Why making the appointment is important!

Since we successfully launched the Calldrip Automotion Scoring, we have been receiving a lot of emails and calls from salespeople about their appointment rate! I’m happy about that because it indicates that salespeople are increasingly understanding that managing the conversion between the various steps with online leads is crucial to ultimately achieve better and higher conversion from leads to sales.

First, you need to engage in a dialogue, then you need to sell the appointment (and ensure the lead shows up), and then close the deal! The higher the appointment rate, the greater the chance of a deal. Most salespeople have less trouble going from appointment to sale than starting that initial dialogue and making the appointment. In that, for many, challenging process lies the real profit!

How do you make the appointment?

So the question is: how do you make an appointment? Asking for it is one thing because, believe it or not, one of the KPIs we score with Calldrip Automation is ‘asking for the appointment.’ That often doesn’t happen! If you don’t ask for it, you definitely won’t get the appointment. If you do ask for it, there must be a benefit for the customer.

The benefit could be that during a showroom visit, you can make a better proposal, present a definitive trade-in price, show the colors and the options, and there are many more things that are possible on-site but not remotely.

What benefit?

So the benefit of visiting the company must be sold as a real benefit to the customer, not just casually mentioned to the customer. What do I mean by that? Many of the conversations go like this: “Perhaps we could make an appointment?” That doesn’t work! What does work: “I understand that you want the best trade-in offer for your Fiat 500C! Let’s make an appointment at our showroom so we can appraise your Fiat 500. After all, from experience, I know we can always offer a better price then. When would be convenient for you? Tomorrow or the day after?”

We’re still in the research phase!

And what if the customer indicates they’re still in the research phase? Of course, that’s a understandable reason not to make an appointment because it’s still too early for the customer to come to the showroom. Most of our customers start their research process online and then come to the showroom to see and experience our cars in person. There’s an answer to that too: “Let’s make an appointment at our showroom so we can provide you with all the information to assist you as best as possible in your research process! When can you come?”

Trade-in car

Here too, the customer can come back with a standard response: “I want to know what I’ll get for my car first.” A logical response could be: “At ABC Car Company, we understand that you only want to do business if the trade-in price and our offer warrant it. That’s why we don’t just mention a price, we always make an appointment at our showroom to prevent disappointments and to offer you a proposal you can say yes to. When can you come?”

You’re too far away!

Another reason the customer might give not to make an appointment is the distance to the company. We understand that reason too, and that argument can also be countered. “What about the car attracted you to request information? Alright, understood, let’s make an appointment where we can demonstrate the car and the option that attracted you. We can also present you with the best offer for your trade-in car right away. I’m confident we can reach an agreement! When can you come?”

There are hundreds of ways to handle the above objections, and undoubtedly there are even more reasons NOT to want to make an appointment, but the goal of the salesperson should remain to MAKE that appointment!

Ensure the appointment happens

Even if the appointment is made, the battle is not over. 40% of appointments don’t show up, see also the 60% rule! So the better you make and confirm the appointment, the greater the chance the appointment will happen! That’s why with Calldrip Automation, we also score based on a clear description. An appointment is an appointment that is actually made and confirmed with a date and time. An appointment is not a conversation where it’s said: “I’ll see you sometime during the day or tomorrow late afternoon or sometime next week.” Those are all half-appointments, which are not counted as appointments by Calldrip.

Tips to confirm the appointment

How can you ensure that as many appointments as possible happen? These tips will make it easier for you:

– The way you invite a customer has a big impact on whether the customer will actually come. Do you casually mention that the customer is always welcome to drop by, or do you make a specific proposal?

– As a salesperson, you want to own your own schedule and work as efficiently as possible. That’s why you need to make concrete appointments. After all, you don’t want to reserve more time in your schedule than necessary, thus creating space to schedule other appointments.

– Show the customer that you value the appointment and want to put it in your schedule to ensure you’re available to help the customer immediately.

– Repeat the appointment you’ve made at the end of the conversation and mention that you’ll send a confirmation by email. Don’t forget to send the customer a calendar invitation to ensure the appointment is also in the customer’s calendar.

– If the customer suggests, for example, coming after lunch, ask if that’s at 1:00 p.m. or 2:00 p.m. and make the appointment concrete. This provides clarity for both parties, ensures you don’t have to wait unnecessarily, and allows you to schedule other appointments immediately after.

Tight guidelines

That’s why it’s very important for us, with Calldrip Scoring, to set strict guidelines on what constitutes an appointment. If salespeople ask for an appointment in every conversation, you’ll see that it has an effect. And if you apply the tips described above, you’ll notice a big difference! By improving the appointment ratio, you ultimately get more sales from your online leads.