Better B2B Appointments Through Better IT Customer Services

When it comes to B2B appointments, getting business prospects to sign up to your deal can be pretty hard. Well, it really should not come as a surprise. Doing such a campaign in the IT services industry rarely brings a lot of results. Of course, the resulting deals you get from the sales leads you have been working on can pretty much pay for your operations, with a lot left over as profit.

The key here is in customer service, the art and science of pleasing customers, and getting them to come back for more. 

If you want your B2B lead generation campaign to be more successful, you really need to work on your customer service skills.

For one, you should learn how to respond properly. A lot of deals from B2B leads fall through due to poor response from the marketing team. Remember, they have made an effort to reach back to you. So you should also make an effort to give an appropriate reply. Not only is this good business etiquette, it would also help open up new conversation opportunities with your prospects. The more you talk to them, the more you help them, then more willing they become in terms of closing a deal with you.

Second, understand and acknowledge that there is a problem. When business prospects come to you with an issue, you should acknowledge it appropriately. After all, they would not be complaining or saying anything if there is no problem to start with. Whether what they say is right or wrong, you can decide the veracity of their claims by careful examination. After you gave gone through the facts, it is the time for you to come up with a working solution.

Proper escalation is the third point you need to consider in a successful B2B appointment setting campaign. There will be problems and issues that would be beyond your skills, or perhaps your understanding. When that happens, you should know how to properly escalate the issue, giving it to another team to handle. If you do it right, your prospects would even be grateful for you handing their concerns to those in the know.

Fourth, learn how to properly apologize. This is true if the fault is yours. Actually, this is the one thing you should do when it is your fault. Think of this as a dynamite with the fuse lit. You would want to snuff the sparks out, saving you from a messier explosion. When we put it in a business sense, this meant expressing humility and assuring the aggrieved party that you are going to solve the problem. And when you promise something, make sure you deliver.

Lastly, go down to their level. You are not some overlord who supervises the lives of businesses under your wing. You are a business partner who could help to gather more sales leads, therefore increasing their profit margins. When they have issues, solve it with them.

In this way, you can see more success in your B2B appointments.

Six Leadership Skills You Need In B2B Appointment Setting

B2B appointment setting is a marketing process that could really be a problem for some marketers. You see, for it to be successful, you need to make it stand out. Now, you might have a good calling list that your telemarketing team can use to identify and generate B2B leads, but there is no assurance that you will be successful in your marketing efforts. This is something that requires management and leadership skills that not every business manager really has. But even if that is the case, you can always do something that can make you a better manager and leader. These are skills that you can develop, one that will be a great help in your overall marketing efforts. And what could these be?

Surround yourself with smart people – yes, you may have a really good business idea, or your products is selling well, but if you do not have other people who can help you with these activities, then you will not be able to carry out your marketing plans properly. This is no one-man show, mind you. This is something that calls for everyone’s involvement.

Be accountable – accountability is a very important business skill that you have to develop. By being accountable to every action that your company makes, you enhance the image of your company in the market. Remember, image is everything in a business, and it takes time to build up a really good reputation.

Showing gratitude – when something good is done for you, it is only courtesy that you express your gratitude as well. This is a good way to build a reputation in both the community and inside your own company. It also sends a good message to the recipients of your gratitude that you are there watching what is going on in your company.

Inspiring everyone – be it when it comes to selling, you need to be inspiring. A little charisma can go a long way in your appointment setting efforts. You see, an inspiring businessman can compel people to buy from you or sign up for a deal. This is something that you can do.

Sensitive of your surroundings – time and the environment are two very important factors in a business, ones that you should take serious consideration. You should know that your sales leads prospects value their time well, which means you have to make every second that you spend with them count. Otherwise, it would just be wasted. And you do not want that to happen.

Staying positive – the thing about a B2B lead generation campaign is that stress and poor results can cause you to lose momentum or focus. More likely than not, you might want to give up on the campaign all together. But if you believe that everything you do matters, then you will be able to keep going.

In any case, if you possess these above skills naturally, then you will be able to handle your B2B lead generation campaigns. And even if you do not have them in your nature, you can always cultivate them.

Finding Balance For Your Appointment Setting Team

All right, while we all know that a B2B appointment setting campaign can be a really profitable venture, the stress levels that accompany it can be too much for even the most resilient sales leads generators in your company. You need to deal with it, and deal with it fast. With turnover rates in the lead generation business being a very costly reality for companies, you would want to make sure that everyone is in their top form. And that requires a balance between work and life. Without it, you and your marketing team are headed towards a major burnout. It is a good thing that there is a way to deal with it. Out of the many, here are the tips that you can follow:

Work a routine – one sure-fire way to make your marketing team drop is through the innocuous, but very stressful, to-do list. Yes, we all know that we have tasks to do, but you have to admit that seeing that never-ending list can be a real downer. You can lessen the pain by making these things as some sort of routine. Once this is a routine, it will become part of your daily habits.

Try some meditation – all right, while we might have a lot of ways to relax and unwind in the midst of a hectic telemarketing campaign, sometimes the simplest methods can be the best. Try disconnecting from what you are doing for at least five minutes. Focus on your deep breathing; let the air clear your mind. More likely than not, you will be able to focus better in your work.

Do some exercises – and do not forget healthy food as well, right? And while you may say that you do not have the time for it, due to marketing eating up too much of your time, but it is not really that hard. Take a walk around the office, use the stairs instead of the elevator, do some yoga, body stretches, etc. You need to stay healthy if you want to be productive in your work.

