A sales call planning template that ends in a next step

This template is for account executives, SDRs, founders and account managers preparing a booked meeting: a first discovery call, a follow-up with new people in the room, or a meeting where you want a decision. A plan takes 15 to 30 minutes. The template above opens with a filled example for a commercial HVAC maintenance company meeting a facilities director. Read it first, then clear it and write your own.

How the template works

The template has ten boxes, in the order you'll think about the call.

• Your draft saves as you type, in this browser on this device only, so it's still there if you reload or come back later. Nothing you type is sent to Bebop. It holds one plan at a time, so copy each plan out before you start the next.
• Copy as text copies all ten boxes as plain text, each heading in capitals, with a dash for any empty box. Paste it into the opportunity in your CRM or into the meeting invite.
• Print prints only the plan: the headings and the full text of every box, without the hints or buttons. The worked example below fits on two letter-size pages.
• Clear empties every box and deletes your saved draft. Show the example puts the example back and also deletes your saved draft. Neither can be undone, so copy your plan first.

What to write in each box

Set a primary and a fallback objective

Neil Rackham's SPIN Selling separates calls that end in an advance from calls that end in a continuation. An advance is an event, in the call or after it, "that moves the sale forward towards a decision". A continuation is where "the sale will continue but where no specific action has been agreed upon by the customer". A call that ends with "let's talk again sometime" is a continuation, however warm it felt.

So write two objectives, and make both advances:

• Primary: the best commitment you can realistically get in this one meeting.
• Fallback: a smaller commitment you'd still count as progress if the primary is out of reach.

Both should be things the buyer does, with a date. "Learn about their needs" and "build rapport" are activities, not objectives.

Put both objectives in the "Goal of this call" box and both asks in "The ask and next step". Then decide in advance when you'll switch: if the answer to your key question rules out the primary, move to the fallback while there's still time left in the meeting.

Pre-call research checklist

Give a first meeting 15 to 30 minutes of research. For a follow-up, 10 minutes is usually enough, because you're only looking for what changed since the last call.

ACCOUNT (10 minutes)
[ ] Website: what they sell, to whom, where. Note their own words.
[ ] News page and press releases from the last 6 months
[ ] Careers page: roles they're hiring and what the ads say about problems and tools
[ ] Listed company? Latest annual report and recent filings
[ ] Public body or school? Board minutes, budgets and bid notices
[ ] Our CRM: past deals, emails, support tickets and who we've spoken to

PEOPLE (5 to 10 minutes)
[ ] Each attendee's role, time in role and anything they've said publicly about the problem
[ ] Who isn't on the invite but will be part of the decision

BEFORE YOU CLOSE THE TABS
[ ] Each fact has a source and a date
[ ] Anything you couldn't confirm is written as a hypothesis or a question
[ ] One reason this quarter matters to them (why now)

For listed US companies, SEC EDGAR's full-text search covers electronic filings back to 2001. For a fuller method, see the account research guide.

When you're preparing many meetings a week, Bebop researches each account and builds a playbook with the people to talk to, what's happening at the company, the angle to open with and the objections to expect, which covers most of these boxes. Check its facts as you'd check your own, then add your objectives and asks.

Worked example: a first meeting with a facilities director

Illustrative example. The companies, people and facts are fictional.

Crestline Mechanical (crestline.example) maintains commercial heating and cooling systems around Phoenix. One of its account executives has a 45-minute meeting on Wednesday 28 October with Alder Creek Properties, which owns nine suburban office buildings. Renee Castillo, the Director of Facilities, accepted after a cold email about the two older buildings Alder Creek bought in June, and she's bringing Marcus Hale, the chief engineer. Press Show the example in the template above to see the full plan.

What makes this plan good:

• Two objectives, both the buyer's commitments. The primary is a walkthrough with Marcus; the fallback is the equipment list, the contract end date and a booked follow-up.
• Facts and guesses are kept apart. "Bought two 1990s office buildings in June" has a source and a date. "The June buildings still run on the seller's contract" is labelled a guess, and the first question tests it.
• The why now is about their calendar: 2027 budgets are being set before the next cooling season.
• Every objection gets a question back, not a defense of the service.
• The proof is marked as a placeholder until the rep has a real, approved story with real numbers.

How the call went. Renee confirmed the seller's contract runs to 31 December, so the first hypothesis was right. Marcus wouldn't commit to a walkthrough before checking with the asset manager, so the primary was out of reach. The rep switched to the fallback: Marcus agreed to send the equipment list by Friday, and Renee booked 20 minutes on 12 November. Without a fallback written down, the call would probably have ended with "send us some information".

After the call: notes and follow-up

Write your notes within an hour, while you still remember the buyer's exact words. The template has no box for them, so copy the plan into your CRM and add the notes underneath.

Date and attendees:
Objective met: [primary / fallback / neither]
Next step agreed: [what, who, by when]   In their calendar? [y/n]

Their words for the problem (quote them):
Hypotheses (confirmed / wrong / still open):
New facts (source: said on the call):
New people to involve:
Objections raised, and how they landed:
Follow-up email sent at:
What I'd plan differently next time:

For Alder Creek, the notes read: fallback met. Their words: "every July we're chasing hot-call complaints at the old buildings". The first two hypotheses were confirmed (the second only for the June buildings), and the third was wrong: Marcus's team is stretched in summer, not all year. New person: the asset manager, who approves any contract over $50,000. The next plan starts from these notes, with the asset manager added to "Who's on the call".

Send the recap the same day. It confirms what was agreed and gives the buyer a chance to correct you before the next meeting.

Subject: [their words for the problem], next steps

Hi [first name],

Thanks for your time today. What I heard:
- [Their problem, in their words]
- [The date or constraint that matters, e.g. the current contract ends 31 December]

What we agreed:
- [Their action] by [date]
- [Your action] by [date]
- [Next meeting, day and time]: invite sent

If I've got any of that wrong, tell me and I'll fix it before we meet.

[Your name]

Common mistakes

• A goal that's an activity. "Give a demo" describes what you'll do, not what the buyer will agree to.
• No fallback. When the primary is out of reach, the call drifts into a continuation.
• Stale or unsourced facts. An expansion from two years ago, or a leader who has left, ends the conversation early.
• Twenty questions. You'll get through five or six. Put them in order of what matters most.
• Planning for one person. The person who booked the meeting often isn't the one who objects. Plan for everyone on the invite.
• Filing the plan and forgetting it. The notes from this call are the research for the next one.

Before you join the call

• You can say both objectives and both asks without looking.
• Every line in "What we know" has a source and a date.
• Each hypothesis has at least one question.
• You know what you'll do if the answer to your key question rules out the primary.
• The plan is copied into your CRM, or printed.

Next step: if your "What we know" box is thin, work through the account research guide before the call.