"Scratch Sheet" - a simple way to track daily sales tasks

One thing that has always helped me gain killer sales at all my sales jobs was the creation of a “scratch sheet”. Essentially it’s just a huge Word document (or a plain document using your word processor of choice) where you type ALL your daily notes as you work.

Seems simple - but it’s something few people remember to do. Imagine a day where you answer incoming sales calls, make outbound sales calls, and process customer service calls - but track all your discussions down as you type. One key benefit of this is that you gain the ability to “search” anything from your past discussions. You also gain the ability to “copy” and “paste” anything from a past discussion into a current discussion.

EXAMPLE 1:

RFQ / IN GUTTER INSTALL / MR BOB SMITH / SMITH CONSTRUCTION / SITE: 1234 CHERRYTREE LANE / WVAN / 604-123-4567 / bob@smithconstruction.ca

OK - given the example above - you installed gutters for Bob Smith - at one of his sites - a year ago. Fast forward to 2021 - and one of the homeowners calls in - and asks your customer service staff about putting in a warranty claim. No worries - if your “scratch sheet” was in place - all you’d have to do is ask the caller what is their home address - do a “search” and you’d see that it was a Smith Construction job. Then a simple search in your accounting software - and you could find the original invoice - and all the relevant installation paperwork. All of a sudden you are handling customer service queries at the speed of light.

EXAMPLE 2:

A potential new client calls in asking for a quote on power washing their house, doing inside & outside gutter clean, and window cleaning at their house.

RFQ / IN & GUT CL / POWER WASHING SIDING / IN & OUT WIN CL / MR SAM RUTHERFORD / 1234 CAULFEILD PL / WVAN / 604-926-1234 / sam@rutherford.ca

Wow - great! That’s potentially a $750 - $1000 job! Not yet - what if you did a search and noticed that particular client had called in before - in fact - what if that client had called in 4 times in the past 2 years - but never booked? This happened to me at a job. However, in that case I was able to search my “scratch sheet” and then I asked the caller why he hadn’t booked with us for 2 years - yet always called us for a quote. Turns out he had a regular company do the work for him - but was calling us to keep the other company “honest”. I was able to convert him easily by offering him a one time 15% discount - and a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

CONCLUSION:

I had to cut this article short . Eventually my examples would have chartered into NDA territory - but you probably get the message. Sales reps might consider tracking their daily notes onto one large searchable document that is available on their laptop, desktop computer, phone, and tablet .

In my case I used a Word document .