7 tips on how to make successful sales appointment calls

The end goal of every sales call is to get an appointment. That’s when you know that you’ve scored a prospect and there’s hope for closing the deal. 

Before you schedule a meeting with your prospect and dazzle them with a strong value proposition, you need to persuade the prospect with an appointment call.  

No one likes cold calling hundreds of prospects just to end up with one or two appointments. Here’s where you need to stay alert and implement hacks that work in your favor by perfect the sales appointment call.  

Did you know that 82% of buyers accept meetings when salespeople reach out to them. Now it’s pretty much up to the salesperson to leave a lasting impression during a sales appointment call. 

Solid tips and tricks to excel at every sales appointment call.  

1. Know your prospect beforehand 

Suppose you made an appointment call, the prospect answers; now what?  

You need to have a clear plan and knowledge about the prospect and only then you’ll be able to hold a conversation. 

In fact, 82% of B2B decision-makers think sales reps are unprepared. And it’s time for you to change this perception. 

Do thorough research before making an appointment call. It includes –  

• Who is your prospect? 
• What’s your purpose for the appointment call? 
• What are their pain points? 
• What you’re offering? 

Just knowing about these points will give you an edge and help you get that appointment! 

2. Pick a convenient time to make an appointment call 

The first and foremost thing that every salesperson needs to consider is the time at which they’re planning to make a call. 

if you’re about to call a prospect in a different time zone, check the time difference and see whether it would be an appropriate time to make an appointment call.  

Moreover, once the prospect receives the call, ensure you ask them if they have a few minutes to spare for a quick conversation. This reflects your politeness and makes you seem considerate about their time. 

Usually, decision-makers have packed schedules so sometimes they might not be able to talk to you. in such a case, if you’ve opened the conversation in a polite manner, they’re more likely to provide you with a convenient time for an appointment call.  

3. Don’t show desperation 

Yes, prospects do need persuading when you’re trying to set an appointment. However, that also doesn’t mean that you have to pressure them into getting your way.  

It gets annoying and comes off as unrespectful. 

Instead of pressuring your prospects into getting an appointment, you can do the following –  

• Use a persuasive yet polite tone  
• Exchange customer success stories to build trust 
• Have a discussion around their pain points
• Use facts and figures to get them interested 
• Provide them with options instead of asking open-ended questions 

The above points will help you score an appointment without putting in the extra effort. Just set the flow of the conversation and you’ll have an appointment scheduled with your prospect! 

4. Leverage the prospect’s actions for better outreach 

Yes, it’s important to reach out to prospects that have actively shown interest in your product/service. 

But, it’s also essential to keep an eye on your possible prospects that indirectly engages with your company in form of –  

• Downloading resources from your website 
• Attends regular events and webinars 
• Visits specific landing pages on your website 
• Engages with you on various social media platforms 

You’d be surprised by how many interesting prospects you will find from these mentioned methods. Some prospects might be looking for a solution without even knowing. And being a smart salesperson, you need to stay proactive and connect with them. 

In the era where Millennials are dominating the market, engaging via social media channels and dropping voicemails is as good a sales call strategy as anything else.  

5. Build a strong rapport among your prospects 

A salesperson’s rapport matters as much as the value proposition and product/service. 

“Rapport is the link between meeting and communicating.” – Nicholas Boothman 

Your prospect doesn’t want to talk to a robot; they are looking for real and engaging conversations. Hence, be the real you, connect with prospects, and get customers for life!  

Build a solid foundation with a good rapport and open the sales appointment call with confidence. Focus on your prospect and get them comfortable to talk so you can later get that appointment you were looking for. 

Remember, at this stage of a sales process, your end goal is to get an appointment scheduled, not to make a sale. So, forget about selling for a minute and just focus on leaving a lasting impression on your prospect. 

6. Handle objections in a smart way 

Even though you have qualified your prospects, they might still have objections, and that’s completely normal. 

To convince your prospect, you first need to understand their objections. Objections don’t always mean that the prospect doesn’t agree with you; sometimes they might be looking for something else. Therefore, it’s imperative to have a clear conversation and provide options. 

7. Use automation to make the process smoother 

Let’s be real, you need to make tons of sales appointment calls in a day. 

And it’s not possible to successfully make appointment calls manually. Here’s where the technology comes into the picture. 

You can use automation to help you make efficient appointment calls throughout the day with zero errors. Below are some of the ways automation helps you to schedule appointments faster. 

• Setting up the priority of sales appointment calls and using a power dialer to make one call after another automatically. You can also keep a gap between each call so it doesn’t get overwhelming. 
• Drop pre-recorded voicemails when the prospect doesn’t answer your call. This will help you save time and energy. 
• Use a meeting scheduler to avoid any overlapping of meetings or appointments. 
• Use geo-location tracking to find clients in nearby areas and set appointments accordingly. 
• Set up reminders/notifications for scheduled meetings so you’re on track. 

Having an intuitive sales automation CRM can work wonders for every sales rep and help them crush their quotas. So, it’s time to bring in the technology so you can perform better and build lasting connections with prospects.

A CRM like Salesmate can be used in multiple industries like Real estate, Insurance, Finance, SaaS, etc. If you are running a startup, you will definitely require a CRM for startup after some point, to scale it further. A tool like Salesmate can help you at every stage of your sales process and grow your revenue.

Final thoughts 

Perfecting a sales appointment call isn’t difficult when you know these simple yet effective tricks. A prospect just wants to get impressed by your value proposition, so ensure that you hype it up when you’re on a sales appointment call. 

Be confident, listen to the prospect, and provide personalized solutions. When it comes to appointment calls, you just need to secure a meeting with a prospect and the rest (selling) will fall into place automatically.