How do you know when you have had great sales calls? How do you measure the results of a sales call? Enterprise sales cycles are long. They can take 6 months to 2 years to complete. So, there is no instant measurable way to know how well your sales call went. Let’s face it, the buyer isn’t going to give you a $1.5M order at the end of the call no matter how good it goes.
When I was in sales, I would struggle with this at times. I would end a call or on-site meeting with a prospect thinking that the call had gone well. Only to find out soon after that they were not interested in continuing to have discussions. What gives?
Prospects are usually not going to come right out and tell you to your face how a sales call went. In fact, they sometime outright lie. If it went bad, they will likely ghost you for a while. Maybe they will tell you at some point that your product is not what they are looking for. I am speaking here from painful first-hand experience!
If a call went well, they don’t want to tell you that either. No way they will say “great sales call”. Because they are likely talking to other vendors. Furthermore, they may feel that being positive may somehow diminish their negotiating power.
Quantifiable measures of sales call success
There are some obvious quantifiable ways to measure the success of a sales call. Such as a clear qualification or disqualification of a prospect.
If you only have a SaaS model and the customer wants on-premise software then you can disqualify them. This is a good thing. Yes. Disqualification is actually a good thing. Rather than waste 6 months on an opportunity that will never close. Disqualifying fast and moving onto other opportunities that can close is a good thing!
The intangible and subjective measures of the success of a sales call are harder to check. But getting better at this will increase your success rate. These are some of the important intangible measures of success;
Intangible measures of sales calls
1. Body language
If the meeting is in-person look at the customer’s body language. If they dislike what you are saying they may use negative body language. Such as crossing their arms or avoiding eye contact. If they like what they are hearing they may smile more and keep eye contact.
2. Talking vs. listening
Is it hard to get the customer to speak? If you are doing most of the talking that is a bad sign. A customer that doesn’t share information is definitely not good. Plus if you are talking too much that will likely bore the customer!
It’s also important to consider the caliber of the answers you received and the questions that were asked.One-word answers are bad. Detailed and lengthy responses show interest and a belief that this meeting is worthwhile.
3. Next steps
Another important way to gauge the success of a sales call is by examining how decisions on next steps get made. Also, the level of detail provided can also serve as a clear indicator of how effective the call was.
A customer that is not interested will rush through not making any commitments to take the next step.
Bringing it all together…
Want to get better at knowing whether you just had a great sales call or bombed? You need to get better at reading body language. As well as gauge how much talking your customer does. Finally, pay attention to how detailed and committed they are to next steps. Once you do this you can become more accurate in measuring the results of your sales calls.
