B2B appointment setting is a sales and marketing process in which the company's sales representatives, or specialized appointment setters, arrange meetings with potential clients or decision-makers within other businesses. These appointments aim to create opportunities for further discussions, product demonstrations, or presentations with the ultimate goal of generating new business, building partnerships, or closing deals.
In simpler terms, it’s when a dedicated team does the legwork to get your salespeople in front of warm leads interested in your products or services.
B2B appointment setting helps you reach the right people at the right moment and proactively creates a setup for quality conversations. It helps you get to know your customers better and build the necessary trust to make that conversion happen.
B2B appointment setting should be part of your sales strategy if:
You sell complex products or services.
You have a high-ticket product or service.
You want to increase chances for high-value deals.
You have long sales cycles (3 to 6 months or longer).
You need to work with many prospective decision-makers.
You aim to improve sales ROI.
The trick to appointment setting is having experts prepare the ground for a substantive conversation. Before getting you in front of the promising buyers, they will answer any questions and develop rapport, improving your chances of turning those prospects into customers.
So if you have high average-contract-value products or services, a systematic B2B appointment generation process ensures you invest your time and resources into sales-qualified leads. It’s a shortcut to talking directly with decision-makers, getting around gatekeepers, and skipping intermediate sales steps.
Ultimately, you should close more deals and see higher ROI while spending less time and fewer resources.
Appointment setting benefits for startups
Startups are often strained with two extremes. On the one hand, they have limited resources; on the other hand, they must pursue rapid growth and scalability. In this setup, there are several benefits of appointment setting:
Focusing on chasing a few strategic leads likely to convert into customers saves the team time compared to trying many contacts.
Honing the lead qualification process helps to determine a prospect's needs, budget, and decision-making power and re-apply that information to the product strategy.
Targeting exact decision-makers or influencers and crafting a tailored communication plan for them ensures the sales messaging resonates with the right audience.
After setting up the process and figuring out the right sales messaging, appointment setting can be scaled as necessary.
Appointment setting benefits for midsize companies
Running a midsize business can be challenging, as leaders must balance their resources carefully to ensure the company's effectiveness. In this situation, appointment setting is vital to building a solid pipeline of prospective clients without wasting time on dead-end leads:
Unlike passive lead generation, appointment setting actively invites qualified prospects to communicate. The sales team can then develop those leads into sales right away.
Communicating with prospects in real time helps you better understand their needs and pain points, improving conversion rates in one-on-one engagements.
Sales teams who connect with more focused prospects and invest resources where they will have the most impact are more motivated and can better prioritize their efforts.
Appointment setting benefits for enterprises
Enterprises involved in complex operations with demanding markets can derive the maximum benefits from a solid appointment-making process:
It allows them to scale prospecting (and, in the end, sales) efforts by reaching more and different types of leads.
Specialized appointment setters can effectively bypass long decision-making processes.
A standardized B2B appointment setting process streamlines the sales funnel, mitigating the chances of missed opportunities.
Proactive lead generation gives greater control over what kind of prospects enter your pipeline.
Does appointment setting really work?
If it didn’t, Belkins would not be consistently doubling or tripling growth year over year. We work with companies from dozens of different industries, and ultimately, the tuned appointment setting campaign brings a steady average of 100+ qualified appointments yearly.
So yes, appointment setting is highly effective for a few key reasons:
Better-qualified leads
Personalized interactions with prospects
Accelerated sales cycle and faster results
To get a clearer idea of what appointment setting success looks like, check out the following case studies:
Appointment setting is a practical approach, but it's not suited for each and every business. This probably isn't a great strategy if:
You sell low-cost products: The average cost per meeting floats between $500 and $800. Now calculate a rough ROI based off of your conversions and average deal size. If your check for a top-tier product or service is, for example, $489 or less, outbound lead generation is not a sensible investment. The ROI per prospect may not cover the expenses in this case.
Your business has a short sales cycle: Appointment setting may be overkill if your leads convert at the first or second touch point.
B2B companies with products priced under $500 are more likely to benefit from marketing automation, targeted webinars, and inbound lead generation strategies.
What does the B2B appointment setting process include?
