How to Double Your Sales Appointments in Half the Time; Part 2

This is the second installment in a series of posts on how to double your sales appointments in half the time.

In the first episode, I went over three ways to make yourself more available when you’re at work and in-between meetings: 

1) The Email Trick 

2) The Snag Meeting Trick 

3) Setting up Quick Meetings on Your Own Time (and Own Schedule).

In this post, I'm going to talk about two more hacks for making yourself available when you’re out of the office.

How to Make Yourself More Available When You’re Out of the Office

The first hack is what I call "the lunch trick."

You go to the local deli and you order a sandwich. Then, you stand at the counter and eat your sandwich while reading a magazine or reading your email on your phone. When you go outside to eat it, there’s always someone who wants to chat. (Even if they don't want to chat, they will walk past and say hi.)

They want to chat because you're eating lunch; because you're outside; because you're in public. (They might be having a bad day or they might be feeling lonely and have nothing better to do. Maybe they're even in a bad mood and want to make someone else's day better.) I've applied this hack many times at meetings with clients. The strategy works great.

Another way to make yourself more available when you're out of the office is to return phone calls. Of course, it depends on which kind of phone calls you’re returning. Most people think that if they are going to return a call, it has to be an important one (i.e., a sales call).

The reality is that most business owners I know are either too busy or don’t have time for people who call them with non-urgent questions (i.e., cold calls). When you return phone calls, it is often with someone who shares your same interest or profession. These people are more likely to have time for you than someone who just dials you up for their own selfish reasons.

The third way to make yourself more available is to use the "quick meeting" trick in the first installment of this series. In Part 2, I talked about how easy it was to set up a quick meeting and how great it was when it worked out that way. But what happens when you don't get a quick meeting? Well, maybe it's because a busy person isn't interested in that subject they want to discuss, or maybe they're just too busy and can't find the time in their schedule to spare. But sometimes, it's because they don't want to do it.

The point is that sometimes people will say they're available and then they won't be available, even though you were able to set up a meeting that worked out perfectly. Either way, if you're going to be more available when you're out of the office, you need to know how to make yourself more available when you're out of the office.

How does this work? The "lunch trick" is just like it sounds: You go out for lunch and treat yourself (you can treat yourself however you want: deli sandwich or something else; I'm not talking about dirty money!). Then, you cover your email and phone calls for the rest of the day. You're home for lunch by 1:00pm. That gives you two hours to catch up on email and voicemails from your morning.

Now comes the really good part! The second half of the day (or two, but it can be two hours as well) is yours to do as you please (i.e., whatever you want). You can get up early, work out, exercise, or eat a quick lunch with an old friend or a favorite client...whatever you want. Whatever you choose, make sure that you're going to do it, whether you decide to go for a run or do a new project. And when you're done, send out an email out to everyone that said they were available. You can hit up the quick meeting trick in the first installment of this series or just make sure everyone knows that they are available when they really aren't.

You could ask someone if they will be able to talk with you by 10:00am tomorrow morning (or Wednesday morning). Just make sure that this is their choice, not something you've forced upon them. (Of course, if you ask them for five minutes now, but then you don't follow up with them in three weeks, that's another situation.)

This is an easy way to make yourself more available when you're at work and out of the office. It doesn't matter what time of day it is—this works!

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The "Phone Call" Hack...for People Who Are Already More Available When They're Out of the Office

There are people who are already more available when they’re out of the office than others. How do they do it? By answering their phone calls while they’re out of the office.

Another easy way to make yourself more available when you're out of the office is to return phone calls while you’re out of the office. (You can return voicemails, but I prefer phoning people back.)

Why call people back? It shows initiative and initiative is sexy. Again, this hack only works because you're putting yourself out there. (But, it's better to do this when you're out of the office and doing something else, as opposed to someone who is sitting there staring at their phone and hoping for calls from people who never call.)

Instead of sitting there and waiting for your phone to ring, why not be proactive about it? You can return all calls by the end of the day (or first thing in the morning).

Here’s a short story that I cover in my post on outgoing voicemails ( Part 3 ). I used to have a voicemail message that said: “You've reached Adam Khoo. I am currently not available for the next hour. Please leave a message after the tone if your call is urgent. Otherwise, I will get back to you whenever I get a chance.”

I used to get about six voicemails a day—people who called me between the hours of 8:30am and 5:30pm. Now, because I didn't have time to call them back during office hours (or if I did, it was after hours), they would leave me messages. But hey…it didn't matter because they never called me during office hours anyway!

I got all these voicemails, but they were while I was on my way home or out with family or friends; not sitting in front of my phone waiting for calls that never came.

Conclusion:

As you can see, there are many ways to make yourself more available. The right tools are up to you, but the right attitude is key. Be proactive instead of reactive. Give people something they want instead of asking them for something they don't want (i.e., we aren't married so you don't need to pay me a weekly allowance). And finally, be available and make sure that everyone knows that you're available when you're not at work (this goes hand in hand with the previous point).