If your marketing team nails its messaging before an event, you will likely get a deluge of meeting requests. Your team will be inundated with inquiries—and without the advantage of an advanced scheduling app, their time is quickly consumed managing communications with dozens of companies.
Managing the influx of interested attendees for an event like a trade show can create absolute bedlam. As an event manager, you must determine your executives’ and subject matter experts’ schedules. Maximizing your event ROI depends on your ability to set valuable meetings without overtaxing your company’s key attendees’ time.
This chaotic scheduling process is unlikely to slow down anytime soon. In fact, between 2022 to 2028, the event industry market is projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.1%. In the interest of finding a solution to the chaos, this article will help you secure your next event schedule—starting by determining which requests you should grant.
Managing Inbound Meeting Requests
Your executives’ time is limited and valuable, and not every inbound meeting request will be worth a 1-to-1 meeting. Sort through inquiries and eliminate those that won’t add value to ensure that every time slot is high-quality.
The ultimate determining factors will depend on your company’s strategies and goals for the event; you’ll want to focus on prospects likely to generate desired outcomes.
The first step is to determine if the request meets your company’s internal criteria for likely prospects. Factor in considerations like the represented company, the inquirer’s position, their level of authority, and the potential value of a successful conversion.
Additionally, try to ascertain variables like the potential deal size, the company’s business sector, and their perceived need for your product or service.
You’ll need to consider your company’s assets equally at the event. You don’t want to stretch team members too thin by booking an excessively tight schedule. Filter bookings to maximize potential.
The Scheduling App: Your Secret Weapon in Managing Requests and Sign-Ups
A scheduling app presents the easiest way to handle meeting requests and session sign-ups. It can mitigate some of the common issues with a growing number of inbound and outbound requests—especially when factoring in the increased complexity of hybrid events.
For instance, a hybrid meeting or session may require you to coordinate between multiple time zones and require a room with the proper tech capabilities. These might seem like simple matters to take care of—but when you’re being bombarded with requests, it’s easy to overlook the little things.
A scheduling app makes booking the right room at the right time for all attendees easier. It can even take care of inquiries for you through scheduling automation. Also, smart software can prevent double bookings by only allowing one scheduled meeting at a time.
For most event managers, choosing a more advanced scheduling app is best because features like customizable inbound meeting request forms allow you to gather relevant contextual data. This speeds up the screening process—you’ll immediately have all the information you need.
Optimizing Inbound Meeting Requests
Did you know that 89% of people report ineffective or poorly organized meetings as a source of irritation? Good news, this can be avoided.
Preparing beforehand can help your executives and subject matter experts effectively direct their 1-to-1 or 1-to-many sessions. Start by crafting a custom scheduling form that provides the necessary information ahead of time to guide the demo or engagement.
Include questions about the prospect’s interest in your product, company details, and meeting attendee information. With this data, you can determine the potential value of each meeting before you respond to the request.
Also, gather specific details on who the prospect is interested in meeting with, their preferences regarding in-person vs. virtual attendance, and availability.
By collating all that information into one location—a scheduling app—you can effectively use this single source of truth to set up a meeting with likely prospects without going back and forth over email. Needless to say, this makes the meeting experience much smoother for both schedulers and attendees.
Optimizing Outbound Meeting Requests
A busy calendar indicates successful events. You want to get your executives and subject matter experts in as many high-value meetings as possible to maximize potential returns. However, you must also ensure their calendars give them enough space to breathe.
Striking the right balance can be difficult, but integration is key to a frictionless calendar, particularly for trade shows. You want to make it easy to compile all scheduling information in one place without excessive manual input—which leads to human error.
An advanced scheduling app can help you seamlessly integrate outbound requests initiated by your sales team with your executives’ calendars.
If you’re using the right app, your sales team can first gather information on prospects to provide meeting context. Then, without leaving their CMS, the sales team can send this critical information—along with the meeting request—directly to you.
Accepted meeting requests will provide attendees with the contextual information they need to derive the most value out of the engagement.
Find the Right Scheduling App
Ultimately, the status of your meeting calendars is a critical component of generating high event ROI.
Stacking your executive’s schedules with qualified prospects creates sales potential; however, setting your company up for success requires extensive screening of meeting requests. A sophisticated scheduling app is key to effectively balancing all these factors.
But not all apps come with equal capabilities. In the most hectic moments, your choice will make a big difference. So go with a scheduling app that’s designed to help you easily navigate inbound meeting requests, gather relevant contextual information, and prevent common issues like double bookings.
You want an app that provides customizable inbound meeting request forms, automatic inquiry processing capabilities, and even Salesforce integration. If you’re ready to sort out your next event schedule, learn more about Jifflenow’s solution for inbound meeting requests today.
