You work hard and schedule a meeting with your dream client. She accepted the calendar invitation.
You’ve spent several hours researching and preparing for the meeting.
It’s 30 mins before the meeting, and you’re confident, “this will be a good conversation.”
You’re ready 5 minutes before. Headphones, mic check, internet check, question checklist and everything.
It’s time.
You ring the prospect. No answer.
You give it two minutes. You feel maybe you called too early.
You ring again. No answer. You try again. No response.
She is a no-show.
Have you experienced this before?
I know, it not only drains your energy but also creates a time slippage in your productivity block. Meaning that you’re unable to do much during the no-show time too.
But, let’s back up a bit.
It’s important to understand that sales appointment no-shows are acceptable.
Why?
There are often emergencies, accidents, and malevolent demons that spook the prospect right before the call.
That’s OK.
The more important question is, “how many sales appointment no-shows are you getting?”
A no-show rate of anywhere around 20 percent or less is not abnormal.
If you’re getting more than that over a period, there might be other fundamental problems with your sales process.
But let’s say 2 out of 10 prospects don’t show up, how do you deal with that?
Do you have a system to reconnect and reschedule?
Here are the two immediate actions you need to take when a prospect is a no-show:
- Call and leave a voicemail
- Send an email with the same words you used in your voicemail.
You could say and write something like,
“Hi Mike, sorry I missed you on the phone today at 11 am ET like we agreed.
I’ll try you again tomorrow. You can always reach me at 123 3456 666.”
Your tone when you leave the voicemail should not be apprehensive.
What you’re doing in this brief message is taking the vulnerable path of apologizing.
Yes, I know it’s not your fault.
But the key here is to set expectations for what will happen next.