Appointment Setting Tips for Successful B2B Sales
Appointment setting is a crucial part of the B2B sales process. It is the first step towards establishing a relationship with potential customers and is a great way to build trust and credibility.
In this guide to B2B appointment setting, we’ve put together a list of strategies and tips to help optimize your appointment-setting approach and maximize your sales team’s efficiency.
What Is B2B Appointment Setting
B2B appointment setting is used to bring leads from the top of your sales funnel further into the sales process by convincing them to schedule a meeting with a sales rep or sales executive. During this sales development activity, SDRs (sales development representatives) or appointment setters use various channels to qualify and contact leads. Using phone calls, emails, and social media, SDRs reach out to prospective clients and nurture leads with the goal of scheduling an appointment.
SDRs work to qualify leads, determine where they are in the buying process, and identify any pain points they may be experiencing. They can use this information to verify if the prospect fits your ideal customer profile (ICP) and offer your product or service as a helpful solution. Once the appointment is set, the information obtained by the SDR can be relayed to the sales executive for use to better prepare for the meeting.
This strategy is used to delegate the prospecting part of the sales process, which frees up time for sales executives to focus on closing deals. Instead of performing the tedious tasks of finding, qualifying, and contacting new leads, they can use their time more efficiently. This is particularly beneficial for B2B sales as deals with a larger sale price often take longer to foster and close.
What Are Some Effective Appointment Setting Strategies?
Selling in a B2B context comes with a unique set of challenges. With high stakes and much to lose, there are typically multiple decision-makers involved in the appointment-setting process. B2B decision-makers have in-depth market knowledge, which likely includes not only your product but your competitors as well. With so much at stake, these deals can take months of meetings, paperwork, and negotiations. To help you break through the noise, here are some appointment-setting strategies for scheduling more quality leads.
- Define your target
To begin the process of appointment setting, you need to identify your target. Use information about your past customers to define your ICP and determine where to look for new leads. Additionally, consider the motives of potential buyers by focusing on relevant personal and social characteristics to create a buyer persona (BP). As ICP and BP are used throughout the entire process of lead generation, they are vital tools for successful appointment setting. - Source leads
Once you’ve identified your target market, analyze your ICPs and BPs to start sourcing new leads. Source leads through multiple channels, including email, cold calling, LinkedIn, or other social media platforms, depending on your target market. While sourcing leads can be a numbers game, the most important thing is the quality of the leads. A large volume of leads doesn’t promise more conversions, so devote time to generating genuine interest and nurturing leads that closely fit your criteria. - Research
Expert research skills are necessary to qualify leads, find their contact information, and gather the necessary information to personalize your approach. To set B2B appointments, it is especially important to research a lead’s business and the industry they operate in before you reach out. This will allow you to make a more efficient and relevant pitch as well as prepare you to answer any of their questions and concerns confidently. - Make contact
Reach out to the prospect through a combination of emails, social media (e.g., LinkedIn), and phone calls. Include a broad overview of what you have to offer and how it’s relevant to their industry. At this stage, your focus should be on building interest in your product and forging relationships with potential clients. - Schedule and reschedule
Once you’ve qualified the lead, sell them on scheduling an appointment where they can get more in-depth information. Sometimes it can take numerous rounds of scheduling and rescheduling for a prospect to commit, so be sure to follow up regularly. If a meeting falls through, be confident and persistent about having a solution that will benefit them to get them back on the schedule.
10 Effective Appointment Setting Tips for B2B Sales
It takes a lot of dedication, patience, and finesse to set appointments with B2B decision-makers. With the right approach, you can contact prospects and fill your sales calendar with quality leads who are already interested in your product. If you’re looking to strengthen your sales approach, read on for the list of our top ten B2B appointment-setting tips that will help you fill your sales schedule.
