Why don't booked meetings happen?

Settle the meeting on the call

Last week one of your setters booked a meeting for this morning. At 10 your rep opens the call link and waits. Nobody comes. A week later the buyer writes "Sorry, something came up", and the meeting still counts as one of the month's booked meetings.

Often the buyer said yes so the call could end, and the meeting was your setter's win more than the buyer's plan. Good appointment setting settles the meeting on the call itself, starting with the buyer's reason. Your setter asks what the buyer would want to see and books the meeting only if the buyer can answer in their own words. If they can't, it becomes a callback with a date.

Before anyone hangs up, the buyer has also said who else should be in the room, picked one of two times and seen the invite arrive with their reason in it. The day before, the rep who will hold the meeting calls the buyer to say who they are and what they will show. Then judge your setters on meetings held with the right people and the next steps that follow, not on bookings.

What does a booking call usually miss?

Take [company], which sells fleet tracking for service vans. The company, the people, the calls and the two months in this post are an example, not real data. Ben, one of their setters, books the meetings, and Clara, a fleet specialist, is the rep who holds them. On a Monday Ben calls Daniel, operations manager at [installer], a heating installer with 30 vans. Here is the old call. Plenty of B2B appointment setting still sounds like it.

Ben: "Hi Daniel, it's Ben from [company]. We help companies with vans save fuel with fleet tracking. Do you have 30 minutes next week for a short demo with one of our specialists?"

Daniel: "Hm. What is it about, exactly?"

Ben: "Just a quick overview of what we do, no obligation. Does Thursday at 10 work for you?"

Daniel: "Fine. Send me something."

Ben: "Great, I'll send you an invite. Have a good day!"

The invite went out that afternoon from Ben's calendar, titled "Demo [company]", to Daniel only. On Thursday morning Clara knew Daniel's name and nothing else. At 10 she opened the call link, and Daniel did not join. A week later he wrote "Sorry, something came up."

Ben was friendly, and he got his yes. But his first turn put his name, the company, the pitch and the request for 30 minutes into one breath. Daniel asked what it was about, heard "a quick overview" and never said what he would want from the meeting. Ben picked Thursday at 10, took "Fine. Send me something" as a yes and ended the call himself. Nobody asked who else at [installer] should be there, and after the call nobody from [company] spoke to Daniel again before Thursday.

What should the buyer say first?

Now the new call, with the same Ben and the same Daniel.

Ben: "Hi, is that Daniel?"

Daniel: "Speaking."

Ben: "Daniel, it's Ben from [company]. We help service companies see where their vans are without phoning the drivers. How does your team keep track of the vans today?"

Daniel: "Mostly by phone. Our dispatcher calls the drivers all morning."

Ben: "So your dispatcher spends the morning on the phone just to know where the vans are. Clara, our fleet specialist, could show you how that looks on one screen. If you had 30 minutes with her, what would you want to see?"

Daniel: "Whether Mia, our dispatcher, could see all 30 vans at once. And what it costs per van."

Ben: "All 30 vans on one screen for Mia, and the cost per van."

Ben opens with only "Hi, is that Daniel?", then one line of benefit and a question about the vans that Daniel can answer without stopping to think. His answer turns out to be the problem itself. Our post on how to open a cold call goes into those first seconds.

Then Ben asks the question the old call never asked, what Daniel would want to see. Daniel answers in his own words with two things, Mia seeing all 30 vans at once and the cost per van, and that is his reason for the meeting. Ben says both back, so Daniel knows he was heard.

The rule for your setters is no reason, no meeting. A buyer who agrees to "a quick look" but can't say what they want to see gets a callback with a date instead, such as "Then may I call you on the first Monday of March, at 10, after your busy season?" It counts as a callback, not as a booked meeting.

"Send me something", as Daniel said in the old call, is usually a polite way to end a call. When a buyer says it, your setter asks one more question, "What should the meeting cover, so it is worth your time?", and books it only if an answer comes.

Who should be in the room?

Then Ben asks about Mia.

Ben: "Should Mia join the meeting?"

Daniel: "Yes, she should. Her email is the same as mine, just with her name."

Mia deals with the problem every day, phoning the drivers all morning, and in the meeting she can tell within minutes whether one screen would change that. Daniel is the one who can agree on a next step, and his first question was about her. With Mia in the room, he hears what she thinks during the meeting instead of after it.

