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Appointment Setting: How to deal with “no show” sales leads.
Posted By :   2008-08-19 10:27:42
 

Don’t read anything in to your sales appointment “no shows” just get the reschedule and move on.
In business, we all have a string of fires that must be put out. You run through your to-do list for the day, putting out countless little fires along the way, and show up for your appointment in spite of everything...to find that the prospect has had to cancel. You might conclude that this prospect was an unqualified lead. Or perhaps he is just rude or is feeling remorse for setting the meeting in the first place. After all the trouble you went through just to make the call or meeting on time, you are feeling great frustration...is your system broken?
The fact is that a very small percentage of these leads ARE unqualified and that is a reality of prospecting...some prospects have a problem saying "no" and therefore they get caught up in the prospecting "net" we cast. This is not something you want to fix. Every prospecting effort that produces great leads should also produce "unqualifieds" and as long as this percentage is under 10%( sometimes higher depending on your business) of total leads you should accept this as an occupational hazard of being in sales. 
It is better to have to deal with a few unqualified prospects than to miss even one qualified prospect, right? But, as we said, these unqualified leads are relatively few. So why are prospects who you have great initial calls with you and who have significant pain and have proven to have motivation to solve a problem ending up on your "no show" report?
Simply put, because you aren't the only one with fires to put out. Chances are, your prospect has fires to put out ,too...fires that are every as bit as urgent to him as yours were to you. Unfortunately, in the grand scheme of things, you are probably not as important to the prospect as the prospect is to you. Here are a few things to think about to put it in perspective.
1)Don't forget you are the seller and when you line up to talk to the decision maker you must take your place at the end of the line. Who is ahead of you? The decision maker's clients (fire), boss (fire), wife (fire), kids (fire), co-workers (fires galore) and a host of little brush fires that burn continuously in the decision makers work day, month and year.
2) There is an unspoken rule out there...if you are selling me something then I can make you wait, stand you up, not return your phone call and otherwise ignore you. After all, I'm busy trying to keep my world from burning down around me. Sure this is frustrating but the biggest mistake here is to conclude that this behavior is an indication that the prospect is no longer interested.
3) If the appointment reschedules move on...and if it fails again reschedule it again and go with the flow.
At best, when you approach a prospect, you are a break in his long day of putting out fires. At worst, you are just another fire that needs to be put out. Even if you are trying to sell the ultimate tool to help him fight fires, if he agrees, he's got to find the funding---maybe even fight to get approval---to go ahead with your product or service.
In the end, all you can control is your own attitude. Do everything in your power NOT to appear as one more fire to be put out. You can't control how the prospect perceives you, you can only control how you present yourself and how easily you are willing to give up.

 
 
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