Setting B2B appointments can be tough. Once you do finally get a prospect on the phone, you only have a couple of minutes to work with and it can sometimes be a hostile environment.
But don’t worry as we have developed a B2B appointment setting sales methodology that not only makes this process easier, it will also produce better results. We will outline how this process works on our next webinar “How to Make Setting B2B Appointments Easy” and you will also receive an ebook under the same name when you register.
7. Core Concepts
Understand the Prospect
• Extremely busy
• Gets a lot of sales calls
• Likely not in buying mode
• Guard will be at a medium level
8. Step 1 – Focus on the Right Goal
You Always Have Two Goals
1. Ultimate Goal: Close the sale, sell the product, get
a new client
2. Immediate Goal: Advance prospect to next stage of
the sales process
Initial Contact
(First time to speak)
Cold Call
Inbound Call
Email
Event
2 to 5 minutes
80% on prospect
20% on you
First Conversation
(Appointment/Meeting)
Phone Call
Face-to-Face
Discovery
20 to 30 minutes
50% on prospect
50% on you
First Meeting
(Presentation)
Discovery
Presentation
Demonstration
1 to 2 hours
20% on prospect
80% on youFull training module on YouTube - Mapping Out Your Ideal Sales
Process
9. Step 1 – Focus on the Right Goal
Avoid the Instant Appointment
• When the cold call progresses to a decent conversation
• You will usually have more time and attention in a
scheduled appointment
• If you progress into a conversation, you will miss an
opportunity to close for a meeting
Initial Contact
(First time to speak)
Cold Call
Inbound Call
Email
Event
2 to 5 minutes
80% on prospect
20% on you
First Conversation
(Appointment/Meeting)
Phone Call
Face-to-Face
Discovery
20 to 30 minutes
50% on prospect
50% on you
First Meeting
(Presentation)
Discovery
Presentation
Demonstration
1 to 2 hours
20% on prospect
80% on you
10. Step 1 – Focus on the Right Goal
Make Objections Invalid
These objections don’t even make sense when you are
trying to sell the conversation:
– I am not interested
– We already use someone today
– We don’t have budget to spend
– We aren’t making any changes right now
Initial Contact
(First time to speak)
Cold Call
Inbound Call
Email
Event
2 to 5 minutes
80% on prospect
20% on you
First Conversation
(Appointment/Meeting)
Phone Call
Face-to-Face
Discovery
20 to 30 minutes
50% on prospect
50% on you
First Meeting
(Presentation)
Discovery
Presentation
Demonstration
1 to 2 hours
20% on prospect
80% on youFull training module on YouTube – How to Consistently Get Around
Sales Objection
11. Step 2 – Confirm Availability
Is the Prospect in the Middle of Anything?
Opening the call by checking to see if you have
caught the prospect in the middle of anything.
– Determine if normal busy or crazy busy
– “Have I caught you in the middle of anything?”
– Buys you 2 to 5 minutes
– Build rapports
– Creates an impression of familiarity
12. Step 3 – Elevator Pitch
Grab the Prospect’s Attention
One or two sentences that communicate how you
help your clients. Here are three options:
1. Share a value statement
2. Share examples of common problems
3. Share a quick client example
Full training module on YouTube – Building a Value Proposition that
Generates Leads
14. Step 4 – Soft Disqualify
Decrease the Prospect’s Guard
Perform a soft takeaway right after your elevator
pitch.
“I am not sure if we are a good fit for you.”
“I am not sure if you all need what we provide.”
“I am not sure you are the right person to speak with.”
Full training module on YouTube - How to Perform the Perfect
Takeaway
15. Step 5 - Pre-Qualify
Ask a Couple of Questions
Have a couple of questions as the central piece
and purpose of your call.
– Makes call more conversational
– Extracts valuable information
– Pre-qualifies to determine if it makes sense to keep
talking
Full training module on YouTube – Sell More by Screening the Good
Prospects from Bad
16. Step 5 - Pre-Qualify
Building Your Questions
Here is a step-by-step process that you can use
to build an optimum list of questions:
1. Identify the product you ultimately want to sell
2. Identify the benefits it offers the buyer
3. Identify the pain point that the benefit fixes
4. Compose one or two question for each pain point
Full training module on YouTube – Sell More by Screening the Good
Prospects from Bad
18. Step 6 – Share Common Problems
Is the Prospect Having Challenges?
• Share some examples of problems that you
help to resolve, minimize, or avoid
• Goal is to get some sort of acknowledgement
that there is a concern or uncertainty
Full training module on YouTube – How to Use Prospect Pain to
Generate Leads
20. Step 7 – Share Brief Company and Product Info
(Pre-Close Step)
Build Enough Interest to Close
• Product details
• Outline benefits
• Communicate ROI
• Explain differentiation
• Share client story
• Paint a picture of the future state
• Discuss impacts of doing nothing
• Share company facts
21. Step 8 – Close
Ask for the Appointment
If you have done everything else, it should be very
easy and reasonable to ask for the meeting.
– Grab their attention
– Decrease their guard
– Identify that they have a need or concern
– Communicate how you can help
– Build a little interest
Full training module on YouTube – How to Immediately Become a
Better Closer
22. Call Blueprint
Target Prospect Introduction
“Hello Mary, this is Michael Halper, calling from
SalesScripter. Have I caught you in the middle of
anything?”
Target Prospect Introduction
Elevator Pitch
Qualifying Questions
Common Pain Examples
Brief Company and Product Info
Close
Disqualify Statement
23. Call Blueprint
Elevator Pitch
Great. The Purpose of my call is that - (Choose one of below)
• We help Sales Managers to get their sales people saying the
best possible sales pitch and asking the right questions.
• We help Sales Managers to shorten the amount of time that it
takes to train new salespeople.
