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B2B Appointment Setting Done Right in Singapore

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B2B Appointment Setting Done Right in Singapore

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

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Appointment Setting Pointers to Live By

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.

The 3 Bs of Approaching B2B Appointment Setting Engagements with the Right Kind of Attitude

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The 3 Bs of Approaching B2B Appointment Setting Engagements with the Right Kind of Attitude

Business functions are not entirely automated in that they are run by machines alone. Rather, the people behind the operation make possible the success of every B2B lead generation and appointment setting endeavor.

With the preponderance of social media, marketers are leveraging every available means to maintain market activity and build a climate of awareness and trust. One’s appointment setting personnel are crucial to such goals, but some marketers still forget the importance of a motivated sales and marketing staff. On another note, it would help a lot if you know how to handle your prospects well enough. It requires skill and a good deal of investing for this to happen.

Actually, higher conversion rates can be attributed to having the right attitude in appointment setting.  Many marketers sadly are at a loss on the best possible strategies to approach B2B prospects.

Improving your lead nurturing infrastructure might be considered, but it all boils down to the way your appointment setters guide the discussion.

Here are ways to improve your appointment setting engagements and provide a nifty amount of high profile B2B partners.

Be vibrant. A closed B2B deal is enough motivation for you to ramp up your lead generation and telemarketing campaign. It is also a reason to feel enthusiastic and optimistic, qualities that are known to entice steadfast prospects. B2B conversations are mainly personal as much as they are professional. The goal after all is to “warm up” your leads and prepare them for a sales meeting, so you better need to let your prospects know that you’re their guy.

Be attentive. Wherever you are, having active listening skills punctuates healthy relationships. In B2B marketing, they are essential in achieving a high level of intimacy between you and your B2B partner. Appointment setting is where your prospect tells you about specific issues that he or she is facing. You take into account their insights and you present the solutions that you are willing to offer. Mutual discussions such as this are prerequisite to a long-term relationship.

Be assertive. Your industry demonstrates the prevailing concept of “dog-eat-dog.” Often, one is compelled to assert his or her position in the light of increasing competition. A certain level of aggressiveness has to be exerted, especially when you are engaging difficult prospects.

There you have it, the three B’s for optimizing your engagements with your clients. You might as well consider orienting your appointment setters and telemarketers on these important points. But it would also be a viable option to hire a firm that specializes in lead generation and appointment setting.

 

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.

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.

7 Factors To Remember When Outsourcing B2B Appointment Setting

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Before you decide to outsource your b2b appointment setting campaign to an appointment setting service provider, you have to take note of these 7 factors. Knowing these things about your BPO of choice is a must if you want your appointment setting campaign to be successful and ensure your ROI.

  • Efficient appointment setting quality controls – When setting appointments, not just any business lead will do. Good b2b appointment setting campaigns only contact high quality b2b sales leads which are already pre qualified from the initial lead generation process.
  • Source of the business list used for appointment setting – Bought lists can be used, but these tend to be sold to your competitors as well, which means your chances of finding qualified leads are slim. A good business list for appointment setting should be freshly sourced from organic searches.
  • Scheduling coordination between appointment setter and client – shared calendars such as Google’s are a good choice for coordinating sales and appointment setter schedules, but to ensure that every member of the appointment setting team and the client company is well-coordinated, CRM software that have scheduling tools are a better choice.
  • Script or content quality – just as expert b2b telemarketers use telemarketing scripts when cold calling b2b sales leads, good b2b appointment setters use scripts or content which have been tested before they are put into action on campaigns to make sure they deliver the desired results.
  • Pay for performance appointment setting or fixed rate – while both methods have positive and negative points, pay for performance appointment setting service providers can be quite unreliable. Fixed rate appointment setters offer more security for companies who want to outsource.
  • Reporting methods – knowing how a b2b appointment setting company reports about campaigns are important to make the most out of each campaign. To make reporting more specific to the data or information that a client wants to know, a CRM software containing all datas pertaining to the campaign that can be accessed by the client whenever and wherever he wants will make reporting completely hassle free.
  • Appointment setters previous campaign metrics – b2b appointment setting service providers should share feedback from previous client campaigns to allow prospective clients to gauge their ability to successfully set business appointments. The portfolio of the BPO firm should be easy to spot in their website, or they should be readily available should the potential client ask for it.

5 SMART Appointment Setting Goals For Your Next Campaign

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As with any campaign that your company that your company undertakes, your appointment setting campaigns need to have clear, SMART goals so that you can positive results. Setting up SMART appointments relies on proper coordination between sales and marketing people. The sales department need to keep the marketing team updated with news about the leads passed on to them, and the marketing people should inform the sales department whenever new effective lead generation strategies are used or when new market demographics are tapped. Otherwise these goals will remain ineffective.

Here are the 5 goal criterias to help you do a SMART appointment setting campaign.