Talk to family and friends – when it comes to reconnecting to reality, nothing beats communicating with your friends, spend time with family, and basically really invest in some idle time to communicate with the people you relate to closely. It is human nature to desire social interactions. Without one, you will really get stressed out a lot.

Disconnect from technology – while you may not be able to truly be without technology (since you have to use it in finding more B2B leads), disconnecting to it once in a while would be a good thing. When you are not in the office, going to sleep, or having a meal, turn off your cell phones, your computer, and any other device that might connect you to the office.

Stress is a real killer in your appointment setting campaigns. It is by dealing with it straight on will you be able to function optimally.

To Be Better In Appointment Setting, Be Boring

Really, a good number of us business owners and marketers are all after the new, the modern, the shiny or latest, in whatever we do. This is especially true in our marketing and appointment setting campaigns. In our desire to generate more sales leads, we want to use only the latest tools and the most popular concepts to do it. New is good, there is no question about that. The problem here is that it can become a double-edged sword. If you do not handle this right, then you will end up hampering your lead generation processes.

But why would that happen?

The main problem with this lies with consistency of message. You see, marketing relies on getting your product or service to pop up constantly in the minds of your business prospects. If you can keep on saying your business to them at a steady rate, then you increase your company’s chances of actually earning the B2B leads that you are looking for. Now, this requires that you maintain the same scope of your message, the same identity of your company, all throughout your current campaign as well as that which could come out in the future. It is only when you fail to acknowledge that detail do problems begin to creep in.

Consistency of your message is not just with regards to the content, the delivery vehicle must also be consistent, no matter what form you use. Be it in social media or in telemarketing , you have to make sure that every tool that your marketing team employs all point towards the desired results. If every part of your campaign takes on a different approach to your audience, then you are only increasing the confusion. And if you prospects are confused, then they will be less likely to be interested in you. And when they do not express the desired level of interest, then there is a high chance that they would not even bother with you anymore. Now that would be a real pain for your business.

Still, that does not stop some businesses to shift their image, their branding, or even their very solutions once a year or even less than that. And the reason most entrepreneurs give for such dizzying actions would be boredom. They have grown tired of their logo, their business, even the very offering that compelled them to be in business in the first place. They wanted to start on something new, so they try every little tactic that they dear about. While this might sound sensible, you are actually digging your own grave here. Do that and you are, figuratively speaking, burning the ropes that your prospects are holding on. When that happens, well, things can get really uncomfortable.

So, what should you do then? The answer here is actually very simple.

Stay boring, stay the same. There is nothing to lose if you keep your brand just like it did when you first started out. Who knows, that might be precisely what made your business memorable to your appointment setting prospects.

Conquer Your Fears In B2B Appointment Setting

Fear is a powerful de-motivator. No matter how prepared you are in your B2B appointment setting campaigns, or advanced your marketing equipment are, if you let your fear get the better of you, then you will never be able to effectively generate the B2B leads. Now this would be a pain for your mobile applications firm, since you have to get a lot of these in order to sell. You have to conquer your fears first. Only after facing your greatest challenge (fear), then you would be able to deal with the other challenges that life throws our way. So, where do you get to start?

First of all, you need to familiarize yourself with the task at hand. For example, as a mobile application company conducting a lead generation campaign, you would need to be aware of the different products and services that may catch the interest of your intended business prospects. If you want to be more effective, you need to know more about yourself and your market first.

Second, you need to psyche yourself up on the courage department. For you to be able to function optimally in the B2B lead generation game, you need to have confidence in your abilities. You see, fear can confuse you, making you imagine situations that cause you to curl up even before the campaign starts. True, marketing can be intimidating, but if you put your mind to it, then you can be successful.

Third, look at your fear in a different perspective. We have to accept the fact that your fear will still be there, and it will nag in your mind. Now, you can control that, simply by changing your perspective of your fear. Let us think about it this way: if you think that talking to potential sales leads is scary, then what about balancing a chair on a cliff? That would be way scarier. You might as well do some marketing.

Fourth, consider your source of fear. More likely than not, that feeling that you call fear may not be fear at all. For example, that tingling sensation on your fingers before you make that telemarketing call may just be the adrenaline from the excitement. Once you have repurposed your feelings, it may be possible for your fear to disappear. You just have to be more attuned to your own body’s reactions.

Lastly, why not let your fear push you? You see, fear can drive people to do things that are beyond their capacity. Sure, you may be afraid to market outside, to meet different people, but why not try pushing yourself, then? Why not just take that leap of faith and get right into it? Maybe a little push is all you need to get your appointment setting campaign moving.

That is how it is. You should never let fear get the better of you. As a marketer, you must be able to conduct a lead generation campaign successfully. You can make it happen, just believe in yourself.

What Can JC Penney’s Marketing Mishaps Teach Us About Appointment Setting?

JC Penney, one of the biggest clothing and retail stores in the United States, is slowly becoming a fine example of what you should not do in business. Considering just how fast they are losing customers, not to mention those occasional marketing gaffes that made them the butt of jokes in social media, JC Penney is in a real uphill battle. For all of us in the appointment setting profession, JC Penney can provide us several interesting lessons in marketing and in generating sales leads. What they did are precisely the things that you should be avoiding in our own campaigns. 

First mistake, they apologized for their change in brand and approach. While this, in itself, is not bad at all, apologizing to your sales leads prospects about the changes can be troublesome if you do not properly adjust for these changes. To put it simply, your customers do not really care about the changes you make. All that matters to them is how the change will affect their current lifestyle. This is where the store made the mistake: they apologized, yes, but they did not properly prepare their customers for the change. This is one mistake that you should be avoiding as well. 

