What Is B2B Appointment Setting? (Plus Importance and Tips)

B2B appointment setting is a component of the lead generation and sales cycle. In this phase, sales representatives or external team members go through contact lists, qualify leads and schedule appointments with interested buyers to close a deal. If you work in sales, marketing or a related field, learning how to set B2B closing appointments successfully could help you excel in your job duties. In this article, we discuss the definition of B2B appointment setting, explore its importance, describe how to complete it and provide tips to guide you in the process.

What is B2B appointment setting?

B2B appointment setting is the process of scheduling an official meeting between a qualified sales lead and a closer. This occurs in B2B or business-to-business interactions. Sales representatives can plan these appointments to continue the relationship with a prospect and move them through the lead cycle. In this meeting, sales representatives can provide customers with more detailed information about a product or service, draw up contracts and make the final sale. Appointment setting acts as the stage between the initial prospecting phase and the final closing meeting of the lead generation process.

Here's a description of each phase:

• Prospecting: This is the process of finding prospects, typically by performing basic research, building contact lists and making initial calls from the list. These lists usually have names, phone numbers, emails, job titles and companies of potential customers who may be interested in buying the product or service the B2B business provides.

• Appointment setting: During the appointment setting process, sales reps may have multiple meetings with prospects to foster rapport with them and screen them based on a list of criteria. They then determine a date and time with the lead and send the lead to meet in an official appointment with a closing sales rep, who can work with them to draft and implement a final sales proposal.

• Closing the deal: During the closing appointment itself, the closing sales rep can work with the interested buyer to answer any last-minute questions and encourage them to sign the final contract. Sometimes, the sales rep and buyer may discuss buying and closing terms and have another meeting to complete the actual contract signing.

Sales teams can complete appointment setting themselves or outsource the work to an external appointment setting agency. There are many services available that can represent a company to prospects and qualify leads for a business. This way, sales representative s can interact with only the most interested buyers, spending their energy on answering specific questions and closing a sale. Appointment setting may happen through different channels, such as a phone call, email or social media message.

Related: 5 Ways To Increase Your B2B Sales Effectiveness

Why is B2B appointment setting important?

B2B appointment setting is important because it helps sales teams streamline and optimize the lead generation process. This can lead to an increase in the number of sales and an improvement in revenue for the business. Here are some benefits of B2B appointment setting:

• Enables sales specialization: By splitting up the lead generation process into phases and delegating tasks to different employees or teams, you can gain the benefits of sales specialization, where team members practice and get better at their distinct, specialized roles. In this system, each employee completes the work at which they excel based on their interests and skills, and some representatives conduct prospecting and appointment setting while others perform closing.

• Saves time and effort: It can take time and effort to generate leads and pursue those leads by making phone calls, sending email messages and implementing other communications. By narrowing down the lead pool into the most qualified, enthusiastic and high-value candidates for a product or service, salespeople can save time and effort talking to prospects and increase efficiency in the closing process.

• Increases employee morale: If a company outsources cold calling and appointment setting to an agency specializing in those activities, this can help increase employee motivation and morale during the sales and closing process. This is because salespeople can focus their time, energy and efforts on talking and building lasting relationships with buyers who are actually interested in the business' product or service, having more enjoyable conversations.

• Provides a better experience for the customer: Interested customers typically want to gain more information about a product or service from a sales rep that has a depth of knowledge and experience. By guiding customers through the prospecting, appointment setting and closing system, sales teams can make sure there's always someone to answer the basic and more intricate customer questions, which can lead to high customer satisfaction and loyalty rates.

• Fosters a strong customer relationship: Between prospecting and final sale, appointment setting is a key opportunity for sales reps to get to know customers, express the value and features of products and services and form relationships. It's essential that those in this phase can build powerful foundations so that closing sales reps can make sales easily and customers may want to support companies in the future.

Related: What Is Lead Generation and How To Generate Leads in 3 Steps

How to do B2B appointment setting

With the proper planning and collaboration between a sales team, conducting B2B appointment setting can be a simple and helpful process. Here's how to do so in six steps:

1. Conduct research

The first step to B2B appointment setting is to form a contact list and conduct research on all potential leads. This involves identifying the target market of the business and finding audiences that may be interested in buying the product or service. Then, after creating a contact list with names and information for each lead, you can research the leads online. Some common sources to do this are company websites, social media profiles and industry blogs. Learning this information can help you create custom sales approaches.

