Lift a show rate with incentives

1. The shirt

The case. One business in a test group for appointment software had show rates far above every other business in the group. Nothing in the system explained it: the same open-loop conversations, the same messages, the same cadence. Its advertising looked ordinary too. Its owner said he did nothing special and supposed people just loved them, which made no sense for leads who did not know the business yet.

Pressed, he explained. They try to over-deliver, so people want to turn up: every new lead gets a gift on arrival. And they tell the lead about it, by text, from a separate phone outside the system: there is a shirt waiting for you; do you want black or pink? Once the lead answers with a color, they have them.

Does a lead who names a color actually turn up? Almost every time. It was personal.

2. What personalization is

Personalization means making yourself useful, relevant and pleasant to each individual lead. Find out what they want, get it for them, and tell them they can have it if they turn up. When a lead knows they will get value just for showing up, the chance that they turn up rises with it. Nobody wants to waste their time, so this lowers their risk. It also raises the cost of staying away: skip the appointment and they miss something they value, which makes the appointment itself worth much more. So you remove the risk of not getting what they want, and with it you raise the odds that they come to get it.

One practice here personalizes in six ways, in this order:

1. Use the lead's preferred way of communicating: SOP 91 — Run the first-contact channel stack and the double dial.
2. Qualify the leads: collect information, then take off the calendar the leads unlikely to buy; SOP 84 — Score and route inbound leads.
3. Send the best leads to the best closers: SOP 84.
4. Segment the messaging, so each lead hears about what is relevant to them: SOP 84.
5. Give them a reason to turn up: sections 3 to 5 of this page.
6. Show proof from people like them: section 6 of this page.

3. Push and pull

Incentives have been seen used in two ways.

• Push. The good thing comes before the lead arrives, and its purpose is to trigger reciprocity.
• Pull. The lead gets the good thing after they arrive, and its purpose is to motivate them to come.

Both work as a kind of social contract.

4. The push: a gift card

The first way is simply to give the lead a gift card. Do not agonize over the amount; make it enough that it is not insulting. And to be clear, they keep the gift card whether they turn up or not. It is a gift, and a gift comes with no strings. The day before a meeting, it sounds something like this: you want to make sure they are properly caffeinated for tomorrow, so they should check their email, where a $5 gift card is waiting. And more of them turn up.

Do not ask first. Do not ask whether you may send it, and do not make it conditional; say that you have sent it. The point is to give up front, before anything else. That is what shifts the relationship.

A second timing. The example above sends the gift the day before. In one practice here it goes out in the burst of automated messages sent quickly to a lead who has booked, with the gift card emailed to them by gift-card software linked to your customer records. As with reminders on SOP 89 section 4, each message tells the lead it is automated; obey the laws where you operate.

It works for any business. Take a chain of beauty stores. A prospect opts in and gets a call within 5 minutes: because they are a first-time client, you are setting aside some free products for them; would they like face cream or hand lotion? Face cream. Great, it will be waiting for them tomorrow.

Three reasons are offered for why a gift works, in this order. First, it signals abundance: people prefer to buy from someone who does not need the sale, and somebody desperate for it is assumed not to be very good, so the giver's abundance is read as a sign they can deliver. Second, it rests on reciprocity, which works even when people know exactly what you are doing: they still feel they owe you one. Third, the two together make people more likely to want to do business with you, and so to turn up. That also raises the close rate, which is not the point here but does no harm.

What the gift costs per sale. Every booked lead gets the gift, but only some of them buy, so count its cost per sale:

• Gift cost per sale = gift amount ÷ (show rate × close rate).
• Break-even lift in sales = gift cost per sale ÷ your current cost per sale.

To put invented figures on it: a $10 gift, a 60 percent show rate and one sale for every three who turn up come to $50 of gifts per sale. Against a cost per sale of $200, the gift pays for itself if sales rise 25 percent, and anything above that is gain. A $5 gift halves both: $25 per sale, and a 12.5 percent lift to break even. Where winning a customer costs $1,000 to $2,000, as it probably does in business-to-business sales, $10 barely registers. The view here is that the gain is very likely to be worth it.

5. The pull: an either-or choice

The first incentive was a gift. The second is a bribe. The lead chooses what they will get when they turn up, and both options assume that they will. You also want to make it plain that you are taking on a cost on their behalf.

Anything can be offered as an either-or choice:

Kind	The choice
Quantity	One bottle or two?
Start date	Tomorrow or Monday?
Type	Shirt or shorts?
Payment	Cash or card?
Flavor	Chocolate or vanilla?
Time slot	Morning or afternoon?
Medium	Read or listen?
Delivery	Standard or overnight?
Size	Small or medium?
Color	Black or white?
Material	Paper or plastic?
Personnel	One named person, or another?
Communication	Call or text?

The conditions. An either-or choice depends on three things. The lead should want the thing. It should have an obvious connection to what you will offer them. And you should have taken on some real cost to prepare it.

6. Show proof, matched to the lead

Showing proof, case studies and testimonials gets people excited to talk to you about what you sell, and when they are excited about it, more of them turn up ready to buy. So work proof into your messages. To go further, personalize it: match the proof to the lead. Show an older white professional man the results of other older white professional men. Send a woman who wants to lose weight the story of somebody her age and ethnicity, and around her weight. The closer the match, the better.

Stay compliant. Be compliant with the proof you send; what is allowed varies by state and country. That is the rule as stated here; the law itself is not covered on this page.

When to send it:

• after they book and before they turn up;
• between the first call and the second;
• every 90 days, if they have ghosted: share results from people who joined at about the time they went quiet. It makes them feel left behind, and still gives them the chance to make up the lost time.

Work proof in everywhere you can. It makes what you sell more compelling and gets more people to turn up. Proof in its own right is SOP 109, which tests each piece against a set of comparisons.

7. The whole of it, in one line

Find out what the lead wants, get it for them, and tell them they can have it if they turn up. That takes away the risk of wasting their time, and raises the cost of missing the appointment. Personalize; do not pressure.

8. What this page does not decide for you

• How big the gift should be. Big enough not to insult; the example uses $5. In one practice here $5 or $10 has worked just about every time it was tried, and it can be $100; a gift that fits your kind of customer can take the place of a generic coffee card. This page gives no figure for a right amount.
• Push or pull. Both are offered; neither is ranked above the other.
• Where a gift collected on arrival belongs. The beauty-store example is given under push; its products are handed over when the lead arrives, and offered as an either-or choice.
• What happens to a pull incentive when the lead does not come. Not established on this page.
• How close a proof match has to be. Closer is better; no line is drawn.

9. The checklist

Question	The answer
The idea	Make it about them, and the more you do, the more likely they turn up
The six tactics, in order	Preferred channel; qualify; best leads to best closers; segmented messages; incentives; proof
Push	A gift before they arrive, kept whether they come or not, sent without asking; abundance and reciprocity
What a gift costs per sale	Gift ÷ (show rate × close rate); it breaks even at that ÷ your current cost per sale
Pull	An either-or choice, collected on arrival; both options assume they come
What a pull needs	Something they want, tied to your offer, that cost you something to prepare
Proof	Matched to the lead's situation, at every stage of follow-up
When to send proof	After booking; between calls; every 90 days if they ghost
Proof and the law	Stay compliant; what is allowed varies by state and country

10. What this page does not cover

Discounted offers are named as producing higher show rates than free ones on SOP 62 — Design a decoy offer, section 4. Reminders before the appointment are SOP 89 — Run the seven-day follow-up cadence.

Advertising, endorsement and consumer-protection law is not covered on this page.