A typical sales process for businesses running ads look like this:
Ads -> leads -> appointment -> sales
These days, I find myself diving deep into helping business owners improve their appointment rates.
They are already getting leads – but these leads aren’t turning into customers.
For lead to become a customer, there must be a sale (or transaction).
For a sale to happen,, there is one crucial step:
An appointment.
Before you can even provide any form of service (or to sell something), you need to have an opportunity to talk to the lead.
But these days, I hear many business owners saying:
“Leads are of low quality.”
“Leads stopped replying after 1 day.”
“Leads are not serious about buying.”
While I don’t deny these pointers…
The more important question here is, what can we do to improve our appointment rates?
There are things outside of our control.
(Like fake leads who send in vulgarities. Yes I get that a lot through lead forms)
But there are also things we CAN control.
(How to respond to Genuine leads who are curious about our services.)
Over the last 2 months, I helped a gym owner reduce his cost per appointment from $333 per appointment to just $80 per appointment.
Assuming he spends $1k a month on ads…
He’s now able to get 12 appointments instead of 3 appointments.
That’s 4 times more appointments.
Assuming his sales conversion rate is constant, his revenue potential has just increased by 400%.
That’s why it’s CRUCIAL to put effort into bringing up your appointment rates (especially if you’re in a service business).
So let’s look at some of the things we’ve implemented which helped reduce cost per appointment from $333 to $80.
1. Follow up within 2 hours (or same day AT LEAST)
I want you to imagine yourself as a consumer for a moment.
Let’s say you’re looking for an interior design firm to renovate your new home.
You see all the ID ads on Facebook/IG.
You submit your contact details to a few firms.
Would you agree that the first few to get back to you, are most likely to get your business?
I went through that process once when I was looking for an interior design firm.
Only a handful followed up promptly, set an appointment and sent their quotation.
Some followed up halfway but gave up – so no business for them.
You get the idea…
You need to respond fast to them.
I know some business owners are probably too busy to follow up fast.
So one solution I provide to solve this problem is to automate their follow-up by automatically sending a Whatsapp to their lead right after they submit their form.
(If you want this built for you or want to find out how this works, just Whatsapp me here.)
2. Call your leads
This is the hardest to do.
But I can tell you, my clients who call and follow up have the highest number of deals closed.
As soon as a new lead comes in, pick up the phone and call.
Not sure what to say?
Simply say this:
“Hi John, it’s Edmund. I’m calling you because you clicked on my ad regarding my renovation package.”
Then carry on the conversation.
“So when are you getting keys to your place?”
“Would you be free tomorrow for me to show you some of the ideas I have for your home?”
3. Be conversational
Whether you’re calling or texting…
Make it conversational.
Always try to get a response (by asking questions).
Don’t send a huge chunk of text on the very first message.
Aim to get a response first.
Not sure what your first text should be?
Follow exactly the line I gave above:
“Hey, it’s Edmund. I’m texting you because you clicked on my ad regarding my renovation package. Can I check, is this John?”
Notice how I end the line with a question to get a response.
Once you get the response, continue the conversation and fix an appointment with them.
Ask genuine questions.
Provide value.
Tell them you can show them more and it’s easier to do so via a meet up.
4. Re-engage (follow up) with leads who didn’t reply
The lead generation game is a numbers game.
A huge % are likely to drop off along the way.
It’s part of the process.
But again, we focus on what we can control.
One of the things you can do is to re-engage these leads.
It can be a simple question:
“Hey John, we spoke briefly a few days back regarding your home renovation, wonder if you’re still keen to find out more”
Or you can provide value.
One of the things I got my gym owner client to do is to send a video showing a simple exercise that can help reduce lower back pain.
This adds value because it’s informative and it’s useful.
He usually sends this the next day.
And by doing so, he was able to fix appointments with them.
So depending on which industry you’re in…
Think of how you can re-engage them, to get their attention so you can fix an appointment with them.
These are the 4 steps we did which helped bring his cost per appointment down by 4x.
As you can tell, it’s nothing special or complex.
It’s just doing the boring work consistently.
So try them, and hopefully it increases your appointment rates AND sales.
