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Quality sales appointments take time, and if outbound callers are goaled on numbers rather than quality, chances are they will achieve neither.

1. Quality Data: So the first key to appointment setting is the data you will be using. Where did you get it? Has it been cleansed, or is a purchased list that you hope is not out of date and relevant to your offer. You don't want to hear,"No, we don't do that anymore and the guy you asked for died 3 years ago." So don't pick up the phone until you've cleansed your data.

2. Pre-campaign Briefing: Successful B2B Lead Generation requires a solid briefing for those who will be making the appointment setting calls. They need to know what benefit the prospect will accrue from your offer. The fact that you need to make sales targets is of no concern to the prospect. What is of concern is how you can solve a problem they have, or increase their revenue.

3. Call Control: In Football, ball control is the key to scoring goals and winning matches. Success in appointment setting and winning business is call control. To achieve this, the agent should be asking open questions that develop the conversation and gets the prospect talking about themselves and their challenges. This is where most calls fail in lead generation UK. Unless the prospect is talking 75% of the time, you have lost control of the call, and quite possible been backed into a corner and left to fight from a defensive position. Does this appointment setting pitfall sound familiar?

4. Developing Pain & Gain: As part of the questioning process, it is essential to make the prospect feel the pain they experience when something doesn't go right. Ask about it with questions such as," So how does it impact production when you have to stop so often to degrease the machine?"
Once you've put the knife in and twisted it, comeback with a gain related question, "How much more profit would you make, and how many more units could you turn out, if you had software that would automatically ensure there was no buildup of grease in the first place?" Both are open questions designed to elicit vital information giving you an open door to presenting your offer as a possible solution to their problem. It's about matching your offering to their needs and desires. And if you do that, why wouldn't the prospect ask for a sales appointment.

5. Knowing When to Close. After a certain point, there is usually an inverse relationship between the length of time you are on the phone with a decision maker and the likelihood of an sales appointment. The call is there to qualify the prospect as having a need or desire for your offering and piquing the decision maker's interest. Care needs to be taken so the call does not pre-empt the need for a meeting. Once you have established the pain & gain, close the appointment setting call with something along the lines of," Well Mr Jones, if I understand you right, you have pain in this area and you would really want gain in that area, it sounds as if there MIGHT be a way we can help you in both those areas, I have my sales director's diary open, how does Tuesday at 2:30 sound for the two of you to get together?"

There is actually a 6th key to B2B lead generation success and it's a word of caution. Never presume, based on an appointment making prospecting call that you can definitely give the prospect a solution to their problem. Use 'weasel' words' such as; maybe, possibly, depending on........ It shows a lack of professionalism being definite about something based on limited information.

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