An appointment setting service is a third-party company that contacts businesses and individuals. They set up meetings with interested buyers during the communication, giving your sales team the advantage over your competitors to finalize a deal.
Usually, an appointment setting company charges by the minute on the phone or per appointment. Sometimes, they might charge a combination of both. Typically, appointment setting service costs might be as follows:
- $0.82-$1.15/minute.
- $15-$100/appointment, depending on the industry.
- Plus, possibly setup fees of $400-$600.
A professional outsourced appointment setting company working closely with your marketing and sales teams can provide efficient telemarketing services, resulting in increased inquiries and sales.
Lead management solutions start with appointment setting and assist with lead generation, lead nurturing, and lead scoring. Your marketing team will find that outsourcing this work to experienced and professional call center companies with good communication skills can help define their targeted demographic. The increased data will help expand your company’s brand by targeting the right people.
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Appointment setting companies comparison
Below is a quick price comparison of appointment setting companies in the US.
Company | Lowest hourly rate | Project minimum price |
---|---|---|
B2B Only | $30-$50 | Not published |
Belkins | Not published | $400-$600 pay per appointment |
Callbox | Not published | Not published |
Cience Technologies | Less than $25 | $1,000 |
OnBrand24 | Not published | $5,000 |
Vsynergize | Less than $25 | $1,000 |
Wow24-7 | Less than $25 | $1,000 |
*Disclaimer: The companies highlighted here are in no particular order. Furthermore, prices are correct at the time of writing (August 2021). We compiled the data from the official company website, but prices may have changed since. Therefore, use this guide as a starting point for your own research.
1. B2B Only
As their name suggests, the company specializes in Business-to-Business telemarketing and has done since 2016. Rather than publish prices for established plans, the company prefers to customize its services to suit clients’ requirements. However, various reviews suggest that the company charges from $30 to $50 per hour.
B2B Only is open to working with most companies and has experience dealing with the following:
- Software.
- Healthcare.
- Technology.
- Financial Advisors.
- Medical Devices.
- Medical and Life Insurance.
2. Belkins
Belkins started in 2017. With an extensive marketing and B2B sales background, the company has branches in Europe, South America, Australia, and North America. Belkins say they have an average closure rate of 25%, with more than 20 appointments booked per campaign per month.
Belkins don’t advertise their prices. Instead, they prefer to speak to their clients and design a priced package to suit. However, other sources say that they charge $400 to $600 per appointment.
Plans
The company offers three ready made plans:
- Sales Start-up. They will contact 750 prospects per month and provide a guaranteed minimum of five meetings per month. Moreover, the contract has a duration of three months.
- Sales Growth. The company contacts 1,500 prospects per month and provides a guaranteed minimum of ten meetings per month. Moreover, the contract has a duration of three months.
- Tailored. The company will contact your preferred number of prospects per month. From this, they guarantee to supply a minimum of 20 meetings per month. Moreover, the contract has a duration of six months.
Deliverables
Each plan includes the following:
- Copywriting services.
- Lead qualification and calendar management.
- Dedicated team.
- Weekly reports.
- Real-time and historical reporting.
3. Callbox
Callbox has been trading for more than 14 years and has served many household names such as Toshiba, DHL, and ADT.
The company specializes in solutions comprising:
- Lead scoring.
- Data mining.
- Lead generations.
- Appointment setting.
- Lead nurturing.
Furthermore, Callbox is the largest provider of multi-touch, multi-channel marketing solutions for SMEs.
If you use their lead generation and appointment setting service, the company offers access to the following:
- High-value contacts.
- Qualified leads. The company’s team handles the job of finding potential clients and setting appointments.
- Callbox uses multiple communication channels to reach more clients.
- Your sales team will benefit from Callbox’s array of sales tools designed to help you close that deal.
