The Psychology of Selling: Increase Your Sales Faster and Easier Than You Ever Thought Possible pdfdrive com

Confirm the Appointment
Once you have made an appointment, the job is not done. It is only beginning.
Before you go off to a prearranged appointment, always call to reconfirm. This
is a mark of top professionals.
Many people are afraid to call and confirm because they fear that the prospect
will cancel the appointment. So they just show up at the scheduled time. Often
however, the prospect has been called into a meeting or out of town. Sometimes
he or she is sick or has had an emergency. A large number of prearranged
appointments fall through for reasons over which you have no control.
There are two ways to confirm an appointment. The first is to call through to
the prospect and tell him that you will be there at the scheduled time and are
looking forward to seeing him. This gives the prospect an opportunity to
reschedule if something has come up that conflicts with your meeting.
Another way to confirm an appointment is to simply call the receptionist and
ask, “Is Mr. Brown there?”
When the receptionist says, “Yes,” you then say, “Good, this is Brian Tracy. I
am just calling to confirm my appointment with him at ten o’clock tomorrow
morning. Please tell him that I will be there on schedule. Thank you very much.”
If for any reason your appointment is canceled, move immediately to
reschedule it at a specific time, using the techniques that I explained earlier in
this chapter. I have often set up and confirmed appointments at a specific time,
several weeks in advance. It is amazing how many of these prearranged
appointments come off on schedule and how much business eventually comes
from them.

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Manage by Exception
The prospect will often say, “I am not sure that I will be in town on that day.
Could you call me back in a few days or next week to set something up?”
When you hear this, you immediately respond with “Mr. Prospect, I know
how busy you are. But let’s manage by exception. We’ll set a firm appointment
now, and if anything comes up later, we can change it at that time.”
Be polite, but be persistent. Once you have an opportunity to speak to an
interested and qualified prospect, you must be insistent on nailing down a
specific time to meet with that prospect.
Human beings are strongly affected by their expectations. If they expect to
learn or to benefit from meeting with you, they will be looking forward to your
appointment. If there is a need to reschedule, they will usually call you if you
have set it up correctly at the beginning.
Your chances of making a sale once you get face-to-face with the prospect
increase by ten or twenty times over a telephone discussion. Once the prospect
has an opportunity to meet you, see you, look you in the eye, and realize that you
are a knowledgeable, professional person, he is much, much more likely to take
you seriously.

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