Proven B2B appointment setting tips and process to follow
Author
Yuriy Boyko
Head of AM at Belkins. Yuriy has been working in the B2B sales sector for more than a decade. His approach is the integration of scientific methods combined with thinking out of the box, allowing to achieve the highest results in any industry.
Updated:2024-11-13
Reading time:14 m
From Belkins’ experience of generating over 200,000 appointments, we know that creating a solid B2B appointment setting process takes time, expertise, and experimentation.
“It takes about 1 year and around 100 appointments for sales reps to tweak the sales process and master their pitch.”
— Michael Maximoff, Belkins’ co-founder and managing partner, says.
Luckily, now you can fasten things up by sending them a link to this article.
To write this B2B appointment setting guide, we interviewed Belkins’ best: 4 experienced B2B SDRs, sales reps, and masterminds. Below is the wisdom of SDR Team Lead Victoria Samchuk, Head of SDR Alla Ivanova, and Co-founder and Managing Partner Michael Maximoff.
We asked them to share their best advice for B2B appointment setters, along with best practices and proven processes for outreach and appointment generation in B2B.
This guide will help you revamp your approach and implement our tried-and-tested B2B appointment-setting tips to get the ball rolling.
If you want results within 3 to 6 months (or faster) from an experienced appointment setting partner, contact Belkins today.
B2B appointment setting process: The Belkins how-to
The B2B appointment setting game has changed a lot in recent years. Pure email outreach that worked in the 2000s has evolved into a gated, spam-protected minefield. Between the rise of outreach automation and LinkedIn becoming a B2B sales marketplace, a whole new multilevel playing field has emerged.
How do you succeed in this new reality? For one, use the B2B appointment setting tips from our leading appointment setters.
Our secret sauce: Omnichannel outreach
If you think that going omnichannel means copy-pasting your message from email to InMail to SMS, it’s not. Omnichannel campaigns are more nuanced and involve careful planning of tiered activities.
Where did this method come from? Research shows that it takes an average of 7–8 touchpoints to get an initial meeting with a new prospect. Using only 1–2 channels, it would take forever to get them.
With an omnichannel approach, you are reaching out to potential clients synchronically via multiple channels: e-mail, calls, LinkedIn messages, and other messengers (e.g. WhatsApp).
Each channel plays its role in the process. Meaningful interactions on LinkedIn warm up the prospect, a follow-up email creates a hook, and then we pitch in an intent call, setting the ground for an appointment.
Preparing content for omnichannel outreach
You will need 3 different sets of templates:
Template where you integrate 3 channels. LinkedIn and email should complement each other but not necessarily follow the same logic. For example, you could use email as a hard pitch and LinkedIn for education and brand awareness.
Template where you rely on email only.
Calling script. From our experience, the best practice is to send emails on behalf of an assistant before the call. So, add 1 wave into the script that the SDR could use to follow up after the call (see Tip 25).
As opposed to only calling or only LinkedIn messaging, omnichannel outreach lets you use the unique benefits of different channels to create a seamless user journey and improve conversion rates on each step.
Belkins B2B appointment setting process, step by step
Here’s how you go from a dried-out pipeline to a calendar ripe with meetings:
Research and targeting. Find the businesses that could benefit from your services.
Lead generation. Collect prospects’ valid information via online research, lead generation outsourcing, or purchasing leads.
Omnichannel outreach. Reach out to prospects via multiple channels (email, calling, LinkedIn messages, WhatsApp).
Qualification. Assess each potential client’s buying stage, estimated deal size, and needs to craft the right sequence and timeline.
Appointment scheduling. Get qualified prospects to agree on a date and time for a product demo.
Follow-up and reminder. Make sure the prospects will show up for the appointments.
📚 As we move on to the practical advice for each step, you can find more information on setting the B2B appointment generating process in our blog for further reading:
First things first. For any kind of connection, you need to show you’re a human and get off on the right foot with a decision-maker. Then demonstrate your value to get them to give you their time. Do your homework, learn their problems, tell them how you can solve those, and then suggest a meetup.
At each step of the process, you will test different appointment setting tactics to see what works best for your particular company, industry, and situation. However, some of our B2B appointment setting techniques work equally well for all businesses — and you can find them below:
Tip 1. Define separate ICPs for LinkedIn and calling. It can be as simple as picking only people with active accounts to target on LinkedIn and leaving the buying committee members without LinkedIn profiles to the callers.
