CRO decision guide
What counts as a meeting, and what happens when one does not.
Every appointment setting vendor reports meetings booked. Almost none define the word. This is the definition written into every Kinetic and Critical Mass agreement, the process that verifies it, and the rule for what happens when a meeting fails it.
What counts as a meeting.
A qualified meeting is a held conversation with a person who matches criteria agreed before the program starts: role, company type, and a stated need, confirmed in advance, and delivered with a brief on who they are and why they said yes.
Held
The prospect showed up and the conversation happened. A booking that no shows is not a meeting. Every booked meeting gets a confirmation sequence because no show rates above 30 percent are common when nobody runs one.
Right person
Role and seniority match the criteria in the agreement, set against your actual buying committee, not a title list from a database.
Right company
Company type, size, and segment match. For regulated verticals the criteria include the compliance posture the buyer needs from you.
Stated need
The prospect said why they took the meeting, in their own words, and that reason is in the brief you get before the call.
How we verify it.
01
Criteria in writing
Role, company type, and need are written into the agreement in week one of the ramp, beside the monthly number.
02
Confirmation and brief
Every booked meeting gets a confirmation sequence. You receive a brief before the call: who they are, why they said yes, what they care about.
03
Held or not
Meetings are logged as held only after the conversation happens. Your calendar is the record.
04
Acceptance
After the call you accept the meeting or dispute it against the criteria. Call recordings, where you record, and the brief are the evidence on both sides.
What happens when a meeting fails the standard.
It does not count. No shows and meetings that fail criteria are not counted toward the monthly number, and the number is what we owe. We do not argue a bad meeting into the total, and we do not charge per meeting, so there is no incentive to.
Kinetic and above carry the monthly meeting commitment in writing during the 90 day ramp, set against your market size, offer, and deal value.
Meeting to opportunity conversion.
We report meetings held and pipeline created, not dials or opens, and we report meeting to opportunity conversion by tier once an engagement passes month eight, the same rule the case studies follow. Benchmarks by industry appear here as they clear that bar. Until then, ask us for the current figures on a call; we will show the work.
Leading indicators
Clock one: every 30 days
- Rankings and ranking movement
- Impressions and share of voice
- Click through rate, cost per click, and conversion rate by campaign
- Learning phase status for every Smart Bidding campaign
- MQLs and cost per lead
- Content published, distribution reach, and engagement
Lagging indicators
Clock two: at six and twelve months
- Pipeline created, by source and by channel
- Revenue influenced and closed won attribution
- CAC payback period
- Meeting to opportunity conversion rate
- Cost per meeting against benchmark
The six and twelve month windows are tied to your actual sales cycle in the agreement. If your cycle is twelve months, we do not judge revenue at month three. If your cycle is four months, we do.
What heads of sales ask first
You do, against the written criteria. If we disagree, the brief and the recording settle it. In practice disputes are rare because the criteria are specific.
A rescheduled meeting that is later held counts when it is held. A meeting that reschedules and never happens does not count.
No. The tier fee is flat and the meeting number is a commitment inside it. Per meeting pricing rewards volume over fit, which is how vendors end up booking meetings that fail this standard.
Appointment setters book meetings into whatever brand you have. We build the site, run the content and the ads, and then book the meetings into a system designed to convert them, so the prospect who said yes still says yes after looking you up.
George Stoff, Founder and Lead Engineer
Thirty years building software, brands, and demand. On every account.