B2B appointment setting is a sales development function that allows sales teams to get qualified meetings with prospects.
What Are the Most Important Things to Focus On To Be Successful in B2B Appointment Setting?
With B2B appointment setting services, companies can save themselves valuable time that they can use for other aspects of their business, such as closing deals.
If you avail of such a service, your chosen agency’s sales development strategies will cold-call prospects for your company. They will then introduce your product or service to these leads and eventually set an appointment with your sales team.
The appointment setting goals to achieve from getting such a service include:
- Prevent your salespeople from doing prospecting
- Cold calling prospects on behalf of your sales representatives
- Filter out low-value leads
If you identify any of these needs in your business, an appointment setting service might be the perfect solution for you. It can be an extremely effective solution for any organization if they work with good B2B appointment setting companies.
Below are the most important things to focus on to be successful in your B2B appointment setting.
Call at the Right Time
A morning or evening call produces the best result in scheduling appointments if a rep targets a high-level executive. These people are not 9 – 5 people. Thus, when connecting with them, call these people around 8 – 9 am or later towards the evening.
So, we are talking about non-busy hours when you should call these people. Besides the higher possibility of engagement during that time, it is also a chance to impress the executives you are targeting.
They will think that “Ah, you are still working, too. I admire that.” The impression is you are a guy who is dedicated to your company and your work. It also shows them that you can put in a little more effort for your target customers.
One study investigated more than a million cold calls. The study found that there is a 164% better chance of engagement if sales representatives call between 8 – 10 am than they do during or after lunch.
Use Your Marketing Leads
Never spend money on prospects that have never shown interest whatsoever. What you do with your lead generation appointment setting approach is to target more people who have already demonstrated interest. That way, you will have a greater chance to set appointments and close deals.
Check out your previous interactions with prospects. Did anyone fill out your form? Follow up with that lead. If you have offered free EBooks or webinars, those who have downloaded your content/material are prime for a follow-up call.
Take note that this strategy is not only for internet marketing. For events that you sponsor, make sure to compile a complete list of attendees and provide an easy way for them to fill out your forms. That is one effective way to make scheduling appointments as simple as possible.
Use Scripts That Work
Always sound respectful when talking to target customers and be careful with the words you use when talking to them. Some scripts may need tweaking so that it sounds pleasing to the listener.
One experienced expert called to mind his experience in using scripts. This expert noted that questions have variations and some variations work better than others.
For instance, he tested different variations of the sentences “Is this a bad time to catch you? And “Is this an okay time to catch you?” He checked these variations against one another in the hundreds of cold calls he made every week.
Here is the result:
- The sentence “Is this a good time to reach you?” worked the best. This is followed by “Is this a bad time to reach you?” as second best.
- The variations that use the word “catch” follow close behind.
- The least effective variations are: “Is it okay to talk now?” and “Is it a bad time to talk now?”
The word “catch” has a negative connotation to it, as it implies trapping someone. Hardly would someone be happy being caught, especially if every minute counts for work and family. So, always create and use scripts with the listener in mind.
Do Not Try To Sell Right Away
Sales appointment setting services avoid this common mistake that unseasoned sales reps make, and that is to cause their prospects to feel overwhelmed at the first call. The best technique is to take it step-by-step.
- Five seconds into the call, you seek to gain five minutes of a prospect’s time.
- Use those five minutes you have earned to earn more time for a 30-minute meeting.
- If luck is on your side, you can close a deal within the 30-minute scheduled appointment.
Use Open-Ended Questions
When cold calling, have a short, compelling pitch and promote conversations using open-ended questions. Remember that your goal is not to tell prospects everything that your business can do for them. Your goal is to identify the pain point of your target customer and offer a solution for that.
You can say, “We work with many businesses that need to streamline their processes, automate their marketing strategies, and build landing pages for their websites. Are any of these some of your concerns, or would it be something else?
This technique is effective for many reasons:
- Open-ended questions are client-focused questions.
- Open-ended questions can address common issues that business owners deal with.
- Open-ended questions provide business owners opportunities to give their inputs related to the problems they face.
From there, the conversation moves toward the prospect of a future meet-up.
Follow Up
A sales representative’s job does not end when the appointment has already taken place. Note that, at this point, your prospects may not feel ready to purchase what you offer yet.
This waiting time is nurturing time. Nurture your prospect with invites to events that are valuable to them or send them relevant updates on your product.
Conclusion
They may not be ready yet to buy, but they have already invested time learning about your offer. These people are a well-qualified component of your target audience, so what you can do is nurture these opportunities.
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