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Crafting a B2B Appointment Setting Formula that Never Fails

Crafting a B2B Appointment Setting Formula that Never Fails

In terms of generating sales and realize revenue growth, there is a constant need to optimize one’s appointment setting process. This is because business engagements with interested partners facilitate their transition to paying customers. But no doubt the process itself harbors a few complications here and there.

Firstly, one can assume that not all sales leads actually translate to actual purchases. This is an issue for a lead management system to tackle. However, since appointments entail head-on engagements with prospects, it matters if your salespeople have the proper qualities in terms of audience interaction.

It is also important to consider that effective B2B appointment setting depends on key sales facilities. The latest in CRM technology has to be installed so that leads can be better managed.

While these can be set, they also entail expenditures on staff trainings and system upgrades. Without proper oversight, these investments might just degrade your sales process, culminating in a failure to reach sales goals.

Failure is never an option and that is why businesses should focus on establishing sustainable strategies that can last long. Here are some useful tips to help you do just that.

Consider the time element in your engagements

It is crucial that your sales staff know the appropriate time to set appointments with their prospects. Usually, the ideal period in which to make contact is during lunch or around 8-9 am.

Follow up with email

In telemarketing, emails complement your prospect engagements. Your mails must have new information that was not yet discussed during the initial contact. To gain another engagement means keeping your prospect interested, best done through free ebooks, informational materials and invites to company webinars and trade shows.

Influencing comes first

It would seem the best approach to sell in the initial contact. But this often backfires, leaving your campaign on a difficult position to compensate for a rejected appointment. Marketers should remember that the sales process takes a long time before a prospect decides to buy. During such time, it is imperative to introduce your prospects to the types of capabilities you possess that other service providers don’t.

Be persistent but remain patient

The sales process takes a long time indeed, but this fact should not stop you from setting an appointment with your prospects. With a lot of hard work and dedication to your company’s goals will you truly attain realistic results in your B2B appointment setting.

How to Nurture an Effective B2B Appointment Setting Team

How to Nurture an Effective B2B Appointment Setting Team

Any organization owes its success to cooperation. And no doubt a good B2B appointment setting campaign is bound to reap as many lead conversions as it can when its Sales and Marketing work harmoniously together, even in lead generation.

But enough about cooperation. Real achievements are influenced in part by the people behind these departments. Competency and professionalism are no less important than teamwork. Thus it is important for businesses decision-makers to invest in nurturing their appointment setting team.

When your goals are anchored on following up on qualified B2B leads, you might as well take crucial measures to improve your team’s performance. But this goes beyond small-time lectures and manuals on appointment scheduling. Training involves much more than just that. Indeed, it takes a lot more.

Here’s how you can create an appointment setting dream team.

Prepare a call guide.

A scheduled appointment serves as a thin blanket separating B2B leads from a purchase. Now, it is only a matter of puncturing through the layer using a special tool: communication. Obviously, there is a need to demonstrate a high level of authority to facilitate a purchase. For this, a pre-prepared call guide is essential for verbal effectiveness.

Build tolerance.

Profile your targets.

Of course, before any appointment is set, a thorough knowledge of your prospects is as good as effective communication skills. In the B2B industry, people in the executive class or in higher positions are your audience. Thus, you should maintain a database in which prospect information can be stored. Having a proper understanding of pertinent lead data can help your team to drive the appointment home.

Be consistent with your message.

What do you want to relay to your prospects? How best could you present your message to them? Once your team has a firm grasp of your lead generation and appointment setting parameters, you could bet that they could entice B2B leads to agree to a telemeeting.

How Marketing Automation and Appointment Setting go Together

How Marketing Automation and Appointment Setting go Together

Since ROI maximization is always in the minds of B2B executives, it is not surprising that most of these businesses are spending heftily for optimized marketing solutions. However, making such a gesture never guarantees an improved appointment setting campaign.

