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 insurance policy 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 the insurance company to our clients or offer this insurance policy, I might have responded.

This email came back to mind during a call with one of our agents. Our agent explained that his customer service representative (CSR) was not being very successful when it came to calling prospects for an appointment. I asked the agent if his prospect knew why the CSR was calling.

Our agent said, “My CSR was calling to book a follow-up meeting to an appointment that had already occurred.” The agent went on to say that some of his clients/prospects had asked that he, rather than his CSR, 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 our agent 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 insurance policy 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 our agent to send out an email in advance of having the CSR call for an appointment. It could go something like this example, which we use in our business:

Dear Prospect,

I hope this email finds you well. I am writing in follow up to our last appointment when we discussed your insurance coverage and protecting your family/business.

Ninety days have passed since our last conversation and I’m wondering how you’re progressing. I’m going to take the liberty to have my customer service representative call you to schedule a convenient time for us to have a conversation.

Kind regards,

Doug Myrick

With a letter such as this, you give your client or prospect a clear understanding as to why you want to have a conversation and you are treating him with respect.