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Welcome to the Sell or Die podcast.
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I m your host, Jeffrey Gittimer.
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And I m your host, Jen Gittimer.
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Well, in this podcast, we re gonna help you attract more qualified, unbelievable, ready to buy clients.
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We re gonna help you build loyal relationships.
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And the one thing you re hoping for, close more deals.
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Let s get into it.
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It s time to sell or die.
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This is a rare interview because we re interviewing a company and we re already a customer.
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And which means we pay them on a weekly, monthly, quarterly basis, whatever we pay.
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And we re going to have to ballyhoo who they are because we re believers.
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And
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I don t want you the diehard to feel like, oh, this is a sales pitch.
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No, this is information about how you can become a better salesperson and how you can make it easier for your customer to reach out and have a painless, timeless way to get ahold of you and meet with you in literally a millisecond.
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So we re joined by two of the Calendly s amazing women,
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Kate and Amy.
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And I don t want to say Kate s last name because I can say it for Arlene.
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How do you say alluring like all the rings alluring, alluring, alluring.
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Awesome.
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And Amy Clark.
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Yeah, much easier.
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Thank you for having an easy last name, Amy.
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No problem.
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And I m just here as a silent participant, just so you know, got you.
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Well, but if you have something to say, you re more than allowed to say it.
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Okay.
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So
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Kate, how did you get involved with Calendly?
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Prior to Calendly, I ve been at Calendly for about a year now.
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Prior to Calendly, I spent the better part of two decades in tech and tech sales and taking on a bunch of individual contributor roles and management roles.
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Just exactly prior to Calendly, I was with a company called Glassdoor.
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Many of you might know glassdoor.com.
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I was with Glassdoor for about eight years prior to Calendly.
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One of
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My favorite people at Glassdoor was named Annie Pearl.
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And Annie Pearl was our chief product officer at Glassdoor and went on to be chief product officer at Calendly and introduced me to Tope, the CEO and founder of Calendly.
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And the rest is somewhat history, at least as it relates to the last year, year and a half.
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Is there a vice president of winers at Glassdoor?
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Because it seems like a lot of people that leave messages there are whining about one thing or another.
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You know, Glassdoor is an interesting topic because if you look at the data in aggregate, about 70% of the reviews are positively sentimented.
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So like 70% of the time, somebody is like neutral to positive, but the ones that stick out is just, you know, psychology are always the negative ones.
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That s really interesting, actually.
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I would have thought it was the reverse.
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I would have thought 70% were negative.
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Yeah.
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I mean, across millions and millions and millions of reviews at Glassdoor,
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If you go and you just look, of course they have ML to look at the sentiment of these things.
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If you just look, most people are like pretty satisfied with their job.
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And there s always something that you pick on or, you know, it couldn t see, I ll use a trivial example of like, oh, the snacks could use improvement and snacks stink or whatever.
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But most of the time, what people are commenting on is like neutral to positive.
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It s the stinging ones that you remember.
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And in the early days we would send them around and we re like, well, this is a real doozy.
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And those just from a psychology standpoint, always stick with us much longer than the, you know, the neutral ones.
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So tell me about how you approach a sale at Calendly.
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Somebody calls up and they go, well, I don t really know if I want to do this or not.
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Why should I?
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What do you tell them?
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Well, here s the fun part about being a product-led growth company, which Calendly is, or one of the canonical product-led growth companies, is most of the time that call
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Isn t a call most of the time, it s a user who s used the product already.
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And so they go to the website, they re able to use Calendly for free.
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There s a whole bunch that you can do for free inside the product.
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And so most of the time, the calls that my team get are, how do I get my entire team onto this product?
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How do I get my entire company onto the product?
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And they re to some extent already sold on the value to them as an individual.
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So, you know, like all good sales process, we want to ask good questions, make sure we re good fit, and then we can actually help that customer.
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But most of the time, we have this very, you know, the great advantage of them having already used the product.
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So just one more question.
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So basically, people call you up.
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And they say, how can I get involved?
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And you say, can I please have your credit card number and that pesky expiration date?
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And we ll get you rolling.
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Is that your close?
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So it sounds easier than it actually is.
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But the process that you just described most of the time actually happens via our self-serve channels.
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So someone doesn t call us up.
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Someone just hits the website and says, I m interested in trying this out.
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And you can get started for free without putting your credit card in.
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And then, you know, if you want to use some of the paid features that would add value to your experience, then you can.
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Cool.
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I was really excited when I saw that you were coming on the podcast because I have been a pro Calendly, pro scheduling tool person for years.
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And Jeffrey and I are not only married, but we work in the business together and it s been one of our bigger debates over
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A decade, wouldn t you say?
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Like it literally, he s like, no.
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And I m like, yes.
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And I think now we ve kind of met in the middle on it, but for a long time, we ve had this big debate on keeping someone around to do the scheduling manually, because it has a different feel perhaps.
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And my inclination is, well, actually it s just easier.
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Like I d rather someone give me their link, because I d rather click the link and schedule it
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And and Jeffrey, you ve come around, haven t you?
