Let’s learn everything you need to know about B2B appointment-making to get more leads.
Imagine standing in front of a magic mirror, like the Evil Queen from Snow White, and saying, “Oh, the mirror is all I need to know about my potential clients.”
Let’s get back to reality. There is no magic mirror that will tell you who your ideal client is, where they live, and how to reach him.
There is another option, however: the B2B appointment setting program. This magical and logical approach will help you get closer to your ideal customer.
Excited? Are you excited?
So what’s B2B Appointment Schema?
B2B appointment setting is a strategy for business growth. It involves a sales rep setting up appointments with potential clients and pitching them to schedule a sales meeting.
Your sales team has the opportunity to meet with a key decision maker (KDM), and discuss how you can help them.
Although the concept of setting up a B2B appointment is simple, it is not easy. It doesn’t matter how skilled your sales reps are, setting up B2B appointments can be a difficult task.
A well-planned strategy is essential to ensure a consistent appointment-setting process. Importantly, appointment setters should always include activities in the appointment setting program. Without constant effort, it is impossible to establish relationships with leads in your sales pipeline.
What does an appointment setter do?
An appointment setter’s main responsibility is to contact leads to arrange meetings or product demos. Appointment setters can contact marketing leads via cold calls, cold emails, or other outbound marketing methods. They can also follow up with warm leads.
The appointment setters must also determine if a lead is qualified enough for the product or to be your ideal customer personality (ICP).
How do B2B appointment setters foster relationships with leads in the sales funnel?
To connect with the right KDM at the correct time, appointment setters must contact leads via various platforms. To build relationships with potential leads, a sales representative who is an appointment setter must use these tactics:
How do B2B appointment setters foster relationships with leads in the sales funnel?
Making Cold calls
Although cold calling is an outdated B2B lead generation strategy it still works. A B2B Cold Calling Strategy can help build brand awareness and brand credibility, and understand the core issues of your prospect.
Cold emails
Cold calling will not connect you to the top KDMs. If you don’t have their contact information, B2B decision-makers won’t usually answer calls by themselves.
Cold emailing is the best method to reach busy leads. Your prospect will have access to your email at all times. They can open it and respond anytime.
An effective cold mail should contain a personal message that triggers the needs and wants of your leads. This will increase the open rate and response rates of your emails. You might even be able to book sales appointments after sending a personal email.
Share Some Value
It is not enough to convince professional B2B leads that an appointment setter claims “they offer the best service”, but it does not suffice. To convert B2B KDMs, you need more than just words.
Appointment setters need to use different sales embellishments to increase their appointment-setting efforts, such as case studies, blogs, and e-books.
SDRs can, for example, attach relevant case study links to cold emails to show prospects how you have solved similar issues before and achieved great results.
Connect on Social Networks
Appointment makers must establish a personal relationship with potential buyers and connect on various platforms. Social media is the best way to do this.
To increase brand awareness and learn more about prospects, you can connect with them on social media channels such as Instagram or LinkedIn. You can also learn more about your leads by using social media channels like Instagram and LinkedIn to directly message them to initiate a conversation.
What Characteristics Make a Good Appointment Setting?
The success of a B2B appointment-setting program depends on who does the job. You will not get the best results from your B2B appointment-setting program if the appointment setter lacks the skills necessary to motivate and engage prospects.
Hire an appointment setter with the following skills.
Excellent Communication Skills
They should be able to communicate well with B2B appointment setters. They must be able to open a conversation with leads. To motivate leads to talk freely and openly with them, a good appointment setter must be able to ask the right questions.
Qualifications to Offer Value
Appointment setters need to have good communication skills. However, they shouldn’t talk down to a professional lead on a phone call. To provide valuable information to B2B customers, a good appointment setter must be qualified. They must also know the prospects’ industry to answer any technical questions.
Identify key decision-makers
Sales representatives should be able to identify the top decision-makers within the company. Your sales pursuit will become a waste if your SDR continues to waste its time with people without authority. For a successful B2B appointment-setting program, sales reps must always communicate with KDMs. They should also be able to recognize key decision-makers.
Handle Objections
An appointment setter would contact leads to set up meetings and then convert them into paying customers. This is the ideal scenario. This is not what happens in real life. Appointment setters must deal with potential leads’ objections and questions. They need to be able to communicate effectively and have the patience and knowledge to deal with all objections.
Understand the Appointment Setting Process
Every company today has an internal appointment-setting procedure. Some large companies even have their secretariats to make appointments with the right people. To increase your chances of connecting with the right person, the appointment setter should be able to understand and follow the internal appointment-setting process for a targeted lead.
Ask the relevant questions
Setting up an appointment with potential leads is essential to get to know their needs and problems. The appointment setter should be able to identify the most relevant questions for their leads to drive them toward their products and services. An appointment setter who is skilled in keeping the conversation going with the right questions and providing value to the sales team will be a good choice.
Technical Skills
A scheduler must communicate with hundreds of people each day. An appointment setter can’t keep track of every conversation and follow up with each person at the correct time. An appointment setter needs tools to manage their workflow, establish a relationship with potential customers, and keep track of every conversation.
The most common tools appointment setters need to know are CRM, email automation, and call management software. An appointment setter must have basic technical skills to use all of these tools. Ensure that your SDR can handle basic tools without any code.
Prediction Skills
Your appointment setter should have excellent prediction skills. They should immediately make any changes to a sales pitch that isn’t delivering results. They must also know when and how to change the sales process. Your company will be wasting resources by using inefficient appointment-setting strategies and methods.
