Is telemarketing a thing of the past or has it been repackaged as “Appointment Setting”? Is there a difference between telemarketing and appointment setting? Reviewing what was expected of telemarketers and what is expected of appointment setters, there is a large difference in the process and outcome.

Telemarketing is still being used currently as a form of sales. Think automatic dialers – you answer your phone – you say “hello” a few times – and finally someone on the other end starts talking. I personally usually hang up. I know they are trying to sell me something. Think of the forceful scripted conversations – where the caller does not take “no” for an answer. There is not an art of conversation. The conversation is very black and white. This is what I’m offering and I want you to buy it. The best is when someone calls you – and you can’t even understand them. Even if it is a product/service that you are interested in, can you imagine dealing with the company with any problems or questions?
If you were not able to get the words “not interested” in fast enough, they scheduled an appointment with you. Only to have frustrated sales people call upon you to find out that you had no interest in the product or service. Chances are – the telemarketing firm was paid by appointment – so they scheduled appointments for people who had little or no interest.

This is a true story; I received a call – several years ago from a caller who was asking for my husband. I let the caller know that he was not available – and I could tell by the mispronunciation of his first name that this was a telemarketer – and I asked very nicely to be removed from the list. The caller then proceeded to yell at me and told me that this was my spouse’s girlfriend calling. If only the company that this person was calling for could hear how she was representing their company. I’m sure they would be horrified.

Appointment Setting was developed from everything that telemarketing was doing wrong. Appointment setting firms wanted to differentiate itself from telemarketing firms by offering high quality employees that can carry on conversations with gatekeepers and top level executives to build trust and create a positive brand image of the company they are representing. They are often highly trained about the products and services that they are representing.

The appointments that they schedule represent them. Their appointments are high caliber. They prime the prospects for the sales team. They supply collateral material upon requests from the prospects. They are not just a nameless caller making appointments on your behalf – they develop a rapport with the prospects and sales team and work as an extension of the sales team.

Do you agree that telemarketing has not been repackaged as “Appointment Setting”?

Tags: appointment setting, b2b lead generation, b2b leads, b2b sales, cold calling, cold calling service, EAS LeadGen, executive appointment setting, lead gen, lead generation, lead generation techniques, lead nurturing, leads, pay per lead, prospecting, Sales, sales appointment setting, sales lead generation, sales pipeline, sales prospects, targeted leads, telemarketing