For a long time I thought I knew how my calls went. I was on them, after all. Then I started listening back.
I record my seller calls and transcribe them on my own computer. This fall I went back through all of them from this year, every call, not just the ones I remembered. It was humbling.
What I heard
The first thing was how I end calls. In my head, I always closed with a clear next step. On the recordings, most of my calls ended with some version of “keep me posted.” Only about one in four ended with a real day and time the seller agreed to.
“Keep me posted” sounds polite. In practice it hands the next move to someone who has a hundred other things going on. Then I'm the one chasing, a week later, trying to restart a conversation that was warm when we hung up.
The second thing was timing. I was getting to price early, often before I really understood why the person wanted to sell. When you don't know the why, every conversation turns into a number, and numbers are where people dig in.
None of this was a secret. I'd been told some version of it before. Hearing it in my own voice, on call after call, is different.
What I changed
Now the last minute of every call has one job: “Here's what happens next. I'll do this, and I'll call you Thursday at four. Does that work?” Then I say the day and time back to them.
And before any number, I ask what changed. What made them pick up the phone this month and not last year.
I'm still building these habits. Some calls I nail it, some I catch myself saying “keep me posted” on the way out. The difference is I know now, because I can go back and check.
Why I'm telling you this
Reviewing calls by hand takes a long time, and most reps never get to do it, or never have someone who'll sit with them and listen. That's the problem we're working on next in the lab. It's not ready yet, and I'm new enough at building that I'd rather show you when it works on my own desk first.
Until then, if you record your calls, listen to three of them this week. Just the last minute. You'll hear it too.