Securing valuable B2B appointments is an essential goal in any sales process. Let's break down the key steps that lead to it:
Step 1: Targeting your ICP
How to start setting appointments? First, develop your ideal customer profile (ICP). Your ideal customers are the people who are most likely to purchase your product. If you already have a customer database, examine your best accounts and see if there are any recurring patterns. You’d want to pinpoint attributes like:
Industry: For which businesses are your products or services a good fit?
Company size: Who are you targeting — small businesses, midsized companies, or enterprises?
Company income: What revenue do you expect your ideal clients to have?
Titles: What roles at a company represent the important decision-makers for your product or service?
Now you have to find the prospects that match your ICP.
Some widely used lead generation tools are LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, and Apollo. There is also the option of buying leads from third-party sources, but you must be cautious and ensure they are legit and high-quality.
You can also mine data by scanning websites, social media, and industry hubs. And while you’re scraping the data points, pay extra attention to valuable nuggets of buying intent.
An important part of this stage is the lead qualification, or scoring. You want to focus on prospects with the budget, authority, and need for your solution and direct your sales efforts toward these promising opportunities for higher ROI.
Think of it this way: You wouldn't waste time attending a job interview for a role you're not qualified for. Similarly, your sales team shouldn't waste time on meetings with prospects who aren't a good fit.
Step 3: Crafting outreach messages
You don’t want your offer to be yet another vague “Hey, are you open to chat?” in your prospect’s inbox. Invest in crafting a compelling message that speaks directly to the prospects’ pain points and interests. Personalize your emails to the needs of individuals. Focus on the value proposition and deliver it clearly and concisely.
According to Woodpecker, highly personalized emails with custom variables hit a 17% reply rate on average versus 7% for nonpersonalized emails. Our recent research of outbound emails showed that mentioning the recipient’s company name in the subject line results in around 30% open rates, and including catchy numbers can boost your open rates to 32%.
Examples of well-performing subject lines by Belkins
Write 3 to 6 emails, including your first email and follow-ups. Be personable — mention a recent article they wrote, a project they’re working on, or a challenge they’re facing — and remember to explain why you’re reaching out.
Once you’ve crafted your message, connect with prospects using multiple channels to maximize reach:
Email outreach works excellently with custom, effective email campaigns to showcase the company and what it does.
Cold calling prospects directly is the quickest way to touch base and qualify them.
LinkedIn outreach works well to establish relationships and generate new leads.
Using X to reach B2B decision-makers in startups and the Web3 scenes makes sense, as the demographics on this network are largely young, educated, high-earning, and located in the urban U.S. and Japan.
Channels like WhatsApp are useful for nurturing prospects via personalized messages and follow-ups.
We recommend sending 4 follow-ups at most. A good strategy is to include niche-relevant case studies, additional resources, or testimonials relevant to the prospect’s business.
📌 Belkins tip: A killer cold outreach strategy is to invite prospects to your webinar to surface common pain points and provide solutions or to discuss your recent research. This way, you’re showcasing your domain expertise, providing great free value, and establishing credibility at the same time.
If you receive no response, don’t lose hope. Become a free value provider and contact people from those companies once per month with industry insights, valuable contacts, research, etc. Don’t pitch or sell; just stay on their radar.
Once a prospect shows interest, it’s time to book an appointment with a sales rep. Here are a few tips to smooth the scheduling process:
Leverage platforms like Calendly or Chili Piper to automate scheduling and confirmations. They automatically calculate any time zone difference and suggest suitable time slots for both parties.
Always provide detailed information about the appointment, including the meeting's agenda, location, and a link to a virtual platform (Zoom, Google Meet).
Reduce the risk of no-shows by sending one gentle reminder a few days before the scheduled appointment, then another the day before.
Did someone miss their appointment? Don’t worry. Send a few friendly reminders to reschedule.
Step 6: Connect and follow up
The appointment is only the beginning of the relationship. Use the call as the reason to follow up. Send a personal thank-you email summarizing key points discussed and any action steps, as well as reiterating the value you can offer.
B2B meetings rarely convert immediately, so stay in touch with the prospect. Send them valuable resources, industry news, and updates to stay top of mind while building a longer-term relationship.
Remember that there is always an opportunity in a lost deal. Don’t hesitate to ask for referrals. Your contacts may have friends who would benefit from your services.
