We all know that appointment setting is crucial.
But, it’s not as simple as looking for someone with a golden voice that can follow a script.
Lead gen isn’t that easy.
In this guide, we take a look at the most essential appointment setting skills that your next hire should have.
These also apply to closers, SDRs, and other people manning the phones in your organization, so place close attention.
If a prospective candidate has most of these skills, you’ve got yourself a rockstar.
Don’t let them go.
1. Lead Qualification Skills
Lead qualification appears in a lot of stages in the funnel
It usually starts with targeting your ideal customer profiles and can be subtly inserted into other prospect interactions like your landing pages.
If you’re using a high-conversion landing page then chances are you’ll limit the number of questions you’ll have on the intake form to ease the flow of new prospects into your pipeline.
This means that your primary line of lead qualification is either going to come from your sales discovery/triage or appointment setting call.
Basic scripts have lead qualification skills built into them, but there are also other techniques that your appointment setter can use such as BANT to prequalify leads.
Here’s what.
Lead qualification isn’t just about knowing if a lead has the resources or the interest to buy from your organization.
That’s easy.
Lead qualification is a process that allows a prospect to be matched to a specific solution that’s available from the organization and be given a lead score.
This way, the appointment setter can equip the next SDR in the chain with the right information so that they can ask the right questions to make the sale.
That’s the critical part.
The more information that an appointment setter can wring out of a prospect, the more information a closer has to work with and this usually leads to better results.
This is what the perfect appointment setting script template should look like.
2. Research
A great appointment setting skill to have is research.
They should be able to add to the information that they already have about a prospect during a call and even do research on the fly if a prospect asks them a question that they can’t answer.
You want someone on your team that has the initiative to take action and customize the way they speak to a prospect.
And, they can only do this through research.
Let say they’re trying to figure out what tone of voice to use, they can simply try to look up the prospect, check out how formal they conduct themselves on LinkedIn, and then take the appropriate actions necessary.
Research is an essential part of personalization, and it’s personalization that scores conversions especially in B2B markets.
3. Great English Skills
Appointment setting is the first touchpoint where a prospect gets to talk with someone from your organization.
You have to make a good impression.
Bad English skills have no place in appointment setting.
But, here’s the thing.
You don’t necessarily have to hire someone whose native tongue is English.
There are plenty of great English speakers from different countries, and if you have a remote team, you open yourself up to a large roster of people to pick from.
What’s important is:
- Grammar
- Conversation skills
- And, clarity
And, that brings us to another important point, which is…
4. Neutral Accents
Your appointment setters don’t have to sound like native speakers as long as they have neutral accents.
You want to avoid heavy accents because they don’t facilitate clear communications with your prospects.
However, it does help a little if your appointment setters sound like their prospects.
For example, if your prospects are from the UK, it would be detrimental if you put someone on that sounds like they’re from the States.
Here’s why.
People like speaking to people that are similar to them.
It’s a natural instinct to trust someone that sounds like you.
A lot of marketers sometimes assign native speakers to their phones, but you’ll find that many appointment setters from other remote parts of the world sound the same.
Find out how you can hire a bada** appointment setter on OnlineJobs.ph
5. Good Great Organizational Skills
Organized appointment setters aren’t just great candidates for promotion, but they’re the ones you need to make sure you’re getting real results.
An organized appointment setter will be able to track clients down the funnel, make sure that rescheduled appointments are pushed through, and even provide additional information to the closers.
They should also be able to update records in real-time as they learn more about their prospect and qualify them for the closers in the next stages.
But, that’s not all.
They should also be able to keep an agenda.
Not all organizations have 20-30 leads that they have to call in a day.
Sometimes that number can be in the 60s, 70s, or even the hundreds and they could be working in a team to achieve those goals.
You want someone that can keep their goals in check and make sure that they have a plan to tackle all the calls that they have to make during the day. This keeps their KPIs on track and makes sure that their department is running at organizational efficiency.
6. Analytical
Your next appointment setter hire needs to be analytical.
And, they can apply these skills in two ways.
With the Prospects
Analytical appointment setters can discern and understand what their prospect means by their reactions and replies.
Say the prospect hesitated while answering a question, this could translate to a variety of things. They could be hiding something, confused, or even facing a possible bottleneck in their organization. Whatever it is, an analytical appointment setter will notice it and might be able to flesh it out for the closer to work on.
However, this isn’t guesswork, they need to know what audio cues their looking at and which ones they should be acting on.
It doesn’t stop there.
Using the information in a prospect’s file, whatever they’ve gathered in the call, and how the prospect is reacting, they should also be able to piece together the bigger picture of the challenges that a prospect is facing.
