B2B Appointment Setting and Lead Generation – Is it Worth It?

If you fully understand the benefits and how these systems work then the odds are you have tried, or will try these systems yourself. Most commonly the industries that benefit from lead generation and appointment setting services are industries that specialize in insurance, banking, healthcare, information technology and the financial field. For a fee, the service will implement programs that produce an endless supply of extremely qualified appointments that will allow sales executives to focus their energy on serious, ready to buy prospects as opposed to wasting time with non decision makers or people that are not interested in their products and services.
 

In a nut shell lead generating programs are systems the reach out to individuals or businesses to solicit inquires, create interest and collect contact information. If you have ever completed a form to win a vacation or prize you probably opted yourself into one of these programs. You commonly see forms like these at trade shows, malls and restaurants.

The bottom line is sales professionals love nothing more than to wake up each to their inbox stuffed full of hot, ready to buy leads. They understand that cold calling is a waste of their time and hinders their ability to make money.

One of the most effective and easy ways that experts use to create leads is by creating websites or partnering them. This lets them market products and services to potential buyers who will complete a short online form describing their needs and entering all of their contact information. Because it's online it generally gives the consumer the feel of being in control and not being sold.

Other highly effective forms of lead generation include telemarketing, broadcast advertising, direct mail and seminars. Though broadcast advertising and direct mail are more or less forms of shot gun marketing they can create a ton of leads in a very short period of time. Seminars or training sessions are sometimes a great to build trust and confidence by establishing expertise in a specific subject and field. Both inbound and outbound telemarketing systems have proven to be some of the most powerful and most affordable ways of generating leads on an ongoing basis. The only downside is that you will not get a massive response all at once, but in long run you would likely get more leads for less investment.

Of course b2b lead generation services and appointment setting services could be done internally but there are a number of reasons that business owners prefer to outsource it. For starters, conversion rates of warm leads will far outperform any cold call. Additionally buyers can negotiate the prices they are willing to pay for leads and request very specific types of leads, such as the number of employees or a monthly budget. What's most appealing to the buyers is that they may only need to pay for the leads that they actually receive which makes it easy to determine if there will be a good ROI. Saving time from tedious mind numbing cold calling is just as important, and in some cases more of a driving reason why people prefer to outsource.

Some businesses use this as their only marketing strategy and have claimed that it can outperform television, radio and print marketing campaigns. To know for sure if this type of service is right for your business you can test it with most providers without a contract of any serious commitment. One thing for sure, you can't survive in business without some type of successful method of finding new customers.
 

Posted in: Sales