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Well, the reason I ve come around is that I can now schedule an appointment with somebody without having to screw around with anything or anyone.
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I look at my calendar.
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I look at their calendar.
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I click eleven o clock on Tuesday and I m done.
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Literally, I m done.
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So the simplicity of it overtook the rudeness of it.
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Yeah, yeah, I totally get that.
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Now, like I want the sales, I like said, you re on appointment.
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What are you telling me to go to your little thing for it?
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You lazy bastard.
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I want you to, I want you.
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And that s how I perceived it at the very beginning.
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But now I think it s actually more of an ease of communication tool that absolutely tells the other guy it s 11 o clock.
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He s not going to forget.
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I m not going to forget because it s on my calendar.
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I can just click a link, put on my Google calendar and I m good to go.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Well, this is my take.
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I totally understand where you re coming from.
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And I didn t use it.
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I wasn t a Calendly user until about two years ago.
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And I had a really good friend of mine who was like a fervent Calendly user, like to book catch-up calls on the weekend, I had to use her Calendly link.
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Very annoying.
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But she was like, I booked my whole life through this thing.
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Like you have to use it.
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If you want to, if you want to see how I m doing, you want to talk at two o clock on Sunday and catch up, use my Calendly link.
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And I found it very obnoxious.
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However, once I began using it myself, between Glassdoor and Calendly, and I began to use it as part of my own recruitment process and meeting with recruiters and companies.
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And I was like, you know, you just can t argue with the value that this unlocks in terms of time.
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But what I would say in the context of your example, Jeffrey, around like the lazy sales guy, this actually is more about customer experience than it is
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the salesperson s experience.
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I agree.
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The customer demands this today, to operate in a way that is more digital than it has been in the past.
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Unofficially, I m an OSF.
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with that title, that gives me the I m an old sales fucker.
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And that gives me the neither of us knew what that was.
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I knew I knew what the first letter stood for.
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And I was right.
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But that s too.
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But, you know, it wasn t my way of doing it.
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Yeah, yeah.
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But I adopt and adapt technology pretty well.
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I m a CRM guy.
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I m a Zoom guy.
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I ve probably done 2,500 Zoom meetings.
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Yeah.
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So it s not like I m not familiar with it.
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The only thing I m not familiar with are people that use PCs because I m a Mac guy.
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Right.
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And with Mac, it requires no thinking whatsoever.
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You click a link, you tell it what to do, and it does it.
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You probably worked on a Mac, I m guessing.
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Did you start with a PC in transition?
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You made the switch to a Mac?
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No.
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In 1984, I bought a Mac.
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Okay.
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All right.
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That gives you some speed, Brad.
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I used a Sony VAIO for about a year, and it s now a paperweight.
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which is perfect for that.
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It doesn t do anything else.
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Yeah, it s in the background somewhere.
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Okay, so we ve established how cool Calendly is.
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Kate, I was looking at your LinkedIn earlier and saw how you grew Glassdoor tremendously.
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I mean, grew up from less than a $10 million company to being sold at $1.2 billion.
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That s amazing.
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What would you say contributed most to that growth?
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Yeah.
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I mean, gosh, so many things with the thing that will sound trite, but that comes up honestly, just as a gut reaction to that question is we built a really amazing team.
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And so, you know, like when you talk about the right talents being in the right place at the right time, I think those things all came together for us at Glassdoor.
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But when I think of, I could list a million things that will get wrong or that we got wrong and probably wouldn t do that publicly.
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But there were a lot of things that we screwed up, you know, trial and error and eventually got right.
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But the thing that we kind of nailed from the beginning was people.
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And I think we started at the top with our CEO and co-founders, you know, and they hired in their image more wonderful people.
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And the team there we had was really incredible.
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Are you friends with all those people?
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Do you still communicate with them?
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I keep in touch with a lot of them.
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Yeah.
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I ve actually hired quite a few of them too.
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We have a bunch of former Glassdoor folks over at Calendly along with, you know, the core Calendly team, which is also a great and terrific environment to be operating in.
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But there, you know, I have some of my very good friends that were built in that experience.
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And, you know, there s a certain place in time that everybody has in their career where you re kind of all in that same phase of life.
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You re on the same.
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hard, but exciting career journey.
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And you can t replicate that.
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Those are, you know, moments that you always look back on and are really, really special with a, with a special group of people.
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That s cool.
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That s totally cool.
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Did you grow up with a specific set of sales skills that you use?
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Did you have sales mentor people that guided you along the way?
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Yeah, you know, I, I did, and their names were mom and dad.
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So both of my parents were in sales.
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My dad was in insurance sales for his entire career, worked at a whole bunch of different large insurance companies.
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And my mom was in telecom sales.
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So we re for all the big telcos over the course of a very long and successful, predominantly federal sales career.
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So a lot of our, you know, dinner conversation revolved around deals and, you know, pipeline and signatures.
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They were waiting to get an internal collaboration.
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They were trying to coordinate.
