Before & After the Sales Call: Post and Pre-Call Analysis

Assuming you're a good sales professional, you already build rapport with buyers, ask your buyers thought-provoking questions, and then skillfully manage their objections. These are all skills you use during the sales call. But what are you doing before and after the sales call?

If you want to raise the bar on your selling skills, create a clear call objective before each sales call. Then after the call, conduct a rigorous post-call analysis. This will help you improve your selling skills and raise your expectations around the quality of your sales conversations.

Before the Call: Develop a Call Objective

Good pre-call planning starts with the end in mind: What do you want to accomplish on the call? That means having clearly defined call objectives.

Many sales professionals confuse goals and objectives. Goals are what you want to achieve long-term (e.g., close the deal or grow the account); objectives are the steps you take to reach the goals. Without a clear call objective, you risk having your sales call morph into an unfocused social call.

Effective sales call objectives share three characteristics:

1. They're attainable. When creating a call objective, first ask yourself, “Is it possible to accomplish this objective on this call?” Closing the sale may not be a realistic objective for a first meeting (remember, closing the deal is your goal), but qualifying the opportunity is achievable.
2. They include buyer commitment. You can include a buyer commitment by starting with the statement: “As a result of this call, the buyer will agree to…” The buyer’s commitment should relate to specific actions that will advance your sale (e.g., “buyer will introduce me to the decision-maker”). The key here is to focus on the buyer’s behavior, not your sales activity.
3. They're measurable. Finally, an effective sales call objective should include detailed information about the commitment you want the buyer to take so you can measure your progress and accomplishments. This means making sure the action is time-bound (e.g., “the buyer will review the proposal with the buying committee by next Tuesday”).

A sales call objective is the what, when, who, and how much you can accomplish on the sales call. Having a sales call objective will also make it easier to hold yourself accountable for how well you did on the sales call.

After the Call: Analyze What Happened

Just like professional athletes study videos of their performance after a game, you should do a post-call analysis after each sales call.

Your first area of inquiry should focus on results: Did you achieve your sales call objective? If yes, how? If not, why not? What did you learn about the decision-maker or the opportunity?  Is this still a qualified sales opportunity?

The other area of analysis is your performance. What did you do well on this call, and what will you do differently on the next call with this decision-maker?

Here is a checklist you can use to analyze your performance:

Building Sales Relationships

• How well did you establish rapport?
• To what extent did you start to build trust?
• Did you build relationships with other decision-makers and influencers?

Planning the Sales Call

• Did you research the account before the call?
• Did you develop a call objective for the call?

Developing Needs

• Did you uncover significant problems or concerns?
• Did you explore the impact of a problem with the buyer?
• To what extent are you spending too much time with unqualified buyers?

Presenting Solutions

• How well did you explicitly connect the buyer’s need to your solution?
• Did you differentiate your solution from the competition?

Managing Feedback

• Did you ask for feedback frequently?
• Did you clarify objections before addressing them?

Gaining Commitment

• Ask for some commitment at the end of each call?
• Did you ask for commitment too early (before the buyer was ready to make a decision)?

The purpose of conducting a rigorous post-call analysis is for you to take ownership of what you did or didn't do during the sales call and what you need to improve. Combining this post-call analysis with a clear call objective will help you take your selling skills to the next level.

If you liked this article about Sales Calls, you may enjoy these other articles as well.

• Sales Call Planning: Remember the ABCs
• Tips for Effectively Opening a Sales Call
• The Call Plan Template Highly Successful Salespeople Use
• How to Better Engage Buyers in the First Sales Call