B2B appointment setting should be part of your sales strategy – if it isn’t already.
As the most direct way of arranging sales appointments whilst building a relationship with prospects, B2B appointment setting offers great value for business development teams.
But how does it really work?
What is B2B appointment setting?
B2B appointment setting is a strategy that involves individuals following up leads, further qualifying the opportunity, and setting up a sales appointment with a member of the team who can deliver a detailed presentation or demo and take the opportunity through to sale.
It can involve a team member skilled in pre-sales initially prospecting the decision maker, and a business development salesperson may take over to run initial meetings and facilitate the later stages of the process.
Using this strategy there are three main stages during the sales process: (1) prospecting, (2) qualifying and appointment setting, and (3) closing the deal.
What are the main stages of B2B appointment setting?
1. Prospecting
During prospecting, salespeople engage with contacts to understand where they are in their purchase cycle. Teams will need to have an up to date dataset to navigate to the correct contacts to target, and then start lead generation activity to engage in dialogue with prospects and understand if and when those buyers have a need for their solution.
2. Qualifying and Appointment Setting
Throughout conversations with decision-makers and their colleagues, salespeople will need to be qualifying the opportunity to understand if there is a need or challenge they can help with, and when is most timely to have further conversations.
Once a lead is determined as qualified and the right fit an appointment can be scheduled to delve further into the detail of what a business may be able to do to help a prospect.
3. Closing
Following the appointment setting, the final salesperson in the process will work with the lead to negotiate with them and reach a position where the deal can be closed. This is as long as they haven’t raised any objections and said no.
How can appointment setting help your business become more efficient and cost-effective?
Appointment setting is an integral part of B2B lead generation. B2B appointment setters have the skills to communicate effectively with potential customers, alongside finding and engaging with the right people.
Many businesses will find lead generation and appointment setting gets pushed to the side when account work or tenders take priority. By having a dedicated resource (whether internal or via third party professionals) to manage lead generation and appointment setting businesses minimise the risk of missing opportunities and the chance of ‘lead-bleed’.
2 key points to remember for successful B2B appointment setting
Finally, some key points to help you succeed with your B2B appointment setting:
1. Know your audience
Take some time to understand who you should be targeting, both the companies and the contact roles. Consider which roles would make up the decision-making unit and what issues these potential customers face to ensure your messaging is in line with their priorities.
2. Put their priorities first
Show prospects that they are talking to someone who wants to take the time to get to know them by asking them what their goals and challenges are and how they are addressing them. This way even if the solution you offer isn’t top of their agenda you’ll understand when it might be and what is taking precedence right now. Can your solution help them with their current priorities?
A thought-out B2B appointment setting service is essential for effective lead generation and customer conversion. Does your business understand the importance of B2B appointment setting?
Let’s talk about generating new business and more appointments – just get in touch.
