Calendly Software Guide For Real Estate Syndicators: how you *really* should be using Calendly. 

Hint: it’s not just having Calendly embedded on your website or in your emails.

The *true* power of a scheduling software called Calendly is rarely used. Most people just put a Calendly link in their emails hoping someone will schedule a call. But Calendly is a lot more powerful and dynamic. It can be used to double your conversion… if you use it right. 😎

In this article, I’ll show how to strategically use Calendly to close more passive investors for your deals. And I’ll dive deep into how we used Calendly as part of our sales process to raise millions $$$ in capital for one client. 

If you’re a Real Estate Syndicator or an active investor looking to find more passive investors to join your deals, this is for you!

Using Calendly Strategically for Syndicators

The Keyword here is: STRATEGICALLY.

Nope, I’m not going to give you boring advice about how you should “embed your Calendly calendar” on your website. Or include Calendly links in your emails. 

Why?

First, because that’s really basic. Anyone can do that with a simple copy/paste tutorial. There’s no strategy there.

But, secondly, and most important: I don’t think you *should* have an open calendar where anyone can meet with you. Scheduling time in your busy calendar should be seen as a privilege that only a few leads qualify for. It should be exclusive.

Why?

First – because you don’t have time to let people “pick your brain” or waste your time if they’re never really going to invest with you. You need a “wall” that protects your time from tire-kickers. You need a “lead qualifying strategy” before anyone gets the chance to book one-on-one time with you.

Your calendar should only be available to high-quality leads. Otherwise, you won’t have enough time to do your highest value work.

Second – psychologically, humans are fickle creators. We usually want things that are hard to get. If your calendar is more open than a pint of ice cream on the 4th of July, people will lose interest. You and your time will be seen as a commodity; something they can get whenever and something they didn’t have to work for. 

Why take action to schedule a call with you now? They can always do it later. And because your clients have a thousand “urgent” problems screaming for their attention – they will put it off until later. Or until never.

The Truth about Availability

👉 Having an open Calendly will ironically lead to less calls, less conversion, and less investors.

👉 Making your Calendly strategic will lead to booking more calls, convert more leads, and close more investors.

Real Calendly Use Case: how we used Calendly to convert 10% of leads into actual investors with $100,000 minimum investment. Generating Millions in Raised Capital.

So, we’ve decided: not everyone should have open access to your calendar. 
But, how do you put your calendar behind a “wall” where only qualified leads gain access to it? And how do you know who these best “qualified leads are”? 🤔

Two Best Ways to Filter Clients BEFORE Giving them Access to Your Calendly:

For me, there are two “best practices” to pre-qualify leads. Automatically, of course! We don’t want you filtering out the leads one by one. This isn’t 1992! We want to build a system that automatically filters the leads for you.

Method 1: Filter by Application:

The first way to sift out the best leads from the “tire kickers” is to design a form or application that potential investors must fill out. Universally, it will include fields that will “qualify” or “unqualify” investors. But, this form must be based on your unique investment model. 

Let’s look at an example!

Once you know who your ideal investor is, you can create the application form.

Then, the cool part happens. 😎 You *strategically* decide what criteria are a *must have* and which criteria are a *would be nice to have.*  

Potential Application Questions:

• For instance, are your investment syndications 506(b) or 506(c)?  Therefore, do you only accept Accredited Investors? Or will you also accept a small number of non-accredited investors?
• Do you have a minimum investment amount?
• Do you have a “must have liquid cash” by a certain deadline?
• Do you want to speak to potential investors even if they already have a financial advisor?
• Do you want to speak with people that have never invested passively before?
• Do you want to work with Real Estate professionals?

All of these questions must be customized to your business model. Asking the right questions will depend on your “ideal investor profile”.

Finally, we leverage the power of automation: setting up automatic systems that filter out unqualified leads. These automatic filters can be set up in your email marketing CRM, like: Active Campaign, Hubspot, GetResponse, etc.

Through a series of automations, the system will define which leads are the most interesting for you. And then ONLY those leads be invited to access to your calendar.
It’s like having a personal secretary that handles your agenda, keeping it free only for the best clients!

Method 2: Filter by Lead Scoring.

The second method I would recommend to make sure your Calendly is only open to the highest quality investors, would be to design and implement a “Lead Scoring System”.

Lead Scoring is an automated process by which potential leads are “ranked” based on their actions. Points are awarded for positive actions like opening emails, clicking links, viewing web pages, filling out forms, and much much more.

The idea is to design a unique “Lead Scoring System” that fits your business model. 

Again, the idea here is that your Lead Scoring system is personalized to your business model.

👉 Do you send lots of information via email? Award points to your highest-engaged readers.

👉 Do you communicate mostly through webinars or events? Award points for people who show up for the webinars or events.

