.

Never underestimate the small tweaks! 😎

I hope this has helped you gain a better understanding of how you can score more sales appointments. For more sales-related content like this, subscribe to our blog today 👇👇👇

Ishwar Singh
Ishwar Singh

Ish is a content marketer at Novocall.

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