Best Examples of Phone Script for Scheduling Appointments

Among the unending list of marketing and sales techniques for lead generation, there’s cold calling. The metrics for success with cold calling can be tipped severely in your favour if you follow certain rules.

One of those rules is cold calling to schedule appointments rather than to make a sale. Why is that? Cold calling to set an appointment gives you a chance to foster a relationship with the potential client, instead of trying to make a sale and be given a definite “NO”.

In this article, we’re going to discuss how to take the stress out of cold calling to get an appointment, how useful it can be, and add examples of cold calling samples.

What is Cold Calling?

Like cold emailing, cold calling is a sales technique that’s applied to generate more leads to sell to or convert. Cold sales technique is reaching out to and interacting with customers who may have not heard about your product or service before. Cold calling or cold marketing is trying to sell your product or service to people who do not know about it.

Cold marketing is not unique to calling alone, any method of advertising that requires you to reach out to new people who haven’t shown interest in your product before is cold. It could be via email, social media, texting or even going door to door to sell your product or service.

People are generally averse to cold calling. This is not unnatural. Calling someone who has no interest in your product or service to commit can be off-putting. This is why it’s important to utilize other techniques that’ll make your cold calling technique more effective. One of those is cold calling to schedule an appointment instead of trying to make a sale from the get-go. Cold calling to set appointments is guaranteed to produce better results than more sale-oriented methods.

When cold calling to schedule appointments, they’re pre-made call center scripts and practices that make this process easier. These scripts can be tweaked to match each customer. These scripts usually do not cover every possible area in a conversation, but they provide pointers and guides on how best to guide the conversation.

Tips for Scheduling Appointments over the Phone.

If you’re cold calling, some tips make this easier and provide better results.

1. Gauge their level of interest

When calling a cold prospect, you should be able to gauge their level of interest in the call. If they don’t sound all too enthusiastic, it shouldn’t deter you. Instead, proceed with the conversation but do not be too pushy or insistent. That could leave you listening to the dial tone.

2. Refrain from selling a product

For most cold call campaigns, this seems like the most obvious objective. But over time, results have shown that cold calling to sell has proven to be less effective than other methods.

When cold calling, it is important to remember that you’re selling the benefits of the appointment and not the product itself.

The initial stages of a cold call shouldn’t be targeted at getting results, it should be targeted at making piquing the potential client’s interest enough to want to learn about the product.

When a potential client objects to a call with something like, “We’re not looking to change our current service provide…” or “I can’t even afford to change providers right now…” they’re objecting to making a purchase.

Remember, you’re trying to sell the appointment and not the product or service itself.

3. Highlight the value of the appointment and not the product

When scheduling appointments over the phone, you should be focused on selling the appointment and not the product.

What this means is that the appointment you’re trying to sell should have its benefits. The reason prospects aren’t open to making appointments is because they feel these appointments would be a total waste of their time. This is why you need to sell the benefit of the appointment. The benefit could be how to lower cost, how to make more profit, how to automate their services, etc.

Hence, there should be value in your appointments whether or not the client ends up making a purchase or not. And that is what you sell. Figure out what a potential client hopes to gain from taking a meeting with you and make those the major talking points of your cold call.

4. Give the client options

One of the best cold calling tricks to scheduling appointments is to give the client alternate choices instead of giving them the option of choosing a definite answer.

An example of this is, Instead of asking the candidate, “Are you free to talk now?” an alternate to this would be, “Hello, are you free to talk for a few minutes this morning or afternoon?”

“Sarah, I’d like to set a meeting for Tuesday, or would you prefer Wednesday?”

“Simon, are you free at 9 am for a call or would Monday be better with your schedule?”

This gives the candidate less wiggle room and that’s extremely important for scheduling meetings.

Examples of Cold Calling Scripts to get an Appointment

There are different routes to take when cold calling to set appointments. In this part of the article, we’re going to discuss a few examples of cold call scripts you can apply in different scenarios to schedule appointments. Before cold calling anyone, you must have done your research before dialling their number. This way, you have something to offer without aiming blindly.

Cold Calling to get an Appointment Based on a Referral

When cold calling a potential client, you should try to build connections inside the company. An example of this would be asking the recipient of your cold call to direct you to someone with a specific role within the company.

It’s easier for potential customers to trust you if you were referred by someone they’re familiar with.

Hello. I am James from Planets Inc. I’m looking for Anthony, is that you?

[Wait for an answer.]

I’m calling because Jaden suggested I contacted you to discuss [discuss their pain point] Did Jaden talk to you about Planets Inc?

[Wait for an answer.]

I assisted Jaden in finding a solution to a similar problem as yours. Would you be open to scheduling a meeting to give you more information about Planets Inc. Is that okay with you?

Cold Calling to Set Appointment Sample 2

Hello, this is Jim from Woculus. I was calling to talk to James from Marketing. Is that you?

[Wait for an answer.]

Great. I wanted to reach out to you see as I saw your press release on providing… How's that going so far?

[Wait for an answer.]

I’m elated to hear that. I’m currently working with over 4 clients in this industry who’re currently having the same challenges you’re having. And in a matter of weeks, we’re starting to see some results. Would you be open to scheduling a meeting to discuss this further?

Cold Calling to Set Appointment Sample 3

Hi, is this Joshua?

[Wait for an answer.]

Great. This is Simon from Industries Co. Do you have a minute?

[Wait for an answer. Assuming they reply positively]

That’s great, Joshua. I’m sure you’re a busy person so I’ll go straight to the point and not waste any of your time. The reason I’m calling is this. We’re a [mention your company and highlight the great parts about your company]. I noticed that you were having trouble with [list their pain point and how you hope to solve it].

Joshua, if it’s not too much would you like to schedule a meeting at your convenience to discuss this further?

Conclusion

Cold calling to set appointments is usually unpredictable. Scripts can try all they want to manage and optimize for these changes, but it’s simply illogical to hope to manage all outcomes. This is why one of the most important skills for a cold agent to have is the ability to think on the spot.

Through the call, it’s important to be assertive and maintain a certain level of confidence. Your prospect can sense this confidence and it reassures them that you know what you’re doing and the results you claim to have aren’t fictional.

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Ayo Oyedotun is a professional blogger and freelance writer. He reads, writes and talks about business. You can follow him on Twitter @Ayo_Oyedotun[http://twitter.com/#!/Ayo_Oyedotun] or read Business Owners’ Bible[http://woculus.com/].