Second, the upper management of JC Penney thought that they knew what their customers needed. Now that is one bad assumption that cost them. You see, in today’s highly customer-focused lead generation campaigns, you need to listen to what your customers are saying. Unlike Steve Jobs and his team of forward-thinking designers, your business is still at the point of looking for a foothold in the market. If you want to sell, make sure that you have a really good market-monitoring team (try using telemarketing surveys to do that job) who can provide you with the latest information about customer behavior and buying habits. Adjust your marketing efforts according to what you learn. 

Third, and last, JC Penney never had a united front. The different people running the company also had different approaches in solving the problem. This will only confuse the audience, since they are receiving different information from different places, and will just make your business lose customer and investor confidence. Try not to make that mistake. As you may have learned about in previous marketing campaigns, you need to make sure that everyone is supporting your stand. It is just a simple gesture, being consistent and united in all fronts, but it can do wonders for your marketing efforts. 

Well, to tell you the truth, JC Penney still has a lot of potential in serving customer needs. What really messed them up were these simple marketing gaffes. If you truly want to be successful in your appointment setting campaigns, then you should take these lessons seriously. There are a lot of things that you can do for your business to expand, but the most important point that you should never forget is your customers. Remember, you are in business to serve their needs, so make sure that whatever you are offering lives up to what you claim.

How Can Webinars Improve Your Appointment Setting Campaign?

Technology is so amazing, with the way it evolves today and how it influences the way we do business. If before, brick and mortar stores are the name of the game. Now, as long as you have a website and a supplier, you can make a lot of money using the online business platform. Technology has also changed the way we conduct our appointment setting campaigns, with webinars being one of the emerging tools that we can use to increase the number of sales leads that we generate.


The question here is this: how can we make it work for our business? And if we succeed in conducting one, how can we make sure that it stays that way in the future?

For the first question, the solution is rather simple:

Start with your marketing campaign itself. Make sure that the topic of your webinar is directly related to your business, as well as your overall marketing campaign. Doing that makes it easier for your team to promote the event, as well as tie up your business as the go-to source of information for interested prospects.

Plan the event well with your presenters. One of the biggest turn-offs in a webinar is appearing in front of the camera unprepared. Work with your presenters beforehand. Show the seminar materials, check their appearance on camera. Test them about their mastery of their content. Once you are satisfied, then that is the time for you to let them go live. Promote your webinars in advance. Probably it will take you one to two months to successfully advertise your event. You will need to use a lot of channels for this, like social media, telemarketing, email, and the like. Your aim here is to put your webinar in the consciousness of your target audience. Get follow-up materials ready for distribution. Do you have white papers to share, or perhaps some other business material that might come in handy after the webinar? Make sure that you send them to your audience come conclusion of the event. It might be preferable to send them ahead, though, but it will depend on the topic that you will be covering.

As for the second question, there is only one answer for that: innovation.

You need to constantly improve and change the topics that you cover in your webinars. This will add excitement and interest in the eyes of your business prospects, as well as make your event more interesting to attend. Innovation is a key ingredient in a successful webinar, which will also influence the success of your lead generation campaign. If the changes you have in mind will bring in the B2B leads that you are looking for, then there is nothing to it. Actually, just go for it.

A webinar is also very useful in building a reputation in the market, and a greater professional relationship with your prospects. They know, through your webinars, that you are an expert in the field (just make sure you actually prove it), so they will go back o you. And if there is anything that a lead generation marketer loves, it is a prospect that keeps returning.

The Five Steps To Improved Appointment Setting Campaigns

You know, when it comes to business, you have to really bring out your best. And for you to be at the top of your game, you need to be constantly evolving and improving your marketing processes. This reality can be easily observed in an appointment setting campaign, where the rapid deployment of new strategies and tools can make all the difference in finding and nurturing of qualified B2B leads. While there are many methods that you can employ on this regard, you need to make sure that you are properly putting things in their proper pacing. There are steps that you need to follow to ensure everything runs smoothly. And here is how you do it:

1. Brainstorm with everyone – in planning your newest marketing strategy, for example, changing a segment of your appointment setting process, you need to discuss this with your telemarketing team first. In this way, you can identify any challenges that your team might encounter during its implementation, as well as smoothen any kinks that you might discover.

2. Test the new changes to be implemented – checking the effectiveness of the changes may require that you test first your plans. Use it in a controlled environment, so that your team can do some experimenting. Whether something works or not, there is no loss for you. At least you can make the corrections before finally putting things on a larger scale.

3. Set a time frame for implementation – time, without doubt, is a very important factor for business. You need to make sure that everything that you do is within the right time limit. You cannot waste your time on chasing after plans that will not pan out eventually. That is why you need a deadline. If, by that point, you see no progress in terms of sales leads generated, then you should stop and go for the new step in your plans.

4. Do an analysis – you probably have been able to gather sufficient data now, what with all the testing that you have done. There might be some areas of improvements that you have to do. Knowing just where you need to make the corrections will make your campaign much more effective. Just make sure that you have the most accurate data, so that you will not get wrong results.

5. Repeat – basically, you just do the process of improvement all over again. Change is a never-ending affair, one that you will always deal with if you want your business to stay afloat. The reason most firms close down is because they do not change according to the demands of their markets. Competition gets the better of them, and they have to close down, as a result.

As marketers, you need to ensure that your appointment setting campaign is able to meet the challenges posed by time and the fickle tastes of the market. Planning and implementing changes in the market is an important factor to the success in lead generation. You should not take it lightly.

