Sales analysis templates

Analytics is essential for all aspects of your business. Tracking important metrics lets you see what’s working well and what needs improvement.

Analytics is commonly used in areas such as email, social media, and website traffic. Sales calls are another area where collecting and analyzing data is crucial to success.

Sales call analytics, also known as sales call tracking, is the process of collecting data taken from company sales calls.

For many businesses, sales calls are a key method of obtaining leads and closing sales. Analyzing various elements of these calls provides you with actionable data that can help make the process more effective going forward.

Data can be extracted from sales calls using tools like customer relationship management (CRM) software. You can also track other interactions between sales representatives and prospects, such as emails and chats.

Here’s some of the data you can collect and analyze from sales calls:

• Call type: whether calls are inbound or outbound

• Call duration: the average length of calls

• Call quality: was the entire call clear? What percentage of calls were cut off or ended due to poor reception?

• Time and dates: track results relative to time, day of the week, or seasonal trends

• Response rate: what percentage of calls are answered? This is likely to vary depending on the time and day of the week

• Conversion rate: the percentage of calls that result in a sale

• Revenue: how much revenue do the calls generate?

The metrics you analyze will depend on your business model and the objective of sales calls. The answers to these and other questions can help you plan the optimal approach for sales calls.

To set up sales call analytics, you need to use a CRM or other call tracking system.

The advantage of a robust CRM is that you can integrate sales call tracking with other analytics. For example, you can analyze customer data such as demographics, occupations, and how the sales rep obtained the contact’s phone number.

Call tracking systems and CRMs generally have the following features:

• Call logs: all information about every call is tracked, including the time, date, and duration. This includes missed calls, which allows sales reps to contact prospects later.

• Recording calls: both inbound and outbound calls are recorded so they can be analyzed later.

• Storing customer data: it’s helpful to know as much about prospects and customers as possible. Collecting user data helps businesses identify their prospects’ demographics and track the customer journey.

• Integrations: for most businesses, phone calls are only one of many touchpoints used to connect with customers. Sales call systems usually have many integrations, including Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, WordPress, Slack, HubSpot, Zapier, and many others.

• Generating reports: tracking software can compile all the data collected and generate useful reports.

Qualitative data that can be extracted from calls

Software can track metrics, but you’ll also need humans to analyze the calls to extract qualitative data. This may involve observing factors such as:

• How the prospect responds to certain questions or statements

• The sales rep’s overall demeanor, such as tone of voice, friendliness, professionalism, and level of expertise

• How clearly the seller was able to communicate the features of the product, service, or plan

• Did the prospect raise any objections during the call? How did the sales rep respond to these?

By analyzing these and other issues, you can identify the strengths and weaknesses displayed by sales agents on calls.  You can then use this information to develop more effective training.

Here are the top benefits of sales call tracking.

Helps you accomplish your goals

Sales call analytics gives you a better understanding of your prospects, whether the objective of the call is to make a sale, get someone to join an organization, or make a donation. By collecting data and listening to calls, you can see which approaches provide the best results.

Makes omnichannel attribution more efficient

Tracking the touchpoints where contacts and leads learn about a brand is a crucial aspect of modern marketing. Call analytics can be integrated with other analytics to help you identify which channels, such as ads, social media posts, and email, are most effective for generating qualified leads.

Helps increase revenue

The ultimate goal of any marketing strategy is to boost revenue. Analytics helps you identify challenges and obstacles.

For example, you might observe the objections that prospects typically make. The sales team can tweak its approach and test different methods to help sales agents convert more callers into customers.

Ivey Business Journal reports that sales analytics improves profitability by 29%. Tracking sales calls is a powerful tool to better understand customers and improve sales call techniques.

Create more effective training

Analytics makes it possible for you to create training that is directly relevant to your customers. You can compare the tactics of your top-performing team members with those who are less successful.

Training and coaching can be grounded in reports that identify the most effective strategies. Without data, sales reps can only be trained using theoretical models or what has worked in the past (even for other organizations).

Stay current with the latest marketing trends and consumer preferences

Markets can change rapidly as new products and features are introduced and customer preferences evolve. That’s why data needs to be collected regularly. If you rely on old data, your sales team may be using an outdated approach. You can use analytics to spot changing trends so that you can connect with your audience’s current needs.

Sales calls can be broken down and analyzed in many ways, but there are four elements that any successful sales call must have.

