Good Stuff Happens in 1:1 Meetings: Why you need them and how to do them well
Web-Based Scheduling Buyer's Guide
1. 2011
Web-Based Scheduling
Buyer’s Guide
The Ultimate Buyer’s Guides for
Sales & Marketing Software
Volume 2: Web-Based Scheduling
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4. Table of Contents: Web-Based Appointment Scheduling
Ÿ Scheduling More Sales Calls:The Basics 5
Ÿ Beyond the Basics: Accelerate the Sales Funnel 8
Ÿ Traditional Funnel 9
Ÿ Accelerated Funnel 10
Ÿ Getting to the “When” of Sales 11
Ÿ Accelerate the Funnel with Web-based Scheduling 12
Ÿ A Day in the Life of an Account Rep Using TimeTrade 14
Ÿ TimeTrade for Retail 15
Ÿ Buying Considerations: Questions to Ask 18
Ÿ Buyer’s Checklist 21
Ÿ Vendor Listing 25
Ÿ Next Steps 27
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5. Scheduling More Sales Calls: The Basics
No matter what business you’re in, you can’t pay the bills unless you sell something. And to sell something you
need to have a conversation with a prospect.
In today’s busy world, it’s harder and harder to connect. Unless you get lucky and reach your prospect on your
first contact attempt, you’ll have to deal with voicemail, email or a combination of both. Indeed, often the only
way to actually hold a conversation with a prospect is to agree in advance to a mutually convenient time to talk –
i.e., an ‘appointment’.
The voicemail barrier:
Every time you call a prospect to schedule an appointment - and get voicemail instead - it creates a problem.
Ÿ You’ll have to wait for them to return your call. But how long should you wait?
Ÿ If they don’t call back how can you remember to make another attempt?
If they’ve called you and reached your voicemail, it presents a different problem. After leaving you a voicemail
message, they just might call – and get through to – someone at a competitor. Before you know it, you’ve already
lost the business.
The email barrier:
If your company uses Microsoft Outlook internally, it’s easy to check your colleagues calendars and find mutually
available times to meet. That’s because enterprise installations of Outlook include Microsoft’s exchange server1.
But Outlook doesn’t let you see availability of people outside your organization - namely your prospects.
1 A Microsoft server product which provides collaboration features within electronic mail, calendaring, and other tasks.
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6. To be clear, you cannot check a prospect’s availability, nor can they check yours, using Outlook’s calendaring
features. You can use Outlook however, to send an email to your prospect suggesting options and wait for an
email back indicating which , if any, options are acceptable. This is an inefficient method at best.
It's imperative that you When you attempt to schedule an appointment with a prospect by email, it involves a multi-step process.
connect with a prospect as
close to the moment of Step one: Manually check your calendar and make note of your available days and times
interest as possible to fuel Step two: Type those options into an email
the opportunity momentum. Step three: Send the email to the prospect
Step four: Wait to hear back from your prospect – and hope at least one option works for them
If none of the appointment slots offered in your email work for the prospect, they'll have to reply back to you with
their options. This could take a few rounds of back and forth to find a mutually convenient time. Meanwhile, your
prospect is busy and so this becomes a chore - or worse - enough time passes that their interest begins to wane.
When a prospect’s interest is piqued, momentum is created. It’s imperative that you connect with a prospect as
close to the moment of interest as possible in order to fuel the opportunity momentum. Fortunately, there are
several web-based appointment scheduling applications that change the dynamics of scheduling prospect
appointments for the better.
Web-based appointment scheduling solutions eliminate the back and forth and make quick work of finding a mu-
tually agreeable time.
“How do they do that?” you might ask.
The answer: Prospects simply select an available time on your calendar1
1 They don’t see your actual calendar - only those times that you make available.
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7. You’ll see appointments Web-based scheduling means a prospect can view your availability online and schedule an appointment for a mu-
appear on your calendar tually convenient time with ease. You’ll see their newly added appointments appear on your calendar automati-
automatically without cally without intervention. Web-based scheduling eliminates the hassles of appointment scheduling for every
intervention. one which results in three things:
1. You’re more likely to advance the sale because of timely follow-up
2. You’re likely to fit more calls into your schedule
3. You’re likely to close more sales because a greater volume - of timelier calls - equals more sales
As web-based appointment scheduling begins to take root, several vendors are popping up on the scene. In this
buyer’s guide as in others, we will focus on one product as a featured example of real-world functionality. We are
featuring TimeTrade to show how web-based appointment scheduling can help both your marketing and sales
departments.