The Power Of Conversational Selling For Appointment Setting

Generating B2B leads can be a real pain in your appointment setting campaign. This is especially true if you have to work most of the time convincing your prospect that you have exactly what they are looking for (Not to mention that this is the exact same thing that your competition is also saying). You surely would want to have an edge over your competition, right? But you should also know that whatever advantage you want to develop in the lead generation game should be something that your employees would be able to practice on their own. The solution? It is all about the conversation. Developing good conversational selling skills is an excellent way for you and your sales team to get ahead.

Conversational selling is simply that , a conversation. But this is not just any conversation. It is a conversation geared towards compelling the business prospect to sign up to your business or to simply remember your company the next time they need something. That takes a lot of skill, and you need to be personable enough to approach these prospects. You want to have a conversation with them that can build trust and confidence in your company and your prospects. While this may sound difficult, it is not really so. As long as you can follow these very important marketing tips, then you would be all right.

First, think about the dialogue. You want to engage your customers, so you should really talk to them, let them have the chance to speak their mind (and provide you with ideas that will help you clinch the deal). Bad marketers simply say their sales pitch and push their products or services to unwilling prospects. Now that is what I call a waste of time.

Second, think about integrity. Remember, you are still building trust with your prospects, so you would want to show them that you are sincere, that you can really provide them with an answer like that. Honesty is still the best policy, so to speak.

Next, focus on your prospect’s world. Not yours. This is the point that a lot of marketers, even veteran ones, tend to forget. You are bringing business to them, not the other way around. You want to make them more receptive to whatever you are offering them.

Fourth, talk about the benefits. Sure, the bells and whistles are nice to hear, but what business prospects want to hear, what they really are more concerned about, would be the benefits of them doing business with you. Explain to them then.

Lastly, be natural. Anything that sounds rehearsed or practiced can be easily detected by the prospect. If they hear your telemarketing team all saying the same thing or the same speech pattern, do not be surprised if they back off from meeting you anymore. They do not trust you anymore, or they just lose interest in you. This practically puts you back to the drawing board.

Keep the above tips in your head, and you can develop your very own conversational selling skills. This will be a great help for your appointment setting efforts.

How Social Media Can Help In Your Appointment Setting Campaign

This is a question that a lot of business people are probably asking themselves. While there are people still in doubt regarding this business strategy, there are those who firmly believe that this is a crucial marketing tool needed to improve productivity, as well as profits, during an appointment setting campaign. The reason why a lot of businesses owners have second thoughts of using such a service is due to issues of quality and reliability. In this highly-competitive business environment, you need to get all the sales leads that you can get. Now, this is not an easy task as what some people might expect.

To be honest, generating and nurturing B2B leads can be a very stressful exercise.

For a company that lacks the necessary marketing resources, like the small and medium sized enterprises, this could be a serious matter indeed. Remember, you are not the only company operating in the market. More likely than not, you would be working against your competitors in the race to get the most sales possible. If you think this is a daunting task for your employees, imagine just how hard that can be if you have to do it on your own. That is why, for cases like these, it is best to seek outside help.

Now this is where outsourcing enters the picture. This is actually an excellent solution for many small firms, or other companies with manpower or equipment problems. By outsourcing your lead generation efforts, you can find other firms who can do the service at a good price. Aside from that, you can gain the added flexibility of through different marketing channels in a manner that only in-house marketing teams from large firms are able to enjoy. In this case, you get more marketers, more equipment, and proper facilities at a much lower price compared to actually doing things on your own. The only thing you need to worry now is how to hire the right company for the job.

Contrary to what critics are saying, outsourcing to professional appointment setting or telemarketing agency is a safe and secure arrangement. The only reason we have problems in this regard is because the outsourced firms are nothing more than frauds. This is a reality that has long hounded many outsourced marketing agencies. Imagine how hard it is find an outsourced marketing agency for your campaign, spend a lot of money on it, only to end up holding the check, or given a list of prospects that are otherwise useless for your campaign. Such a waste, right? And that reinforces the negative perception of outsourced marketing.

Still, the one who will decide on this business strategy would be you. There are a lot of things that you have to consider before outsourcing some of your work.

Just for starters, here is a question you will need to answer: Will outsourcing bring in more sales leads to my business or not? Once you answer that question, then you have a place to start.

What Are The Secrets Of A Successful Appointment Setting Team?

Keeping in touch with business prospects, nurturing the relationship, as well as keeping them interested in your business offering is no easy task. This is appointment setting, where the possibility of failure can be great. That is why you need the best people for this kind of work. But getting these personnel could be a far tougher task compared to your original goal. After all, these are the people who serve as the first point of contact between you and your sales leads. You need people who are brilliant, creative, innovative, as well as aggressive. For you to truly get more business coming into your firm, you need a team who can capably represent you. But for you to form such a successful marketing team, what qualities should you be nurturing inside?

They do not have back-up plans – this may sound strange, but this does make sense. When you keep creating back-up plans for every failure you think might happen, you tend to be sloppy in ensuring the success of your initial plan. Remember, in business, you need to succeed at the first try, lest your competition gets the better of you. If ever you have to create a back-up plan, make sure it will address the problems the initial plan might encounter.

They work hard – nothing can be more important in improving productivity than to see your people working hard. Not that they spend all their time working, but the fact that they make the most of their time in the office being productive. This is an especially important characteristic of ideal lead generation personnel. When you have hard-working employees, most of them can do a really good work.

