Getting Face-to-Face meetings scheduled when you are busy…Try these scheduling tips

Face-to-Face meetings are the #1 driver of referrals in our groups.

We want busy successful people in our groups. The ability to attract and retain talented business professionals is one of our main goals. I’ve observed over the years that some of our busy members struggle with scheduling enough face-to-face meetings to participate at the level that they want.  Their own success in and out of the group becomes a barrier for them staying involved.

Usually simple solutions solve a lot.  Often times when this conversation comes up I recommend a few changes to their scheduling strategy and it helps to solve the issue.

Here are a few face-to-face scheduling tips for our busy members.

Schedule your face-to-face meetings:
1. Pre or post meeting. You already plan to be there. Doing this takes out travel time.
2. Set a two window where you will be at (your office, coffee house, etc) and schedule 2-3 face-to-face meetings back-to-back.
• I do this one a lot. I’ll set 2-3 meetings up at the same location in tight windows.  It is one of my favorite scheduling strategies.
3. Set them up in 25 or 50 minute windows so you have more flexibility in your calendar the rest of the day for other meetings.

If I am approached for a meeting, and genuinely don’t have room on my calendar for a Face-to-Face meetings in the upcoming 2-3 weeks, I will ask the person if I can reconnect with them in X number of weeks to schedule something.  I put the follow-up on my calendar so I remember to do so.  This keeps me from 1. saying “I’m too busy to meet” and 2. scheduling something 1 month or father out (which likely will get cancelled or re-arranged).  This tactic also puts the follow-up on me, which shows genuine interest so the other person doesn’t feel like they’re chasing me down for a meeting.

I hope by sharing a few of this tips it will enable you to become more efficient at scheduling.  Good luck!