The omnichannel approach combines multiple channels, such as email, LinkedIn, calling, and messaging, to create a more omnipresent (hence the name) appointment setting activity.
This way works best if:
You are a B2B company with 50+ in-house, spending upwards of $100K per annum on lead acquisition, ready to scale with a proven way to grow your sales pipeline.
Your products/services are complex and targeted to a niche buyer. You know your target audience well and want to gain access to upper-management personnel ASAP.
Your average deal size is $25K+, your eyes are on high-value clients, and you want something that generates leads of the best quality.
You have a great sales team and want to keep them busy with more high-quality leads.
You are struggling to increase the close rate and deal velocity. You want to convert more leads into customers.
We at Belkins use this approach for our clients, as we’ve found that it produces the best results. We define the customer journey and then reach out to prospects via multiple channels, educating them along the way. The synergy of the multiple touches creates the recognition effect, driving curiosity and bringing replies and appointments.
The omnichannel approach has proven the most efficient based on the hundreds of campaigns we’ve run for our clients. Want to hear more about it? Don’t hesitate to .
Multichannel strategy
This strategy uses a mix of channels most likely to resonate with your target audience and generate the best results. While omnichannel refers to creating a seamless and integrated user experience, multichannel, in its very essence, just means using different channels for your communications, even though they may not be completely synchronized.
This strategy does not have to be expensive. If you can determine which channels convert best for your target audience, you will ultimately have a higher margin.
Single-channel focus
You don’t need to fix your process if it’s not broken. The single-channel approach suggests concentrating your efforts on one channel if it consistently produces positive outcomes.
Cold emails
To make cold emails a successful part of your appointment setting strategy, write concise, personalized emails that highlight the value proposition and emphasize the prospect's gains. Always follow the best practices for email deliverability.
Try out different subject lines, opening lines, and calls to action to discover what your audience responds to the most. Then optimize email performance accordingly for higher response rates.
Cold calls
Cold calling still has a place in the world, especially if you do it the right way. Craft an effective script, perfect your pitch, and know what answers will help you overcome objections. Always remain professional and willing to help.
Focus on the lead-qualification mindset before you dial. Ask the right questions, identify what the prospect really needs, verify you’re talking to the right decision-maker, and find out their buying capability before scheduling a meeting.
LinkedIn outreach
LinkedIn is a powerhouse for building meaningful relationships and engaging potential customers. To use it for appointment generation in B2B, focus on personalization.
Start with unique connection requests to show you’ve done your homework. Reference their recent posts, mutual connections, or current projects to show genuine interest. Then use InMail messages to talk about their pains and needs and hint at the value you can bring. Build it up in a way that makes them curious to meet you.
Invites to LinkedIn events and webinars are a great way to keep in touch and casually deliver value. It shows your expertise and creates a sense of urgency as prospects see your growing audience.
A B2B appointment setter is a dedicated sales professional who finds prospects, schedules meetings, and confirms appointments. They may work alone or in sales development teams. There are 3 categories of B2B appointment setters:
Business development representatives (BDRs) are responsible for new customer acquisition and focus on outbound lead generation. They craft and use cold outreach, phone calls, emails, and direct messaging to connect with and qualify potential clients. Since they engage with leads who are unaware of the company, BDRs prioritize a slow, gradual approach to building interest. They work closely with sales teams to realize a strategic outbound strategy and nurture leads into the appointment setting funnel.
Sales development representatives (SDRs) primarily work with inbound leads, where the person on the other end is somewhat aware of the company’s proposal or services. Since these prospects are already in the funnel, SDRs can move faster, using sales materials and follow-up sequences to guide them to the appointment. They mainly collaborate with marketing teams to produce high-converting content.
Sales representatives may set B2B sales appointments, but their primary role is closing deals. They conduct product demonstrations, address customer questions and concerns, negotiate terms, and turn prospects into accounts. Sales representatives usually have more expertise and experience in sales, negotiation, and presentation than SDRs or BDRs.
Over the years, we at Belkins have tested various tools to streamline our appointment setting processes and picked the best for our client’s projects.
Best B2B sales prospecting tools:
LinkedIn Sales Navigator finds and reaches key decision-makers on LinkedIn, simplifying networking and lead generation.
Hunter.io streamlines lead generation by providing verified contact information with just a few clicks while adhering to GDPR guidelines.
