Generating leads through appointment setting requires several aspects of a multi-channel marketing strategy including teleprospecting, content creation and email.  Once you’ve developed your scripting and segmented your contact list, there are several most steps necessary in order to carry out a successful appointment setting campaign.

Research

You’ll want to learn everything you can about your target companies and prospects to give you insight into the their pain points and your prospects decision making ability.  Research the company website to see what they do and what types of things they need to improve on.  You’ll want to use tools such as LinkedIn to learn about individual prospects, what their skills may be, and how to communicate to them.  Being able to articulate what you know about a company and how you can help them is essential to teleprospecting success.

Follow-Up

Not everyone you reach out to is going to be ready to buy.  You will want to have a nurturing plan in place that keeps your company in front of your prospects.  This can be comprised of email workflows, follow up calls and even social media connections.  Determine their preferred method of communication and focus your efforts there.  Keep track of each touch so prospects don’t become overwhelmed or annoyed by your communications.

Referrals

Many companies have multiple decision makers and the contact you have on your list may not be the appropriate person to speak with.  Obtaining a referral from your original contact not only gives you the correct person to reach out to, it also provides you a means to build rapport.  Mentioning that you were referred to the new contact by a colleague can help build trust and works as a good conversation starter.

Messaging

There’s a good chance you won’t reach your prospects the first time you pick up the phone.  You’ll want to have a strategy for voice mail that includes a directive to reach out to you and messaging that changes for each round of calls.  It is extremely important that you develop emails to send to interested prospects or to those that only communicate via email in order to develope open lines of communication. 

Suggest The Appointment

Many times appointments fail to be set simply because the associate didn’t ask for it.  Every salesperson is familiar with the phrase “always be closing” and it is especially important in appointment setting.  Suggest days and times for your prospect to choose from and clearly explain the value of a one on one meeting with your sales rep.

Founded in 1990, Winn Technology Group is a leading provider of global, multi-channel marketing solutions for the technology industry.   For both direct and channel sales, Winn supports demand creation, account-based marketing, channel management, digital marketing, social media, teleprospecting, lead nurturing, event marketing, database services, and inbound response management.