Appointment Booking Themes

I witnessed someone make a few calls, the aim of which was to get a meeting with people that worked in the public sector apportioning grants. The caller was fortunate that the calls were far from cold. Yet listening to a person that’d never made a cold call in their life before made me realise how universal the structure of a successful call really is.

The three parts I heard were Recognition, Pitch, Objection handle-close.

How much easier is the call when as you introduce yourself, there’s that knowing sigh of understanding, familiarity in a sense, whilst you explain who you are and where you’re from?

After this comes a pitch. Why are you calling and what do you want? This should be snappy. The old rules of length apply – the time it takes for a lighted match flame to reach your forefinger and thumb still holds true.

Most people I overhead said yes straight away, but one did throw up an objection, trying to avoid having a meeting. As with many such hurdles, the objection referred to a different situation, and when that distance was explained, the meeting was booked.

One final point was how the use of flexibility helped with the close. Not quite the classic alternative closing, but at least, the caller was keen to fit in with the other party when it came to selecting dates.