With Their Results
Good appointment setters can analyze their overall progress and piece out what’s going well and what’s going south.
This is an important character trait because it allows them to identify ways of improving their performance.
They can take a look at changes in their batting rate, identifying patterns, and check for inconsistencies and possible causes.
Finding an appointment setter that’s self-aware is a big win for organizations because they are self-motivated and easier to guide.
If they can track their own progress, they can grow in the organization.
That’s personal growth hacking.
Remember the BAMF saying?
You can’t growth hack if you don’t track!
7. Tenacious
Flaky people are everywhere.
There will be prospects that bailout on sales discovery and triage calls.
There will be others who will keep rescheduling.
And, the rest will require more than 3 voicemails before they get the message.
These are difficult scenarios that require appointment setters to be tenacious.
You want an appointment setter that will be able to track prospects that keep rescheduling on them and keep going at it until they finally get to to the prospects.
Also, you want someone that can set up multiple voicemails messages and calls, until they finally get to their prospect.
Growth hackers have to understand that some clients are really hard to get ahold of, but they’re well worth it at the end of the day.
8. Sales Rejection
While we’re on the subject of tenacity, let’s talk about sales rejection.
There’s nothing wrong with getting rejected.
Nothing at all.
And, your appointment setter needs to be alright with that.
There are three factors that you should be on the lookout for that cover sales rejection:
How they handle their emotions
Rejection sucks, no matter if you’re used to it. How will they handle the next call after one-to-many rejections within the day?
You want someone who can bounce back and stay resilient, no matter what’s thrown at them.
What are they going to do with the leads that rejected them?
You can’t just discard leads, you can recycle them at a later date, learn from them, or even get a quick referral somewhere down the line. Find out what they’re planning to do.
How are they going to interact with the prospect after they get rejected?
Finally, we get to the most important part.
Remember, whether the call is successful or not, they are still leaving a lasting impression of the organization.
You’re looking for graceful individuals here who can end a call making the prospect feel good about themselves while maintaining the image of the brand.
9. Good Listener
Regardless if you have a script or not, your prospects and appointment setter are going to have a conversation.
It could be anything from light banter to a full-fledged conversation about how the pain points that a prospect is having in their organization.
And, the most important skill in any conversation?
Listening.
This is not just about staying quiet on the phone while the prospect speaks their heart out – that’s part of listening but that’s not what we’re driving at.
It’s about trying to understand where the prospect is coming from and learning about their organization in the process.
By doing this the appointment setter doesn’t just give better answers to questions, but they get to gather more actionable information that they can pass onto the closers in the funnel.
The thing is a lot of people listen to respond.
You don’t want that in an appointment setter.
A great appointment setter is someone who actually takes the time to understand the prospect’s needs.
The other great thing about listening is it’s key to good relationships.
People like to be heard because they feel important – special even.
You want the prospect to feel like they’re important the moment that they get into a call with you.
10. Quick Thinking
Not every conversation is going to follow the script, and these are conversations with your prospects that yield great results.
You need an appointment setter that’s quick on their feet and can come with answers on the fly, this leads to great conversations with a lot of rapport-building that lead to real connections.
Some prospects are going to want to chat o even ask questions.
They need to be prepared for these moments.
At BAMF, reading from the script is encouraged, but striking up a relationship-building conversation is the priority.
If your potential appointment setter doesn’t have great conversation skills. You end up with monotonous conversations that might put off potential clients.
11. Experience
Some people are just naturals on the phone, but that’s just “some” people.
Whenever you’re given a choice, always pick someone with experience.
Experienced appointment setters are quicker o their feet, and they can respond immediately to unanticipated questions from prospects.
Although, it’s perfectly fine for an appointment setter to defer a difficult question to their supervisor or get back to a prospect, answering questions on the fly is always a better customer experience.
Plus, it also shows a high degree of professionalism.
However, here’s the caveat with appointment setters, you don’t always have to hire someone with experience.
We’ve seen a lot of highly capable, non-experienced appointment setters move on to higher positions in their companies.
Make them do a practice run and ask if they’re willing to be trained.
Appointment Setting Skills Takeaways
The appointment setting position isn’t a minor one.
It’s critical.
It’s the first human interaction that a prospect has with your brand.
So you can’t just hire anybody.
You need to be absolutely sure that you have the right person for the job.
A lot of closers and bada** SDRs used to be appointment setters.
At the absolute minimum, they had all of these skills and plenty more to surprise their prospects with.
If you already have appointment setters and they’re missing some of these qualities, don’t panic.
There’s still a lot of time.
At least now, you know which areas they need to be trained in.
Leverage your appointment setting and take your growth to the next level.
Before you leave, check out the 17 questions to ask when hiring an appointment setter.
