Appointment Setting for Hosting Companies – 8 Top Tips

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Appointment setting is a vital skill that every B2B company must master if they wish to be successful and remain ahead of their competitors. This is particularly true in ultra-competitive industries, such as the data hosting industry. Hosting companies who offer infrastructure-as-a-service such as Amazon Web Services are in high demand, particularly for cloud hosting services as businesses shift their data and business critical applications to the cloud.

Therefore, setting and arranging appointments is critical for hosting companies and it’s definitely possible to be successful with the right approach, enabling you to capitalise on the demand.

Here are 8 top appointment setting tips to secure quality appointments for your hosting company:

1.Know your value proposition

With so much competition and choice, you need to decide what sets you apart from your competitors before you even begin to plan your appointment setting campaign. What distinguishes your hosting solutions from the rest and why should your target audience be interested? Doing a competitive matrix/SWOT analysis can help you list your key features and benefits as well helping you articulate what problem your hosting solutions solve.

Taking the time to document your value proposition is a great way to keep you grounded as not everyone you call is going to need hosting solutions.

2. Identify your target audience

Once you have decided why businesses should be interested in your hosting solutions, you need to decide which people you would like to target. You could do this by evaluating your current customer base and highlighting similar organisations. This can also help when it comes to offering social proof with your sales pitch.

Which demographics do you wish to use to target your audience? Are you going to focus on local customers, highlighting the benefits of hosting within your country of operation? Or would you like to target sectors where you know there has been a big uptake in your services, such as Finance or Healthcare?

3. Invest wisely in your database

When you know your USP and who you want to target, acquiring a database of prospects is another must. Take the time to ensure that it matches the target audience you have identified. With so much competition and choice for your potential customers, it pays to invest wisely if buying a database to ensure that you get quality data to work with.

4. Identify the decision maker

Once you get your campaign underway, you may be eager to make a good impression. If you have identified your value proposition, you should have no problem detailing to the prospect the benefits of choosing you as their hosting provider. However, before you try to persuade someone, ensure that they are actually a decision maker or able to influence the buyers. This is imperative and one the most important aspects of ensuring your appointment setting campaign is a success.

You will know from your current customers who the most likely decision makers in an organisation are likely to be, be they IT managers or otherwise. So be sure not to waste your pitch on someone with no idea about how the company stores their data.

5. Do adequate research

Doing your research should be a no brainer. Knowing your value proposition and identifying decision makers are important, but you need to have created a compelling argument for why you are worthy of their time.

Researching their organisation before the call can help you identify what hosting problems they may be having or what their needs may be in the future if their business grows, so that you can mention your scalable solutions. Being able to show how your hosting company can offer solutions to their potential problems is the key to getting a positive response when requesting an appointment.

6. Try not to sound like a computer

If you have developed a script to help aide your appointment setting campaign, don’t follow it religiously. There are many possible scenarios for how a conversation with a prospective customer could play out. No matter how good the script is, it won’t be able to account for all of them. Therefore, stay focused on your central goal of conveying why they may need your hosting solutions.

Get straight to the point and only ask relevant questions to quickly close the deal and ensure you don’t waste your prospect’s time. If you understand your product, you should have no problem telling your prospect about its value.

7. Build rapport

Although it’s not exclusively applicable to appointment setting for your hosting company, creating a relationship with your customer is still an important point to remember. It’s not easy to sound approachable and friendly on the phone and you can’t rely on the subtle body language and gestures that can often help you gauge someone’s mood.

Ways that you can improve your rapport include adapting your tone to match your prospect’s and changing the language that you use to suit the specific needs of the prospect. For example, if you have chosen to focus on the financial sector, using specific terminology can help them warm to you.

8. Try to be flexible

When appointment setting, it’s important not to lose heart or take rejection too badly. Many calls are cancelled or reorganised because of scheduling conflicts. If that’s the case, try to be flexible and instead of pursuing a face-to-face- meeting, offer an online meeting or telephone appointment. A rigid approach is not going to yield good results so remain upbeat and hopeful!

Also, offer multiple time slots for your prospect to choose from and confirm them immediately so there is no confusion.

Summary

Many businesses are interested in moving to the cloud and the hosting options available to them. Your task is to convince them that your company offers the best solutions. Keeping it simple and knowing your stuff can help you highlight your value proposition and get that appointment.

So long as you do your research and appeal to decision makers, there is no reason that appointment setting can’t prove to be a very lucrative venture for your hosting company.

Would you like some help nailing some appointments? VSL specialise in appointment setting, and many other aspects of telemarketing. For more information contact us today.

 

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Tags: Appointment Setting, B2B, Business, hosting companies

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