They do not join the crowd – basically, these are the kind of people that do not go with the flow, or depend on trending market tastes. For these people, swimming against the current is natural. Usually, looking for or creating new technologies or marketing strategies can be a big help in tapping into the minds of customers. Think Apple, Google, or even Amazon. These companies became successful because they had people willing to do things differently.

They have real goals in mind – what makes a marketing team successful is their ability to reach their goals. Setting an aim, a target to reach, can be a great help in focusing your efforts in finding potential B2B leads. You should also know what communication tools to use in order to reach your targets. Be it through telemarketing, social media, or email, you need to make sure that all of these can help you in your marketing efforts well.

There are other qualities of a successful appointment setting team. Anyway, the four elements mentioned above would help you get started on your path to success. If there are other things you might learn along the way, you can always add these to your list of lessons learned. Remember to believe in yourself, and work with those around you to reach the top.

Manage Conflicts In Your Appointment Setting Team – Before It Gets Worst

In business, or even in real life, conflict exists. Be it a disagreement on what product or service to offer first, to the way the toilet paper is oriented in the bathroom, we all get those occasional angry or irritated vibes against someone. But once this turns into a daily occurrence, this becomes a real problem. If we put this inside an appointment setting set-up, the results could be nothing less than troublesome. So, how do we best deal with this, once this happens in our workplace? How do we handle this so as not to hinder our ability to generate and nurture our sales leads?

 Well, there are a few places that we can start:

1. All of you meant well – keep in mind that your office is not a TV show (unless you are on Reality TV, but that would be for another story). This means that in most cases of arguments or conflicts, there is no real ulterior motive. Everyone wants to make the company grow, the problem here is that their viewpoints might clash.
2. Try not solving the problem fast – when conflict or arguments become ugly, there might be some reason for it. Besides, if you take a side, you will end up earning the ire of the other party. Sure, solve the problem fast, and get your lead generation process moving smoothly, but the ill feeling remains. Now that is something no one really wants to have in their business.
3.  Encourage face-to-face communication – no matter what the problem is, always make it a point that both parties talk to each other. And the need to do it face-to-face. This will help speed up the resolution of issues by directly tackling the problem, as well as help both parties reach common ground. 
4. When necessary, take a side – basically, you are taking the third side, the arbiter’s side. When conflicts plague your telemarketing operation, you need to take action fast. Get both parties on the table. Hear them out, and only then should you make a decision for them. But do not do this often, lest they turn it into a habit and they begin bringing to you their problems all the time. Now that would turn into a bigger problem for you, as the manager. 
5. Show what you tell – nothing beats practicing what you preach. When you deal with problems in the office, which compels you to set down specific rules, make sure that you are following these rules yourself. In this way, your employees will see that you mean business, as well as make you more successful in pushing these changes in the office.

Conflicts are normal in business. Without it, there would really be no real growth happening in your lead generation campaign. It is in how you manage things that it makes all the difference. So you should know how to deal with it in your business. As a business manager, this is one of your most important duties.

In Effective Appointment Setting, Think Like Your Customers

Customers can be a real puzzle for some marketers. They can either be a source of profitable sales leads, or they simply leave you hanging in the course of your lead generation campaign. A lot of marketers define their market simply by their demographic profiles alone. But to truly understand your customers, to truly see them as your customers, you should go beyond knowing facts like their gender, age and geographic location. The more details you know about them, the more capable you are in creating a sales pitch or an appointment setting campaign that is precisely what your prospects need.

The only question is, how will you do that?

To start with, try stepping in their shoes. Spend time and talk to your customers and business prospects. Ask them about their business, what they do every day, as well as the challenges that the face regularly. You involve themselves in their daily activities. What you learn there are very important insights as to what makes their business tick, and if there are any lose gears, you have the appropriate solution to help them. Believe it or not, but spending time with your prospective B2B leads will help be a better marketer, not to mention partner, for their business. You just have to make a contribution.

Second, try using social media and telemarketing as an aid to your marketing research. Social media marketing can help open up new avenues and insights about your business, giving a better grasp of what they want, what they need, what they fear, as well as what they desire. Telemarketing , on the other hand, is an excellent communication tool with business executives when discussing business. It is formal, structured, with a directness that a lot of marketers favor for quick shop talks with their prospects. There are so many things that you can learn by talking and involving your company in their social and business circles. You catch something of your fancy.

Lastly, create a survey and feedback strategy for your customers. Serving them is good, that is true, but ensuring that you really are serving them good is just as important. That is why you need to monitor the market, looking for discontent and promptly addressing the hurt. Conducting market surveys are very useful in revealing what customers have in mind when they think of your business, plus it is direct and private enough to encourage their candidness. As a marketer, you need to ensure that your customers are satisfied and happy with what you are offering them. Asking them directly would be best.

Keeping yourself in touch with your customers is essential for the success of your marketing campaigns. Without first understanding what your customers want, you would not know where to start. Yes, there are marketing gurus saying that a customer does not really know what they want, but it never hurts to learn a thing or two for their lead generation campaigns. There are so many things that you can discover.

Six Ways To Boost Your Productivity

Productivity is an important part of business. This determines how much work you will be able to do in a day. Now, how can you increase your productivity?

Being productive is an important characteristic that must be observed in all parts of an organization. After all, being able to deliver your daily requirement ensures that your firm can operate at its full potential. But the problem here is this: how can you stay productive in the office or, rather, be able to boost your productivity? This is an issue that has long bothered many firms, especially those in the lead generation campaign. How can you be able to get more B2B sales leads for your company? The answer can actually be simple. If you follow these points well, then you will observe a greater performance level for you.

