Meeting schedulers keep the hot leads coming and stop entropy from creeping into your day.
They also keep your sales team from getting buried under an avalanche of tedious manual tasks so they can focus 100% on building and maintaining relationships.
If you need some help with it comes to daily meeting organization, meeting schedulers like the ones discussed below can keep your team on track.
Here’s an overview of what makes for a great meeting scheduler and seven considerations for a meeting scheduler to serve your organization.
Google “meeting schedulers” and you get over half a million results.
There are a ridiculous number of options out there, with platforms capable of handling pretty much anything you can imagine.
But there are some definitive features that you’ll consistently see among today’s top meeting schedulers.
Here’s what to look for.
Whenever a lead selects a time for a meeting, your rep’s calendar should be automatically updated.
Otherwise, having to do it manually is going to cut into their productivity and will inevitably lead to mistakes and scheduling conflicts.
The best meeting schedulers take care of this for you and take the hassle out of lead outreach.
No shows are a pain in the SaaS, and studies have found that they typically range between 20 to 30%.
They’re “a silent quota killer” says Sam Belt of HubSpot and can quickly throw your sales reps off of their game.
That’s why you want to look for meeting schedulers with automated reminders that let leads know when an upcoming meeting is taking place.
Ideally, you can set up a series of reminders, such as one day, one hour, and one minute before a meeting so it stays fresh on a lead’s mind.
This right there can be a huge gamechanger.
Unfortunately, even automated reminders aren’t a magic bullet, and there will be situations where a lead needs to reschedule for whatever reason.
Using a platform with easy rescheduling allows them to do that, while preventing valuable leads from slipping through your fingers.
No software exists in a vacuum, and this is especially true for meeting schedulers.
Rather, they should integrate with major platforms like Google Calendar, Office 365 Calendar, Salesforce, Zoom, and so on.
Here are just a few types of software that Chili Piper integrates with.
One notable lack in many of the meeting schedulers listed below is Salesforce integration.
Salesforce is the number one CRM. In spite of its complexity and price tag, 150,000 businesses use it to manage sales, service, commerce, marketing, and everything in between.
Chili Piper’s seamless Salesforce integration is one major reason Chili Piper users love the platform. Since precious few meeting schedulers have such a robust integration, Chili Piper has distinguished itself as the meeting scheduler of choice for Salesforce users.
Meeting schedulers always come with a learning curve, with some being longer than others.
The last thing you want is for your sales team to pull their hair out when trying to figure out a new system.
That’s why having an intuitive, simplistic interface is so important.
It should feel natural and not be a battle to learn.
In most cases, you can get a pretty good feel for an interface by checking out a product demo.
“Cybercrime damages will cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015,” says Cybersecurity Ventures. “Cyberattacks are the fastest growing crime in the US, and they are increasing in size, sophistication, and cost.”
Given that you’ll be storing a ton of sensitive information in your database, you want a provider that takes security seriously.
Everything from encryption to user authentication to data recovery should be airtight.
Here are some of the security features Chili Piper offers.
Now that you know what specific things to look for in meeting schedulers, here are the top seven platforms that will help you reach “Marie Kondo level” organization.
Chili Piper has one main goal — help your team schedule meetings faster, while making the process dead simple.
Here’s how it works.
A lead finds your booking link through your website, demo, email, etc. and selects a time that’s convenient for them.
Chili Piper automatically qualifies the lead and routes them to the appropriate sales rep — something that can be done either by setting up preconfigured rules…
…or through round robin routing.
The meeting automatically syncs with the rep’s calendar so they know exactly when to reach out to a lead.
This takes the guesswork out of scheduling meetings and allows your team to pounce on leads while they’re scorching hot.
All the while, sales managers can keep a bird’s eye view on what’s happening.
Not only can Chili Piper help increase the volume of inbound meetings booked, it can have a massive impact on profitability.
“Right after we implemented Chili Piper we saw a 50% lift in inbound meetings booked,” says Krishan Patel, Director of Growth at Apollo.
“We now see 5x as many meetings as we did before starting with Chili Piper and our revenue is around 300% — even with half the size of the sales team.”
To learn more about Krishnan’s experience, check out this video.
Meetingbird operates on the premise of less scheduling, more doing.
Meetingbird’s interface is simple, requires a minimal learning curve.
It allows leads to choose meeting times that works for them, while taking locations, time zones, and personal preferences into account.
It syncs with a rep’s calendar, so they don’t have to be burdened by handling it manually.
