How to Schedule and Confirm Meetings Like a Pro

Hello and welcome. Today I want us to look at how to deal with scheduled calls or how to schedule calls. And the reason why is obvious because a lot of us listening to the podcast right now are either entrepreneurs, self-employed business owners or we sell on behalf of someone else. And so because of that, I'm assuming that one of the tools that we have in our war chest is phone calls. So we use phone calls to try and build relationships with people,

to nurture relationships with people, to schedule appointments, to move the agenda forward, to try and close the deal. So it's my understanding that a lot of us use the phone. If my understanding is wrong and you are listening to this and you have not been using the phone as a tool in your sales kit, then you are wrong and you should be using the phone. One reason why I should be using the phone is because there's a communications hierarchy.

Not all forms of communications are created equal, and not all forms of communication have the same effect. So the most effective one is face to face, because you can see someone you can smile someone, you can touch someone, you can hear tone, you can hear nuance, you can hear inflection. You can see that even though somebody is using words of approval, you can tell from their body language that they're not really impressed.

You know, things like that, things that you're not going to be able to catch if all you do is send emails back and forth. So using that now face to face, the reason why it's important is because of being able to communicate, being able to properly understand the other person. So inflection, no tone, nuance, body language, no things like that. So if we look at things from that perspective, you will see clearly that the next most important one is audio, which is the phone call.

So you do a WhatsApp phone call, you do a regular phone call, you do a Zoom audio, you do a Skype audio, you do a whatever audio. But you know, audio would be the next most important one. You know, for the same reason, because when you're talking to someone, you can hear tone, you can hear inflection. Body language is missing. But from listening to how people say things, you pretty much get a sense of exactly what it is that they're trying to say.

And you're also going to be able to communicate much more effectively. Like anybody who has experienced this before, whenever you're having a quarrel with a client, the difference is clear. If you've been through this, trust me. If you haven't been through this, trust me. But for those of us who have been through it, we know typing out to someone I'm sorry is not the same thing as when you call the person and you say I'm sorry.

It lands different when it's an e-mail. Somehow people aren't just getting that you're sorry when you pick up the phone and I say, what am I beg no fix. You know, I didn't mean it like that, blah, blah, blah. All of a sudden things come down. The only difference was you picked up the phone. You're saying exactly the same things that you had done in the e-mail or in the WhatsApp message, but Madam is not getting it. She's still a vex.

But then you pick up the phone or you show up to our office and then all of a sudden, 20-30 minutes, everything is cool. The quarrel is still there, but at least it's not to the level that, you know, somebody wants to cut off another person's head. So audio then after that would be video. Video is not as effective. Whatever the reasons are, I don't know. I suspect that maybe it's because people are anxious when they're on video.

You know, do I look good? Am I looking directly into the camera? Did I dress well? You know, blah, blah, blah, all those things. And so they get distracted or they get preoccupied, then excuse me. Then text based forms of communication are at the bottom. e-mail is at the absolute bottom because e-mail has the worst open rates. So people don't open their WhatsApp. So I say WhatsApp, people don't open their, don't check their inboxes.

And when they do, they spend a lot of time deleting, moving to spam, archiving, you know, things like that. Not really reading messages per SE. Or rather they're trying to filter out all the BS in the inbox so that they pay attention to those emails that they only want to. Absolutely have to have to deal with. So e-mail is at the bottom. Then conversational mediums like WhatsApp and SMS are in the middle. Now. SMS has the highest amount of open rates depending on where you check in the world or depending on who you ask.

Some people say 97%, some people say 98%, but either way it's pretty good. I mean, it's a given that if you send a text message, it's, it's a given. At least you know 90% of people are going to open the thing. Even if they don't respond, at least you know that they opened. So there is a communications hierarchy. Now, in case you didn't catch it, phone call or audio is on #2 of that hierarchy, which is the reason why if you have not been using phone calls as a way to move deals forward, you are wrong.

Whenever you possibly can. Phone calls, phone calls, phone calls. The reason why I'm stressing it is because, you know, I'm in the consulting space and you know, it blows my mind how people build a business, OK? Like I have a client now for instance, who they started the business fresh and in the first month they were able to get 1.5 million naira in revenue. But then by the time I said, OK, yeah, give me phone numbers, let me talk to this client, let me talk to this client.

