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"Follow Up Next Week" Does Not

Mean You Have an Appointment
by Matt Sunshine, on December 19, 2017

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Improve your sales performance. Sales managers

One of the leading indicators for sales success is to look at the number of appointments that a can gain unique perpsectives on hiring and
salesperson has each week. (This is not the only leading indicator that you should be looking at, but developing more e ective sales teams.
it is one of them.) The idea is that if a salesperson has a signi cant amount of appointments each Salespeople can improve their approach to getting

week which involve nding needs, getting assignments, presenting solutions, or delivering a more appointments with target prospects,
uncovering desired business results, and engaging
proposal, that this quality sales activity will lead to good solid revenue performance.
clients in a collaborative process that leads to the
sale.
I think it’s fair to say that everyone in sales or in sales management would agree with this, so I’m not
really going out on a limb having made that statement. But here is where I think there might be a
aw. I think many salespeople are confusing "I'll follow up with you next week" with "I have an
appointment." To be clear, "I’ll follow up with you next week" does not mean you have an
appointment. Subscribe to Email Updates

You Don't Have an Appointment Until the Prospect Has Email*

Agreed to a Speci c Date and Time.

Last week I was with a client and I had the opportunity to meet with every salesperson on the sales SUBSCRIBE
team individually. There were a total of 15 salespeople, and the agenda for each meeting was exactly
the same. We were focusing on just a few of their prospects and coming up with ideas on how they
could keep those prospects moving forward in the sales process. After all, there is no reason to
move slow when you have a great prospect that you know you can really help.

In almost every meeting, the salesperson had at least one account with an "appointment" that had
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no date or time attached to it. When I asked about the next appointment, I would hear some form of
“Well, I told them I would call them Monday,” or “I need to follow up with them next Thursday,” or "We're Ignoring You." (Don't Give Up!)

“I’m supposed to stop by Tuesday or Wednesday next week." Technology Has Changed the Way Your Prospects Buy

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So, while the next step was to “follow up,” these were not actually scheduled appointments. Sales Pitch [Infographic] + More
Salespeople need to schedule the follow up appointment! I also think that “follow up” should not
What's a Marketing Quali ed Lead? What's a Sales
be an acceptable next step because it's too vague. An e ective follow up de nes exactly what is
Quali ed Lead?
being followed up on. So the two take-aways here are: "Follow up next week" is not an actual
scheduled appointment, and "follow up" is not a very good next step. 3 Reasons You need an Annual Physical

A Busy Calendar Requires a Set Appointment.

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Imagine that your calendar for next week is jam packed. You could not squeeze in one more meeting
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lunch completely full. With a schedule like that, if you had a great meeting with a prospect and the
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next week and come by." You couldn’t! Instead you would say “I want to come back next week and Management (218)
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know my week is really tight, and I'm sure yours is too.” BOOM, you just set an appointment.
 see all
Conversely, if your schedule is wide open and you have virtually no appointments scheduled for next
week, you might say, “Let’s set a time to meet next week, before our calendars ll up.” If the prospect
tells you that he or she can't schedule right then for some reason (he or she may have a valid
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reason), and asks you to follow up next week, you gladly say "Ok, that’s ne, I’ll call you Monday and
we will set something up." Do you see the di erence?
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Don’t settle. Your time is valuable. You must set appointments. "Follow up next week" leads to slow December 2014 (23)
sales because "follow up next week" often leads to a prospect saying something like "Oh, you know
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what, this week is not going to work after all, can you call me next week and we will meet." Set a goal
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May 2018 (23)

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Topics: Setting Appointments Sales

Tweet Share Like 42 Share

Jeffrey Roth 8/10/2016, 7:24:43 AM

Hi Matt,

How are you? Still keeping busy... Thanks for the great blog! Many
times, the basis for setting up the rst appointment is the
prospects lack of knowledge of the organization or lack of
awareness of the service provider. Not at the stage of nding a
need (although preferable) but starting to build the relationship.
Your thoughts?

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