Boosting your company’s conversion rates starts with improving the quality of your leads. You can accomplish this through focused appointment setting, so that each salesperson speaks with potential clients who are already warm leads. A good appointment setter is an invaluable part of the sales cycle, but often, your new appointment setter can only be as good as your onboarding process. Today, we’re offering insight into how to onboard a new appointment setter.
Best Practices for Onboarding a New Appointment Setter
You can follow a simple, step-by-step process to introduce your new hire to your company’s products and services, explain how to present the features and benefits to new customers, and close the call with an appointment.
Establish a Consistent Onboarding Program
Start by defining the responsibilities of your appointment setter, including a job description, effective communication between the appointment setters and the sales team, and suggested verbiage. Many companies organize a binder for their new hires so that appointment setters have neatly organized information about each of the company’s products and services at hand. You can also create an appointment setter onboarding presentation that contains this information.
The First Day
On the first training day, warmly welcome your appointment setter and introduce them to the other team members they’ll work with. If you have outsourced appointment-setting representatives or remote workers in different time zones, then let them know who they can reach out to at different times for support or questions.
Next, go over the basics, like the characteristics of the target customer they’ll be talking to, your company culture and core values, and the type of CRM systems your company uses. Many companies have training modules that the new hires can complete on their own, moving on to the next one once they’ve mastered the previous skill.
Establishing a Solid Training Plan
Qualified lead generation starts with comprehensive training. Teaching a new appointment setter how to determine which leads are more likely to convert and which ones won’t means saving time and allowing them to move on to the next potential customer.
Many appointment setters work off a script. Giving your new setters talking points to hit during the conversation can help them more confidently explain your company’s value to a potential customer and answer questions with authority.
Presentation of the company’s customer relationship management policies is critical so that the new appointment setter knows how to properly enter information about new customers for your sales team and where to find information about past customers. Often, the only communication between the appointment setter and the sales manager is through the CRM or other online platforms. Teaching your team to consistently enter new customer data and include plenty of information improves the salesperson’s chances of closing the sale.
Finally, the training plan should also include enough information about the products or services your company offers so that your appointment setter can introduce those that a potential client is most likely to need. They should be able to properly pronounce everything, too.
Getting Your Appointment Setter Comfortable with the Process
The next step of your appointment setter onboarding is to role-play how they will schedule appointments. The trainer plays the role of the potential customer, and the appointment setter plays themselves. The trainer can start by letting the new hire identify the customer’s pain points and get comfortable introducing the products. Then, the trainer can ask questions, so your new appointment setter has the opportunity to show their knowledge of the company’s goods or services.
Once your new hire is comfortable introducing the features and benefits of your products, then you can make the role play more challenging. The trainer can make common objections that your appointment setter may hear, like “Why should I switch vendors?” or “I’m not sure I can afford it.” This is where the trainer teaches the appointment setter how to overcome objections, at least until they agree to an appointment with the salesperson for more detailed follow-up.
Your company script should include common objections a potential client may have and talking points to help overcome objections. The script or talking points should also contain your company’s unique value proposition, something that a client may not have considered, or how your company is the only one qualified to meet all their needs.
Going Live in Shadow Sessions and Providing Feedback
Once your appointment setter is comfortable with the role-playing, you can have them “go live” while you listen in, providing feedback to help them improve their performance. You’re also able to answer questions if they get stuck. Make sure to provide open communication and actionable feedback to help them improve their performance and conversion rates.
The Benefits of Outsourced vs. In-House Appointment Setter
Many companies opt for outsourced appointment setting instead of hiring an in-house employee. One of the primary benefits of using a professional appointment-setting service is that the training is already done for you. Your company has access to fully-trained, confident appointment setters, people comfortable talking to many different customers, and people who understand how to present your company in a way that promotes more qualified leads.
Outsourced appointment setting may be more cost-effective for your company, as you simply pay for the services and not the other costs associated with employment. You can save even more time as the outsourcing company takes the burden of hiring, onboarding, and training off your plate. This arrangement frees you to concentrate on your business without the need to personally handle these tasks.
You may also have access to specialized talent with a background in certain kinds of software or specific types of industries. This can be invaluable for companies that provide specialized services, as the appointment setter “speaks the language” of the potential customers.
Outsource Your Appointment Setting Services
Do you need better-qualified leads for your sales team? Is your conversion rate lower than it should be? A qualified outsourced appointment-setting service could be the answer. At PEAK Outsourcing, we do intensive training and assessments for appointment setters, so you don’t have to. Our professionals learn your company’s value proposition and the unique details about your products and services to set appointments with quality leads for your sales team. Contact us today to learn how we can help you save time and make more money with outsourced appointment settings.
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