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B2B Appointment Setting Done Right in Singapore

B2B Appointment Setting Done Right in Singapore

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In Singapore, it is crucial for B2B companies to enhance their appointment setting efforts on top of improving their lead generation campaign. Consider the fact that most decision-makers in the island nation have sophisticated preferences as to the type of solutions they want to purchase.

When done right, appointment setters are able to hit their prospects and position them for a meeting with sales reps.

Here are some pointers to consider when speaking to a decision-maker, courtesy of QualityContactSolutions.com:

The Right B2B Appointment Setting Target List

B2B appointment setting is a tenuous balance between a numbers game and creating a work of art. A successful appointment setting program begins with developing the criteria for what types of businesses you want to target, what size of businesses you want to target and what level of decision-maker you want to target. A wrong list selection can doom the program from the start. An on-target list selection gives your program a running head start.

A Compelling Offer

Why would a business owner or manager want to accept the offer of an appointment? It’s the classic question of, “What’s in it for me?” WIIFM. Spend some time developing talking points that clearly answer this question and you’ll be on the right track. Again, the art of creating the program is in the answer to this question. It may also be beneficial to offer an incentive in exchange for the appointment. Try to make the incentive relevant to your business if possible (discount offer, free trial, etc.)

Professional and Memorable

Every good B2B sales representative knows how to engage the gatekeeper and their prospect in a professional and memorable phone conversation. It is important to make a positive impression and engage the prospect in such a way that they remember you and subsequently honor the set appointment when the time comes.

Keep Appointment Setting Records and Adjust

It is important to track every appointment and to document the results of each appointment. Feed these results back to the appointment setting team; enabling them to make adjustments to their approach. One of the primary goals is to minimize no-shows (Yes, there will be no-shows!) and increase back end sales rates.

Persistence

Most businesses do not have unlimited prospects within their target market. Once you’ve identified your top prospects, engage in a perpetual B2B appointment setting and lead nurturing program. By perpetual, we recommend calling your prospects and sending a postcard or other direct mail piece every 2-3 months. A “no” today could be a “yes” in a couple of months when their situation changes. Studies show that it takes an average of seven impressions with a prospect before they start to actively recognize who you are. The more competitive the market, the higher the number.

Appointment Setting Pointers to Live By

Appointment Setting Pointers to Live By

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Every business strives for success. You wouldn’t be engaged in setting up a business in the first place if there’s nothing worth striving for, like sales conversions or opportunities for internal growth.

Real successes however can only be attained once you have the capital to get you through. You will need to invest in new infrastructure, upgrade core lead management facilities, and train staff on key marketing and sales skills.

Moreover, finding the appropriate marketing solutions to realize sales goals might seem intricate. Actually, it only involves setting up an effective B2B appointment setting campaign.

There is no denying that B2B appointments serve as customer entry points. The fact that they play an essential role in enhancing one’s influence over customer decisions drives marketers to find better appointment setting schemes.

It shouldn’t pose any difficulty at all. Though, it requires a thorough mastery of the following appointment setting activities.

Make sure your pipeline only gets high quality B2B leads. Most appointment setters find themselves in a difficult position to gain confirmations. This is partly due to the poor sales leads that enter one’s sales funnel. Hence, it is crucial that your lead nurturing activities be persistent in building and maintaining interest towards your offers.

Optimize your content. Content is a powerful tool that lets you manipulate buyer interests. However, the use of content can serve as a double edged knife. Proper content management, targeting and execution is crucial. Aside from that, optimizing your content to suit target profiles is essential in attracting the right kind of people to your lead management database.

Don’t be too hasty. Setting B2B appointments can be a subject of pure enthusiasm among eager marketers. The reality however is that the sales process requires a very long time before a target wants to buy your product. It will take a good three months before a prospect wishes to set an appointment, so be patient. Don’t try to force your way in. Instead, wait for the perfect time to harvest a confirmation.

Build your campaign on relationships. What are your marketing priorities? If you say increased sales volume, then consider revamping your strategies. There’s nothing wrong with anticipating sales goals, but it would be better to prioritize building solid relationships with prospects. This requires a certain amount of proficiency from your telemarketers. Luckily, one can always depend on an independent B2B outsourcing firm to do the nurturing and ultimately realize sales goals.

