Before Appointment Setting, Verify What Can And Cannot Be Done

Posted on October 17, 2012 by

Being honest about your limitations is important in appointment setting. Because, during the first few minutes of the meeting, the last thing you want to give a prospect is disappointment. More specifically, it is disappointment from being unable to receive the clear, accounting prediction they have been hoping for.

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How To Use Appointment Setting For Financial Services Targeting Small Businesses

Posted on September 5, 2012 by

At first glance, B2B financial planning sounds big. Therefore, some people would assume that appointment setting for those services will only demand high-paying clients The idea that it could target small businesses sounds rather remote. After all, businesses and professionals who are in this industry tend to give off an image of financial experts overseeing vast amounts of data and being on the look out for potential problems as well as positive growth. That doesn’t seem to fit the usual image of small businesses who approach financial planning at a comparatively simpler level.

But on the contrary, even small businesses can make possible candidates for your sales leads. The factors which appear to disqualify them are only misunderstood:

Budget – Their small budget doesn’t always rule them out. You just need to look at yourself first and see if there’s anything they would like that doesn’t warrant beyond their own capacity to earn. Try to see if you can promote a service which is a simplified version of your larger ones. Simple is your best bet when targeting small businesses.

Expertise – It’s not entirely they’re fault if they’re averse to complex solutions. Small businesses are small partly because there are humbler things to handle, finances included. Therefore, a simpler solution is also easier to understand compared to the ones you give to larger companies.

Needs – Just because their needs are clear doesn’t mean you can just make the sale over the phone or through online communication. These people could still be too busy for that. You need B2B appointment setting because it allows you both to set the best time and place to discuss a financial management solution.

Now as for defining your small business targets, simply look to possible reasons for why their owners could use some financial advice:

They might be starting out – Financial reasons always play a part on why start-ups fail. It doesn’t even take a lot to understand why. Mishandling money always results in having less and less of it to spend and keep up. Their desire for basic financial planning expertise is enough to make them possible financial leads.

They could be expanding – When an organization grows, so does the amount of money they earn and spend. This can even warrant more than just basic financial expertise. Approaching these businesses when they’re in the midst of changing sizes could potentially turn them into another high-paying client!

They can be prone to shady or bad business practices – First off, bad doesn’t necessarily mean criminal. It can just mean they’re committing a grave financial mistake they’re not aware of. Misconceptions always abound in money management. Shady practices on the other hand are a whole different story. It may not even be limited to your targets but also schemes that prey on gullible small business owners (e.g. investment fraud).

The above reasons are just the more popular ones but you could learn about a few more if you just take a shot at targeting small businesses. It’s only a matter of knowing how to simplify and share your knowledge. No matter how advanced your own services have become, there will always be those who still don’t know the basics. So what are you waiting for? Don’t be afraid to turn your sights to small businesses every now and then!

Outsource For Your Accounting Leads The Same Way A Customer Would Outsource Your Accounting

Posted on August 8, 2012 by

If you’re outsourcing to get your accounting leads, then it’s only natural that you apply the same BPO standards to them as your own clients do to you. There’s no doubt that the processes can be different but as far as outsourcing goes, you and your outsourced lead generator will have a lot in common.

Now there are many ways to generate accounting leads. From a simple, singular approach to a complex, integrated, multi-channel approach. But for simplicity’s sake, try first comparing yourself to a telemarketing company. You’ll find that you both still share the following basic requirements:

Database Technology – The first is the obvious. Both accounting and lead generation depend on information. Therefore, the standards of what makes quality information hardly differs between you two. It should be constantly thorough, detailed, and also well-maintained. Information must never grow stale. For accounting, it’s to make sure that financial reports are accurate. For telemarketers, it’s to make sure that their CRM database informs the clients of a lead’s status in the sales process. Don’t forget about security either. Both accounting information and customer information can be considered very sensitive and many people wouldn’t want hackers to get a hold of either.

Dedicated Work Force – Aside from information, you have the people who are charged with using and managing it. With regards to the latter, diligence and productivity are critical. Diligence means that your employees are capable of being consistent in their duties (whether it’s in calculating and tabulating accounts or cold calling a list of prospects). Following that is productivity. It’s what distinguishes diligent tasks from pointlessly repetitive ones. Both telemarketers and accountants shouldn’t be just grinding away at their job. That grind should be able to produce good results.

Cost-Efficiency – You can’t just forget about lower costs now. If it’s one of your primary selling points as an accounting service, then it should also be a selling point for your outsourced lead generator. Otherwise, what’s the point if outsourcing isn’t going to be any more expensive than doing the process in-house? It’s not only redundant but it also compromises the cost-efficiency of your own business.

Industry Expertise – Telemarketers and accountants take pride in their industry expertise. That means your bark should be as good as your bite (or better). Make sure your outsourced telemarketers are familiar with accounting services and have prior experience in promoting them to other industries. (More specifically, industries that you’re currently targeting.) This will not be much different from when these same prospects soon demand your own bookkeeping expertise in relation to their line of work.

So far, there’s barely a mention of how different your services are from telemarketers. It would be the same had you compared yourself to other forms of lead generation, even multi-channeled ones. It doesn’t matter whether it’s onshore or offshore lead generation either.

Perhaps that’s a good thing. Since you both are familiar to the common standards expected of all BPO firms, you will know what to expect of them when it’s your turn to to do the outsourcing. They must have a secure database, a dedicated, work force, cost-efficiency, and top-of-the-line expertise. Outsource your lead generator, the same way your customers would outsource to you.

Generate Leads, Generate Work!

Posted on April 12, 2012 by

B2B doesn’t have to be strictly limited to one company looking to do business with another. Sometimes it can be a lot smaller than it implies. It could even be just an individual professional (such as a financial planner) looking to do something major for a small business owner. The subject matters discussed are still strictly B2B in nature (e.g. planning for things like taxes, insurance, risk management).

And as such, you as an individual shouldn’t be afraid to use B2B-oriented methods and start looking for your own B2B leads. Your skills are very specialized and only a business, even just a small one, can really make good use of it. However, valuable as they are, you need to really be careful in finding out who needs them the most.

Getting information isn’t easy and certain openings may not present themselves even on the classified ads. To fully expand your horizons, you need to cover all areas of getting in touch with possible prospects.

Of course, getting such a wide coverage might be too much for a single person. The methods just by themselves will tax any individual: cold calling, personalizing email, scouring directories. You’ll also have to take care in determining if you’re talking to the person who’s in the right position to hire you. Are you also aware that they don’t like people who talk too much about themselves? This means you might even have to gather more than just contact data to impress your targets. And by the time it’s your turn to tell these people who you are, you might be better off setting up a small meeting for it.

It’s all right to feel unprepared to conduct a lead generation campaign by yourself. Why? Well it’s not like you really have to.

The thing you need to remember is that you should place your value only on the information. You’re looking for people who could use the advanced skills of a financial planner but these are likely to be rather high on the corporate ladder. All you really need is to get these people interested in you. If you have to set up financial appointments, then do it! If you really insist on being afraid, then be more afraid of what happens if you don’t try to make opportunities for yourself.

You won’t get work. You won’t get paid. You don’t really need to keep going just to guess where that road is going to take you.

With that established, you just have to find a cost-efficient way to gather the information you need. There are plenty of cost-efficient ways to get an appointment setter without necessarily turning your office or home into a makeshift call center. If you use outsourced telemarketing, then you’ll have all the information you’ll need.

The point is you need work but your work needs the approval of an entire business organization. You won’t get it unless you really do your homework and get as much information as you can. The more leads you have, the more opportunities you’ll get to finally start working.