Sales Call Log

Here’s a funny thing.  How many sales organisations have a form that you’re supposed to fill in after every sales call?  US mag Entreprenuer suggests one, as evidenced by this pdf.  Bear in mind this mag is aimed primarily at people who want to either start a business or grow a recently born one, and focuses quite a bit on franchising.

I’ve seen several of these types of sheets in my travels around all my customer and prospect sales teams, usually appearing after a newly appointed sales manager rocks up, or some funky training’s just heralded the ‘new way forward’.  I’ve never seen one take hold.

Manifold reasons for this exist.  Primarily, salesguys resent having to do admin of any kind, especially such which they see little direct benefit in for themselves.  This is a touch wierd, as often you’ll be in a situation where you really wish you could tap in to some deeper documentation about a conversation, meeting, benefit, requirement, opportunity, or the like.  Also, just about everyone is expected to fill-out some form of software these days.  Whether it be on a simple spreadsheet, or a new-fangled on-demand crm, the problem is that what you see on the screen is nothing like what your preferred call report would look like, and retrieving info is a nightmare.