Outsourcing appointment setting to an outside company will help businesses get more appointments by turning prospects into clients. Many businesses think that they can run their appointment-setting department internally, but this will not give them the same number of appointments as they could have with a professional, outsourced appointment-setting service. A telemarketing company will have a system in place to have a proper conversation with the prospect and qualify their interest, ensuring that the prospects are likely to become clients.
Some companies choose to use outsourcing firms to set up their processes, as it is often expensive and time-consuming. This can turn the attention of the sales department away from their main priorities.
Businesses often think that using a third-party service for appointment setting doesn’t work; they think that a company cannot customize their appointments while simultaneously adapting to the needs of their business. This is simply not true, and an effective appointment setting company can work hand-in-hand with your marketing goals to ensure a successful marketing strategy.
Considering all the misconceptions that businesses have about outsourcing services, we thought it would be useful to put together an article discussing common misconceptions that businesses have about this type of service. If this is something that you want to learn more about, read on for six common misconceptions about outsourcing appointment setting that you have to know about.
Appointments Are Not Qualified
The goal of a phone marketing strategy is to turn leads into customers. Many businesses don’t think they can get enough leads or that their leads are worth anything. An appointment setting company will have a system in place: getting the client appointments, keeping them on the phone as long as possible, and then qualifying the leads. The ultimate goal of a phone marketing strategy is to turn prospects into customers.
Appointments Won’t Turn Into Deals
The concern that an appointment will not be qualified is frequently linked with the concern that setting an appointment will be unproductive. If the person you are calling does not want to meet with you, it will likely result in a missed deal or sale. Therefore, it is unproductive for a salesperson to waste time setting appointments that do not result in more business. The key to ensuring you receive qualified outbound appointment setting services will lie in selecting the right company.
The process of qualifying leads that a company uses can affect the conversion rate of appointments set and how many appointments are useless. For example, a company using the Budget, Authority, Needs and Timeline (BANT) to qualify their appointments has an average conversion rate that can run as high as 60%.
Scheduling Qualified Sales Appointments Is Easy
Although scheduling an appointment may seem easy, the process could have hidden barriers that prevent your prospects from meeting with you. Large corporations will often employ outside sales reps, who build one-on-one relationships with potential leads to turn them into appointments you can use to convert them into customers.
This process can take several weeks, and it requires numerous interactions between sales reps and leads. These interactions also tend to consume extensive quantities of time and resources for sales personnel to build up a relationship with leads.
When you hire an appointment-setting company, you are hiring a company that makes appointments for you. The best appointment-setting companies succeed in obtaining a qualified appointment in as few attempts as possible.
Only Salespeople Are Responsible for Scheduling Appointments
Many companies require their salespeople to schedule their appointments themselves. This can be a poor use of their time, however. Salespeople are often seen as closers, but their time is better used trying to close deals themselves. If they schedule their appointments, they spend much of their day simply waiting for the meetings to begin.
Your salespeople will need to nurture the relationship or risk losing customers to competitors. Time spent looking for qualified leads or cold calling can result in hours lost to closing deals with customers who are already interested.
Outsourcing appointment setting frees up your salespeople’s time for more important aspects of their jobs and gives them a steady stream of leads. A steady stream of leads helps them to improve their sales results.
Businesses Can Build Inside Sales Teams with Ease
Building an effective team can be a daunting challenge. In addition to hiring the team members, you must also plan your workflow, acquire the equipment the team will need, provide initial and supplemental training to prepare and train the team for their work, and hire managers and supervisors to oversee and manage the entire process.
When hiring a new employee, you’ll likely have to ensure that the position can be filled for a long period of time. If a staff member leaves, you’ll need to immediately hire a replacement and make sure they are completely trained. To move forward, start by creating a simple strategy for how calls will be handled, followed up, and what qualification process will be used.
Considering everything we mentioned above, it may be wise to outsource this service instead. Outsourcing your appointment setting means you won’t need to invest in a sales team, you won’t have to train them, and you won’t have to maintain them. Your employees can focus on other important tasks.
All Appointment Setting Services Are the Same
No matter the industry, there can be high-quality and low-quality products and services. There can even be high-quality and low-quality appointment-setting service companies. While any company can help you get appointments, it’s important to ensure that the company you choose uses a quality process for qualifying the appointments and does not just assign any available appointments to your sales team.
You should outsource appointment setting to a company that is effective at acquiring the lead generation that you need to get the account that you want. Good sales mean being able to see a customer through the sales process, from building rapport and nurturing the lead to closing the sale and ensuring customer loyalty.
Conclusion
We hope this article has helped clear up some of your misconceptions about outsourcing appointment setting. As you can see, outsourcing this service can be of great help to your business. Not only will it often be more effective but it also allows you to focus on the other aspects of your business. Be sure to keep everything you learned here in mind when making decisions regarding how your business approaches appointment setting.
CrewBloom is a call center agency in the Philippines that offers appointment setting services as well as business outsourcing services. We provide companies and businesses with premium remote sales and support roles to help ensure their long-term success and growth. Contact us today for a quote!