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So I did just, I grew up in a Petri dish of sales, whether I liked it or not.
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So a lot of this has just been commonplace for me for years and years.
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I I ve told the story before, but one of my, one of my favorite stories about my mom is if you think back, gosh, this is 30, 30 plus years ago.
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Now I sat and watched like, you know, nighttime TV or was doing my homework or whatever.
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And my mom would be going through on the phone, on the real telephone wired to a wall.
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her voicemails from the day in the same way that we now like kind of clean out our inbox.
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She was clearing out her voicemail box and was replying to voicemails and gosh, talk about inefficient and how far we ve come.
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But that is like a very clear memory of mine is listening to my mom, very professionally respond to a lot of voicemails at night as a part of her sales career.
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Wow.
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That s pretty cool.
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Yeah.
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On Thursday night, I used to sneak down and watch
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You re good, Jeffrey.
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You re good.
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My internet is unstable.
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I want to hear this story, though.
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So I used to sneak down on Thursday night.
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I would listen to my dad play Pinochle with three other business owners.
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And they would talk about what happened in their business that day, who bounced the check, who made a big sale, how did they handle this employee, who got fired, who got hired.
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And that was, I got an MBA listening to other guys play
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cards.
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They never saw me.
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I was always sneaking down the steps and leaning up against the wall where they couldn t see me.
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It s such a privilege and advantage to have had exposure to these things at a young age and not everybody does.
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Yeah, I can remember hearing my dad talk about how people were responding to the comp plans.
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You know, that s like not a conversation that a lot of people have at the dinner table.
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That s true.
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I would also have to say the language was colorful.
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I bet.
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Fluent Philadelphia.
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Yeah, that s an experience in and of itself, even if they hadn t been talking business, you know, just three Philadelphia fellas playing piano.
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Yeah, exactly.
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So looking at your task now with Calendly, what does that look like trying to sell software?
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You talked about a little bit at the beginning that it s somewhat easier because people are getting these free trials, but I would assume your sales people have big quotas.
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And what s the strategy to go after the market?
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Yeah, a lot of what we think about is where can we help?
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And so Cal only helps you schedule, prepare, and follow up for external meetings.
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So that external word in that phrase is really important.
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And people that do the most external meetings obviously are in sales, in customer success, in customer support.
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And then the other use case that is most predominant for us is recruiting.
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Very obvious, recruiters are salespeople too.
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And so as we look at the market and we say, where can Calendly unlock a bunch of value inside an organization?
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It s really in those functions and companies that have a lot of those people in those functions.
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So if you think about tech as an example, a lot of salespeople exist in tech.
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we would think about assigning those accounts to salespeople.
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Now, here s kind of the fun thing that I ve learned being inside Calendly.
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You would assume, okay, well, inside the typical company, let s say a high-growth tech company, which everybody would love to be partnered with, there might be a few hundred people that are using Calendly, either the free version or the introductory paid version of that.
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And so that s cool.
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And as a salesperson, geez, wouldn t you all hope that you had a couple hundred people inside an account using your product already?
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That s a major, major advantage.
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But what we found
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is most of the time they re very happy users, but most of the time those users aren t the buyers of enterprise technology.
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And so there is this gap that needs to be crossed in terms of the chasm in the organization where you have to go and sell the value of driving more revenue, of improving conversion rates, of helping them hit their hiring plan, you know, whatever the situation is to someone at the right altitude in the organization who s got the influence over a budget and is able to make that decision.
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But the lead is already there.
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you have the lead and you re talking to somebody who s good, like, hey, your people are already used to this.
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What s the holdup?
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Right.
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Yeah.
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Well, yes, exactly.
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That s a lot of the conversation is here s how people are using this.
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Here s the value that one person might be getting, you know, and then you multiply that value across hundreds of people.
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There s also a bunch of, this is nerd accounting stuff, but there s a bunch of reasons to deploy the enterprise package that aren t included in the individual user package.
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you know, there s enterprise security, there s enterprise administration, there s the ability to unlock events across large groups of people, not just a single user.
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So that s a lot of the conversation that we have with that more enterprise buyer, as opposed to just the value of one person.
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And let s go outside that box for a second.
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Can I also schedule service calls through Calendly?
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Oh, yeah.
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Yeah, definitely.
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A copier company need, you know, go to my Calendly, I ll be there, you know, I ll show you my open times, and I ll be there.
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Yeah, we have a lot of businesses that will do that.
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And you can book right from a web page.
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So a lot of our customers will stand up a couple simple questions through their lead routing program and allow you to book directly and whether that s an inbound lead or a service call.
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One of our great customers, Asana, uses this exact example, uses Calendly to book.
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their concierge program.
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So if you have a question about how to use Asana, you can come and book via Calendly and speak to an expert all without having to talk to someone about scheduling or going back and forth via email.
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So a lot of customers are using it in a lot of different ways outside of just the core sales use case.
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It seems like it saves the back and forth.
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Yeah, our data, and I always kind of laugh at this because our data says that it s anywhere between seven and eight emails to book a typical meeting.
