By Tina Lisell, Senior Operations Manager
One of the first rules of comedy is to know your audience. When a comedian really understands their audience, the jokes they tell tend to get the biggest laughs…right? This same rule can be applied to B2B appointment setting. Here’s how. When taking the time to really define the list criteria for the target audience, there is a greater likelihood of success with setting the appointment. The list is arguably one of the primary factors in planning for a successful B2B appointment setting project.
1. Marketing Channels
Knowing your audience can help identify the best marketing channel to use which could be email, chat, text, or phone. For example, if the targeted customer base is in construction, perhaps it is best to utilize text or email as the first outreach attempt. Speaking from years of experience with working in this industry, these customers are often on the job site or in the field much of their day and can be very difficult to have a conversation with via the telephone. Make sure to invest time into identifying the best method and time to reach your audience.
Another example is to consider utilizing text messaging as a reminder ahead of the appointment. This has proven to be a very effective tool in increasing contact rates and increasing engagement.
Key takeaway: Successful B2B appointment setting engagement requires truly understanding the customer and the best outreach method to use. Take the necessary time on the front end to invest in planning.
2. Questions & Scripting
Knowing your audience will help you determine what type of qualifying questions need to be asked. You can save time by not asking redundant questions that you may already have the answer as a result of just knowing who it is you are calling.
Knowing the audience also helps determine how much company background information should be provided in the scripting or how much industry jargon you can or cannot use. When it comes to B2B appointment setting, nothing will turn off a potential lead faster than regurgitating information if they already know it or spending time telling them who you are when they may already be familiar with your company. Knowing your target will help you present yourself as reputable, knowledgeable, and professional.
Key takeaway: Building an effective script and asking the right questions helps establish credibility with the opportunity.
3. Qualify Early
Knowing your audience will ultimately decrease the amount of time that is spent on lead qualifying on the front end and will lead to a higher quality conversation. By narrowing in on your targeted audience and asking the right questions, you are able to get getting right to the “meat and potatoes” of the call. This saves an enormous amount of time and can increase your overall performance.
Key takeaway: Qualifying earlier leads to more success in B2B appointment setting programs.
4. Close Rate
Knowing your audience will likely increase close rates. For both the B2B appointment setting team and for the team who will close the sales. Having detailed and additional information for each lead provides the ability to deliver a personalized and tailored sales pitch.
Key takeaway: The more specific the list is to your audience the better results you’ll have.
List selection plays a very important role in B2B appointment setting and will set the tone for the subsequent steps in the process. Taking the time to get it right upfront will pay off continually further down the line as the “spray and pray” approach is not effective.
B2B appointment setting is a difficult process that takes mental toughness, strategic planning and collaboration. Quality Contact Solutions can help. We employ a number of different tactics to ensure we are reaching the intended leads, so you are not wasting time or money on potential contacts that do not have purchasing authority or are not qualified. We have a proven track record for success.
Tina Lisell is a Senior Operations Manager for Quality Contact Solutions. Tina has over 25 years of call center experience with both inbound and outbound B2B and B2C programs. Tina is a strategic thinker and loves digging deep into the data to determine the appropriate levers to pull to positively impact performance. She is a true professional that makes things happen with intelligent urgency. Most importantly, she loves winning!
