The Essentials of a Confirmed Appointment
One of the frequent missteps that occurs in home improvement companies involves confirming set appointments. The importance of speaking to the prospect in advance is to check their availability; however the call should always be presented to the prospect as a reminder instead of a confirmation.
First, lead with evidence of previous conversations that the prospect has had with your company. Next, make sure that you re-affirm the appointment so that they remember why they wanted you to come to their house in the first place. Finally, before issuing the appointment, confirm and document:
- The names of all owners, decision-makers and relationship influencers.
- The dissatisfaction motives and design features.
- Any other essential information: address, home & work phones, email addresses, etc.
If they attempt to reschedule or cancel the appointment remember that cancellations are normally stalls, misrepresentations, memory lapses or unrelated emotional issues. The next step will be to express disappointment and ask when they want to reschedule. The three steps to re-sell the appointment are as follows:
- Tell them you’ve canceled the appointment.
- Ask if they remember why we were visiting.
- Revisit the problem. Resell the value.
Cancellations are going to happen, however your staff must be trained to properly re-set the majority of these appointments in order to have an efficient marketing department.