Entrepreneurial Selling
Managing Your Appointment Calendar
Written by Chukwuma Asala for Gaebler Ventures
Sales is all about how many appointments you can book that will lead to a sale. You can't directly always control the outcome of an appointment, but you can always control if your calendar is booked or not.
The sales industry is a numbers game, period.
Everything in sales comes down to the ability to go through high volumes of prospects to find the few people who will eventually purchase and make up for all the work that has been put in. To be successful in sales requires you develop certain traits like perseverance, mental toughness, buoyancy, etc. The most important of these many traits however would be this: consistency.
Every sales business must have a prospect list that is always growing. You should be putting new prospects on your list daily in order to have a completely booked calendar. This is important for your attitude because when you have a lot of appointments your posture is the right balance, you communicate with confidence, and it is easier to overcome rejection.
In order to have a booked calendar there are certain things you can do to ensure that you never get too busy to keep the appointments going. The last thing anyone wants in sales is a situation when your prospect list dries up and you have to start from scratch. Here are some quick tips that can help you.
Put time slots into your calendar ahead of time, then fill them
A sure way to make sure that your calendar is always booked is to put actual time slots in your calendar that you would ideally book appointments into. This works on a psychological level as well as it helps you organize your calendar. Time slots that you put into your calendar that are empty will be eventually filled because if you are a competitive person you will do whatever you have to do to fill those time slots. Secondly, having those slots gives you more flexibility with regards to booking times to talk or meet with prospects. You also familiarize yourself with your schedule since you pretty much put similar time slots on the same days. This eliminates you spending too much time on the phone and giving prospects a reason to back out of a meeting with you.
Double book your appointments in advance
Most doctors understand this concept of booking two appointments for the same time slot for every other slot. Believe me when I say no matter how many appointments you confirm you will ALWAYS have cancellations. The most effective way to get around this challenge is to always book two appointments into the same time slot if permissible and where possible. Do not do this for two consecutive appointments because this concept of double booking only works with every other appointment. You can always adjust when necessary if two people confirm that they will show up at certain time but only if you have not been booking two appointments for every consecutive hour you have scheduled for meetings.
The bottom line is the more packed your calendar is, the better attitude, posture, and enthusiasm you will have with your prospects. This will improve the number of clients you yield positively which will directly fuel your sales activity for the following weeks to come.
Chukwuma Asala is an international student from Nigeria who is studying to earn an MBA from the State University of New York in Albany. He has analyzed more than 20 industry case studies throughout his education thus far, and hopes to bring some of his business knowledge to Gaebler.com.
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