Imagine this: you've identified a perfect lead, crafted a compelling pitch, and finally secured that coveted outbound marketing appointment. But then, a family emergency pops up, a crucial work deadline looms, or an unexpected meeting takes over your schedule.
Missing Appointments, Missed Opportunities?
While these situations are unavoidable, repeatedly rescheduling suggests unreliability and can lead to missed opportunities.
The good news is that mastering the art of appointment rescheduling is achievable in. By applying some proven strategies, you can ensure a smooth rescheduling process while maintaining strong relationships with your potential clients.
Things to Do Before Rescheduling the Meeting
An outbound sales rep should make 60 calls daily. It makes up to 8.5 calls per hour and around 420 per week on average. This comes in addition to reaching through email, social media, and other outbound communications!
After this level of effort, rescheduling the appointment looks like a bad idea. You may feel nervous about asking your high-value client to meet with you another time.
It boosts the risk of them taking you non-seriously in the future. Hiring an appointment setting agency can be a great help here. They can handle meeting schedule changes smoothly and professionally on your behalf.
Yet, you must know the essential things to prepare for before announcing the need for a rescheduled meeting:
Here's the checklist:
1. Have a Legitimate Reason
Don't reschedule lightly. Have a reasonable reason to push the meeting to a later date. It's important because it can directly impact your rapport in front of your prospect's eyes.
Let's take a look at some examples for your reference:
Legitimate Reasons Examples:
- Genuine personal emergencies such as sudden illness, family emergencies, or unavoidable personal commitments.
- Technical issues beyond your control, such as internet outages or software malfunctions.
- Unforeseen business conflicts that arise from unavoidable business commitments, such as sudden client emergencies or urgent internal meetings.
- Key stakeholders who must be present at the meeting unexpectedly become unavailable for legitimate reasons.
Non-legitimate Reasons Examples:
- Poor planning or insufficient preparation on your part.
- You only consider your convenience or preference, not the client's needs or schedule.
- Routine business work tasks or meetings that hinder scheduled client meetings.
- Miscommunication or oversight from your end.
2. Come Up With a Plan
Once you realize you need to reschedule, get proactive to execute a smooth transition. Here's how:
- Confirm Your Availability: Before reaching out, take stock of your schedule. Block out potential alternative times in your calendar that you'd be genuinely available for the rescheduled meeting. It demonstrates respect for everyone's time and allows you to propose realistic options during communication.
- Prioritize and Suggest Multiple Options: Consider the importance and urgency of the meeting. For critical meetings, aim to suggest multiple alternative times within a close timeframe to the original date. Offering a more comprehensive range of options might be acceptable for less pressing matters. The key is to provide flexibility while still prioritizing efficiency.
4 Strategies for Effective Appointment Rescheduling
Rescheduling a meeting professionally is essential to maintaining good relationships and effective communication. Here are some strategies for rescheduling an outbound marketing appointment with tact and courtesy:
1. Reach Out As Soon As Possible
The sooner you let the contact know, the better. Aim for at least 24 hours' notice to give your contact ample time to adjust their schedule.
2. Pick a Professional Communication Channel
Email is the most appropriate way to reschedule an outbound appointment. A phone call can follow up with an email if necessary. However, we recommend prioritizing email for a clear and documented record.
Besides email and phone calls, you can also connect with other professional channels. Check out this best practices checklist to follow while selecting the best channels to reach out to your prospects-
3. Craft a Clear and Concise Message
Here’s what essential elements you need to add in your messaging to keep it valuable and concise:
- Start with an apology: Acknowledge the inconvenience and apologize for rescheduling. Keep it sincere and concise.
- Explain, but Don't Over-explain: Briefly state your reason for changing the appointment. There's no need to delve into unnecessary details.
- Offer Choices, Not Ultimatums: Don't just ask to reschedule; propose a few specific alternative times and dates that work best for you. Consider your contact's time zone if it is different from yours.
- Contextualize Your Schedule: If possible, offer context about your schedule. You can use a meeting scheduler tool to share your availability. You can use tools like Doodle.com, Calendly, etc, to streamline rescheduling. They allow your contact to pick a time that works for them.
- Reiterate Your Value: Briefly remind them of the benefits you bring and your continued interest in the meeting.
- Express gratitude: Thank the contact for their understanding and flexibility.
4. Harness the Power of Technology
To further streamline the rescheduling process, you can leverage the following technologies:
- Automated Reminders: Utilize built-in calendar reminders or consider project management/scheduling tools that offer automated notifications.
These can send alerts to you and your contact about the rescheduled meeting. It ensures all parties stay on the same page. Hence, there are no missed meetings. You can often customize the timing of these reminders, allowing you to choose the most effective prompt for each situation.
- Synced Calendars: Say goodbye to scheduling headaches! Syncing all your calendars (work, personal, etc.) gives you a holistic view of your commitments. Thus, it prevents double bookings and makes rescheduling smoother. Many calendar platforms offer seamless integration with other tools you might use, keeping everything centralized and up-to-date.
Conclusion
Rescheduling doesn't have to be a hassle. By mastering clear communication, offering alternatives, and leveraging technology, you can navigate rescheduling situations gracefully. It lets you maintain positive relationships with your outbound marketing prospects.
Remember, it's all about respect, flexibility, and keeping those golden opportunities alive!
To learn such helpful insights, check out our site: Revnew. You can explore tons of excellent blogs on efficient outbound marketing. We also provide marketing services that can boost your B2B game. Contact us here to get the discovery call.