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The Truth about Appointment Setting

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by: Vaibhav Aggarwal

Appointment setting is important…you may agree or you may not, but the truth is that you cannot survive without appointment setting. What is appointment setting? It is about identifying prospects and then setting an appointment with him where your sales or marketing professionals can meet him personally.

You can find plenty of organizations offering b2b appointment setting services. You would need to give them a list of prospects and they will set an appointment with them for your sales and marketing people to meet personally. However, the truth of the process is far from what is generally believed and before contracting a consultant offering appointment setting services, you probably need to evaluate, “does this process actually lead to better sales performance?”

A lot of times appointment setting has turned out to be a misnomer, because a lot of b2b appointment setting service providers would simply start calling up your prospects without even having a true knowledge of what your company is offering and why the prospect would be interested in setting up an appointment. It happens in plenty of occasions that prospects agree for your sales professionals to meet, but many of the meetings do not end up bearing any fruit…interestingly, and some prospects even may not recall setting the appointment in the first place. Such unqualified appointments definitely add cost.

To make the most out of, say, IT and Software services appointment setting, you should ideally contract a company to whom you do not simply outsource your appointment setting services but one who provides sales solutions. Such a company would fill client forecasts and set important appointments, not halfhearted meetings. You should also make sure that their expert sales and marketing professionals can deliver the opportunities you would need to increase sales leads, correctly cover client markets, and add predictability and surety to prospecting.

Sales Appointment Setting: In-house or Outsource?

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by:  Brian Grinonneau

If you are running b2b appointment setting and lead generation services in-house, you may not be getting the full value from the money you spend on the effort. That’s why some of the biggest companies in the world outsource some, or all of their call center functions to professional appointment setting firms. They help you make more money. Call center outsourcing vs. in-house call center activities: Great appointment setters usually want to work a full 40 hour week, and that is usually not affordable for most call centers. Performance suffers because of that either fewer appointments, or poor quality appointments. Appointment setting service companies pay full time professionals well enough to have great ones.

Appointment setters function much better when working on your project 2-4 hours a day, not 8. It becomes a case of diminishing returns.

Appointment setters talk to the right people at the right time. It isn’t about more calls its about meaningful conversations with qualified prospects, that turn into sales.

You need qualified sales appointments set for your staff not an unlimited number, but one that allows your sales professionals to present your offer, negotiate and close.

Provides a significant return on investment that is trackable.

Focuses on disqualifying poor prospects to maximize your closing ratio.

Allows you to do what you do best: close deals.

Drives new revenue without having to expand or provide additional office space, computers, telephones or employees.

Gives you the ability to have trained, skilled and experienced personnel to fulfill your call center needs with the ability to utilize appointment setting; phone sales; lead generation and lead qualifying; list and database scrubbing; database building; surveys; market research; seminar registration and fundraising.

If you have an in-house telemarketing department, you should run a test campaign with a sales appointment setting service. You will be pleasantly surprised with the outcome you’ll make more money in less time.