Well I’ll admit it, this isn’t quite the worst sales appointment ever, but there are certainly many key lessons and mistakes to avoid so that you too don’t make them in your business.
Let me re-cap and tell you what happened.
Ok, new years, here we are, 2015. And perhaps you’re like me and thinking it’s about time to get back into fitness.
My active child is getting restless so I stumbled across a fitness group ad on Facebook promoting a program in my area. High five for this business in investing in advertising – it was a clear message, a group program targeted towards females. Perfect! Where do I sign up?!?!
After a number of missed calls we’d managed to communicate online to work out a time for me to come into the fitness centre to meet with the Personal Trainer.
I was given the business name (because at that point, they had only been referring to the program).
No biggy at all…. Except, I then had to go away and find the address.
Ok, who cares you say? Well it turns out my GPS didn’t know where it was and it tried to take me down a one way street…. It was safe to say I was lost and late.
So I call (after I had to google the business to find out the phone number) get some clear instructions on where to actually go and arrived within 5 minutes.
Alright, phew, I’m here now… this should be great, ready to go!
Mmmmm not quite….
The Personal Trainer asked me my name to confirm I was his appointment and he spent 7 minutes (if that) we had together just talking about the program and then asked me to sign up.
ONE BIG PROBLEM.
Apart from asking me my name and if I would sign up, these were only two questions he asked me.
Yes, that’s right, he didn’t even ask me WHY I WANTED TO JOIN!
Now I’m no highly paid sales trainer, but I know it’s never about me or my business, it’s about the person in front of me and what they want and can I actually help them get that.
Before I left home to go to the appointment, I was dead set on signing up. I’d been looking around for a few weeks and hadn’t yet come across a program that the times worked for me until this one.
During the appointment, I was thinking that there is no way I’m signing up to pay money for a serve from a business that doesn’t give a crap about me and doesn’t even ask me a question.
Call me old fashioned, but I just won’t!
The thing is, this business paid for advertising on Facebook, they had me come in therefore I was a motivated buyer and they lost me today.
Please don’t make these same mistakes!
This isn’t the full list of the worst sales appointment, but check out some of our suggestions below:
- Provide all the details to make it really easy for people to show up for an appointment (appointment time, address, contact details)
- Ask them what they want and get really clear about it
- Assess whether you can actually help them
- Finally, determine if you are a good match to work together
The more you get into your prospects world the more likely you are of actually helping them achieve the results that they are looking for.
Make your prospect feel grateful that they got a chance to speak with you, even if it’s to get clearer in their own mind around what they want, whether they engage with you or not.
Oh, and yes, I am still looking for a group fitness program.
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