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And we ve kind of probably all had that experience, but it does sound extreme.
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But I think as reasonable people, we can say it usually takes a few for two busy people or groups of people to get together.
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And Calendly solves a lot of that back and forth.
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So I m interested in terms of, we have a lot of salespeople who listen, who sell tech.
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What would you say to them that they should be thinking about this year?
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Gosh, it s an interesting year.
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You know, we live in uncertain times economically.
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And I, I got in front of my team this week and I said, look, we have a lot of reasons to believe that we ll be successful.
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And I think this would apply to all tech sales folks this year.
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You hopefully you have a great product that you re selling.
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Hopefully you re trying to get better at your job.
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Hopefully you re talking about business value with your customers more than ever, because everything s going to be incredibly scrutinized.
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But assuming that you do all those things well, and you have reasons to believe, we still have a lot of uncertainty.
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We all live in a world with major economic events happening, world events happening, things that we can t control.
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And so it s kind of this both and.
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that we have to manage.
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But I am just of the belief that if you control the little things on a daily basis, if you come in and do what you believe needs to make you successful on a day in and day out basis, that most of the time that s going to lead you to a successful place.
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So, you know, like the big trends that everybody s talking about, of course, are the increasing digitization of this entire process and how we think about that.
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But I think generally, we re gonna have to get
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really, really good at talking about the impact that our products have and the outcomes that we drive, because it s going to be more people asking more questions about these proposals and more of them are going to hit the CFO s desk.
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And so if you don t have the skills to navigate that conversation, probably not going to be putting yourself in a position to win in 2023.
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Could AI navigate that conversation?
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I don t know.
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The use of things like chat GBT, I think that s maybe where you re going and artificial intelligence.
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I think there s
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great use cases for that in a lot of the go-to-market, particularly in marketing and particularly in outbound selling.
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But when you re really talking about enterprise sales and getting to a CFO,
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SPEAKER_02
or an executive buyer and talking about a business case, I think we re still pretty far off from having that be a personal and really specific conversation that resonates with that buyer.
1
SPEAKER_00
I agree 1,000%.
1
SPEAKER_00
But your use of Calendly in an uncertain market is there s plenty of people that are employment services that they can go to and book an appointment with somebody online.
1
SPEAKER_00
What you should do is go to the government
1
SPEAKER_00
And have them put countably in the unemployment office so people can actually book an appointment if they lose their job.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yes, I think there are lots of examples where
1
SPEAKER_02
People are trying to get appointments or talk to folks in an easier way than exists today.
1
SPEAKER_02
And certainly that might be one.
1
SPEAKER_02
The government space is one that we haven t gone deep on yet.
1
SPEAKER_02
As you might imagine, they re not always on the front end of the technology curve, but welcome to the discussion.
1
SPEAKER_02
I think that one day that will be a really relevant conversation to have.
1
SPEAKER_00
I would also think it s a great tool for a salesperson trying to make an appointment with a decision maker.
1
SPEAKER_02
For sure.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
And we have a lot of our customers, you know, use Calendly too.
1
SPEAKER_02
So it gets really, really easy to book appointments when you re both Calendly users.
1
SPEAKER_02
Cause you can see both sides of the calendar will very easily highlight what the available times are, even when it s two different organizations.
1
SPEAKER_02
So yeah, I think there s the use case for that for a salesperson.
1
SPEAKER_02
Look, it s going to save you time.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s going to make your life easier, but really what, you know, my team thinks about and wakes up in the morning to do is to unlock that value across an entire organization.
1
SPEAKER_02
So driving, improving on top line and conversion and all of that.
1
SPEAKER_01
Let s talk about that because from a salesperson s perspective, it can be difficult.
1
SPEAKER_01
So if I am the salesperson and I m calling on Jeffrey and Jeffrey is a user in his organization,
1
SPEAKER_01
I still have to get to the decision maker, right?
1
SPEAKER_01
And that decision maker may be against scheduling tools, may not see the value, may not understand it.
1
SPEAKER_01
So how are your salespeople breaking through?
1
SPEAKER_01
What kinds of things are they doing to actually get to the real decision maker?
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
I mean, it s very similar to what the rest of the world is doing and what s traditionally kind of referred to as tops down selling.
1
SPEAKER_02
Uh, we re doing all of the outbound work.
1
SPEAKER_02
We re doing all the lead gen and lead nurturing work that the same, you know, the same as any sales organization might be doing.
1
SPEAKER_02
We do have the great advantage of data and being able to leverage that data in the course of that, that experience for customers.
1
SPEAKER_02
And when we re prospecting as an example, if we find the right decision maker, and let s say that s a VP of revenue operations inside a tech company, we know that we can go and we can say, Hey, 63 salespeople in your organization today are leveraging Calumet.
1
SPEAKER_02
And that s an advantage to us as opposed to, you know, some similar customer receives value from our product in a way that could be relevant for you.
1
SPEAKER_02
I think it s more relevant when we can say actually your employees and your teammates are already receiving value from Calamite.
