How appointment setting services can boost your business

Want to gain more new customers in less time? An appointment setting service can prescreen candidates from your mailing list and set up face-to-face meetings with your sales representatives.

Meeting with prospective clients is usually more productive than selling over the phone. But finding the right candidates to meet with can be time-consuming. Appointment setting companies conserve your valuable time by cold calling and prescreening prospects to see if they’re good candidates for your products and services. After they set up the meetings, your reps can focus on presenting the value proposition of the business.

Benefits of outsourcing appointment setting

It takes a lot of time and money to hire, train, and manage an internal team of telemarketers, not to mention the amount of hardware, office space, and furniture you’ll need. Appointment setting companies free you from those responsibilities. You get the full benefits of the service without the added expense of full-time employees.

Outsourcing appointment setting services is also beneficial to smaller businesses such as doctor’s offices, realtors, and insurance agencies that might not have the resources to find new prospects on their own. These businesses are on tight schedules and need to reserve their time for in-person meetings to explain the benefits of their services in detail.

What to look for in appointment setting services

Before you select an appointment setting service, perform online research or submit a free request for quotes through BuyerZone to get matched up with six different vendors. Then look for these qualities to find the best fit:

• Good communication skills: It takes a lot to convince people over to phone to accept a one-on-one meeting with a person they never met. A good appointment setter needs to clearly explain what your business does without overwhelming prospects with details.
• Experience: Look for telemarketing firms that hire agents who excel in cold calling, handling large call volumes, and convincing businesses to agree to face-to-face meetings.
• Appointment setting focus: Some telemarketing firms do everything from making appointments to qualifying leads to selling the product or service. This all-inclusive service touches all aspects of the business, but they may not excel in any one area. Look for firms that specialize in telemarketing appointment setting so you know you're getting the best.
• Detailed reporting: How do you know if an appointment setting company is doing a good job? By reviewing details of their calling activities. The company should provide reports that show you how many calls were made, how long it took to schedule appointments, the number of hangups, and more so you know what kind of service you get for your money.
• Strong ROI: The best way to learn if appointment setting can increase your sales is to try a two-pronged approach. Have a few sales reps do all the work (cold calling, setting appointments, closing business) and send other reps to appointments set by the telemarketing firm. Then, compare the sales results of both to see which process is more effective and which led to more sales.

If you want to instantly research service offerings from multiple providers, BuyerZone allows you to compare services, features, and company profiles right from your computer - for free. Try it today!