Let's hear some of your best advice on preventing demo no-shows.
In my industry, my prospects can't even spell ''calendar'' so I'm constantly fighting no-shows/reschedules...
ventox35
DEMO no-shows
29
1. Be sure the prospect is actually interested before booking a demo. Never taking no for an answer = your time wasted.
2. Book the demo ASAP, 2-3 days out is ideal. If that isn't possible and you're booking a week+ out, you MUST send a reminder email 1-2 days ahead of time saying you're looking forward to the conversation.ย
3. If they ghost you or cancel last minute without a legitimate reason, try and reschedule once. If they won't commit, they were never intending on showing and you're wasting your time. Move on.
2. Book the demo ASAP, 2-3 days out is ideal. If that isn't possible and you're booking a week+ out, you MUST send a reminder email 1-2 days ahead of time saying you're looking forward to the conversation.ย
3. If they ghost you or cancel last minute without a legitimate reason, try and reschedule once. If they won't commit, they were never intending on showing and you're wasting your time. Move on.
#1 is key here.ย
if someone no shows a DEMO with no notice.....they dont care about your product and the discovery was ether not effective or incomplete.ย
Do go straight from cold call to demo?ย
what is your ACV?ย
if someone no shows a DEMO with no notice.....they dont care about your product and the discovery was ether not effective or incomplete.ย
Do go straight from cold call to demo?ย
what is your ACV?ย
It's like sex, you can't force them to love youย
Calling their children to remind their parent that they have an extremely important demo today is good practice.
Ooh, nice one. How about hiding under their bed and popping out at 3 am to yell "U HAVE A MEETING TOMORROW."
I already have a "record"... so this is less of an option for me
If that doesnโt work, you can also kidnap the child and hold them hostage until they hop online for the demo.
Againโฆ I have a โrecordโ so this could be a fatal move. But I like the aggressiveness
Scared money don't make no money, Bateman. Don't b a coward
I'M NOT GOING BACK!!!! THEY WON'T TAKE ME ALIVE!!!!!!!!!
IM NOT FUCKING LEAVINGย
Tell them you will hunt them down if they dont show, works 50% of the time every time
Slight waterboarding helps too.
Presh is in townโฆ
I'm just imaging Liam Neeson:
I have a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you get on the meeting now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you."
**cough** I meant I will close you....on our great products and services!
I have a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you get on the meeting now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you."
**cough** I meant I will close you....on our great products and services!
If theres a 'reach through the computer screen and slap the shit out of them' button, I usually smash that.
I like to ask: 'what would you like covered in the demo?' - 'what's your biggest pain point coming into the demo?' - get's them interested in actually attending, then go into how you are going to cover that before scheduling and in your followup & reminder emailย
I like to ask: 'what would you like covered in the demo?' - 'what's your biggest pain point coming into the demo?' - get's them interested in actually attending, then go into how you are going to cover that before scheduling and in your followup & reminder emailย
Push hard to schedule for the current week. If more than a week out I touch bases a day before. Always confirm morning of.
But the most important thing to do to ensure your prospect actually shows up is by sinking your hook before the demo. They have to know that the time will be well spent because you've already shown value.
Too many AEs just try to generate curiosity and then set the hook on the demo itself. If they aren't already seeing some value before the demo then you're likely to get no-showed for something as simple as they had to take a shit.
But the most important thing to do to ensure your prospect actually shows up is by sinking your hook before the demo. They have to know that the time will be well spent because you've already shown value.
Too many AEs just try to generate curiosity and then set the hook on the demo itself. If they aren't already seeing some value before the demo then you're likely to get no-showed for something as simple as they had to take a shit.
Lots of great advice in the comments, without regurgitating what others have said here's a couple of things I do.
1. I hit DECLINE on the invite 7-10 minutes in, a subtle way to gauge interest and show the prospect you know they know what they did. Sometimes prospect reaches back out to me, apologizes, and reschedules, if they disrespect your time TWICE they can fuck right off.ย
2. I have an autoresponder that reminds them 24H, 1H in advance. About 3-4 minutes into a no-show I'll email the prospect saying "Name, I'm on the call, here's the link."ย
3. Prolly heard this from your manager - but I always use my no-shows to work on prospecting, the fatter your pipeline the less you care about no-shows and if they reschedule or not.ย
Hope this helps.ย
1. I hit DECLINE on the invite 7-10 minutes in, a subtle way to gauge interest and show the prospect you know they know what they did. Sometimes prospect reaches back out to me, apologizes, and reschedules, if they disrespect your time TWICE they can fuck right off.ย
2. I have an autoresponder that reminds them 24H, 1H in advance. About 3-4 minutes into a no-show I'll email the prospect saying "Name, I'm on the call, here's the link."ย
3. Prolly heard this from your manager - but I always use my no-shows to work on prospecting, the fatter your pipeline the less you care about no-shows and if they reschedule or not.ย
Hope this helps.ย
Hello yes sir I received many of time sent regarding the meeting with the other office meeting person who was just saying hello. I thought you sent it but you didnโt send me. Please send me.
