Outsourcing Appointment Setting Services - Why Your Business Will Benefit

As mentioned outsourcing appointment setting services offers a variety of potential benefits to your company.  Accordingly, based on WHY you choose to outsource and WHAT function(s) you outsource will determine which benefits are most relevant and important to you.

1 – Outsourcing Appointment Setting Services Speeds Up The Sales Process

If your company’s direct sales personnel are setting their own appointments they could be spending more than 50% of their time generating leads and securing meetings with potential clients. Instead, by outsourcing appointment setting services, you can double their time spent in face-to-face or telephone meetings and increase the number of sales.   Additionally, when an outsourcing provider is generating appointments with pre-qualified decision-makers who are genuinely interested in your product or service, their job will be more successful and they will be more highly motivated.

Appointment setting requires calling lists and cold calling, which takes a lot of time and results in a high level of rejection and stress  Consequently, with a limited number of hours in the day, that means your expensive sales personnel are not focusing on closing the hot deals, improving your product, or helping customers.

Selling is an art and your company needs to have a sales team that knows how to handle the process from prospecting to closing the sale. Because there are different skill sets and experience required, your direct sales personnel will not likely master the seven processes of selling.

It is better to save time by outsourcing appointment setting services to a provider with personnel trained and experienced to follow the above process.  As a result, this makes better use of your company’s fixed cost sales personnel’s time and will save you time to speed up the sales cycle.

2 – Appointment Setting Keeps Your Sales Pipeline Full

Your company sales pipeline refers to the stages that your sales personnel go through to convert a prospect into a customer. Basically, it is a means to identify where things really are, in terms of sales, and what’s being done at each stage.

This is in contrast with your company sales funnel which reflects your buyer’s behavior. Simply put, your company sales funnel represents the actions they take that move them from awareness to making a purchase.

On the other hand, your company’s sales pipeline identifies the actions taken by your sales personnel. Accordingly, for your sales representatives, it is about getting the leads, qualifying them, and eventually closing the deal.

So, since your company sales pipeline starts with prospects that need to be found, then qualified, and then converted to leads (appointments), how does your sales personnel consistently do that? When they focus on lead generation, they are not closing deals. When they are closing deals they are not focusing on lead generation.  All in all, it is either feast or famine.

Both sales activities need to be done on a balanced, consistent basis. Also, as briefly discussed, there are different skill sets required for each type of sales activity. Consequently, your company sales personnel use their limited hours in a day focusing on closing immediate deals, working closest to the dollar. Likewise, outsourcing appointment setting services keep the sales pipeline growing with leads, while your internal sales resources keep focused on sales prospects most likely to buy.

3 – Appointment Setting Requires A Different Skill Set

It should be obvious that not all salespeople are built the same. Whereas some excel on the telephone, others thrive when meeting prospects, and some ACTUALLY enjoy the challenge of cold calling. Basically, if your company sales personnel don’t like or are not good at cold calling (required for appointment setting), then you simply SHOULD NOT make them do it. Because this is a very poor use of what is a high value, specialized company personnel resource.

Appointment setting requires gathering data, bypassing the gatekeeper, repetitive dialing, persistence, and other skills that most sales personnel dislike doing.  Rather, they want to shine in negotiations, close deals, and be the hero, not do drudge work.

Outsourcing appointment setting services can help achieve the best results versus an in-house solution. Because they employ professional telemarketers who cold call, skirt the gatekeeper, pre-qualify the decision-maker, and know the techniques to set appointments daily.

They have the training, experience, and mindset to consistently produce results. Accordingly, they will tell the prospect just enough to grab their attention and then suggest an appointment to expand further. Then, your sales personnel take over to close deals.  Basically, each should work together to leverage their specialized skill sets.

4 – Outsourcing Appointment Setting Services Increases Company Efficiency

Outsourcing appointment setting services allow your company to leverage the vendor’s resources and experience to increase the efficiency of operations.   Generally, there is a reduction in costs and increased quality versus investing in an in-house solution.

This should not be difficult to understand.  In brief, this is because the outsourcing provider’s investments in technology, training, and staffing cannot be justified by most companies.

Hiring, training, managing, and supporting a team of appointment setters is a major capital investment.  Also, it requires dedicated technologies to support hundreds of calls per day as part of an automated appointment setting process.

A dedicated appointment setting team, generating a steady stream of qualified appointments, is more cost-effective than using internal personnel.   Specifically, your marketing and sales personnel focus on converting qualified sales prospects to customers rather than searching and filtering.  Consequently, this improves your company’s sales process efficiency, resulting in more sales conversions and lowers the cost of customer acquisition.

5 – Outsourcing Appointment Setting Services Is Scalable And Cost Effective

Outsourcing appointment setting services is often cost-effective for companies with limited experience and sales/marketing resources.  Because appointment setting activities may be initially small (think pilot-project) requiring only a small budget and investment of resources.

Start-up time for appointment setting services is less than investing in an in-house staff.  Particularly considering recruitment, training, facilities, and technology acquisition.   Consequently, fast completion and review help determine whether outsourcing appointment setting services are cost-effective, producing the required business results.

The appointment setting services provider may offer a performance-based fee structure after completing the initial pilot project.  For example, your company costs may be a fee per qualified sales appointment or live transfer to your sales personnel.

An outsourcing appointment setting services company can scale their services according to the demands of your business and budget.  For example, let’s say you want to start with a small pool of prospects and gauge the results first. Then, you can broaden your outreach as they can scale up their services.  Unquestionably this flexibility is crucial for many start-ups, as cash flow is the biggest killer of new businesses.

In summary, outsourcing appointment setting services allows your company to manage costs, reduce risks and provides clear metrics of the results and return-on-investment.

DISCLOSURE: Nexus Teleservices is a Nearshore Outsourcing Appointment Setting Services business provider.

6 – Outsourcing Appointment Setting Services Provides Measurable Results

Do not be surprised if you do NOT have similar in-house data for comparison.