If you don’t set appointments with your prospects, you will not be successful as a financial advisor. Without appointments, you can’t make money or help anyone. Appointments are important because they allow you to sell financial planning and answer any questions that the prospect may have.
If you want to improve your technique and set appointments regularly, here are some tips and tricks to help you out. However, be aware of the mistakes you might be making that could sabotage your efforts!
1. Call During The “Off Hours”
This is a helpful tip if you want to reach out to high-level executives or business owners, as they usually have longer working hours than the gatekeepers.
To connect with these busy professionals, try calling early in the morning or later at night.
You’ll be more effective and respected if you call during non-peak hours.
I’m not suggesting that you call people at home during dinnertime; I’m suggesting that you call an office, where the person who answers the phone will think, “You’re still working? I like that.”
You demonstrate your commitment to your job, your corporation, and your service by doing this. Furthermore, you indicate that you are willing to do more than what is expected of you for your customers.
Several old-school sales books and gurus state that it is best to call during lunch; however, this does not work in reality.
Between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., you are 164% more likely to reach people than in the afternoon, according to James Oldroyd, who studied more than one million phone calls while teaching at the Kellogg School of Management.
2. Use Your Marketing Leads
I’ve never understood why so many financial advisors never follow up with the people who express interest in their services.
I know an advisor who has a great website that he spent thousands of dollars developing to rank high in the search engines for his city and keyword.
He also has a lead capture form that should be working for him 24/7, but he doesn’t follow up with the people who fill it out.
Prospects who have already had some interaction with you or your company are more likely to agree to an appointment.
You should follow up with anyone who fills out a contact form, as they are likely interested in what you have to offer. If you have any whitepapers, webinars, or free eBooks, these prospects are especially good candidates to follow up with.
This strategy can be applied to any event that your company sponsors in order to get potential customers’ information. By making it easy for attendees to fill out a form expressing interest in your services, you will be able to get their contact information to follow up with them later.
Making appointments with your marketing leads is one of the best ways to make use of them.
3. Realize That it’s Going To Take More Effort Than You Think
In order to be successful, you must be patient, professional, and persistent. You need to understand that success is not an event that happens overnight, but rather a gradual process. This means that you must continually try to reach out to people, even if they are busy, in order to get noticed.
Appointment setting involves more than just cold calling. It can take as few as one phone call or up to 12 calls to get someone to agree to meet with you.
I suggest reaching out multiple times through various channels to be successful in setting appointments. This can be done through direct mail, cold calling, handwritten notes, voicemail, email, social media, and more.
I’d prefer to think that it’s going to take 20 contacts to set an appointment, rather than think it will only take three and be disappointed.
4. Always Ask For Their Time
Some of you might disagree with me when I say that it’s better to bullied past someone than to try and bully them into submission because they may just shut you down. Maybe they will, but that’s not a very successful long term strategy.
If a potential customer tells you they are busy, please ask them for a better time to talk. If they are not interested, consider it a favor; you would not want to waste your time on someone who is not interested.
Being the nerd I am, I always like to test things. When I was making hundreds of cold calls per week, I tested these sentences against each other:
- “Did I catch you at a bad time?”
- “Did I catch you at an OK time?”
- “Did I reach you at a bad time?”
- “Did I reach you at an OK time?”
- “Is now an OK time to talk?”
- “Is now a bad time to talk?”
I found that “Did I reach you at an OK time?” worked best, while “Is now a bad time to talk?” was least effective. The two “Did I catch you” statements were close behind.
The phrase “catch you” always sounded strange to me. It seems to suggest that you are trying to trap or hunt the person, which is not something that potential customers want to hear. That’s what made me think of using the phrase “reach you” instead.
I have had this experience, so you can take my word for it, but you may want to try it yourself to be sure.
5. Anticipate Objections
Objections aren’t necessarily bad – they can be seen as a logical response to an unsolicited request. In other words, they’re just part of the prospect’s conversation with you, and you should be prepared for them.
Here are some common objections you might hear:
- “I’m happy with who I have.”
- “I’m not interested.”
- “Send me something.”
- “Why should I switch to you?”
- “I’m not in the market right now.”
- “I’m too busy.”
Remember that you will not only hear this once, but multiple times. For example, the person you are speaking to might say they are not interested, then follow up with saying that they are content with who they have.
