The “Schedule a Demo” Button: The Killer App
Once you have a good content marketing program in place and are getting buyer traffic to your website, it’s important to have the mechanics to ensure your prospects book appointments.
If this is not set up properly, a variation of Broken Telephone happens. We see this all the time, even with experienced teams. You know what it looks like:
- Someone uses the contact form or an email address to say they are interested.
- The message goes into your VP of Sales’ junk folder by mistake, or your VP misses the email, and it remains unanswered for several days.
- The VP follows up with another email or phone call. The prospect is not there for the phone call but answers via email. More going back and forth around the right schedule for both.
- Several days have passed. You have no more intelligence on what the prospect wants than when the process started.
- You go into meetings blind because there is no information about the call—just a name, a number, and an email address, with no gauge of intent or pain point.
Through extensive testing, we have found that a Schedule a Demo button connected to a good scheduling calendar gets considerably more successful interactions and closed deals than the “contact us” or “fill out a form” methods. There are several reasons for this:
- The prospect knows the appointment is about something specific (the Schedule a Demo button was on a particular solution page), tangible (they will see the technology in action), and measurable (you are telling them the appointment duration is 45 minutes).
- The prospect goes into a calendar system and enters a time and date when they want the appointment. This is a very high level of commitment.
- The prospect answers some qualifying questions while booking the appointment. You get a considerable amount of intelligence about what they want, what their biggest challenge is, and why they are coming to you.
- For the prospect, it means a task is done (establishing a date and time to move their project forward).
Notice all the points above start with “the prospect.” That’s because this methodology is putting the buyer in control of the process.
The number of cancelled appointments my clients have experienced is very low. Buyers have a deadline to see a solution, reduce their shortlist, or spend their budget, or they have some other constraint motivating them to take action.
Geography
The Schedule a Demo button needs to be on each and every solution page. It should be inside any PDF brochure you create with a live link. It should be at the end of a PDF white paper you publish, and it should be an integral part of any media you create.
Scheduling System
Clients can quickly view your real-time availability and book their own appointments or reschedule with a simple click and eliminate 100% of the drudgery. You get a notification of the appointment and reminders. Everyone gets reminders and a notification if either party reschedules.
BEFORE Using a Schedule System
Send lots of emails back and forth. Spend time with a prospect who does not fit your business model or is bigger and more substantial than you assumed, catching you off-guard.
AFTER Using a Schedule System
Get a notification that someone has booked an appointment at a specific time and date. Read about who they are, what they’re looking for, and what their biggest challenge is. Enjoy meeting with a prospective new customer.
