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Dear Quota Team

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I recently made a transition from marketing to sales at my company after deciding I wanted the opportunity to make bigger paychecks. It's my first sales role so I've been trying to learn from the top sales reps on my team. 

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One issue I've been running into: while I've been able to book meetings with inbound leads, a lot of them end up being no-shows. I'd say that about 50% of the meetings I book end up not showing up. It's very frustrating, as I spend time preparing for the meetings, researching my prospects and their company. It feels like I'm wasting my time. What's the best way to tactfully follow up with these no-shows to try and get them to agree to another meeting and save the deal?

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Frustrated in Location withheld 

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Dear Frustrated,

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There are some things you can do to reduce the amount of no-shows and get them back in play. First, make sure you're sending meeting confirmation emails to your prospects. Send them a reminder the day before or the day of the meeting to confirm. You said you're researching your prospects before, try to add value in your confirmation email by outlining the agenda, including the problems you're planning to solve for the prospect. Also, make sure you have a link somewhere in this confirmation email that allows them to easily reschedule the meeting.

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If your prospect doesn't show up to the meeting after 5 minutes, send them an email with the meeting link to confirm that they're using the right link and that they aren't missing the meeting because of a technical issue. In this email, ask if there is a better time for them to talk and offer additional availability or even better, a link for them to reschedule the meeting at their preferred date and time.

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Sometimes the prospect will be a no-show because they're busy dealing with other problems related to their job. Use this as an opportunity to sell your prospect on how you can make their life easier with your product/solution. If you don't get a response, wait a few days and follow up one more time. They booked a meeting with you for a reason, so ask in your follow-up if they're still experiencing the problem and searching for a solution.

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If that doesn't work and you're still not getting a response, the prospect is most likely not ready to buy. Set a reminder to follow up again in a few months and put your focus on other deals in your pipeline. Best of luck!