7 Ways to Increase Your Appointment Set Rate

Brandon Welch 0:00
The average sale in America for like higher ticket items takes over 15 points of contact to close, the average sales person or organization gives up after two

Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast. Today is Maven Monday. I’m your host, Brandon Welch, and I’m joined by Caleb Agee, and today we have a very juicy topic for you, seven ways to set more sales from your leads. It is tough to set leads in America

Caleb Agee 0:26
right now. It really is. It really is. So we got to think about this. When we get a lead, usually get it through your email, or somebody’s calling into your office that’s going to your front of office person or maybe a salesperson who needs to follow up. Usually set some sort of appointment, get them to come in, set a remote phone call. However, that works. And God

Brandon Welch 0:44
bless those people, because they are the hardest working people in the organization. There. It all hinges on them. Yes,

Caleb Agee 0:50
it’s all on you. And if, if you were forwarded this episode and you don’t know who we are, hey, we’re Brandon and Caleb, and we’re just, we’re gonna keep this tight and clean for you, your company got a lead. And the danger is that you can neglect the fact that this person trusted you enough to reach out. So it’s really easy to get it really cold, but this person went to your website, or saw a Facebook ad or something like that, and they filled this out. And hopefully, because your company invests in long term tomorrow marketing, you’ve been bonding with this customer for potentially years, and this is the moment that this all comes to and so we want to make sure we capitalize on this. This costs your company hundreds of dollars to get this person in. Here is also a really important moment for this customer, and we want to make sure we, on both sides, are respecting that equation. Love

Brandon Welch 1:39
it. So we have seven tactics that are going to get you a higher percentage of those leads turning into appointments for your sales people so your company can grow. This is the place where we eliminate waste and advertising, grow your business and help you achieve the big dream. And let’s jump right in and do that. Go for it. Tip number one, when you get a lead, you need to meet them where they just were. They had a moment, they had a need, they went to your website, or they decided to call you, and in your mind, you need to model what were they just doing? Because I promise you, they were not reaching out. So you could say, Can I set your appointment? That’s your agenda. That’s your goal. But their goal was to reduce their energy cost or to make it more comfortable in their home, or to solve some problem with insurance, or to, if you’re in the illegal business, to solve a legal matter, and think about for just a second where they were and the language of the of the landing page. You need to familiarize yourself with the language on that landing page. You need to know what form it was coming from. One we use often is get a price, not get an estimate, not set a set an appointment, but get a price. Yeah, and we want to promise that person on the website experience. Hey, you’re not just going to be some random contact in the inbox. Yes, click here to get a price. Give us your information and tell us how many windows you need, or tell us the square footage of your home. Or tell us how about how big the you know, back patio is you want to remodel. So when you when you know what’s on that landing page, you need to model that as the person. So it’s Hey Caleb. I Great news. I’m working on a price for your project, because that validated what Caleb thought he was going to get. Hey, Caleb, I was wondering, when can we set your appointment? Caleb’s like, I didn’t want it. I

Caleb Agee 3:12
didn’t I wanted a price.

Brandon Welch 3:13
I wanted a price. So what’s the language on your form? There’s a whole other episode we have on how to make those forms more empathetic and get higher conversion rate from the website, yeah. But no matter where you’re at, you need to literally repeat back what they just read, yes. And if it’s on the just the cold call in that you get, you can probably model that by saying, cool. What’s the biggest reason you’re calling today? Yep, and validate where they just were before they decided to take that next.

Caleb Agee 3:42
Your script shouldn’t be rigid. It should be maybe thought through, but the beginning of it should speak to their pains and how they got to you, yep, and you’re doing your very best to anticipate their pain. So that was number one, meet them where they just were before they reached out. Number two is try more than one way to contact them. This is a big one, because a lot of people, a lot of companies, are busy. You’re really busy. And that’s that’s fair, but often it’s like, Well, I tried one two times, or I try, I tried a call, and they didn’t pick up. I tried to email and they didn’t email back. So they must, must be a bad lead. Must be cold. The Pew Research Center says 51% of people prefer to text, or prefer text to talking on the phone with a brand. So 51 that’s right at halfway, prefer text. Yes, we can go you know, the inverse is 49% prefer a phone call. Yep, we’re talking about introverts and extroverts. That’s a in the world, that’s about half and half in general, anyways. So you need to realize that just because you texted them doesn’t mean and they didn’t respond doesn’t mean they don’t want you to call them yes and vice versa.

