Calling as many people as possible, qualifying them as potential customers, and asking them to schedule an appointment with a salesperson or representative is what appointment setting is all about. Professionals and businesspeople don’t want to waste time or money meeting with people who aren’t interested in purchasing their product or service. Appointment setters are used by these businesses to ensure that time is not wasted. Setting appointments begins with calling people whose names appear on a prospect list and determining whether a meeting is required to provide additional information, close a sale, or follow up. Professional appointment setting services may be one of the most cost-effective ways for businesses to generate leads and qualify prospective customers.
One of the most difficult tasks for a business professional is cold calling prospects. These decisions must be made, even if they are difficult, in order for some businesses to be profitable. Professional appointment setters market themselves as experts in cold calling. They make contact with people from a list of hundreds or thousands of names. Perseverance, friendliness, and persuasiveness are all required skills for this position. The appointment setter must also be able to effectively handle any objections. Most appointment setters spend up to eight hours a day on the phone with prospects, asking a few qualifying questions, and setting up a meeting for someone else to follow up on.
The actual appointment-making process begins with a list of contacts and phone numbers. Hundreds of thousands of names could end up on this call list if very broad qualifying criteria are used. After that, appointment setting specialists will start calling people on the list to see if they meet more specific criteria. An appointment setter for a car insurance agent, for example, might inquire about a prospective customer’s auto insurance needs, the amount they pay in premiums, their driving habits, and whether or not they want to save money. Appointment setting specialists will typically make a large number of phone calls in order to set as many appointments as possible because they may be paid more for actually setting up a meeting.
Businesspeople sometimes lack the ability to make effective cold calls to prospects or generate leads. Using an appointment setting service allows salespeople to spend more time in face-to-face meetings with qualified prospects. These services can also assist in the identification of target markets and ideal customers, as well as the development of cold calling scripts tailored to the people on those lists. Many of these services provide detailed information on how many calls were made and how many leads were generated. When the cost of these services is weighed against the time spent generating leads and scheduling appointments, a professional service can be a cost-effective way to acquire new customers.