👉 Do you have tons of informational Podcasts on your site? Award points for leads who are visiting lots of those pages.

The idea is to award smaller points for smaller actions, like email opens. And larger points for larger actions, such as requesting White Papers.

Points also expire, so that you know your “highest-point earning leads” are actively engaged and have a *current* need for your solution.

After setting up a “Lead Scoring System,”  leads must pass a certain “point threshold” to gain one-on-one access to you. For instance, only leads with over 80-points are invited to schedule an initial meeting with you through Calendly. 

Extra-extra-hint: It’s a good idea to design your lead scoring system intelligently: have a “minimum criteria” of points so that even if someone opens all of your emails, but they don’t have any money to invest, they will never reach the threshold to gain access to you.
This will ensure that you’re not inviting everyone to “pick your brain” or waste your time with “tire kickers.”

Rather, you’re rewarding your “raving fans” with exclusive access to you!

Now – we’ve filtered our leads so that *ONLY* the best leads have access to your Calendly.

Now what?

Once we’ve decided who and how someone gains personal access to you, how do we actually use Calendly to optimize conversion and “win” more passive investors for our syndications? All … While being as automated as possible, of course!

Powerful Software + Smart Strategy = Amazing Results.

Calendly has VERY powerful tools that almost no-one is leveraging.

Recently, Calendly integrated “natively” with Active Campaign. 

“What does that mean?” 
Basically: that the Active Campaigns and Calendly can “speak back and forth” to one another.

“Uhhhh…..What’s does that mean for me?”

It means that you use Calendly + Active Campaign to:

• learn more information about your potential investors to “start off on the right foot”

• personalize your communication with clients to improve conversion

• create unique client journeys that actually win investors, or let go immediately of “tire kickers”

• inviting the right people to meetings, and removing people from invites once they schedule a call, creating a seamless client experience

(Note: I say Active Campaign because it’s my true love, but Hubspot and other CRMs will work just fine.)

❌ It’s not just including a Calendly meeting link in your emails.

✅ It’s making Calendly talk to Active Campaign.

Connecting Calendly and Active Campaign means creating a seamless journey for your clients

3 Strategic Keys we used to Raise Millions in Capital for Syndication using Calendly:

Now for the 3 big takeaways for harnessing the power of Calendly for Real Estate Syndication or investors.

1.  Create a “wall” around your Calendly time. Make leads “work” to gain access to it.

This one we’ve talked a lot about. Make booking time with you a privilege and create urgency around booking a call. Best ways to do this: application or lead scoring systems.

2. Define your sales process: use Calendly to create multiple types of meetings that fit within your sales process.

How many calls does it take you to close a new investor for your syndication? 🤔

After your initial meeting, do you have a sales flow process? Are meetings “followed up” by emails, text messages, or ringless voicemail? Your sales process should feel natural and personal, but follow an automated system. Otherwise, leads will get lost in the process and there’s no tracking of conversion.

After a Calendly call – do you have a post-call processing system to indicate if a lead is “cold / warm / hot”.  If a lead is “cold” or “hot” do they take different journeys?

If your emails are still inviting leads to “schedule a call” with you, even after they’ve already signed up – your system isn’t working and the customer experience is bad. Have Calendly tell Active Campaign (or your CRM), when a contact schedules a call, so you stop inviting them. If they cancel or re-schedule a call, have an automation take care of rescheduling.

Set up workflows in Calendly that customized the lead’s journey with personalized text messages and reminder emails. Set up pre and post-call reminders and instructions for you or your team.

Overall – make Calendly mold to your sales process and make sure each lead is on the right journey!

3. Integrate Calendly with your CRM: use personalization, custom fields, and details as much as possible in your automations.

Using Active Campaigns and Calendly, you can collect a lot of information about your potential leads. You can know their “big problem” before ever jumping on the call with them. That gives you an edge! 

Use the powerful integration of these tools to send “personalized” follow up emails and invites.

Are they worried about taxes? Create custom content that speaks to their fears?

Do they want to save for their kids’ college? Write a personal note that gets integrated into their follow up sequence.

Are they unsure if they qualify as an Accredited Investor? Create a contingency sequence that helps them understand.

Finally, use Calendly to automatically update your CRM. Once someone schedules a call, add them to a “deal” in your CRM. Create tasks that you or your sales team can follow up with them.

If your leads “soft commit” to a certain investment amount, use automation to automatically request their Accredited Investor verification.

Finally, make sure Calendly is also integrated with Zoom and Google Calendar so everything works perfectly. *Chef’s Kiss*

I’m here to help

I hope this has been helpful! If you need help using Calendly STRATEGICALLY, send me a message!

If you do, we can get real nerdy and chat about all these custom fields (photo below)! 😂😂😂. Naaaaah, I’ll handle the nerdy stuff!

Best,
Veronica