Glossary
Appointment setting
Appointment setting is the job of contacting prospects and booking qualified sales meetings for a closer, usually an account executive. Setters work by phone, cold email and LinkedIn and are measured on meetings held, not calls made.
What Is Appointment Setting?
In short A setter takes a target list, reaches out, handles the first objections, checks basic fit and puts a meeting on the closer's calendar with notes.
In-house the role is usually called SDR or BDR. Agencies sell it as a service, often paid per meeting or as a monthly retainer.
The hard part is quality. A meeting with the wrong person, or one that never happens, costs the closer an hour. Good programs agree in writing on what counts as a qualified meeting, such as title, company size and a confirmed problem, and track show rate as well as bookings.
Appointment Setting Example
Example: an agency books meetings for a cybersecurity firm. It emails 2,000 IT directors over a month, gets 60 positive replies, books 25 meetings and 20 people show up. Show rate is 80%, and the client's account executives work 20 first calls that all match the agreed criteria.
Appointment Setting in Practice
Ken's view: for outbound teams, meetings held is the number that matters most. Reply rate measures the message. Meetings held measures the whole system: list, copy, deliverability and follow-up.
FAQ
What is appointment setting?
Contacting prospects and booking qualified meetings for the salesperson who runs the sales conversation. HubSpot describes B2B appointment setting as reps working the prospecting stage and scheduling a meeting between a qualified lead and the closing rep, either in-house or outsourced.
What does an appointment setter do?
Works a target list by phone, email and LinkedIn, handles first objections, checks basic fit and books the meeting with notes for the closer. O*NET lists scheduling appointments for sales representatives to meet prospective customers as a telemarketer task.
What is the difference between an appointment setter and an SDR?
An SDR usually owns more of the top of the funnel, including research, qualification and sometimes inbound follow-up, with booked meetings as the goal. Appointment setter is a narrower title, more common in agencies and outsourced programs.
How do you measure appointment setting?
By meetings held that met the agreed criteria, not by meetings booked. Track show rate (held divided by booked) and the share of held meetings that turn into pipeline.
Do This in Ken
Do This in Ken
Campaigns runs the email and LinkedIn sequences that book meetings, and Inbox puts every reply in one queue so setters answer fast.
- Module
- Campaigns
- Open in Ken
- /free-campaign
The new Ken opens to the waiting list in batches.
Related
Sources
| Source | Checked |
|---|---|
| HubSpot: B2B appointment setting | |
| Salesforce: What is a sales development representative (SDR)? | |
| O*NET: Telemarketers (41-9041.00) |
Changelog
- Page published.