It is well-known that it is not easy to gain a sales appointment with prospects. But it is also becoming increasingly difficult
to make appointments with your existing customers. This situation is a cause of great frustration for many sales people.
There are many reasons why existing customers put barriers in the way of sales people when the sales person tries to arrange a meeting with them. Often they are pressed for time or they seem to view another sales discussion with the sales representative skeptically for any of a number of reasons.
In this situation, when you are having trouble securing an appointment with an existing customer, you could try the following method. It is a little trick which psychologists graphically call the ‘foot-in-the-door’ effect and it can sometimes be of enormous assistance to get you in front of your reluctant customers.
It is known that if you ask a person for a small favor, then they will subsequently probably also accept a second, bigger request from you. The psychological reason behind this behavior is that every human being endeavors to behave in a consistent manner towards their environment. So someone who has shown that they are cooperative and helpful on one occasion will not want to spoil this image of themselves the next minute.
You can use this behavior to your advantage. One way to put your “foot in the customer’s door” could be, for example, by offering him something that cannot be done remotely. Alternately, you could ask your customer a few consciously brief questions about what he finds interesting or possibly even off putting about your product.
This small break is often enough to get the sales discussion going – meaning the biggest hurdle on the road to successfully making appointments with your customer has already been cleared.
