Do you ever feel like you spend half of your life organising calls with clients and potential clients? You send a simple email letting them know when you are available. You might even offer two times, just to increase the chances that they’ll take one and you can get on with running your business. But then the potential client can’t do either, and suggests a different time. But you can’t do the proposed time though. And now you are in a round of ‘meeting tennis’, where each side lobs over a time to the other and waits for the return.

We have all been there and it really does feel like a gigantic waste of time. Wouldn’t it be better if calls just magically appeared in your calendar?

Luckily you don’t need to rely on magic. Some simple automation can save the day here.

There are two parts to the solution: automate scheduling the calls and automate the follow up.

Automate calendar bookings

You can automate the calendar bookings by using a system such as Calendly or You can book me. You can pre-determine days and times when you are available to take calls and a potential client can choose one of those slots.

First, you can set the duration for the calls. In this example, I have set the duration to 30 minutes:

Calendly duration

And then you can select the slots that you are available. In this example, I’ve set 1pm to 2:30pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday to take calls from potential clients.

Calendly times

The system connects with your calendar, so if someone selects a slot, it will appear on your calendar. No-one else will be able to select the same time.

This means there is no more email back and forth. You have to let people know when you are available and it is up to potential clients (or anyone else you need to book calls with) to choose one the best available slot for them.

Automating sending the calendar link and followup

In order for potential clients to book a call with you, you’d have to send them the link to your Calendly (or alternative service) page. But you can save yourself from even doing that step.

The standard process for people enquiring about services is generally something like:

  • Potential client fills in a simple form on your website with name and email address and description of what you can help them with
  • You email them back. When you email them back, you can send the Calendly link to automate the scheduling of the call

To automate this further, you could change the process to:

  • Potential client fills in a simple form on your website with name and email address and description of what you can help them with
  • You have an automated rule in your email marketing software that sends them an email with the Calendly link. No need to send it manually.

You don’t have to do anything except get on the call. The calls will automatically appear in your calendar.

You could take this a step further and send information about your business and services to the potential client before asking them to book a call. This way, they will be more familiar with what you offer and this can act as a barrier for those that might not fit with your way of working. An example of this process would be:

  • Potential client fills in a simple form on your website with name and email address and description of what you can help them with
  • You send them more information about your business and service offerings (this could be in a getting started guide or a simple email)
  • You have an automated rule in your email marketing software that sends them an email with the Calendly link.

What happens if the potential clients fill in the form but don’t click on the Calendly link to book the call? People get busy and forget. But if they don’t book the call, you could lose the potential client.

To fix this, you can follow up with them. A follow up email is often enough to catch people who have simply forgotten to complete the next action. Again, you can automate this step. This is what the process would now look like:

  • Potential client fills in a simple form on your website with name and email address and description of what you can help them with
  • You send them more information about your business and service offerings (this could be in a getting started guide or a simple email)
  • You have an automated rule in your email marketing software that sends them an email with the Calendly link.
  • If the potential client does not click on the link, then send a follow up email a few days later.
  • If after a few more days they still don’t click on the link, send another follow up email

And now your system gathers enquiries from potential clients, sends them the relevant information about your services, schedules the first call with them and follows up if they forget to schedule it. All on auto pilot.

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