1
SPEAKER_02
let s make sure this is a secure experience, one that you can administrate and then potentially even leveling up the feature set so that you can unlock more value and drive more revenue.
1
SPEAKER_02
So that s, but it s not a whole different sales process, right?
1
SPEAKER_02
Like we re still doing tops down outbound prospecting and demand generation into those buyers.
1
SPEAKER_00
So the question I would ask a potential Calendly customer is Mr. Jones or Mrs. Jones or Ms.
1
SPEAKER_00
Jones or X Jones.
1
SPEAKER_00
How much money does it cost you to set an appointment?
1
SPEAKER_00
Yep.
1
SPEAKER_00
That s a big question.
1
SPEAKER_00
And then you have the stats that says, if you re calling someone on the phone or sending emails back and forth, it costs you X. If you use Calendly, it costs you X minus C. And which would you rather have?
1
SPEAKER_00
Oh, and oh, by the way, the people who use Calendly to set appointments, 74% of them show up more than if you set an appointment by phone.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, that s more what we re, the story that we re hoping to tell is actually the value our customers see in driving revenue versus time savings.
1
SPEAKER_02
Time savings is table stakes today, but you know, the operate, the environment we re operating in is, you know, you have to be able to prove that you re going to have an impact to top line for a revenue leader or a rev ops leader.
1
SPEAKER_02
So yes, it s about improving your no-show rate.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s about improving your conversion rate of inbound leads.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s about improving retention through a better customer experience.
1
SPEAKER_02
And we think the Calendly really hits all points of the sales process and can impact all of those metrics.
1
SPEAKER_02
So it is all of those things, fortunately for us.
1
SPEAKER_00
But the biggest problem with making an appointment is the guy didn t show up.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
I made an appointment, the guy didn t show.
1
SPEAKER_00
And when you can show that the guy did show up more likely using Calendly, I think you have a strategic, if not a profitable, sales advantage.
1
SPEAKER_02
For sure, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
And you know this because you ve set probably thousands and thousands of appointments in your time as a seller.
1
SPEAKER_02
You have to send reminders, you have to give them reasons to show up, tell them what you re going to talk about, what the value is.
1
SPEAKER_02
And a lot of that can be automated via our tool.
1
SPEAKER_02
And so again, when you think about this deployed across hundreds or thousands of salespeople, it drives a lot of incremental value in people showing up for meetings, which improves conversion rates, of course, which drives top line.
1
SPEAKER_00
especially to a salesperson who s counting on that person to show up.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, they re just, you know, sweating it out on the first couple of minutes of that Zoom waiting for them to join.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yes, absolutely.
1
SPEAKER_02
At the end of the month.
1
SPEAKER_02
At the end of the month, but by that point, they ve received a number of automated workflows that tell them exactly what they re going to talk about, what the reason to show up, a reminder of what time it is, here s the Zoom again, and all that can be automated again across an entire sales org, you know, definitely, definitely increases.
1
SPEAKER_00
So if I get calendly, can I set reminders to people and send out like a series of emails that says Friday at 11, Friday at 11, Friday at 11.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I m sending them out on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
A bunch of that all can be built through our workflows.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
Integrate into your existing system.
1
SPEAKER_02
So it all works together, but yes.
1
SPEAKER_01
So I ll tell you one of the ways we re using Calendly right now.
1
SPEAKER_01
So this is actually pretty cool from a sales standpoint.
1
SPEAKER_01
So we have a lot of people reach out about being a guest on the show and we ve opened up some sponsorship opportunities.
1
SPEAKER_01
And so
2
SPEAKER_02
So we emailed a lot of people who have reached out that we think would be good potential sponsors and told them about the opportunity.
2
SPEAKER_02
If they reply, yes, they re interested, then I reply back with, great, here s my calendar so you can book a time to speak with me and talk about the opportunity.
2
SPEAKER_02
And then they book the time directly with me.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s seamless.
2
SPEAKER_02
Jeffrey, they get email reminders.
2
SPEAKER_02
They can even set it up.
2
SPEAKER_02
If they give their phone number, they can get text reminders about our upcoming meeting.
2
SPEAKER_02
And people have had to change their meeting and reschedule and they just click the reschedule link.
2
SPEAKER_02
Cause it s right there in the calendar.
2
SPEAKER_02
They don t have to say, hey, Jen, I need to reschedule.
2
SPEAKER_02
Let me go back and forth 600 times to find a new date or whatever.
2
SPEAKER_02
They just literally click reschedule and it moves the whole appointment.
2
SPEAKER_02
And 100% of the people who have booked this call with me have shown up.
2
SPEAKER_02
That s pretty high rate.
2
SPEAKER_01
It doesn t get any better than that, I don t think.
2
SPEAKER_01
This is such a universal problem.
2
SPEAKER_01
Everybody has experienced the frustration of the back and forth.
2
SPEAKER_01
Everybody in sales has experienced frustration of a no-show.
2
SPEAKER_01
And so when you have this experience that is just materially better, and this was my revelation in joining Calendly, it s just materially better.
