BP #12: Has a good system for keeping track of the things discussed with the customers.
By Dave Kahle
I am constantly amazed at the number of sales people who never take notes during or after the visit with a customer. They think, I suppose, that they will remember everything important. Or worse, that nothing is important enough to actually remember.
A close second are those who, on occasion, realize the need to take notes, but who seem constantly surprised by that need, and unprepared for it. They find themselves using the backs of printed pages, the margins of selling literature, the backs of business cards, etc. to scribble cryptic remarks. The concept of a well-thought-out system has evaded them.
By the way, this is one of the benefits of a well-designed and comprehensive CRM system, which forces you to take good notes by requiring that you respond to the prompts and blank spaces of a computer screen.
A well-prepared, organized sales person needs to have a system that prompts him/her to take the right kinds of notes for every sales call, organizes that information so that he/she can take the necessary follow up action, and makes that information available in every succeeding sales call.
As a minimum, that system should include forms, either electronic or paper, to record certain aspects of the account that the sales person picks up from time to time – things like the number of employees, the type of equipment used, the position and title of the key decision-makers, etc.
Then, there needs to be a place to record the important aspects of the conversation. What did you talk about?
Finally, there ought to be a place to record the action items that came out of that conversation. Do you need to call someone? Check on something? Arrange for something? These “to dos” should also be kept in a duplicate file, with the date by which you promised to have them completed.
Finally, you ought to record those things that you want to take up in the next sales call. That information should be readily assessable so that you can plan for it as you prepare for the next time you see this customer.
There are various mediums on which this information can be recorded. Some people will use paper, others will use Blackberrys and PDAs, while others record everything on a laptop. With the sophistication of today’s computer systems, there really is no excuse for a sales person not to be conscientiously and systematically recording, storing, and using meticulously gathered information from the customer.
It’s a regular practice of the best.
To learn more about this practice, review:
- chapter eight of Ten Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople
- chapters four and five of How to Excel at Distributor Sales.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 12:35 pm and is filed under Best Practices for Salespeople, Business to business sales, Sales Strategies & Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 21st, 2010 at 8:41 am
I agree that record keeping is critical in closing sales. Unfortunately most outside sales people do not have the discipline to follow through on that. We are using a CRM system that when used properly will assist sales people in developing business in following our six step sales process. But we still have about 25% of them, who do not see the need to enter all the pertinent data. So we have decided that in order to help sales people accept the fact that record keeping and data entry a \"must do\" every day that those activities have become part of their compensation package. So we will reward you for good record keeping, which will lead to a more controlled sales process.
July 21st, 2010 at 10:12 am
I agree and disagree, Dave. I think the emphasis should be on TRAINING reps to do their homework, and to effectively PROBE and RESPOND during a custermer interaction. Doing so will all the rep to capture the information they need, without sounding like a telephone survey. Having said that, the rep should have a list Q’s and areas of pursit, but frame it in a conversational manner, rather than “filling out a form.” Focus on questioning as a means to an end, and not an end in itself.