Make sure you are ready to answer these questions. I would never just accept the first “no.” But, I wouldn’t spend all day trying to convince someone either, it’s not worth arguing with a prospective customer.
I would rather move on to someone who is actually interested in doing business with me.
6. Do the work before the call
Before you start your call, do your research on who you will be speaking to. This is one of the most important cold calling tips that anybody can share. Find out who the decision-maker is likely to be, what time of day they usually take calls, and what their role in the company is.
The way you build interest in your product or services will depend on the images, videos, and text you use.
Seriously, do the research, don’t wing it.
If you skip this step, you may end up talking to the wrong person, which would be a waste of time.
Check with a person who works for the company you’re trying to reach if you can’t find any information online about who to contact. Only do this if you’re comfortable asking someone “who’s in charge of…..”
That’s not cool anymore.
Instead of cold calling a lead, use LinkedIn to find out who the decision-making person is at their workplace.
7. Learn The Right Tone
If you don’t speak with the right tone, you won’t be able to make the sale, even if you use the perfect words.
Close.io, a sales software company, has found that the tone you use on a cold call can play a significant role in its success rate.
Yes, that’s right, 93%.
With such a stunning statistic, it is imperative that you use the right tone. There is no room for monotone here, you have to sound confident.
If you’re bored when you’re selling, your clients will be able to sense it and they won’t want to make a deal with you. It makes sense- if you, the person selling the product, can’t muster up any enthusiasm, why should they?
It is difficult to be enthusiastic every day, but you need to sound confident and friendly during all calls. You should sound sure of yourself and strong, but not too aggressive. Cold calls are not successful if they are aggressive.
Although you are attempting to sell something, it is still essential to keep the same manner, even if the circumstances are not necessarily going in your favor.
8. Talk About How You Can Help Them, Not The Features of Your Service
The thing people care about most is how your product can make their life easier. If you can communicate that to them, you’ve got a sale!
An example of this would be to not start by saying “We make the best laptop on the market.” Instead, try saying “Our laptops are built with a metallic alloy that offers high durability and portability, so they don’t easily break, no matter how many times you drop the device.” This will give them a better idea of what you’re talking about and what makes your laptops different from others on the market.
Remember: people buy value, not things.
When people inquire about your product or service, don’t give them an extensive list of specifications. Keep it concise.
You need to make them see how your product or service benefits THEM as an individual. Emphasize how it will make their life easier or how it will save them money.
If the person you are speaking to needs more information before making a decision, tell them where they can find it on their own time.
Even if you don’t make a sale right away, you’ll see that this is a great cold calling technique because it makes follow-up calls easier and more effective.
9. Get A Little Personal
When you are making a cold call, it is okay to be personal and friendly.
If you want people to be interested in what you’re offering, you need to come across as warm and friendly.
If they seem to have had a difficult day, tell them what you appreciate about their company.
If you are interested in someone, tell them. People usually feel the same way when they find out you care about them as a person.
Sell yourself.
Each cold call is an opportunity to exhibit to individuals that you’re a pleasant and clever person, and that you think about them as a possible customer.
If you want people to see things from your perspective, it will help to strike up a friendly conversation and show that you’re interested in helping them.
10. Be Prepared to Follow Up
Do not let the ball completely rest with the prospect. You still have work to do after the initial meeting. In fact, you might need to call them at least five more times.
80% of sales teams report that whether a prospect answers their phone call or not, it is still the salesperson’s responsibility to call the prospect back.
Do not wait for the potential customer to reach out to you, as it is your responsibility to approach them and try to make a sale. They owe you no further communication, but you do.
11. Sell What You Truly Understand And Believe In
If you do not completely believe in a product or service, do not try to sell it! People can tell when you do not believe in something and they will associate that feeling with your business.
Instead of telling them what they want to hear, be honest and say something like “I think this is a great product, but I’m still learning more about it. If we don’t end up working together, I hope you’ll still find what you’re looking for.”
When you are ready to sell your product, make sure it is something you are very proud of and confident in.
If you said yes, then you enjoy sharing your passion! Think about something that you are passionate about. Are you always excited to talk about it with people? If you said yes, then you enjoy sharing your passion!
If your excitement is palpable, people will want to hear more about what you have to say. If you are excited about something, let it show when you talk to potential contacts. People will appreciate your enthusiasm and will want to hear more about what you have to say.
It’s more difficult for people to pay attention to automated messages than ever before, but you can get their attention by sounding excited (without sounding insincere!).
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