Play 9 Complete Implementation Guide

Meeting prep separates firms that wing it from firms that close. This guide shows you how to build a system that monitors calendars, pulls CRM

data, generates briefs, and delivers them at the exact right moment.

Your calendar is a forward-looking task list. Treat it like one.

Connect Your Calendar System

Step 1: Choose your integration method

For Microsoft 365 users:

• Use Power Automate to create a flow that triggers on new calendar events
• Filter for external attendees (anyone outside your domain)
• Push event details to a Google Sheet or Airtable base

For Google Workspace users:

• Set up a Zapier trigger on "New Event in Google Calendar"
• Add a filter step: only proceed if attendee count > 1 and event is not marked "Internal"
• Send event data to your tracking system

Step 2: Configure your monitoring parameters

Set your system to flag meetings that meet these criteria:

• External attendees present
• Meeting duration 30 minutes or longer
• Scheduled 3+ business days in the future
• Not marked as "Personal" or "Out of Office"

Step 3: Build your alert system

Create a Slack channel called #upcoming-meetings. Configure your automation to post:

• Meeting title
• Date and time
• External attendees (name and company)
• Meeting owner (the person from your firm who created the event)
• Days until meeting

Post these alerts exactly 7 days before each meeting. This gives you a full week to prepare.

Extract Meeting Intelligence

Don't just read the calendar invite. Decode it.

Meeting type classification:

• New business pitch: Attendees include "CEO", "CFO", "Managing Partner" in titles
• Project kickoff: Title contains "kickoff", "launch", "start"
• Status update: Recurring event, same attendees each time
• Quarterly review: Title contains "QBR", "quarterly", "review"
• Crisis management: Scheduled same-day or next-day, marked "Urgent" or "High Importance"

Attendee analysis:

Pull LinkedIn profiles for external attendees you don't recognize. Note:

• Current title and tenure
• Previous roles (especially if they came from a competitor)
• Shared connections with your team
• Recent posts or articles (shows current priorities)

Historical context:

Search your email for the last 5 exchanges with each external attendee. Look for:

• Unresolved questions or action items
• Complaints or concerns raised
• Compliments or positive feedback
• Topics they asked about but you never followed up on

Maintain Your Meeting Database

Build a tracking sheet with these columns:

| Meeting Date | Client/Prospect | Meeting Type | Owner | Attendees (External) | Attendees (Internal) | Brief Status | Brief Sent Date | Post-Meeting Notes |

Update this sheet daily. Every Monday morning, filter for meetings in the next 14 days where "Brief Status" = blank. Those are your prep priorities for the week.

Your CRM

contains the story. Your job is to tell it clearly.

Define Your Data Requirements

For existing clients, pull:

• Total revenue (lifetime and trailing 12 months)
• Active matters/projects (title, start date, assigned team, status)
• Billing status (current AR balance, average days to payment)
• Last 3 invoices (date, amount, services provided)
• Support tickets or issues raised (last 90 days)
• Renewal date (if applicable)
• Upsell opportunities identified (from previous meeting notes)

For prospects, pull:

• Lead source and date entered
• Estimated deal value
• Decision-makers identified (names, titles, contact info)
• Competitors mentioned
• Proposal status (sent, pending, rejected)
• Last touchpoint (date, type, outcome)
• Next scheduled action (from your pipeline)

For both, pull:

• Primary contact (name, title, email, phone, LinkedIn)
• Company overview (industry, size, location, public/private)
• Recent news (funding rounds, leadership changes, acquisitions)
• Your firm's relationship history (how long, key wins, any losses)

Automate the Extraction

Salesforce users:

Create a report with these filters:

• Account Name = [meeting attendee company]
• Record Type = all
• Date Range = all time

Schedule this report to run daily at 6 AM. Export to CSV, save to a shared drive folder named "Daily CRM

Exports."

HubSpot users:

Build a workflow:

• Trigger: Contact is associated with a deal
• Action: Create a task for the deal owner
• Task details: "Meeting prep required - pull CRM

  CRM

  Click to read the full definition in our AI & Automation Glossary.

  data"
• Due date: 5 days before next scheduled meeting

Manual process (if no automation available):

Every Monday, open your CRM

and search for each company on your meeting list. Copy relevant data into a standardized template. Budget 15 minutes per meeting.

Validate Before You Brief

CRM

data is often stale. Verify these items:

Contact information:

• Send a test email to the primary contact. If it bounces, find the updated address.
• Check LinkedIn to confirm the contact still works at the company.

Financial data:

• Cross-reference AR balance with your accounting system.
• Confirm the last invoice date matches your billing records.

Project status:

• Ask the project lead: "Is this still accurate?" Don't assume.
• Update the CRM

  CRM

  Click to read the full definition in our AI & Automation Glossary.

  immediately if anything has changed.

A meeting brief is not a data dump. It's a decision-making tool.

Structure Your Brief

Use this exact template:

MEETING BRIEF: [Client/Prospect Name]

Meeting Details:

• Date/Time: [Day, Date, Time, Time Zone]
• Duration: [X minutes]
• Location: [In-person address or video link]
• Our Attendees: [Names and titles]
• Their Attendees: [Names and titles]

Meeting Objective: [One sentence. What does success look like?]