Marketing automation however continues to be a relevant tool despite how some B2B experts view it. In terms of setting up sales engagements with B2B leads, it continues to be a reliable partner for better conversions.

Time saving processes.

When leading an email marketing campaign, you would want every second to count. Time is essential as your prospects definitely make a great deal out of filtering what they deemed to be unimportant messages. They simply don’t want to entertain anything that doesn’t have anything to do with their time. With marketing automation, you are able to effectively manage multiple campaigns (and not just direct mail) by producing messages that aren’t insipid and huge time wasters.

Better lead targeting.

Precision is always a complex issue. But automated lead targeting could help you find the prospects that are eager to engage and to buy. You wouldn’t have to rack your brains over a list of potential prospects in your LinkedIn network. And you would give your conversion rates a boost by providing your lead generation and appointment setting with high profile B2B leads.

Better lead nurturing.

Automated lead management and follow up could improve any endeavor for a sales appointment. Once you get to interact with a potential B2B partner, it is imperative to keep him or her interested until an appointment is anticipated. With marketing automation, you are able to engage your prospects directly and warm them up for your sales pipeline.

Apparently, a good marketing automation program has to be handled expertly. Better guarantees are made by companies that have a proven track record in lead generation and appointment setting.

Sell Big In Australia Even If You Are Small - A B2B Lead Generation Perspective

Sell Big In Australia Even If You Are Small: A B2B Lead Generation Perspective

“We all have to admit, selling to large companies can be a real challenge.”

Just imagine how hard that would be if you are a small company conducting a B2B lead generation campaign. The competition can be intense, not to mention the possibility that what you have is not what big name businesses are looking for. Getting qualified sales leads out of these companies are pretty much a challenge, more like a sure failure. But that is just at the surface. If you can properly analyze what you need to do, then you will realize just what you should be doing to make it work.

Create a sense of urgency.

Yes, urgency. This is the one strongest element that compels potential B2B leads to make a purchase or sign up with your company. If you can make them feel that what you offer is available for only a limited time, and if you can covey to them the importance of making a purchase, then you can make a sale or deal happen. And no matter what business or industry you belong to in Australia, this sense of urgency will get you the sales you are looking for. Mind you, this is not something that came off the top of my head. This answer is grounded on practical observation.

I mean, look at infomercials these days. Why do you think they still earn a lot of money, even now? It is because they succeed in relaying that sense of urgency to your prospects. The same is true even if you are not selling at all. For B2B appointment setting campaigns, conveying a sense of urgency to your prospects is what compels them to act according to what you say. Your marketing campaign’s success will depend on your team’s ability to create urgency in whatever you say or do in front of your prospects.

You can do that in a B2B telemarketing campaign. Give your business prospects a call, let them know what you have to offer them, offer them something good. Lay out the benefits that they will enjoy if they make a deal with you. And make them aware that your offer will not be around for long. Not that you are trying to coerce them or something, but more along the lines of availability of supply. In case you are offering software programs, add in some services that are time-constrained, like installation or customization by your own personnel, priority delivery for those who purchase immediately, additional services, etc. You can use anything that will get their attention and create a sense of urgency to those who will be listening to you.

Now, if you think that your own marketing team is not really up to this kind of strategy, you can always ask the help of professional B2B lead generation agencies. There are a lot of them around. You just have to choose the ones that will work well with you and your team. That may require you to invest more time and effort, but the returns in terms of B2B leads generated would be worth it.

The Five Ways You Waste Time In B2B Appointment Setting (Featured image)

The Five Ways You Waste Time In B2B Appointment Setting

Since we are talking about work, you might find yourself doing things that will not help you at all. Indeed, these might actually cause you to waste precious time. It sure makes sense if you can avoid them, right? So, what are these time-wasters that you should be avoiding?

