Appointment setting for staffing agencies: what a good meeting looks like
Appointment setting means someone else does the finding and the first outreach, and you show up to a scheduled conversation with a company that needs staff. Done well, it gives an owner back the hours that prospecting eats. Done badly, it fills your calendar with people who were never going to buy.
What you are buying, and what you are not
You are buying conversations with hiring managers. You are not buying placements, signed contracts or revenue. Winning the account is still your job, and any vendor who promises otherwise is promising something they don’t control.
Four tests for a qualified meeting
- The person hires for the roles you fill, or decides which agencies get used.
- Their company is in the territory you can actually staff.
- Those roles are open now.
- The meeting is scheduled, and it happens. A canceled call is not a meeting.
Ask for the vendor’s definition in writing before you start. If they can’t give you one, you will argue about it later.
What should arrive with each meeting
A calendar invite alone is not enough. You should walk in knowing:
- The company, and which site.
- The roles they posted, and when.
- Who you are meeting and what they do.
- What they said in their reply, in their own words.
- Whether it is a call, a video call or a visit.
Thursday, 10:30 AM, phone call, 30 minutes
Dana Ruiz, Warehouse Manager, Kestrel 3PL (Secaucus)
Hiring: 4 forklift operators, 2nd shift, posted Tuesday
She said: “Second shift is short and our current agency keeps sending no-shows.”
Doing it in-house or hiring it out
In-house, someone has to watch for hiring signals, find and verify contacts, write and send the emails, protect your email domain, and answer replies quickly. That is a real job. In an agency where the owner is also the salesperson, it is usually the job that gets dropped in a busy week.
Hiring it out makes sense when your close rate in a meeting is good and the thing you lack is meetings. If you are not sure how you do in front of a new company, a short pilot will tell you.
Questions to ask a vendor
- How do you define a qualified meeting, and where is that written down?
- What happens if a meeting is canceled or the person doesn’t show?
- Whose name and which email domain do the messages go out in?
- Do I get to approve the emails before they are sent?
- Will you work with another agency in my niche and area?
- What is the price, the minimum term, and the guarantee?
How ReqRunner handles it
If fewer than 4 qualified meetings are booked in your first 30 days of outreach, your second month is free. A meeting counts when it’s booked during those 30 days and takes place within 14 days after they end. Qualified means a scheduled call or visit with someone who hires for the roles you fill, at a company in your territory that has those roles open. Meetings the hiring manager cancels or doesn’t attend don’t count unless they’re rescheduled and held in that window. If you miss a meeting we booked, it still counts.
We guarantee meetings, not placements or new clients. Winning the business is your team’s job.
You approve the sender name and every email in writing before anything is sent. Each booked meeting comes with a brief, and you can see every meeting, the weekly hiring list and a Friday report in your client portal.