few tactics I use:
- book it as soon as possible after discovery
- meeting invite format is "MY COMPANY Demo | PROSPECT COMPANY" (they see what it is during a quick glance on their calendar)
- always include an agenda that talks about what problems you're solving as opposed to what software modules you're walking through
- after they accept, change the meeting invite title to include [confirmed] in front (they'll probably feel bad for no showing after knowing they've accepted)
-ย during discovery, positioning the demo (and discovery tbh) as "no big decisions required here, just an intro"
- during discovery, minimize pitching, and ask questions that make them talk about themselves and their business, not you. they don't actually give a shit about you.ย
- stop talking about the weather. if you're building rapport on anything personal, make sure you know they give a shit about that thing. Ex. are they wearing a shirt for a sports team? sure bring it up. Have a really cool work from home office? sounds good, bring it up. But the best rapport i find is respecting their time, giving them a SOLID purpose for the call, and ending on time.ย
- be a good person and not a typical salesy sales person putting lots of pressure on them. whenever sales people do that to me I'm ghosting the absolute shit outta them.ย ย
- i give them 3 strikes as sales is a two way street but sometimes life happens. ex. decline with no answer = 1 strike, cancel with no reschedule date = 1 strike.~3 emails/phone calls with no response = 1 strike. 3 strikes and I'll just let them reach out to me when they're ready.ย
at the end of the day, add value and be a person someone wants to talk to.ย
- book it as soon as possible after discovery
- meeting invite format is "MY COMPANY Demo | PROSPECT COMPANY" (they see what it is during a quick glance on their calendar)
- always include an agenda that talks about what problems you're solving as opposed to what software modules you're walking through
- after they accept, change the meeting invite title to include [confirmed] in front (they'll probably feel bad for no showing after knowing they've accepted)
-ย during discovery, positioning the demo (and discovery tbh) as "no big decisions required here, just an intro"
- during discovery, minimize pitching, and ask questions that make them talk about themselves and their business, not you. they don't actually give a shit about you.ย
- stop talking about the weather. if you're building rapport on anything personal, make sure you know they give a shit about that thing. Ex. are they wearing a shirt for a sports team? sure bring it up. Have a really cool work from home office? sounds good, bring it up. But the best rapport i find is respecting their time, giving them a SOLID purpose for the call, and ending on time.ย
- be a good person and not a typical salesy sales person putting lots of pressure on them. whenever sales people do that to me I'm ghosting the absolute shit outta them.ย ย
- i give them 3 strikes as sales is a two way street but sometimes life happens. ex. decline with no answer = 1 strike, cancel with no reschedule date = 1 strike.~3 emails/phone calls with no response = 1 strike. 3 strikes and I'll just let them reach out to me when they're ready.ย
at the end of the day, add value and be a person someone wants to talk to.ย
Time is your worst enemy.ย In my industry everyone needs what I sell but its not often their highest priority.ย Getting the momentum and then not dropping it is the key for me.
Lots of good advice already here, but I would add to be prescriptive and set the stage.ย
The more you act like an expert on those initial calls, the more likely you are to provide actual value and make the buyer actually want to show up to the demo.ย
General feature pitching will kill a deal faster than you can say "What does your morning look like on Monday for a quick call?"
The more you act like an expert on those initial calls, the more likely you are to provide actual value and make the buyer actually want to show up to the demo.ย
General feature pitching will kill a deal faster than you can say "What does your morning look like on Monday for a quick call?"
