Every month, a group of international bloggers drains their collective heads for all the very best of practice knowledge and expertise they have on a chosen business topic.
The result is intriguing: different styles, voices and experiences. And always ideas, lines, memes, nuggets: something that will change the way you think about running your business, client servicing, online marketing, productivity, even life. I’m privileged to belong to this group.
This month, The Carnies (Word Carnival Bloggers) are bringing you the very best online tools under $10 a month. It’ll be as always, a monty. You can read them here.
I’m also fortunate enough to belong to another community of entrepreneurs, known fondly as the KPI’s. We have a private Facebook group. Recently there was a post asking what might be the best scheduling platform.
Now, I’m no tech guru and I have a very serious problem for a coach and business professional. I’m time dyslexic. Seriously, if it’s not a known syndrome, it should be.
An overwhelming belief that I can do what should take eight hours in two, means I’m always double booking, always apologising, always running late, always under stress. To compound the problem, I still prefer a paper diary.
Even though everything about a paper diary makes me a fraud. There I am, talking about Getting It Right Online and then pulling out my trusted A4 KasCare diary to hand write in an appointment, usually over layers and layers of white-out tape.
Sad. But I just didn’t have sufficient momentum to make a change, until . . . Acuity Scheduling.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t because it was an online calendar that started this shift in behaviour. No. It was something much, much more profound than that.
Acuity Scheduling is a mechanised sales process.
The aforementioned KPI’s are people who have gone through a rigorous business course called Key Person Of Influence, now in four continents, including the USA.
We learned a lot about sales. It included organising your sales process so that you give away some really good stuff with no strings attached, then introduce a low risk ‘get a better look at what I am capable of type of engagement’, which, if you are good at your stuff, should lead to a ‘how do I get more of you’ core offer.
It’s an effective strategy. But not always easy to implement for the wallflowers of the sales world.
Acuity Scheduling allows you to organise your flow of offers in a way that is so transparent, accessible and sensible, it just takes the bum-clenching ‘Now I must tell you how much that is going to cost’, out of the equation.
This is how it works. It costs you $10 a month. It’s dead simple – you create your different appointment types and then embed the code on your website page.
Here’s the rub. You have to have created some sort of desire first.
You. You fabulous person; your must-have offer; your inestimable influence; your online profile – whatever it is that makes people want a piece of you. Because, if you haven’t, no matter how irresistible your appointment possibilities, frankly, no one gives a damn.
How do you do that? Blogging of course. Telling your story. I’ve written a tome in here about why you must blog to support this strongly held conviction. Here are some good bedtime reads.
Five good reasons to blog
Blogging is your legacy
Battle of the brains. Seven ways to shut your lizard up.
So get blogging. Then sort out your Acuity Scheduling appointments.
At the very least, you’ll have people wanting to talk to you. And as Kylie Bartlett said when she introduced me to this very likeable tool, people self police when they book a 20 minute free chat. “Oh, I know I haven’t got long, so let’s get straight to the point”.
If like me, you’ve given away countless eons consulting for free on the phone or over coffee, this just has to be the best way to win back that time while offering your value on the back of it. Win for everyone.
And if you want time with me, then book it right here without white tape and double booking. That’s if I get to put in all my appointments first of course.
I stopped offering free coffee meetings – any time someone asks (unless they’re a friend or a total newbie — there’s absolutely nothing wrong in teaching newbies the ropes) I mention my going coffee or lunch rate is $350.
For a while I was offering free consulting through my site, but I even gave that up. For now, it’s if you subscribe to my blog, and answer the intro questions, I’ll reply back with the best information I know. And it really gets people talking, which is fun.
And you know what – anyone who has a problem with your paper journal can go jump off a pier. I write almost exclusively in Moleskines and then review my notes afterwards, because I love the way writing something down connects me to an idea. I can recall things much better and with more accuracy than if I just type it out.
For good measure, though, I added Apple stickers to the front and back of my moleskine so it matches the rest of my equipment 😀
Nick Armstrong recently posted…Don’t be Scrooge McDuck when it comes to investing in your business
Ah Nick. You are a key person of influence. Not sure how many takers I would have for coffee or lunch at that rate, but I get where you are coming from. Coffee when it is about a strategic alliance, yes. But coffee when it is about draining your IP for free, no. I love your idea about the intro questions and the conversation it gets going.
And in future I will brand all paper diaries with an apple sticker 🙂
SandyMc recently posted…The scheduling tool that sells. If you blog.
Thanks for sharing this tool, Sandy. I’ve never heard of this one, but I can see how it would help with organization. Like the way you’ve shown it in action, too. I used to use a now-defunct tool for that purpose and never replaced it, as most people just email me. I just have to remember to put all appointments in the diary.
Sharon Hurley Hall recently posted…4 Top Tools Under $10 (Plus 2 Paid Tools I Can’t Live Without)
It’s the remembering to put all the appointments in the diary that is the issue Sharon 🙂 for me at any rate! It certainly got me thinking about how to arrange my time and offers and as soon as I have all my appointments in then there is a mindset shift to sending the link to people so they can arrange their own convenient time to meet with you. That’s the next step. But I’m onto it. Let us know if you take it up.
SandyMc recently posted…The scheduling tool that sells. If you blog.
I use Acuity, too and agree — it’s been a lifesaver for me. Especially when my friends in Australia need to book an appointment that works for both our time zones. Wink, wink.
Tea Silvestre recently posted…Mise en place! Rock Your Project and Client Management with ASANA
Eek. You see Tea, that is why I need Acuity and friendly reminders too. The time zone thing could be the allround winner.
SandyMc recently posted…The scheduling tool that sells. If you blog.
I’ve used TimeTrade for the past oh I dunno 9 months or so. It works, but I don’t like it much at all, and I think that the UI could be much much better. so I’m going to check out Acuity! Thanks for sharing.
Ashley Welton recently posted…My Biz Would Be Broke Without This One Tool
I was also looking at ScheduleOnce. Any experience o’er there Sandy?
Ashley Welton recently posted…My Biz Would Be Broke Without This One Tool
Hi Ashley, no my experience is limited! But Acuity Scheduling was just so easy to work out and so friendly to use. And the key point was being able to use it to follow my offers from gifts to coaching. That is what made it so attractive to me. And I like it. I think that is probably key to using a tool online, you have to really like it. If you are pushing to use it, it is a waste of energy.
SandyMc recently posted…The scheduling tool that sells. If you blog.