Sometimes the person on the phone can't decide alone. Then your setter asks who else decides, invites that person too and lets the buyer pick a time that works for both, even if it is later than the setter would like.

When does the invite go out?

Next comes the time.

Ben: "Then Tuesday at 10 or Wednesday at 2, which works better for you both?"

Daniel: "Wednesday at 2. Mia is out on Tuesdays."

Ben: "Wednesday at 2, with Clara. I'm sending the invite to you and Mia now, with your two questions in it. Has it arrived?"

Daniel: "Yes, it's here."

Ben: "Clara will call you on Tuesday at 4 to make sure it still works. Thanks, Daniel."

Daniel: "Thanks. Bye."

Ben: "Bye."

Ben offers two times, so Daniel has to look at his week and think of Mia's. He picks Wednesday at 2 and says why, which Ben would never have learned by picking the day himself.

Because the invite goes out during the call, Ben can ask whether it has arrived, and a wrong address shows up now, not on Wednesday at 2. Where the old invite said "Demo [company]", this one carries Daniel's two questions, which tell Mia why she is invited and give Clara something to prepare.

Ben ends by saying who will call next, on which day and at what time, and lets Daniel say goodbye first.

Who confirms the day before?

On Tuesday at 4, Clara makes the confirmation call.

Clara: "Hi Daniel, it's Clara from [company]. Tomorrow at 2 I'll show you and Mia all 30 vans on one screen, and the cost per van. Does that still work for you both?"

Daniel: "Yes, we'll both be there."

Clara: "Good. See you tomorrow at 2."

Daniel: "See you then. Bye."

Clara says her name, so on Wednesday Daniel meets someone he has already spoken to. She names the two things he asked to see, so he knows she has read them, and asks whether the time still works for both. If something had come up, Daniel could have said so on Tuesday, to a person, instead of in an email a week later.

An automatic reminder would only tell Daniel that a meeting exists, while Clara's call, from the person he will meet, tells him what he will get from it. A buyer who prefers messages can get a short personal message from the rep instead, as long as it names what the rep will show. For other kinds of appointments, our post on when to send an appointment reminder covers the timing.

On Wednesday at 2, Daniel and Mia are both there, and the meeting is held.

What should you count?

In September Ben booked meetings with the old call, and in October with the new one. Clara held them in both months and counted a next step only when the buyer agreed after the meeting to something with a date, such as a second meeting, a trial or a proposal they asked for.

In September Ben booked 30 meetings and 18 were held. Of the rest, 3 were cancelled, 2 were moved and never rebooked, and 7 were no-shows like Daniel's, with the buyer neither coming nor cancelling.

Of the 18 held, 13 had the right people, with someone in the room who had the problem and could agree on a next step. The other 5 were held with the wrong person, such as a junior colleague sent in the buyer's place, and nobody in the room could agree on a next step. All 7 next steps came from the 13.

In October Ben booked 24 meetings and 20 were held, with 2 no-shows, 1 cancellation and 1 meeting moved and never rebooked. Of the 20 held, 18 had the right people, and all 11 next steps came from those 18.

So October had 6 fewer bookings than September and 2 more meetings held. Meetings with the right people went from 13 to 18, and next steps from 7 to 11. Counted by bookings alone, Ben had the weaker month in October.

Ben also booked 9 callbacks in October, for buyers who agreed to talk but couldn't say what they would want to see. They are not in the 24.

Every month, count meetings booked, meetings held, meetings held with the right people and next steps, and judge your setters on the last two. A setter judged on bookings has every reason to take "send me something" as a yes. Keep callbacks on a separate line. If an agency books meetings for you, hold it to the same two numbers. Our post on what outsourced telesales really costs covers what an agency charges.

Where does DRING come in?

DRING can make the booking call. It runs the outbound campaigns you plan and writes every result to your CRM. The questions it asks and when a buyer counts as qualified are set with your team. Before it calls a single buyer, the agent runs 1,000 to 10,000 simulated conversations built for your company. When a buyer qualifies, the agent puts a meeting on the rep's Google Calendar or hands the call over live with the summary, and it can send a meeting confirmation to the buyer's phone while the call is still live.

A qualified buyer reaches your rep with the conversation attached, including what the buyer said they need, the timing they gave and the objection they raised, as our page for sales managers shows. The rep starts from that rather than from a name and a number. The confirmation call and the meeting stay with the rep. Tell us about one list you want meetings from, and DRING calls you in two minutes.