Best tips from me (trying to skip the things said):
1.ย Rephrase the ask after booking the demo into "If something comes up, WILL YOU let us know?", people dont like to go back on their word, a restaurant who did this saw HUGE dividends when doing it with reservations, so we tried it, same result, helped a ton
2. A buddy of mines company incentivized the first meeting, if you buy on the first meeting you get X promo, never tried myself, but he said because of the incentive, people showed up a ton more
Just 2 ideas, a ton of good posts already on the topic, but figured id add a few
1.ย Rephrase the ask after booking the demo into "If something comes up, WILL YOU let us know?", people dont like to go back on their word, a restaurant who did this saw HUGE dividends when doing it with reservations, so we tried it, same result, helped a ton
2. A buddy of mines company incentivized the first meeting, if you buy on the first meeting you get X promo, never tried myself, but he said because of the incentive, people showed up a ton more
Just 2 ideas, a ton of good posts already on the topic, but figured id add a few
are you sending them a calender invite?
Send them a calendy ;)ย
Calendar invite
+ 2 reminder emails, day before and day of
+ 2 reminder emails, day before and day of
I started sending them a reminder that reduced the number but again many a times I do need to call them to ask if they are joining.ย
I work in trucking so I am right there with you, the one that seems to get the best results is a friendly reminder email an hour before the meeting which also gives them the chance to reschedule if needed.
Email reminder the calendar block before. Ie - if morning demo, send a reminder day before in the afternoon. If afternoon, send reminder morning of.
Follow up before, email 3 days before if you booked it a week or more in advance, and send a friendly reminder either the morning of or the day before!!
I run around a 90% show rate- here is what I do, book time with people who actually need what Iโm selling and I know through a few disco questions itโs a good fit.
Whenever I push a meeting on someone that timing is way off, or the fit isnโt the best the odds of them not showing dramatically increase.
But if they fit my criteria for ICP and they show interest on my initial cold call they almost always show up.
Whenever I push a meeting on someone that timing is way off, or the fit isnโt the best the odds of them not showing dramatically increase.
But if they fit my criteria for ICP and they show interest on my initial cold call they almost always show up.
Great responses already posted here but yeah, prospects often agree to a meeting just to get you off the phone knowing full well that they have no intentions of showing up for the call .. only fully qualified prospects show up. If you canโt complete your MANIC you canโt book the meetingย
Make sure they are ready for a demo and actually interested.ย Don't just fall into the normal sales pattern and think a demo is the necessary next step.ย ย
Send an email 24 hours before reminding them and telling them that you are looking forward to it.
Send an email 24 hours before reminding them and telling them that you are looking forward to it.
Seed the objections early.ย Give the prospect a free pass.ย If they intend to no-show then they will take you up on it and you avoid the headache.
funcoupons nailed it.
Oh yes, my previous role was selling to university professors, exactly what you described, fucking half of my white hair is from teaching them how to click on my zoom link. I feel your pain !!ย
In my opinion, this is a good reason to separate the discovery call from the demo.ย
Get them interested by discussing what is important to them - and then say "hey, I'd like to put together something specific for you". That way if it's a true pain and there is a business case, you can up your chances that they show up to the second meeting.ย
Obviously your sales management has to be on board with this method.ย
Get them interested by discussing what is important to them - and then say "hey, I'd like to put together something specific for you". That way if it's a true pain and there is a business case, you can up your chances that they show up to the second meeting.ย
Obviously your sales management has to be on board with this method.ย
This works for me, we do disco and demo separately which seems to be more effective than the disco-demo
Sales strategy advice: get them to a no
- would this be a waste of your time?
- is there any reason why you would cancel this demo after we hang up?
Sales ops advice: use calendly
- Automated follow up by email and sms
- would this be a waste of your time?
- is there any reason why you would cancel this demo after we hang up?
Sales ops advice: use calendly
- Automated follow up by email and sms
I like to name things- their CEO, new product, award, something from LI.. have em think โwow alright, this dudes done his research, Iโll give em my time of dayโ.. thatโs once they agreed to take a look, of course
Try using Vidyard to send a personalized video to them beforehand. Introducing yourself and giving a little info about the demo and why its relevant to their needs (post-discovery I'm assuming)
Generally speaking.....
If people are not showing up to your demo, it's likely because they are not excited, and see no reason to do so.
You can blame prospects for being dumb with tech, but they are quite likely snap-chatting, face-booking, insta-gramming, using Twitter and all other manner of comms with people they know every day. Just not you.
If people are not showing up to your demo, it's likely because they are not excited, and see no reason to do so.
You can blame prospects for being dumb with tech, but they are quite likely snap-chatting, face-booking, insta-gramming, using Twitter and all other manner of comms with people they know every day. Just not you.
42 comments