B2B marketing is one of the most stressful and fast-paced business interaction formats today. The stability of sales of modern companies directly depends not only on the ability to win over a client but also on a complete understanding of the benefits that they see when they are interested in your offer.
The correct implementation of the appointment setting is undoubtedly one of the key factors in stabilizing and increasing sales. It is much more than just a call. It is a complex and multi-level process of interacting with a qualified sales lead in order to educate the client in the right way and get them closer to making an appointment. Thereafter, the transaction can already be referred to a professional sales representative for closing.
The obvious advantages of a well-thought-out B2B appointment setting that help promote your business include:
- You save invaluable time. Let’s say you have pre-screened potential customers who already know about the products and services you provide. This means that you can safely proceed to close transactions without observing the necessary formalities.
- You boost conversion. Appointment setting helps us present the benefits of working with us to potential clients. The likelihood that they will drop out of our sales funnel is minimized.
- You improve targeting. We educate key B2B decision-makers in accordance with their goals and needs. Thus, we get more information about a potential client to conclude a deal.
Qualifying Leads For B2B Appointment-Setting Success
Lead qualification is the process of interacting with a client that allows you to determine if it matches your target client profile, as well as to find out if they have the potential to become your long-term customer. The process is based on a conversation with a potential customer, the main purpose of which is to determine the ability and willingness of the lead to buy your products or services.
The importance of qualifying leads cannot be overlooked. This process helps determine which of the sales leads is your fitting client. Neglecting this point, your sales representatives will spend a lot of time on non-promising clients.
Surely, before starting qualifying leads, it is very important to establish the first contact with the client. An email newsletter is one of the most popular channels today. However, due to the spam checker, more than 51% of emails end up in the client’s spam folder, which can nullify all your endeavors at the start.
Thankfully, we have super software for email deliverability for you, designed to help you avoid blacklists and email spam checkers. Folderly can ultimately help you boost profits and save lots of extra marketing expenses!
Sometimes, in order to significantly save time and achieve active sales in the shortest possible time, many business representatives resort to the services of appointment setters companies. They are able to provide high-quality appointment setter services due to the huge variety of previously made decisions in the implementation of ambitious projects.
What is a qualified sales lead (SQL)?
Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) are customers who are identified by the marketing and sales teams as sales leads with high transformation potential.
Your new potential client demonstrates SQL status if they:
- frequently visits pages representing your products or services for a certain period of time;
- responds to your calls to action during the drip campaign;
- performs specific actions that, in accordance with your statistics, were typical of other customers before making a purchase.
However, at the time of handover to sales, SQL is not always ready to buy a product or service. Having a complete client profile (their characteristics, needs, financial resources, and status in the company), the sales department continues to interact aimed at closing the deal.
When the marketing department transfers a customer to the SQL category, it means that it has done all the necessary work and determined the customer’s readiness for sales, and the sales department supports this solution and continues to advance the potential buyer through the sales funnel.
What are MQL and SQL?
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a customer who interacts with your company but shows little interest in solving their problem through your product or service. In this case, the probability of converting MQL to SQL is quite high.
For a more complete picture, imagine a customer who has looked at a specific list of resources to solve their problem and stopped at your page. Then they find the product that interests them but still leaves your resource. At this stage, they are already a lead. They have a problem and they are looking for information to solve it, and your company is right there to help.
After a while, the person returns to the resource in order to get the product and leaves you their name and email. However, do not rush to transfer it to the MQL category and move on to the phase of active sales. It’s better to spend some time educating and informing the lead to learn more about the lead. By getting to know the lead better, you will have more opportunities to provide the client with the most suitable product.
How to Qualify B2B Leads
Many companies traditionally use the BANT method for qualifying sales leads and it suits them. However, it is better to set minimum qualifiers in order to increase the number of negotiations. To move the negotiations in the right direction, it is necessary to train sellers on how to take the initiative using multiple qualifiers.
A successful lead qualifier process must include:
- Searching and collecting data. The correct selection process always starts from a reliable list of potential customers. As a rule, it is conducted by one of the professionals who bears full responsibility for this stage. In their work, they use various search tools (such online databases as Data.com, LinkedIn, Prospect.io, etc.). The main goal is to collect as much useful information as possible. Klean Leads can help you gather this important information such as the email addresses of your prospective clients.
- Using clarifying questions. These questions help to determine the buying profile of a potential customer, its relevance to your product or service, as well as its ability and willingness to buy.
- Using survey questions. These questions are appropriate to ask when your prospect has proven that they meet your minimum standards. They allow you to reveal the characteristics of the client’s company and thereby improve their qualifications and turn them into a regular customer.
Lead scoring
To determine which Business to Business leads perform best, you need to evaluate them. This way, you will be able to find potential clients based on who you see in them – from “future” to “nurturing” client. Design your scoring system to help sales reps remember and prioritize them.
How to score leads?
Identify important metrics. Which ones are positive.
For instance:
- Company size;
- Company’s area of operation;
- Company’s level of profits;
- Company’s location, etc.
Evaluate the essence of each component and check the appropriate mark whenever you find indicators that are beneficial to you.
Develop a scorecard. Which ones are positive and which ones are negative according to your criteria. Choose only those that are convenient for you and your team, and then assign the appropriate score.
Create multiple customer portraits. It is important to understand that the hive mind is not your target audience. Different groups of buyers have their own priorities and behavior patterns. By including these buyers in your research, you will definitely get leads from every segment.
Set the curve. Based on the system you created, set a numerical criterion that means, for example, “ready to go”. This threshold allows your marketing team and sales representatives to avoid false starts and avoid unnecessary consequences.
Bottom Line
We hope the above clarifications, recommendations, and pro tips help you achieve the most efficient leads qualification process possible. The major thing in all of this is to, of course, treat customers with utter respect and value – you will discover the very subtle specifics of their buyer’s persona once you truly get interested in their individual goals, needs, and desires.