Decreasing Teleprospecting "No Shows"
Nobody likes to be stood up. You make plans and carve out time in your busy schedule only to have the person you are meeting either cancel or not show up all together. It's a real let down. The same is true for prospects that don't show up for the meeting or conference call that your teleprospecting team has set up for your sales reps.
One of the biggest frustrations that my BDR team faces is getting feedback from one of our clients saying that a prospect that we have fully qualified, and set up for a conference call, blew them off. The BDR is frustrated because they felt the opportunity was a strong one, and the sales rep is frustrated because they set aside time to speak to a prospect that ended up being a "no-show". While there are certainly times when unforeseen events pull a prospect away from being able to take a call, there are some strategies you can implement to cut down on your prospect "no-show" percentage.
First off, I always encourage my BDRs to try and schedule follow-up appointments within one week of their initial conversation with a prospect. The further out an appointment is scheduled, the more likely the prospect will not show up. You want the prospect to recall exactly what your company does and what prompted them to agree to a call in the first place. If an appointment has to be scheduled further out then a week due to travel plans, meetings, etc., my suggestion is to call and email the prospect two days before the set call to confirm the appointment. Another thing that helps to cut down on the percentage of no-shows is to send out a calendar invite immediately after getting off the phone with a prospect. This gets it on their calendar and you can track when and if they accept the invite. I have my BDRs monitor and track when a prospect (and the sales rep that will be fielding the call) accepts the invitation for the meeting. Once it gets accepted they track that in our CRM system. If it does not get accepted they will reach out to the prospect a couple of days later confirming the call and making sure that the time and date still work. Getting other individuals that will be part of the decision making process involved in the initial call is also a way to ensure that the meeting takes place.
If the unfortunate does happen and a prospect doesn't show up for the call, I make sure that my BDRs begin calling back in immediately to get it rescheduled. As I mentioned earlier, there will always be a prospect here and there that misses a call - the key is to make sure that your "no-show" percentage stays within 10%. If you are noticing a higher "no-show" percentage, I would look at how truly qualified the prospect was to begin with (were they just saying yes to a call to get you off the phone?) and whether the appointments are being scheduled as soon after the initial conversation as possible.
What other strategies have you found to be helpful in cutting down on the percentage of time prospects miss scheduled calls?