The intricate nature of their products and services can make it difficult for financial advisors to maintain their sales pipelines full. Building a well-functioning appointment setting program ensures that advisors have a steady stream of conversion opportunities without having to spend too much time prospecting and qualifying leads.
What are Financial Advisor Appointment Setting Services?
Financial appointment setting services refer to programs implemented by sales development representatives and tailor-made for advisors and firms. These SDRs will represent the advisors’ products and services and generate qualified leads using cold calling and emailing tactics.
Appointment setting services are helpful for financial professionals because they:
- Unburden advisors: A team of SDRs generating qualified leads can help advisors save time and focus on necessary tasks for closing deals, such as preparing for sales pitches and refining product offerings.
- Improve lead quality: Leads that SDRs generate undergo extensive qualification to ensure that they fit the company’s ideal customer profile and buyer persona. These qualified prospects are easier and faster to convert into customers.
- Generate ROI: Financial advisor appointment setting services supply the pipeline with qualified leads. These leads are easier and faster to convert, resulting in more closed deals and higher revenue.
Appointment Setting Tips for Financial Advisors
The following tips can help improve your financial advisor appointment setting program:
Offer Personalized Experience
Offering a personalized experience allows SDRs to establish a positive rapport with leads. According to a study from Epsilon, 80% of consumers are more likely to buy when brands provide unique, tailor-made services.1
As a financial advisor, you can customize your appointment setting services by:
- Using modifiable scripts: Scripts offer SDRs a guide on how to best interact with prospects. Adding room for personalization on your appointment setting scripts increases the chance of establishing positive rapport and gaining prospects’ trust.
- Leveraging high-quality content: Given the complexity of the topic, most prospects shopping for financial products and services are looking for insightful content. Sharing relevant and helpful resources gives prospects the information they need and allows SDRs to position your brand as an authority in your niche.
Prepare for Objections
It’s common to encounter objections when trying to set appointments for financial advising, mainly because products and services in this market are highly specialized. You can overcome this challenge and book more meetings by:
- Understanding the target audience: Knowing the common pain points of your target demographic makes it easier to anticipate potential objections.
- Working on segmentation: By categorizing leads, SDRs can accurately predict their questions and concerns and be better prepared to address them during phone negotiations.
Take Advantage of Tools & Automation Features
Tools and automation features can help make appointment setting programs less time-consuming and more efficient without the need for an additional workforce. Examples of these tools include:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Automation features in CRMs like Hubspot, Zoho, and Pipedrive collect data and generate reports for better decision-making.
- Email marketing tools: These tools make it easy for SDRs to run cold email campaigns for financial advisors.
- Scheduling Software: Tools such as Calendly, Appointlet, and Google Calendar allow SDRs to easily track and organize their schedule. These also have features that enable leads to pick the best time to talk with appointment setters and financial advisors.
Find the Right Appointment Setting Partner
There are two ways financial advisors can avail of appointment setting services: building inside teams or outsourcing the task to a third-party firm. Each option has its fair share of pros and cons.
Building an in-house team allows financial advisors and firms full control over their appointment setting programs. This minimizes the risk of misrepresentation and transparency issues. The downside is that it requires a considerable investment upfront, which is often not feasible for small companies.
Outsourcing appointment setting services can be a cost-effective solution. Because most programs are billed on a retainer or pay-per-performance basis, the fees are usually more affordable.
Potential downsides of delegating the process to a third party include transparency and control issues, which can be minimized by finding a reliable company to partner with.
In this video, SalesRoads’ founder David Kreiger details the must-ask questions to make when outsourcing appointment setting services:
Whether you choose to build an in-house sales team or outsource, it’s essential to:
- Pick knowledgeable and experienced SDRs: The success of an appointment setting service heavily relies on the SDRs who will represent the program. These professionals should have strong skill sets and in-depth industry and product knowledge to successfully book appointments for financial advisors.
- Have a clear prospecting and lead qualification process: Creating a well-functioning sales funnel can increase the chances of success of a financial advisor appointment setting program, as it streamlines the buying process.
Bottom Line
When done right, an appointment setting program for financial advisors can significantly improve lead quality and provide the pipeline with overflowing opportunities.