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8. Companies have made the
erroneous assumption that
Beyond the Basics: Accelerate the Sales Funnel
they need to generate bulk
leads in order to get to the Typically, companies feed the sales funnel through outbound marketing activities. It’s marketing’s job to generate
“quality leads”. those leads. Therefore, one of the main metrics used to measure a marketing department‘s success is the number
of “leads” generated in a given period of time. More leads poured into the top of the funnel, results in more
revenue at the bottom. That’s the underlying concept behind the theory that “Sales is a numbers game.”
The numbers-game theory
According to the theory, a higher number of leads results in a higher number of quality leads, and a higher number
of quality leads results in a higher number of closed deals. But the numbers- game theory is seriously flawed. In
fact, there isn’t a direct correlation between revenue and the number of leads. The direct correlation is between
revenue and “quality leads.” Companies have made the erroneous assumption that they need to generate bulk
leads in order to get to the “quality leads” but that is not the case as you’ll see on page 10.
Why quality matters more than quantity
According to the 215 Principle, there are only 215 selling days in the calendar year. A salesperson’s selling time is
finite. Therefore, the key is to increase the time they spend talking with quality leads and reduce the time they
spend on everything else. In fact, by reducing time spent on conversations with non-quality prospects by just 60
minutes a day, they’ll end up with 30 days worth of extra time each year, to spend with real buyers. Could your
reps sell more if they had an extra month’s worth of time with sales-ready prospects?
The way to accelerate the sales cycle is to eliminate or reduce the number of poor quality leads at the top of the
funnel. When that happens, you condense the sales funnel - essentially shortening the amount of time it takes for
a quality lead to reach a salesperson while preserving the salesperson’s time for conversations with qualified
prospects.
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9. Traditional Sales Funnel
The traditional sales funnel has
many inefficiencies. To start with,
most leads that enter the
traditional sales funnel are of an
“unknown” quality (unqualified
leads). In order to determine the
prospect’s level of interest, they
must be qualified ‘in’ or ‘out’ (the
qualification process).
The qualification process is done
by the sales team through
outbound calling and by
marketing’s nurturing and lead
scoring activities.
Under a traditional sales funnel, by
the time they’ve qualified a list of
prospects ‘in’ or ‘out’ a
salesperson has little time left for
productive sales conversations.
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10. Accelerated Sales Funnel
Using web-based appointment scheduling
You can shorten the sales cycle by
incorporating a web-based appointment
scheduling system into the sales funnel
process.
With web-based scheduling, your reps can
skip the effort previously wasted on
outbound lead qualification (phone and
email tag).
Qualified leads will be injected much
deeper into the sales funnel with self-
service appointment scheduling, thus
shortening the sales cycle. The sales funnel
is much more efficient when salespeople
waste less time chasing unqualified
prospects at the top of the funnel .
Salespeople can focus on higher quality
leads much sooner than before.
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11. Getting to the “When” of Sales
Connecting a qualified We’ve shown how web-based appointment scheduling can accelerate the sales funnel by surfacing quality
prospect with a salesperson prospects - “the Who” in the sales process - but most sales organizations still struggle to control the “When.”
at the peak of interest is the
fastest way to close deals. In sales, timing really is everything. How quickly can your reps have a conversation, either on the phone or in
person, with prospective customers? Winning the deal depends on timely interactions.
Reaching prospects is difficult at best. Salespeople who spend their day tracking down leads will tell you how
frustrating and time consuming it is to book sales appointments. In fact, the average sales rep can waste as much
as an entire day each week trying to schedule sales meetings through back-and-forth telephone/voicemail tag or
e-mail “ping pong” to synch up calendars with prospects.
For retail sales, the challenge is slightly different. How many big-spending customers come and go without
connecting with a salesperson? In the peak periods, customers who want to buy a $2,500 computer and $1,500
printer wait “in line” with those who want to get the scoop on all the latest flash drives – and opportunities are
lost. This doesn’t have to happen if sales-ready customers can easily reserve time with a salesperson through web-
based scheduling.
