This is 2021 and the business is moving faster than ever before. We moved on from dial-up to high-speed internet, flip phones to smartphones, and so on. Now it’s time to move on from scheduling meetings with 4 to 7 emails back and forth.
These emails are a waste of time and energy for you and your clients or customers. Worse yet it creates friction at the most critical part of the relationship, when they are ready to take action!
In this month’s tool, tip, and quote I’ll show you the tool I used to increase client bookings by 50% and eliminated the back and forth emails that create friction with clients.
Tool: Calendly, A smarter way to schedule meetings
Gone are the days when you had to wait for a positive reply from your client to set up a prospective meeting. No more flipping through the days of the week on your calendar to find out if your client is available to pre-schedule a meeting.
Calendly is an application that eliminates the friction between you and your prospects, customers, or clients to set meetings. They even have a free version that offers enough features for you to start seeing immediate results.
Here are the top 8 ways Calendly can help you:
1.Integrated calendar: Calendly can integrate with your calendar on Google, Office 365, iCloud, Outlook, etc. to avoid overlapping schedules or double booking.
2. Buffer time: The tool allows setting buffer time in between the meetings and also helps to avoid last-minute meetings. You can also use this buffer time to create secret events or meets.
3. Flexible number of attendees: Calendy supports one-on-one meeting schedules as well as a collective schedule for a team meeting. You can invite any number of attendees to a meeting.
4. Time zone detection: The application seamlessly detects your time zone along with your clients or invitees to ensure everyone stays on the same line.
5. App Integrations: Calendly can be accessed through any device and via different apps. You can automate meeting schedules by integrating Calendly with GoToMeeting, Salesforce, Zapier, Zoom, and more.
6. Set limits: You can set a limit on the maximum number of meetings for a day. This will ensure that Calendly doesn’t show you available to any client or invitation for that day after your schedule is full.
7. Collects payment: Yes, Calendly can collect payments from your clients or invitees via Paypal or credit card for client meetings.
8. Website embed: You can embed Calendly directly on your website. This will help your clients to check your availability and instantly schedule a meeting right from your official website.
Of course, they have a number of other features as well. The 8 above are the ones I’ve found the most useful.
Tip: How to use Calendly to increase bookings by 50%
I realized I may love Calendly too much when I sent my college daughter my link to schedule a virtual coffee. She replied back “Are you kidding me Dad?” Priceless!
The efficiency and time savings are insane. You may have seen my Calendly link in a number of different places lately.
Here are the 5 places I use my Calendly link to increase bookings by 50%.
1. Email signature: this gives you the opportunity to book a meeting with your clients or customers in every email you send to them without all the back and forth.
2. Prospect emails: If your business is high-touch, this tool makes it easy for prospects to easily move to the next step in the sales process. You can send these prospect emails manually or automate them through an Email Marketing Service such as MailChimp.
3. Text messages: this is great for existing clients to quickly set up a meeting for updates or new opportunities.
4. Social media DMs: similar to text messages, social media DMs from prospects or other business opportunities allows you to easily move them to the next step in the process.
5. Social media posts: putting your Calendly link at the bottom of social media posts gives readers a dead-simple way to schedule a meeting as a prospective client.
Another quick tip, once the bookings start rolling in you can connect Calendly to your Zoom account so it automatically creates and sends a Zoom link to your meeting partner to save you even more time. What a system!
Quote: “Quitters never win and winners never Quit”
This is the most dangerous quote to live by for both your business and personal life. Why?
Vince Lombardi is considered by many to be the greatest coach in NFL history. He coached the winning team of the first two Super Bowls along with many other accomplishments. In fact, the Super Bowl trophy is named in his honor.
This quote is largely attributed to Lombardi although he probably wasn’t the first one to say it. To be fair this is great advice for certain situations such as sports and health goals. However, it’s incredibly destructive in business and your personal life.
Sometimes quitting is the hardest choice. I’ve seen countless folks destroy their financial situation in business because they believe that quitters never win. The truth is that sometimes you absolutely should quit. The same holds true for personal and romantic relationships along with jobs that never get better and are dead ends.
Why be miserable Monday thru Friday every week. Life is short. Quite, change, or pivot. In the real world of business and life, winners do and should quite sometimes! Quitting is oftentimes more commendable than never quitting to protect your pride, ego, and chasing the status quo.
How do you know when to quit? This is a tough question and the answer depends a great deal on your individual situations. However, one of the best books written on this topic is “The Dip” by Seth Godin. It will give you a good framework to decide if you’re in a dip or a dead end and if you should quit or keep working.
What’s next?
I want you to have more money and time so you can enjoy the freedom you deserve! This tool, tip, and quote article is a glimpse into the insight I provide my clients on a regular basis to get stunning results.
My mission is to help business owners who have a burning desire to take action. I provide the best business advice conflict-free to help you eliminate a problem, double your income, brainstorm an idea, and solve any of the hundreds of issues that come up when you’re a business owner. Want Coach Larry V. to help you? Schedule a Discovery Meeting.