2
SPEAKER_01
And you can go use that time for something else, or maybe you just don t work as much.
2
SPEAKER_01
If you re in the case that you are, Jen, that time back goes somewhere else.
2
SPEAKER_01
Oh, yeah, this is part of what, you know, definitely made me fall in love with the product and say, this is a really good place to spend time.
2
SPEAKER_01
Oh, sorry, Jim.
2
SPEAKER_00
The slogan of Calendly should be no more back and forth.
2
SPEAKER_01
We have a brand new CMO who started this week.
2
SPEAKER_01
So perhaps I ll suggest it.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s a decent idea.
2
SPEAKER_02
What are some best practices?
2
SPEAKER_02
I think we were getting into them a few minutes ago at the follow-up, but are there other best practices when booking a meeting that maybe tech can automate or maybe not, but that all salespeople should be doing when it comes to scheduling their meetings?
2
SPEAKER_01
Well, I mentioned a few of them.
2
SPEAKER_01
Certainly, if you re a Calendly user, setting up the workflows that you referenced, Jen, whether it s a text or an email and you can customize
2
SPEAKER_01
the content that is sent out before or after your meeting.
2
SPEAKER_01
And so just taking a little time up front to set up those workflows or the templates that you want to send.
2
SPEAKER_01
I think as a person that attends these sales meetings, definitely want to know the agenda up front or why we re getting on the phone, what we hope to achieve, and any pre-read materials.
2
SPEAKER_01
All of that, again, can be automated via Calendly.
2
SPEAKER_01
But that is what I would say as a person who wants to have a good and efficient meeting, all of those things sent in.
2
SPEAKER_01
With a reminder 24 hours before and potentially an hour before too, you know, you can figure out and experiment with what the right cadence of reminders is to drive your, to drive your show rates.
2
SPEAKER_01
I d say, and then generally speaking, you do the same for followup.
2
SPEAKER_01
So you can have all the same template of followup and try to personalize that as much as possible.
2
SPEAKER_01
I think the best practice is ensuring that you have the end in mind made very clear to the person that is attending your meeting in whatever.
2
SPEAKER_01
And whatever materials or over whatever medium you want, whether that s a text or an email decks, but that person should know exactly the value that they re getting out of it versus, Hey, I m showing up to just talk to a salesperson.
2
SPEAKER_01
I think that s going to be less and less interesting for people over time.
2
SPEAKER_00
Don t use jest when you re talking about salespeople.
2
SPEAKER_01
I just was emphasizing a conversation.
2
SPEAKER_01
Not the salesperson having the conversation.
2
SPEAKER_01
The just was, I don t want to just have a conversation.
2
SPEAKER_01
I want to have a conversation that drives unique value for me and shows me something.
2
SPEAKER_00
I want a positive outcome.
2
SPEAKER_01
I want a positive outcome.
2
SPEAKER_01
Tell me something that I don t know.
2
SPEAKER_02
But think about this from a sales standpoint.
2
SPEAKER_02
How many salespeople actually put that agenda in their meeting, in their calendar meeting?
2
SPEAKER_01
I very feel that all of the sales people at Cal only do.
2
SPEAKER_01
But I, I think a lot of time the agenda is very generic and what as a seller in the sales profession, I think we can all benefit from a more personalized approach and potentially some personalized data to the extent that that s available to you.
2
SPEAKER_01
So again, to go back to the simple example of, Hey, 63 people in sales are using this and they booked X number of meetings over the last
2
SPEAKER_01
you know, month and a half.
2
SPEAKER_01
And, you know, on average, they re using the product six times a week.
2
SPEAKER_01
Like, that s interesting.
2
SPEAKER_01
I didn t know that before the meeting.
2
SPEAKER_01
You know, it s not going to be a revelation for me, but it sure is better than, you know, just showing up and being shown a product very generically.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I think the more that we as professionals in sales can personalize the approach and use data with executives, you know, I think the more effective meetings we ll have.
2
SPEAKER_00
I have a podcast appointment on Friday.
2
SPEAKER_00
Someone has asked me to be on their show.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s a Calendly deal.
2
SPEAKER_00
I got a text from the guy this morning.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m like, how the hell did this guy get my text?
2
SPEAKER_00
And it s like, oh shit, it s in my calendar.
2
SPEAKER_00
Right, exactly.
2
SPEAKER_00
And he said, I m reminding you of the meeting.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m sending you the questions we re going to ask you by email.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I m confirming the fact that you ll be there at 1115.
2
SPEAKER_00
I mean, how do you say no to that?
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, guys like right on the ball.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it was actually pretty well done.
2
SPEAKER_00
I mean, the kid did a great job.
2
SPEAKER_01
We ve turned Jeffrey.
2
SPEAKER_01
We ve turned him.
2
SPEAKER_01
This is amazing.
2
SPEAKER_01
He s still acting surprised, but it s good.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s progress.
2
SPEAKER_00
I went from FU to hell yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
So OK, let s take it on some further.
2
SPEAKER_02
So we ve booked the meeting.