Connecting a qualified prospect with a salesperson at the peak of interest is the fastest way to close deals.
Web-based appointment scheduling solutions like TimeTrade streamline the process of getting your salespeople
and prospects into a sales conversation and shorten the time to revenue .
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12. Accelerate The Sales Funnel: with Web-Based Scheduling
TimeTrade streamlines the TimeTrade’s web-based scheduling is good for any sized company. Whether you need to deploy a system for a
appointment scheduling process, large enterprise, for a workgroup or only for yourself, TimeTrade’s web-based software provides all the tools and
moving deals through the funnel processes you’ll need to reduce the amount of time and effort spent scheduling meetings or booking
at a more rapid pace. appointments for services.
And TimeTrade integrates with systems that sales, marketing and service organizations use to connect, engage
and interact with outside parties.
Sales organizations that use TimeTrade have more control over the process of scheduling meetings and can spend
less time and effort prospecting, acquiring and retaining customers.
Because of the efficiencies it enables, TimeTrade accelerates the funnel and shortens the sales cycle by driving
qualified leads directly to sales reps and facilitating a quicker “time-to-meeting.”
Drive Inbound Sales
TimeTrade drives inbound sales by enabling customers to book meetings and appointments with a company's
representatives directly from a company Website or in response to a marketing campaign prompting them to
“Click to Meet.”
Allow Reps to Easily Book Meetings
When sales reps include a TimeTrade link in their outbound emails, or when they “Offer an Appointment” to
prospects through Salesforce.com, prospects can view their available meeting times and immediately schedule a
convenient time for a call or demo.
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13. Automate the Scheduling Process, Start to Finish
Whether through email, Salesforce.com interactions, responses to a marketing campaign, or customer self-
scheduling, TimeTrade automatically sends email confirmations of the mutually agreed meeting time and adds
the appointment to the personal calendars of all participants - whether they use Microsoft Outlook, Google
Calendar, iCal, or Salesforce.com calendars.
On the following pages are examples of how TimeTrade helps sales pros increase their productivity and land more
and better sales meetings, while simultaneously driving revenue and customer satisfaction.
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14. A Day in the Life of an Account Rep Using
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15. TimeTrade: For Retail
“Customers are no longer willing World-class retailers know that having successful “customer conversations” is a key to growth and profitability, as
to be ‘locked into’ suppliers who well as a major contributor to improving customer satisfaction and loyalty. In fact, according to the Wall Street
don't value their time or their Journal Online, the National Retail Federation says that the number one way to increase sales is to find ways to talk
patronage.” to customers because interactions lead to transactions.
Patricia Seybold, Customers.com TimeTrade helps retailers’ customers make instant appointments with retail associates and service reps, to
conduct these important conversations that drive business.
Using TimeTrade's online appointment scheduling solution, top retailers increase revenue, improve service and
operational efficiency and see solid results, including:
Ÿ Higher sales by enabling Website visitors to immediately book an appointment when their interest is
at its peak – turning a prospect’s interest into a confirmed appointment, 24/7
Ÿ Increased customer satisfaction by offering the convenience and immediacy of self-service
appointment scheduling
Ÿ Improved staff productivity
Ÿ Reduced costs by giving retail managers real-time visibility into appointment volume to adjust staffing
levels to meet demand
• Improved sales results from email marketing campaigns, social networks and a company’s Website.
TimeTrade integrates with outbound and inbound marketing programs to turn contacts into sales
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16. TimeTrade One-Step Appointment Online appointment scheduling is critical to staying competitive for 3 very important reasons:
Scheduling is a powerful, scalable
1. New customer acquisition: Quickly convert Website visitors into first purchase in-store
solution that builds customer
customers.
loyalty, by simplifying how and
when they meet with retailers. 2. Loyalty program effectiveness: Drive a larger sales ticket with pre-scheduled high loyalty
customers.
3. Brand enhancement: Beat your competitors through speedier contact with customers and a
superior retail customer experience (e.g. “Click for an Appointment” or “Reserve time with a
Personal Shopper”).
Don’t keep customers waiting!
“Contact Us” forms on retail
Websites can actually slow Click here to test-drive
down the sales process… this Website.
TimeTrade One-Step
Appointment Scheduling puts
customers in touch with your
retail reps faster.
