Are You Struggling To Make Appointments?

By Jim Klein

Wouldn't it be great to prospect with confidence knowing you have the plan that will help you set more appointments? Then you'll be glad you found these 5 prospecting tips. If you use them you'll be guarantee to make better use of your prospecting time by closing your prospects for more appointments.

Prospecting Tip #1: Prospect Daily

Sales prospecting is like eating. If you don't do it every day you'll die. With prospecting you won't actually cease to exist, however, you're business will. Professional salespeople prospect every day. It's important to block off specific times on your calendar for prospecting activities such as phone calling and mailing.

Treat your prospecting time the same way you would any other appointment, otherwise it will never get done.

Get focused on your prospecting activities by closing your office door and having messages taken for incoming calls until your prospecting time is up. I've found the best time to prospect is first thing in the morning. Your fresh and it gets the most important task in the sales process done first.

Prospecting Tip #2: Become a Specialist

This is the age of specialization. People want to do business with people who specialize in their particular problem. You wouldn't go to a foot doctor to have a heart bypass. And you wouldn't go to a criminal lawyer if you need to set up a corporation.

What is your specialty? Find one and use it in all your prospecting activities. If you don't know what it is ask your past and current clients why they bought from you. They'll give you some insight in to your specialty.

Then use it in all your promotional pieces. Advertise it every where. Put it on your business card. Use it to attract the kind of prospects you're looking to work with.

Prospecting Tip #3: Use a Script

Don't sell 'from the hip'. There's only one thing worse than listening to a salesperson read a script over the phone and that's listening to one without a script. It's important to not only have a script but to practice it until it flows from your lips.

You should know the script word for word without reading it. Don't read it when you're talking to a prospect, however, keep it in front of you to refer back to when you get off the track. Keep refining and making your script better and more powerful. After all it is the life blood of your sales business.

Prospecting Tip #4: Sell the Benefits of Meeting With You

Many salespeople want to tell the prospect how great their company is or how great they are. People don't care about you. People want to know what's in it for them. So make sure you include in your script the benefits the prospect will gain by meeting with you personally.

Make a list of the features of your product or service and then list the benefits of each of those features. If you need some help with this your past and current clients can be a great help. The best way to get the appointment is to show them the benefits they will receive by meeting with you.

Prospecting Tip #5: Don't Try to Sell Over the Phone

The purpose of prospecting is to get face to face with the prospect so you can qualify them and sell them your product or service. That's all. Don't try to sell your product or service over the phone. The main focus of sales prospecting is to sell the appointment, so concentrate on that outcome.

I know there are salespeople who are only selling over the phone, however, that's a subject for a different article.

Using these prospecting tips can send you on your way to having a calendar filled with appointments that lead to sales. Ignoring these sales tips can leave you with a lot more time to prospect. The choice is yours.