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Sales Gravy

How Do You Stop Prospects From No-Showing First Time Appointments (Ask Jeb)

13 min episode · 2 min read
·
Emily Weismueller

Episode

13 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Investing, Leadership, Sales & Revenue

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Calendar invite formatting: Structure meeting invites with your name first, company name in parentheses, prospect name and organization with plus sign, then meeting purpose after a dash. Include only essential information like video link in location field and your contact details with instruction to reach out if changes occur, establishing moral high ground.
  • Video confirmation strategy: Record a twenty-second personalized video after scheduling showing your face, expressing excitement about learning their mission, confirming specific date and time, and referencing the calendar invite. Send this video via email two to three days before the meeting when there is adequate lead time between scheduling and meeting date.
  • Day-before voicemail technique: Call the prospect's work phone in the afternoon when they have likely left for the day and leave an enthusiastic voicemail reconfirming the meeting time, expressing anticipation about helping their students, and referencing the calendar invite. This creates another touchpoint without giving them an easy opportunity to cancel during a live conversation.
  • AB testing confirmation emails: Test sending morning-of confirmation emails against no email to measure impact on show rates. Track whether the additional touchpoint increases attendance by one to three percent, which compounds significantly over a year. Only send day-before confirmations for high-stakes meetings involving executives or significant travel investment to avoid giving prospects easy cancellation opportunities.

What It Covers

Jeb Blount addresses how to reduce no-shows for virtual sales appointments in K-12 education sales. He outlines a multi-step confirmation system including verbal confirmation, calendar invites with specific formatting, personalized video messages, strategic voicemails, and optional morning-of emails to increase meeting attendance rates.

Key Questions Answered

  • Calendar invite formatting: Structure meeting invites with your name first, company name in parentheses, prospect name and organization with plus sign, then meeting purpose after a dash. Include only essential information like video link in location field and your contact details with instruction to reach out if changes occur, establishing moral high ground.
  • Video confirmation strategy: Record a twenty-second personalized video after scheduling showing your face, expressing excitement about learning their mission, confirming specific date and time, and referencing the calendar invite. Send this video via email two to three days before the meeting when there is adequate lead time between scheduling and meeting date.
  • Day-before voicemail technique: Call the prospect's work phone in the afternoon when they have likely left for the day and leave an enthusiastic voicemail reconfirming the meeting time, expressing anticipation about helping their students, and referencing the calendar invite. This creates another touchpoint without giving them an easy opportunity to cancel during a live conversation.
  • AB testing confirmation emails: Test sending morning-of confirmation emails against no email to measure impact on show rates. Track whether the additional touchpoint increases attendance by one to three percent, which compounds significantly over a year. Only send day-before confirmations for high-stakes meetings involving executives or significant travel investment to avoid giving prospects easy cancellation opportunities.

Notable Moment

Blount reveals that no-shows stem from inadequate meeting systems rather than prospect behavior. He guarantees that implementing his multi-touch confirmation process will measurably increase show rates, though some no-shows remain inevitable in sales regardless of preparation quality or relationship strength with the prospect.

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Episode Transcript

Join us for the fanatical prospecting boot camp that will help your team five x their pipeline in ninety days or less. We'll be hosting it on March in Atlanta, Georgia. Go to salesgravy.com/live. That's salesgravy.com/live and use the code podcast to save a $100. This is the Sales Gravy Podcast. Hi. I'm Jeb Blunt, best selling author of fanatical prospecting, objections, sales EQ, and ink, and I'm here to help you open more doors, close bigger deals, and rock your commission check. Welcome back to the Sales Gravy Podcast. I'm Jeb Blunt Junior, and this is AskJeb. And on this segment, we bring you the biggest sales challenges, and Jeb Blunt delivers his best answers. And those answers, they come straight from the trenches because Jeb is not just teaching sales, he's out there prospecting, closing, and leading sales teams every single day. Let's take that next caller. Alright. Next up on the show is Emily Weismueller from Scottsdale, Dale, Arizona. Emily, what is happening in your world? Hi, Jeff. So here's my my background for you. I am a former elementary school teacher, taught for thirteen years in the classroom, and then pivoted over to k 12 EdTech sales. K? So I have, been in the business for eleven years now in sales. I currently work with special education administrators mostly. And here's my question. So one outcome that we want to achieve through prospecting is obviously to secure a meeting. Right? So but once we schedule the meeting, it can sometimes be hit or miss whether the prospect actually shows up to the meeting. Right? So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on sending confirmation emails the day before. So in and I I ask you this because in my experience, like, it's it's very hit or miss. I wanna know in your experience, does this prove to be an effective technique, or does it prove to be a a way out for the prospect? It's a killer question. You know, just stepping into your shoes and, you know, from my background, there's nothing more frustrating than you show up to a meeting, especially if that meeting's in person and the person doesn't show up. Now are you doing these meetings in person or are they primarily virtual? These are primarily virtual meetings. Okay. So it's it's usually like, you know, we've scheduled it. I I get on the call, and I'm waiting and I'm waiting, and nobody shows up. And, of course, I get it. These people are in the education business. A lot of things happen to just pop up, you know, unexpectedly. I get it. But sometimes, you know, I send a confirmation email and it works, and they respond, yep. Planning to be there. Other times, I don't hear back, and they still show up. Other times, I send a confirmation email, and I get nothing. It's just it's all over the boards. And it's different in virtual, like and the field sales, …

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