Skip to content

Lesson 5.3: The written recap

About 15 minutes

Learning objective

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to write a clear, courteous written recap after a partner call that records what was agreed without overstating it.

In many U.S. firms, a recap is optional. People trust their notes and memory, and a call is assumed to speak for itself. With international partners, that assumption fails quietly. Two people can leave the same call with different understandings, and neither notices until a shipment, invoice or deadline goes wrong.

A written recap is one of the most useful habits in cross-border business. In Nigeria and across West Africa, it serves several purposes at once.

  • It catches misunderstandings while they are still small.

  • It turns indirect signals into clear statements both sides can check.

  • It gives your contact something to forward to senior people who were not on the call.

  • It creates a record for orders, payments and contracts.

Why it matters

Sending a written recap after every important call is one of the cheapest forms of insurance in export. It costs ten minutes and can prevent months of confusion.

What a good recap contains

  1. Greeting and thanks, using titles: "Dear Engr. Okafor, thank you for your time today."

  2. Date and attendees, with titles, so the record is complete.

  3. What we discussed: short, numbered points in plain English.

  4. What we agreed: only what was clearly agreed.

  5. Open items: things one side will consider or check.

  6. Next steps: who will do what, and by when. Write dates with the month in words and give times in West Africa Time as well as U.S. time.

  7. An invitation to correct: "Please let me know if I have missed or misunderstood anything."

Do not turn "we will see" into "agreed"

The most common recap mistake is recording a polite non-answer as a commitment. If your partner said "No problem, we will see about the price," the honest recap is "You will review the pricing with your team," not "You agreed to the pricing." Overstating agreement can feel like pressure or even a trap. It can also cause your partner to lose face if they must correct you in front of their boss.

Say it this way

"Open item: you will review our pricing with your management. We would welcome any questions, and we are happy to suggest options if that would help."

Tone matters

Legal-sounding phrases such as "Per our conversation, you agreed to..." or "As confirmed, you are obligated to..." can read as cold or distrustful. Keep the recap warm. Thank people for specific contributions. Write "we discussed" and "we agreed" rather than "you said" and "you promised."

Watch out

A recap is not a contract. Contract changes need a proper document and a cover note, and legal questions need qualified counsel. Use the "Summarizing a contract change" and "Cover note for a contract" templates for those situations.

Timing and channel

Send the recap the same day, or the next business day at the latest. Use email so it can be filed and forwarded. Then send a short WhatsApp message so it is seen: "Good evening, sir. I have emailed a short summary of today's call. Thank you again for your time." Ask your contact before copying senior people they did not include.

When the partner corrects you

If your partner replies with a correction, thank them. A correction is a success: the recap did its job. Update your record, reply to confirm the change, and adjust the next steps.

When there is no reply

Silence after a recap is not agreement, and it is not necessarily disagreement. Mention the main points briefly on your next call: "I sent a short summary after our last call. Did it match your understanding?"

The transferable principle

In any market, write down what was agreed, in plain words, the same day. Record only real agreement, invite correction, and keep the tone warm. The recap protects the relationship as much as the deal.

Good practice

Start from the "Written recap after a call" template in the Template Library, and save your own version with the attendees and next-steps sections you built in Lessons 5.1 and 5.2.

Worked example: A recap after a pricing call where the partner said, "No problem, we will see about the price."

Before

Per our call, you agreed to our pricing. Please send the PO by EOD

Friday so we can lock in the schedule.

After

Subject: Summary of our call on 12 March 2027

Dear Mrs. Eze,

Thank you for your time today, and please thank Mr. Bello for his helpful questions on the specification. For our records, here is what we discussed:

1\. Your team is satisfied with the technical specification.

2\. You will review our pricing with your management.

3\. We will send two delivery options by Monday, 16 March.

Next steps: we will send the delivery options on Monday. We would welcome a short call later that week, at a time that suits you.

Please let me know if I have missed or misunderstood anything.

Best regards,

Dana Price

Why it works: it records only real agreement, lists the pricing as an open item, avoids jargon such as "EOD," writes dates with the month in words and invites correction.

Check yourself

  1. 1. On a call, your partner said, "We will look into the payment terms." How should your recap record this?
  2. 2. When should you send the written recap?
  3. 3. Your partner replies to your recap with a correction. What does this mean?

Apply it

Complete the module task. Write a recap template for your next partner call, combining the header line from Lesson 5.1 and the attendees section from Lesson 5.2 with these sections: what we discussed, what we agreed, open items, next steps (owner and date) and an invitation to correct. Save it where your whole team can use it.

From DealDialect (dealdialect.com) by Ayomide Adeyeye, licensed CC BY 4.0.