Why Your Sales Notes Are Costing You Deals

How do you take notes in sales meetings?

I recently wrote a post that spoke about the acronym TALKER, which provides an outline of the soft skills required to be an excellent communicator in sales:

One of the questions that came from that post referred to the “K” in the acronym. The “K” relates to the best way to “Keep Notes” and ensure that you still stay focused in the conversation.

Too many salespeople don’t appreciate the value of effective note taking. They think that they are better off being “present” in the meeting, and will worry about the notes later.

But the harsh truth is, you won’t remember everything you need to in order to construct a purposeful follow up email with the prospect, unless you take notes.

The irony of the whole situation, is that most business people will respect the fact that you are taking notes. It shows that you are organised, deliberate, and genuinely care about the things they are saying to you.

So as long as you effectively communicate the reason why you are taking notes, the upside will be considerable.

Think about how powerful it is when you sit down to write a follow up email, and you can you replay exactly what the prospect has told you. You can articulate their needs and desires in their own words.

It’s extremely compelling. But not many people do it well.

When is the last time you received a follow up email that perfectly summarised the pain you feel in your own words? When is the last time you sent an email like this?

The best method for taking notes in sales meetings 

Throughout my own sales career I have switched between taking notes on paper, typing them out into a word doc, using a note application like Evernote, or directly adding notes into a CRM. For me, I have found that writing notes on an electric notepad works best. But everyone is different.

Writing your notes, whether on an electric notepad or using a good old faithful pen and paper, is critical. It gives you the ability to quickly capture the essence and specifics of what the prospect is saying, while drawing the causality and links to other elements of the conversation on the run. 

In saying that, the method you use for capturing the customer conversation isn't as important as how you structure your notes. You need to be able to quickly refer to them throughout the conversation, without fiddling through hundreds of pages. The idea is that you are using your notes as a map that will guide you to a potential opportunity with the prospect. 

Too many people don't actively listen during a conversation and miss key elements that will help uncover whether there is an opportunity, or whether there isn't a fit, and it is best for both parties to go there separate ways.

Worse still, is when people do go to the trouble of actively listening but don't write it down. Even though you may have heard their challenges, there is a strong likelihood that you will forget an important element, or the entire thing, if you don’t document it.

PRO TIP: For the sales managers out there, if you are interviewing a new sales rep, check to see whether they are taking notes during your conversation. If not, at the beginning of the interview list 5 core values that you want to see in reps on your team. Then at the end of the interview ask them to recap the 5 core values you are looking for. If they can't recap the 5 core values required to get a job and earn a wage, what chance do they have of recalling the information in a customer conversation?!?

So, how do you create a process for capturing better notes in your sales meetings and building a map to more opportunities?

Here are a few simple steps that you can follow to take better notes and have a higher quality customer conversation.

How to take better notes in sales meetings

Step 1 - Document your impact

List out the core elements of impact that you can achieve for a customer, and align these with value propositions. There should be no more than 4 value props.

Step 2 - Create your buckets

Draw an upside down bucket for each of the value propositions across the top of a page, as well as a column for miscellaneous comments. You will use these buckets to record notes that are related to each value prop, as the prospect articulates them.

Step 3 - Categorise responses

On the left hand side of the page, categorise responses into 3 main areas that will align to the questions you are going to ask; Situation (Qualify), Pain (Amplify), and Impact.

When categorising responses to your questions, it helps to qualify whether there is an opportunity, and quantify the impact on the fly. This fuels another important element of the TALKER acronym, Repeat. If you repeat back to the customer the correct specifics of their business, they will truly believe they have a partner who is concerned about solving their problems.

Here is a rough example of what your note structure could look like:

Step 4 - Ask intelligent questions with context

The way you ask questions will directly influence your note-taking, so aim to ask questions that will align with the above structure and prevent you from jumping back and forth between categories too much.

Step 5 - Listen attentively

This involves you consciously listening, not only for the specifics of their business and their challenges, but for the emotional drivers of why they are talking to you. I can’t emphasize the importance of creating an emotional connection with your buyers enough. It’s absolutely critical to success in sales. If you can, capture the primary emotional drivers - the root cause of their decision making - in your notes.

Step 6 - When they answer, write your notes

Look to highlight the tone, language, and use of peculiar words that they use to describe their situation. You may have one way of saying something, but your goal is to speak in your prospects language.

PRO TIP: Don't be afraid to take a pause in the conversation to jot down your notes, if you let your customer know what you are doing, it will demonstrate that what they are saying is truly valuable to you.

Wrap up

Hopefully these steps will help you take better notes, or at least prompt you to make a deliberate, conscious decision on how you take notes to create a map for your next customer conversation.

Happy Selling!