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.