Inside Sales Reps: Take Notes in Your CRM

You just hung up the phone with a lead or client and you start to list all the details from the conversation into your CRM notes section. You scheduled the follow up, you write up everything the two of you talked about, summarize emails sent, faxes and possible purposes.

When all is said and done, did you know the average sales rep spends roughly 7.5 minutes after each call taking notes on what was discussed?

This is a serious time waster.

It’s not a bad idea to take notes, however you don’t want to overdo it and waste precious calling time. Many times inside sales reps will take too many notes and include information that is unnecessary.

Here is a quick list of what to do instead:

1. In the notes make sure to provide links to the emails, proposals and other documents. Some CRMS will allow you to attach the emails and documents to the file or link to it. This will make refreshing these documents much easier and cause less confusion when you are trying to remember details.

2. Record date and times of when things were decided upon and discussed. This is great because you can remind the lead, prospect, or client when you talked about things and summarize what happened on that day if they are having trouble remembering.

3. Only note key points or things that will be useful to know in the future. These types of notes include one or two small things that stuck out in the discussion that might be easy for them to remember on a later date when you are trying to refresh their memory on the date you discussed key points.

BONUS: Get the one unique aspect (OUA) from the conversation, and then go above and beyond! The OUA is something about them that’s personal about them. If a client, lead, or prospect mentions they had to take a child to the hospital or a pet to the vet make sure to write it down. Ask them the next time you’re talking how everything worked out. Or if something exciting happened like a child graduating college or even a delivery they are anticipating. Interests they have can also be a good OUA. You can show an interest in if it’s something you share as well. Keep notes of these small things, they might help you later.

What are some other time wasters you’ve found while working that you realized you could cut the time in half or completely eliminate?

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