It's also important for anyone in the sales chain to have at least a basic understanding of the value and features of the product or service, so they can explain it to potential customers. Sales reps can research the product or service by exploring the company website and talking to colleagues and supervisors. They may be able to find even more specific and detailed information by consulting the product development and management team of the business.

2. Make initial calls

During the prospecting phase before appointment setting, sales reps can reach out to leads on the contact list and introduce themselves and the product or service. Many companies use software to automate repetitive processes like dialing and choose which prospects to call next based on factors like time of day, number of previous attempts and lead status. The prospecting phase is also called the discovery phase, as those in this role gather basic information about the leads by asking thoughtful questions.

Related: 7 Sales Pitch Techniques With Examples

3. Screen prospects

Screening, qualifying and grading prospects are some of the most important components of the lead generation process, as it's essential that sales reps only send the most qualified leads onto the appointment setting stage. During this stage, sales reps can find the decision-maker or the person at a company with the authority to make purchases. Sales reps may speak with many people before finding the right decision-maker.

Screening also involves checking if the company has the need, ability and interest to buy the product or service. The screening process can take multiple appointments across channels. The goal of this stage is to determine if a prospect is a sales opportunity and to create a strong foundation for making a sale.

4. Schedule an appointment

The primary part of appointment setting is scheduling the actual meeting, and sales reps can do this by using CRM, call management and scheduling software. It's helpful if the software is cloud-based, so sales reps can view and add to sales team member calendars from any time and any place. Make sure you know the availability of the closing sales team members in advance so you can establish the proper time and date for the meeting. You can also send an invitation to both the prospect and sales rep so they can confirm the appointment.

Read more: How To Schedule a Meeting by Email

5. Communicate with the sales rep

Before the meeting, it's helpful to communicate with the sales rep any relevant information about the prospect you've learned in your conversations with them. This ensures the sales rep has information they can use in their closing sales meetings. They can build a custom pitch or demonstration tailored to the needs and interests of the prospect.

6. Measure results

Upon setting appointments, it may be a good idea to examine how well this specific phase worked. This could involve gaining feedback from sales representatives, supervisors, customers and other stakeholders. For example, customers may provide their perspective on how well they liked the scheduling software the company uses. The feedback from sales reps may be that they appreciate more information about potential clients before closing meetings. Feedback can be extremely helpful in understanding the advantages and disadvantages of a process. You can use this information to refine your appointment setting strategies.

Related: What Are the Best KPIs for Sales? 25 Examples of Impactful Sales Metrics

Tips for B2B appointment setting

If you're looking for a way to optimize your sales workflow, consider trying to integrate B2B appointment setting. Here are some tips for how to conduct this phase of lead generation successfully:

• Track information: When working toward any goal, such as implementing B2B appointment setting, it can be helpful to track information and monitor your progress toward the goal. This can allow teams to review the success of a lead generation cycle by assessing sales and other metrics.

• Develop interpersonal skills: It's critical that sales team members have strong interpersonal skills to connect with prospects, hold engaging conversations, form friendships and build trust. If they can communicate well, empathize thoughtfully and even use humor, they can get to know the needs and concerns of leads and sell products or services that actually benefit the professional and personal lives of customers.

• Learn how to solve problems: Through learning about, developing and practicing the appointment setting process, sales team members can refine their craft and become better at the sales process. For example, they might learn how to deliver their sales pitch perfectly, handle common objections effectively and describe products and services clearly and concisely.

• Consider outsourcing to an appointment setting service: Investing in an appointment setting agency can be an excellent decision for many B2B businesses, as it enables sales teams to focus their efforts on closing deals and generating revenue. Professionals at these types of agencies may have experience with your type of industry and customer base and are typically highly trained in generating and nurturing leads and sending qualified candidates to closing sales reps.

• Use a multi-channel strategy: Connecting with customers through different channels and platforms, such as phone calls, email and social media messages, can be an effective way to express reliability and build trust with them. Salespeople can benefit from being adaptable to the communication-related needs, preferences and abilities of different customers.

• Follow up with prospects: A key component of successful appointment setting is following up and staying in contact with the prospect at regular intervals. It's especially important to call, message or meet with prospects at the exact date and time you plan, as this can show them your care and attention for their time.

• Choose the right time for outreach: Pay careful attention to the best time of day or week to reach your prospects, as it's very possible they could have strict and busy schedules. When setting an appointment, let your lead choose a date and time that works well for them.