They don't have phone number, they only have e-mail address. Now a lot of you are happy to get a client who will pay you because I think one client paid like 800 and 900,000 there. Then I think another client paid me like 400,000 there, another client paid. I can't remember how much, but I know for most of you think it's fantastic they did all that through e-mail. But have you thought about looking at things this way?

If you are able to use the hardest medium of converting a sale and you were able to get 1.5 million, have you thought of how much more success you would have if you actually picked up the phone? Let me repeat, e-mail has the worst open rates. It is not conversational. It is very formal. Because of that, it is hard to be closing deals over e-mail. So if in your first month in business you successfully closed over 1.5 million naira and you're rejoicing and the lesson you take out of it is, oh, let me continue sending emails my friend, you're wrong.

The lesson is what I did 1.5 by sending emails only that must mean that my product is very good. So therefore let me jump on the phone and I will close more or since this product is obviously high value, let me enter both and go to somebody's office and sit down face to face and then watch the business. So but anyway, for some reason people are just in love with emails. So let me leave that whole e-mail thing today when I was like, so I was talking about how to deal with scheduled calls.

So I spent the 1st 5 minutes trying to talk about why phone calls are important or sorry about the noise in the background. It's a Tuesday for those of you who listen regularly, you know that the house gets cleaned on Tuesday. So there's going to be noise, you know, people moving things around and my attention is going to be called off every now and then. So using the phone is important. I already stressed that. If you don't believe me, no problem.

We'll argue about, we'll argue about that some other day. So using the phone is an important, is important. And using the phone is a very, very good way to gain advancements on business deals. Advancements just means you are moving the deal forward. It means that you and the other party agree on the next step that you're going to take. And it's easier to secure advancements when you're worth the phone. If you don't believe me, you tried be sending e-mail back and forth.

I'll be sending text messages back and forth and say, oh, in case she when should I come and see you? You send a message in case she doesn't see it for three hours. She responds in three hours and says, oh, Friday is fine. Then you don't see it for another two hours. You respond after two hours and I say, OK, Friday good. Should I come in the morning question mark you sent in case she doesn't see it for six hours. Then by the time she responds,

you know, we're already in Friday. Almost 11 agreed on the time. But then if I'm going to use the phone, I just pause po po. She picks it and say hello. That tavishma say we agree with you on Friday. Say yes. So. But you know we didn't agree on the time. So. Oh, Oh, OK. So what time works for you? I'll stick around that kind. 10 AM. No, 10 AM. My children have something is OK for me. Afternoon is not really pure. OK. How about 5:00?

OK. Five o'clock. 5:00 is good. OK. No, Alan. No problem, ma'am. Cut the call. You want to do the thing by text message. You will spend surprisingly, you know, 12 hours, 24 hours just trying to agree on the meeting time. But don't you pick up the phone, sharp, sharp, 3 minutes. You already agreed. This is the next time we're going to meet. This is the next thing we're going to discuss. So the phone call is a very important tool for scheduling advancements, for moving the deal forward, for trying to move your agenda forward, for trying to get progress on whatever it is that you're working on.

The phone is a very important tool. Now, let us assume that you've been talking with someone and you've been able to schedule a call. The reason why I'm bringing this up is because there's someone who reached out to me. We scheduled a call. I missed the call. It was my own fault because I'm the one who forgot. I missed it. But then I didn't think this person handled it too well. And to be frank, there are lots of you who are trying to have conversations with other people,

not just me. But the way I look at it is this, whenever I tell you people, OK, let's have a call and then I give you assignments, I say send me a reminder. I'm also trying to test because I'm trying to feel out how you interact with your potential customers, because the way you try and set appointments with me is the same way you would try and set appointments, you know, with your customers. And The thing is lots of you don't know how to schedule appointments, right?