Brandon Welch 4:55
So I’ll put it to you this way, one of the best pieces of advice I ever. Got from a really smart person in like, sales and relationship building, is, if somebody didn’t respond well to you today, it’s just because they don’t know you yet or it wasn’t the right time. It does not mean it’s because you’re annoying them. And I think of, like, the best front office people, and the best ones I can think of, I’m thinking of Ellen. I’m thinking of Riley in our office. They are the sweetest, kindest, most, just pleasant people in general, and they’re afraid to offend and annoy people. They’re afraid to be that stereotypical slimy, pushy person. Yeah, and there’s, there’s a truth that I think we need to realize, that if that person released their contact information to you. Yeah, they were saying, I have a need. And so shift your perspective from, you know, the need to keep yourself comfortable, from not annoying them, to Oh, no, this person is suffering. Yeah, this person has a problem, and they’re begging for a guide. They stuck their head out of the sand. They might be a little scared to move forward, but guess what? Because you’re worried about that, because you’re worried about annoying them, you’re gonna be the person that is finally the pleasant person that didn’t slimeball them. Yes, and you are the solution. You are the light of the world in that equation, because you are the sweet, caring, compassionate, consultive person that you are, and you are there to be their guide. So yeah, by not doing that, you are actually doing them a disservice, yeah? And so we’re going to talk about frequency in just a second, yeah, but you got to try more than one way to contact them, out of compassion, not out of

Caleb Agee 6:29
pushiness. Yeah, they asked you to. And another stat from the Pew Research Center, 48% of consumers agree that phone calls are better than text messages or complex issues. Yes, I’m gonna guess that what you’re selling is a complex issue, and it has a lot of moving parts and variables that you need to sort out. Yes, text messages are good, and I think your company should find a way to make sure you can text follow up with people, because some people prefer that. 51% do. But when if you can get them on the phone,

Brandon Welch 6:59
that’s right, probably use the text to get them on the phone. Some people this pain is going to be high enough and they’re going to be extroverted enough that they just want to get on the phone. The others texted your stepping stone, and I’ll add an email. Should be your third thing in rotation, yes. So we recommend a rotation of phone call, leave a voicemail, send a text in the same like five minutes, and then follow up with an email later that afternoon. Yeah, and we’re gonna talk about frequency here in just a moment. But number three call with good news. So we just talked about, you’re not calling to annoy them, to set their appointment, to be pushy. You’re calling with good news. Yeah, this little subtle shift. So sometimes, because the culture of the organization is set appointment, sell. Set appointment, sell. We don’t stop to think about where people are and the other noise that they have in this process. So they’re probably talking to three or four other competitors, if we’re talking about a service business, yeah, offering value in a phone call. Hey, Mr. Agee, I have good news for you, and have something in your back pocket, if I’m talking to an entrepreneur, owner operator, set something up in your experience that is only available to your receptionist to offer your appointment. Setters off, yeah, yeah. Could be a special appointment time you have good news, I’m going to be in your area tomorrow, or Dan’s going to be in your area tomorrow, or Randy’s going to be in your area tomorrow. He could come by and give you that solid price. Or he has a couple things he needs to look at. You have 15 to 30 minutes where I can have him stop in. Or I love this one. Hey, good news right now. We have a blank promotion. We just started this blank promotion, and it could be a percent off. It could be a buy one, get one. It can be, you know, if you have, like, really big, complex services, I’m thinking roofs or whatever, maybe you do a free, you know, for anybody who has us out, we give you tickets to a Cardinals game, or, you know, some sort of 20 or $30 gift that you got sitting around, or a gift card or something. Yeah, but you’re always calling with good news and make good news to call with, yeah,

Caleb Agee 9:02
and I think don’t be afraid to leave a voicemail. That leaves a little bit of a cliffhanger. So you can say, I’ve got good news, but don’t give away the farm. When you have a voicemail, a lot of people have qualms with calling because they think everybody’s at work they’re not going to answer the phone. That may be true, that they don’t answer the phone at that moment, but voicemails are transcribed now, and I can quickly, if I’m in a meeting, right after that meeting, I’m gonna go, click over and click on my voicemail summary, get a summary real quick. See the word good news? You’re

Brandon Welch 9:31
like, oh, that’s a positive, emotional experience, right? Yeah, so

Caleb Agee 9:34
don’t be afraid to leave that voicemail, because it’s like a text, but it’s comes up in a different place

Brandon Welch 9:39
in the modern day and age. We’re reading voicemails Now, folks, that’s crazy

