Have you ever analyzed your colleges office? Go ahead and take a look! Normally, you should find: loose sheets, a notebook or post-its. In itself, only handwritten things...
As you can see from the title, today we are talking about note taking and optimizing information feedback.
This is without a doubt the most complicated process to optimize, as the method of note-taking is unique for each salesperson. And yet, in business, it is more than crucial to optimize and harmonize note-taking in order to relieve oneself of a mental burden that is far too great and to share customer information with as many people as possible.
In fact, this is the biggest struggle for sales managers: coaching teams so that they are fully trained to take notes effectively during meetings and simplifying the way they record information in the CRM.
Now that we agree on the subject, how do we optimize and harmonize our note taking?
Live note-taking. Writing down information without following a particular structure is already a start. If you are not an expert in this field, don't stress, it can be learned and as in sports, performance does not come without training.
In this article, I'll share with you some tips on how to make your note-taking an asset to sell more and better. But, let's maybe start with the basics.
Why isnote-taking essential for a salesperson?
Victimsof Oblivion
You can be the king of active listening, but without effective note-taking, you risk losing golden opportunities. Did you know that 20 minutes into your conversation, you've already forgotten 40% of what was said? And the more time passes, the more memory you lose. After 9 hours, more than 60% of key information is lost. So what can you do to avoid forgetting them? It's simple, a concrete note-taking!
And that's not all, taking notes is also about making a good impression on your customers. If you forget, they forget. But if you're the one taking the notes, you're the pro who can help them remember important details. And in the customer relationship, this is invaluable in the long run.
Opportunities lost due to lack of optimal note taking
If you don't take (or don't take) notes during a call, you lose information. And therefore lost opportunities. So to maximize your chances of signing new contracts, take legible, relevant and structured notes! It will prevent you from losing deals.
And to convince yourself of the importance of optimal note-taking, imagine this scenario: you want to sign a contract with a new client, but you forget that he mentioned his busy schedule and his difficulty in responding during the day. You call several times without success, while a competitor, who has taken notes, sends a perfectly targeted email and gets the client's response.
Which salesperson will the customer respond to? Don't be that salesperson who loses deals because of poor note-taking.
Finally, keep in mind that well-structured notes can help the entire company, facilitating collaboration, boosting productivity and increasing revenue. Make your notes readable, relevant and share them!
Effective notes to help the entire company
Beyond the salespeople in direct contact with customers, note taking can also help the rest of the company. For example, marketing could send even more targeted campaigns, the sales manager will have a better visibility on the pipeline of each sales person, other members of the sales team can use the transcribed information to find new arguments, ...
Ultimately, note-taking improves collaboration, boosts productivity and can even increase revenue through performance and sales. So take notes and share them!
How tooptimize your note taking in 4 steps
To personalize your sales and maximize your chances of success, discover our 4-step note-taking methodology.
1. Use a consistent method of note-taking
It is important to use a consistent method of taking notes to make them easier to understand and use later.
Try to use a clear and consistent structure for your notes, using bullets and subheadings to divide important information.
Our method: create note-taking templates.
A customer meeting is something to prepare for. Find the right arguments, review the needs, and of course identify all the information you want to get back after the meeting.
The great thing about this type of meeting, whether it's a discovery or demo call, is that the format is the same every time. So, don't hesitate to create a template with all the points to be discussed. This will allow you to simultaneously structure your meetings, but also simplify the information gathering.
During your telephone conversation, you will only have to fill in these different sections as you go along.
The capture you see is our note-taking application for sales people. The application allows you to create pre-defined templates that you just have to select when you launch the call. It saves you time, it structures your note taking, and as a bonus, all the notes are instantly synchronized with your CRM!
Avoid complete sentences and write only the essential
While everyone has their own note-taking technique, transcribing the entire conversation is really a bad practice that should be banned. So forget about this method and get to the point!
Your notes should help you know what to say, how to say it and when to say it. To do this, you should only note what is important, actionable and insightful. For example, the customer's availability for a next appointment, his reluctance to pay the proposed price, his bad experience with a competitor, the actions to be taken, etc.
For this essential information, you don't need to use complete sentences. Use abbreviations, key words that make sense to you, and skip empty words (like the, the, of, a, ...). And for actions to be taken, use verbs.
A tip: before concluding the call, mentally review your notes and identify the data. Don't hesitate to summarize the information to your client and/or ask him/her to repeat the essential information. This way, you will be sure that you have transcribed it effectively.
Completeand enrich your notes after each customer interaction
It is important to take notes as soon as possible after each customer interaction. This will help you remember the important details of the conversation and stay on top of each customer's progress through the sales cycle.
Another tip is to do a quick analysis after each call or meeting . The idea is to clarify your feelings about the meeting. For example, you can ask yourself the following questions:
- Was it a success?
- Is the prospect really interested?
- Are there any objections that you have not been able to answer?
- What do you need to improve for the next call?
Regardless, it is important to review and update your notes regularly to ensure that you have the most current and accurate information on each client. Try to review your notes at least once a week to ensure that you are up to date on each client's activities.
Use a note-taking application
There are many note-taking apps available that can help you organize your notes and make them easier to find and use. Try to use a note-taking app that fits your usage.
The goal: to help you take better notes, save time, organize them and make them easily accessible.
This is one of the reasons why we developed Livenotes. Through this application, you can easily take notes in real time, share information with your collaborators, synchronize your transcripts in the CRM or use templates. By saving you time and enriching your business tools, Livenotes allows you to focus on the essential and convert more.
Updateyour CRM as soon as your meeting ends
Are you a fan of free paper? We talked about it at the beginning... but why not? On the other hand, it is probably the least efficient method in terms of productivity. On the one hand, because you risk losing the post-its. On the other hand, because you'll be chaining calls one after the other. So how do you know which information belongs to which customer? On the other hand, because handwriting is much slower than taking notes on a computer.
As you can see, transcribing your business conversations by hand is both a waste of time and a waste of information. So many reasons to optimize your note-taking with digital tools.
And to gain in productivity and performance, you will have to transcribe your notes on a durable medium. This will make the conversation with your customer accessible to everyone. And if you have actions to take, you can schedule reminders via the CRM.
But opening the CRM, selecting the right customer and organizing your notes takes time. Not to mention that the comment area is not always user-friendly.
It is for all these reasons that we created Livenotes, our augmented note taking application. You can take notes directly in templates dedicated to each situation. Once the meeting is over, all you have to do is click on "send to CRM", and that's it! Thanks to Livenotes, you save precious time and your CRM is enriched.
There you go, no more excuses for not taking perfect notes and knowing your customers and prospects inside and out.
Best,
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