Tip 2. Keep lead-to-appointment conversion rate as your North Star metric. Let the conversion rates (either ones you already have or industry thresholds) guide you in choosing the best verticals and titles to target.
📁Case in point: Read how we replicated conversion rates from large chemical manufacturing to narrower niches for BAG Corp.
Tip 3. Target smaller companies and lower titles. These leads tend to respond better. Even if they’re not decision-makers, they can share in-house insights or direct you to the right person.
Tip 4. Try calling the sales team of a targeted company. When you get through, ask to be pointed in the right direction. Salespeople usually like to help. If you do it quickly and are nice enough, it can work.
Tip 5. Use hand-curated lead research services to ensure you have a great relevant base before scaling your efforts. Having proper leads defines the success of your further efforts.
Tip 6. Equip yourself with the right tools for prospecting, lead qualification, outreach, follow-ups, and scheduling appointments. The efficiency of your appointment-setting framework relies heavily on your sales tech stack.
Tip 7. Explore tools and technologies prospects use to get a better understanding of how you can integrate this with your stack and streamline lead gathering.
“There’s a plethora of different tools you could use to identify specific technologies your prospects use, like BuildWith, Clay, ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Intent, Apollo, Similarweb, and many more. Usually, you’d use these instruments to identify buying intent and make sure you target the right audience. Still, there are 2 things you have to be cautious about when using such platforms:
1. There is no guarantee that the information you get is up to date.
2. You can’t build your personalization around the tool itself.
So, make sure to use this tool carefully and double-check the information if possible.
Bonus tip: think outside the box and use review platforms like Clutch or G2 to get real intent. For instance, if you are searching for companies that outsource their software development, you simply write folks who left a review for any other outsourcing agency. This way you know they outsource, and your chances to get a positive response are higher. Moreover, you get an extra personalization point to get through the noise.”
Tip 8. Invest in automating your workflows to optimize your processes and eliminate inconsistencies. With so many moving parts, there’s only so much you can do manually.
Processes to automate:
1. Audience scraping and lead research. We’re big fans of PhantomBuster, which scrapes information from platforms like LinkedIn, but there are a thousand more available. Choose one that fits your budget.
2. Outreach.
3. Lookalike follow-up campaigns. For instance, craft a few waves to work with common objections.
4. Inbound marketing campaigns.
5. Reengagement campaigns for lost deals in the pipeline.
6. Post-sales follow-up.
Those are just a few — identify the most tedious parts of your processes and find out if there are tools to automate them.
Tip 9. Avoid using spreadsheets when tracking the results. It seems handy when you have a few prospects to track. But once you get on scale, your Excel will grow into a supermassive black hole that takes years to upload and search for contacts. Think strategically and start with the CRM.
“Ideally, go for a CRM that can scale with your company, like HubSpot or Salesforce. These platforms offer free/cheap options for starters with way more capabilities than a spreadsheet.”
Tip 10. Implement end-to-end lead management with lead scoring, qualification, and objection handling. Remember the Pareto principle and focus on the deals with the best revenue potential.
Tip 11.Prepare the LinkedIn profile properly. Make sure the profile you’re using for outreach is filled professionally, has all the details, and gives prospects a clear idea of what you can do for them. Use Featured posts to showcase your business pitch or products.
Tip 12. Get new leads every day. Contact 100 new prospects each month without trying to sell them right away. When you have plenty of leads to work with, you can just follow up with the ones that matter the most.
Tip 13. Work with the warm lead base first when complementing the email outreach with other channels. For example, we usually call instead of following up via email if the prospect responds positively and then ghosts us.
Tip 14. Schedule your calling and custom LinkedIn campaigns a couple of weeks after the email outreach launch. As you increase email outreach limits faster, you can see the performance tendency and coordinate with the client to fine-tune approaches in other channels.
Tip 15. “Intent call” everyone who has ever shown contact intent. These include prospects who replied to email/LinkedIn messages, prospects from conferences and webinars, dormant leads, website visitors, all prospects who opened or forwarded emails, and no-shows.
“While calling the cold leads, remember that we have around 2–5 seconds to catch the prospect. That’s why we usually start with the question if they are the right person instead of self-presentation.”
— Victoria Samchuk, SDR Team Lead at Belkins
Tip 16. Enhance your templates with creativity. Nowadays, “Let’s jump on a quick call” doesn’t work. You should be humane and authentic. Prospects hate hard sales pitches, especially since every junior marketer got their hands on ChatGPT. Don’t overthink it, though — often a simple “Up for a chat?” works best.