Caleb Agee 9:42
cool. Number four. Number four is, don’t give up too early. We’ve already hit on this a little bit, but you should have a call schedule that does not give up on this person. They raised their hand said, I need help. I need this thing. I hope to get this thing. Solved, and they were bold enough to fill out a form on Facebook, on your website, they clicked on a Google ad with your name on it and said, I want you to call me. I want you to reach out. Don’t give up

Brandon Welch 10:10
on the average sale in America for like, higher ticket items takes over 15 points of contact to close. The average sales person or organization gives up after two and so many times we’re like, asking people who aren’t in our world yet, like, it aren’t, haven’t learned our system that we’re teaching you right now. Like, well, I called them and they didn’t. You know, these leads are weak, and it’s like they didn’t, they didn’t answer. I’m like, Well, cool. How many times did you call them? Well, once I left voicemail, it’s like, no. One, one, day two, day three, day five, day seven, day 10, day and 14, day. Non negotiable, like you’ve got to do that. Bring it on. And then you’re putting them in at every seven days. Format, so, seven, sorry, 1421, 2835 42 Yeah, do your

Caleb Agee 10:56
third you’re only getting you’re only getting to your seventh contact at that point, which is only halfway through the window of when most people convert to the next step. So 10,

Brandon Welch 11:06
if I own the company, 10 as a minimum, and remember, go back to, you know our suggestion. Point number two, you’re calling to help them, to serve them, to guide them. And everybody lives in a very busy world, and oftentimes you are throwing that offer back out there, not to manipulate them, but because, out of an act of compassion you are, you’re bringing something to surface, you know they want to solve, or they wouldn’t have reached out, and you are hoping to get them at the right time, yeah, where it’s convenient and in a serving art for them, Yeah.

Caleb Agee 11:39
Think about a lot of the people that listen to this have very large ticket prices. Think about the last thing that cost more than $5,000 that you bought. You started looking into it weeks and months before you pulled the trigger inch and decided to buy that thing, I promise you. And so whoever’s there still with me at the finish line is the one who’s gonna get my business. Get

Brandon Welch 12:02
my business. Yes, I have. My house needs the soffits clean, gutters clean, and I’ve called out of moments of impulse, I’ll be outside cleaning something up, and I look at those and I’ve called enough messages for companies because Dad gum and I’m tired like every time I drive, pull in the driveway, it’s, it’s, it’s like, sad to me, right? Yeah. And the companies I called did a poor job of following up, and so I forget about it. But every day, every Dang day, when I pull in, I’m like, oh, gotta get that done. And that’s been for like, two years. Yep, I promise you, the company that would call and say, Hey,

Caleb Agee 12:33
did we get that taken care of? Yeah, they

Brandon Welch 12:36
left me a voicemail. I would be thankful for it. Yeah. And your service, you know, if you’re selling anything in home service, I promise you, it’s a relief for them. And because of the company you work for and the way you do it, because the people listen to Maven marketing podcasts, are good folks. You are the good companies. You’re not the slime balls, yeah, you’re not the knuckleheads. You’re the good guys, yeah, and so they’ve been waiting for a good guy or good gal, and it’s good. So keep doing that, because it’s a, I’ll say it again. It’s an act of compassion. Number five, number

Caleb Agee 13:05
five is make the process clear.

Brandon Welch 13:09
Okay, yeah, you want to take this one? Yeah, I

Caleb Agee 13:11
think it’s I’ll take it. It’s really important that this person doesn’t feel like they’re taken on a ride and and a lot of sales processes are very abstract on purpose, to disorient the customer and confuse them, to hold information behind a curtain and and you they’ve that’s a very manipulative sales tactic. You are a good company, and I promise you, you will earn more trust if you are 100% clear with what’s going to happen next.

Brandon Welch 13:39
Yes. So they call Valerie, and they’re like, as Welch, I know you’re busy. Let me tell you exactly what’s going to happen. Mike is going to come out to your house and we’ll be there exactly when he said he’s going to be there. Okay? He’s going to take about a five minute walk around your home. He’s going to make a few notes, and then he’s going to need about 15 minutes of your time to explain the process and what he saw with your yada yada could be your HVAC, could be your windows, could be whatever, right? Yep. And then at that time, he’s going to, you know, give you an accurate timeline about when we could solve that problem for you. And if the price looks good to you, then we can move forward that day, and you can expect the problem to be solved within two weeks. Like her knowing in her mind, because, like, your wife scheduled my wife, yeah, you’ve

Caleb Agee 14:18
got four kids running around the house. What’s gonna go on?