Let me put it that way. Schedule appointments, right? And follow up with people to make sure that they do attend those, those those meetings. So for like this person now person was supposed to have sent me a reminder and the person did send me a reminder, but the person sent it at 1:00 AM, you know, for a call that was supposed to happen the morning before. Now, if you do things like that, obviously the chances are that somebody can miss that kind of thing because you sent it. 1:00

AM, everybody's asleep, People wake up, you know, traffic school runs, blah, blah, blah. Early, early emergencies of the day. And it's if you're going to be sending your reminders at 1:00 AM, two AM, three AM, 4:00 AM, then it's understandable that people are going to miss the meetings. But anyway, the person is not at fault because the person sent a reminder. I should have been diligent and not missed that. But given that, OK, given that this thing has happened and given that I'm seeing that lots of people don't know how to do this, that's why I'm making today's podcast episode.

So Step 1, you agree and you fix the meeting time. So the guy did that. So that's perfect. And I'm assuming that you're doing that as well. Now what you're going to do is a lot of us have modern phones and modern phones have calendars. Calendars allow us to schedule. The allowance to schedule allows us to set alerts, allows us to set reminders. So this is what you're going to do when you fix a meeting date or a visit or a site inspection or whatever.

You use your phone, you're going to schedule something. You're going to create some kind of alert, You're going to create some kind of a reminder. Some of you will be saying, shouldn't it be the other person? Look, forget, forget about the other person. You have no control over what the other person does. If I'm trying to fix a meeting with Dangote right now, yes, if we agree on a time, ideally Dangote should set a reminder and take that meeting seriously.

But The thing is, I have no control over Dangote schedule. I repeat, I am chasing money. I want money from Dangote or I want money from Tony Olumelu. They should take this meeting seriously and they should set reminders. But The thing is, I have absolutely no control over Dangote schedule. I have absolutely no control over Tony Illuminous priorities. I can't force them to set reminders. The only thing I can do is I can set the alerts and the reminders by myself #1 the alerts and the reminders that I will set will help me to prepare for those meetings.

The alert will come up, ping him meeting with Dangote Friday 10 AM and I'll say, Oh yes, it's true, I'm supposed to see Chief Dangote. So therefore I need to sit down and I gas repair what will be the agenda, what we talk about these diseases, da da, da, da, da. So using my own Google Calendar, using my own CRM tool that's crossed my relationship management tool, using my own notification, using my own whatever, whatever, whatever it is, my own phone alarm, whatever it is that you use, it would remind me to prepare because I

can't force language to show up for this meeting. Then these alerts or these reminders, apart from reminding me to prepare, it will remind me to now remind the other party. So if me and Langote Antonio Lumelu, we agree to a meeting together, all right, remember, I can't force them to set on their own alerts. The best I can do is I will remind myself. When I remind myself, I will now remind them. By giving them reminder a few times, I increase the odds and increase the chances that they will show up for this meeting.

OK, so setting the alerts, setting the reminder, remember, is twofold #1 I guess be prepared before this meeting #2 So in fact, this remind, this thing about reminding me to prepare is very, very important because there are lots of people who we serve meetings and then they show up and quite clearly I'm the one who's driving the agenda. How do I put it? When you are the one that is chasing something, you're the one that should be trying to determine the agenda, that should be trying to determine the pace, you know, So if I show up for this meeting and I'm waiting for Dan Gote to now set the agenda for the meeting is somehow I'm rubbing off on down Gote the wrong way.

Dan Gote will be thinking that this guy no sharp, he's not a good guy to have around. That is not the kind of young men that I want around in my own ecosystem. So this remind you to prepare parts, really, really serious, set up an agenda. You see the reason why? So OK, but just make a mental note, you set up an agenda first. Now I will not have to be reminding Dangote or Tonio Lumelu or whoever it is I have this meeting with Bill Gates or whoever.

I'll now have to be sending them reminder. Now when I say tell people send me a reminder, what most of them do is like there's somebody who has even sent me a reminder like 4 minutes before. So yeah, 4 minutes before is not a reminder. Let's get real. People are busy. People are doing all kinds of things in their lives. You will agree for a meeting at 10:00. You sending somebody message Gentry reminder at 9:55 or 956,

That is not a reminder 5 minutes before. If the person hasn't remembered, the person has gone on to start doing other things. You think the person is going to see your textbook and say oh and then the person will now change all their whole paros just because of a 5 minute reminder. For those of you who I say send me a reminder, you send me a reminder 15 minutes before, that is not a reminder 5 minutes before. That is not a reminder one hour before.