2
SPEAKER_02
We have our agenda.
2
SPEAKER_02
We have all those best practices.
2
SPEAKER_02
You mentioned automated follow up.
2
SPEAKER_02
I had a little, ooh, that feels, I don t know yet on this, right?
2
SPEAKER_02
Because if I get an automated follow-up, the same follow-up that I know someone who s trying to sell me is sending to everyone else, I m not really gonna feel special.
2
SPEAKER_02
So how can you save time with your follow-up and make sure to follow up, but also do it in a way that makes the potential buyer feel like they should still move forward?
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I don t necessarily, I wouldn t dictate that it had to be automated.
2
SPEAKER_01
I think you have the option to automate.
2
SPEAKER_01
And depending on the type of product you re selling and how many of these meetings you re doing every day, you know, that kind of dictates not.
2
SPEAKER_01
But I would say, again, as a person that attends these meetings, because my role is kind of flipped from like running the meetings to attending, be on the other side a lot, which is fun.
2
SPEAKER_01
As a person that attends these meetings,
2
SPEAKER_01
The follow-up is potentially the most important part because you don t know actually what you re talking about, right?
2
SPEAKER_01
So putting very specifically the takeaways, any key actions, and what the next step is so that two weeks from now when I can t remember what we talked about, I can pull up that email and be like, oh yeah, the key insight from this meeting was this.
2
SPEAKER_01
The problem that we re solving is that.
2
SPEAKER_01
and they were going to go off and talk to two other people and come back to me with, you know, whatever.
2
SPEAKER_01
So if that automated or not, you know, I think it s situational, but the power of a follow-up is really immense in the sales process.
2
SPEAKER_01
Correct.
2
SPEAKER_01
Progressive.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m against the automated follow-up because they sound plastic, but with video being the new audio, you can actually, if you have the, used to be if someone gave you their phone number, they gave you their office number.
2
SPEAKER_00
Almost no one has an office number anymore.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s almost all, it s all mobile.
2
SPEAKER_00
So if I m finishing an appointment with somebody, I ll click my video option and send the guy a little video of it.
2
SPEAKER_00
Hey, this is a really good meeting.
2
SPEAKER_00
Let s do more of this.
2
SPEAKER_00
Here s what I need to do.
2
SPEAKER_00
This is what I promised you.
2
SPEAKER_00
And now I got a video on this guy s phone that he is compelled to watch because in an email, you can skip down to whatever or ignore it.
2
SPEAKER_00
You cannot ignore a video.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
And there, there were so many great tools to use that allow you to watch that video and, you know, 2x speed, et cetera, which is how I, you know, listen to all my podcasts and do all my videos that allow for that experience to be really good, but also brief and efficient.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I m, I m here for it.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I, there s a whole bunch of integrations again, that would allow for all of that in a bunch of tools, but calmly included.
2
SPEAKER_00
So this is really a nice meeting.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was expecting to be more combative, but instead,
2
SPEAKER_01
What I would say on, I think your initial reaction, Jeffrey, is probably what a lot of people had a few years ago of, you know, I don t want to find time on your calendar.
2
SPEAKER_01
Like, why aren t we doing this?
2
SPEAKER_01
This is like some sort of power play situation.
2
SPEAKER_01
And now, you know, as it, as it happens with many products, the efficiency and the beauty of our product wins the day.
2
SPEAKER_01
But what I would say in a best practice, if you were feeling uncomfortable about sending your calendar link to someone and asking them to book some time,
2
SPEAKER_01
is to also offer the option to continue to book in the traditional way.
2
SPEAKER_01
Like, hey, look, if it s easier, it s more convenient for you.
2
SPEAKER_01
Here s my calendar.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I can tell you that Tuesday and Wednesday looks good.
2
SPEAKER_01
Or if you prefer, I can, you know, you can shoot me some times and we can do that.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I think most of the time, if you just give that, like, if you prefer this, you know, really outdated, slower, much less efficient way, then okay, fine.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
If you want to be an archaic jerk, I ll give you some times.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh, I just clicked this link and we can hang.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
In this campaign we just did.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
I offered them both because that s been our company standard.
2
SPEAKER_02
I get to put Calendly in there and we offer a human being who is standing by to help book the time if that s what they prefer, because that s the Jeffrey standard and it s like the combination, right?
2
SPEAKER_02
I would say at this point, 20 people have booked a meeting with me.
2
SPEAKER_02
Guess how many people so far have reached out and said, no, no, I would prefer to book it through email versus using Calendly.
2
SPEAKER_01
Zero.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
Because I get the point where someone sends me times I grown, you know, like, like a lot of a lot of the external meetings I do are with executives who have administrative assistants who are wonderful and rule the world as far as I m concerned, but you can do so much more with that time back right and I send my family to their AE or their admin and.
2
SPEAKER_01
they book on Calendly and far prefer it.
2
SPEAKER_01
But I totally, I totally get it.
2
SPEAKER_01
I just have this experience myself and I know that they don t come back until Wednesday.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
And what I like also is it shows you when you re free based on their schedule.
