What to keep in the manual report
- Enquiries handled: how many people the rep replied to or called today.
- Deals closed and the amount.
- Touches on stalled threads: how many they went back to.
- The longest thread with no reply as of end of day.
- One line: what got in the way.
What should collect itself
- first response time
- the number and length of calls
- how completely the required fields are filled in
- payment amounts, by the date money arrived
The rule is simple: anything the system can count on its own, the rep does not copy out. The manual report stays only where a human judgement is needed: what got in the way, and what deserves attention.
Why reports stop working
- nobody reads them, and reps notice that fast
- they duplicate what is already in the system
- they have fifteen fields
- no reaction to them ever comes back
How to make it work
- Cut it to four numbers and one line.
- Read it daily and respond, even with one line.
- Once a week, turn it into a trend: one day matters less than the direction.
- Take everything that collects automatically out of the manual report.
The one line that gives the most
«What got in the way» is the most informative field in the report. It shows you systemic problems: lead times production will not confirm, documents assembled by hand, prices nobody is allowed to quote.