Client Snapshot:

• Relationship length: [X months/years]
• Total revenue: $[amount] (lifetime) | $[amount] (last 12 months)
• Current projects: [Number] active
• Payment status: [Current/X days overdue]
• Last meeting: [Date and brief outcome]

Key Discussion Points:

1. [Topic 1 - include why this matters]
2. [Topic 2 - include why this matters]
3. [Topic 3 - include why this matters]

Potential Concerns:

• [Concern 1 and your recommended response]
• [Concern 2 and your recommended response]

Upsell Opportunities:

• [Opportunity 1 with estimated value]
• [Opportunity 2 with estimated value]

Action Items from Last Meeting:

• [Item 1 - status: complete/in progress/not started]
• [Item 2 - status: complete/in progress/not started]

Attendee Intel: [For each external attendee, include: current title, tenure, LinkedIn profile link, any personal notes like "prefers email over calls" or "very data-driven"]

Recent News: [Any company announcements, leadership changes, or industry trends relevant to this client]

Materials to Bring:

• [Document 1]
• [Document 2]

Write for Scanability

Your partners will read this brief 10 minutes before the meeting. Make it easy.

Use bold for critical items:

• Payment issues
• Unresolved complaints
• High-value upsell opportunities

Use bullet points, not paragraphs: Wrong: "The client has expressed concerns about the timeline for the current project and has mentioned that they are considering alternative providers if we cannot accelerate delivery."

Right:

• Client concern: Project timeline too slow
• Risk: Considering alternative providers
• Recommended response: Propose phased delivery, commit to Phase 1 completion by [date]

Include exact numbers: Wrong: "The client has been with us for a while and represents significant revenue."

Right: "Client since March 2021 (3.5 years). Total revenue: $487K. Last 12 months: $156K."

Generate Briefs at Scale

For firms with 5+ meetings per week:

Use Claude or GPT-4 with this system prompt:

You are a meeting prep specialist for a [law/accounting/consulting] firm. I will provide you with raw CRM data and calendar details. Generate a meeting brief following this structure: [paste your template]. 

Rules:
- Be specific. Use exact numbers, dates, and names.
- Highlight risks in bold.
- Keep the entire brief under 500 words.
- If data is missing, write [DATA NEEDED: description] so I can fill it in.

Feed the AI your CRM

export and calendar details. Review the output, fill in any [DATA NEEDED] fields, and send.

For firms with fewer meetings:

Build a Google Doc template with your standard structure. Make a copy for each meeting. Fill in the blanks manually. Budget 20-30 minutes per brief.

Timing determines whether your brief gets read or ignored.

Calculate Optimal Send Time

For internal meetings (team-only): Send 24 hours before. Example: Meeting is Thursday at 2 PM, send brief Wednesday at 2 PM.

For client meetings (external attendees): Send 48 hours before. Example: Meeting is Friday at 10 AM, send brief Wednesday at 10 AM.

For high-stakes meetings (new business, crisis, executive-level): Send 72 hours before. Example: Meeting is Monday at 9 AM, send brief Friday at 9 AM (or Thursday if Monday is after a weekend).

For same-day or emergency meetings: Send immediately, but call or Slack the meeting owner to confirm they saw it.

Distribute Effectively

Email distribution:

Subject line: "MEETING BRIEF: [Client Name] - [Date]"

Body:

Brief attached for our meeting with [Client Name] on [Day, Date] at [Time].

Key items to review:
- [Bullet 1]
- [Bullet 2]
- [Bullet 3]

Reply to this email if you need any clarification or additional information.

Attach the brief as a PDF (not a Word doc - formatting stays intact).

Slack distribution:

Post in your #upcoming-meetings channel:

@[meeting owner] - Brief ready for [Client Name] meeting on [Date]
[Link to brief in Google Drive]

Highlights:
- [Bullet 1]
- [Bullet 2]

Questions? Reply in thread.

Shared drive organization:

Create a folder structure:

Meeting Briefs/
  2024/
    01-January/
      2024-01-15_ClientName_Brief.pdf
      2024-01-18_ProspectName_Brief.pdf
    02-February/
      ...

Name files: YYYY-MM-DD_ClientName_Brief.pdf

This makes briefs searchable and easy to reference later.

Confirm Receipt and Readiness

Send a Slack DM to the meeting owner 4 hours before the meeting:

"Quick check: Did you review the brief for [Client Name] today? Anything you need from me before the meeting?"

If they don't respond within 1 hour, call them.

Capture Post-Meeting Intelligence

Immediately after the meeting, send this to all attendees:

"Please reply with:

1. Key decisions made
2. Action items and owners
3. Next meeting date (if scheduled)
4. Anything we should update in the CRM

   CRM

   Click to read the full definition in our AI & Automation Glossary.

   "

Add their responses to your meeting database. This becomes the "Last Meeting" section in your next brief.

Week 1:

• [ ] Connect calendar to tracking system
• [ ] Set up #upcoming-meetings Slack channel
• [ ] Create meeting database spreadsheet
• [ ] Document your CRM

  CRM

  Click to read the full definition in our AI & Automation Glossary.

  data pull process

Week 2:

• [ ] Build meeting brief template
• [ ] Generate briefs for next 3 meetings manually
• [ ] Gather feedback from meeting owners
• [ ] Refine template based on feedback

Week 3:

• [ ] Automate calendar monitoring (if possible)
• [ ] Automate CRM

  CRM

  Click to read the full definition in our AI & Automation Glossary.

  data pulls (if possible)
• [ ] Test AI brief generation (if using)
• [ ] Set up shared drive folder structure

Week 4:

• [ ] Run full process for all meetings this week
• [ ] Track time spent on each brief
• [ ] Identify bottlenecks
• [ ] Document standard operating procedure

This system works because it removes guesswork. Your team walks into every meeting prepared, confident, and armed with the exact information they need to win.