Well, well anyway, one hour before, let's manage. But I will say one hour before is not a reminder because the person that has forgotten has gone to start doing other things. A one hour reminder is not going to be enough for the person to say, oh, this thing that I'm doing, let me cancel everything, I'll come. So you set your reminders to remind you to prepare. Then you set your reminders so that you can remind the other people.

You will set your first reminder at least a week in advance. You hear me? You will set your first reminder at least a week in advance because you're trying to get people to remember. The first reminder goes like this. You'll be going around mind, you know, minding your own business. And then your phone just zooms and you will see that, oh, meeting with Dangote Friday, 10 AM. You will now quickly send a text message to Dangote.

All right, then you also send the same text message to Dangote's PA, because as you're sending Dangote, you'll be sending to Dangote as well. We're trying to increase the odds that Dangote shows up for this meeting, so we'll be running it the two ways. We'll send Dangote message, we'll send his PA message that will now send e-mail again to Dangote's formal inbox. We'll now send e-mail again to Dangote's PA e-mail inbox.

Now, first reminder is going to be thank you very much, Malaji. Looking forward to our meeting on Friday. You know, just that kind, just that kind of reminder. Oh, thank you very much, Malaji. I'm looking forward to our meeting on Friday. You know, I'm glad to have a few moments of your time. Then, you know, really looking forward to our discussion. Send that simple kind something you can see. It's a reminder. That's kind of thing that somebody can say and say, oh,

oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, it's true. That young man, that young woman, I promise this person that we'll see on Friday. See, that's a reminder. A week before a week is enough time for people, if they really mean to attend that meeting. A week is enough time for people to start thinking, oh, OK, let me move this like this. Let me move this like this. Let me move this like that because I promised this young man that he can come to my house.

So let's make this happen. So reminder #1 you will send it at least one week before. Thank you very much. Looking forward to our meeting. You know that kind of film, just sharp. Thank you very much. I'm looking forward to our meeting. That will be the scope of the 1st reminder. The next reminder you set now will be like, oh, that kind three days in advance because Nigerians, you like to say gentle reminder. So all that gentle reminder that you would like to send 5 minutes before, which is not a reminder,

set it three days before. That is when you send gentle reminder. Oh, gentle reminder. Alhaji Dangote, I'm really looking forward to our meeting this Friday at 10 AM where we agree that we're going to discuss, you know, blah, blah, blah on the agenda. So that'll be the meeting for reminder for 2nd reminder. Remember 1st reminder will be one week before. Thanks. I'm looking forward to our meeting send three days before.

Gentle reminder. Alhaji, I'm looking forward to our meeting on Friday morning where we're going to discuss so, so, so and so send. Then one day before, 24 hours before you will send another reminder. That reminder will be in the form of good morning. Alhaji. I just want to confirm if we're still on calls for our meeting tomorrow, this kind reminder. I just want to confirm if we're still on calls for our meeting tomorrow at 10 AM.

That is now the point where he will now say, oh, sorry, I'm in Switzerland. Because Bill Gates and I were making a presentation at World Economic Forum, blah blah blah. Where in Davos. That will now give you a chance to reschedule. You see first one one week before. Thanks. I'm looking forward to our meeting. You said the day Friday 10, three days before. Gentle reminder, Alhaji. Looking forward to our meeting on Friday where we're supposed to discuss XYZ.

Send one day before another reminder. Good afternoon. Al Haji, just want to confirm, are we still on calls for our meeting tomorrow, 10 AM? We have what the apps you say? Then the other reminder that you now send in the morning will also be another confirmation now. Good morning, Sir. OK, since Nigeria is like this, a Gentry reminder. OK. Good morning, Sir. Gentle reminder. We're going live in. We're going live in three hours.

Is this going to be a phone call or a Zoom, you know, something like that? Then at the time, this is one thing I've noticed a lot of you are afraid to initiate the call because there are people who actually send the reminder that the time comes. But The thing is, they never call me. I guess they're trying to do the respectful thing in Niger, maybe waiting for me to call as per you know, maybe I'm more senior or something.