Work backwards – in this case, towards your goals, not from it. Break down the goal into its smallest parts, then do each part as best as you could. Not only will you be able to get the job done faster, you get the feeling that you really did something in a single day.

No to multi-tasking – if you think that multi-tasking will help you do more, then you are sadly mistaken. In fact, according to one study conducted by TNS Research, employees actually end up getting dumber in work when they do a variety of tasks all at the same time. Concentrate on one work at a time. You will do more this way.

Eliminate distractions – if you have to post a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on your door, do so. In fact, if you can come up with any working idea, even if it may sound bizarre, just so that you can concentrate on your work, then do so. If it can help you improve your productivity, as well as getting the best work done at the best time, then you should do it.

Make a schedule – when you need to check your e-mail, make a call, or look at business updates, then you should set a schedule when you are going to do it. Also, try not replying to e-mails more than twice. Unless you need to put things in writing, a simple telephone call might actually get the job done faster.

Work with a goal – one reason why distractions seem to be irresistible is because you might not have a clear goal in mind. Try setting a goal for yourself, of what you want to finish for the day. You may not be able to do them all (yes, there are times it happens), but at least you can be sure that you are going somewhere.

Work in intervals – 60 to 90 minutes of focused work can actually get you done fast. After that, take a short break like getting a drink, walking around a bit, as well as other activities that will take your mind of work for a few minutes. Not only will this refresh your mind, it will also help you concentrate better on the next task that you have to do.

If you want to boost your productivity, then these pointers will help you get there.

The Four Things That Demoralize Your Appointment Setting Team

All right, we business owners and entrepreneurs all know how important it is to inspire and compel our appointment setting team to be at their very best when they are at work. To do that, we use various tactics and strategies to keep morale up, as well as boost their desire to be better in their work of generating qualified sales leads. Come to think of it, there are many choices available. Still, there are still some of us who make the mistake of choosing the wrong motivator. There is also the possibility that our actions and decisions, while it seems warranted or all right in our eyes, may actually bring down morale in our office. Ever wonder what these usual culprits are?

Cash rewards – people need money, there is no question about that. Offering good pay to those responsible for your lead generation campaign is good business practice. But using monetary rewards as the sole motivator for your employees is not exactly a brilliant idea. To tell you the truth, there are other ways to make your people work better, money not being one of them.

Multi-tasking – yes, we know you are a busy person, and that you need to be there in every aspect of your business. But common sense will tell you that you cannot do everything at the same time. You need to know when to compromise or to simply concentrate in a meeting with your subordinates. It can be disheartening to your people if they see you tapping on your tablet while they kept talking in front. Unless it is an emergency (which means you should not be having a meeting anymore), put away your tablet and focus at the talk at hand.

Inconsistency of message – this is something that a lot of business managers tend to overlook, since they often assume that everyone knows what they are talking about, even if the content varies from person to person. Please, avoid that error. A lot of miscommunication and resentment can be caused by a simple mix-up of terms or inconsistency of message and action on your part.

Criticism of ideas – sure, it is all right to critique the suggestions of your employees during a meeting, but outright criticizing them for even suggesting it in the first place is downright counter-productive. Steve Jobs once shot down the Macintosh computers in favor of his own Lisa computers, saying that it will not work. Well, we all know how wrong Jobs was on that. There are gems of truth in every suggestion or plan that could help you telemarketing team generate more B2B leads, so it pays to take them all with a grain of salt.

If you notice the pattern, you can see that all of these demoralizing actions that you can do to your team are actually harmless when done moderately or at minimum. Try minimizing these mistakes, and you can make your appointment setting team perform better. You just have to give them the chance to shine.

Why Should Software Companies Do Outsourcing To An Appointment Setting Company?

Many appointment setting firms these days offer their services to companies in any industry especially those that are dealing with b2b or business to business transactions. But, one of the industries that most of these b2b outbound telemarketing firms that are most popular with is the software industry where different software companies like for example those shipping software companies are offering not software products but offering software solutions because they know that there is a big difference between software products and software solutions and this is why some of these software companies know that outsourcing to these b2b telemarketing services firms or to an appointment setting company is their best investment.

But, why should these software companies try to do outsourcing to an appointment setting company that employs highly trained professional appointment setters to generate qualified leads and know more about the client company to be able to know their needs and if they really have the budget to invest on these telemarketing lead generation campaign when, the fact of the matter is, they have the resources and the manpower to make their own lead generation software to help them in their quest in gathering and generating software leads and business leads?

The reason behind why software companies would prefer to do outsourcing to these telemarketing firms or appointment setting company is because they may have the software but they don’t have the manpower with the right training and the right facilities to get the job done of setting up appointments between sales agents and the decision maker of a potential company client. It doesn’t really matter if they have the best software but if they don’t have the best professional appointment setters, everything will be gone to waste. They can develop software for generating qualified leads and do lead nurturing and management but this can all be worthless if they don’t have someone to do this kind of responsibility.

Most software companies will agree to these. They know that they have the people to develop all types of software but they needed some kind of ally that can utilize what they have and fuse it with the employment of a battery of telemarketers that can do face-to-face appointment setting services or arrange face-to-face appointments on their behalf. They may expect inbound telemarketing but what about outbound telemarketing? Honestly, software companies really don’t have the time to do outbound telemarketing and reach out to potential clients and letting them know what they are offering to them. If they will be the one to do lead generation and promoting product awareness, all they can offer are software products but not software solutions.

By offering nothing but software products, they may be talking to the wrong kind of people or they are talking to the right decision maker but they may be offering the wrong type of product. By offering software solutions, they know what they will be offering to the decision maker that will really be needed by the company that that decision maker is representing.

