Choosing an appointment setting service partner is a big deal. It means giving up some control in order to use external expert talent so your sales team can gain efficiency and increase effectiveness.
So should you consider partnering with an appointment setting service for your business? There are three questions you should ask yourself:
1. Do you understand your target market?
Understanding your prospects in an intimate way is essential for setting up a successful campaign with an appointment setting service partner. Do you know where they work, what they do, who they hang out with, and how they make decisions? This type of information is imperative to not only your success but the success of an appointment setting partnership.
If you don't understand your target market before partnering with an appointment setting service, it may not be the right approach for your organization. While it's true that an appointment setting service can help you hone in on your target market niche, it's probably not the most cost-effective approach. Instead, work with your marketing team to really uncover your buyer personas and then work with an appointment setting service to add a jolt to your sales funnel activity.
2. Are your prospecting systems/tools working well now?
Most businesses consider the use of an appointment setting service as a means to increase the number of leads their sales team is following up with. However, the best appointment setting partnerships start with an already effective prospecting approach.
When considering ways to increase productivity you have to look at what your current sales representatives are doing. Are they spending time really prospecting, digging in and being very intentional about your target market? If they are, now consider how much of their time they spend doing that? If that number is higher than you want but you’re seeing results then the good news is you probably have a prospecting system in place that can be duplicated and passed off to someone else, keeping your team filled with appointments, focused on closing new clients and bringing in revenue.
3. Does your sales team have a great close rate?
Often times, organizations reach out to appointment setting services to help fix their closing problem. Unfortunately, these types of services will not fix that and should not be a reason for working with an appointment setting service. Their job is to set quality appointments, but your sales team's job will continue to be closing deals.
On the other hand, if your sales team does have a great close rate, this would be the perfect scenario for working with an appointment setting service. These services offer expert prospectors and will help fill the top of your funnel, allowing your team to do what they do best, and spend time closing new business.
So should you consider working with an appointment setting service? Answer the three questions above as honestly as possible and you'll determine if it's best to partner with an appointment setting service now or not. Keep in mind that the answer could easily change as your internal team grows.