Brandon Welch 14:21
Yeah, it’s stressful. It is so bad, right? It’s inconvenient. The person that does that, guess what? You just did. 53% of sales in America happened because of the experience, not because of the product or the availability or even the timing. 53% of sales you just gave Valerie the experience. That was the biggest relief of any of it, the price, if it was in somewhat range of expectation, just became irrelevant, yeah. And comparing you to another shopper became irrelevant. So it all starts with the compassionate person answering that phone and transferring that confidence. So you’re setting your sales person up for success, yeah? So. Clarify the process. Yeah, make

Caleb Agee 15:01
the process clear which led to, which leads to number six, which is set your salesperson up for success. If you are clear about what’s happening when they come to the door that already starts to set them up for success. But there’s, there are ways you can take that a step further, yes.

Brandon Welch 15:14
So I’d like to say you can be the vamp. You can be the announcer that goes, and the greatest person in the world is coming out to, yeah, repair your HVAC system. But it practically, it sounds like Tyler’s gonna come to your door. And let me just tell you, Tyler’s the best guy. I’ve worked for him for so long. Or I just love Tyler, yeah, you know, he’s got three kids. Like, give a little bit of yes, you know. And the thing about him, he’s a master craftsman. Like, if he can’t figure it out, nobody can figure it out. And you’re picking a unique thing to, like, Vamp them, and it’s gonna be a little bit different for each salesperson. So Vamp them. But also say, Okay, is there anything I can tell Tyler? Obviously, he’s gonna give you the price and he’s gonna give you the next steps, but is there anything else you’re curious about that he can bring for you? Yeah, that’s great. And if you’re the conduit, if you’re the connector, if you’re the matchmaker between this person’s need and your sales person’s ability to deliver, you’re going to call your sales guy, and you’re going to say, hey, Valerie, you know, she’s actually really curious about this one product she’s been reading about, and it’s not going to be something that maybe Valerie brought up, right, or it would have come out in the conversation naturally, but Valerie already left her left, that interaction, that three minute interaction, going, Wow, I’m going to, I’m going to get everything I needed here. Yeah. There’s no more curiosity. There’s no more confusion, yeah. So clarify an outcome. Say, you know, other than the price and the obvious, like, is there anything else I can be prepared for? Yeah,

Caleb Agee 16:43
it’s like, Well, I’m really concerned about how my insurance is going to deal with this. Yeah, they’re going to cover this. Yeah. Oh, okay, I’ll make sure he, he brings some info on our insurance claims process or something like that, right? And, yeah,

Brandon Welch 16:54
I would encourage, I think a lot of times the I’m just going to pick on the owner operators for a minute, they don’t love on their phone, folks, enough the front desk or the appointment setters, enough. And so the appointment setters, you know, maybe, maybe a great company, but they don’t feel like they have authority to call that salesperson and, like, really learn from them. So put it, be a little bit assertive. Yeah, say, Hey Tyler, she’s really curious about this, and just while I’m at it, can you educate me about that for a minute? Yeah? And you build this knowledge, and you’re setting, yeah, you’re setting yourself up for success, to serve the absolute heck out of that. Valerie or Sierra, that’s it.

Caleb Agee 17:37
And we’ve, we’ve breeze past this. But I just want to make this really clear, if you can tell the name of the person coming to their house when you’re setting that point, yeah, I think that seems obvious, but they’re very often, is like, one of our people will be tell them their name, yeah? So much more personal, yeah? So bonus pro

Brandon Welch 17:56
tip, yeah, send an email of the bio that person with their picture, yeah, safe light, auto glass does this. And they say, you know, Randy’s coming out to replace your windshield. And here’s a picture of them. Here’s what Randy likes to do in his free time. And now I know Randy when he gets there, right. There

Caleb Agee 18:10
are a lot of systems that send that text on the way. So good, yep, number seven and the final one benchmark your success.

