Bridging the Gap Between Marketing and Sales with Appointment Setters

The secret to a successful sale in the managed IT services business are the steps that lead up to it. You’ve already been hard at work sending out emails, newsletters, press releases and more. You’ve gone the full nine yards to ensure your brand is out there, but the phones aren’t ringing as much as you want them to and your inbox is dry. Now what?

Well, you still have another major step to complete, and that’s where marketing and sales meet—appointment setting.

An appointment setter’s primary responsibility is identifying prospective clients and setting up an appointment. This gives your sales professionals the opportunity to identify the prospect’s needs and goals and how you can help them. But, the job of an appointment setter isn’t an easy one. Many people think all callers are the same—but college interns and professional callers are different animals. When it comes to getting through the gatekeeper—you need a seasoned professional with the right skills.

 

Here are the three key responsibilities of successful appointment setters:

Create an Efficient and Qualified List—To ensure your callers are not wasting time scouting out unqualified leads, it’s important to purchase a good, accurate prospect list that’s filtered based on your business criteria (desired vertical market, gross yearly revenue, length of time in business, etc.). The caller’s job is to update the information for accuracy and completeness after the call—including important details, such as contract expiration dates—to significantly increase the success of future conversations.

Have a Call Script—Keep everyone on the same page by using a call script. Your callers need to know what to say and how to say it in order to deliver a consistent message. Plus, it’s important to make the benefits clear right up front to give them a good reason to take time out of their busy schedule. Appointment setters are essentially one of the first voices your potential clients hear, so it needs to make a positive impression.

Timing Is Everything—No one wants to be blasted by phone calls, and one call might not be enough. Rather than overwhelming your prospects with all the information about your services in a single call, schedule to distribute your calls at times that work best for your audience.

 

Don’t Have Enough Hands to Make the Calls? Outsource to Someone Who Does.

MSP maintain busy schedules, so carving out time to make phone calls and set appointments isn’t easy. Plus, there’s nothing worse than losing a potential lead due to a scheduling mix up.

Outsourcing appointment setting to an IT marketing agency like Marketopia is a great option. Think of what a relief it would be to know all your calls are set up and handled in a professional manner. Also, by leveraging our appointment center, more calls can be made, creating more new appointments.

Above all, you’ll have more time to focus on your servicing existing clients and calling on qualified prospects. Hunting down leads is stressful and time-consuming. Check out what Marketopia CEO Terry Hedden has to say about appointment setting in this August ChannelProNetwork article. Then contact us to see how outsourcing IT appointment setters can make better use of your sales resources and accelerate growth.