A businessman on a phonecall

The Three “Do’s” Of Successful B2B Appointment Setting In Singapore

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Conducting a successful B2B telemarketing campaign in Singapore will be dependent upon two things: one, the business list or calling list that you have; and two, the skills of the B2B lead generation personnel that are responsible in getting in touch with these prospects. Ideally speaking, this would be enough to bring in the B2B leads that you need. Unfortunately, we are in a less than ideal world. In one way or another, your business is heading for failure. But that is if you cannot address these marketing challenges fast, challenges that are so old-school, that you might be surprised that these are big issues even until now. If you cannot resolve them fast, then you will not be going anywhere at any time.

First, we need to discuss about the lack of empathy. How many times have we heard our marketing managers to always ‘show empathy’ to us before we make our telemarketing call? Yes, that may seem like such an easy issue, but even veterans marketers often fall into this trap. The success of your appointment setting efforts is dependent on your ability to establish rapport with your prospects. And you cannot do that if you do not express the right empathy with them. More likely than not, you will just lose their connection with you. Why not put yourself in their shoes? Try to understand what they are going through? It will not take you much effort, but this is a good start in your marketing efforts.

Second, there is that glaring lack of authenticity that so many of us marketers are still guilty of. You want to make a good first impression with your prospects? You tell them so many things that you can do. Yes, these may sound so promising but, in truth, what you said are nothing more than tall tales. Really, when you say something, when you make a claim in front of your sales leads prospects, always make it a point to show them proof. This is the only way for you to create credibility with your business. Be concerned over your prospect’s business situation. Seek the best solution. Remember, the goodwill you create here will be your strongest card in future lead generation campaigns.

Lastly, but no less important, is that disturbing lack of time awareness that marketers (and even some prospects) fail to notice. Time is gold, so to speak, and if you can find a way to increase the number of sales leads that you get, at the least possible amount of time required, is a good measure of efficiency. On the side of your prospects, they simply do not have all the time in the world. They have other things to attend to. To be honest, they are actually doing you a favor by entertaining your call. Go straight to the point. Lay out your business and what you can do for them. Do that and they will be more receptive.

It is all about being aware of what is going on. That is what will get you the B2B leads that you are looking for.

A businessman that looks worried while looking at his phone

The Cardinal Sins Of B2B Appointment Setting In Singapore

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You have to be fast and effective in Singapore, this is the one lead generation rule that you should never forget. This may be a small country, but it plays a huge role in the global economy. A lot of businesses, both foreign and local, are heavily invested in the progress of Singapore. It would be the same thing for your B2B appointment setting company. With all the stress and pressure to dominate over the competition, some marketers make mistakes. Sure, this is normal, something you can resolve, but you should be aware of the seven major marketing gaffes you can make. Know what these are, and avoid it. That would ensure the continued success of your B2B leads efforts.

Seven Entrepreneurial Traits That Boost Your Appointment Setting Campaign In Singapore

  1. Anger – if you are the type of manager who constantly breathes down on your employees’ necks, well, be ready to receive a lot of resentment. Yes, they might be compelled to keep working, but you might end up stifling creativity or squash new business ideas.
  2. Greed – you want to get a lot of customers, go ahead, get them all. But you have to make sure that you can deliver to everyone. Remember, there is a limit to how many people you can serve. Fail on that, and your customers will leave. You would be lucky if that is all they do. More likely than not, they will complain about you through social media. Now that would really hurt.
  3. Laziness – people tend to lose steam when they see others taking it easy while they are working hard. But this is a subjective topic. People might compare themselves to others with a different job description. Compare B2B telemarketers and PR personnel. They do promote the company, but the kind of work they do is different.
  4. Pride – being confident over your skills is not bad. It is going overboard and ignoring the opinion of others. Sometimes, you just have to learn how to listen, to accept the solution of others (especially if this is more effective than the one you have thought up). This is for the sake of your company’s survival.
  5. Lust – passion drives a person do great things, so are those involved in telemarketing campaigns. The problem arises when you do your tasks without regards to the consequences. Even if the allure of bigger sales is irresistible, you should learn to control yourself.  It might have a bad effect on your company.
  6. Envy – do you feel that your competitor’s sales leads strategy is better than yours? That is a normal reaction. What is not normal is for you to either copy that strategy, speak negatively about them, and a host of other things that can also damage your own business. Honestly, please avoid them.
  7. Gluttony – all right, you might have a really good business plan or strategy, but you should not keep it to yourself. Since markets change over time, you should be willing to share your knowledge with others. You can take that time to come up with another process, or you can take the discussions as a spring board for another winning marketing plan.

