Appointment Setting Script Design
One of the most common outsourced tasks for small businesses is appointment setting.
Basically hiring someone remotely to make a high volume of calls and set up appointments for follow up by in house sales people.
These follow ups can be scheduled to take place over the phone or in person.
When creating an appointment setting campaign the script is one of the most important aspects to consider.
While some call centers will offer script writing services its usually more effective to do it yourself.
Who knows your business better, you or the call center? The main goals of your script should be based around quickly introducing your offering, explaining the benefits and then asking the prospect for permission for the appointment/follow up call/etc.
I've found that a quick assumed close usually works best in many industries.
If you need to have the prospect answer any questions start by verifying information that you already have and then ask for new information.
Try tolimit the number and variety of responses the prospect can give, this will mean there is less opportunity for the agent to get into trouble by not knowing industry information, and it keeps the call short and to the point.
Remember this is not a sales call that requires them to build a lot of report.
The purpose of appointment setting is to quickly gauge interest or need for your offering and then let a sales person take over.
I've created a sample script here.
I tried to keep it as generic as possible but you'll need to tweak it for your particular offering.
When you are first setting up the campaign you'll want to call and verify each appointment while the process is being fine tuned.
Its also important to check in with the agent and find out what types of response they are hearing on calls.
Use this info to tweak your FAQs as you go.
When in doubt simplify.
Shorter, to the point scripts are almost always better than something that goes into the specifics of what you are offering, that's the purpose of the follow up call.
Basically hiring someone remotely to make a high volume of calls and set up appointments for follow up by in house sales people.
These follow ups can be scheduled to take place over the phone or in person.
When creating an appointment setting campaign the script is one of the most important aspects to consider.
While some call centers will offer script writing services its usually more effective to do it yourself.
Who knows your business better, you or the call center? The main goals of your script should be based around quickly introducing your offering, explaining the benefits and then asking the prospect for permission for the appointment/follow up call/etc.
I've found that a quick assumed close usually works best in many industries.
If you need to have the prospect answer any questions start by verifying information that you already have and then ask for new information.
Try tolimit the number and variety of responses the prospect can give, this will mean there is less opportunity for the agent to get into trouble by not knowing industry information, and it keeps the call short and to the point.
Remember this is not a sales call that requires them to build a lot of report.
The purpose of appointment setting is to quickly gauge interest or need for your offering and then let a sales person take over.
I've created a sample script here.
I tried to keep it as generic as possible but you'll need to tweak it for your particular offering.
- Hi, is Mr.
Smith there? - This is Mr.
Smith. - Hi Mr.
Smith, this is Sarah calling on behalf of XYZ Widgets.
The reason I'm calling is we've been able to offer a number of companies in your area a savings of over xx% on average over their current monthly widget costs.
We're going to have someone in the area next Tuesday who could stop in and get you a quote if you're available.
The meeting usually takes under 20 minutes, and like I mentioned, the average savings are about xx% every month. - (At this point identify the most common objections, I've included one example).
I'm not really interested right now, we already have a provider. - I understand completely, and I definitely don't want to waste your time.
If you aren't too busy on Tuesday at 2pm I can have one of our consultants stop by and get you a quote, no obligation.
Would that be alright?
When you are first setting up the campaign you'll want to call and verify each appointment while the process is being fine tuned.
Its also important to check in with the agent and find out what types of response they are hearing on calls.
Use this info to tweak your FAQs as you go.
When in doubt simplify.
Shorter, to the point scripts are almost always better than something that goes into the specifics of what you are offering, that's the purpose of the follow up call.
