Marketing leads, lists purchased from third parties, and leads qualified by a call center are some of what we in sales call “warm” leads. Data collected from a company’s website’s visitors by marketing to pass along to sales or a prospect who replies to an email you’ve sent is still a warm lead, even if they aren’t as hot as you’d like. While it may be simpler to schedule a meeting with a warm lead than a cold call, that’s not always the case. To learn more about how to convert a warm lead into a sales appointment, read on.
It’s not much different from setting up a meeting with a cold lead when it comes to scheduling a sales appointment with a warm lead, since the prospect should already know a bit about your company before you contact them. A warm lead in Salesforce or another CRM will include their name; look them up to understand who your prospect is. Peruse their website to see what their company does and make a list of the ways in which your services could be useful to them. You can estimate their budget by looking at their revenue and the number of people they employ.
When calling to set an appointment with a warm lead, be sure to build the relationship the same way you would with a cold lead. The prospect doesn’t know you yet, so establishing trust is key. It may have been a few weeks or months since they heard from you or your company, so give them another brief qualifying introduction where you summarize your company and yourself. Keep this introduction under three minutes, and then ask if there would be a good time to meet so you can find out more about a particular project they’re working on or talk about the ways in which your company can help them.
When it’s time to give them a call, remind them that you understand a project they have going on will require a simple aspect of a solution your company provides. Be mindful of their time and ask when they are available for a twenty-minute call and schedule that first. It’s much simpler to work with new prospects on short meetings where we talk multiple times over weeks rather than one long, drawn-out meeting where we sell them on everything and then expect a close. Building relationships is the goal. Once you have established a rapport, your presentation and closing will be so much smoother.
Be patient with yourself as you experiment with various approaches to sales training and development as you work toward your goals. Mimicking others in sales and adopting their methods may not work for you or won’t result in the same results. Figure out what works for you and cultivate those skills by staying true to yourself. As you build authentic relationships and put in time and effort, you’ll start meeting your goals in no time.
For more on developing your sales skills, read Overcoming Objections in the Introduction, Getting to the Decision Maker, and How to Set Up Introduction Appointments. Subscribe for more business, sales and investing posts. Have a lovely day.
