Understand your audience
Before you even start to consider scheduling your meeting, you need to know who is going to be there. It’s one of the most important aspects of making sure everyone stays focused. Inviting the wrong people will only lead to unproductive meetings and off-track conversations.
It may seem like a no-brainer but start by identifying who you need - not who you want. As much as it can be nice to have a friendly face in a meeting if they aren’t adding value, why are they there? Be sure to plan ahead - whether that’s someone in your company or external - and think about how their contribution will move the meeting forward.
If you’re a freelancer, you will often have to meet with new clients. It’s worth taking time to find out a bit more about them and who the person making the key decisions is. Tailor your sales pitch to what will work best for them to maximize your chance of success. If you’re unsure, it’s always helpful to make a poll to find time with a friend to chat it through.
Once you know who you’re meeting with, you need to be sure you know what your expectations are. For example, you’re a project manager. What actionable results do you want to take away and be able to follow up on to move things forward?
You also want to make sure you know what you need to tell attendees to prepare beforehand. If there are particular reports to read or specific items needed to participate - they need to know that. This is especially important when it comes to remote meetings.
Getting people together with the right tools
Now you know who you need to get to your meeting, the challenge is how. Manually emailing back and forth will feel like a neverending minefield that you’ll be very lucky to find your way out of.
Doodle is a scheduling tool that should make this much easier. Let’s say you're a busy entrepreneur. Group Poll will let you select times you’re free to send to your invitees to find something that works best for everyone. It can even send automatic reminders that will make sure you get the responses you need and no one misses the event.
If you’re a freelance consultant and need to be more flexible with how your clients get in touch with you, Booking Page will make it easy. Simply choose the times you want to be free and send them a link. They’ll book a time that suits them. You can make multiple Booking Pages to suit a variety of clients where you ask for all the information you need before - letting you prepare as needs be.
Using a tool like Doodle also links to your calendar, so you’re never at risk of double booking. Say you’re a Google Calendar user, connecting it to Doodle means that when you have something already scheduled - no one will be able to book that time with you.
A scheduling app for business is going to be essential to navigate your busy schedule. It will free up so much time that would normally be used going back and forth with people. This means you can focus on growing your business.