4. CIENCE Technologies
CIENCE Technologies has traded since 2015 and provides professional appointment setters to the full range of companies, from small businesses and large corporations. The company specializes in generating sales leads from a targeted demographic from many different industries. These include companies as diverse as IT and healthcare, and different sized businesses such as small insurance agents and health and wellness clubs, to large manufacturing companies.
Clients pay a monthly service subscription for a minimum of three months, which works out at less than $25 per hour for a project greater than $1,000.
Features
The company’s packages offer features, such as:
- Appointment scheduling.
- Precision targeting.
- Copywriting.
- Reply handling.
- Detailed analytics.
5. OnBrand24
OnBrand24 has been in business since 1980. The company works from three call centers in the US and can offer from 250 to 1000 agents to your project. Although the company doesn’t publish its hourly rates, it does stipulate projects larger than $5,000.
As a customer service outsourcing business, the company includes the following features in its inbound bundles:
- Live chat support.
- SMS text messaging.
- Voice channels.
- Email.
- Video.
- Social Media support.
However, for its outbound services, the company not only provides appointment settings, but it also excels in:
- Customer win-back.
- Database scrubbing.
- Market research.
- Lead generation.
In fact, all the services you need to make contacting prospects a successful win.
6. Vsynergize
Vsynergize is an appointment settings service working out of San Francisco and has traded since 2001. The company has the most experience with businesses from the following industries:
- Telecommunications.
- Medical.
- Financial.
- IT.
This company can offer any number of employees between 250 and 1,000 to work on your project. Moreover, Vsynergize offers the following services:
- Appointment setting.
- Customer service.
- Lead generation.
- Lead qualifying.
- IT support.
Furthermore, it charges less than $25 per hour for a project size greater than $1,000.
7. Wow24-7
Wow24-7 is an appointment setting service, started in 2016 and based in Ukraine. The company works for clients worldwide and can offer telemarketing in English, Spanish and German. It works with all customers, from small start-ups to large corporations, and can offer B2B and B2C appointment setting services.
Wow24-7 requires its customers to have a project minimum of $1,000 and charges less than $25 per hour for its work.
The company offers three plans in the English language:
- Start-up shared guarantees up to 500 interactions per month with two weeks of training before start. The agent works from scripts.
- Basic shared offers up to 1000 monthly interactions with a training time of two to four weeks. The agent is always proactive when talking to prospects on the phone.
- Semi-dedicated offers up to 1600 monthly interactions and 400 dedicated hours on your account. Also, there is from two to four weeks of training. During phone calls with prospects, the agent is always proactive.
Features
Each plan includes the following features:
- Free training.
- Free set up.
- English-speaking customer support 24/7.
- Free monthly reporting.
- One free US or Canadian toll-free phone number.
How Much Do Appointment Setting Services Cost?
The prices charged by each appointment setting service company vary, as they all have different ways of charging their customers.
Hourly rate
Some companies charge their clients by the minute or by the hour. Typically, the cost to set up an appointment for your sales team works out on average, from $25 to $75 per hour.
Hourly charging companies invoice their customers by the month based on the amount of time working on the account. Also, this method includes time taken to prepare reports and other non-cold-call administration time. Usually, the average cost of 100 calls per month plus admin calculates between $300 and $500 per month. However, some companies offer free admin charges, preferring to include this into the hourly rate or write it off as a necessary overhead.
Per appointment
Alternatively, some companies charge per appointment. Typically, the charges could fall between $15 and $100 per appointment, depending on the complexity of the work. This method benefits the customer, as they only pay for performance and not for leads that amount to nothing.
Flat fee
Some companies charge a flat fee that varies with the complexity of the agent’s script and the amount of work expected by the customer.
Other fees
There are other fees over and above those related to appointment setting.
- Setup fees cover the costs of script development and campaign strategies. Usually, fees such as these range from $400 to $600.
- Sometimes, an appointment setting company will provide its own list of leads. Usually, this costs, on average, from $100 to $1,100.
What Are Appointment Setting Services?
