Your sales team can be full of motivation and potential to attain their sales objectives amid all potential challenges or limitations. But, if your sales representatives can deal with different complexities of your sales process individually, it doesn’t necessarily mean they should be left to deal with all challenges on their own. You must acknowledge the varying potential and capabilities of each team member as per their domain of expertise.
Some of your sales representatives can be skilled prospectors and able to engage your prospects with their effective communication skills. Others might be excellent at closing deals due to their persuasive soft skills.
B2B appointment setting is an effective methodology that is driven by adding sales representatives in the prospecting phase of your sales process. Once the initial representative aligns a follow-up call with the prospect, another sales representative at the closing end joins the process to fuel the final phase of your sales process.
According to the survey, some of the primary reasons that most businesses hold accountable for the failure of their inhouse appointment setting strategy include:
- Lack of resources (access to the right talent and tools)
- Lack of rich leads data
- Lack of insights into customer behavior & demographics
The role of an appointment setter involves a range of complexities and responsibilities. A reason why most businesses opt for the services of some renowned outsource appointment setting agencies. We can motivate customers through our B2B appointment scheduling services and transform those talks into big-time engagements that will quickly fill your calendar.
An appointment setting is a part of an outbound lead generation strategy. You can craft your expertise in this domain by leveraging some smart and effective appointment setting tips which will be discussed later in the following piece of writing.
The Role of an Appointment Setter
An appointment setter is responsible for making contact with potential customers and setting up appointments for sales representatives to meet with them. This position generally requires good people skills, as the appointment setter will be interacting with a wide range of people on a daily basis. The ability to overcome objections and close a sale are also important skills for an appointment setter.
The primary responsibility of an appointment setter is to make contact with potential customers and set up appointments for sales representatives to meet with them. This involves using a variety of methods to reach out to potential customers, such as making phone calls, sending emails, and connecting with prospects on social media. It’s important for appointment setters to be able to quickly build rapport with potential customers and establish a connection.
Once an appointment setter has made contact with a potential customer, they will need to determine if there is interest in meeting with a sales representative. If there is interest, the appointment setter will then work out the details of the meeting, such as time and location.
The time at which the initial communication happens is when the process of appointment setting begins.
Why B2B Appointment Setting Is Important for Your Sales Strategy?
B2B appointment setting might appear known to you if you have exposure to the sales process and its various strategies. Fundamentally, by incorporating a sales appointment setting, a business ensures they are engaging qualified prospects in a timely manner who hold immense potential to become a customer.
Leveraging the B2B appointment setting techniques involves 3 primary phases. These phases are:
1. Prospecting
In this first stage, your SDRs analyze and hook MQLs & SQLs to identify their stage in their buyer journey as well as their relative qualification and likelihood to become a customer.
At this stage in the sales funnel, the lead starts revealing interest in your business products or service. At this stage, the sales individual acknowledges if the prospect is likely to become a sale or needs further nurturing.
Once your sales representatives find out that a particular prospect is more likely to convert into a customer, they make a swift move towards the next stage which is the appointment setting.
2. Appointment Setting
The appointment setting phase involves furthering lead nurturing and qualification before final closure.
What does an appointment setter do at this stage?
They are expected to analyze the lead and align all parameters in favor of the sales representative who is up for locking a deal.
These tasks can be handled by your in-house team or even outsourced to any renowned appointment setting agency to keep your representatives focused on selling. The appointment setter must be able to filter the hot leads and pass them to the final stage that is closing.
3. Closing
Once your potential customer has their appointment aligned, your frontline sales team interacts with them to effectively close the deal. The objective is to get high-potential leads with high intent and purchase objectives.
This is how the B2B appointment setting strategy works to let you engage with the right leads at the right time.
7 Successful Appointment Setter Skills
As business owners, we want our employees to be efficient, skilled, and motivated. But what is the set of skills that is mandatory for an appointment setter?
Let’s look into this in detail.
1. Identifying the Time Zone
Time is of utmost importance for all individuals serving as appointment setters. It’s also crucial to every lead you are going to reach out to. Therefore, it is mandatory to engage your prospects at the right times. For instance, don’t cold call prospects during sleeping hours or dinner time. An SDR must know how to set appointments based on different time zones.
