When you sell a complex product or service, getting dedicated time with potential decision-makers is essential. But, convincing B2B and medtech sales prospects to share their valuable calendar time with your team can sometimes seem like a minor miracle.
Add in travel, holidays, time zones and other factors, and finding a single 30-minute meeting time gets even more complicated.
Outsourcing sales appointment-setting helps. You work with a team focused exclusively on contacting your target audience, clarifying their needs and setting up sales-ready appointments. Your internal team spends less time on administrative activities and more time selling. It’s a win-win situation that helps organizations large and small achieve their sales goals.
Common challenges with sales appointment-setting
Business development reps tasked with securing sales appointments must overcome a number of challenges in order to achieve their goals.
These include:
- Navigating phone trees and corporate systems to identify the right decision-makers
- Making enough outreach attempts (via phone and email) to get a buyer’s attention
- Presenting a compelling value proposition that shows your audience it’s worth their time to meet
- Qualifying potential attendees so high-powered sales reps work with top prospects
Once you’ve got an appointment on the calendar, there’s still one more hurdle to cross: making sure your target buyer actually shows up a the designated date and time. In the era of virtual meetings, no-shows are a regular occurrence.
Win more sales appointments with these techniques
To do well with sales appointment-setting, follow these best practices.
Avoid being pushy
Have you ever said “yes” when you really meant “no”? Pushing your product too hard, rather than being authentic and helpful, can do lasting damage.
An overly pushy call tactic can result in unqualified appointments—prospects who agree to a next meeting, just to end the conversation. Instead, listen and ask questions about the prospect’s day-to-day challenges. Then, let those answers guide which appointments you set. Only potential buyers with a current, active need and a genuine interest in learning more will be worth a meeting right now. Save the cooler leads for nurturing and additional follow-up.
Make enough call attempts
Studies show that many sales reps give up after three or fewer call attempts, when on average, six or more may be needed to connect with a busy decision-maker. If you’re tasked with setting qualified sales-ready appointments with B2B or medtech buyers, be sure you’re allocating enough time and resources to get the job done. If internal resources simply don’t have time, outsourcing to dedicated resources is the perfect way to add capacity and keep your calendars booked with sales meetings.
Use your time wisely
One of the most frustrating aspects of appointment setting can be the endless cycle of voicemails, text messages, emails and missed calls. These often result when your internal team has to juggle a full slate of meetings, product demonstrations, proposals, contract negotiations and other duties along with regular sales prospecting.
Having an outsourced appointment setting resource lets you work efficiently. Virtual tools and technology make it seamless to share information, communicate progress and even put appointments directly on digital calendars.
Only book meetings with decision-makers
It may be convenient to set an appointment through an assistant or subordinate, but too often, the ultimate decision-maker ends up canceling or skipping. Meeting with others in the company, without the decision-maker present, can also waste time and energy.
When your ultimate medtech or B2B decision-maker agrees directly to the sales appointment, there’s a far greater likelihood that they will actually show up. Speaking to your decision-maker beforehand also gives them a chance to contribute their ideas to the meeting agenda.
Use calendar invites and reminders
As soon as you both agree to the meeting, send a digital calendar invite to hold the appointment on your prospect’s calendar. This is the time to loop in the assistant who helps manage your decision-maker’s schedule. As the meeting nears, you send a reminder email—typically a day or two before the meeting. Avoid asking your decision-maker to “recommit” or confirm availability, but do be polite your contact requests a time change or reschedule.
Don’t send too much information prior to the call
Lastly, while it’s important for prospects to understand solution, don’t overload them with information before your sales appointment. Instead, follow up after the call with whitepapers, case studies, brochures or website links tailored to your decision-maker’s unique needs and challenges. This shows you’ve listened, understood and started to build rapport.
Outsource sales appointment-setting to medtech and B2B experts
At Volkart May, our appointment-settings services help medtech and B2B companies identify the right decision-makers, evaluate their interest in your product or service and generate warm leads for immediate follow up. We’ve got 30 years of experience and know how to achieve measurable results. Contact us to learn more.
