According to Ovation Sales Group, the average salesperson makes 8 dials per hour and prospects for 6.25 hours to set one appointment. Combining that with a study by Lap Job, that showed only 2% of cold calls result in an appointment, we can start to see how a lot of a salesperson’s time is spent prospecting without many results.
So how can salespeople increase their conversion rates and set more appointments?
Setting More Appointments: Foot In the Door Technique
The Foot in the Door (FITD) technique was pioneered in the late 1960’s through a study done by two Stanford scientists.
The essence of the Foot In the Door Technique is simple. The first step is to have a prospect complete a small request, such as read a white paper or give you information about their organization. Then, once they have completed the small request, ask them for a larger request, such as a meeting or demo.
According to the study, “When compared with the control group, who was merely asked for an in-home product analysis, subjects who had first responded positively to the first request were 135% more likely to respond positively to the second request.” (Forbes)
In order to put this technique into action, find out if your company uses automation tools that track positive responses from prospects for small requests, such as email clicks or whitepaper downloads. Then, you can use this information to increase your conversion rates by instantly following up with the prospects that have already responded positively to a small request.
Using FITD Technique to Optimize Your Sales Trips
Once you have a few set appointments with prospects, how can you use the FITD technique when you are out on the road?
One way would be to ask your marketing team for a lead list of prospects who have engaged with your content. Once you have this qualified lead list, you can import the spreadsheet into Sales Navigator as an external group to visualize these prospects geographically.
Now as your plan your sales trip, you can identify qualified prospects who are nearby to your fixed appointments. If you have time between your appointments, start setting drop-in visits with nearby prospects to see if you can continue to engage these leads by dropping off content or samples.
Finally, see if you can fit in more drop in visits or make sure you are optimizing your time on the road by using Sales Navigator’s schedule optimization feature to provide you with the shortest route for your trip.
If you have any questions about field sales productivity or want to share how your team uses Sales Navigator let us know here!