What Is Pre-Call Planning?
Think of pre-call planning as a warm-up – it’s all about preparing yourself for what’s to come, and setting yourself up for success. Simply put, it involves taking the time to get ready before dialing the next number or hopping on a video call with a customer.
But why does it matter? Winging it very rarely works when it comes to closing a big deal or solving a complex problem. Not only does a little preparation boost your confidence by ensuring you have all the right information at hand, it shows the customer that you’re professional, have your act together, and know what you’re talking about. In fact, sales reps who prepare before calls experience a 20% boost in productivity.
Proper planning allows you to fully understand who you’re talking to, what their needs are, and what pain points they’re regularly experiencing. It enables you to define your goals from the get-go; what you want to achieve on the call, whether it’s closing a sale, solving a problem, or building a stronger customer relationship. And, it gives you time to think about every objection that could come up so you’re not caught off guard. When it’s done right, your calls can be much more productive, and a lot less nerve-wracking.
Why Is Pre-Call Planning Essential for Sales and Support Teams?
Being unprepared for sales or support calls is like trying to bake a cake without a recipe. Pre-call planning isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s the secret to continuously succeeding in your calls, whether you’re booking meetings, closing deals, or solving customer problems. Here’s why it’s important:
1. Improved efficiency
Planning before a call means you don’t waste time fumbling around for specific details or struggling to answer basic questions. Even the best agents can get the occasional brain freeze, but pre-call planning gives you a backup in those mind-blank moments. You can jump straight into the important stuff and keep the call focused and productive.
2. Better rapport building
Customers can tell when you’ve done your homework. Showing up prepared lets them know that you care about their time and you’ve come ready to help. It builds trust and security with your customers, who feel like you care about their needs beyond making a sale or hitting a quota. Plus, it sets a positive tone for the conversation from the very beginning.
3. Enhanced personalization
Nothing makes a customer happy like a tailored solution that meets their needs perfectly. Pre-call planning means you can customize your approach based on whoever you’re talking to, such as suggesting a product that you know aligns with their needs or pain points, or offering a solution that addresses their unique problem. Tailoring your approach is always more powerful than a generic pitch, as it speaks to their needs on a deeper level.
4. More confidence
Agents are only human, which means they can easily feel overwhelmed or anxious before a call, especially one that involves a big sale or a complex issue. Being fully prepared can help calm pre-call jitters – if you know what you’re doing, you don’t need to worry about what to say next, and can focus fully on the conversation.
5. Smoother conversations
The more prepared you are, the more naturally your conversations will flow. If you’re not ready for the call, you’ll end up pausing to look up information, or scouring through guidelines and documents to find accurate answers. Pre-call planning means you can focus on active listening, meaningful conversations, and engagement, making the call more enjoyable for both yourself and the customer.
Key Elements of Effective Pre-Call Planning
The better prepared you are for your calls, the smoother the journey will be. It doesn’t matter if it’s a sales pitch or a support session, having everything ready to go can make all the difference. Here are some key elements to making your next call a success:
Research your prospect or customer
First things first: know who you’re talking to. Not having a clear idea of the person on the other end of the phone can make things clumsy at best. To prevent any unwanted awkwardness, dig deep into the person’s details before reaching out, such as:
- Who they are: their role, responsibilities, goals, and pain points.
- Their business: their industry, challenges, competitors, and growth opportunities.
- Their history: past interactions, purchases, unresolved issues, or recurring problems.
Having a handle on certain data points makes it much easier to connect – plus, you’re showing them you care.
Set clear objectives for the call
Not knowing your goal before getting on a call is a recipe for disaster. Without a solid aim in mind, the call can easily go off course. Don’t let the customer leave the call wondering ‘what was the point in that?’ Instead, decide what you want to accomplish before dialing.
If it’s a sales call, are you aiming at booking a meeting, building rapport, generating leads, or booking a follow-up? For support, do you want to solve a problem, gather feedback, inform the customer about a new product, or promote a new feature? Your objective is your North Star – it keeps the conversation flowing while ensuring you’re on the right track to a positive outcome.
Prepare your questions
The best calls are two-way conversations, not monologues on either side. The call should be engaging and thoughtful, with open-ended questions that keep the conversation flowing. For example:
❌‘‘Do you need X feature?’’
✅’’How are you currently dealing with this issue?’’
Or:
❌’’Are you happy with this product?’’
✅’’What part is working well, and where can we improve?’’
Good questions create meaningful dialogue, allowing you to figure out exactly how the customer is experiencing your product and whether there are any gaps that you can fill.
