Emails sent, meetings held—what changed in the project?

In sales meetings, it is easy to report emails, factory follow-ups and meetings. In my team training, I ask everyone to take one more step: what is now more certain than it was before?

A familiar reporting situation

The following is a worked example adapted from the training framework, not an update on an actual project.

Before: “I have been following up on the samples and meeting with the customer.”

After: “The sample appearance has been approved, but functional testing is still open. The project is therefore not ready for production. We need the test owner to confirm the method and completion date before we update the customer’s plan.”

The second version separates the confirmed result, the remaining gap and the next owner. It gives the team something they can act on.

The one-page CBA structure I use

C / Conclusion: Start with the change in status. What has been confirmed? What can—and cannot—be committed to?
B / Because: Explain the evidence and the difficulty. Refer to approvals, test findings and missing inputs.
A / Action: State the next step and the support required. Who should deliver what, by when, and what will it enable?

CBA is the reporting order used in this training. It does not determine whether an opportunity counts as revenue.

A reusable reporting sentence

We have confirmed …; … remains open, based on …. I have completed …. Next, we need … to provide … by … so that ….

“Following up” is not the same as “resolved.” If a customer has not approved the proposal, write “proposal sent, awaiting approval,” rather than “proposal completed.”

How I run the exercise

Each person selects one active project and writes a page covering the result, main difficulty, resolved issues, business value and support needed. They then explain it in about 90 seconds. The listeners ask: what changed, and can someone pick up the next action?

That small change in wording moves the meeting from discussing who is busiest to deciding which gap needs attention.

Adapted from sales team training. Project details are generalised; examples do not report actual project outcomes.