Appointment Setting: How To Do it Right

Appointment setting is a critical part of your lead generation.

It’s the last step before you finally sit down with your client and discuss business. This is why a good appointment setting is directly correlated with better revenue.

In this guide, we take a closer look at appointment settings and what you can do to improve your process.

History of Appointment Setting

The very first appointment was probably made when our ancestors decided to meet after sundown to discuss matters at hand.

But, in business, appointment setting was probably evident in the first commerce transaction where two parties agreed to meet at a specific time in a particular place to conduct business.

Call centers started to gain traction more than 50 years ago in the 70s, and we had the notion of people calling up clients to schedule for them.

Fast-forward decades later, we have dedicated software assigned to appointment settings, agencies specializing in lead generation, and whole courses dedicated to the art form.

As the appointment setting progressed, so did the different practices.

We’ve gone from a more direct approach to a more omnichannel, organic method of setting appointments that put the customer first.

It’s a different world today.

Appointment Setting Tips and Best Practices

Nurture, Nurture, and Nurture Some More

Gone are the days when you could hit your prospects up with a crack team of telemarketers and sell on the phone.

The aim of all funnels is small “nudges” that push a prospect further into a prospect until an appointment setter jumps in and books an appointment.

This is done with proper nurturing.

Nurturing isn’t just driving the message home with free resources, but more subtle techniques such as brand awareness through retargeting, small engagements on social media platforms, and of course, just checking up on the prospect.

Research and Personalization Go Hand-in-Hand

If there’s one tip that any good marketer can give you, personalize all your client communication.

Personalization is the only way to create campaigns that resonate with your prospects because they don’t just have correspondence that’s suited to their needs, but it also makes them feel special that you took the time to get to know them.

When appointment setting, always make sure that you sound like someone that’s done their research.

You want to tweak your messaging to the point where your prospect relates to what you’re saying ultimately building rapport.

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Handle Objections With Poise and Confidence

There will be objections in any sales correspondence, and that’s true even for appointment setters.

What’s critical is that you can deal with these objections in a very light manner, aiming not to get into a standoff with your prospect, but use it as an excuse to help them through the funnel.

You need to focus on where the prospect is coming from and why and try to answer questions from their perspective.

Remember, you are there to help them and not defend the product.

This builds confidence in you as an SDR and helps build rapport.

Do a Little Qualification

Appointment setting is also an opportunity to help the closing team by doing just a little qualification.

Adding a couple of questions here and there will make it seem that you’re interested in what the prospect does, which helps build rapport.

This allows you to weed through your leads and creates a more efficient lead generation funnel overall.

Scripts Should Be Constantly Evolving

Sales and appointment scripts should constantly be evolving.

There’s no such thing as a perfect script, no matter how many leads it’s brought for you in the past.

Studies have been made on how simply tweaking one or two words from a script can have a significant impact on conversion rates.

Make sure you test your scripts thoroughly, conduct A/B tests, and monitor the effects of one script against the other.

You should have mini tweaks for each prospect that you have. This allows for more personalized interactions.

You Don’t Have to Do It By Yourself

Appointment setting isn’t something that you can set up overnight. There are companies built around appointment setting because it’s a complicated and technical process for many companies.

There are the upfront setup costs, infrastructure, hiring, training, and monitoring involved, and that’s not to mention you need specialized supervision.

This is why companies such as Callbox exist to help simplify the process.

While you focus on developing your solutions and core competencies, you can count on a third-party provider to help bring in the calls to your closers.

It’s just more efficient.

Sales appointment setting is a critical part of the business process because it’s the precursor to an actual sales call. By employing these particular techniques, you’ll find that you can get more leads coming through, but more importantly, understand your prospects even better.