Thursday, January 27, 2005
Call #$@^ Reports
If you’ve read our earlier screed about what’s wrong with b2b media, you may know that we dislike sales ‘busywork,’ like call reports. We’re not against keeping good client records—these help you understand your market, stay on top of commitments, serve customers and sell more. We just dislike doing reports for the sake of doing reports.
Here’s a question: if you’re an executive at a b2b media company which requires your salespeople to submit call reports, separately from their other contact management record keeping, when was the last time you bothered to read those reports? I thought so.
I've heard stories of one b2b media company which requires call reports. The company’s salespeople know that no one reads them. How do they know? They intersperse nonsense, jokes and flat-out obscenities into their call reporting, just to see if there will be a reaction. And there never is. It’s a colossal waste of everyone’s time—but at least the salespeople are getting a chuckle out of it.
So, some advice. If you’re not going to read the call reports, stop requiring them. If you still want call reports, read them and use them to help your salespeople serve their customers better. And figure out a way to make call reporting less of an interference with selling time. Most good sales contact management systems can do this automatically.
Comments
|
Here’s a question: if you’re an executive at a b2b media company which requires your salespeople to submit call reports, separately from their other contact management record keeping, when was the last time you bothered to read those reports? I thought so.
I've heard stories of one b2b media company which requires call reports. The company’s salespeople know that no one reads them. How do they know? They intersperse nonsense, jokes and flat-out obscenities into their call reporting, just to see if there will be a reaction. And there never is. It’s a colossal waste of everyone’s time—but at least the salespeople are getting a chuckle out of it.
So, some advice. If you’re not going to read the call reports, stop requiring them. If you still want call reports, read them and use them to help your salespeople serve their customers better. And figure out a way to make call reporting less of an interference with selling time. Most good sales contact management systems can do this automatically.
