SDM

Sales development manager

Tentative meeting invites : good or bad

We recently hired a SDR manager, leading a team of 10 sdrs. His job is to schedule 30 intro/discovery calls for my AEs.

In Nov we had 20 calls scheduled, 10 no show, 2 cancelled right after we sent the invite, 8 happened but none moved forward as they were not interested in buying now.. 2 moved to future prospects out of these 8.

While checking in for no show and cancelled, i learner that his strategy is to cold call the prospects, make them agree for a tentative meeting and that's it. Further discussion with him, I got to know that he had good amount of business with this practice. So I want to see how far this goes but I haven't done anything like this before ( tentative invite) My strategy is always qualify a bit, send a confirmed invite and set up a sequence so that they receive some valuable insights before the meeting.

Anyone here have used tentative invite strategy?

🔎 Prospecting

📞 Cold Calling

12

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Sunbunny31

Politicker

6

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

As an AE, I wouldn't want to be prepping for a tentative call. It's a fair amount of effort which is worth it for the call, but does take time. It would be different if he was setting up calls for himself, but his strategy doesn't just impact him, it impacts others as well.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

5

Sales Rep

I have done it as an AE, usually its when finding a time is difficult/they are away from the desk but have some interest.

I send it out for 2 weeks in advance on days that are typically less stressful. I have the next weeks for sending relevant case stories and information, to qualify/disqualify.

90% of the time, I get a firm yes or no so it works for me.

However, if you aren't doing the work for sending info in between the cold call and the meeting, its a waste

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

It sounds like you're managing the process, though, not just seeing if it will stick. Getting a meeting on the calendar and then adjusting as appropriate as the date approaches makes sense.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

2

Sales Rep

I find you get more of a conversation going, comparing it to ending the cold call after a “I’m to busy” or “call back in a month”

My talk track is pretty much, “ I can send over an invite as a placeholder. I then will send over a detailed agenda and information on x case study and product info. You can review and let me know if it makes sense to continue the conversation.”

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Great method!

SDM

Politicker

1

Sales development manager

This is useful

SDM

Politicker

1

Sales development manager

Ive done the same, relevant info always helps in qualify the prospect. Ill suggest this

CuriousFox

WR Officer

4

🦊

Qualified leads are all that matter. Not tentative.

SDM

Politicker

0

Sales development manager

I love qualified leads 🌹🌹

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

3

Bravado's Resident Asshole

I am not a fan of tentatives. Just might be me, but I don't like "meh meetings"

Diablo

Politicker

2

Sr. AE

I have never used it. We had hired a third party in my previous company who would call the prospects and set up a meeting for us. We had 0 success in 3 months because they never qualified anyone and sent only meeting invites that were not even accepted by the prospects. It might/might not work.

Gasty

Notable Contributor

1

War Room Community Manager

I'd blame your management for not having the right metrics in place. Third parties should always be paid for qualified meetings or opps, and never for just meetings.

Diablo

Politicker

0

Sr. AE

100% agree and the same feedback was passed. That was a new experiment and terrible mistake by was made while signing the contract. Hopefully they are doing better now as I longer work there.

SDM

Politicker

0

Sales development manager

Ya, this new manager is using the same strategy

TennisandSales

Politicker

2

Head Of Sales

i really dont like the tentative invite strategy. This should be the absolute LAST ditch effort to get a meeting invite. and if they DO that, then the meeting should not be counted until the meeting invite is accepted.

this happened alot when I was an SDR. for a booked meeting to count, both ppl have to accept the meeting (AE and Prospect) if they dont, then the meeting doesnt count until its held.

SDM

Politicker

1

Sales development manager

Ya, no show is a problem for us

TennisandSales

Politicker

0

Head Of Sales

yeah I bet it is haha. thats the main reason why that approach is terrible.

The ONLY time i will be ok with this, is if its more down funnel. and you are trying to connect with the POC and having a hard time nailing them down. and even then its not that great of an idea.

punishedlad

Tycoon

2

Business Development Team Lead

The most I'll do is a placeholder with the intent of finding a better time, like if the meeting date is a month out and neither of us have nailed down schedules. I don't mess with tentatives.

Pachacuti

Politicker

1

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

"He says..." Can he back that up or was it just his word that it works out?

I guess I'd give it some more time to see if it actually does work out. But not much more.

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

1

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

I got such leads in November and it ended very badly for me. 4/10 were no shows. 2 /6 were absolutely not interested, they were just told to come to the call and see what we have to offer, so they did. I am sorry but this is absolutely shitty work. As an SDR, it's also important to make them understand the impact they have on AEs payroll + Company's directive. For fs, please do not make it just a 'quota', but make it look like something of accountability.

Anyway.
- Tentative anything gets you nowhere. Not sure how it worked for him before. Setting up meetings can't be the only target, and if that is - be prepared for these strategies and sleazy tactics coming in ! Conversions should be the target.

- I was an outbound SDR before I became an AE and I have never tried this because of just one reason - the probability is uncertain.

SDM

Politicker

0

Sales development manager

Agree 💯

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