Appointment setting services are third-party specialist companies that work from a call center and employ agents experienced in communication. The agents speak to potential customers on the phone, by email, or using SMS/text, and book meetings for your sales team to close the deal. The appointment setting service company constantly works on your behalf. And the future sales prospects usually assume that they are speaking to your company.
However, although many appointment setters are very professional and skilled, choosing the wrong provider might cost your company a lot of money, waste time, and affect your company’s reputation. Therefore, outsourcing the appointment setting to experienced companies with their own call centers reduces the costs involved in employing and training cold callers of your own.
Appointment Setting Service Industries
Appointment setting service companies benefit a range of different industries. Usually, providers specialize in a few industries, sometimes related.
B2B appointment setting service companies
Business to business, or B2B, selling can often be a long and complex process from start to finish. Typically, the time from the first contact to closing a deal might need several months of sporadic contact while the wheels of corporate decision-making go round. At the same time, a fair proportion of that time is spent talking to people on the phone in initial communications.
Typically, the following steps occur during this time:
- Contact the top management level decision-makers, such as the owner, CEO, directors, or department heads.
- Convince management level that the commodity can solve a specific problem.
- Multiple contacts over a long time while the purchasing company carries out feasibility studies or market research.
- Convince the purchasing prospect to make a large purchase.
- Finalize the deal.
Evidently, you don’t want to reach the final step without being sure of a sale. Therefore, hiring an appointment setting service provider can reduce costs by identifying better quality contacts before your sales team gets involved.
Insurance appointment setting service providers
Selling insurance is hard to do. You must convince your prospect to commit to years of monthly or annual payments.
Cold calling insurance is time-consuming and can become very stressful if the agent receives negative responses day-in and day-out. On average, cold callers need around five calls before starting a reliable conversation. Combine this with the need for 80 calls to generate one sales opportunity, and you can see how easy it might be for the average person to become disillusioned and give up.
That’s why you need professional communicators working for a specialist appointment setting company.
Specialized cold callers have advantages that the ordinary person doesn’t have:
- Their sole purpose is staying on the phone and communicating the benefits of your product. This relieves your in-house staff of the burden of telesales and allows them to concentrate on developing new products and devoting time to existing and new clients.
- Insurance cold callers and appointment setters work remotely, freeing you from the hassle of purchasing, installing, and maintaining costly equipment. Furthermore, you don’t have to train employees to use the equipment.
- Let’s face it. Usually, people who answer their phones don’t welcome cold callers. Therefore, the insurance appointment setters need to be skilled and experienced in using subtlety and tact. Professional call center staff gently persuade the prospect to at least consider the concept of insurance. Then, they follow a considerate and no-pressure method to ensure they stay on the line and come back for more. Eventually, this might lead to a lucrative sale.
Medical appointment setting companies
Medical and other healthcare companies have inherent challenges when dealing with the public.
- Appointment booking can be a nightmare for patients. If your office or clinic phone
line is always busy, you run the risk of patients moving to your competitors. And let’s face it, you can’t usually afford to employ a crowd of people on the end of the phone. So it makes sense to outsource this phase.
- Claiming on their insurance can make patients work too hard, especially if they’re feeling unwell. Usually, they need identity authentication and bill submission to reimburse their medication charges. Often, patients aren’t well enough to cope with this.
- Hospitals organize themselves into complex networks. Therefore, patients might not connect with the right ambulance company quickly enough, resulting in service delays and a subsequent increase in emergency treatment.
- Patients need to collect reports from hospitals and labs to further their treatment. Unfortunately, if they’re unwell, this might be impossible. Sometimes, delayed reports describing diagnosis will lead to treatment delays and further health problems.
How call centers provide solutions
You solve these problems by using a specially trained team of call center workers whose sole purpose is to help your patients.
The centralized call center number will redirect the phone call to the correct ambulance in the region, thus reducing the time between making the call and arriving at the correct hospital.
