As a consultant, what is your biggest challenge when it comes to managing client meetings?
In our nearly two decades of nonprofit consulting here at Funding for Good, we’ve struggled with:
- Scheduling with large groups or disorganized clients – so many back-and-forth emails!
- Meetings that could have been an email – but instead took up an hour of our day!
- Meetings without a clear purpose – so much time wasted with unprepared participants and aimless conversations!
- Clunky screen sharing and other tech – a fast track to lost time and distracted participants!
We could go on—and I’m sure you could too.
Along the way, though, we’ve found an incredible strategy to transform how we manage meetings!
If you’re interested in learning about consulting more generally, check out our inside guide for how to become a nonprofit consultant.
Why Meetings Are Time and Energy Vampires for Consultants and Clients
Research and survey data show that:
- Unproductive meetings waste more than $37 billion per year.
- Executives view 67% of meetings as failures (not a category we want to fall into as consultants).
- 92% of workers admit they multitask during meetings.
- 55% of remote workers think the majority of meetings “could have been an email.”
Clearly, meetings are not beloved!
Organizations collectively spend at least 15% of their time in meetings—which means our clients are exhausted, overwhelmed, and sick of meetings.
Being the consultant who delivers a stellar meeting experience can set you apart.
The biggest contributors to bad meeting experiences for consultants and clients are:
- Scheduling chaos
- Having the wrong people in the meeting
- Meetings without purpose or agendas
- Meetings that could have been an email
- Meetings that start late
- Meetings where hosts and/or participants are unprepared
- Clunky software experiences, including screen sharing
Luckily, here at Funding for Good we found one incredible strategy that kickstarted a transformation for how we manage client meetings.
Our Top Meeting Management Time Saver
For us, our biggest turnaround in meeting management came when we discovered the power of email templates.
First, we identified all the emails that go into a successful meeting from start to finish. For example:
- Scheduling email (linked to calendaring system)
- Meeting prep email
- Meeting reminder email
- Meeting recap emails
Then, we identified what needed to be in each of these emails. We call this the 5 Ps of effective emails.
- Pleasantries: Include a simple greeting and a reminder of the meeting time/date
- Purpose: Spell it out in bold in the email: The PURPOSE of this meeting is to…
- Participation: Who should participate in the meeting? Make it explicit.
- Preparation: In your email, make clear what participants should do to prepare.
- Platform: Provide all meeting access details, such as Zoom links and meeting data.
The 5 Ps also serve as fantastic organizing tools for us consultants. They ensure you are clear on the purpose, details, and flow of every meeting you’re running.
This sets you up to impress clients.
For our work, we used the 5 Ps to craft email templates for different services and created automations for things like meeting reminders.
Now, instead of drafting countless emails and chasing clients for scheduling, we simply customize our templates up front in a fraction of the time. And our clients love it!
