Let’s Meet: How to Schedule an Appointment.

Personally, I don’t want to be invited to have a beverage, quick chat or lunch. Recently, I received a have-a-quick-chat email and didn’t respond. Don’t misunderstand me: I’m happy to follow up if I’m informed why I might be interested in such an invitation in either the subject line or the first few lines of an email invitation.

The email I received went on about what a certain product did and how it worked, and I could not be bothered to read further. If the writer had explained in the first line that he wanted me to refer him to my clients or offer his product in my blog or newsletter, I might have responded.

This email came back to mind during a call with one of my clients. My client explained that his assistant was not being very successful when it came to calling prospects for an appointment. I asked my client if his prospect knew why the assistant was calling.

My client said, “My assistant was calling to book a follow-up meeting to an appointment that had already occurred.” My client went on to say that some of his clients/prospects had asked that he, rather than his assistant, call to schedule the appointment. (I said that I would be out of business if I made every call to schedule client and prospect appointments.) I explained that I thought that this was more about the process (client engagement) than the person making the call.

I told my client he needed to do a proper needs analysis with the client or prospect that included asking him for the three biggest improvements he wanted to make and his three biggest roadblocks to success. Then, he needed to make his product the solution to the client’s or prospect’s problems. When the client engagement process is done properly it makes the appointments a lot easier to secure.

I told my client to send out an email in advance of having the assistant call for an appointment. It could go something like this example, which we use in our business:

Dear Prospect,