Meetings, meetings and more meetings
As a consultant, booking meetings with people is a key part of my working life. Sales meetings, project meetings, consultations, and general catch-ups – my days can involve a lot of meetings.
That can get overwhelming. And unproductive. So I try to reduce meetings by using recorded video wherever that makes more sense than a “live” meeting.
Live meetings are essential though. People have to get to know me to build trust as part of the sales process, and some things need real-time interaction to make significant progress in a short space of time. And in many cases, I want to meet people, because people matter. I enjoy spending time with my clients, prospects, and random people who book a free consultation with me. It’s good fun!
Calendar tennis
The most common way we all arrange a meeting these days is:
“Send me over some dates/times and let’s get a meeting booked in. I can do Thursday but only between 11-11:30 and 1:45-4:15, then Friday is mostly clear apart from 2-3pm.”
There’s so much wrong with this! For a start, the reply will probably be something like:
“Ok, great, I can do Friday 2pm.”
But it’s too late, and the ball whizzes back over the net with a stylish backhand:
“Sorry, there’s an all-hands meeting just booked in for Friday afternoon. Shall we look at next week?”
Before you know it, there is a chain of 12 emails, and that’s without adding the complications of timezones, finding a time for more than two people, agreeing which video call platform to use… and in the meantime the reason for the meeting is still there, not being dealt with.
Business is about relationships, people, connections. This sort of messiness is adding grit to the wheels at the very centre of what makes a business tick. All that friction adds up over time and produces a constant cost of missed opportunities, delayed work, and all the associated stress and hassle.
That first meeting is HUGE – so make it easy!
Almost every client I work with has started out with a conversation. A meeting. If someone refers an aquaintance to me and they check out my website, I have a golden opportunity to make it easy for them to take a next step. Most of all, what I want to do is meet them. Then we can connect, start to build trust, and explore whether there is mutual value in working together.
But it starts with a meeting. The value of that meeting could be enormous. I have clients who have done great projects with me, then referred me to several other great clients who have also done great projects with me. And all that started with one meeting.
So there’s a lot riding on how easy it is for a prospect to book that first meeting. Let’s say they email me, but the email goes to spam or I’m taking time off, or whatever. Something causes a delay, and maybe they go with an alternative option or the window of opportunity passes. The purpose of that email is probably to say, “Can we book a meeting sometime?” I might miss out simply because I wasn’t there to return serve.
A better way: availability and booking tools
The solution is to do externally what most large companies already do internally: share your availability and allow people to book time in your calendar.
By having a booking link available, public, and encouraging people to use it, I don’t have to be responsible for replying quickly and getting something in the calendar for new prospects. They can go right ahead and book themselves in. The serve gets returned automatically, and it’s always right on target, just inside the line at an impossible angle to return…
(OK, so maybe I’m enjoying this tennis metaphor slightly too much…!)
This can’t be done smoothly using any proprietory platform like Outlook or Google calendars, because not everyone uses them and they don’t work very well with each other (which to me is ridiculous, but that’s another story!)
Using an external service that is designed specifically for this purpose is a game changer. Calendly was one of the first on the scene; I used AcuityScheduling for a long time, and there are many alternatives out there, each with their own feature sets, pros and cons.
My top pick: TidyCal
I’ve used several tools to achieve this super-valuable functionality over the years, but the one I now use is TidyCal from AppSumo.
That’s my affiliate link, but feel free to look up TidyCal on Google and go direct if you’d rather not use it.
Almost unbelievably for something this useful, it doesn’t have a monthly cost. I paid $29 once for a lifetime license and that’s it. AppSumo keep adding more features at an impressive rate (the roadmap has some exciting developments on the way) and I don’t have to pay extra, they just become available.
How I use TidyCal to eliminate calendar tennis
First, I use it a lot. If a meeting of any kind needs to be arranged, I’ll drop one of my saved links into the email or message (a near-instant process because I use a clipboard manager), and use something like this to preface it if I haven’t used it before with this particular person:
The easiest thing would be to choose a slot that suits you best here: https://tidycal.com/geofftodd/call. You’ll get a calendar invite plus options for phone or video call, and it will go straight in my calendar too.
If none of these times work for you in the next few days just let me know when suits and I can move some things around to make space.
Simple and to the point. (And also instant because that text is saved in my clipboard manager). When the person goes to that link, they get a view of my availability.
These slots are controlled by me. I have multiple calendars on Google and Microsoft accounts that TidyCal checks for any existing appointments, then follows some rules I’ve set up to only offer a slot at a specific time if it meets my requirements:
The beauty of this is that the person booking an appointment with me has got all the information they need in front of them – their own calendar, potentially those of their colleagues whom they want to include in the meeting, and now mine.
Once they have selected a time which works for them, I can gather some useful information that will be included in the confirmation email and the calendar invite:
And that’s it. We’ve both got a calendar event, in our own timezone, with all the details we need, and we haven’t lobbed a single email across the net!
But it gets better
There is icing on the cake here too. This is now so much more than a “normal” meeting where we both add it to our calendars separately, or even a calendar invite that includes everyone, maybe sent from Microsoft Teams or Zoom.
TidyCal has a bunch of features which take away the chance that someone will start to serve for the second set in the calendar tennis match:
- It’s integrated with video call platforms so the link is automatically created and sent to everyone, and included in the calendar invite. No more checking if we’re on Teams or Zoom or just a phone call…
- Email reminders are sent automatically, so nobody should forget about it because they aren’t checking their calendar.
- If something comes up, there’s a reschedule button that allows the person who booked to choose a new time, and everyone is notified. The calendar invites are even updated automatically to the new date and time.
- I can look at my dashboard of upcoming events to see what I need to prepare for, without having to comb through my calendar to spot specific meetings of a particular type.
Make the change, never look back
If you often set up meetings with people outside your own organisation, and are still playing calendar tennis, then get TidyCal. The benefits for me have been huge:
- Time saved
- Stress reduced
- Money saved (compared to using a similar tool with a monthly cost)
- Efficiency increased
- Happier clients and prospects
Got questions about how I use TidyCal or how it fits into the rest of my systems? Get in touch, I’d love to chat.
Or, you know, book a slot on my calendar…