An average sales development representative has to deal with a variety of tasks and responsibilities. These responsibilities include tracking CRM, pushing outreach emails, evaluating statistics, and cold call appointment setting. Amidst all these responsibilities, managing time while keeping the difference in time zones in the frame is vital for long-term success. For instance, if it’s work time where you are, it might be midnight for the prospect you are going to call.
2. Qualifying B2B Prospects
Before scheduling an appointment with the prospects, your sales representative has to ensure if the particular prospect is qualified enough to declare sales-ready. It needs a rich collaboration between the marketing and sales team to target the right lead at the right time with a practical approach.
3. Able to Understand the Needs of the Prospect
To start an effective sales journey with rich communication is another vital skill for any appointment setter. Your sales representative has to showcase the vitality of your product or services, ask the right questions to determine particular pain points and, most essentially, listen to what the prospect is trying to say.
Pitch informative ideas and advice with an optimistic approach to developing a reputation and curb any likelihood of sales objections before they pop up.
4. Handle Objections During Prospecting
Rejections and sales objections are likely to pop up while prospecting. Sometimes prospects are running short of time or consider your services invaluable for their business model. This is the time when an experienced appointment setter finds a way to convert an objection into an opportunity.
Turn the table and present the situation from a more colorful perspective and educate your prospect on why your product or service can resolve their problems.
5. Strong Follow-Ups
Once your SDR schedules a time for a sales appointment, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen. Every business keeps a record of the appointment abandonment rate, and an effective way to abstain from happening is to push a reminder. You can drive fruitful results by sending reminder messages a few hours before the scheduled time of the appointment. You can leverage different outbound strategies such as email reminders, SMS, etc.
A smart appointment setter tries all possible ways to engage prospects. A lot of sales representatives refrain from answering negative or abusive messages. It’s not the right way to do business. Keep in mind that every answer and slight engagement can open opportunity corridors to capitalize on.
6. Creating a Great Sales Pitch
To ensure an effective sales pitch, a sales representative should fully acknowledge the vitality of choosing the right tone and subject. It is recommended to put your prospect first. A “you” approach instead of a self-centric “me” approach is fruitful in all regards.
7. Clear Objective of an SDR
An SDR’s primary objective is to book qualified meetings with potential buyers. In order to do this, they need to be able to quickly establish rapport, understand the buyer’s needs, and communicate the value of your product.
According to the research, over 80% of B2B experts claim sales reps lack a proper understanding of their target market and prospects.
One of the most devastating mistakes an appointment setter can commit is not getting prepared for a meeting.
You need to acknowledge your prospects well enough to know their pain points, demographics, and stage of their buyer journey.
Skilled appointment setters also know the service or product they are going to present and can predict the possible requirements and concerns of their prospects.
How to Improve Your Appointment Setting Skills?
Sales is a numbers game. The more appointments you set, the more sales you’ll close. It’s as simple as that. But nailing down those meetings can be tough. You’ve got to be persistent, yet polite. You need to know when to push and when to back off. You have to be organized, yet flexible. In other words, you’ve got to be superhuman.
We’re kidding, of course. But nailing the perfect appointment-setting technique can feel like a Herculean task. That’s why we’ve put together this list of b2b appointment setting tips to help you hone your skills and close more deals.
- Do your research – Before connecting with your prospects it is recommended to invest time researching the prospects, their pain points, and their qualifications.
- Personalized approach – Refrain from interacting with your prospects like a robot. Make your impression and approach personalized and persuasive.
- Ask necessary questions – It is highly recommended to ask necessary questions to fully understand the knowledge, pain points, and requirements of your prospect.
- Streamline your appointment setting process – Leverage tools like Calendly to Streamline your appointment process and schedule meetings efficiently.
- Don’t pressurize your prospects – If you appear manipulative and sound like a sale-hungry individual, your prospect will start feeling uncomfortable. Don’t be a nuisance and keep your approach persuasive.
- Be confident – Keep your tone natural & unrehearsed. Don’t lose control and refrain from interrupting your prospects.
- Give suggestions – Give recommendations or suggestions to the prospects based on your experience and knowledge. It showcases your identity as an industry expert and helps in strengthening trust.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that appointment setting is a critical part of any B2B business. Without appointments, it would be very difficult to generate leads and sales. By taking the time to set up an effective appointment setting system, you can ensure that your business will be able to thrive.
And if due to time restrictions or complex processes you are unable to train your in-house sales team feel free to reach out to us. At Scaleyourbiz our team of experts can get you high-ticket leads and help you generate profits over time.
