Appointment Setting: 4 Reasons for a Low Conversion Rate

Appointment Setting: 4 Reasons for a Low Conversion Rate

A low conversion rate can spell disaster for your industrial company's appointment setting strategy. You may reach out to hundreds of prospects in a given month, only to land few or no appointments. The conversion rate, represents the percentage of prospects with whom you actually speak with who agrees to book a meeting. You'll still need to follow up to ensure the appointment is confirmed, especially if it is out more than 7 days. Take a look at the conversion rate for yourself or the team. If your appointment setting strategy is suffering from a low conversion rate, it may be attributed to one or more of the following reasons. Let’s take a look at the top four.

#1) Trying Too Hard to Sell

It's not common to get into an arrangement without getting to know the individual first. Appointment setting is no different. Ideally, your objective is to simply engage with the prospect in an effort to briefly introduce you and your company, your value proposition, and engage in open conversation with equal business stature to pre-qualify the prospect and gauge the “fit”. To accomplish this, ask questions to learn and understand their business and unique pain points; with the prospect doing 75%+ of the talking. Once the account is determined to be a “fit”, then suggest a small commitment going forward, such as an in-plant meeting, scheduled phone call, webex, to continue the conversation. If you are strategic and view appointment setting as a multi-step process consisting of a series of small positive actions, you will find prospects to be more receptive to partnering with you.

Most prospects won't agree to an appointment unless they can choose a convenient date. There’s nothing worse than a prospect sharing a date and time and you say, “No, that won’t work for me.” If you ask an open-ended question, then be open! You can offer dates that are good for you and offer those as a place to start and ask, “Do any of these dates work for you?” It’s important to respect the prospect's time. Remember, you were the one to reach out to them. You need to accommodate them, not the other way around.

#2) Targeting the Wrong Prospects

One of the most common reasons for a low conversion rate is targeting the wrong prospects. Different industrial companies have very different audiences; ranging from industry verticals to company sizes each with their own personas. Once your ICP is well defined, reach out to MNI to help you create a targeted list of companies and contacts. This will help you to yield a higher conversion rate with more quality appointments.

Related: Building the Top of the Sales Funnel: In-House or Outsourced

#3) Lack of Value Proposition

While the goal of appointment setting isn't to sell a product or service, you'll still need to include a value proposition. Failure to include a value proposition in your conversations will result in a low conversion rate. A value proposition is a simple 2-3 sentences that summarizes the clearest benefit your customer will receive from your product or service. Leave the rest of the details for a later conversation. The prospect has to apply their need(s) to your value proposition. When they do, the appointment is set. As part of the Industrial SalesLeads Prospecting Services, we’ll get into this in more detail.

#4) Contacting the Same Prospects Multiple Times

Attempting to set an appointment with the same prospect multiple times within a short period of time will likely have a negative impact on your conversion rate. If a prospect has rejected your offer for an appointment, contacting this person for a second time within 60-90 days is probably a waste of time, unless they have suggested to re-engage at that time. Alternatively, developing a documented prospect nurturing process will enable you to effectively manage how often you are engaging with your prospects over a longer period of time; putting you in a position to develop TOMA (Top of Mind Awareness) and most importantly be there for the prospect as needs arise. For a more productive appointment setting strategy that boasts a higher conversion rate, move on to the next prospect.

Related: In an Uncertain Economy, There's Only One Answer: Outsourced Sales Prospecting

Outsource Performing Appointment Setting for a Higher Result

It’s never a bad thing to ask for help. There are services like Industrial Prospecting & Appointment Setting Services that utilize experts on the subject with experience in the manufacturing industry. We work to get your sales team in front of qualified decision makers that match your ideal customers. This can only be accomplished with the experience in the industrial sector and first hand knowledge with thousands of conversations. As a result, the appointments setting service can be funnel-filling with qualified leads that go through the sales funnel with a greater end result.

Ready to take the next step? Learn about our industrial prospecting & appointment setting services here.

Or want to see a real-world example of our solutions in action? See how First Choice Material Handling was able to transform their business with the help of IndustrySelect's Industrial Prospecting & Appointment Setting Services.