Sales training ideas – Keep track of your sales calls.

Keep track of the number of sales calls you make and what happens on each call. For example, if you made ten cold calls, perhaps two weren’t there, two you didn’t get in to see, two weren’t qualified, two weren’t interested, and you got two leads. 

You also want to get some reasons behind the numbers. When will the two people be there? Why didn’t you get in to see the two prospects? Why didn’t the two qualify? Why weren’t the two interested? Why were the two leads you did get interested? 

From this information, you will start to recognize patterns and areas of the sales process that need work. For example, are you making your sales calls at the right time of day? Are you effectively handling the gatekeeper? Are you calling a qualified list? Are you building sufficient interest? What are you doing right on the leads you do get? 

You also want to do this with presentations or sales calls. What happened on each call? Did you close the sale? Did you lose the sale? Did you get an objection you couldn’t overcome and you have to return? Was the prospect not in?  

From the information on your follow-up calls you will also start to recognize patterns. Did you not build enough urgency? Was the person not really an interested lead? Did you fail to properly qualify the prospect? Do you do enough right to get the sale? What are you doing right and what do you need to work on? 

Keep track of this information on a sheet of paper, recording the information after each call. Take the results to your manager and the top salespeople in your company, get their feedback, and then work on your weak areas. Save these numbers to review, and look for trends. This will give you some ideas as to what you need to improve in order to make more sales.