Appointment setting

A one-day workshop

This course has a simple objective: to help gain appointments with potential clients. In most consultative selling situations clients won’t commit to purchases over the telephone. This means setting up a meeting to discuss the options with them face-to-face. But getting ‘face time’ can be tricky. This practical workshop can help.

Objectives

Learning objectives

Participants will acquire essential tools, skills and methods; discuss specific organisational issues; and identify areas for improvement. They will discover how to:

  • Increase their effectiveness through proper preparation
  • Construct attention-grabbing opening statements
  • Help potential clients feel comfortable agreeing to a meeting
  • Develop tactics for responding to difficult excuses and objections
  • Stress the benefits of a face-to-face consultation
  • Develop and enhance their questioning and listening skills
  • Prevent customers cancelling booked appointments

Audience

Who should attend?

This programme is specifically designed for sales professionals, account managers, consultants, sales support staff and anyone else involved in getting clients and prospects to agree to a meeting.

Format

Format

This thoroughly engaging and highly practical one-day course uses a mixture of formal tutor inputs, practical exercises and tutor-facilitated discussion.

Special features

Special features

The workshop can be tailored to clients’ specific requirements, eg, where live call recordings exist for training purposes these can either be incorporated into the day, if appropriate, or the trainer can listen to sample recordings in advance and tailor the practical exercises accordingly.

Every participant leaves this programme with an individual action plan.

The expert trainer is also a very experienced telephone sales coach. He is therefore ideally placed to deliver follow-up coaching on live calls on a one-to-one basis for those workshop participants who might particularly benefit from it.

Meet the trainer

Expert trainer

An enthusiastic developer of people, Scott has been working as a sales trainer and coach since 1996. Operating from a solid foundation of over 20 years in retail banking, Scott has worked independently and also as an associate since 2000. Whilst working for NatWest he undertook a number of sales-related roles including Mortgage Advisor, Graduate Account Relationship Manager, FOCUS Sales Manager and Sales Coach in the London-based call centres. He also worked at NatWest’s prestigious residential training college working with sales teams within the business. One of his specialist areas is telephone sales and particularly telephone sales coaching, which involves him in providing live coaching while sales people call their customers. As someone who is passionate about sales through a customer-centred approach, Scott brings real feeling to his training and coaching sessions.

Scott has delivered sales training and coaching to numerous clients (eg, Xerox, HMV, Waterstones, NatWest, WF Senate Electrical, Denmans Electrical, Gewiss Electrical, Software Europe, Solopress, Stihl UK, Bishop Grosseteste University, University of Lincoln, University of Surrey, Avtura, Acton Training Centre, Hall & Partners, InShops Retail Centres, Johnson & Wales University (Miami), Costa Cruises, EDF, sofa.com, SoleTrader, etc, etc) in a diverse range of sectors, particularly retail, wholesaling and hospitality, but also encompassing finance, training, market research, vehicle repair, airline operations, printing, steel fabrication, roofing, software design, universities, etc, etc. Scott is a qualified NLP Master Practitioner and DISC Profiling Practitioner.

1 Introduction to appointment setting

  • Key trends that have changed the way people buy today – and will buy tomorrow
  • Why many sales people avoid picking up the phone
  • The difference that makes a difference – what makes a good appointment-maker?

2 Before you pick up the telephone

  • It all starts with a plan…
  • Who and what to focus our attention
  • How much research should we undertake and why?
  • Setting primary and secondary objectives

3 Making your approach

  • Key considerations
  • Every call is an opportunity – creating a positive mind-set
  • Using a structured approach
  • Using partnership language

4 Gaining an insight into the customer’s needs

  • How to quickly ‘tune in’ to your customers, so that you can serve them more easily
  • Developing speech patterns that put customers at their ease
  • Using effective questioning and listening skills
  • Finding and building pain points

5 Dealing with excuses and objections

  • Pre-empting potential excuses
  • Developing techniques for responding to client objections
  • Keeping the door open for future contact

6 Securing the appointment

  • Selling the benefits of a consultancy meeting
  • Techniques for avoiding cancelled appointments
  • Gaining commitment

7 Action plans

  • Course summary and presentation of action plans

Any questions? Please just give us a call on 01582 463463 – we’re here to help!