Trouble Setting Sales Appointments?

How do I respond when a prospect rejects my 20-minute call or meeting request? I need 20 minutes to show them how I can help save them time and money! My current rebuttal is this:

“If you could find 20 minutes on your calendar, I would love to have a conversation with you to hear about what kind of advocate program you would like to run for x company.” (but it isn’t working) What am I doing wrong?

Well, let me respond with a question… What’s in it for them to talk to you now? Or ever, even?

You’ve got to reword your opening value statement.

Asking “If you could find 20 minutes on your calendar” is killing your chances to land the meeting or to set the appointment.

Here’s why:

You are asking something from them when instead you should be leading with a “what’s in it for them” statement.
You are more focused on selling the “20-minute call” when you should be focused on piquing their interest in how you might be able to help them solve a problem.

Next, your following statement is really putting the final nail in your coffin:

“I would love to have a conversation with you to hear about (blah, blah, blah)”

Basically, you are asking them to tell you what they want. And since you are the one calling them, they, for the most part, don’t see the need to educate you on how you can help them.

Therefore, your opening value statement FAILED TO DO ITS JOB. And since you are the one who decides what to say after “Hello, my name is…” it’s your responsibility to fix your opener.

Forget asking for “20-minutes of their time” and forget saying statements like “solve your marketing goals”. It’s too broad and besides, almost every salesperson says something like that, so now you just sound like all the other sales calls they get every day.

You need to come directly with what problems you help solve for your prospects in their industry.

Example:

“Hi Prospects Name, this is Michael Pedone with SalesBuzz.com. Reason for my call is we show inside sales people how to avoid being rejected by gatekeepers while helping them land more appointments with qualified decision makers…”

You need to make it personal in the way of agitating a pain or scratching an itch that your targeted audience has to have in order to make them want to stop what they are doing and schedule a time to speak with you or better yet, to stop what they are doing and speak with you now.

– Michael Pedone

Michael Pedone teaches inside sales teams how to pick up the phone and close business. He is the CEO/FOUNDER of SalesBuzz.com

– An online sales training company.