Your experience hiring an appointment setter/sales rep

For your research, most people have to sift through a stack of hay to find the needle which actually works. Now, this general question has general answers.

But setting an appointment depends on WHAT the appointment is for. Can we assume it is a sales presentation? Or is it something else?

Also, my experience, sales development rep has a different role than an appointment setter, two different skills here.

At the center of all of this is INTENT. What do I want the person to do? Can I clearly tell that person in three short sentences.

I want you to call local businesses. Tell them about my postcard marketing program. Set appointments to drop off free sample. NO selling involved.

OR

Gather emails of local businesses. Send them a prewritten email. Follow up with phone call.

You will find, as you research, these jobs come in many shapes and forms, so have a clear idea of exactly what
you want the person to do, THEN, you can begin the search for the right fit.

As for finding someone, EXPERIENCE ways heavily in their favor, so a track record is important and along with that is ATTITUDE, becuase it can be a grind of rejection, hour after hour, day after day.

What is the Intent? Start there.

GordonJ

Do it yourself first.

If you have no idea what to do, how can you teach someone else?

If you have no idea where to start, getting a 30 or 60 minute consultation with an SDR or outreach specialist could be an affordable way of learning what you need to do.

The outreach for every funnel is a process. You need to find out what works. If it's over the phone or through direct messaging, as examples, you need to discover what language to use--pain points the prospect responds to.

Given that, as a copywriter for over 25 years, I found over and over again that what I thought was valuable was quite different from what the target market thought was valuable, you won't be effective shouting about the features you like about the product or service. You have to engage with real prospective buyers and see what kind of feedback they give you.

After awhile you'll notice patterns and that these conversations have a consistent series of steps.

As another example, when I started my space & defense show several years back, I had to find out what my potential guests would respond to. Many had not (and this is still the case) ever been an interview guest, and were not on the "lecture circuit" we so often see in the guru world. I had to make a sale to get them on board.

What I found was that if I did the "data dump" right up front, it turned people off. Telling them all about the show, who it was for, how it worked, how they could be a guest etc. scared the hell out of them.

But when I started asking one simple, straightforward question after connecting, things became much easier. I had figured out that outreach process. Now my assistant does it. I could explain it, write it down, and so it could be duplicated by another person.

Expecting to hire someone, even an experienced SDR, and get magic results is a recipe for failure. I've seen friends wtih good business experience do this. After a few weeks of frustration the SDR quits.

Attitude and resilience are key. The best outreach professional won't allow rejection or being ignored bother them. They'll keep at the activity that gets results. They stay positive even if they run into the occasional nasty gatekeeper or cranky prospect, who demonstrate a lack of Personality Fit anyway.

Expect to pay for this kind of help. Trying to cheap out on it will result in a lot of frustration and wasted time.

I agree with Jason,but I admit that hiring an appointment setter helps me make my job a lot easier.