Anticipate objections or challenges
Every interaction has its bumps in the road – whether the customer is skeptical about a new feature or annoyed about a previous experience, no call is perfect. Anticipating these issues is smart planning; it allows you to be prepared for whatever comes next, and overcome any hurdle that arises.
Preparation starts with listing the most common objections you tend to get: do they already have a current provider for this solution? Do they have certain budget constraints? Are they simply not looking for a solution right now? Know what they’re going to say before they say it to stay two steps ahead.
Then, think about how you reply. You should be able to give logical, empathetic, yet measured responses to their objections that not only make them think in a different way, but show how your product can fill a gap they don’t know they have. And most importantly – be ready to change your strategy if the conversation goes an unexpected way.
Organize your resources and materials
Nothing kills a call like fumbling around for a piece of information and interrupting the flow. Your resources should all be within arm’s reach, such as:
- Reference materials like product specs, case studies, or technical information.
- Customer info like previous interactions, purchase history, and account details.
- Specific tools like your CRM, a notepad, or anything else that helps you keep track of the call.
You’re getting the call set up properly to ensure it all goes smoothly, and cutting out the risk of scrambling for important information that could make or break your success.
Pre-Call Planning for Sales Teams: Best Practices
Pre-call planning for sales teams is all about setting yourself up to have a conversation that resonates with the prospect. When you understand fully what your prospect needs, and how you can deliver it, you’re not just selling them a product – you’re solving a problem with effective outbound outreach. Here are some best practices to get yourself ready for sales calls:
1. Understand the buyer’s journey
Every buyer’s journey is different; while one might be window-shopping, another might be ready to make a purchase. Knowing where they are in their buying process means you can meet them where they are, and convert them at the right time:
- Early stage: If they’re still looking around, try to focus on educating them and building a good relationship. Ask them what they’re hoping to achieve or what challenges they’re trying to solve, which helps build urgency and reminds them of why they started looking in the first place.
- Middle stage: Once they’ve started to compare their options, make sure to highlight how your solution measures up. Point out success stories, case studies, or share testimonials and demos to show the value of your offering against others.
- Final stage: When they’re close to a decision, address any lingering concerns they might have. Focus on making the transition as seamless as possible, and emphasize that you’re there for any questions they might have.
2. Customize your value proposition
No two prospects are the same – and your sales pitch should be no different. Your value proposition should be tailored to the individual needs of your prospect. You want to show them that you’ve done your research, and you’re not just selling them a product; you’re offering them a solution that fits their unique needs. Here’s how:
- Highlight their pain points: Your pitch should address their specific challenges while painting a picture of how your solution can solve them.
- Speak their language: Leverage their priorities in your pitch by using terminology that reflects their needs. For example, if growth is their main goal, frame your solution as easily scalable and flexible.
- Zero in on the main benefits: No one wants a laundry list of every product feature that isn’t relevant to what they need. Instead, focus on the ones that matter most to them and emphasize their potential value.
3. Utilize CRM tools for efficient planning
Your CRM is your partner in crime when it comes to successful sales. It keeps you organized and informed, and makes pre-call planning easier and less stressful. The right CRM tools are able to track any and all previous interactions from each prospect, allowing agents to review notes from past calls or emails. That way, they can have a full picture of the prospect’s needs and concerns over a given period of time, and pivot their pitch in line with what they’re looking for.
Plus, CRMs provide access to a rich pool of customer data: things like purchase history, consumer preferences, demographics, and buying trends can help you tailor your approach to what you know the prospect likes. And with built-in reminders and to-do lists, CRMs ensure that nothing slips through the cracks. It’s more than a time-saver – it’s a powerful tool that enables meaningful conversations. And when integrated with your call center software, can bring your customer experience to another level.
Pre-Call Planning for Customer Support Teams: Best Practices
Customer support can be a challenging role, and even more so without proper preparation. If you want to leave the customer happy, you need to make sure you’ve got everything you need to fix the issue from the beginning. And with a little bit of planning, support calls can become seamless problem-solving sessions, rather than hurdles to overcome. Let’s dive into some best practices to make that happen:
Review previous support tickets or issues
Before jumping straight on a call with a customer, take a few minutes to review their history. It’s the best way to understand the full context before getting into their issue. Here’s why it matters:
- Personalization: No one likes repeating themselves, and knowing the customer’s history shows that you’re paying attention to what they’ve already said in the past. You’re proving that you care about their time, which contributes to a healthy conversation.
