How tightly should you qualify who can book with you?
I often talk about the need to guard your scheduler ferociously.
And to add a paywall to it.* Don’t give your knowledge away for free!
But I think it’s important to define how you guard it - who you let book, why you let them book and how you let them book.
And defining that all starts with where you are at in your business life. Actually, it really should start with defining your 5-Star Client! Do that too, but define the state of your business hand-in-hand with it.
Are you just starting out?
Do you want to chat with everyone who may be a prospect?
Are you scaling with a systemtized system for getting client work done?
Are you sunsetting?
Are you overwhelmed with work?
Do you have a waitlist?
Have you tightly honed your ideal client and they are the only ones you will engage with?
Do you have multiple service lines that have different booking criteria?
Do you have “passive offerings” that may require a quick call?
Now think about a few other criteria for booking with you.
Noodle through who you want to give away time to (15-minute discovery call - vetted or not).
Decide what the cut-off for free calls are - time and topics.
Set how many days a week and meetings per day/week/month you want to be hosting calls.
Decide who you don’t want to meet with at all.
Now you have a basis for setting your online scheduler up to create effciency and harmony in your day.
But how do you block it, how do you let in the people you want to meet with and respectfully turn away those you don’t?
Let’s run through a few scenarios.
I have a number of business lines, a few different websites, and the ability to book with me on them is different for each.
I have a cloud accounting firm.
I’m not activily seeking clients, and the ones I may take on need to be darn near perfect. So I have a tightly honed discovery form** that vets them for my top few 5-Star Client characteristics. There is no phone number on my site, no email, no way of contacting me without going through my discovery form.
The form is very hardline with yes or no Qs.***
Answers that don’t match my 5-Star Client send them to a “Thank you for contacting us, but we won’t bring value to your business.” ending.
The solid fit answers take them to a 15-minute booking link, and ship off a more comprehesive fom - which they can fill in ahead of our call or during it.
If you are scaling or want to have more sway in letting people book, don’t just use yes/no questions. Perhaps have an option to answer “I need more details”. For example, one of my Qs is “Will you allow your bank accounts to be connected to QBO?” - Yes/No answers only. If they don’t understand what that means or have hesitation, they are not a fit for me.
But perhaps you want an opportunity to educate prospects on the benefits of bank feed connections in cloud accounting programs; maybe you aren’t a crabby little goat like me…
In that case, you could do a few things; allow the “maybes/need more details” peeps to book with you, or you could have a logic jump that opens up an explanation or website link, with a second chance at the Yes/No question. Don’t put explanations for each qualifying question in every opening question pane, though. Keep Qs as short and directed as possible, so people can get through it quickly (corporate-speak for this is “frictionless”).
I have a cloud accounting resources business.
I sell cloud accounting templates, engage in coaching with acct’g pros on tech & effciency implementation, and do live/virtual speaking & educating.
On this website, it’s really easy to get yer mitts on me. This is the business I am concentrating on. This is the revenue stream I am trying to build.
So I have a booking form that pops up when you visit certain pages, not a discovery form that needs to be completed before you can access a booking link.
I want people to get ahold of me!
But the booking form still has some walls around it. There is a series of qualifying statements and questions to answer so I know why someone wants to meet with me.
Including one that says “I want to pick your brain for free” - to which I have in parentheses “I suggest you don't book with me”.
And the website booking link is only for 15 minutes.
I review the questions and sometimes I cancel the booking if I think someone is trying to pull a fast one on me.
You could do this if you are in a growth phase with the time and energy to review the booking form answers and take meetings with largely unqualifed folks.
I advocate with technology partners.
I can only take on so many “App Advocacy” roles in a given time period, and I am very particular about who I will represent. So I block that tighter than my template sales. If a technology partner wants to meet with me, it’s a paid gig. There is a link on my site, with a paywall, to a kick-off of a super comprehensive form. Once they complete it - if I think they pass the muster on security, sustainabilty, corporate morals and their product adds value for the accounting community - they get a booking link to meet with me for a product demo.
I haven’t touched on current clients’ access to you and your team here - a blog can only be so long. But a quick thought; also decide how/when/how often/for how long and why you want them to be able to book. And create special appointment types for that. Decide if the links go in your Client Collaboration Guide, if they are targeted by the SOW and in their engagement letter, or if you ship them in specific communications (templated of course…).
I want you to value your brain, safeguard your time, and make good use of your prospects energy too.
I want you to only meet with people who align with the phase you are in with your business and your 5-Star Client profile.
So make your way through some ideas on setting up your online scheduler to create effciency and harmony in your day, using some of the thoughts and scenarios from above.
Define how you guard it - who you let book, why you let them book and how you let them book.
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Clients are more engaged and compliant if expectations of their responsibilities are clear, workflows are pre-set for them, Tax Agency best practices are established, and they understand the basics of bulletproof bookkeeping.
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Here is what the branded, short version for my bookkeeping business looks like.
And here is a (not very professional) video of the templates you will receive. The templates were revised in July 2024, since this video. But you get an idea of what you will receive :-}
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There is a ton of live and virtual stuff coming up!
Simply yours, Kellie :-}
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*Don’t make your half-hour session half of your hourly rate! Make it at least three-quarters. It takes almost as much distractional and emotional energy to host a 30 minute session as it does for a 60 minte one.
**This form is officially “old”. I have iterated it a few times since this video was done. And raised my base price :-}
Always be iterating!
***My bookkeeping website has a very targeted 5-Star client description above the discovery form link. The opening statement on my discovery form matches it. Save prospects the time of filling out your form, by stating clearly who you can bring value to (misfits will still give it a go btw, all you can do is try to save them time…).
