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Instant Sales Guides

Call Planning

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there."
Lewis Carroll

It is amazing how many sales people just pick up the phone to customers and prospects without a thought regarding the true objectives of the call. Everyone customer contact should have the aim of moving the sales forward. I like to think in terms of "what do I need that I don't have now".

Just a few minutes of thought can create such a better outcome of the contact - you may even sound professional and focused to the customer! Seriously, if you want to improve as a sales person, and also improve your sales results, you need to set objectives for every call. You also need to be honest with yourself about the outcomes - did you meet the objective? A lack of honest means you are only fooling yourself and the sales is getting further away.

So here are some key questions to ask yourself, together with a call planner that you can download, print and use to structure your thoughts prior to a call.

Key Points

• Objectives will help you improve your performance over time
• Always be asking yourself - "What do I need to do/have to move the sale forward?"

Pre-Call
Questions to consider before calling on a new prospect or an existing customer:

• What is my call objective(s) - only 1 or 2 SMART objectives?
• Who do I need to speak to in this business/division/department?
• Who is the key decision maker(s)?
• Who is a main influence(s)?
• What specific actions do you want the prospect to take at the end of the call?
• What potential obstacles exist that will threaten the sale?
• What stage am I at in the sales cycle?
• How will I open the call?
• What information do I have?
• What information do I need to find out?
• What sort of objections emerge out and how will I handle them?

Post Call
Questions to consider when reviewing your customer sales interaction:

• Did I achieve my objective?
• What went right/what went wrong?
• What does the customer think about me/my company/our offer?
• What information did I gather?
• What evidence do I have that this is still a viable sales opportunity?
• Did I advance the sale to the next stage?
• Who else needs to be involved in the process?
• What else do I need to do to progress the sale to the next stage?
• When am I next going to see or speak to this customer?
• What will be my next call objective?

Download printable pdf versions of the call checklist and call planner