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One of the key processes for achieving a sale is appointment setting or cold calling. Wikipedia defines cold calling as “the marketing process of approaching prospective customers or clients—typically via telephone, by email or through making a connection on a social network—who were not expecting such an interaction.” Though cold calling is usually considered as the start of a sales process generally known as telemarketing, it is actually one of the many types of calls that telemarketers may make. Appointment setting is an outbound marketing technique. Outbound marketing refers to all traditional approaches to acquire leads. Also known as interruption marketing, it is the process of pushing products or services on customers. That is instead of letting the customers discover products or services, outbound marketing focuses on finding customers using techniques such as cold calling, print ads, newspapers, direct mails, TV ads, radio ads, SMSes, press releases, trade shows and so on. Thus, outbound marketing is proactive marketing where customers are contacted directly. For any sales team sales appointment setting is very important, as it is crucial for building a sales pipeline. Hence, one of the important aspects of appointment setting is reaching the right decision makers. However, most appointment setting calls fail as the sales team end up with gatekeepers, who are considered as the greatest obstacle in the B2B appointment setting process. This is because they stand between the sales team and their potential sales leads. Appointment setting is a skill that not every sales person can claim to possess. It is a process that involves pre-call research, collecting data and analytics, getting past the gatekeeper and enticing the prospective client with information that is interesting, brief and relevant. Take the case of C level appointment setting, for instance. It requires the services of experienced sales staff that possess the knowledge, expertise and skill to navigate complex organizations, handle gatekeepers, and discuss real business issues with C-suite, VP and Director level decision makers. They should be adept at delivering complex sales messages and value propositions to get the attention of sophisticated executives and decision makers. C level appointment setting is something that is not ideal for every client and therefore the service provider should be the one who possess the basic understanding as to when to go for C Level appointments and when not to. With appointment setting services playing such an important role in B2B lead generation campaigns, enterprises must collaborate with experts in the field to manage and accelerate pipeline build. Read more about- Sales Outsourcing
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