YCSNow reading: What counts as a meeting? Agree it i…Tell us what you need

What counts as a meeting? Agree it in writing.

What "qualified" should mean in your contract, in writing.

CommercialsKrishna24 October 20262 min readComments

Most fights between companies and appointment-setting agencies start with one word: meeting. The agency says it delivered ten. The client says it got three. Both are telling the truth, because they never agreed what a meeting was.

So we settle it before we start. You decide what counts as a meeting, booked or held. We agree it in writing before we start.

01Booked or held: your call

There are two honest ways to count.

Two ways to count a meeting
  • BookedCounts when a qualified prospect accepts a time on your calendar. Faster to measure. You carry the risk of no-shows.
  • HeldCounts only when the call actually happens. Slower to measure. The agency carries the no-show risk, so it usually costs more per meeting.

Neither one is "right". Some teams want booked meetings because their sales reps follow up hard on no-shows. Others want held meetings because their calendar is too valuable to fill with maybes. We work either way. What matters is that it's written down.

Eighty percent of success is showing up.
— Woody Allen, as quoted by Marshall Brickman (1977)

02What "qualified" should mean

"Qualified" is where vague contracts fall apart. Write it down in terms anyone could check:

  1. Who. Company size (headcount or revenue band), industry, location, and the job titles that count.
  2. Why. The reason they took the meeting. They should have a problem you solve, not just politeness.
  3. What they know. The prospect knows what the meeting is about and who it's with. No bait-and-switch invites.
  4. Who doesn't count. Existing customers, competitors, students, job seekers, people you're already talking to.

If a meeting meets all four, it counts. If it doesn't, it doesn't, and nobody has to argue.

Booked is a promise. Held is a meeting. Pick one before anyone gets paid.

03The edge cases to settle up front

  • Reschedules. Does a meeting moved to next week count once it happens, or as soon as it's booked?
  • No-shows. If you count booked meetings, what happens when someone doesn't turn up? A re-book? A credit?
  • Wrong fit. If the person turns out not to match your criteria on the call, how quickly do you flag it, and what happens then?
  • Duplicates. If two people from the same company both take meetings, is that one meeting or two?

04Why this protects both sides

A written definition means:

  • You pay for what you actually wanted, not for calendar filler.
  • We know exactly what we're aiming at, so we build the target list and the messages around it.
  • Nobody spends the end of the month arguing about a spreadsheet.
A vague contract is an argument with a start date.

05The short version

  • You choose whether a meeting counts when it's booked or when it's held.
  • Define "qualified" by who they are, why they took the call, and who doesn't count.
  • Settle reschedules, no-shows, wrong fits and duplicates in writing before we start.
KrishnaKrishna has worked with US customers since 2001, starting in tech support. In 2005 he co-founded Commercial Street Corp, a tele-sales and appointment-setting company, and headed its international operations. He has run Your Copy Sucks since 2013.

Comments

Loading comments…

Leave a comment

Plain text. Comments are read before they show.

All posts

Appointment setting3

Copywriting3

AI services2

Deep Think AI17

Get the next markup by email.

One real piece of copy per issue, rewritten line by line: a cold email, a web page or a newsletter.
No spam. One click to leave.

Read next.

Cold email"I hope this finds you well" is why you got deletedTargetingThe person who signs is rarely the person you emailedWeb copyNobody reads your About page