Looking to get into sales?
Appointment setting is one of the best ways to get started.
It gives you:
- A foot in the door with great companies
- Tangible experience
- A really good income ($60k–$120k+ per year)
- And much more
But what exactly do appointment setters do?
In this article, I’ll give you a complete lay of the land so you can know if appointment setting will help you reach your goals.
What Is an Appointment Setter?
An appointment setter is someone who calls potential customers on behalf of a company to try and set up a meeting or an appointment.
Depending on the type of company you work with, an “appointment” could be:
- In-person
- Over the phone
- A demo
- A consultation
- Or something else
They’re responsible for booking appointments and getting people to show up…not the sales themselves.
And while this role isn’t as glamorous as a closer, setters are a critical cog in the sales process and make good money.
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What Do Appointment Setters Do (Specifically)?
From a big-picture perspective, setters do 3 things:
1. Prospecting
The setter’s first job is creating a list of contacts based on people who’ve previously shown interest in the company’s product or service.
These could be people who’ve:
- Booked a call before but didn’t show up
- Downloaded a whitepaper
- Registered for a webinar
- Filled out a form
- Or even interacted with the brand on social media
Because of this, they don’t usually have to cold call. All of the prospects they reach out to will be familiar with the company and more receptive (warm) to jumping on a call.
2. Research
Once the setter has a list of prospects, they look for specific details they can use to personalize their outreach to each person.
They scour through company websites, social media profiles, and more to find as much relevant information as possible.
What information are they looking for specifically?
Things like:
- The prospect’s history with their company
- Initiatives they’re involved in
- Their ultimate professional goals
- And more
This helps setters send uber-personalized outreach to each prospect–which increases response and conversion rates drastically.
3. Outreach
Finally, the setter finds the right contact info for each prospect and reaches out to them.
This usually happens through email, LinkedIn, or phone and the setter works off of a template or script they can fill in with personal information for each prospect.
How Much Do Appointment Setters Make?
Appointment setters can make a really good living.
The specific amount you can make depends on:
- Your experience
- The company you work with
- The number of quality appointments you book per month
And becoming a setter gives you the opportunity to level up to a closer (the people who make the sales on those appointments).
Closers can make up to $20k-$30k+ per month.
Appointment Setter Payment Structure
Setters usually have a base pay of about ,500/month depending on the offer and the company they work with.
They also get ~3% of the offer price in commission.
Based on the data we’ve collected over the years at Closers.io, we found that:
- Most setters book 20 appointments per week
- Closers, on average, will close 30% of those sales per week (which is about 6 of the 20 appointments)
If you’re booking appointments for a $10k offer, for example, you would make roughly $1,500 + $7,200 in commission for a total of $8,700.
Companies typically also have extra bonuses for performance goals.
Do You Need Experience to Become an Appointment Setter?
No, but it’s helpful.
Sales and customer service experience definitely makes it easier to get a good gig as a setter.
But we’ve helped thousands of people become setters with ZERO experience.
They pivoted into sales careers from completely unrelated roles like teaching, plumbing, and more.
The key to succeeding as a setter is learning the fundamentals of sales and getting the right opportunity—both of which we can help you get quickly in Remote Closing Academy.
How to Become an Appointment Setter in 3 Steps
There are 4 main steps to becoming an appointment setter (and my training Remote Closing Academy walks you through each step-by-step).
1. Learn Sales
You don’t have to be an expert in sales to succeed as an appointment setter. After all, you’re just booking appointments…not making sales.
But you need a strong foundational knowledge of sales and persuasion to succeed as a setter.
You have two main options when it comes to learning the sales skills you’ll need:
- Leverage free resources – there are tons of great YouTube channels and books available that can help you learn the principles quickly (I highly recommend Influence by Robert B. Cialdini)
- Learn from someone who’s done it – there are tons of great courses that show you specifically how to become a setter or a closer, including Remote Closing Academy (where I reveal how I went from being a bartender to making $30k+ per month)
I highly recommend using a combination of the two.
2. Find the Right Offer
The offer you sell can make or break your success as an appointment setter.
Since your income is directly tied to peoples’ interest in booking calls and ultimately buying the offer, you need to make sure any offer you consider:
- Has already been validated (meaning the person who made it has already sold it themselves many times)
- Has a qualified inbound lead flow (the business already has warm prospects coming through the pipeline you can reach out to)
Finding these offers can be difficult.
More often than not, you’ll have to build a bunch of relationships and apply to a ton of job postings on Monster.com.
At Remote Closing Academy, we place you in proven businesses and have a roster of clients that includes powerhouses like Tony Robbins.
3. Hustle
This isn’t a “get rich quick” scheme.
It’s an opportunity you have to work for.
Competition is fierce because the remote closing industry is booming—there are tons of other closers and setters out there hustling.
So, you can’t afford to stop learning and building relationships.
Learn from other closers and setters nearby. And push to become a closer so you can 3x your income.
Want to Become a Setter?
Are you ready to explore becoming a setter?
If you’re on the fence at all, I recommend taking action TODAY.
Becoming an appointment setter can change everything for you.
How do I know?
Because it has for me and the 1,000+ people who’ve gone through Remote Closing Academy.
All it takes is someone who’s hungry to succeed.
Is that you?
Join us in Remote Closing Academy to get on a fast track to taking advantage of this new, lucrative career.
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Aaron Martinez is a remote closing expert, content creator, and the face of The Remote Closing Academy. Since 2013, he’s started and grown YouTube channels to hundreds of thousands of subscribers, ran a digital marketing agency, and had a ton of success as a remote closer. Now, his focus is teaching you how to master sales so you can increase your earning potential and do more fulfilling work.
