Supreme Senior One

In Crunch Time, The Telephone Appointment is Supreme, Says Top Customer Service Speaker & Telemarketing Speaker

In one or more of my now “classic” books on telephone selling and telemarketing, I went on record, saying “There is nothing as easy to get as an appointment” with senior businesspeople.

In the quaint, pre-2005 days, before the Internet became ubiquitous, getting into a car and even hopping a plane to take a meeting with a sales prospect was practically second nature. People did it all the time, thinking little of the expenses and time that personal visits consumed, let alone the carbon footprints we sales Sasquatches were leaving behind.

Even more significant is the fact that some executives actually enjoyed being wooed face-to-face. Like the peddlers of old, sellers brought with them exotic tales from faraway places, as well as trade tips, to otherwise sequestered souls.

How times have changed!

Suffice it to say that many companies, including some of the tiniest, have become garrisons, where entry is strictly limited.

Not only that, but voice mail sentries are everywhere, and expecting to chat with a decision maker or even influencer in real time, upon making a call or two, is less and less likely to occur.

Instead of seeking a physical meeting, or an impromptu chat, we should be setting telephone appointments. Also referred to as telephone conferences, these are calendared events that both parties regard quite seriously. To earn these phone meetings, we need to signal serious potential value in advance, or a rationale that is at least suitable to justify a focused exchange.

For instance, I wanted to open a conversation about starting a strategic partnership with a $50 million company. Here’s what it took to set a telephone appointment:

(1) I researched at Google and identified a suitable company. Then I read a few entries about it, visited its web site, and scanned a number of articles in its newsroom. When I had a handle on its marketplace positioning, I called.

(2) The receptionist said I needed to aim my query at the VP of Marketing. I left a voice mail.

(3) Not hearing anything back, I got the name of the CEO’s assistant and left a voice mail for her, mentioning I’d like to speak with him. She sent me an email, inviting me to send information to her via email, which I did.

(4) I got a reply from the erstwhile absent VP of Marketing asking me to offer two dates and times that would work for an appointment call.

(5) I did so and he confirmed one by responsive email.

(6) Within a few days I had a 50-minute conversation with the CEO joined by others on his speakerphone.

(7) Through more contacts in a very short time frame, we determined we did not have a mutually agreeable basis upon which to do business.

These seven steps seem like a lot to take to simply arrive at a “no,” yes?

How much time did I invest? Between research, email communication, and our conversation, I’d say 3-4 hours. But that’s not bad, considering how most sellers waste this much time without ever “pitching” anyone, especially the CEO.

In a larger sense, my mini-campaign to secure a telephone appointment paid off by providing me with quality feedback regarding not only the company I pursued, but also about the category to which this outfit belongs.

In a word, these kinds of firms are too primitive to give value to me and to get value, in return. So, by “going deeply” into this one, I learned something essential about the entire class to which it belongs.

This is saving me time refining my targeting and my message.

A quirky car dealer was a fixture on late night TV, several years ago. He used to “rassle” with bears and snakes and just about every creepy crawler you can imagine.

Hearing him in a radio interview, he calmly explained why he did these bizarre acts:

“To sell somebody something, first, you have to get their attention,” he nearly whispered.

That’s the purpose telephone appointments serve, especially in an era in which everyone’s time is crunched.

About the Author

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is the #1 ranked telemarketing speaker and #1 ranked customer service speaker at Google, and a distinguished, sought-after sales speaker, negotiation speaker, and attorney. He is a frequent TV and radio commentator and the best-selling author of 12 books and more than 1,700 articles that appear in 25,000 publications. President of Customersatisfaction.com, Gary conducts seminars and speaks at convention programs around the world. His new audio program is Nightingale-Conant's "Crystal Clear Communication: How to Explain Anything Clearly in Speech & Writing." His web site is:http://www.customersatisfaction.com, and professional speaking, seminar, and consulting invitations can be addressed to:gary@customersatisfaction.com.

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