While the last stage of the sales process, closing the deal, may garner the most attention. However, it is possible to get to that point by setting up those all-important appointments. Many companies outsource appointment setting to get the most out of this process. However, if you have an in-house team for this, It’s possible that your team’s plan or execution needs tweaking if they need help with appointment setting.
At least half of the companies approached by most sales teams are not a suitable match for their products or services, which is why setting an appointment with decision-makers at a company is a crucial part of any business. You can achieve desirable outcomes by leveraging tried and tested appointment-setting techniques.
While many strategies for appointment setting will be available in 2024, choose the best options for you and your sales team. Everything you need to know about appointment setting, from the basics to the best appointment techniques in 2024, is covered in this article.
Understand Appointment Setting
Appointment Setting is setting up in-person meetings between your sales staff and prospective customers to explain your service or product in detail. In a B2B setting, it is one of the most effective ways to expand your client base and close more deals.
An appointment setter schedules a meeting between a potential client and a closing sales professional. It is the last stage in the lead-generating process. During the session, the sales representative’s goal is to know the potential customer, identify the roadblocks keeping them from the translation, and pitch the product or service as a solution.
Businesses can outsource appointment setting to make this process easier and more efficient for the company. If you outsource appointment setting, your sales team’s only responsibility is to check their schedule and show up at scheduled appointments.
Why Outsource Appointment Setting
There are several advantages your business benefits from when you outsource appointment setting, including more time for your staff to concentrate on higher-value activities, generate more income, and give time to qualified leads.
Increasing your number of appointments may generate favorable press for your company and boost consumer familiarity with your brand. If you outsource appointment setting, you may save your company time and money that goes into dealing with the inconvenience of recruiting and training a new in-house sales team member.
5 Techniques for Appointment Setting Techniques To Get More Deals
Setting up productive sales appointments is often undervalued. The success of appointment setters depends on their ability to play a pivotal part in the lead-generating process. Sales executives must create a conceptual plan that sets up their appointment makers for success. Use these five techniques to enhance your appointment-setting strategy in 2024.
Technique 1: Make a list of success stories
People need to be more explicit about granting a salesman an appointment. The assumption that salespeople have just one goal—making a sale—prompts this defensive reaction. Sharing case studies of how comparable individuals and businesses profited from your service is an excellent method to pique a prospect’s interest and get an appointment.
Recommendations are the most effective kind of advertising. Send the potential buyer to a landing page or a site page where they can see service or product demonstrations and customer reviews before or during your conversation.
Alternately, you may tell a specific tale of a customer in a comparable situation to yours, including the challenges they experienced, the steps they took to solve those challenges, and the results they saw as a consequence. Additionally, case studies are beneficial resources. Hence, compile a list of success stories, share them with appointment setters, and include them in the appointment setting strategy.
Technique 2: Promote appointments, not sales
When talking with a prospective customer, salespeople naturally want to close the deal. No one appreciates having things imposed upon them. Instead, an appointment-setting call aims to pique a potential client’s interest enough to schedule a meeting. So when making a strategy for appointment setting, promote appointments to setters and not close the deal.
Teach them that their objective is to schedule a meeting with clients rather than make a sale. Salesmen should avoid being pushy when they call with a sincere wish to assist. While calling, encourage the callers to do it to help a prospect in some way. A more friendly and approachable tone such as this is less likely to alarm potential business partners.
Technique 3: Get a Power Dialer
Power dialers, often known as sales dialers, are automated phone-calling tools used in sales. It can import and sync updates to the CRM and call over 500 prospects daily. If a lead doesn’t pick up, a power dialer could send a recorded or SMS message to follow up.
Power dialing saves time by removing the need for team members to make mental preparations for the next call. Plus, your workers won’t spend time manually calling numbers—this call center system automates it.
Technique 4: Develop a Voicemail Script
About 80 percent of all cold calls are answered via voicemail. As horrible as this may seem, it’s better for cold calling services when they’re prepared for it. Most cold calling companies outsource appointment setting to leave amusing or helpful phone messages so as not to lose the lead.
If you want more callbacks from customers who didn’t answer your calls, leave them effective voicemails and include a voicemail script in your appointment-setting strategy. Your voicemail script must consist of a touch of intrigue. This means do not include all the information since this would kill the interest of potential customers.
Use this opportunity to tell them how you found out about them and, in a friendly manner, tell them you can help solve a specific problem they might face. Create a short, fast, and courteous recording of your voicemail.
Technique 5: Leverage the Experts
Many salespeople dislike making cold calls more than any other aspect of their jobs. If your business can outsource appointment setting, you can allow them to concentrate on the aspects of sales that bring them the most joy to increase the number of transactions closed by outsourcing appointment scheduling.
Additionally, when you outsource appointment setting, you get a simple but effective approach to improve your appointment setup. Businesses that focus on appointment setup use cutting-edge strategies, highly trained employees, and the best technology to provide high-quality appointments. When you outsource appointment setup, you can ensure that each step of your sales process is carried out to the highest possible standard.
If you’d like to learn about common pitfalls of appointment settings, read our article about the 3 Most Common Appointment Setting Mistakes.
Conclusion
Getting a potential client in for an appointment is the first step in closing the deal. Appointment setup is valuable for your company if done correctly. These techniques in this article will help you become a more experienced appointment setter. It will only result in a sale, but it will put you in a better position to make one.
Salespeople will have an easier time closing deals when their potential customers have already gained some familiarity with your company. However, given the competition in the industry, salespeople need to focus on selling and pushing the business’ revenues. They no longer have the time necessary to put so much effort into honing the skills of setting up appointments.
Outsource appointment setting to Expert Callers. Our 13+ years in the B2B appointment-setting industry guarantee successful meetings to help your company grow. We help you save money and boost output by giving you exactly what you need: quality sales leads and scheduled appointments.