Confirming an appointment with a prospect is important to save time and energy on both sides. However, if you don’t use the right technique, you might end up giving your prospect an opportunity to back out of the meeting altogether.

Here are a few scenarios where you might inadvertently push the prospect to cancel.

Opening with the wrong line

“Hi there, this is Jonah. We have a scheduled sales appointment for tomorrow at 12 a.m. I was wondering if you’d like to cancel?”

It is highly unusual for someone to call a prospect and deliberately create a situation where they can simply call off the appointment. However, the way you follow up when calling to confirm an appointment can make or break the deal.

Chances are you have done plenty of heavy-lifting to get here; you might as well put in the extra conscious effort to keep the momentum going.

Switching from Face-To-Face to Phone Call

Another thing to be cautious about is attempting to switch a pre-scheduled face-to-face meeting into a phone call.

If you are uncertain about the lead, amp up your research game before you set up a meeting. Also, if you believe the prospect isn’t worth your face-to-face time, then it makes no sense to waste your energy and their time.

You should remember that the prospect has agreed to take the time out to meet you.

Therefore, if you unexpectedly ask for a phone call instead, it might be taken for disinterest, and he might back out of the meeting thinking you’re not worth his time.

In case meeting face-to-face isn’t possible, you could propose video conferencing instead of a simple phone call. This will show your prospects that you value their time and consider them important.

Here is a trick you can use to make sure you confirm the appointment without unintentionally cancelling it in the process.

How To Keep Appointments Despite Busy Prospects

It is possible that when the day finally rolls around, the prospect might have urgent tasks to tend to. Hence, if you call to confirm, you could inadvertently give them the chance to call off the appointment.

On the other hand, it is imperative to call to ensure the prospect remembers your meeting and is expecting you.

There is a practical solution to the dilemma ‘to call or not to call.’ You can make the confirmation call after working hours a day prior to the meeting and leave the reminder on voice mail.

This after-hours calling strategy works in two ways:

• You remind the client of the appointment
• Since you are leaving a message on their voicemail, you can’t mess up the conversation by giving them a chance to call it off.