Tip 17. Customize a lot. Instead of sending 100 emails, send 50, but spend twice as long on personalization. Instead of just changing the recipient’s name, tweak the hook and tailor reasons to believe and case studies to be as relevant as possible to each particular person. Optimize customization vs. time spent and find the sweet spot that will get you the best engagement. Decision-makers love it when people do their homework.
📁Case in point: Read how we created highly personalized emails targeted at conference visitors for GE Healthcare.
Tip 18.Avoid messages that are just about their challenges. You should focus equally on positioning your brand as the perfect solution for these challenges.
Tip 19. Explain how you can help. One of the biggest mistakes in appointment setting emails is not emphasizing your brand’s differentiators and value propositions. If you’re confident that your product/service can solve a prospect’s pain points, don’t hesitate to talk about it — with numbers.
Tip 20. Avoid explaining objections during the outreach. Say that you will address them during the call. When you try explaining them beforehand, people may ghost you or send one objection after another.
Tip 21. Give the prospect clear value for them to give you their time. At first contact, for example, you may share with them 2 ways you were able to help similar businesses and 1 macro trend that will affect them in 6–12 months (like new legislation, competitors going bankrupt, etc.)
📁 Case in point: Read how we convinced prospects to pay attention to Alectric Renewables by sending them specific calculations up front.
Tip 22. Pack your follow-ups with insight. Your prospects will appreciate this; this can be a case study, fresh industry news, or client testimonials to build more credibility for your brand.
“Be tactical. Make sure to mix your follow-ups so they are never the same.
The common strategy could be:
1st follow-up — short and concise a few days after the main email. No push, just a reminder.
2nd follow-up — educational email, no CTA. Just share knowledge on the relevant topic. For instance, a recent article from your website blog. Again, a few days after 1st follow-up.
3rd follow-up — reiterate your first email. Highlight additional benefits the prospect would get from your offer; throw in more numbers.
4th follow-up — try another channel, add your prospects on LinkedIn, or do a phone call.”
Whether you’re planning to run paid ads in 2025 or decided to put that on the back burner, you might want to watch our recent webinar about omnichannel strategies to keep up with market trends.
{LINK}
Best,
Email 2:
Hi {Name},
We just finished HubSpot integration for one of our clients - {LINK}, so I thought it would be a good time to follow up with you. Also, with the fourth quarter approaching, a clean and efficient CRM may come in handy to meet your 2024 sales target.
Would you be open for a call Tuesday or Wednesday morning (PST) next week?
Tip 23. Give your prospects enough time. Let them review and respond. Even if they’ve shown interest before, give them the space and time to consider your offer.
Tip 24. Strike while the iron is hot. Once you’ve established vocal interest from the prospect, don’t delay in scheduling the demo appointment. If you lag and push the demo back a week or two, the prospect’s enthusiasm might wane.
Tip 25. Send an email before the appointment setting call. Something like “Hey, my assistant will call you tomorrow afternoon. Would it work well?” We at Belkins even schedule B2B sales appointments using this quick email sometimes. Don’t forget to call afterward!
Example of calling script:
— Hi John, this is Mike, Bob’s assistant from {Company name}. Bob sent you an email (and also messaged you on LinkedIn), but he hasn’t received a response from you yet, so he asked me to give you a call.
— Hi, Mike! Unfortunately, I don’t see any email from Bob.
— Oh, I see. We all get a lot of spam, so the email might have been lost. Let me ask him to resend it.
Tip 26. Remember that your goal is to set the appointment, not close the deal. When agreeing on a time, get straight to the point: Schedule the meeting and then move on. Do not talk about your company or services at this call — save that for the actual meeting.
Tip 27. Always send the appointment confirmation. It inserts you, your company, and your services in the prospect’s mind one more time. But make sure to do it smartly. Instead of “Are we still on for Tuesday?” put it like “Is there any additional information I should bring to our meeting this Tuesday?”
Tip 28. Build meaningful customer relationships to gather social proof. Your appointment setting strategy isn’t limited to what you can do before signing the deal. Much of it depends equally on what you do after bagging the sale. Focus on cultivating positive client relationships and publish this social proof to convince prospects to work with your company.
Tip 29. Experiment to improve your outreach ROI. This applies to every step of the process and can include tactics of any kind — from tweaking the CTA in your emails to launching a campaign on a new channel. Remember to monitor your performance and adapt quickly.