Avoid these major sins, and your appointment setting campaign in Singapore will be just fine.

Put On The Heat In Your Appointment Setting Campaigns

Put On The Heat In Your Appointment Setting Campaigns

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When it comes to managing a business, organizing a marketing campaign will always be a constant in your plans. The question here is whether you are up to the task. Planning, organizing, and executing an appointment setting campaign should be a part of your daily activities. But there is the question of capacity in your part. How will you get your marketing team to up their game play in increasing the sales leads they are looking for? Considering how difficult it was to generate new B2B leads in the market these days, you really need to know where to start. And here are some suggestions for you:

  1. Ask only what is necessary – think of this as your first date, where your business prospects are not yet willing to share with you their darkest secrets. To put them at ease, as well as get you started, you need to ask them only what your marketing team truly needs. You can follow-up the details once you are on your way in lead nurturing.
  2. Follow-up quickly – the first sixty minutes of a business call is crucial to your lead generation team. Whether this is from a customer inquiry, complaint, or an actual customer, the chances of you staying in their good graces gets exponentially smaller once the one hour mark is past. You can arrange for a telemarketing representative to call them back immediately and see what can be done for them.
  3. Concentrate on them, seriously – for a successful sale, it is not about you or your products being offered. Rather, you should be focused on your customer’s needs and see to it that whatever you are offering will actually work for them. There are just too many cases of marketers pushing their wares to prospects that, simply put, have absolutely no need for them.
  4. No need to rush the sale – here is the thing, when you receive an initial sales call, try not to go straight at head with the sale. You need to first establish a connection with them. As a marketer, it is your responsibility to perk the interest of prospects and keep your company at the top of their minds. Remember, most of the sales you make come after the third or fourth call to prospects.
  5. Nurture, nurture, nurture – this is a task that many marketers seem loathe to do, but is exactly what you need. Most business prospects are not interested in your offers yet. Maybe in the future, yes. That is why you need to put some effort in your marketing, by keeping your business at the top of their minds. Send them emails, newsletters, forum invitations, or even a simple ‘touching base’ call. These can be very effective marketing tactics to use.

It can be really interesting to note just where your business can go with the right marketing tactic. You see, in a successful appointment setting campaign, you need to use several marketing mediums. Getting the right fit and support can be a big boost for you.

Coaching Tips For Your Appointment Setting Campaigns

Coaching Tips For Your Appointment Setting Campaigns

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You must admit, appointment setting campaigns can be a real challenge for the untrained. That is why we need to have the managers and trainers for it. This is where you, as the manager, enter the picture. Training and coaching is part and parcel of business, one that you will constantly have to face. When you consider the different ways of improving your sales leads, you have to make sure that your people know what should be done, especially if they are involved in telemarketing. And while it is true that there are several ways to coach your team, you have to remember some of the basics in leading them. And what are these?

How to Manage Your Appointment Setting Team Like Baseball

First of all, you should know how to listen. While you may know something about improving their performance, you should also be aware that the techniques or strategies to be used may not match the skills or line of thinking of your employees. This is especially true if you are adopting Western business tactics to Eastern business environments. That is why you should make it a point to hear out your people. Tell them what you need, using the tools you require, and then listen to their opinions after employing it.

Second, learn how to guide your B2B lead generation team. Do not take over their work. You can tell them to contact someone, buy something, or listen to a lecture. But never should you do that task for them. They need to learn, and in a business environment, the fastest way for them to do that is by doing it by themselves. Sure, they may hit some rough patches along the way, but as long as you are there to show them the ropes, they will be able to swing it on their own. This would be an advantage for you as well, since you can show them the value of taking personal responsibility for their actions.

Lastly, always focus on the action. You see, it is so easy to teach them new tricks. The real test on whether your message got across them is by putting their lessons in action. Every time you and your marketing team talk about new ways in generating B2B leads, make it a point to do these methods immediately. It might fail, that is true, but it can also be an opportunity for you and your people to improve. The thing here is that you should always be ready for it. Being constantly on your toes can help you, and your team, perform better in the long run.

All right, say that you want to teach a new product sales strategy that can help in your appointment setting campaigns, but you do not have the time for it. Indeed, you may not have complete information about it. In cases like these, it is best for you to seek the help of professional marketers who can push your business further. Outsourcing is not a bad idea. You just have to make sure that you are working with the best people for the job.