- Do your research
The importance of research for successfully setting up an appointment can’t be understated. Invest time in identifying key decision-makers so you can personalize your engagement for them. Before reaching out, you should be familiar with what their company does, the challenges they face, and how your product is a solution to their pain points. You should also be aware of broad trends in their industry and how your product compares to competitors, as B2B decision-makers are well-versed in these areas and need to trust that you are as well. - Have a plan
While you should sound personable and natural, don’t assume you can wing a B2B sales call. Know the best day and time to reach out and use the results of your research to plan an efficient pitch. An appointment-setting script can keep you on track so you deliver your pitch at the right moment without being too pushy. A script will also prepare you for common sales objections so you can respond with confidence and remain in control of the conversation. - Be casual yet knowledgeable
Your research and sales script should provide you with enough information that you’re able to talk about your product and expertly answer questions without sounding rushed or robotic. Your goal for the call is to engage the lead without being aggressive. If a lead sees you as a source of knowledge, they’re more likely to turn to you to solve a problem they have in the future. - Warm up cold leads
Pairing cold calling with cold emailing can make leads more open to speaking with you. Be mindful not to freeze the lead by diving right into your pitch and keep it conversational. Show prospective clients you respect their time by asking if they have time to talk and schedule a call for another time if they don’t. Keep in mind that your ultimate goal is to get them to schedule an appointment, so you’re also warming the lead before transitioning them to a sales executive. - Build relationships
Most of your leads will not be ready to schedule a meeting the first time you contact them. Focus on adding value to your interactions so prospects are left with a positive impression from the conversation. Find ways to build trust so prospective clients know you are reliable and pave the way for future conversions. A lead you nurture may take on a new role or move to a different company that could benefit from your product. - Listen to your leads
You’re unlikely to have much success if you don’t listen to what your leads have to say. Use open-ended questions to get them talking about their pain points so you can offer a relevant solution. Listening to their questions and concerns is a way to build your relationship with prospective clients and ultimately convince them to schedule a meeting. Additionally, the information you gain from listening to the lead can be transferred to the sales executive, which they can use to personalize their approach for the meeting and increase their likelihood of a successful conversion. - Use your value
When you know what your leads need, you know how to make your value proposition. If you have case studies that show how your product helped another company with a similar problem, use those examples to prove the value of your solution. Even if it’s not the right time for a prospect to buy, by showing them what you have to offer, they’re more likely to turn to you in the future. - Ask for referrals
Referrals are a great tool for speeding up the sales process. People are more likely to trust a referral than a complete stranger so use your network to your advantage. Business associates, coworkers, and friends can all be useful for spreading positive word of mouth and giving you referrals. You can also use prospects as part of your referral network. If you contact a lead at a time that’s not right for them, a good value proposition and positive interaction can leave them willing to give you a referral. - Be patient and persistent
With B2B settings, there’s a limited pool of prospective clients. You’ll have to be persistent with your efforts to reach your defined targets and be prepared to make multiple attempts at getting a response. Key decision-makers are busy and are flooded with various sales offers so use multiple channels to reach them. Also be sure to circle back and follow up with prospects every few months to see if their needs have changed at all. Markets change and prospects who previously said no, may need a new solution so follow up with prospective clients consistently. - Track and analyze KPIs
You can use KPIs (key performance indicators) to refine and improve your sales approach. By keeping track of quantifiable activity measures such as the number of outbound calls made per day and the resulting number of meetings scheduled, you can analyze which techniques, time periods, activities, and other factors have the most success. This allows you to strengthen your outreach approach and bring in a greater number of quality leads.
Should You Outsource Appointment Setting?
Setting meetings for B2B sales is no simple task. It can take months of skilled work to move your way up the ladder to reach the right people with any purchasing authority. For these reasons, many companies turn to professional appointment setters. B2B appointment-setting services are a cost-effective way to bring in a steady stream of high-quality leads. An appointment-setting agency with experience in your industry is likely to already have some of the contacts you need, rapidly speeding up your sales process.
Whereas in-house teams are time-consuming and expensive to hire and train, outsourced appointment-setting teams are flexible and easily scalable to your evolving needs. By outsourcing, you have a team of professional appointment setters ready to be onboarded immediately to start bringing you quality B2B leads. Outsourcing SDR services can also save you money on software licensing, office space, and equipment while improving the success of your outreach strategies. For more information about how outsourcing B2B appointment setting can benefit your company, schedule an introductory call with us today!
