A call review form you can use tomorrow

A call review form is one page with four sections: how the call opened, what questions were asked, whether a next step was agreed, and how the salesperson sounded. Each line is scored 0, 1 or 2, and a line at the bottom holds the single thing to work on. The form below is ready to copy. The rest of the post explains how to use it without making your team nervous.

The form

Copy this into a sheet or print it. Fill it while the recording plays, one form per call.

Header: date, salesperson, buyer type (new enquiry, repeat, quote follow-up), length, reviewer

OPENING
 1. Reason for the call said in one sentence
    0 not said   1 said, but long or vague   2 clear
 2. Buyer's name and context used
    0 neither    1 one                       2 both

QUESTIONS
 3. Asked what the buyer wants to do, not only what to buy
    0 no         1 one question              2 two or more, and listened
 4. Found out who decides and by when
    0 neither    1 one                       2 both
 5. Price came after the need was clear
    0 price first  1 mixed                   2 need first

NEXT STEP
 6. Specific action agreed
    0 none       1 vague ("I will send")     2 specific, with a date
 7. Owner of the action named
    0 no         1 salesperson only          2 both sides

TONE
 8. Let the buyer finish
    0 often interrupted  1 once or twice     2 never
 9. Sounded like a person
    0 reading    1 partly                    2 natural

Bottom: the minute to replay. The one thing to try next call. Date to check.

Highest score: 18. Do not turn it into a percentage and do not rank people by it.

Why only three levels

A ten-point scale invites arguments about whether a call was a six or a seven. Three levels are easy to apply and easy to explain. A 0 is a miss, a 2 is a pass, a 1 is partly. Two reviewers are more likely to agree on three levels than on ten.

It keeps the form honest too. A call with a 2 on every line is possible but should not be expected, and that is fine. A pattern of 1s on "next step" is what you are looking for.

Using it so the team stays willing

Fairness decides whether the form helps or harms.

Choose the calls together: two picked by you, one picked by the salesperson, so they feel they have a say. Mix a good call, an ordinary one and a stalled one, because a form used only on disasters becomes a punishment.

Score the call, not the person. Write "buyer asked about delivery twice and it was not answered", not "careless". Show the form to the salesperson in private before any score travels. And review the form itself: if everyone fails the same line, the line is unclear or the process makes it impossible.

Leave some calls out. A wrong number, an abusive buyer and a support call mistaken for sales cannot be scored.

What a 1 looks like in practice

Most arguments over a form are arguments about the middle score, so settle it with examples. On line 6, "I will send you the details" is a 1, and "I will send the rate card to this number, and call you at eleven tomorrow" is a 2. On line 3, a caller who asks "what size order are you thinking of?" and then moves to price has earned a 1. A caller who follows the answer with "and what is it for?" has earned the 2. On line 9, a caller who reads the opening in a flat voice and then relaxes into an ordinary conversation is a 1, not a 0. Write one such example beside each line on your copy.

Reading six calls together

One filled form tells you about one call. Put six to eight side by side, with the lines down the page and the calls across, and the pattern appears: a row of 2s you can leave alone, a row of 0s and 1s you coach. Choose the calls from different days and at least two kinds of buyer, so that a bad afternoon does not pass for a habit. Total each row, not each column. A caller's column total says little, while a row that sums low across everyone points to the process, such as a missing step in the script, and not to a person.

A Kolhapur wholesaler and three telecallers

Imagine a Kolhapur wholesaler of handmade leather footwear, with three telecallers ringing retailers who asked for a catalogue. This case is invented to show the form at work. The owner reviews nine calls, three each, and finds all of them score 2 on opening and 0 or 1 on next step. Every call ends with "I will send the catalogue."

The owner's first plan is to read out the scores at Monday's meeting so people can see where they stand. One telecaller stops uploading recordings the following week.

The owner changes course, stops sharing scores in the group and meets each caller for ten minutes. They play the last minute of one call and ask what the caller could say instead of "I will send". All three choose some form of "I will send it on this number; may I call at four to ask what you thought?" Next-step scores improve for two callers in the following round, and the footwear retailers who had been promised a call back at four started picking up at four (two of the nine catalogue enquiries became orders in this invented case). The third still ends calls vaguely, and the owner keeps that caller's note on the same line for another round.

Scoring the first three calls together

Before you use the form alone, score three calls with a second person, each of you separately, then compare. Where you differ by more than a point, talk about why. A common cause is a line worded loosely: "specific, with a date" means a day and a time, not "soon". Write the meaning beside the line on your copy.

Do this once for each new reviewer. Scores that two people would agree on are the only kind a salesperson will trust, and the only kind worth comparing from one month to the next.

What the form cannot tell you

It does not measure the buyer's mood, the quality of the lead or the fit of the product. A perfect call to a buyer who cannot afford you still ends without an order. It cannot replace listening either. If you have the scores and have not heard the call, you have a number, not a reason.

Do not use it on calls in a language the reviewer does not follow well; have someone who does review them. And do not use it to decide who to dismiss. The moment it does that it is a disciplinary tool, and the team will treat it like one.

For choosing calls and holding the conversation, read how to audit a sales call.

Score three calls tonight

Choose three recorded calls from last week, fill a form for each, and see whether the same line falls short in all three. That line is your coaching topic, and one note on it is enough for a week. If you would rather have someone else read a set of recordings, sales call auditing does that as part of how you sell, and tell us what you need starts it.