After training over 150 business teams in the U.S. and Canada, I know that advisors struggle with consistent appointment scheduling. One week their calendar is full, the next week, it’s empty. Why? Because when advisors have a full week, there’s no time to get on the phone to schedule more appointments – which means their following week is frustratingly slow. Or even if they call and leave messages, they miss the return calls because they’re out of the office on appointments. Sound familiar?
Why not break the cycle by having someone else make all of your appointments? Wouldn’t it be great to walk out of the office every Friday afternoon knowing your calendar was full for Monday and the rest of the week?
It can happen by hiring a marketing coordinator or assigning the job to someone already on your staff. I know what you’re thinking. Nobody could ever be as effective as you. But that’s not necessarily true! I worked with a producer for 17 years and made all of his calls. I began with existing clients, reschedules and prospects, and after 6 months, I called the referrals. The result — a consistent appointment stream with a mixture of new and existing clients. Because I made all the calls, my boss had time to see 5 more people a week. The increase in appointments not only improved revenue, it increased referrals, too.
Now as part of my business, I train marketing coordinators to make calls and fill advisors’ calendars efficiently. A few of my tips:
Make calls every day at 9 a.m.
Sell the appointment, not a product or service
Call every 3 days, leaving a simple message to get people to call back
Use specific language to overcome objections successfully
If you want a balanced and consistent appointment stream, trust someone else to make your calls. After all, when you first began making calls, you probably stumbled a bit before you figured out how to fill the calendar. But you learned quickly and got results. An energetic and persistent marketing coordinator can do the same. Happy scheduling.