Appointment Setter

As a business owner, you know that every minute counts. That’s why it’s important to have an appointment setter on your team – someone who can contact potential customers and book appointments for you. But how do you know if an appointment setter is a good investment for your business? And what should you look for when hiring one? Keep reading to find out!

An appointment setter is a member of a company’s sales team who contacts potential customers and tries to sell them on the idea of booking an appointment with one of the trained sales representatives from your business.

Since appointment setters usually start the sales process through cold calling, they tend to be very persuasive, outgoing, and chatty. They need to have what it takes to convince people that it’s worth their time to come in for a consultation or presentation.

An appointment setter virtual assistant (VA) is a remote or work-from-home appointment setter. Because of the nature of the job, setting appointments is a natural fit for remote work. That’s why a successful appointment setter for your company can easily be located offshore.

Virtual assistant appointment setters can do all the same things as a local appointment setter who works in your office. They can do cold calls, answer incoming calls, create a database of prospective customers or potential clients, and fill up the calendar of each sales representative in your company.

So how does the appointment setter get in touch with potential customers? Well, there are a few different options. First off, they can call existing satisfied customers, which is an established marketing strategy for many companies. These are excellent leads for sales teams because they are already familiar with your company.

Secondly, they can do cold calls to businesses in your niche. Some VAs specialize in one particular industry, such as real estate. This is a little more difficult because it would require someone who is self-motivated, results-oriented, and has a lot of patience, especially when dealing with rude customers.

Here are some of the most common tasks you can outsource to an appointment setter.

Cold Calling

Cold calling is one of the top tasks companies outsource to appointment setting VAs. Your appointment setter VA can make phone calls to potential customers from your list of contacts, schedule appointments, and record the results.

Set Appointments

You can give your appointment setter a calendar with dates that you or other sales reps are available and let your virtual assistant handle everything else, including setting up the appointment through email and confirming it via phone.

Database Building

For sales teams that work on various accounts, building a database of prospective clients is a vital task that can be outsourced to a virtual assistant. A successful appointment setter will have experience building databases from scratch and know how to segment different clients based on demographics, industry, potential value, etc.

Inbound Calls

Many online entrepreneurs and small business owners outsource the handling of incoming phone calls to their remote staff as well. It’s a great way to free up your own time and create more opportunities for your VA.

Send Reminders and Follow-Ups

If someone books an appointment with your business, you can use a virtual assistant to follow up with them before the date of their appointment. They will send out reminder emails and ensure that everything’s on track. This is a great task for your appointment setter because it requires follow-up skills, strong communication skills, and the ability to show initiative.

Sales and Lead Generation

If you want more leads, get a lead generation virtual assistant! Yo start, you can hire an appointment setter VA and give them a list of potential customers such as decision-makers at big firms in your area or target market. Your VA will reach out to them via email or call, set appointments for your sales reps, and collect feedback from existing clients.

As you can see, appointment setting is a versatile task that many different companies can benefit from. There are plenty of entry-level virtual assistants specializing in appointment setting who would be happy to work for your company.

Appointment setters can have different skill sets depending on their experience level and the industry they have previously worked in. For instance, an entry-level appointment setter may be able to deliver a quick elevator pitch or follow a pre-determined script, but they might not have the necessary sales skills for more personalized appointment setting calls.

When hiring an appointment setter, make sure to check their skills and experience carefully. It’s also important to be clear with your job description and set expectations properly to ensure that your VA understands what the job entails.

Once you have determined that hiring an appointment setter or a team of appointment setters is what your company needs to increase sales, it’s time to find the right appointment setter for the job. But before you set out job ads to find appointment setters, it’s important to know what appointment setter skills to look for first.

Here are some of the skills you need to look for in an appointment setter.

Great Interpersonal Skills

Appointment setter jobs definitely need someone who can handle a wide range of situations and personalities. This is incredibly important in this job. The appointment setter needs to be able to handle all types of relationships well, not just business or customer relationships. Skills like empathy, communicativeness, and assertiveness are all great for this job because you want someone who will encourage the client to book that sales appointment with your sales reps.

Strong Communication Skills

Since appointment setters typically initiate contact with potential clients, they need strong communication skills. This means being able to speak clearly and persuasively and having the ability to listen well. It is important that you find an appointment setter who communicates well through email, phone calls, or other messaging mediums, depending on your business needs.

A Positive Attitude

When you are looking for an appointment setter to work with your team, you want someone who gets along well with others. The person must have a positive attitude towards not only clients and customers but also towards their co-workers. Strong communication skills can go a long way in this regard because these skills will allow the appointment setter to work well with others.

Some sales skills are necessary for this position, as the virtual assistant must be able to set appointments based on what your sales reps say and then communicate that information effectively back to them. They also need strong follow-up skills because it usually takes multiple calls or emails to schedule an appointment.

When it comes to hiring an appointment setter VA, you can go through the usual channels such as placing job ads on online job boards or freelance platforms. You can also rely on referrals from friends or owners of other companies or scour online groups and forums to look for appointment setters.

But while there are plenty of helpful resources that can help you with the hiring process, doing all of these yourself can be laborious and stressful. The easiest way to find great candidates for your appointment setter position is to work with a company specializing in virtual staffing services.

At 20four7VA, part of our process is making it easier for new clients to hire by sending candidates that are already pre-screened and pre-qualified. We have a large pool of appointment setters who are ready to take on appointment setter jobs at any time.

Ready to find the right appointment setter to strengthen your sales team? Book a call with our Business Success Specialists today!