Sales call notes are a rep’s personal record of client information, notes taken during clients calls which are crucial for remembering important information and highlighting sales opportunities.

Unfortunately, reps easily forget to record call notes, or don’t record the right things. 

In this article we’ll give you a handy quick guide to the most important things to ask your reps to include in their call notes to make the most of sales opportunities. 

Let’s jump right in. 

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Relationship building moments

If a rep can’t get a client’s first and last name right, the road to building a prosperous client relationship will be a long one. Without the trust that comes with strong client relationships, your reps will find it difficult to probe for deeper information to find sales opportunities.

Cementing relationship foundations needn’t be hard: it begins with recording contacts and personal news in call notes. Regularly updating a client’s full contact details shows a rep is committed to keeping in contact despite change. Additionally, reps can build rapport by noting any exciting personal news: a new child, a wedding, a long-weekend holiday up North. 

Ultimately, these small details can help reps develop client relationships where there’s room to ask deeper questions or make more ambitious offers.

Pricing, payment, and correct documentation

When a payment problem, or pricing misunderstanding is left unchecked, a damaged customer relationship is the least of a rep’s worries. 

To avoid losing a customer, recording any discussions around pricing, problems with payment, or incorrect invoices should be a priority in a rep’s call note checklist. If credit terms were set up wrong, or a price misunderstanding has occurred, the rep needs to note it down and make it a priority. This information could present an opportunity to give a customer a better price, or a discount deal if a certain volume is purchased.

To stop this information slipping by, suggest faster ways for your reps to get their pricing notes recorded, perhaps with voice-to-text notes entry or call note templates.

What resonated with the client

Regular proposal rejection could be a sign your reps don’t have a great understanding of their clients needs. How can reps get more sales if nothing seems to appeal to their clients?

Taking call notes of what resonates with clients regarding products, pitched over the phone, in whitepapers, or new range presentations, is crucial feedback for nurturing a sales opportunity. What did the client think about the new product? Did anything stick out to them in the new range presentation? What stayed with them?

Encourage reps to ask these questions and note feedback: the rich detail could be used to help a rep pitch products more suitable to their clients.

A client’s current stock.

It’s been 6 months since your rep picked up their latest client, however, they're yet to jump on an upselling opportunity. After questioning the rep, it happens that they don’t have any information on what the client currently stocks, or who’s stocking it for them. 

Any information concerning your competitors could highlight a sales opportunity, and should be recorded in call notes. Additionally, understanding a client’s purchase patterns can help a rep see if there’s an existing sales gap to jump on.

If the client normally buys safety goggles for $7 per unit from your competitor, but you sell them for $5.85, the rep could make a special offer.

The next steps

With over 30 clients to attend to, it’s unsurprising when a rep misses the follow up call they promised to have with a client a month ago. Unfortunately, that rep could’ve unknowingly missed out on a lucrative deal and burnt goodwill that might have led to extra future sales. 

If a rep has the right sales performance tool, they should take initiative to record a call note against the client about any agreed next action. If it’s following up on a client’s decision, or sending a quote through, a rep should record it and put it in their calendar, or even tag the note as an activity for your KPI leaderboard. Furthermore, putting a date down acts as a deadline for a rep to resolve any other issues raised in the call.

Personal client information, pricing discussions, client feedback, current stock, and agreed next step should form the foundation of your rep’s call notes if they want to capitalize on future sales opportunities. 

If you want to get more consistent, high quality notes from your reps without wasting their time, check out how a sales performance app runs customer note-taking.