• We help Sales Managers to improve sales performance for
the entire sales team.
• We help Sales Managers to decrease sales staff turnover.
• We help Sales Managers to get under-performing on the right
track.
• We help Sales Managers to simplify training and onboarding
for the sales resources.
Target Prospect Introduction
Elevator Pitch
Qualifying Questions
Common Pain Examples
Brief Company and Product Info
Close
Disqualify Statement
24. Call Blueprint
Disqualify Statement
(Choose one of the following)
• I actually don't know if you need what our services provide so
I just had a question or two.
• I actually don't know if you are a good fit for what we provide
so I just had a question or two.
• I don't know if you are the right person to speak with but I
have just a couple of questions.
Target Prospect Introduction
Elevator Pitch
Qualifying Questions
Common Pain Examples
Brief Company and Product Info
Close
Disqualify Statement
25. Call Blueprint
Qualifying Questions
• How confident are you that all of your sales resources are
asking the right questions when talking with prospects?
• How concerned are you about the amount of time it takes to
get new sales hires ramped up and performing? How long on
average does it take for a rep to get fully up-to-speed?
• How important is it for you to get under-performing sales
resources corrected and on the right path toward meeting or
exceeding their objectives?
• How concerned are you about your current level of sales staff
turnover?
• How open are you to exploring new ways to boost sales
performance for your sales resources?
Target Prospect Introduction
Elevator Pitch
Qualifying Questions
Common Pain Examples
Brief Company and Product Info
Close
Disqualify Statement
26. Call Blueprint
Share Some Common Problems
Oh, OK. Well, as we talk with other Sales Managers, we have
noticed that they often express challenges with (or concerns
around):
• It can be difficult to get the sales resources saying to right sales
pitch and asking the right questions
• It can take long time and be difficult getting new sales
resources trained and ramped up
• There is always a need to find ways to continue to improve
sales performance
• It can be difficult to get under-performing sales resources
corrected and on the right path
• It can be time consuming and a daunting task to get new and
existing resources trained up and where they need to be
• Sales staff turnover can be costly and it would be nice to find
ways to decrease it
Target Prospect Introduction
Elevator Pitch
Qualifying Questions
Common Pain Examples
Brief Company and Product Info
Close
Disqualify Statement
27. Call Blueprint
Share Brief Company and Product (Pre-
Close)
Well, that is one of the reasons why I am reaching out as it sounds
like we might have a productive conversation.
• Product details
• Benefits
• ROI
• Name drop
• Differentiation
• Picture of a future state
• Threats of doing nothing
Target Prospect Introduction
Elevator Pitch
Qualifying Questions
Common Pain Examples
Brief Company and Product Info
Close
Disqualify Statement
28. Call Blueprint
Close
But I have actually called you out of the blue so I do not want to
take any more of your time right now.
A great next step would be for us to schedule a/an brief 15 to 20
minute meeting where we can discuss your goals and challenges
and share some examples of how we have helped organizations
like yours.
Is that something that you would like to put on the calendar?
Target Prospect Introduction
Elevator Pitch
Qualifying Questions
Common Pain Examples
Brief Company and Product Info
Close
Disqualify Statement
33. SMART Sales System
Sales Methodology Software Platform Professional Services
Sales Training
• Recorded Training Videos
• Live Sales Training (virtual)
• Live Sales Training (in-person)
• Custom Sales Training
34. Sales Methodology Software Platform Professional Services
• Will help you to build your pitch
• Library of Scripts and Templates
• Library of Scripts and Templates
• CRM Functionality
When a gatekeeper answers your call, he or she is instantly trying to screen you out and determine if you are a friend or a foe. A friend would be someone who is already connected with the company in someway like a current vendor or business partner and a foe would be someone who is an outsider trying to get in, like one of those cold callers that is calling to try to get in and sell something.
What we want to do is try to get the gatekeeper to see us as a friend so they will less likely to screen us out and one very easy way to do that is to use a tactic of name dropping.
For example, we can say something like, I spoke with Tom White in accounting and now I am trying to reach someone in HR. This presents the image that we are already engaged and not a complete outsider and this minor tweak can often be the difference in the gatekeeper letting you in.
And if we have not met with Tom White in accounting, we could still name drop his name by saying something like, I am planning on meeting with Tom White in accounting and before I do that, I would like with someone in HR.” Nothing misleading there as we likely are planning on meeting with Tom at some point and by sharing his name and our plans, we give off the image as we are not a complete outsider.
We can also name drop external clients that we work with to establish some level of credibility. That is not going to be as strong as sharing internal names and is probably only going to really help when talking with more senior gatekeepers like executive assistants.
When a gatekeeper answers your call, he or she is instantly trying to screen you out and determine if you are a friend or a foe. A friend would be someone who is already connected with the company in someway like a current vendor or business partner and a foe would be someone who is an outsider trying to get in, like one of those cold callers that is calling to try to get in and sell something.
What we want to do is try to get the gatekeeper to see us as a friend so they will less likely to screen us out and one very easy way to do that is to use a tactic of name dropping.
For example, we can say something like, I spoke with Tom White in accounting and now I am trying to reach someone in HR. This presents the image that we are already engaged and not a complete outsider and this minor tweak can often be the difference in the gatekeeper letting you in.
And if we have not met with Tom White in accounting, we could still name drop his name by saying something like, I am planning on meeting with Tom White in accounting and before I do that, I would like with someone in HR.” Nothing misleading there as we likely are planning on meeting with Tom at some point and by sharing his name and our plans, we give off the image as we are not a complete outsider.
We can also name drop external clients that we work with to establish some level of credibility. That is not going to be as strong as sharing internal names and is probably only going to really help when talking with more senior gatekeepers like executive assistants.