Is a scheduled phone meeting a 'call' or a 'meeting'?

[bw-ipim]

Hi all,

Just getting started and trying to figure out the best practices for our sales team. How is everyone using calls and meetings?

I'm wondering if (A) anything that happens over the phone should be a 'call' and everything that happens in person should be a 'meeting'. Or (B) a scheduled call (phone meeting) should also be considered a meeting, and a call is more of an unscheduled (usually outbound) call, often as part of the prospecting process.

What do you do in your organisation? Any other thoughts on which makes most sense in terms of reporting?

[willsmith · Accepted solution]

Thanks for tagging me @TiphaineCuisset 

Hi @bw-ipim 

It seems this could go either way. In my opinion, I consider a meeting to hold more weight than a phone call and would call booked phone calls as meetings. Add a note that the meeting took place on the phone rather than worrying about custom properties or specific call/meeting types.  (although, I like this idea @TiphaineCuisset!)

My reasoning: 

• A phone call has "lower quality" possible responses like "left a message or didn't connect". 
• In some traditional sales funnels (or pipelines), the call is made first with the hope that a meeting is booked. To me, the meeting is further down the traditional funnel, therefore closer to the sale and is a higher value. 

I would be interested in hearing what others have to say.

I hope this helps. 

-Will 

[Crystal_Hopper · Accepted solution]

Hi @bw-ipim !

I agree with what @TiphaineCuisset mentioned. One of the neat things about Hubspot and the default types and your ability to create new types of things is that you get to define these elements for your business. I have flow charts that define the various lead states (both default and custom) and when to ue them for our business. So definitely take the opportunity to sit your sales people down and ask them what these terms mean to them and how they want their productivity/time tracking reports generated. I think that will give you a lot of insight. 

For my personal opinion, and given our current getting-more-virtual-everyday situation, I would think any form of scheduled interaction is a Meeting. Whether that be a phone call, video call, or in-person, that scheduled interaction is a Meeting. If the contact calls out of the blue or sends an email asking for call that is outside of the schedule, then that would be a phone call or email to track. Again, that's just my opinion and how I visualize those terms and Hubspot in my own mind. Hope it gives you some food for thought.

[warrendavey · Accepted solution]

@bw-ipim - Great question!  I've been in sales for 12 years now and professionally consulting on CRM for just as long. So hopefully I can point you in the right direction.

Typically a call is just that an inbound or outbound call.  Usually unscheduled or for follow up.  If one of my reps is pitching, demoing, or presenting then I would call that a meeting.  This could also be a proposal review.  If they are meeting in person or over a Zoom meeting then I would consider it a meeting.  

The best practice here for Opportunities/Deals is to have your meetings match up with your process. For example:

Stage 1 - Set meeting - Phone Call

Stage 2 - Initial Meeting - Meeting

Stage 3 - Demo Meeting - Meeting

                 Follow-up Call - Phone Call

Stage 4 - Proposal Meeting - Meeting

Stage 5 - Follow-up to close - Phone Call

Now your reps know how to notate it properly based on criteria.

You can book a meeting for a call, but in some cases, if it isn't a meeting to produce stage items then it is just a call, in my opinion. Unless it is part of your process then you can distinguish it otherwise.

When you set the criteria then you can report on it.  When you look at a report with calls and meetings you know that calls are helping to move things down the line but meetings are the true indicators of progression.  If Sales Rep A makes 1000 calls in a week and has 5 meetings AND Rep B Makes 500 Calls and has 15 Meetings then I can assume that either Rep A is doing more prospecting or that Rep B is more effective in booking the right meetings. You can apply the right coaching based on observation of the reports. These are also good for setting goals as desired and based on experience.

I hope this helps in some way.

[bw-ipim]

Thanks everyone for sharing their logic! Definitely helps.

I'm on Sales Starter at the moment so I can't set meeting/call types but agree it makes sense to differentiate between a meeting which would be a scheduled and longer, more detailed discussion (phone or in person), vs. a call which would be a shorter interaction for arranging meetings or follow ups. As @willsmith mentioned we can add that in the meeting notes.

@warrendavey thanks, agree it's helpful to think in terms of deal stages. 

Not a huge deal, but one issue I can think of would be if we use the HubSpot calling feature for a phone meeting, as it would then log the activity as a call.

Will have a further think and as @Crystal_Hopper will chat with the team to decide on the best way to track.

Thanks again all!

[Crystal_Hopper · Accepted solution]

Hi @bw-ipim !

I agree with what @TiphaineCuisset mentioned. One of the neat things about Hubspot and the default types and your ability to create new types of things is that you get to define these elements for your business. I have flow charts that define the various lead states (both default and custom) and when to ue them for our business. So definitely take the opportunity to sit your sales people down and ask them what these terms mean to them and how they want their productivity/time tracking reports generated. I think that will give you a lot of insight. 

For my personal opinion, and given our current getting-more-virtual-everyday situation, I would think any form of scheduled interaction is a Meeting. Whether that be a phone call, video call, or in-person, that scheduled interaction is a Meeting. If the contact calls out of the blue or sends an email asking for call that is outside of the schedule, then that would be a phone call or email to track. Again, that's just my opinion and how I visualize those terms and Hubspot in my own mind. Hope it gives you some food for thought.

[TiphaineCuisset]

Hi @bw-ipim 

Thank you for posting in the Community!

What I could think about would be to create and use a specific call type only for those scheduled calls to be able to report on them specifically and differentiate them from the other calls. 

I also wanted to tag in a few subject matter experts. @BenSBM  @Crystal_Hopper , @louischausse @willsmith do you have any suggestions for @bw-ipim  around how best to categorize scheduled phone call (versus outbound call) and if it should more be classified as a meeting or a call? 

Have a lovely day!

Tiphaine. 

[willsmith · Accepted solution]

Thanks for tagging me @TiphaineCuisset 

Hi @bw-ipim 

It seems this could go either way. In my opinion, I consider a meeting to hold more weight than a phone call and would call booked phone calls as meetings. Add a note that the meeting took place on the phone rather than worrying about custom properties or specific call/meeting types.  (although, I like this idea @TiphaineCuisset!)

My reasoning: 

• A phone call has "lower quality" possible responses like "left a message or didn't connect". 
• In some traditional sales funnels (or pipelines), the call is made first with the hope that a meeting is booked. To me, the meeting is further down the traditional funnel, therefore closer to the sale and is a higher value. 

I would be interested in hearing what others have to say.

I hope this helps. 

-Will