I understand as per Niger culture. But honestly speaking, so long as it is an advancement, both of us mutually agreed, there's nothing wrong with me calling. So if me and Dangote agreed, then we're going to meet at 10 AM on a Friday and then they set a meeting link. When it's time, I will jump on the meeting link and I will wait. If I don't see them, I will send reminder to him or to his PA. How far? You know, like, OK, I won't use the language.

How far? That's a bit disrespectful. But I will send a reminder that you know, I'm ready. I'm in the meeting. So long as it was mutually agreed, you are allowed and it is OK for you to initiate the call. So I have told you luminous phone number and we agreed for 10 and 10. I didn't hear from him. I'm on 10 O one. Yeah. Obozo Oboz. Now, of course, let's assume that he's busy. That's a very busy schedule. Maybe he's, you know, mediating stuff with the president and things like that.

So let's say he doesn't call. So that's how that 10:00 has passed. 10:00 I waited, I didn't see him turn O1. I called guy no answer. Immediately I make that call turn O1, he no answer. I will send a text message. So if I call 10 O 1, he don't answer ten O 2. I sent a text message straight to him and to PA saying good morning Sir. I tried calling as per the meeting that we agreed, you know, to discuss blah blah blah. I'll wait around for 10 more minutes just in case you can make it, but I'll send it.

But I'm putting it out there. We're supposed to have seen at 10. I didn't see you. I called you didn't buzz or Allah I'll hang around for 10 minutes then if for that 10 minutes now nobody show Uncle Tony didn't call me back. Dangote didn't call me back. Their PA did not call me back. No problem will be another message that I will send. So let's say I give them 10 minutes. So 10:00 there was no call 1001 I called no answer 1002 I sent text messages.

I said oh, be around for like that kind of 10 minutes. OK so 10 minutes would be 10 1012. Let me round the top 10/15 10:15 I'll send Nanguti a message or turn a Lumelu a message or their P as message. Now I was supposed to have had a meeting earlier blah blah blah. I understand that you and your principal might be busy. Would you like to reschedule for then me? I'll propose a date. The reason why I like to propose is just because I like to keep things moving forward because you can tell somebody like, oh,

would you like to reschedule? And then they will say, Oh yeah, sure, let's talk again in six months time. And for me that's, you know, when people push meetings like that, six months, three months, two months, three weeks, nothing doesn't work for me. So that's the reason why me and I prefer to recommend no. Would you like to reschedule for then this meeting, let's say was for some for held. We said Friday, right? OK, Friday at 10.

Now I will just assume that the rest of Friday is Moshe Lashi. You know it's for mosque because Dangote is a Muslim. So I'll just assume that Friday none is is. No, it's not possible. Then I'll assume that Saturday is family. Sunday is rest. So what I'll push for is Monday. So would you like to reschedule for Monday at 10 AM? Question mark sent. And then the ball is in their court. Now, I don't want to speculate ad nauseam, but honestly speaking, if you come up with a simple process like this for scheduling your calls, for pursuing your meetings, things like that, you are increasing the odds that people will take you seriously and people will show up for your meetings.

So this is how you schedule a call. This is how you stay on the case to make sure that people show up for a meeting. And please, this Nigeria thing of gentle reminder, gentle reminder is good. The problem is too many of you are doing gentle reminder. 5 minutes to the meeting. Gentle reminder 5 minutes to the meeting. Please just take it that it's it's, it's ineffective. It's not going to work if I didn't take all these steps.

One week before. Send reminder. 3 days send reminder. One day send reminder. Day of. Send reminder. If I don't pursue it like this, the chances are down with you. We'll forget. Excuse me, He's a busy man. You'll forget. You be yourself. We'll forget to be honest, the PA won't even be interested in this kind of thing because you know, it's not as if it's a meeting that if the thing clicks like it will be good for all of us because if that would take agrees for a meeting with me,

honestly speaking, you'll pay me more than I will pay them. So the PA probably won't be PA mind is not even there at all. So from setting all these reminders that I increase the chance that the meeting will happen. If that would says let's talk Friday 10 AM and I wait until 9:56 to now send message saying gentle reminder, I've never started. He's already on the plane on the way to Switzerland. I has totally forgotten.