1. Working too much on the wrong work – you know that there are limits to what you can do in a single day, so we try to work on things that matter the most. The problem here is when we focus our efforts to much on the wrong part of your telemarketing campaign. That would certainly waste a lot of precious time and manpower in our work.

2. Putting off the easy ones – I tell you, the easy tasks that you put off for tomorrow will become the hardest ones on that day. A veteran marketer would take every chance he gets to finish all necessary stuff up on the day it appeared. Letting it linger for later handling would be poor time management, and will cause you to waste time later on.

3. You micromanage your employees – all right, you might want to properly manage and observe your employees, but you will not be going anywhere near your goals if all you do is breath down their necks. You have more important things to do, and your employees will need a little slack while they are working on getting more B2B leads coming in. If you really believe that your employees need guidance all the time, then you probably chose the wrong people for the job.

4. You focus too much on the details – in marketing, you should really look at the details, but focusing too much on them would cause you to miss the big picture. When that happens, well, you might start committing mistake number one or two. Try putting some perspective in your work. That would help.

5. The wheel keeps getting reinvented – if there is anything that you might want to learn about in terms of time wasters, it is that reinventing the sales process rarely gets you the right results. Truly, if you are sensible enough for the job, you will know that some selling styles are best left as is. You just have to know what these are and work on them.

Yes, these are sure-fire sources of wasted time. If you truly want to be productive in your B2B appointment setting campaigns, please try avoiding these common, but erroneous, business and marketing practices.

Hands touching a mobile with a world map

Easy Networking Tips For Your Appointment Setting Campaigns

In any B2B lead generation campaign, attending public events and creating networks from the people you meet is a necessity. You know that getting B2B leads can be done in a variety of ways, and it makes sense that you use all avenues in getting them. That is why networking is a good place to start. You get to meet a lot of people, interact with them, learn what issues they face every day, generally giving you an idea on what you and your appointment setting team should do to turn these acquaintances into actual deals or closed sales.

You can be successful in this, if you know how to do it. So follow these tips, and you will be in the right path:

  1. Come in early – while some of you would be tempted to arrive a few minutes after the event, but that would be a bad move in marketing. You would want to come in early in order to observe the other attendees better, as well as identify groups or individuals that you can interact with.
  2.  Ask around – when you are in a social event, please try not to stay by the walls. Not only will this make you look like a sore spot, it would also hinder you from meeting people and getting information out of them. That, in turn, would reduce the number of prospects that your telemarketing team can contact once you get back.
  3.  Forget the sales pitch – if you want a sure fire way to dissuade prospects from doing business with you, you should try using a sales pitch on them. Really, if there is anything that a prospect or networking event attendee hates to hear, it has to be someone trying to sell them something. That never ended well for those who used it. Besides, the whole point of you attending such events is to meet new people.
  4.  Talk about your passions – you know, if you want your new conversation partners to warm up to you, then talking to them about your passions can be a good topic. Besides, if both of you like the same thing, then would it not be the perfect way to establish a connection that can be transferred to your B2B appointment setting campaign later on? You should give this a try and see it for yourself.
  5.  Smile – truly, the one networking asset that many marketers tend to forget. You see, no one really approaches someone who, while they may have something good to offer, when they see that same person with a dour expression.
  6.  Do not dominate the conversation – while you may have something much to say, it is never a good move to actually hijack the conversation. A good appointment setter would let the others talk more. It is all about the conversation, not the business.
  7.  Follow-up – after the meeting, and especially if the conversation yielded good results, it is always good to give them a call or follow-up with the conversation, on a different date or a different place. In that way, you are connected with them beyond the event.

Pretty easy tips, to be honest. Just follow these and your B2B lead generation campaign would be fine.

5 SMART Appointment Setting Goals For Your Next Campaign

5 SMART Appointment Setting Goals For Your Next Campaign

As with any campaign that your company that your company undertakes, your appointment setting campaigns need to have clear, SMART goals so that you can positive results. Setting up SMART appointments relies on proper coordination between sales and marketing people. The sales department need to keep the marketing team updated with news about the leads passed on to them, and the marketing people should inform the sales department whenever new effective lead generation strategies are used or when new market demographics are tapped. Otherwise these goals will remain ineffective.