Watch a quick video to learn more Phone and in-person meetings
about TimeTrade for Retail. are the best way to build on
prospect interest and convert
their needs into a sale.
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17. Service Retailers
Generating Revenue through Customer Appointments
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18. Buying Considerations: Questions to Ask Yourself
Using TimeTrade as an There’s no question that web-based appointment scheduling is beneficial for both buyers and sellers. Eliminating
example, we showed how the back and forth of appointment scheduling and giving prospects a convenient and fast way to book time with
easy web-based appointment sales reps results in more time with better quality prospects, a better customer experience, and an accelerated
scheduling can be. sales funnel.
Using TimeTrade as an example, we showed how easy web-based appointment scheduling can be. What should
you look for when shopping for an online scheduling solution? The following buyer consideration questions will
help you understand your needs so you’ll be better equipped to make the best decision.
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19. Buying Considerations: Questions to Ask Yourself
Page 1 of 2
Download
Timing What is the projected timeline for deciding on a solution? Who are the decision makers? Spreadsheet
What kind of appointments does your team schedule? Are they with customers and prospects? Do they involve
Appointment Type*
resources like facilities, conference rooms and equipment?
Appointment Type* Do your appointments span multiple locations and time-zones?
Do you offer appointments for specific activities or services like live demos, personal shopping, bridal consultations or
Appointment Type*
financial advisory sessions?
Appointment Metrics* Are those time slots being filled on a regular basis?
How many appointments does an average rep at your company schedule each week (sales calls, service calls, etc. -- face-
Appointment Metrics
to-face or on phone meetings) with customers or prospects?
Appointment Metrics On average, how much time does an average rep spend each week setting appointments (i.e. 2 - 5 hours, > 5 hours, etc.)
Appointment Metrics Based on the 215 Principal (page 8) how is the lost time affecting productivity and revenue?
On average, how many interactions with a client (voicemails, emails, etc.) does it take to get an appointment time
Appointment Metrics*
agreed upon and scheduled?
On average, how much time elapses between asking for and getting a meeting scheduled with prospects and customers?
Appointment Metrics*
(i.e. 3-4 days, >4 days, etc.)
Appointment Metrics* How often do your clients cancel or not show up for a scheduled appointment?
Appointment Metrics What percentage of your qualified leads convert into an initial appointment with a sales rep?
Appointment Metrics* Is there a direct relationship between the number of appointments and revenue?
Do you measure your reps performance based on the number of appointments they schedule? If not, should you and
Appointment Metrics
why aren't you?
Appointment Metrics* How easy is it to learn how many appointments are scheduled in a given period of time?
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20. Buying Considerations: Questions to Ask Yourself
Page 2 of 2
Download
What are the main methods used by your team to schedule appointments with customers and prospects? (i.e. Send Spreadsheet
Effectiveness
emails, send outlook invites, send invites from CRM system, phone or voicemail exchanges)
Effectiveness How effective would you rate your sales force's ability to easily and quickly schedule appointments?
Effectiveness Do your reps consistently send out confirmation notices/reminders before a scheduled appointment?
Effectiveness When following up on a lead how important is it for your rep to be the first vendor to talk to the prospect?
Effectiveness How effective are your sales people at being the first to schedule a time to talk to a new prospect?
When following up on a first appointment how important is it for your rep to be the first vendor to do a presentation
Effectiveness
to the prospect?
Effectiveness How effective are your sales people at being the first to schedule a presentation with a prospect?
Can web visitors immediately schedule an appointment with the appropriate person or resources directly from your
Web-based appointments*
web site? If not, would you like them to?
Web-based appointments* How many appointments are currently being made through your Website?
Scheduling Process Which calendar software must your scheduling solution integrate with? (i.e. Outlook, Google)
Scheduling Process* Do you want to track scheduled appointments in your CRM system?
Scheduling Process* Does your scheduling solution need to integrate with your IVR system or call center?
Scheduling Process What does the appointment scheduling process look like from your prospect's point of view?
Scheduling Process* Are you able to secure a confirmed appointment while a prospect’s interest is at its peak?
Scheduling Process Will you need to access your scheduling solution via smart phones?
Scheduling Process Do you need a scheduling solution that can be incorporated into Social Network activities?
*Especially applicable to retail services organizations, investment firms and mortgage companies.