Brandon Welch 18:17
Okay, so the answer that the marketing folks get a lot of time is we don’t have any appointments. Marketing is not working. And part of the time the marketing is the problem, bad leads. Yeah, bad leads, right? And that certainly needs to be reported. But the only way that a marketer can fix that problem for you is if they know objectively where the trend is. And so I think a paper log is one of the best things you can do, even though you have a fancy CRM, and even though you have all the tools to go, Oh, here’s how many calls we got. All that stuff, but just a paper log of like, I got this call. I think it was a Google source, and this is what we talked about. And so when you’re having those conversations with your marketing folks or with your sales folks or your owner or whatever, who’s trying to make this business grow, you are going, I’ve noticed our Google calls aren’t setting as often as they used to, just for some benchmarks. Here’s where you can start to be concerned in our world, if it’s a service company, or, like, a professional service company, maybe a medical office or a legal office. About seven out of 10 of your Google driven leads anything that’s a search engine or a website thing, yeah, should set into an appointment because they were out looking for you on a search Yeah.

Caleb Agee 19:35
They Googled roofer near me, or they Googled eye doctor, or, yeah, whatever that is, and then they went to your website and filled out the form pretty high quality lead, yes,

Brandon Welch 19:45
so you can expect a high quality the other three will be either bogus contact information or, you know, the ones that don’t set will be, they thought you did something and you don’t. Yeah, you’re clarifying that, but seven out of 10 should set to an appointment in a reasonable environment. I. Um, if it’s certainly, if it’s below five or six, you’ve got a quality issue in the advertising, yep. Um, if you’re talking about Facebook leads, these are gonna set these are typically gonna be cheaper leads, because the inventory on Facebook is cheaper, but because we reached somebody on a platform where they weren’t actively searching, likely they’re probably a little farther away from the finish line. And so for that reason, on an immediate basis, like within these first five or 10 calls, these are going to set at more of a 15 to 20% rate. We say one out of six is what we see, yeah,

Caleb Agee 20:33
and, and I’d encourage you, for a Facebook lead or maybe a higher an earlier lead funnel, you need to be prepared to reach out to them for a longer period of time. Yes, before you call that a cold

Brandon Welch 20:46
set, your mindset, this is a person who’s on the loose. They’re not quite there, but I’m gonna charm the heck out of them. I’m gonna serve them. Man, my mission today is to make their roofing problems or their HVAC problems or their home improvement problems go away, or their family problems go away, their medical problems go away, like if problems go away. Like if you wake up and enter the phones with that mindset, you are going to automatically have a hunger to get them from where they are to where they need to be. Yep, you are their guide. You are the Yoda, you are the helpful hand. And when they’re done, and at the finish line, they’re going to look back and in the review, they’re going to say Ellen was so great on the phone. She was so helpful. They’re going to boast to their friends. They’re going to shout it from the rooftops what a wonderful experience you created for them and what a better life you created for them. And isn’t that the point of the whole thing? Yes, folks, this is what we’re doing. We’re going to meet them wherever they are just before they reached out and matched their pains. We’re going to try more than one way to contact them. You need to be texting, calling and emailing. We’re going to call with good news. Don’t just call to follow up. Say, I’ve got good news. There’s a special promotion or something you’re always going to have in your back pocket. Don’t give up too early. The average person takes well over 10 times of calling, even if it’s a warm lead to get an appointment set. You’re going to make the process clear so that they leave that phone call knowing exactly what’s about to happen to them. You’re going to set your salesperson up for success by telling a good story about them before they ever get to the house, and asking the customer what that salesperson can do to best serve them. And then the last thing you’re going to do is benchmark your success and keep track of how many calls you’re setting to appointments and making sure they’re within that seven to 10 range if they’re a Google lead and a one out of six range if they’re a Facebook lead. Love it. You do these things you’re gonna fundamentally leverage your advertising to easily double digit more profitability and owners. You better give that office person a raise, yeah? Oh, yeah. You, You best be bonusing them. You best be making that happen. Make a make a game out of it, yeah, put your appointment set rate on the whiteboard and see if he or she can beat it, yeah? And then throw a party and throw some money up in the air when that happens. Because everybody’s gonna win. The customer is gonna win. The world is gonna win, because good companies got connected to good people. And what a great way to think about business. Love

Caleb Agee 23:08
it. Hey, if you enjoyed this episode, I would encourage you to like subscribe. We always are releasing a new episode every single Monday, and we wanna make sure that you’re up to date when we roll these out.

Brandon Welch 23:20
That’s at Maven Monday at frankandmaven.com if you want to email us or just go to Frankandmaven.com and sign up for the Maven Monday emails, yes, on the home page, yeah, we’ll be back here every single Monday answering your real life marketing questions, because marketers who can’t teach you why are just

Caleb Agee 23:35
a fancy lie.

Brandon Welch 23:36
Have a wonderful week.