Here are the 5 goal criterias to help you do a SMART appointment setting campaign.

Criteria 1. Specific

Business appointments vary depending on which stage in the sales cycle your business leads are in. When b2b leads are not yet ready to purchase, sales people attending the meeting should be informed accordingly or else they might aggressively push for the  sale, and vice versa. Letting your sales reps know what to do before they get to the meeting will help them be more prepared and make your appointments more successful. Being specific also means setting appointments only with the people who can make the decision happen.

Criteria 2. Manageable

Don’t send a new sales hire to close a potentially big deal or else you could lose a potential client. The selling skills of your sales people should always be taken into account when pairing sales representatives to b2b sales leads. Doing so will help them close more sales for your company.

Criteria 3. Attainable

Have your appointment setters schedule meetings only with business leads who have an obvious propensity to purchase. This means the potential clients should always be—as much as possible—high-quality b2b sales leads. Even if the need for your product is not yet apparent, as long as the business lead will truly benefit from your products and services, you can ask for an appointment. For example, a professional BPO company has a business lead who owns a fast-growing startup with ten employees. Although their prospect has not yet expressed a need for outsourced services, the BPO firm can have an appointment with them to discuss the benefits of outsourcing. So, when that business lead needs to outsource in the future, the BPO firm will have already established a relationship with them that they can advance forward.

Criteria 4. Realistic

Let’s say you hired a telemarketing company for their amazing b2b appointment setting campaign. As much as possible, your contract should require them to deliver only as much business appointments as your sales reps can cater too. Keep in mind their work and personal schedules so that neither of these two will overlap with the appointment of the new business lead.

Criteria 5. Time-bound

When scheduling multiple meetings throughout the day, take into consideration the amount of time the sales representative would need for introductions, presentation, answering questions, and bargaining. Give your sales people enough time to spend on each client so that they can discuss matters more thoroughly. One more thing, unless you’ve hired professional b2b telesales representatives or some other online agent, allot enough time for the sales rep to travel to and from the meeting place.

How To Choose An Appointment Setter For Your Business

How To Choose An Appointment Setter For Your Business

When choosing an appointment setter for your business, it is important to that their services are compatible with your company goals to develop to provide excellent customer service.

We all know that lead generation is important for a business to grow. It is also important to have a good system for contacting the leads to establish good relationship with them. Appointment setting services can help you manage your contacts, call them, deal with them and to set up a meeting.

To find new clients from those leads is not an easy task. It is absolutely impossible for a business owner to manage time and manpower to contact all those leads and make deals with them to do business. With B2b appointment setting, you can do all the tasks up to rescheduling and dealing with clients confusions about the set meeting.

Cost-Reduction

Outsourcing appointment setting services will not only help your business increase sales but it is also for cost-reduction and increase revenue. It will be much expensive if you plan to have your own appointment setting company. Training people and building the infrastructure will cost you a lot.

Double the Sales

B2B appointment setting services works like they are within your own company. They know how every product and services that you offer. They know how everything works. These will double the force of your selling system and increase sales output. They are expert in this field and able to make strategies that will work for your business.

To be noticed

Working with an appointment setter will not only increase your sales but will make you to be noticed by your prospects. There are different mediums that can be use nowadays like radio, TV, and online ads but business owners cannot be contented with them. They know that using the phone and talking to the potential customers is still the best.

What Appointment setting company to look for?

When working with an appointment setting services it is important that you work with a company that is already experienced and have good reputation. Check the companies that they have worked before. Look if they are effective like they said they are. Do not hesitate to ask questions. You must know how their calls are made, time they call, how many shifts and more. You might also want to know what other services they offer that can help your business grow.