It offers both automated confirmation and reminder emails to prevent no shows — both of which are fully customizable.
Meetingbird also integrates with the platforms you’d expect, including Gmail, Zoom, Slack, and Salesforce.
Besides that, I like that you can use Meetingbird to add your own branding elements to your scheduling page, such as logo, colors, and tagline.
Meetingbird lacks features, but it does furnish users with brand-specific features which is important for some businesses.
Calendar is a meeting scheduler with an emphasis on simplicity and user-friendliness. Like Meetingbird, it’s pretty bare-bones, but this does appeal to some companies and users.
A rep starts by setting their schedule so Calendar knows exactly when they’re available.
Then, they create a customized personal scheduling link, which lets leads select a meeting time based on their Calendar.
This makes the meeting scheduling process fairly smooth and prevents scheduling conflicts.
Calendar syncs with Google and Outlook Calendars.
This makes for seamless interactions with leads, while shortening the sales cycle with less back-and-forthing.
One particular feature I should mention is that Calendar uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze patterns with your team’s scheduling to help them become more productive.
While not quite as robust as meeting schedulers like Chili Piper and Meetingbird, Calendar gets the job done for many teams.
Demodesk is a cloud-based screen sharing platform that offers several interesting features.
But the ones we’re specifically interested in are scheduling and meetings.
Their scheduling feature allows you to create customized scheduling pages where leads can book meetings.
Demodesk then routes leads to the right rep and syncs the meeting to their calendar.
When it comes to reminders, this software has that on lock as well, letting you send out personalized reminders at optimal times to prevent no shows.
Demodesk also has several integrations with platforms like Salesforce, Google Suite, Microsoft Suite, and HubSpot.
Whenever there’s a new contact or update, Demodesk will log the information, which saves your team a ton of time.
With a team-wide overview, a sales manager always knows what’s happening at all times.
Your team can “use a secure virtual screen to present websites, slides, and more. Instantly share control and use built-in HD conferencing for more engaging meetings.”
Using a proprietary video conferencing interface can be a non-start for some who are used to using Zoom or Google Meet. For Demodesk, however, its central to the product, which may be appealing for some teams.
The premise of Doodle is to get leads where they need to go without any drama.
With Doodle, reps choose when they’re available, and leads can select a date and time that jives with their schedule.
Again, simple and barebones, but functional for teams that simply want easy scheduling.
It integrates with all of the usual suspects, including Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, Zoom, and Slack.
Doodle is also extremely secure and utilizes cutting-edge technology to keep your information safe.
While there aren’t any jaw-dropping features that completely reinvent the wheel, this platform has everything you need and is very easy to set up.
Cogsworth is a platform that lets leads quickly schedule meetings with your sales team with zero friction.
Just create a customized booking page, where you choose which questions you want to ask.
Then, leads can use self-service online scheduling to pick a date and time that best suits them.
It should also be noted that Cogsworth’s forms only take an average of 50 seconds to fill out. This can seem like an eternity compared with the frictionless forms used by many businesses today.
Everything is fully automated, and you can create personalized email and SMS messages to remind leads to prevent no shows.
Cogsworth integrates software like Zoom and Google Meet for easy video conferencing.
Cogsworth interface is dated and a bit cumbersome, but it does achieve its promise of being a meeting scheduler.
Calendly is one of the most well-known meeting schedulers on the market.
A rep chooses their availability preferences and shares a scheduling link through either your website or their email.
Then, a lead can choose a meeting time that works for them based around your rep’s schedule.
Like Chili Piper, Calendly offers:
Calendly and Chili Piper have similarities, but their differences should be explained:
For all the details on the similarities and differences between Calendly vs. Chili Piper, please check out this in-depth discussion.
Meeting schedulers facilitate the organization of meetings so that sales teams can efficiently arrange meetings with leads and not squander opportunities.
Meeting schedulers create a simple system where leads can conveniently schedule meetings with your reps, while automating much of the process.
Back in the day, meetings had to be scheduled either manually or through an administrative, which really put a damper on things.
But meeting schedulers have changed all that and now allow your entire team to coordinate interactions with maximum efficiency and minimal headaches.
The software takes care of virtually everything, which is a win-win for your company and for your leads.
It’s just a matter of choosing the platform with the right features and that fits the needs of your team.
So no matter how crazy things get, you can keep a steady stream of hot leads coming your way and strike while they’re red hot.
Want to learn more about how Chili Piper can help qualify, route, and schedule leads while they’re in the buying zone?
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