Leverage Your Appointment Setting to Grow Your Business

What is Appointment Setting? 

What is Appointment Setting? It is the result of a process to create new leads and close sales. It is an important and delicate strategy in which a company makes its first impression and aims to gain interest from potential clients. Appointment Setting is the scheduling of a specific date and time meeting. These meetings might be to show a service (such as through a demo) or to give a quote for your service (such as inspecting a roof). The goal of this strategy is to sell your service/product to a pre-qualified potential customer. Setting Appointments is an approach to attaining more business. 

How to Set Appointments?

Now that you know what appointment setting is, how do you set appointments? Setting appointments is a process, often done by lead generation specialists (such as us, GenSales), that gets you through the door to your target customer. This process includes a lot of rejection, hard work, and time. Although difficult, it is a proven method of gaining new customers and growing a business– a time-tested strategy. 

Setting Appointments is a four-step process. 

1. Gathering data. In the first step, contact lists are gathered and curated to fit the company’s target customer. Through different resources, lists are pulled that fit such criteria as location, size (i.e. of the roof), and the potential need. These lists are the holy grail– a bad list and the rest of the steps are a waste of time. 
2. Cold Calling. Yes, the controversial cold call that gets you through the door and gets those potential clients to know you and engage with your offering. Once you have a good set of potential clients, it is time to cold-call them. Cold Calling means they don’t know you or your service, therefore, you are introducing yourself and the company–it is their first impression. Cold calling is a whole strategy that requires patience and a lot of skill. 
3. Qualifying. In this step, the caller will ask specific questions that will either qualify or disqualify the person on the other line as a potential client. The goal has two parts: One, does this person have a need I can fill? Two, are they the right client for me? Qualifying a client is a very important step because it allows your business to allocate the right resources to the right clients, without wasting time or money. Although qualifying does not mean that the potential clients will buy your service/product, it means that this potential client is someone who might need or want your services, and your sales team can make a warm pitch that is more likely to result in a sale.
4. Setting Appointments. The final and most important step is the actual appointment. Now that you have a good list, you’ve called and qualified the potential customer, now all that is left to do is set a time to meet. The appointment’s goal is to pitch your company and how you can help this client–and hopefully close a sale. The cold caller will find a time to set a meeting with the client for the sales team and a decision-maker to connect (in person, zoom, call, etc…). Often, the appointment setting process is outsourced to a lead generation firm; if that is the case, which it often is, the firm will pass on the set appointment to the hiring sales team, and now it’s up to them to close the sale.

So if you were asking yourself “How to do appointment setting?”, now you know the formula and can go out and do appointment setting for any industry. 

What is B2B Appointment Setting?

It is the same process of setting appointments but between businesses. Appointment Setting B2B is the strategy of one business connecting with another to sell their product or service. Many companies only work with other businesses, such as commercial roofing. These companies must connect with other businesses to grow their business and gain new clients. That is the goal of the appointment setting. Therefore, B2B Appointments Setting is a step in filling a business’ pipeline by meeting with qualified, potential clients. 

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Now that you know what appointment setting is and all the steps it requires, let’s discuss outsourcing this key step in filling your business pipeline. 

Why should you Outsource your Appointment Setting?

Appointment Setting companies were created to fill a need that many businesses were unable or unwilling to employ. Appointment Setting is an expensive and time-consuming process that requires skilled cold-callers to connect with potential clients. Often, companies do not have the means, resources, or desire to handle the whole process. That is why many companies outsource their Lead Generation to experts, like us. Appointment Setting companies are a lower cost for businesses than employing appointment setters, they are experts in the field, and the company’s employees can focus on using their own skills. Lead Generation companies dedicate themselves to filling your pipeline by working with you to target your ideal clients and by setting you warm, qualified appointments that have the potential to turn into sales. Outsourcing your appointment setting allows you and your team to focus on your expertise, show up at the appointment, and close the sale. Companies like GenSales do what we do to help you grow your business. We get you through the door for you to meet with decision-makers, and shake on it. 

Are you feeling ready to set appointments and grow your business? Drop us a comment and let us know what step of the appointment setting process is your forte!