That is the reason why software companies should do outsourcing to an appointment setting company and if they do, not only they will be availing the best telemarketing services but they can also get the opportunity of utilizing other marketing methods such as email marketing, social media marketing and SEO or search engine optimization and even be provided with a targeted call list which will be very beneficial to them.

Best Practices in Appointment Setting: Mentally Preparing for an Outbound Telemarketing Call

Just like in any sport or competition, one must gear up for the battle. Indeed, in a craft such as outbound telemarketing and appointment setting, which requires determination, perseverance and the skill to converse intelligently, one’s mental preparations are as important as – if not more than - the physical. Organizing the mind prior to a call helps professional telemarketers in expertly handling both the expected and the unexpected.

It’s basically a battle of will and words; whoever can dominate during a call can dictate the outcome. Prospect clients do not have the luxury of seeing and feeling the product or service being pitched to them, rather, they rely on mere words in order for them to succumb to an appointment with genuine interest.

And words are more pleasant to the ear when it’s logical and well-thought of.

Common Responses
 During a call, the exchange of statements and questions between the telemarketer and the prospect would determine the flow of the conversation. The ultimate test for the telemarketer is to be able to respond appropriately to anything thrown at him - one wrong response can ruin everything. The odds of getting dominated by the prospect can be reduced if one would “pre-determine” the possible questions beforehand. Through time, one’s experience in countless similar calls can help him recognize a pattern on what objections usually arise during a pitch, therefore leading him into constructing effective responses.

Transition to Setting the Appointment
One major difficulty in appointment setting is timing. The call flow usually dictates a certain order: introduce, discuss, overcome objections, and then set the appointment. This sequence is standard - one cannot simply skip the introduction and proceed to discussion, or skip the discussion and set the appointment right away, and so on. Therefore, one needs patience and a smooth shift from one phase to another. Rushing to set the appointment may sound pushy for the prospect; on the other hand, over-discussing the product/service may become dragging and may dissipate the prospect’s interest. In order to maintain the flow, there must be a good balance of information and transitioning to setting up the appointment.

Handling hard and soft NOs
When the moment of truth comes, telemarketers must also be mentally prepared to handle it. While positive responses are always easier to deal with, it’s the NOs that usually require skill to overcome. A hard “no” is the most common comeback from prospects, and it is sometimes followed by the termination of the call. But if the opportunity to end the call properly is still given, a telemarketer must be ready to close the conversation in a way that is still professional and courteous. Alternatively, a soft “no” is the silver lining and requires a more delicate touch. These are potential opportunities in the future, and when a soft “no” is given, a telemarketer must respond in such a way that the prospect would still have pleasure in getting in touch in the future. It must not be resistant to the objection but rather it must be done in an understanding, appreciative manner. Preparedness is a basic human instinct but sometimes, because of the evil of familiarity and self-assurance, people forget the value of being ready. As they say, luck favors those who are prepared.

How To Really Nail Appointment Setting Through Cold Calling Techniques

There are times in the life of a company in any industry that they can run out of ideas on who to call. Sure, there can try to consult business directories, ask for referrals and even scan newspapers and magazines and sift through the internet pages to find more customers. But, whatever the reason, there really are some companies that can still run out of ideas. So, what do they do? They do telemarketing by not knowing what the recipient would really want and how they are going to get it. In cold calling, surely, they can’t expect to close any sales. What they just need to do is to go for appointment setting by having the recipient respond positively to the face-to-face appointments arranged by the one who initiated the call and in this case, they are the professional appointment setters or the telemarketers.

In the days of old, those who are the telemarketers are the sales people themselves who call up people and try to close a sale after a series of calls. Today, telemarketing is done not by sales agents but by these professional appointment setters and they are not there to introduce a product but they are there to present a solution and then ask the recipient of a call if he will agree with meeting the sales agent personally to explain more about the product that can be the possible solution to the current issues and needs of the company that the recipient of the call is representing.

However, even though you can say that it might be easier to do appointment setting rather than do product selling over the phone, telemarketers doing face-to-face appointment setting services should also learns some few tips on how to really nail appointment setting through cold calling techniques.

One of the very important tip that any telemarketers should know about is to make a script. When talking about making a script, it also involves a lot of practice on how to say what telemarketers have written on the script. If the telemarketers are the employees of a b2b telemarketing company where a company, say, a software company has done outsourcing for telemarketing services, then, there is no problem in making the script. All the telemarketers have to do is to follow that script and learn how to deliver the lines on the script as naturally as possible. Constant practice on how to say something like a greeting should be done constantly. An appointment setting personnel can try to record his voice and find out if he is speaking too fast or if he doesn’t sound very natural and make some adjustments.

Through the use of a script, the telemarketers can develop a good phone image. The way telemarketers will come across the phone will be the deciding factor whether or not the telemarketers can make the recipient agree to meet with sales agents.

If a script is made and constant practice on how to say the lines on the script is done, any telemarketers can nail appointment setting even doing cold calling. After all, even if the professional appointment setters know something about the potential client, they still need to have a script and base their conversation on that script and at the same time trying to avoid in following the script word for word. This can really help telemarketers generate good and qualified leads which can lead them to generate higher sales profits for the software company that hired them.

To Do Appointment Setting Through Cold Calling: Why Not?

