If you’re a business that sells a product or service to other businesses, you’ve probably thought about your ideal customer a lot. What does your target audience look like? What types of businesses are best suited for your product or service? What methods are you using to acquire new customers?
As a small to medium-sized business, these are all important questions you should be asking. But, does your business understand the importance of B2B appointment setting? A solid B2B appointment setting service is an essential component of B2B lead generation.
B2B appointment setting is a sales development activity that involves trained sales reps calling, following up with, and nurturing qualified sales leads. The goal of B2B appointment setting is for sales reps to set appointments for another rep who will deliver a more detailed sales pitch and, ideally, close a deal.
Why Appointment Setting Is An Important Part of B2B Lead Generation
When designing a B2B lead generation program, appointment setting is something you should be very focused on perfecting. Appointment setting is the process in which prospects are delegated to sales reps so that closing reps only spend their time on qualified leads. Without an appointment setting process in place, you wouldn’t have very much success closing deals.
Generating High-Quality Leads and Setting Appointments
There are three basic phases to a B2B lead generation program: prospecting, appointment setting, and closing the deal. While each component is important, without appointment setting, very few prospects would make it to the buying phase.
- Prospecting: The data analysts and operations specialists are the people on your team responsible for prospecting. They use top-quality prospecting tools to build lists for sales representatives that include information such as phone number, email address, job title, company, and so on. Sales reps then use this list to build your sales pipeline.
- Appointment Setting: Your appointment setters are the people on your team who are introducing your company to prospects, nurturing those prospects, and passing them off to closing sales reps to grow your business. Once a lead is passed off to a closing sales rep, appointment setters continue to work your sales pipeline and schedule more appointments in an effort to grow your business.
- Closing the Deal: Once a lead expresses interest in scheduling an appointment, the lead is passed off to a sales rep who is responsible for closing the deal. Appointment setters are responsible for ensuring that these reps only receive qualified sales leads. By the time a lead reaches this phase, they should be very interested in buying and very likely to become a new customer for your business.
Each phase in the process is important, but appointment setters are the people who cleanse, nurture, and qualify leads. When you perfect B2B appointment setting, you can close more deals and grow your business.
Top Skills of a B2B Appointment Setter
Even with a great B2B lead generation strategy, you won’t accomplish much without the right people. The people on your team who are responsible for appointment setting should be excellent B2B marketers. The following are some of the top skills of B2B appointment setters:
- They can carry on a conversation. Plain and simple, a B2B appointment setter must be able to carry on a conversation with a prospect about what is going on at their businesses.
- They understand business. It’s one thing to be good at talking to people, but B2B appointment setters also have to understand businesses and how they work at a high level. They need to understand what activity they need to do to see ROI.
- They understand and deliver value propositions. Top appointment setters take the time to understand what they are selling so they can deliver value propositions and really sell the product or service.
- They know how to find the key decision-maker. An important part of appointment setting is finding the correct point of contact. Even if this person wasn’t identified in the prospecting phase, appointment setters know who they are looking to speak. They know what questions they need to ask to find the key decision-maker.
- They know how to handle objections. Top B2B appointment setters are trained on how to respond to the most common objections, and they have the communication skills to properly handle every objection they hear. When they hear an objection, they see it as an opportunity to learn more about the prospect’s needs and pain points rather than a time to give up and move on to the next prospect.
- They’ve mastered the process put in place by leadership. Every business has a process for lead generation, and the best appointment setters know this process inside and out and can repeat it for every prospect in their pipeline.
- They ask discovery questions to gather information. The best appointment setters ask the right questions to gather as much information as possible for closing sales reps.
- They know how to navigate Salesforce or other CRMs. Appointment setters talk to several prospects a day. They need a way of tracking information, so each person on your team should be extremely proficient with whatever CRM your company uses.
- They can consistently increase their call volume. Depending on how the team is performing, a sales rep’s goals might be harder to achieve at different times of the year. A good sales rep is able to increase their call volume in times of need to achieve set sales goals.
Building a team of skilled appointment setters to grow your business isn’t as hard as it may seem. With a thorough interview process and the right training in place, there is no limit to what your team can achieve.
Proven B2B Lead Generation Services to Grow Your Business
Handling B2B appointment setting in-house can be a challenge. Sales outsourcing to a team of professionals allows you to focus on improving your products or services and run your business. Abstrakt Marketing Group is an experienced B2B lead generation company that can grow your company on your behalf. Our appointment setters receive extensive training and learn your business so that they can schedule appointments and help you close more deals.
Based in St. Louis, Missouri, we act as an extension of your team no matter where you are. If you’re considering outsourcing your sales and marketing efforts, reach out to our team today.