Using a smartphone app allows the call center worker to confirm the patient’s identity and easily make a doctor’s appointment.
Patients can collect reports via email or SMS. Then, forward the report to their doctor almost immediately for a follow-up appointment or request medication.
Call centers can also schedule follow-up appointment reminders, send out relevant health tips such as air quality reports for people with asthma, and organize bill payments.
However, call centers and appointment setters working with the healthcare industries must comply with the laws relating to data security and medical confidentiality. The HIPAA regulations require all companies dealing with medical records to keep abreast of any changes to maintain their registration. Furthermore, if the call center also handles credit card payments, they must comply with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) regulations. Those that don’t comply are liable for fines and can no longer accept card payments.
How To Compare Appointment Setting Services
Without a doubt, the price of a product or service will always be a deciding factor. However, don’t let it be the only factor. Therefore, keep an eye on the following qualities when you look for an appointment setting provider:
Communication skills
Although appointment setting won’t clinch the deal, it is part of the process leading up to the final signature. Therefore the call center’s staff must employ agents who can communicate clearly and professionally, without overloading potential customers with too much data.
Industry expertise
Consider the type of conversation you want the call center agent to have. Do they need to understand the background of your product or service? What happens if the prospect asks awkward questions? So, you must prepare a fully comprehensive script for all eventualities. But, it helps if the agent knows something about your business.
Professional agents
Let’s face it. You’ve outsourced this part of the sales process, so experienced professionals handle it. Therefore, ensure that the agents dealing with your account are talented and experienced at what they do. That’s the only way for your business to grow.
Reporting
You won’t know if you’re getting value for money if the outsourced company doesn’t have comprehensive and reliable reporting procedures. So, check that the appointment setting provider produces detailed weekly reports specifying many of the call analytics you need for your marketing team:
- Call volume.
- Call length.
- The number of missed calls.
- The number of hangups.
Reporting is the only way to know your campaign’s feedback and whether you need to change anything.
Benefits of Outsourcing Appointments
Running a business demands a lot of your time focusing on individual tasks to make things run smoothly. Therefore, it makes sense to outsource those aspects of your business that don’t need your immediate supervision. Outsourcing appointment setting to specialist companies saves you time and money while leaving the outsourced tasks to experts in their field. The providers then supply you with a regular report for your perusal.
The following are some of the benefits of outsourcing appointment setting:
An experienced and dedicated team
Handling appointment setting in-house requires that you have a trained team specifically for that role. Furthermore, the job isn’t something someone can pick up and put down depending on their workload.
To get the most out of in-house appointment setters, you need to pay for comprehensive training for possibly inexperienced communicators. However, this is a waste of money and time. Likewise, expecting your sales team to do the job prevents them from focusing on their primary objective; closing the deal. Therefore, it makes sense to outsource as many tasks as possible to appointment setting providers.
Cost-effective
At first sight, it might seem that training in-house employees to handle cold calling appointment settings is less expensive than outsourcing. However, this isn’t necessarily the case. To have in-house employees, you need to go through the recruitment process, induction, and training. All of which costs money. Finally, once you have your appointment setters trained, there won’t be any guarantee of how long they intend to stay. In comparison, by outsourcing the task to a specialist company that already has trained staff, you only pay for their services. Also, you don’t have to worry about salary increases, benefits, continual training, time off, or employee turnover.
Expanding customer base
You probably already find it challenging to increase your customer base and break into new markets. If so, you’ll find that using an outsourced appointment setting provider gives you the ability to increase the range of clients and break into different locations. Both of which help your business growth.
Next Steps
Improving your business by outsourcing work to an appointment setting provider is essential in the modern age where each customer contact increases your share of the available market. You might think that outsourcing is an avoidable expense, and you could do the work in-house. But, you’ll find that appointment setting services cost less than you think. Instead, by hiring an outsourced provider, you are putting this essential sales-based work into the hands of experienced and dedicated professionals who already know how to give you the best return on your dollars spent.
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