There will be a time when a company will run out of ideas on where to find new customers. Even though they can scan through a lot of different resources like business directories, the yellow pages, ask referrals from satisfied customers, there will still be a time that they don’t know where to look for additional potential clients. If this will happen, for sure, any company like, say, an IT company can have difficulty in trying to generate qualified IT sales so that they can gather more customers. If that will happen, they need to accept the fact that in spite of the advancements that these IT companies has and can use the internet not just to come up with different marketing methods but also to gather as much qualified leads as they can, they still have to settle in using one of the oldest and yet most reliable, efficient and proven strategy to make new customers and that’s to use telemarketing services and even do cold calling over the phone.

It is a fact that nobody wants to be sold with anything especially if it is done through the telephone and from someone whom they do not know of. But, if cold calling is done in the right manner, even a modern IT company with all of its technological advancements can experience sales nirvana and gain higher sales revenues.

But, the fact of the matter is, using cold calling to generate qualified leads and get to know more about a prospect can really be difficult unless IT companies can learn a few helpful tips.

If there is one important tip on how to nail appointment setting anytime using cold calling, it would be about making a script. This is, by far, the most essential part in doing cold calling. Telemarketers or professional appointment setters don’t just dial any phone number, ask for the decision maker and then, blabber on the phone. They need to have a script for them to practice. But, they should always remember that a script is just a basis or to give the telemarketers an idea on what to say and they don’t have to read the script line by line or word by world as they will surely sound “robotic”.

Practicing the script is also a part of the whole script-writing process. Yes, that’s right. Trying to do appointment setting or arranging face-to-face appointments is just like acting and to come out as natural as one can get, that person needs to do a lot of practice so that he can correct himself if he talks too fast and no one can understand him. Telemarketers has to bear in mind that they are talking to another person at another end of the line and they need to make that first impression. By practicing the script, this will also give telemarketers the idea if the person they are talking to have the buying power or not or if the company they represent has the immediate need of what is being offered to them over the phone.

Nailing an appointment setting is possible through cold calling just as long as a lot of preparations are being done. But, for most software companies, this might seem impossible as they are more preoccupied in developing and customizing software products for different companies in different industries to use. So, what they do is they choose outsourcing to b2b telemarketing firms to do the job of appointment setting and the best part is, these telemarketers from a b2b telemarketing company already has scripts for various industries and they already have targeted call lists, too.

Appointment Setting Services: How and Why They Work

It has been said that marketing and sales is about winning customers. And how do you win customers? By laying out what your product or services can provide for your customers. And how will you get customers to meet or listen to you?  By setting up an appointment. This is where appointment setting services come in.  They bridge your company’s gap to your customers.

For a business to succeed, departments with their own specialization come in. While most sales department are undeniably experts on sales, setting up appointment may work differently for them. You need to avail appointment setting services from reputable companies. And while you get to have an expert company that handles your appointment setting for you, you get to put your effort into developing marketing campaigns that focus on closing the deal.

Telemarketing has been the go-to technique of businesses but that is because it works.  It is an effective way of directly communicating with possible customers. Appointment setting is a skill that needs to be developed only through proper training, which focuses on the effective practices of convincing people without sounding coercive, which sometimes sales people make customers feel like. It is the root of business operations; it’s where you grow your customer’s interest in your service or product.

Professional appointment setters have sales as goal in their mind but have the heart of a convincing conversationalist. Their telemarketing skills are impeccable that they can present your product like a nice little gift, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and ready to be picked up if the customers agree to set up the appointment. They also have the skill to determine whether the prospect can be converted into a closed deal or not.

Choosing the company to which you will entrust appointment setting will need thorough evaluation. An effective appointment setting company can gather increasing number of leads and sales and can also maintain if not surpass the number of prospects.

However, you need to also take a look at the familiarity of the appointment setting company to your industry.  Appointment setting must be specialized, and so as most service oriented companies such as healthcare, insurance agents, mortgage brokers etc. It is only justifiable to trust your company to a partner that knows the nature of your industry.

It is also useful to get an appointment setting company with people who can handle and influence the final decision makers. CEO’s and managers have the final verdict on things their businesses will invest their time at, so it is only reasonable to hire people who can handle setting up appointments for all managerial levels.

And most importantly invest your money on a company that could get you the most number of appointments possible.

In getting the right appointment services, when you take note of the words, quality and quantity, you will surely be getting great results.

What Every Marketer Needs To Know About Appointment Setting

Effective communication occurs when the person you’re communicating with can interpret your message the way you intended them to, however, this situation is often missed when there is absence of personal communication. That is why in the field of business, closed sales can be easily attained when a salesperson gets the chance to have a face-to-face meeting with a sales lead. Indeed, any form of message when relayed personally has proven to be effective.

This is now where the role of appointment setting enters the scene. While majority of the businesses nowadays continue to utilize modern and cutting edge technology to reach and contact their clients, they can’t still deny the fact that setting an appointment with a decision maker is one of the hardest things that even having the latest technology cannot help them.

Appointment setting is not about having all the resources yet failing to acquire necessary skills, yes, skills are very essential in the appointment setting process , and we mean here not only the physical ones but the mental, emotional, and most of all the interpersonal skill. Because the truth is, failure to have a prior relationship with decision makers and business owners, means having a lesser possibility of setting a business appointment with them. These people are way too busy and preoccupied to entertain any meetings that they don’t think they can benefit from.

Considering that salespersons are undeniably having a hard time convincing the decision makers to personally meet them, how much more when the former actually meet the latter and start to bargain with each other? You just can imagine the outcomes that are at stake the moment these marketers start talking.

Doubtlessly, appointment setting is a “no pain, no gain” game. It really does take a tremendous amount of patience, skills, and most importantly PR to be able to make an appointment.