Boost Your Conversation-to-Appointment Ratio from Selling Power reads like a companion piece to our post from yesterday. Conversation-to-appointment ratio is what we take a step further and refer to as a connects-to-close ratio. We wrote about this topic in great detail back in January of last year (click here to read the article).
The Selling Power author speaks of a truth we have encountered many times:
Do you know your conversation-to-appointment ratio? Most sales managers don’t. Moreover, most sales managers probably couldn’t define the metric without some thought.
This fact is something we see play out time and time again when we are defining a sale. Many sales managers can only guess at what the ratio is in their typical sale. Some of you may wonder why this ratio is important. It boils down to this point – you cannot ask a salesperson to do something 20, 30, 40 times a year that you cannot even define 1 time. If a salesperson is expected to close 25 deals in a year, it is most beneficial to explain to them how many calls, appointments, proposals, etc. are needed to close one deal.
You know, often successful selling comes down to executing the right behaviors in a consistent manner. That statement sounds simplistic, but think about it. A salesperson who consistently makes the calls and incorporates an effective selling system will make their numbers. The selling system is important behavior in that it allows the salesperson (and sales manager) to always know what stage a prospect is at in the pipeline. Ineffective selling systems lead to salespeople who make the calls but rarely know the veracity of their forecast.
I’ll close with the best piece of advice from the article:
Understand the prospect’s internal business challenges parallel to your offering before you pick up the phone. Too often, says Hardesty, sales reps get someone on the phone and start talking about who they are, how long they’ve been in business, how great their customer service is, and so on. To boost your appointment ratio, you must first challenge yourself to understand the prospect’s internal business challenges and model those themes around your communication. “Scripts don’t work,” says Hardesty. “Conversations do.”