Appointment Setting Start to Finish: All-You-Need-to-Know Guide
Jun 15, 2023 23:51
One of the great traits of successful business owners is being intentional. Among the many business strategies, appointment setting is the one that certifies how serious you are in doing business.
Setting up sales meetings is not a job for the faint-hearted. That is why most of the crucial parts of a business, like client-facing, are given to trained representatives or, most of the time, company owners.
In an appointment setting, you must have grit. It is sales talking done in the right way. If successful, your business might close one of your highly anticipated clients or business partner.
Learn more about the crucial role of appointment setting in your lead-generation strategies. Read on!
The Basic: What is Appointment Setting?
First, the basic. What is the process, and what is in the name? The name of the task is simply self-explanatory.
It is an intentional act of contacting your prospective leads and possible clients. You can assign this task to your lead generation employees, your marketing team, or you as the manager.
You can even outsource to an appointment setting service provider. Call centers and BPO solutions usually find appointment setters for you.
These are skilled staff who are trained and managed by third-party providers. You can learn more about building your team of appointment setters from a reputable website; click here for a first-hand consultation with an expert.
It is also essential to distinguish appointment setting from other business processes like lead generating. Of course, it is not cold calling either, although it is used in some parts of setting up a schedule for meeting a client.
Let's define this further.
Role of an Appointment Setter
Now let's get to what an appointment setter does. The main task is to contact leads and engage them in a call or sometimes an email. The goal is to tell about the product the customer or the lead might be interested in.
Here comes the crucial part. It is more than just talking about your business's product or service. It is a form of agreement and an invitation to your potential audience to see a preview of your products, like window shopping but with a formal consultation where a specific agent is assigned to educate the clients about the products.
If done intentionally, a setter can explain how the service and product will benefit the customer. It sounds like a marketing spiel. However, the appointment setter follows standards to do this.
Before the appointment setter gets in touch with the prospect lead, an introduction is first made to invite the customer if they are interested in a call so that they can explain further details like benefits and the process of how to subscribe or buy the product.
It is not a random calling of prospects. An appointment setter will already have a list of gathered names, data, etc., for the candidates. In this way, the staff does not have to be challenged by making hundreds of calls that do not guarantee 100% success.
It is not Cold Calling.
To further explain, some may think that the talk is just another term for a sales talk or cold call. In an appointment setting, you are intentional with your purpose of inviting a lead. You eliminate the trouble of being turned down or getting no replies from your emails and calls.
This is backed up by strategically identifying a potential customer and being more specific about who you want to call or invite to a "client meeting."
Thus the process goes beyond cold calling, and it involves necessary steps like a consultation with a sales expert that can help the lead make wiser decisions.
Making Your Potential Leads Feel More Valued
Your appointment setter books a schedule with your potential customers. In this process, the customer would feel valued right from the start. This process alone changes the current for the whole marketing traditions.
It helps you identify your customers with regard, unlike the traditional telemarketing process, where you push through a call even though the receiver does not want to have the conversation.
This eliminates the risk of breaking the trust of your potential lead. And today, you can use automated software to book a call. This allows the receiver, who is your prospect lead, to have the freedom to accept or push through. On top of that, having software to book a schedule gives the entire process a sense of value, with tools that formalize everything.
Final Reminders and Follow Ups
Finally, you will be more likely to sustain your leads even if you do not first close a deal with them. With booking appointments, you can introduce and invite your prospects for follow-ups. Again, you do not have to make them feel obligated. They will have the initiative if they want to be followed up.
Furthermore, you can make them anticipate that you will be in touch again by simply sending reminders while you also introduce essential materials that they can check for references in case they want to know more.
It saves you time by setting up calls where you have to explain the details when they want to avoid paying attention to what you say. And most of them would feel constrained by time, so they may not answer your calls.
With follow-up, let your leads prepare for the next call and have them ready with their insights and, hopefully, their final answer.