- Efficiency: No need for rehashing the trial-and-error phase – you already know what’s been tried and tested, so you have a good understanding of what did and didn’t work.
- Trust building: When you show that you know what you’re talking about and have done your research, the customer will naturally trust you from the very start. It sets a positive tone for the interaction as they know you’re there to genuinely listen and help.
2. Have solutions and resources ready
Imagine this: a customer calls with an important problem, and you’re wasting time scrambling to find the right guide or technical information. Not a great look, right? Instead, have your solutions locked and loaded, ready to go before the call even starts. That way, you eliminate the possibility of awkward fumbling. Here’s how to prepare:
- Know the most common issues by heart – they’re the ones that come up the most, and having the solution ready to go enables customers to trust your expertise.
- Keep any relevant resources handy, like FAQs, troubleshooting guides, internal documents, or training manuals, to quickly reference if you need to.
- Be flexible with the issue you’re trying to solve – some of them are unique, so be ready to adapt at any moment while keeping your framework in mind.
3. Build empathy and trust
Mastering customer support is much more than just fixing problems. Customers need to feel heard and valued – and empathy goes a long way in doing just that. Pre-call planning gives you time to wind down and get into the right mindset before diving into solving a problem. Here’s why it’s important:
- Building emotional connections: Customers are much more likely to stay loyal to brands that genuinely care about their experience. If push comes to shove, they’ll choose the brand with superior customer service over another, so always put their needs first.
- Stay calm under pressure: Not every interaction is positive, and the rare few can even escalate to negative or hostile. If the customer gets frustrated, staying calm and collected is the best way to steer the interaction in a positive direction.
- Better outcomes: Constructive conversation leads to smoother resolutions and better overall experiences, which comes directly from a high level of empathy and understanding.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Pre-Call Planning
Even going in with the best intentions, the best agents can sometimes make mistakes during calls. Whether sales or support, pre-call planning can still go sideways if you’re not careful. Here are some common pitfalls to avoid so your calls can stay smooth:
1. Being underprepared
Skipping preparation is like showing up to an exam without studying – you’re setting yourself up for failure. Without a set of guidelines or a solid idea of your intentions for each call, you’ll end up stumbling and won’t get the full value out of the interaction. Instead, take your time and gather both your thoughts and materials, review any notes you may need, and plan your approach sufficiently – it’ll pay off in the long run.
2. Inadequate research
If you don’t know who you’re talking to, you could end up sounding generic or irrelevant to the person on the other end of the phone. Whether sales or support, knowing who the customer or prospect is helps you connect on a deeper level. Personalization is a powerful tool as it shows the client or prospect that you’ve done your homework and care about their needs, rather than simply hitting a quota.
3. Unclear objectives
Not having a clear goal for each call can have you running around in circles mid-conversation. You need to know where you want to take each interaction; have it mapped out in your head, or on a piece of paper, before even starting the call. Always define what you want to achieve before getting started, and that will guide the interaction in the right direction.
4. Information overload
While research is key, there’s a fine line between being prepared and overloading yourself with irrelevant information. Drowning yourself in data on the customer or their company will only confuse you and steer the conversation down an unhelpful road. Focus on the essentials, what’s most important, to really move the needle during your call.
5. Past interaction oversight
Remember to check for any past interactions with this particular customer or prospect. If you forget prior conversations or overlook past interactions between them and other agents, you risk looking disorganized and uninterested. It can make the client mistrust your abilities and business, and lead to frustration. All it takes is a quick review of their history before any call and you’re good to go.
Tools and Resources to Enhance Pre-Call Planning
- CRM platforms like Salesforce, HubsSpot, or Zoho to track customer interactions, manage data, and consolidate customer information.
- Scheduling tools like Calendly or Microsoft Outlook to manage your time and avoid double bookings.
- Customer data analytics platforms like Google Analytics provide insights into customer behavior and trends.
- Collaboration software like Slack or Microsoft Teams to quickly and easily share resources and communicate effectively with team members.
- Note-taking apps like OneNote or Evernote to help you organize your thoughts and keep key points at your disposal.
Mastering Pre-Call Planning for Better Results
Pre-call planning is the secret sauce that turns any old call into a productive, two-way conversation that leaves customers and prospects feeling confident and happy with their experiences. By avoiding common mistakes, using the right tools, and focusing on the most important aspects, you can set yourself and the customer up for success.
Every call is an opportunity to build strong relationships and connect on a deeper level with prospects and customers. And with the right approach and thoughtful planning, every conversation you have can be a potential win.
So don’t just wing it – plan it, own it, and make every call count.