“Only by doing A/B tests can you make assumptions on whether you’ve chosen the right tactics. A/B tests can show you how slight details or variations can affect the efficiency of your outreach strategy.”
Tip 30. Spend extra time studying the data. Double-check the results from your campaign’s A/B tests before including the suggestions in your outreach. Sometimes, the spikes can be tied to a particular industry or demographic, and applying them to the whole campaign could hurt it. Being meticulous helps.
Tip 31. Stay agile and switch your approach. Adapting to the market is essential for B2B appointment setting success. While you might see great results from one channel today, it can dry up tomorrow. There’s no point in sticking to something that underperforms.
“You will always start with a low conversion. Let’s say it’s 1% from lead to appointment or even 0.5%. This can be increased to 4% or 5% later. For this to happen, you need to fine-tune your messaging, ICP, playbooks, etc.
Work with an iterative mindset to create and analyze new hypotheses — even when opportunities flow in regularly.”
— Michael Maximoff, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Belkins
Best practices for cold email appointment setting
When all your hard work crafting strategies, testing different approaches, and following up comes to fruition, you don’t want to slip when setting the actual appointment. A few more tips to help you with that appointment setting email:
Always try to provide a few time options.
Set expectations on the duration of the meeting, such as 15–30 min.
Include a brief agenda and expected outcomes.
Try to avoid suggesting meetings for the next day, Mondays, and Fridays.
Plan the meeting time in advance — the next week is optimal.
Try to suggest more a.m. time slots.
Follow up before the meeting to confirm the person’s availability.
Best practices for cold calling appointment setting
If you deal less with the demo meetings and more with the sales calls, then here are a few tips about reaching your prospects via phone:
The best time of the workday to make sales calls to prospects is between 4 and 5 p.m.
The second best time to call prospects is between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m.
It’s best to target your cold calling at 5 minutes before the half hour or hour (i.e., XX:25 and XX:55).
For best recognition, try to make sales calls within an hour of receiving the prospect’s initial inquiry.
The worst times to call prospects are Mondays and the second half of Fridays.
Hold off on leaving voicemails on the first call. Resort to voicemail only after attempting to reach the prospect twice.
If you do leave a voicemail, be sure to also send an email to reinforce your message.
Example of a successful B2B appointment setting campaign
Enough theory — let us tell you how we at Belkins apply these effective appointment setting techniques to our clients’ cases. One client, in particular.
Pairaphrase, a SaaS company offering AI-powered translation management to enterprise teams, struggled with scaling its B2B appointment generation. They needed a reliable strategy to reach the U.S. market. Besides, an important KPI was to move on from sporadic deal-making to a stable lead flow and predictable sales.
When the first outreach campaign, which relied on referrals, didn’t get off to a great start, we swiftly pivoted to targeting educational institutions.
However, seasonality and long sales cycles in this market made it hard to provide deals quickly.
So instead of trying to ride this dead horse, we pivoted once again. We took a leap from the company’s traditional clientele and added more target industries, including manufacturing and finance, to expand outreach.
This experiment proved highly effective, creating a wave of high-potential opportunities and positive feedback from the client.
As a result, we got 203 highly qualified appointments within 17 months, surpassing initial KPIs by 150%, and cracking open several new markets to Pairaphrase.
And here are the B2B appointment setting strategies we used for this:
Though chasing B2B sales meetings might not be the most comfortable vocation for everyone, we hope that the B2B appointment setting best practices above will make it a bit easier.
By being humane, creative, and consistent, picking the right prospects, and addressing them in a personalized manner, you will be able to set appointments with your dream clients in no time. And if something is not working, don’t hesitate to experiment and pivot to find what does.
Message us today. Should you need help or advice from a #1 B2B appointment setting company, we at Belkins will be right here, happy to help with all your appointment setting needs.
FAQ
What do you think is the most crucial aspect of a B2B appointment setting strategy?
B2B appointment setting is less about hard selling and more about establishing a relationship. Know your prospect’s problems, then provide yourself as the best answer on the market. If you can prove yourself as their ticket to a bright future, then you are one step closer to that meeting.
What are the key points to be successful in the B2B appointment setting?
Clarity is key. Respect their time. Speak plainly, directly, and confidently. Emphasize what kind of value you can produce. Don’t hesitate to be persistent, follow up, show that you’re interested in their success; and remain professional and tactful at all times.
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Yuriy has been working in the B2B sales sector for more than a decade. His approach is the integration of scientific methods combined with thinking out of the box, allowing to achieve the highest results in any industry.
