How to Schedule a Zoom Meeting | Cirrus Insight

Meetings drive revenue and Sales Ops, Rev Ops, and Marketing Ops can operationalize meeting scheduling to streamline the process.

Five out of every six teams schedule meetings with Zoom as it is one of the best tools for real-time collaboration. This article will show you how to schedule a Zoom meeting and the best ways to leverage it.

How to Create a Zoom Meeting

There are four basic steps to scheduling Zoom meetings:

• Sign in to your Zoom account.
• Click Schedule.
• Fill in the meeting details.
• Send the invitation.

However, each platform has its peculiarities. You can create a Zoom meeting schedule directly from your Outlook inbox or with the Zoom desktop app. You can also schedule meetings via the Zoom web portal and mobile app. 

Let’s look at the different ways to schedule Zoom meetings.

How to schedule a Zoom meeting from Microsoft Outlook

• Step 1: Add the Zoom Outlook plugin or add-on to Outlook.
• Step 2: In your Outlook Calendar, Go to New Event.
• Step 3: Add the meeting details and the emails of the attendees.
• Step 4: To make Zoom the video conferencing option, click Zoom.
  • If you make any changes after connecting to Zoom, click Update to sync new changes,
• Step 5: Review the meeting information and Save.
  • Alternatively, you can schedule a meeting directly from the Zoom desktop or mobile app.

How to schedule a Zoom meeting directly in your Zoom web portal, Zoom desktop app or mobile app

• Step 1: Open your Zoom account and login.
• Step 2: Click on Schedule.
  • In your web portal, the Schedule icon will be in the top-right corner. In your Zoom desktop app and mobile app, it will be on the bottom left of the screen.
• Step 3: In the new window, enter the meeting Topic, Date, Time, and meeting duration.
  
  • To plan a recurring Zoom meeting, tick the checkbox under Time Zone then select the recurrence schedule.
• Step 4: To add Attendees, type in their email addresses and hit enter.
• Step 5: Choose to use an automatically generated Meeting ID.
  • Meeting IDs are unique numbers required to join a Zoom meeting and make up the URL of an invite link. Using a Personal Meeting ID gives users inadvertent access to all your future Zoom meetings.

• Step 6: Select whether or not to keep attendees in the Waiting Room to manage entry to sensitive conversations.
  
  • You can also set a meeting password for added security. Similar to the meeting ID, the passcode makes up the invite link URL. This also means anyone joining without the link will be required to enter the set passcode.
• Step 7: Set Audio and Video settings for the host and participants then pick a Calendar.
  
  • You can choose between Outlook, Google Calendar, or other calendars.
• Step 8: Review the Advanced Options and click Save.
  
  • You will then be able to view and copy the meeting link containing the meeting details.

How to send a Zoom meeting invite

You can invite participants to an in-progress Zoom meeting using the Participants menu at the bottom of the meeting screen. 

Alternatively, you can copy and share the invitation link via email or in a shared team channel.

Best Practices for Scheduling a Zoom Meeting

Determine the purpose and agenda of the meeting

Meeting agendas decrease the time spent in virtual meetings by up to 80% and set the tone for productive discussions. 

By clearly defining the purpose of a meeting,, you can make the best out of your meetings and stay focused on tasks and discussions that directly impact business success.

Selecting the right participants

The success of meetings is not only influenced by the agenda but also by the participants. Every meeting is an investment in one or more of your business goals. Selecting the right participants ensures that all relevant perspectives are considered and the team is aligned with shared goals.

To raise the quality of opinions and discussions in your meetings, invite stakeholders with expertise and decision-making authority who can contribute meaningfully to the topic at hand. 

For security, Zoom enables meeting passcodes and a host of security features that only grant invited participants access to meetings. 

Setting a suitable date and time

Annually, companies lose up to $37 billion on unproductive meetings. Time is money so when booking meetings, pick times that are optimal for productivity and attentiveness. 

One way to pick optimal meeting times is by choosing one open time slot on everyone’s calendar, so no one has to compromise on productivity. Tools like Cirrus Insight Team Scheduling display one-click mutual availability when scheduling team meetings. At a glance, you can identify available time slots for all team members regardless of time zone. This is an extremely good solution when the meeting includes a customer of yours that needs to meet with various members of your team.  You are able to send the customer a link that displays open time slots for all members.

Taking availability preferences into account, maximizes meeting attendance and ensures meetings are accessible to relevant participants.

Leveraging Zoom Meetings for Strategic Goals

The quality of your meetings is pivotal in driving business outcomes. 

Here’s how to leverage Zoom meetings for strategic goals.

Quick decision-making

The Rev Ops team is instrumental in harnessing tools that streamline operational processes, especially scheduling tasks. Rev Ops can simplify the sales team's planning process by implementing Team Scheduler as a scheduling tool. 

This allows sales professionals to spend less time on logistics and more on client engagement and deal closures. Zoom's ease of use for virtual meetings, paired with Cirrus Insight’s Team Scheduling tool, makes it an efficient process that boosts sales team productivity.

By accommodating remote participants and eliminating the need for physical events, Zoom meetings help teams make timely decisions.

Client engagement

Meetings allow sales teams to connect with prospects and clients to address inquiries, demonstrate products, and negotiate deals remotely. 

Leveraging Zoom’s video conferencing features, Sales teams can build rapport and trust to close deals faster, ultimately driving revenue growth.

Cross-functional team collaboration

Meetings bring together stakeholders from different departments to work towards achieving shared goals.

Use Zoom to streamline seamless collaboration among sales, marketing, and revenue operations teams for efficiency and organization-wide success. You can also split large meetings into breakout rooms for more focused discussions. 

Streamline Scheduling with Cirrus Insight

Rev Ops teams can directly improve sales performance by providing tools that streamline the process of a) scheduling meetings across teams; and, b) facilitate easy scheduling with your prospects and customers. 

Use Cirrus Insight Team Scheduling to empower your prospects and customers to schedule a Zoom meeting with your team faster.