1. A goal. The goal may be to introduce the prospect to your company or sell a product.

2. Listening and understanding the prospect, identifying what they need.

3. Focusing on how your business, product, or service can help the prospect. It’s always better to talk about solutions rather than features.

4. Closing the sale or accomplishing your goal. In some cases, the salesperson may need to arrange a follow-up call or make an appointment for a meeting or presentation. Calls should never end on an inconclusive note. You always want to either close the sale or arrange another conversation.

You need to be thorough and consistent when tracking sales calls. A template can help you collect all the relevant KPIs, understand the data, and turn the data into actionable insights. Useful templates save you time and ensure that nothing is overlooked when tracking calls.

How do you use a sales call analysis template?

A sales call analysis template guides you to make sure the sales team is following the optimized process for communicating with prospects. It provides a checklist containing key customer information and the call’s objective. The template may include the contact’s name, company, role, industry, company size, location, and other information.

Sales call templates

Below are two sales call analysis templates you can use to gain valuable insights into the sales process.

Sales call analysis template

This template makes collecting and analyzing your company’s sales calls easy. Here are some of its features:

• A checklist for analyzing the call’s outcome, such as whether the contact picked up, how long the call lasted, and what the outcome was (i.e., whether or not there was a conversion)

• Tags such as goals, challenges, and product requirements that are relevant to each call

• An affinity map, which lets you group qualitative information about calls into categories

• Call insights, which you can use to compare different sales agents’ results and identify the most effective strategies

Video transcription template for sales calls

This template lets you transcribe and analyze sales calls to identify areas that need improvement. The user-friendly interface makes it easy to accurately transcribe audio and video calls to find relevant phrases and talking points used by sales reps.

Here are some of its features:

• Tagging projects by goals, challenges, and product requirements

• Affinity mapping, allowing you to categorize conversations based on positive or negative customer reactions or by using any relevant categories

• Sales insights—gather insights and group them by priority

The results you get from sales call analytics depend on what you monitor and what you do with the insights. Here are some of the most critical elements to look for.

Talking vs. listening ratio

Sales calls should be a two-way conversation between the sales rep and the prospect. If the seller is doing most of the talking, they are not paying enough attention to the contact’s responses and concerns. The caller should let the lead speak and ask questions.

Competitor mentions

A contact may bring up a competitor during a call. This could be a product they are currently using, have used in the past, or are considering using.

Tracking competitor mentions lets you see who your main competitors are and what is appealing or off-putting about them.

Take note of how often customers mention competitors. This helps you identify your strongest competition and develop ways to favorably compare your products with theirs.

Sales reps need to know how to handle these conversations. It’s an opportunity to show the advantages your company offers. At the same time, making derogatory statements about competitors doesn’t build trust or credibility. Taking a diplomatic approach and explaining the differences/benefits you offer is best.

Customer pain points

When conducting sales call analytics, a key issue is how well sales reps are able to detect and address pain points.

Salespeople need to be extremely alert to customers’ pain points. They are fundamental to the sales process, especially for business-to-business products where someone is trying to find a faster, easier, or cheaper way to accomplish something.

Sales agents must be adept at identifying the customer’s pain points and offering a solution. This is related to the principle of listening to the customer. If the salesperson does too much talking and hard selling, they may end up focusing on the wrong topics. When they listen and look for clues about the customer’s concerns, they can emphasize the products or features that address them.

Responding to objections

Customer objections are part of the sales process. Don’t fear or avoid them. In fact, successful salespeople have a “more the merrier” attitude about them. Objections give them a chance to display their knowledge, empathy, and communication skills to convert the prospect.

The specific objections that come up in a call will vary depending on the business or product. However, there are several guidelines that can help salespeople deal with them.

• Anticipate objections: experience and analyzing prior calls enables the salesperson to anticipate likely objections.

• Understand and empathize: before arguing or overcoming an objection, the salesperson should make it clear that they understand and empathize with the concern.

• Respond with relevant facts: the sales rep shouldn’t try to avoid or redirect the conversation. Instead, they should respond. For example, a common objection is related to cost. If the customer objects that your product is more expensive than a competitor, you might respond, “While we do cost a little more upfront, I can show how the benefits save you money in the long run.”

• Define your goals for each campaign.

• Use a CRM or call tracking software that meets your needs.

• Keep testing and using the insights gained from analytics to identify areas for improvement.

• Sales call templates can simplify the call tracking process and keep you on point.