2
SPEAKER_02
So if you re trying to book on, so if someone s trying to book on my calendar, they can see on the sidebar, these are the times you re free.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s like, yeah, it would be easier, but I think how you position it,
2
SPEAKER_01
because not everyone has read the gospel that clearly Jeffrey now has and understands.
2
SPEAKER_02
Jeffrey is fully converted to a Calendly user.
2
SPEAKER_01
But I think how you position it is really important still, and particularly with people who you re trying to do business with.
2
SPEAKER_01
Just give them the option, and as you said, most of the time, they ll pick the right choice.
2
SPEAKER_00
We re proving how much we love it.
2
SPEAKER_00
We re kissing your butt.
2
SPEAKER_00
We re putting this into a context where you can t lose.
2
SPEAKER_00
We re paying you every month.
2
SPEAKER_01
I am very, very grateful for... We should become affiliates at this point.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
Look, I don t build the product.
2
SPEAKER_01
We have really smart people that do that.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I m very, very proud of them.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I just have the good fortune of receiving the praise that we re getting today, which is awesome and appreciated.
2
SPEAKER_01
Die hard.
2
SPEAKER_02
If you are not yet signed up for a free account on Calendly, I m going to invite you right now to go to calendly.com and check it out.
2
SPEAKER_02
See if it s a good fit for you.
2
SPEAKER_02
See if it makes your scheduling easier.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I can tell you, it is the specific software that we use here at our offices.
2
SPEAKER_02
And even Jeffrey now uses it too.
2
SPEAKER_00
And Diehard, if you re being trained by a moron who s telling you to find the pain, Jen will put her link to her Calendly and you can book an appointment to get real sales training.
2
SPEAKER_01
Look at that.
2
SPEAKER_01
This is how co marketing works, folks.
2
SPEAKER_01
Oh, man, I love it.
2
SPEAKER_00
So have you been to the real zoo in San Diego?
2
SPEAKER_00
Very recently?
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, over the holiday break.
2
SPEAKER_01
We have.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah, it s great there.
2
SPEAKER_01
You know, it was a busy day.
2
SPEAKER_01
So we didn t get up close and personal with most of the kind of the big animals.
2
SPEAKER_01
But that s it is wonderful.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s an awesome place.
2
SPEAKER_01
As an adult, I thought it was wonderful.
3
SPEAKER_00
the kids really enjoyed it too.
3
SPEAKER_02
There s nothing like having a monkey jump up on your car.
3
SPEAKER_02
Nothing.
3
SPEAKER_00
I found I m very enamored with just kind of like the big cats.
3
SPEAKER_00
Cause I just thought, you know, when you see a tiger, it was just kind of like, it was, but yeah, it s about a half an hour away from the zoo where we live.
3
SPEAKER_00
So it s, it s not for us.
3
SPEAKER_02
People do not know the wild animal park.
3
SPEAKER_02
They think the San Diego zoo is like the place.
3
SPEAKER_02
It is not the wild animal park is the place.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
We ve been to both and I would agree.
3
SPEAKER_00
I think they re both great, but the wild animal park is a,
3
SPEAKER_00
more hands-on experience for the kids and more room to roam.
3
SPEAKER_00
And they have lions and tigers and giraffes and all the things there too.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s really cool.
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh man.
3
SPEAKER_00
So anyway.
3
SPEAKER_03
This has been awesome.
3
SPEAKER_03
Thank you so much for joining us.
3
SPEAKER_02
And we ll have everyone check out.
3
SPEAKER_02
Our people will call your people to book.
3
SPEAKER_00
Just remember to book a gen for sales training using Calendly.
3
SPEAKER_00
I think that s how we leave this.
3
SPEAKER_02
It s a pleasure, Kate.
3
SPEAKER_02
It s a pleasure to talk to you.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_00
Very nice to meet you.
3
SPEAKER_00
I appreciate all of the Calendly props and the praise.
3
SPEAKER_00
As I said, you know, I don t build it.
3
SPEAKER_00
I just get the advantage of being out and talking about it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And it s an awesome position as a revenue leader to have people love your product.
3
SPEAKER_00
Cool.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s cool.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s cool.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s great meeting you all.
3
SPEAKER_00
I wish you all the best.
3
SPEAKER_00
Thank you so much.
3
SPEAKER_02
Nice to talk to you too.
3
SPEAKER_02
Take care of yourself.
3
SPEAKER_02
Happy New Year and stay healthy.
3
SPEAKER_00
Same to you.
3
SPEAKER_00
Same to you.
3
SPEAKER_00
Take care.
3
SPEAKER_00
Bye-bye.
3
SPEAKER_03
Thanks for listening to the show.
3
SPEAKER_03
Don t forget to like, share.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, share with both your friends.
3
SPEAKER_03
And subscribe to the podcast.
3
SPEAKER_01
And remember, we have a free 22-day sales challenge.
3
SPEAKER_01
Just go to gitterman.com slash sales challenge to start you on your way.