Documenting Sales Call Opportunities
Your Outside Sales Representative comes into the office complaining that their prospect wasn't in a position to buy your product. They have every excuse and objection, but you have a lingering feeling that a solid opportunity was wasted. This is a reality for many Sales & Marketing Directors in mid-sized enterprises.
Read this summary to understand the importance of documenting sales call opportunities and ensure your reps are giving 100% on every call. Additionally, use Demand Metric's downloadable Sales Call Reporting Tool to provide a simple framework for reporting on the results of sales calls.
What Needs to be Documented?
- Sales Call Participants - are the right decision-makers and stakeholders even in attendance? Is your representative wasting time pitching gates? Have your representative show you WHO they brought to this meeting to provide assurance that they are able to get the right audience to the meeting.
- New Business Opportunities - any new business development opportunities, including sales, partnerships, supplier relations, investors, or other opportunities. Be sure to include milestones, timelines, start/end date.
- Meeting Agenda - this sounds basic, but you need to make sure that your front-line troops are prepared for their meeting, and are sending out confirmations and meeting agendas. This may be an area for improvement.
- Discussion Results - action items from the discussion need to be captured and used to measure success of new opportunities. Having an Action Plan for each customer is essential for management to guide struggling sales reps.
Action Plan:
- Conduct Key Account Planning - use Demand Metric's Key Account Planning Tool to document account & opportunity size, current and goal state of the account, account objectives, and account action plan.
- Report on Sales Calls - use Demand Metric's Sales Call Reporting Tool to strategize and report on new business opportunities with sales management.
- Measure Results - analyze how well your sales reps are achieving account objectives, moving opportunities forward, and winning deals.
