Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
The state of outsourced b2b appointment setting: Is this market rising, falling, or staying the same?
Best Answer
- Recommended by:
- Trevor Usken
Absolutely still a valuable part of the marketing mix - for the right product, the right price point, the right prospect, and with the right message. Keep in mind as well that not all outsourced appointment-setting services are equal. Choosing the right vendor to execute (and reflect/represent your brand) is the most important part of the planning process. The right partner will not only deliver better results, but also optimize the program in real-time with you, responding to what they're hearing every day on the phone to make the message and response stronger.
For a complex sale, sophisticated appointment-setters can be catalysts to your pipeline. That's been my experience.
Great question Craig!
From my experience, I would say that the market is rising. I can see why folks might think that because of high-tech demand gen models and lead management processes that maybe the market would be declining, or maybe flatlining, but I just don't believe that to be the truth. In any event, I'm not seeing it.
I think that at the end of the day, regardless of the marketing activity that an organization has going on for itself, someone needs to actually talk with prospects. Outsourced appointment setting, or teleprospecting, should continue to be a part of people's marketing spend because of that fact. Regardless of whether or not the lead comes from an inbound marketing effort, someone should be qualifying those opportunities for sales. If someone is going to be qualifying for sales, certainly part of their time should be spent trying to find new opportunities through teleprospecting/appointment setting. I haven't yet had the chance to work with a client who had SO much inbound activity that they didn't need to think about reaching out to a targeted cold call list, but maybe I just don't have enough on the job experience.
Now granted, I'm obviously biased here in terms of thinking that people need to have an outbound teleprospecting effort as a spoke of their marketing/sales wheel, but I only have the slant to teleprospecting that I have because I know it works.
I absolutely agree with the comments so far, though I am not as big a fan of appointment setting as some given the relatively spotty track record clients and prospects have experienced. They key is a mix of media. Emails, voicemails, telephone calls and even some direct mail should be used at the right time in the sales process. The right information by the right individual delivered to the right decision-maker at the right time works. Delivering multi-touch, multi-media, multi-cycle campaigns is critical in any economy - particularly critical in more difficult economies. Read: Ten Actions Executives Should Take Immediately to Drive Revenue - http://tinyurl.com/ycvvatq
Although this is simply my gut, I think the tide is rising for outsourcing. Resources are our most precious commodity and many high tech companies have gotten on the inbound marketing bandwagon with internal demandgen teams to convert inquiries to opportunities.
But, not all of them have the incremental resource needed to still do targeted outbound calling which is not going away folks no matter how much inbound koolaid we drink! Filling that outbound gap is where a great vendor can step in and give a big assist with pipeline development. The beauty of using a vendor is that once you have developed an effective relationship with them, they are resource that can ebb and flow based on your requirements.
Net/net, yes I see outsourced appointment setting and/or leadgen continuing to florish.
Craig, your question poses a moral dilemma for me.
Why? Because even though I run an appointment setting business I really want this forum to be a healthy exchange of knowledge and wisdom amongst a tribe with a common interest. I may be wrong, but have we only heard from vendors (admittedly like me) so far? Where are the folks you posed your question to? Where are the marketing people who are making these decisions? I would love to learn from their wisdom.
Now I have ranted, my real dilemma is that I (sheepishly) have something to say.
Our new business growth has dropped substantially this year. And yet, our appointment setting rates have almost doubled. Our last five projects averaged 28% conversion rates targeting banking, higher education and medical device manufacturers. Do you know that executives are increasingly saying yes to appointments?
Why the disconnect between marketers using outsourced appointment setting and its effectiveness? Did I just open up a can of worms? Hope so.
We are seeing a slight increase, overall, in appointment setting budgets but are seeing less marketing dollars flow into this service from an average spend standpoint. The primary reason we believe this to be (outside of the obvious internal budget and staff cuts) the case is that a large amount of organizations are looking at approving their lead management process and looking at tools to deal with the inundation of leads they have received from some of the 2.0 marketing tools and appointment setting/lead generation firms they have already been working with. We have been told that it is a sort of “prospect sprawl” that has crept within their organizations and before they go out and spend more money on new prospects they are cognizant of investing in enhancing the leads they have already generated from previous efforts. With that said, we believe from speaking with a few specific customers that appointment setting is and will continue to be a best practice for most marketing organizations; specifically field marketing leaders who need to support a sophisticated sales organization within a complex selling environment. One high-tech business process outsourcing client has dramatically increased their appointment setting spend lately because it dovetails perfectly to support four specific new national marketing programs that they have had sitting on the sideline for the past six months that are finally being moved from concept to reality.
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
Related Activity
One simple answer: Selling doesn't start until a sales person is talking to a prospect.
Call it what you want, source the lead from many sources, but someone has to set that first appointment. It can be an internal team, the sales reps themselves, or an outsourced appointment setting vendor.
Outsourced appointment setting is done for many reasons. It's the perfect complement to inbound programs, accelerating pipeline, specific targeting, executive level programs, product and starting the sales cycle further down in the funnel. It is typically done in a performance based model, or some combination thereof, so the program ROI is predictable.
The vendors that specialize in outsourced appointment setting are exactly that..."specialists". They have adapted to prospects not answering their phones as much. They have adopted new technology and new strategies. They have perfected a craft, a methodology and a playbook that works, and they are hired to deliver -- the good ones usually do.
I used to always sign my blog articles, "get in front of your prospect, then start selling." That seems to be apropos to this discussion, and probably why I know several marketing technology/service providers (we would all call experts in their field) that use outsourced appointment setting as one of their preferred programs in their own marketing mix. It's all about the "mix".
ps. I've written several appointment setting articles on Focus. Hope you find them useful.