Appointment Setting for Software Companies – Does it Work?
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The software development industry is one of the most competitive out there and software companies are routinely faced with complex issues and challenges, such as:
- Intense competition
- Having no new projects in development
- Finding, hiring, and keeping quality software developers
Therefore, regular and relevant lead generation is an essential part of maintaining the business and ensuring you attract new clients or customers and entice the most talented employees.
One tried and tested method of generating leads is appointment setting. As every industry has different challenges, the question is whether it is as effective for software companies as it is for other businesses.
Why does appointment setting work?
Setting, organising, and keeping appointments really can be the difference between making a great B2B sale, or losing it. Appointments, whether they be by telephone or email, are the basis for building and maintaining a great business to business relationship and engaging personally with prospects.
That said, it is admittedly a difficult part of business development and can be the most common obstacle to growing your software company and your revenue.
Through B2B appointment setting, businesses can keep generating quality leads who will actively participate with the business. Both parties can engage directly with one another and it allows consumers to ask pressing questions and allows the business to state their case clearly.
Appointment setting for software companies
Although appointment setting can be crucial to any business that wants to keep their sales pipeline flowing, it is has been found to offer the most benefit to businesses offering services, such as in the software industry.
Appointment setting can be crucial for software companies as:
- It allows the organisation to build trust with prospective customers through initial appointments.
- It gives the business an opportunity to convey a great deal of information to help inform the decision-making process of buyers.
How to make appointment setting work in 2017
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Appointment setting and lead generation in general can be a particularly demanding process for software companies, with the proliferation of complex solutions and cross-departmental decision-making processes and budgets.
Before you begin your appointment setting campaign, you need to devise a strategy. In it you can document your value proposition and key selling points. Why does the prospective customer need your software for their business and what problem does it solve? Make a list of your key features and benefits and even a SWOT analysis to highlight your strengths and weaknesses to ensure you make a more compelling argument.
One of the main reasons why an appointment setting campaign might fail is because the software company isn’t prepared, doesn’t have the correct infrastructure or tries to go it alone using their existing staff. Building and maintaining awareness of services and new product developments is important for software companies but their main focus should be on the development itself.
Outsourcing your appointment setting
Outsourcing appointment setting to a b2b telemarketing company is a great way to ensure that your software company doesn’t take its eye off the ball when trying to generate leads. Training staff to become telemarketers or hiring professional appointment setters for your in-house team can be a costly and time-consuming process. A software company’s main staffing priority should always be ensuring they have quality developers.
A b2b telemarketing company can work as an extension of your in-house team and ensure that your potential customers are effectively educated about your software services. This means detailing the technical specifications of your product and the product lifecycle of newly-developed services or applications.
It’s not an easy task convincing decision-makers to part with their money for new software or to even keep them on the phone for long enough to persuade them. Most decision-makers will also loathe unsolicited calls. Nevertheless, a skilled telemarketer will be able to arrange an appointment with the right, professional approach.
Therefore, appointment setting can play a valuable role in establishing trust, building leads, and increasing sales/revenue for a software company, when executed correctly.
Another reason that appoint setting might not be effective for your software business is making a wrong choice when it comes to your telemarketing partner. There are many appoint setting services out there and not all of them will be right for your business. After all, your company’s reputation is at stake every time a representative makes a call on your behalf. It is important to thoroughly research prospective telemarketing agencies to ensure you choose the right one to help you grow your software company.
Conclusion
Appointment setting services can add value to a business in almost any industry and can be the primary way to increase sales. The key is engaging prospects on a personal level in order to begin and sustain business relationships.
While it has universal appeal, appointment setting can achieve greater results in service-orientated businesses and software companies are certainly no exception. With the right approach and by carefully outsourcing it, it can achieve measurable results for your business.
At VSL, we’re no strangers to helping software companies arrange appointments. In fact, we’re specialists at it. If you would like advice or to learn more about the benefits of appointment setting for your software company, get in touch today and let us help you.
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Andy Dickens
Andy Dickens is a veteran of IT Sales, used to leading by example. He is the CEO of Virtual Sales Limited (VSL) who offer telesales, telemarketing, lead generation and appointment setting services to B2b businesses. He previously was Sales Director EMEA for Red Hat and before that ran sales at Visio before it was acquired by Microsoft.