Should one agent own a sale from first call to close, and how do you stop deals dying between setter and closer?

The short answer

Either can work. In our view a split between a setter and a closer makes sense when closing takes a skill or a licence that is scarce, such as a licensed insurance agent or an experienced closer on a large sale. In our view one agent from first call to close makes sense when the buyer’s trust in the first voice is what sells.

What decides it is how many sales die at the handover. Measure each step on its own, fix the gaps you can see, and then test one agent against two on your own leads.

Where sales die at a handover

• The no-show. The buyer agreed to a call or a visit and then isn’t there. In our experience this is the biggest single loss on most split floors.
• The cold restart. The closer opens without knowing what the buyer said, and the buyer has to explain everything again. In our view that loses trust the setter had built.
• The wrong promise. In our experience a setter can book the appointment by promising something the closer can’t deliver, or by understating the price or the commitment.
• The wait. The longer the gap between the first call and the next one, in our view, the more time the buyer has to cool off or buy elsewhere.
• The wrong closer. Not every closer suits every buyer. In our view a closer who sells well to one kind of buyer can struggle with another.

What to measure at the handover

Count each step separately, by setter and by closer, so you can see where the sales go:

1. Appointments set per contact, for each setter.
2. Appointments held per appointment set. This is where no-shows show up.
3. Sales per appointment held, for each closer.
4. Sales that stick, after cancellations, for each setter and closer pair. What counts as a sale.

In our view a setter who books many appointments that never happen, or that never close, can look busy and still cost sales. Read the steps together.

How to cut no-shows

• Keep the gap short. In our view, book the next call as soon as it can usefully happen, not days later by default.
• Give a clear reason to turn up. What the buyer will get from the call, and what they need to have ready.
• Send a reminder. The evidence we know of on reminders comes from healthcare, not sales. A Cochrane review of randomised trials (Gurol-Urganci and others, 2013) found moderate quality evidence that text message reminders improved attendance at healthcare appointments compared with no reminder, and that they had a similar effect to phone call reminders. In our view the same habit is worth testing on a sales floor. Check the rules that apply to contacting your customers first; this page is not legal advice.
• Confirm on the day, and offer a new time straight away if the buyer can’t make it.

Testing one agent against two

Your own leads can settle the question:

1. Split new leads at random. One group goes to setter and closer; the other to one agent who handles the whole sale.
2. Run both in the same weeks, with the same lead sources, offers and scripts.
3. Score on sales per lead, after cancellations, not on appointments.
4. Count the cost. In our experience closers’ time is often the scarce part; set the extra sales against the hours each way takes. How to prove a lead routing change worked.

Where agent matching fits

Agent matching is about the last of the handover risks: which closer, or which agent, takes each lead. BestPair decides which agent works each lead from the floor’s own call and sales history. People make every call, and scripts and offers stay yours. Any gain is measured against a control group run in the same weeks. Should your best agents get every lead?

Sources

• Mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments: Ipek Gurol-Urganci, Thyra de Jongh, Vlasta Vodopivec-Jamšek, Rifat Atun and Josip Car, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2013; a review of randomised trials in healthcare, not sales.