He's not going to tell the pilot, oh, you know what pilot switch on the Wi-Fi. Let me call this guy back in Nigeria. He will say, Oh no, let's get to Switzerland when I'm done. We'll, we'll deal with him later. That's what he will say. But if I send a reminder one week before, oh, he will remember three days before, let's say the Switzerland thing has come up, you know, either from chatting with him or chatting with the PA will not have a chance to reach out with that.

Oh, terribly sorry, won't be able to make Friday 10 AM. This thing with Davos just came up. Me and Bill Gates were on the way right now for Uncle Tony is even in the plane itself. You know, the three of us wherever wherever we're heading to Switzerland at the moment, we're not going to be able to make the meeting. Then the next thing now is I will now be trying to reschedule like, oh, you're in in Davos. Oh, OK. This year's summit is going to be for two weeks, right?

Oh yes. OK, so that means you'll be back in Nigeria by so as well. So, OK, so how about so this and this and this time, and I'll propose and I hear what it is that they have to say if The thing is becoming too much of an issue because, you know, I mean, they find money. I will say, you know what, chief? That's not a problem. When you're landing, you were heading straight to the Hilton. OK, no problem. I can come see you at the Hilton.

You know what, what time works? If the phone call thing is not working, I will get boats, I will drive down, you know, whatever. I mean, they find money. I mean, they push you. So this is how you schedule the calls. If you want to do gentle reminder, don't wait until 5 minutes before to do gentle reminder. People have forgotten, people have moved on. So I'm not going to give you fixed principles per SE, but what I'm just trying to say is remind early and remind often.

Remind them one week to remind them three days to the reason why I say 3 days is just maybe like half, half halfway. They remind on the day and they remind a couple of hours. So if we have fixed something and what we fixed, let's say a site visit and that site visit is one month away. At the time that we finished the conversation, I'll send the person a WhatsApp message because WhatsApp is more conversational saying, oh,

thanks, looking forward to our meeting next month. OK, so today's date is the 5th of May. So I'll send the person a WhatsApp message saying looking forward to our meeting next month on the 5th of May when we will go to Orca to go and do site visits. So I've sent one message. Now remember this thing is in one month, two weeks to the date, I will send another reminder. So you got a reminder really looking forward to our meeting in Orca for the 5th of.

So when? Me now? So that's June for the 5th of June where we are going to conduct the site visit. Looking forward to meeting you and looking forward to meeting chief sent that is 2 weeks then I will send another one a week before. Because remember in this scenario now we're both traveling to Orca in a number of States and now send a week before because if I book flight and I show and then they don't show, that's the problem.

And yes, these things happen. Everybody book flight, you land and then the main person who's supposed to be at the meeting will not be there because they forgot. This is how you make sure people don't forget. So a week before, I'll now send another message or try to call to confirm. Are we still on course for ORCA next week on the 5th of June? That will give everybody enough time to, you know, let's say chief has forgotten, he didn't book his ticket.

You know, we'll not have time to rebook our flight tickets and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's the Week 2. Then I won't even just send on the day off the very day that I land orca, I will send a message to everybody saying looking forward to our meeting me, I just arrived Orca now, now, now, now checking into the hotel. Looking forward to seeing you guys in two days and three days. Like you see how you do it, remind early, remind often.

You increase the chances that people show up for these things. So I've used an example how one week to how you send reminder one week ahead, 3 days ahead, one day ahead and then on the day off. And I've used another example now where the meeting is supposed to happen one month ahead and how I'll send reminder on the day that we agree. I'll send a reminder 2 weeks before, I'll send a reminder one week before, I'll send a reminder the day that I arrive occur, and then I even send a reminder that morning as as well.

You know, now, good morning everyone, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I am on my way to site. So I can't give any principles, but just using the scope, using the philosophy that we've spoken about here. You see how you can schedule calls, keep meetings on course, you know, things of that nature. So that's it for today. Remember, if you'd love to connect with me, call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064 662140.

Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you all some other time.