In a recently published survey for B2B Marketing magazine qualifying leads and "booking sales appointments" came out as the leading objective for using B2B telemarketing in 2009.

Soft objectives, such as "customer feedback" and "customer research" were graded the lowest priority from respondents, whilst 65% said that booking sales appointments was their prime objective.

Is that really so surprising?

In today's climate more than ever ROI (return on investment) is everything. Business-to-business (B2B) telemarketing has always been about delivering a strong ROI and appointment setting has always been as the sharp end where marketing meets sales.

That's why our people have come from a sales or business development background.

Appointment setting isn't about filling out questionnaires or sending "something in the post"; it's about having a grown-up conversation that uncovers needs and qualifies interest from a sales perspective.

Indeed, the survey points out that because "booking sales appointments" was cited by so many respondents it reflects the "close alignment of telemarketing and sales in the B2B arena"

We couldn't agree more.

Labels: appointment setting, telemarketing appointment setting