Appointment Setting Services
Tired of your team missing sales quotas? Retention and training new sales hires costs only increasing?
You are not alone. According to Forbes, 57% of Sales Reps missed their quotas last year, and the cost to replace a sales rep is $90,000+, yikes!
Many times missed quotas are directly related to not having enough sales pipeline.
Appointment setting services will book meetings on your behalf, and your team closes the deals. Sounds simple enough, right?
Well, yes and no. Choosing the wrong provider will set you back thousands of dollars in direct costs and time.
The key is selecting the right appointment setting service for your business.
Below we will outline the key factors to help make the decision of which appointment setting service to choose a bit easier for you.
Overview - Key Appointment setting Considerations
ONBOARDING
The onboarding process with a new appointment setting company should be similar to the process of a new salesperson.
They should be asking you questions about your products and services, and trying to fully understand what differentiates your offering.
Technology
What is the company using for ongoing technology? Will you have access? Can you listen in on calls? View emails coming in and responses? How are you going to get this information back into your systems of record?
Assume the relationship will end and be proactive.
REPORTING
It’s important to note what are you learning from all this outreach. How many calls is it taking to get a connect? How many emails are they sending to get a positive response?
You can then make the appropriate adjustments. Such as should you continue to outsource or perform this function internally.
MANAGEMENT
Similar to having an internal inside sales team, you have to actively manage an appointment setting company.
You can’t just set and forget. Expect to spend 5-10 hours a week managing the process.
PEOPLE
At the end of the day, it really does come down to the people they hire. Make sure you are interviewing their inside reps, not just their managers. These are the people that are going to be calling on your behalf.
Have them call and pitch to you. Make them describe your offering to you and ensure they understand your differentiators.
INVESTMENT
Regardless of the vendor be prepared to give it at least 3 months to start working.
Outbound marketing takes a while to get fully going, so if you aren’t seeing immediate results, this is normal. Have realistic expectations upfront.
It takes a lot of management to use an outsourced sales development company. So be prepared to put in the work.
Services - Different Offerings
I’ve listed out the 3 main options.
Dedicated reps
that work on your account
full-time.
Team of people
who are working
part-time.
Charge by numbers
of hours, or a specific level
of meetings or activities.
List - Top Appointment Setting Companies
We took into account many factors such as reviews, case studies, length of time being around, and overall reputation in the market.
Pricing - How Appointment setting Customers Are Charged
Base Monthly Fee
This is the most common of all the offerings. Billing on a certain level of service or dedicated time. On top of the base fee, many have a commission structure in place for number of appointments set.
ACTIVITIES BASED
This focuses on agreeing to a certain number of activities early on in the campaign. Scale what's working and kill what's not. Which gives the prospect the ability to make sound business decisions. A few months in, you will know how many activities you should create for your desired sales pipeline.
PAY PER APPOINTMENT
Determining a fee for each appointment set is another popular method. Often times with this type of setup, there is also some type of implementation fee to get started.
Process - Standard Appointment Setting Steps
At the most basic level, this is what the appointment setting process looks like.
NEEDS IDENTIFICATION
The business identifies that they need more sales opportunities and they don’t have the resources to set the appointments internally.
IDEAL MARKET
PERSONA IDENTIFICATION
TECH ASSESSMENT
The appointment setting company will assess the internal technology at the company and decide whether or not they will need to purchase contact lists to find people to reach out to.
PROPOSAL
The appointment setting company creates a proposal, including what the cost will be per appointment set (a specified number of appointments made) or what the flat monthly fee will be..
CONTRACT
If the business decides to move forward with the appointment setting company, they will sign the contract and move on to the onboarding process.
MESSAGING
At this point, the companies get together and discuss value proposition, messaging, and develop a project plan.From there you build a launch schedule.
LAUNCH EXECUTION
Approve messaging then the appointment setting company starts executing call, email, and/or social media campaigns program.
BOOK APPOINTMENTS
RESULTS REVIEW
You will meet with the appointment setting company on a weekly basis to review key results, make adjustments, and plan for the upcoming weeks
At the end of the day, it usually comes down to the people and processes of the appointment setting service.
Make sure you have realistic expectations and also the management infrastructure in place to ensure your appointment setting company is getting the internal support needed to be successful.
And if you need some help deciding.
