50 Habits of Top Performing Sales People: Habit #9 – Call Reports

March 26, 2015 Selling Comments Off on 50 Habits of Top Performing Sales People: Habit #9 – Call Reports

Continuing with the twelve Organizational Skills let’s look at Habit #9 – Call Reports.

Who does call reports anymore? Does your sales team do call reports? Do they do them every day? Do they do them after each call? Do they do them at night or at lunch? These questions drive most managers and salespeople nuts because they hate call reports.

What’s the purpose of the call report? There are many options, but let’s try this: the purpose of a call report is to summarize, briefly, who was seen, what happened and what will happen next. This information should be integrated into the opportunity summary so that it can be referred to when planning and making the next call.

Call reports should not be a chronology that is difficult and time-consuming to read. Call reports should be short and concise, and not more than a few sentences, unless there is technical information that needs to be included with the report. In addition to call reports, thank you letters and/or emails should be drafted, tasks should be assigned and any other internal or external information should be generated immediately after the call when the information is fresh in the mind.

Call reports are written because there is a need for an accurate record, not because the boss requires them to be written. They are important: they help track the progress of the sales cycle. It is impossible to keep the information in anybody’s head; they must have a place to store it and call reports help salespeople do that.

“A Habit” is not work, but just a thing that is done every day and writing call reports after each sales call can easily become a Habit. Develop the process, write the call report and follow-up accordingly.

TIME MANAGEMENT. For Top Performers every task is planned and focused on the goals that earn the results. Top Performers use call reports, thank you letters/email, assign tasks and assign follow-ups immediately after each sales calls to focus their efforts and maximize the utilization of their time with and on their customers. Top Performers plan and then engage. They act on their plans, they work hard and they get results.

Coaching these skills is a critical part of what we do. We are here to help you develop and implement your Strategic Plan and coach and develop the skills to implement the plan successfully.

We are having great success coaching and implementing these methods and skills and our clients love it!