How to set up a B2B appointment-setting team?
Companies that sell high-end products need B2B appointment-making programs. To reduce sales cycles and connect with prospects, you need a well-structured appointment-set team.
It is however not an easy task to establish a B2B appointment-setting team. First, find an experienced appointment setter who has all of the skills mentioned above. Next, focus on these factors to create a strong internal B2B appointment-setting unit.
Customer Data
To set up a strong B2B appointment-setting unit, you need data. Without the right data, it is impossible to connect with potential customers. You must first build your customer database.
It is no longer enough to collect data about potential customers. It is important to segment your data using common factors such as marketing-qualified leads and sales-qualified leads.
After that, ensure that you have active leads in your sales pipeline. You should re-engage with any inactive or old leads. You should not respond if the lead isn’t responding.
It will require a lot of time and resources to build and maintain your customer database. Many companies purchase customer databases from third-party providers. This method can only be successful if the customer database is purchased from reputable companies. You could endanger your business’ reputation.
Adequate Tech-stack
Your appointment-setting team must be equipped with the latest technologies to manage data and generate leads. They also need tools that are tailored to their sales goals, budget, and targets.
To connect with prospects via Linkedin, for example, you will need a LinkedIn Sales Navigator to help your team.
Alore.io is a comprehensive CRM solution that allows you to connect with leads and build personal relationships. Your team also needs tools to send out cold emails, make cold phone calls, and manage outreach efforts.
Team Management
Your B2B appointment-setting program’s success depends on the management of your appointment-setting staff. Most appointment setters lack the skills and knowledge to communicate with professionals.
To support your sales reps, you will need a manager and a skill analyzer. A manager is also needed to oversee and track individual sales reps’ performance.
You will also need management software to track the performance of your field sales reps. To make your B2B appointment-setting program a success, you need tools and managers.
Quick Modifications
Sales teams must constantly adjust what they do. They must monitor and adjust their B2B appointment-setting programs to ensure that they are performing at the highest level.
A great B2B appointment setter will be able to adapt infrastructure, campaigns, and other strategies to maximize results.
Inbound vs Outbound B2B Appointment Setting Services
It is difficult to set up a B2B appointment-setting team in-house.
To build your appointment-setting team, you need to hire competent appointment setters and acquire tools. All of this takes a lot of time and money.
You don’t need to worry if you don’t have the resources or time to create your appointment-setting team. It is easy to outsource B2B appointment setting.
Many great companies can help you make appointments with your prospects. They have the necessary technical infrastructure and manpower to help you connect with potential leads.
This leaves us with a question: Is outsourcing B2B appointment-setting services better than in-house?
This is a trick question. To find the answer, you need to understand the differences between outbound and inbound appointment-setting services.
Price
Setting up an appointment-setting team in-house will cost more. To run appointment-setting operations, you will need to buy the sales management software and pay the salary of sales reps. You must also provide basic infrastructure for your teams, such as internet connection and computer systems.
B2B appointment-setting companies charge only for the services you use. B2B appointment-setting vendors typically charge the following:
Monthly Fee: This structure allows B2B appointment-setting firms to charge a fixed monthly fee based on selected services or a specific time. They may also charge a commission depending on how many appointments they set.
Activity-Based: A package that is dependent on the number of activities performed during a campaign. This means that a B2B appointment-setting vendor will charge according to activities such as the number of meetings, etc.
Pay per appointment: This is a simple pricing system in which you pay only for the appointments your vendor has booked. This means that appointments are not equal to money.
Personalization
It is a good idea to outsource B2B appointment-setting services. However, this is not the best way to personalize your leads’ appointments.
Your team will be able to better understand your customers and provide customized solutions. Third-party companies, on the other hand, can only offer a limited personal touch because they don’t have a good understanding of your customers. They must rely on the information provided by your sales team.
Technical Expertise
Companies are eligible for this round. They have a highly skilled staff, powerful tools, and the ability to schedule appointments with qualified leads. Their staff receives extensive training in how to find B2B leads on multiple platforms.
In-house teams are limited in technical skills. First, small businesses cannot afford to hire highly skilled appointment setters. Therefore, they must settle for less qualified sales representatives.
Additionally, many businesses lack the resources to offer timely training for appointment setters. This impacts the quality of the B2B appointment setting.
Due to skills gaps, many local companies are unable to hire professional sales reps.
Lead Quality
We must conclude this point. Why?
In both in-house and external B2B appointment-setting services, lead quality can be a problem. If your SDR does not have the qualifications to identify key decision-makers, then your lead quality is poor.
The flip side is that if you do not share your ICP details with your appointment-setting company (B2B), they will be unable to set up appointments with your prospects.
It all boils down to the quality and competence of your SDRs or B2B appointment-setting agents. We recommend that you hire competent appointment-setting vendors to generate high-quality leads.
Do I outsource or set up a B2B appointment-setting team?
It all depends on you. You can always hire an in-house staff if you have the time and budget to train, manage and hire appointment setters.
If you’re already having trouble managing your internal sales operations, don’t increase your workload. You can outsource the appointment-setting tasks to professionals so that your sales team can concentrate on creating a dynamic pitch.
No matter what solution you choose, it is important to hire qualified appointment setters to increase your sales. It will pay off, even if it means you’ll have to pay more for an experienced person.
This is it! You can also visit other blogs to find more B2B lead generation tricks and tips.
