7 Simple Steps for superior sales note taking
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Mar 02, 2009 @ 01:01 AM
A question that commonly comes up in my telesales training courses is "How do I manage to listen to my prospects, take great notes, not miss anything, and say what I have to say?" And it comes up virtually every week in telephone conversations I have with telesales managers. I have a notetaking process that has proven successful, because it's simple, thorough, and anyone can do it easily. It allows you to do everything you need to accomplish in the call, not miss anything, be a great listener, and it's accomplished in these 7 simple steps:
1) Handwrite your notes. Unless you're order-taking, people don't like to hear you type. It tells them you're more focused on typing than listening to them.
2) Use an 81/2 x 11 piece of paper. I've seen telesales reps scribble on post-it notes, and they can't see a 5 minute conversation digested into one page, or read their tiny handwriting.
3) Keep the left-hand side of your paper for the prospect's conversation. Put a square around anything he or she says that you'll want to revisit before the conversation ends.
4) Keep the right-hand side of the paper for things you need to tell the prospect, but don't want to say right now because you're getting important information from the prospect, and don't want to interrupt.
5) Keep the middle of the page for "starred items". These are salient points made by the prospect that will be your follow-on priority items as the most important things that you'll put into your CRM database. Place a star in the middle of the page adjacent to an important point the prospect made (on the left) or you need to make later (on the right).
6) Keep your ears open for what I term "problem clues." When prospects use words like "frustrating", "annoying", or "unusable", to describe their current situation, you'll need to ask more about them now or later in the conversation. They lead to important business reasons why your solution may be perfect for them. You can't afford to wait and ask about them in your next call, because the prospect may not remember the context. Box and Star these (see points 3 and 5 above) so you don't miss anything.
7) Immediately after the conversation, transcribe the important elements of your notes into the CRM database. Don't do it after your next call, or after lunch. While transcribing your notes, you may realize your forgot to re-address a boxed or starred item with the prospect. Call right back (you know he or she is in the office, you just got done talking) and address the issue. The prospect will answer your questions and respect you as a rep, because he or she knew you were really listening. And you won't miss an important issue.
So now for your next call, go ahead and spacially divide your note paper into three columns, with the column in the middle of the page the narrowest. Use it in your next conversation, and I predict you'll love it. It's deceptively easy. Practice this today, and you'll be a note taking whiz by tomorrow. And add it to your Best Practices playbook.