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Appointment setting is an integral part of any lead generation process – and this includes B2B lead generation for software vendors.

However, with targeted appointment setting campaigns, software vendors can address a critical B2B lead generation challenge that they face – which is to sell complex products and services in a market with extremely tight profit margins since customers are not short of buying options. Selling software solutions and services also requires skills by way of a deep understanding of the product or service.

The Challenge of Sales Prospecting for Software Vendors

Overcome Sales ObjectionsSales prospecting or lead generation for software vendors can be challenging on multiple levels. However, what makes lead generation particularly challenging for software vendors is the fact that they operate in an extremely competitive market space where product/service differentiators are difficult to establish.

If your lead generation goals involve high-value sales, or if you want to upsell and cross-sell to existing customers, or even you want to encourage customers to employ your product/service company-wide as opposed to making ad-hoc purchases, then you need to show them the value of doing so – and this can only happen via meaningful personalized interactions.

Events just do not happen, But arrive by Appointment.

Why Targeted Appointment Setting Campaigns Work?

Personalized marketing with ABMGetting a sales prospect to part with their valuable time and energy is not easy. Not all your prospects will be on the same page with respect to their needs and urgency to make a buying decision. So while some might be ready to convert, others might need to be coaxed or nurtured.

An effective targeted appointment setting campaign involves four stages which are:

• Identify and profile your ideal clients/targets.
• Create customer profiles as a means of targeting them effectively.
• Engaging target prospects via multiple channels.
• Nurture and start converting prospects into appointments.

Why Targeted Appointment Setting Campaigns Work?

Personalized marketing with ABMGetting a sales prospect to part with their valuable time and energy is not easy. Not all your prospects will be on the same page with respect to their needs and urgency to make a buying decision. So while some might be ready to convert, others might need to be coaxed or nurtured.

An effective targeted appointment setting campaign involves four stages which are:

Top 6 Key Elements of an Effective Targeted Appointment Setting Campaign

Targeting or Identifying your Ideal Customer

ABM finds best prospectYour first step should be to identify the companies that you want to target, and also key individuals or decision-makers within those companies. But this is not as easy as it sounds. For one, companies don’t lack options when it comes to software vendors. Secondly, the buyer journey today is far more complex than what it was even a few years ago. Companies today prefer a multi-layer decision-making process.

What this means is that the buyer journey has key decision-makers at various levels and stages.So, unless you can effectively pick out and identify key decision-makers across the entire buying process, your efforts at sales prospecting are bound to fail.

Once you have identified your targets, leverage high-quality data that matches your target profiles as a way of further improving or enhancing your current database. This way you can build a strong foundation for your marketing strategies.

Research and Gain Better Insight

If you want your salesperson to be persuasive, then you need to arm them with requisite information on potential pain-points or needs of the sales prospect(s). Without this information, your salesperson is simply flying in the dark! The more insight your salesperson has, they will be that much more effective in converting the prospect into an appointment and eventually into a sale.

Based on this, ensure you research potential prospects and understand their requirements. A great way to do this is via LinkedIn. You can throw in some open-ended or information fishing questions on the appointment-setting call as a way of gaining insight into challenges or needs that the prospect wants addresses.

Employ a Multi-channel Engagement Approach

Inside SalesThis is probably the meat of your targeted appointment setting campaign. It’s vital that you spread your campaign across multiple channels to gain better traction for your marketing efforts.

The key to robust multi-channel marketing begins with the identification of those channels that are most used or visited by potential prospects and targets. If you can understand or establish how these channels are used by your prospects, or how they behave on these channels, then you can use that insight to customize your outreach and build on your appointment setting touch-points to be more effective.

Top four channels for appointment setting include the following:

• Email – you can craft and deliver customized emails in a timely manner to first soften your potential prospects. So create multiple email templates that cover various touch-points across the campaign including the introductory or initial mail and then right down to more focused emails.
• Social Media – to give your campaign more power, you need to incorporate social. Not only can social build on your marketing efforts, but it can effectively amplify your campaign’s online visibility vis-à-vis impressions, actions, and connections.
• Phone – if you want to infuse a more personal connection in your process to nurture and qualify leads, then phone outreach is the way. The advantage of phone outreach is that it effectively drives performance since it enables salespersons to deliver leads at scale while also generating real-time results.
• Web – you can also leverage lead-generating landing pages to expand your sales appointments and conversions since potential prospects can get their fill of information about what you have to offer. Populate your landing pages with rich and relevant downloadable resources, and other important actionable information to attract sales prospects.

Convert into Sales Appointments

Once you have identified and profiled your target customers and accounts your next step involves creating customized campaigns that align closely with what potential customers expect or need. Base your campaigns on all the insight and information you have gleaned via the above steps and then use this intelligence to build highly targeted campaigns and presentations. Keep in mind that your target customers will run short both on patience and time – so it is imperative that you customize your messages in a way that allows you to get to the point quickly. Avoid using generic information at all costs – craft your messages to first highlight customer pain-points and how your software product or service can address those pain points effectively.

Consider the following tips:
Identify what each player in the buyer chain expects or is looking forward to in a solution.

• Approach from a position of strength – so make sure you develop a strong and clear case for approaching a potential prospect.
• Align your message with the interests, requirements, and pain-points or challenges unique to different decision-makers in the company or the account.
• Ensure you build a unique value proposition into your message to give it more weight and as a way to encourage decision-makers to make a buying decision.
• To create a more compelling story, leverage real-world examples to display how your solution can be beneficial to potential prospects.

Track Results and Continue to Optimize on your Targeted Appointment Setting Campaign

Inside Sales Rising GraphAs with all marketing and sales strategies, you need to keep track and monitor your efforts on a consistent basis. Only then will you be able to identify where you are making a positive impact, and where you need to rework on your approach or strategies.

So, make sure you measure the results of your appointment setting campaign which includes monitoring account engagement, tracking opportunities that were created, the deals you have successfully closed, and the value of closed deals.

Wrapping it Up

Targeted appointment setting campaigns can work hugely to the benefit of your software company. Right from the moment when you identify and engage with a potential sales prospect, they can go any which ways – things could work out as you planned and hoped, or you may even get rejected.

However, if you keep in mind the above mentioned key points and strategies for creating an effective targeted appointment setting campaign, and if you can aim high when it comes to meeting business goals, then your efforts won’t go in vain you can expect to be rewarded with high-value appointment and conversions!