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21. Web-Based Scheduling: Checklist
The amount of effort One of the hardest things to do when shopping for any solution is to compare features across vendors. One
required to gather reason is that vendors often call features by different names. Another reason is that vendors often have different
information goes up versions, each with varying feature-sets.
exponentially as you add
more vendors to your
research list. The amount of effort required to gather information goes up exponentially as you add more vendors to your
research list.
What we recommend instead, is to create your own list of needed features then make the vendors do the work.
Ask yourself the buying consideration questions on page 19. Then review the checklist on the next two pages.
The checklist is also available as a downloadable spreadsheet so you can modify it as needed. The downloadable
checklist will give you the ability to mark the appropriate column: don’t need, nice-to-have, must-have. Perhaps
you’ll even want to add additional columns such as: don’t need now, will need in the future. Have each of your
constituents complete the checklist so everyone’s requirements and priorities are considered.
As you talk with vendors, share your requirements with them. Instead of having to match vendors to your
requirements, let the vendors match their software to your needs. You’ll find out quickly which vendors are truly
customer-oriented by the way they respond.
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22. Web-Based Scheduling: Checklist
Don't Nice to Must
Category Functionality Description
Need Have Have
Sync a rep or resource's calendar (Outlook, Google Calendar, etc) with their schedule of availability
Download
Calendar Software enabling the scheduling solution to display real-time availability for appointments. New appointments Spreadsheet
Compatibility
Integration flow into their calendar automatically and the system reads busy times from their calendar removing
availability for committed time-slots and preventing double-bookings.
Offer specific times for a quick meeting or phone call in a ad hoc manner versus offering times for pre-
Ease-of-Use Ad Hoc Invitations
scheduled activities.
Ability for customers and prospects to search for the first available time slot for their desired
Ease-of-Use Appointment Search
appointment as well as search for availability on a particular date.
Ease-of-Use Appointment Changes* Ability for customers and prospects to track, cancel and reschedule their own appointments online.
Resource-selectable Ability to schedule not only people, but also specific resources including facilities, equipment and
Ease-of-Use
Scheduling* inventory.
Ease-of-Use Appointment Reminders Reminder email sent automatically to both user and customer/prospect.
Functionality Data Collection Lets you collect information from prospects when they schedule an appointment.
Functionality Branding Branded scheduling interface, confirmation and reminder emails.
Send appointment invitations right from your iPhone. People you invite can book time from their
mobile device or computer. As people book time with you, the appointments flow into a real-time feed
Functionality Mobile
on the app home screen. Use a “follow-up list" to see who hasn't yet responded to your invitations.
Multiple calendar overlay from the calendars on your iPhone eliminates double-booking.
*Especially applicable to retail services organizations, investment and mortgage firms.
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23. Web-Based Scheduling: Checklist
Don't Nice to Must
Category Functionality Description
Need Have Have
Unlimited Resource
Functionality No limit to the number of resources, activities and appointment transactions.
Scheduling* Download
Spreadsheet
Functionality Self-Service Scheduling Via a Website, an email invitation or an Interactive Voice Response System.
Assisted Service Via the phone, with a store representative or call-center agent, or in-person with in-store staff
Functionality
Scheduling* member.
Supports ability to schedule events (such as seminars, classes and trunk shows) and manage
Functionality Event Scheduling*
participant registration.
Functionality Wait Listing* The ability to place prospects and customers on a wait list pending availability for their appointment.
Functionality Social Media Appointment link for Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media sites.
Management Report Types Built-in (canned) reporting as well as the ability to create customized (ad hoc) reports.
Monitor activity; see number of invitations sent and appointments made by week by user, sort by
Management Usage Reporting
group, export data for use in other applications.
Central License
Management Add users one at a time or in bulk, change user type to administrator, enable or disable users.
Administration
Management User Dashboard View a list of all users, their email address, assigned group and last access date.
Data-driven Administrative screens that manage thousands of configuration settings. Governing rules, workflows,
Management
Customization* user rights, activity, resource properties and more can be customized via an easy to use admin screen.
Resource Allocation Multiple methods for allocating resources chosen from a pool of substitutable resources including
Management
Rules* random allocation, round-robin allocation, and ranked allocation based on skill, cost, location, etc.
*Especially applicable to retail services organizations, investment and mortgage firms.