  • Specific – Business appointments vary depending on which stage in the sales cycle your business leads are in. When b2b leads are not yet ready to purchase, sales people attending the meeting should be informed accordingly or else they might aggressively push for the  sale, and vice versa. Letting your sales reps know what to do before they get to the meeting will help them be more prepared and make your appointments more successful. Being specific also means setting appointments only with the people who can make the decision happen.
  • Manageable – Don’t send a new sales hire to close a potentially big deal or else you could lose a potential client. The selling skills of your sales people should always be taken into account when pairing sales representatives to b2b sales leads. Doing so will help them close more sales for your company.
  • Attainable – have your appointment setters schedule meetings only with business leads who have an obvious propensity to purchase. This means the potential clients should always be—as much as possible—high-quality b2b sales leads. Even if the need for your product is not yet apparent, as long as the business lead will truly benefit from your products and services, you can ask for an appointment. For example, a professional BPO company has a business lead who owns a fast-growing startup with ten employees. Although their prospect has not yet expressed a need for outsourced services, the BPO firm can have an appointment with them to discuss the benefits of outsourcing. So, when that business lead needs to outsource in the future, the BPO firm will have already established a relationship with them that they can advance forward.
  • Realistic Let’s say you hired a telemarketing company for their amazing b2b appointment setting campaign. As much as possible, your contract should require them to deliver only as much business appointments as your sales reps can cater too. Keep in mind their work and personal schedules so that neither of these two will overlap with the appointment of the new business lead.
  • Time-bound – When scheduling multiple meetings throughout the day, take into consideration the amount of time the sales representative would need for introductions, presentation, answering questions, and bargaining. Give your sales people enough time to spend on each client so that they can discuss matters more thoroughly. One more thing, unless you’ve hired professional b2b telesales representatives or some other online agent, allot enough time for the sales rep to travel to and from the meeting place.

The Truth about Appointment Setting

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by: Vaibhav Aggarwal

Appointment setting is important…you may agree or you may not, but the truth is that you cannot survive without appointment setting. What is appointment setting? It is about identifying prospects and then setting an appointment with him where your sales or marketing professionals can meet him personally.

You can find plenty of organizations offering b2b appointment setting services. You would need to give them a list of prospects and they will set an appointment with them for your sales and marketing people to meet personally. However, the truth of the process is far from what is generally believed and before contracting a consultant offering appointment setting services, you probably need to evaluate, “does this process actually lead to better sales performance?”

A lot of times appointment setting has turned out to be a misnomer, because a lot of b2b appointment setting service providers would simply start calling up your prospects without even having a true knowledge of what your company is offering and why the prospect would be interested in setting up an appointment. It happens in plenty of occasions that prospects agree for your sales professionals to meet, but many of the meetings do not end up bearing any fruit…interestingly, and some prospects even may not recall setting the appointment in the first place. Such unqualified appointments definitely add cost.

To make the most out of, say, IT and Software services appointment setting, you should ideally contract a company to whom you do not simply outsource your appointment setting services but one who provides sales solutions. Such a company would fill client forecasts and set important appointments, not halfhearted meetings. You should also make sure that their expert sales and marketing professionals can deliver the opportunities you would need to increase sales leads, correctly cover client markets, and add predictability and surety to prospecting.

Sales Appointment Setting: In-house or Outsource?

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by:  Brian Grinonneau

If you are running b2b appointment setting and lead generation services in-house, you may not be getting the full value from the money you spend on the effort.  That’s why some of the biggest companies in the world outsource some, or all of their call center functions to professional appointment setting firms. They help you make more money. Call center outsourcing vs. in-house call center activities:Great appointment setters usually want to work a full 40 hour week, and that is usually not affordable for most call centers. Performance suffers because of that either fewer appointments, or poor quality appointments. Appointment setting service companies pay full time professionals well enough to have great ones.

Appointment setters function much better when working on your project 2-4 hours a day, not 8. It becomes a case of diminishing returns.

Appointment setters talk to the right people at the right time. It isn’t about more calls its about meaningful conversations with qualified prospects, that turn into sales.

You need qualified sales appointments set for your staff not an unlimited number, but one that allows your sales professionals to present your offer, negotiate and close.

Provides a significant return on investment that is trackable.

Focuses on disqualifying poor prospects to maximize your closing ratio.

Allows you to do what you do best: close deals.

Drives new revenue without having to expand or provide additional office space, computers, telephones or employees.

Gives you the ability to have trained, skilled and experienced personnel to fulfill your call center needs with the ability to utilize appointment setting; phone sales; lead generation and lead qualifying; list and database scrubbing; database building; surveys; market research; seminar registration and fundraising.

If you have an in-house telemarketing department, you should run a test campaign with a sales appointment setting service. You will be pleasantly surprised with the outcome you’ll make more money in less time.

 

 

How To Choose An Appointment Setter For Your Business

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When choosing an appointment setter for your business, it is important to that their services are compatible with your company goals to develop to provide excellent customer service.

We all know that lead generation is important for a business to grow. It is also important to have a good system for contacting the leads to establish good relationship with them. Appointment setting services can help you manage your contacts, call them, deal with them and to set up a meeting.

To find new clients from those leads is not an easy task. It is absolutely impossible for a business owner to manage time and manpower to contact all those leads and make deals with them to do business. With B2b appointment setting, you can do all the tasks up to rescheduling and dealing with clients confusions about the set meeting.

Cost-Reduction

Outsourcing appointment setting services will not only help your business increase sales but it is also for cost-reduction and increase revenue. It will be much expensive if you plan to have your own appointment setting company. Training people and building the infrastructure will cost you a lot.

Double the Sales

B2B appointment setting services works like they are within your own company. They know how every product and services that you offer. They know how everything works. These will double the force of your selling system and increase sales output. They are expert in this field and able to make strategies that will work for your business.

To be noticed

Working with an appointment setter will not only increase your sales but will make you to be noticed by your prospects. There are different mediums that can be use nowadays like radio, TV, and online ads but business owners cannot be contented with them. They know that using the phone and talking to the potential customers is still the best.

What Appointment setting company to look for.

When working with an appointment setting services it is important that you work with a company that is already experienced and have good reputation. Check the companies that they have worked before. Look if they are effective like they said they are. Do not hesitate to ask questions. You must know how their calls are made, time they call, how many shifts and more. You might also want to know what other services they offer that can help your business grow.