Appointment Setting Guide

John O'Shea

The B2B outbound lead generation process can sometimes be overwhelming because of the many tasks vying for your attention. Yet, as a business leader, you must always focus on your goal of getting enough sales leads into your sales pipeline, grow your customer base and increase revenue.

B2B appointment setting is an important strategy to help you achieve these goals with much ease. Having a successful appointment setting strategy coupled with engaging a reputable lead generation company guarantees you an increase in revenue and, of course, satisfied customers.

In this appointment setting guide, we help you understand the basics of appointment setting, its importance in your business development efforts and the benefits of having an effective B2B appointment setting.

Let’s get started!

What is B2B appointment setting?

In the simplest terms, appointment setting involves setting up appointments with qualified leads to get them to purchase your services or products. You can achieve this using a multi channel approach.

Appointment setting is an effective way for increasing revenue and value for your business because it’s also an opportunity for lead nurturing and qualification.

Appointment setting is beneficial when you want to delegate your prospecting function for leads that require more time nurturing, so your sales reps have ample time to focus on highly qualified leads. Through appointment setting, you can expand your sales funnel, effectively fueling the growth of your business.

The best part of appointment setting is, you don’t have to do it yourself. Instead, you can take advantage of appointment setting services from leading appointment setting companies. Once appointments are set, attention shifts to sales executives whose role is to convert the meeting to a deal.

How to tell your business needs B2B appointment setting?

You need to know when to include the appointment setting process in your B2B lead generation strategy. Here are three pointers that show your marketing efforts can benefit from B2B appointment setting:

• You’re constantly stuck in long sales cycles

A lengthy sales cycle is sometimes unavoidable, especially when dealing with a high involvement B2B purchase. By employing appointment setting, your sales reps have time to focus solely on qualified prospects that have asked about your products or services, effectively shortening the cycle.

• You’re dealing in premium services/products

Closing a sale for high ticket B2B services and products can sometimes be a daunting task. You must convince decision makers or key stakeholders by following them up until they’re ready to have a sales conversation with you. Appointment setting works best in such cases as it serves as a forerunner for the sales team to close the deal.

• You must demonstrate research

Your B2B business may sometimes require you to present evidence and research on the success of your product. This means that you must be well knowledgeable about your operations to put your best foot forward. Appointment setting presents a perfect opportunity to highlight how your service or product solves a problem for the business you’re pitching.

A Look into the Appointment Setting Process

The appointment setting process comprises several stages that ensure your sales development representatives get the right prospects. They are:

Define your target

You need to start by creating a buyer persona and an ideal client profile. The buyer persona will emphasise on specific social and personal characteristics that help clear motives of your potential B2B buyer. The ICP will summarise the main features of past customers that define your future customers. Your ICP and BP are also important to your lead generation process.

Find your target

You should begin by finding leads that are likely to convert to highly qualified B2B appointments. This involves analysing BPs and ICPs and finding leads along with their contact information. Higher quality data means better chances of scheduling and appointments.

Research the target

As an appointment setter, be sure to conduct independent research before contacting a prospect. You should gather information you can use to personalise your outreach so that it’s more human. Personalisation is an excellent way to land customers.

Reach the target

This is the active phase of the appointment setting. At this point, your sales team contacts potential customers. They can do this via email, phone, or social media.

Benefits of Appointment Setting

It’s obvious that appointment setting is invaluable for improving your sales pipeline. Here are some benefits of B2B appointment setting services:

1. Improve quality of targeting–Although the B2B sales process is complicated and lengthy, appointment setting presents an opportunity to reach decision makers directly, edging closer to a sale.

2. Higher conversion rates–Appointment setting lets you use the knowledge you have about clients to nurture interest to the point of purchase. This increases your conversion rates.

3. Shortens sales cycle–When you set appointments, it helps to shorten the sales process, particularly if transactions have a complicated purchasing procedure.

4. Better relations with prospects–When executed properly, appointment setting will help your sales team to nurture better relationships with clients and prospects through the delivery of high quality information.

Better and faster identification of prospects–When your sales team has the right information, they’ll certainly increase their chances of closing deals by quickly identifying prospects who are likely to buy.

Should you outsource appointment setting services?

Just like lead generation services, it takes time to master appointment setting. Therefore, the decision to outsource your appointment setting services from a reputable appointment setting company may be necessary when you want your sales development representatives to focus more on getting results. After all, appointment setters are professionals who will employ the tricks they’ve learned over the years to get you the results you desire to close deals and grow your revenue.

Book a call with Growthonics today to learn how we can support your business growth.