Apollo is an all-in-one sales platform with multiple prospecting tools and a 265 million+ B2B contact database.
Best B2B mass cold emailing tools:
Reply.io is a world-renowned outreach automation tool with a solid cost-to-value ratio.
GMass is a classic cold outreach tool with unlimited daily email sends, ideal for simple, nonpersonalized one-email campaigns.
Best B2B email validation tool:
QuickEmailVerification boasts 96%–99% email deliverability based on our experience, and its simple 3-step process for bulk verification makes it a user-friendly choice.
Best B2B email deliverability tool:
Folderly, developed by Belkins in 2019, improves email deliverability and recovers spam-labeled mailboxes through a combination of technology, API integrations, and a dedicated team.
Best B2B meeting-scheduling tool:
Chili Piper simplifies the scheduling process, reduces no-shows, and makes it easier for prospects to book meetings with you.
Reddit will tell you that you shouldn’t. Our happy clients will tell you that you should. The reality is that it can be a valuable strategy when executed correctly.
To benefit from outsourced B2B sales arrangements, pick your provider carefully, know your strong and weak points, and be ready to do some work yourself.
Time is an essential factor. Do not trust vendors who promise you appointments in one month. It is extremely rare. An optimal runway is 2–4 months from value-prop honing to a steady flow of replies.
What are appointment setting services?
Appointment setting services include specialists who handle the sales-preparation process and outreach activities.
They take on the time-consuming tasks of sifting the market for potential leads and the hurdles of outreach in search of the companies in the right buying stage for your product or service.
Pro appointment setters use many tools and approaches, saving you the hassle of building, teaching, and equipping an internal department.
In the end, you get a calendar filled with B2B sales appointments with warm leads interested in what you can do for them. All you have to do is show up and sell.
The cost of appointment setting services varies depending on factors like the provider, the scope of services, your appointment setting goals, the number of leads targeted, and the complexity of the niche.
A healthy practice is to avoid providers who charge solely by the number of contacts delivered, without proper checks or scoring. There are endless cases of companies spending a ton of money only to get thousands of poor-quality leads that never convert to appointments with the decision-makers.
Many reputable agencies use a monthly retainer model with several set appointments as KPIs, often starting at $5,000.
How appointment setting differs from other sales and marketing activities
Appointment setting includes several elements of the sales and marketing processes, yet it's distinct from other activities.
Appointment setting vs. lead generation
Lead generation is the process of discovering and gathering information on potential clients. It includes conducting online research, building landing pages, retargeting, using marketing automation services, or even buying lists.
Appointment setting is an extension of lead generation that adds follow-up activity by scoring leads and scheduling calls or meetings with them. With a personal touch, it turns the leads into prospective customers.
Appointment setting vs. sales development
Sales development covers a wide scope of work that includes identifying and qualifying leads and nurturing them into and through the funnel as well as all relationship-building approaches within the buying cycle.
Appointment setting is a part of the sales development process targeted explicitly at getting those key meetings where sales teams can make connections and cover questions to close the deal.
Appointment setting vs. cold calling
Cold calling is a classic old-school way to work the prospects. Usually, it means phone calls using canned pitches, notably with no previous relationship-building activities (hence the name), to targeted individuals.
Although cold calling is present in appointment setting, it is part of a broader strategy that uses various channels to form relationships and guide leads into more productive communication.
Food for thought
Targeted B2B sales appointments became a hot trend in the last decade, soaring in 2022 and afterward as the B2B market became oversaturated. For many companies, investing in reaching specific prospects makes more sense than pouring money into traditional marketing campaigns.
Consider that appointment setting requires detailed preparation, investments, and a warm-up phase. In addition to sales representatives, you will need researchers, analysts, data scraping professionals, and a sales development team for the different stages; it’s not a one-man job.
Yet, getting to the right people at the right time with the right proposal is the best way to help your sales hit that quota.
To optimize the process and get the most appointments out of cold outreach, consider outsourcing to a third-party service provider. Contact Belkins today to review your project and discover sales lead opportunities.
Michael is the Co-founder of Belkins, serial entrepreneur, and investor. With a decade of experience in B2B Sales and Marketing, he has a passion for building world-class teams and implementing efficient processes to drive the success of his ventures and clients.