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24. Web-Based Scheduling: Checklist
Don't Nice to Must
Category Functionality Description
Need Have Have
Management Overbooking* Authorized users can override capacity constraints in order to overbook activities and resources.
Download
Spreadsheet
Front Desk/Receptionist Appointment management dashboard where you can check customers in and out, cancel and
Management
Interface* reschedule appointments, manage resources and view a dashboard of the day’s appointments.
Solution uses your assignment rules, such as state or product, to route a prospect to available meeting
Technology Smart Routing
times with the appropriate rep.
Standards-based Mechanisms such as Web Services, HTTP redirection , and Active Sync data interchange technology for
Technology
Integration Mechanisms* integration with CRM systems, Websites, call center software and more.
A robust mechanism to calculate costs and assess fees for appointments based on configurable rules
Technology E-Commerce*
and rates.
Supports customizable roles-based rights that control access to individual screens within the
Technology Roles-based Rights* application, ability to view and/or edit screens on a field-by-field basis, and ability to perform a wide
range of scheduling tasks, run reports, and perform system administrative functions.
Secure transmission of data across the network, as well as within the application to support storage of
Technology SSL encryption
sensitive information.
Performance and
Technology Scales to support millions of appointment transactions per month.
Scalability*
*Especially applicable to retail services organizations, investment and mortgage firms.
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25. Web-Based Scheduling: Vendor Listing
Because it’s difficult to differentiate a long list of vendors, we thought “why not use their own words”? So the
following list of vendors (in alphabetical order) states the main message we found on their Website home-page.
Get a feel for their positioning by what they themselves choose to emphasize. We visited the Website of each
company on the list and made note of (what we interpreted to be) their homepage main marketing message.
Next, we list the lowest and the highest pricing found on their site. We’ve provided a link to their Website as well.
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26. Web-Based Scheduling: Vendor Listing
Increase sales productivity and customer satisfaction
Lowest Price found Highest Price
Company Name Web URL From Website
on Website found on Website
Appointment-Plus www.appointment-plus.com Online Appointment Scheduling Software $39/org/mo $79/org/mo
$159.99/mo based
AppointmentQuest www.appointmentquest.com Make your life better one appointment at a time. $6.59/mo
on number of appts
CalendarSpots.com www.calendarspots.com Simplify your appointment scheduling. Free $34/20 users/mo
$19.95/20
CheckAppointments www.checkappointments.com Free online appointment scheduling software Free
users/mo
https://www.doodle.com/premium Get rid of inefficient e-mail chains and save your customers and No other price
Doodle $119/5-users/yr
/business.html employees precious time. found
FlashAppointments www.flashappointments Making appointments happen, around the clock, around the globe. $10/user/mo $125/100 users/mo
Genbook www.genbook.com More appointments, less hassles. $19.95/sole user/mo $39.95/org/mo
OpenCal www.opencal.com Online appointment scheduling done right. $19/user/mo $39/10 users/mo
ScheduleView www.scheduleview.com Appointment Scheduling Software as Easy as "Point and Click". 197/user 597/user
Puts your calendar online so your clients can find an appointment
Schedulicity www.schedulicity.com 19/user/mo 39/user/mo
that works for them.
SimplifyThis http://www.simplifythis.com Convert your Website visitors to clients. $9/2 users/mo $29/10 users/mo
TimeBridge www.timebridge.com Stop Playing Schedule tag. none listed None listed
TimeCenter www.timecenter.com More appointments guaranteed. Get started in 60 seconds. $29/user/mo $99/50 users/mo
Increase sales productivity and customer satisfaction with online
TimeTrade www.timetrade.com $29.95/user/mo $249/user/yr
appointment scheduling.
Tungle www.tungle.me Scheduling made easy. Free $49/user/year
Web-Appointments.com www.web-appointments.com Accept appointments online now. $9.90/org/mo $11.90/org/mo
Buyer’s Guide: Web-Based Scheduling
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27. Next Steps
Keep this Buyer’s Guide handy: print a copy, bookmark it, or save it to your computer
Download and complete the Buyer Considerations spreadsheet.
Download and complete the Appointment Scheduling Feature check-list.
See TimeTrade in action. Schedule a 15-minute introductory call now.
Visit www.timetrade.com to learn more.
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Buyer’s Guide: Web-Based Scheduling
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