Free Sales Call Report Template

Use sales call reports to you and your sales teams benefit! We will demonstrate how to use sales call reports and how to create a template that will allow your sales team to thrive!

What Are Sales Call Reports?

In most cases a call report will identify the who, what, and when of a sales call. It can also include important information like who the decision maker is, who’s the competition, the estimation of time of closing the sale, the necessary steps to do after the call to close the sale, etc. Sales Call Reports may vary in what is included but it’s important to include what information is most valuable for the salesperson to make the sale.   

The sales call reports are also a great way to identify whether you need to change something in your overall strategy. If so, feel free to check out the full guide on building a sales strategy.

How to Use Sales Call Reports?

The old way of using sales call reports was to keep track of the communication that a salesperson had with a prospect and was used for the manager to see the salespersons progress on the amount of calls made. However, that has proved to be a major waste of time and adds no value to the salesperson especially since everything can be tracked through a power dialer now. Sales call reports are now used to help a salesperson plan out their next steps of execution and for the manager to use as a coaching/monitoring tool.  

Some useful ways for salespeople and managers to use sales call reports is by:

• Correcting the salespersons skill or method
• Addressing and reviewing prospects needs
• Determining to either invest more or less time into a prospect 
• Determining trends in the local market

How to Create Useful Sales Call Reports?

Start out by including the who, what, and when. The salesperson must know who they are talking to, what the salespersons plan is, and when the call takes place. Then include the two how’s. The first is how the call went, the results. The second is how the salesperson will follow-up with the prospect.  

Now that you know what to include in your report. Let’s get into what should be included in each category of the sales report: 

The who, is the basic information needed to identify the person. The goal is to have this information before calling so you can address them by name and address their needs or the companies needs. 

(WHO) Contact Information

• Name
• Title 
• Company
• Phone number

Include what was done before the call to prepare. Encourage your sales team to have notes and key information to refer to and keep them on track as they are on the phone. This could be deals that the company is offering or a note about the customer’s inquiry on a certain product. Any bit of information that gets the prospects attention is important to note. Planning out key talking points and having information about the prospect and their needs is ideal before going into a call. Train your sales team to Include any information that could be helpful in building the business to consumer relationship. 

Not every call will have the same goal so have the sales team write down the goal of the call as well as how they will achieve that goal. It’s best to be specific, vague strategies lead nowhere. For instance you might set a goal to make a meeting within the next month to discuss the prospects needs. Therefore the strategy might be to ask them when they are available this month and offer a few times that might work best for them, taking into consideration their time zone and working hours.  

As talked about in the article on tips for talking on the phone, preparation is key! While sales reps may already have their sales pitch memorized, they need to do more to prepare for a phone call with a client. Launching right into your pitch is not an option, after all. If you are the manager of your sales team, checking their notes can ensure they are preparing properly and if not, make training for them. 

This information will be compiled into the what category below: 

(WHAT) Sales Rep Notes

• Preparation notes
• The goal of the call
• The strategy of the call

The when should be short, only including the basic information. This information is necessary for two reasons. The first is for scheduling a follow up call or email. The second is for determining if they spent too much or too little time with the prospect. Next time the salesperson will be able to calculate how much time is worth putting into the prospect, since time is valuable and shouldn’t be wasted!

(WHEN) Call Information

• Date
• Time
• Duration 

The how portion of the sales call report brings the most value and allows for the most coaching/monitoring. Each ‘how’ gives you a better idea of where the prospect lies in the sales pipeline. Train your sales team to be specific and relay the information as accurately as they can so you can help them make decisions and plan for future contact with the customer. 

(HOW) Call Summary & Results

• Who is the decision maker?
• Were there any issues?
• Any competitors mentioned?
• When does the salesperson think he/she will close the sales?
• Are they a long-term or short-term customer?

(HOW) Follow-up Details

• The specific steps to close the sale 
• The time in which those steps need to be executed 

Sales Calls Report Template

As stated previously, sales call reports can vary in what is included. Using your judgement and working with your sales team you will be able to determine any changes you might need to make. Use the sales call report template we created below to reference as you create your own. Whatever you include, be sure to make the sales call report useful and worthy of your sales team’s time by making it a guide for the next steps, not a review of what has already been done. 

Feel free to use this sales call report sample to help get you started: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mprnLRk8KNMXiBMai52RXhMttP_ceo2T2ROFTvV5zGs/edit#gid=0 

A template can look similar to the one above. The template needs to be informative, orderly, and easy to comprehend for the salesperson and the manager. Put only the most vital information to avoid an overwhelming template. 

Another very important step in the sales process is lead qualification. Continue reading here to learn how to qualify your leads effectively and which questions to ask to do so.

Works Cited 

Farrington, Jonathan, and Jonathan Farrington. “Sales Call Reports-Are They Worth The Hassle?”. Social Media Today, 2021, https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/sales-call-reports-are-they-worth-hassle. Accessed 29 Dec 2020.

Fuchs, Jay. “How To Create Sales Call Reports”. Blog.Hubspot.Com, 2021, https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-call-reports. Accessed 30 Dec 2020.

“Tips For Talking To Customers On The Phone | Electronic Voice Services”. EVS7, 2021, https://www.evs7.com/call-center/talk-to-customers-on-the-phone. Accessed 30 Dec 2020.