7 Most Common B2B Appointment-Setting Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Let’s talk about your mistakes. 

Wait, don’t bolt! What I mean is, let’s talk about overcoming the mistakes you unknowingly make when B2B appointment setting. Less scary, right?

There’s a wide variety of B2B appointment-setting techniques to know and keep up with, but having insight on how not to drop the ball is just as valuable.

When you know the common appointment-setting mistakes others have made, it’ll be easier to prepare your own strategy to avoid them. 

That way, you can focus on optimizing your appointment setting and nurturing activities, as well as everything else that will increase your revenue. 

Let’s talk about what you shouldn’t do if you want to secure an appointment with your prospects and how to fix that. 

1. Taking mental notes of client updates

Your work days are long, and you (hopefully) talk to a lot of prospects. So, maybe you cut corners here and there by not taking the time to update customer relationship management (CRM) records.

“I’ll remember everything and note it all later,” you tell yourself — how hard can it be, right? 

Not quite. 

Outdated CRM records are one of the most common reasons why so many appointment-setting opportunities slip through the cracks. 

It might feel like you’re relieving pressure from the burden of nurturing contacts across the sales pipeline but make no mistake — neglecting to update CRM records while you engage prospects is a B2B appointment-setting mistake you don’t want to make. 

Here’s what you need to start doing: Add notes to a CRM profile during every B2B appointment setting call. Watch how much more prepared you are for the call and ready to deliver personalized pitches. 

2. You’re targeting the wrong prospects 

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where a schedule jam-packed with back-to-back calls failed to result in an equal number of appointments? 

That happens if you’re focusing on an audience that’s not the right fit for your product or service. 

When you engage unqualified leads who don’t match your ideal customer profile, you waste valuable selling time that could be better utilized to set appointments with leads that will buy.

Plus, while you make calls just for the sake of it, your competitors get to have a field day with the qualified leads you could land. 

To have more successful interactions when B2B appointment setting, do this before you dial:

• Build a precise buyer persona + understand your target audience through market research 
• Create marketing content that appeals to them specifically
• Implement appointment setting software that prequalifies leads 

3. Using tools that slow you down

How are you setting appointments, anyway? 

If you want to follow the best practices of B2B appointment-setting techniques, do yourself a favor and avoid using CRM or appointment-setting platforms with insufficient built-in functionality. 

The lack of customizability and precision holds you back from setting new B2B appointments more than you think. 

Take the time to find the right sales engagement platform with appointment-setting custom features that can help you:

• Call the next-best lead based on your criteria (and automatically follow up with them)
• Bypass objections with logical branch scripting that keeps you on message.
• Nurture leads that aren’t ready for an appointment.
• Automatically set appointments in the next free calendar time slot.
• Track sales made, appointment quality, rescheduling needs, and more.

And that’s not even all of it — find the right platform, and the appointment-setting process will never be the same again. 

4. Keeping your prospects guessing (but not in a good way)

When booking an appointment, new customers don’t want to be in the dark regarding what to expect and what they will commit to. 

Seems like a no-brainer, right? You’d be surprised.

Unfortunately, a common B2B appointment setting mistake is to leave your prospects hanging without the information they need to know:

• An in-depth overview of the services you provide or the products you offer. 
• Costs associated with the steps beyond setting an appointment. 
• Prep work they need to complete before the next appointment.

And, of course, always ask your prospects what they want to know  — otherwise, they might just lose interest due to gaps in communication and bounce to the next vendor. 

Think of yourself as a buyer. Don’t you always want to know what you’re getting into before committing? 

5. Turning a blind eye to customer feedback

Doing business without soliciting customer feedback doesn’t work out for anyone. 

The sooner you get that customer feedback necessary for the success of your B2B appointment setting goals, the quicker you can implement user suggestions to improve your skills and strengthen your processes.

Ultimately, acting on their recommendations keeps your customers happy. Not only will you get valuable insight into their needs and interests, but this also shows their opinion matters to you. 

And remember: Happy customers are loyal, that is, paying customers.

6. Not having a repeatable system in place 

Whether you do your own B2B appointment setting or you’re leading an entire sales team, the same rule applies — no shortcuts here.

Here’s the rule you should stick to: stop making the mistake of ad-libbing and create a replicable procedure to manage the crucial details of a customer’s appointment more effectively once it’s set. 

It’s crucial to have a clear system in place. Otherwise, you risk details getting lost or overlooked, and the next thing you know, your customer experience leaves way too much to be desired. So, If you want to retain your customers, make sure you take good care of them. 

Take note of this B2B appointment-setting technique: Once a customer makes an appointment, make sure the information is properly documented, viewed, and handled by the right people. 

There are a million little moving parts when setting B2B appointments. If you and your team aren’t in sync, expect mix-ups, overlapping appointments, and unhappy customers. 

7. Not leveraging a multi-channel approach

Adopting a multichannel strategy is a must for reaching out to your prospects and setting appointments effectively. 

By combining phone calls, emails, social media, webinars, blog posts, and podcasts, you’ll catch your audience’s attention and warm them up to the idea of booking an appointment with you. It’s only logical to conclude that your odds of reaching a prospect are higher if you approach them from different channels. 

For this powerful strategy to work, you also need to tailor your messages to fit each channel and each prospect. In other words, it wouldn’t be a good idea to send the same email to everyone or post the exact same content on every social media platform. What you should do is customize your messages based on the channel’s tone, style, format, and target audience. 

You also want to segment your audience and personalize your messages based on each prospect’s industry, role, pain points, and other parameters. 

By doing so, you’ll show your prospects you understand their needs, challenges, and preferences. This will allow you to add value to your messaging and differentiate yourself from the rest of the pact. You’ll no longer be just another sales rep trying to push their agenda and sell something. 

As a result, you’ll build trust and rapport with your potential customers, which will make them more interested and willing to book a meeting with you.  

Over to you

Tired of no-shows and canceled appointments? Then you need to review your processes and identify what works and, even more importantly, what doesn’t. Once you’re aware of your mistakes and bad practices, you can start building a truly effective appointment-setting system. VanillaSoft is here to help with the right tools that will speed up the process and take the guesswork and stress out of your job.