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Ever wondered how your sales team really performs during those crucial client calls? Increasing your teams performance and closing more deals is probably at the front of your mind. But here’s a thought: Are you recording and reviewing your sales calls? It might seem intrusive or time-consuming, but trust us, this has the potential to completely change the game for your team.
Why Should You Record Your Calls
Would you say that coaching and training your team as a sales leader will make a difference in your team’s success?
You probably answered with a resounding yes.
Well, imagine having a crystal ball that lets you peer into the real-time challenges and triumphs your team experiences daily. Imagine being able to hear exactly what they say, how they say it, and when they say it.
Surely, if you could hear these things, you could probably offer insights that would help your sales reps improve their communication tactics.
But recording calls isn’t about scrutinising mistakes or policing your team. It’s about stepping into their shoes, understanding the dance of dialogue they engage in with every prospect.
Here’s why you should record and listen to sales calls:
- Unearthing Patterns: Patterns emerge when you listen to multiple calls. You start to see common objections, successful rebuttals, and missed opportunities. This knowledge is gold in refining your sales approach
- Personalised Coaching: Coaching becomes meaningful when it’s based on actual interactions. With recorded calls, your feedback is no longer hypothetical. It’s grounded in reality, tailored to each team member’s specific needs and strengths
- Enhancing Emotional Intelligence: Sales is not just about the right pitch; it’s about emotional connection. By listening to calls, you learn not just what your team is saying, but how they’re saying it. This insight is crucial in developing a team that’s not just heard, but also felt. On top of this, if you get your sales team to listen back to their own calls, they’ll probably be able to pick up on these nuances themselves and improve naturally
- Bridging the Gap Between Training and Practice: There’s often a chasm between what’s taught in training sessions and what happens in the field. Recorded calls help bridge this gap, turning theory into practical, actionable insight
Remember, the goal here is not to nitpick but to nurture.
It’s about building a culture where every call is a step towards mastery, where feedback is not a critique but a pathway to excellence.
As you embark on this journey, you’ll find that the true value of recording calls lies not in the calls themselves, but in the transformative journey they ignite.
- Unearthing Patterns: Patterns emerge when you listen to multiple calls. You start to see common objections, successful rebuttals, and missed opportunities. This knowledge is gold in refining your sales approach
- Personalised Coaching: Coaching becomes meaningful when it’s based on actual interactions. With recorded calls, your feedback is no longer hypothetical. It’s grounded in reality, tailored to each team member’s specific needs and strengths
- Enhancing Emotional Intelligence: Sales is not just about the right pitch; it’s about emotional connection. By listening to calls, you learn not just what your team is saying, but how they’re saying it. This insight is crucial in developing a team that’s not just heard, but also felt. On top of this, if you get your sales team to listen back to their own calls, they’ll probably be able to pick up on these nuances themselves and improve naturally
- Bridging the Gap Between Training and Practice: There’s often a chasm between what’s taught in training sessions and what happens in the field. Recorded calls help bridge this gap, turning theory into practical, actionable insight
Remember, the goal here is not to nitpick but to nurture.
It’s about building a culture where every call is a step towards mastery, where feedback is not a critique but a pathway to excellence.
“But We Do Our Sales On Site, So We Can’t Record Calls”
If you do your sales meetings on site, or in public places, like at a cafe or restaurant for example, you might say that you can’t record calls.
But, even in these scenarios, you can capture your sales call. For example, you could ask your prospect if it’s okay to record the conversation with your phone, and you could use the voice recorder app that every phone comes with to do this.
Here’s what you might say: “Do you mind if I record the conversation for note taking purposes?”
Every now and then you might get the person who says “No I don’t want to be recorded”, but the majority of the time, people aren’t going to have a problem with it.
So, even if you’re on site, you can record your sales meetings, and you absolutely should.
How to Coach Your Team?
Coaching your sales team effectively requires a keen ear and a strategy focused on genuine connection rather than just ticking off a checklist.
You probably have a checklist of things you want your sales person to do on a call. For example, it might include asking particular questions, qualifying the prospect, and following a specific script.
But when you listen to your sales reps calls, you shouldn’t focus on this checklist. Don’t listen to the call with the intent to tick everything off this checklist.
Instead, focus on whether the sales rep made a genuine connection with the prospect, and listen for the nuances in communication between the prospect and the sales rep. This approach will help you far more.
You’ll also want to watch out for what worked and what didn’t work in the call. Here’s some markers to look out for:
- What Worked:
- Interactions: Analyse how they engaged with the prospect. Were they attuned and connected?
- Setting Call Terms: Did they clearly outline the call’s agenda and allow room for off-agenda topics?
- Active Listening: Were they fully present, absorbing the details shared by the prospect?
- Using Names: This adds a personal touch. Did they use the prospect’s name or the names of others in the call?
- Identifying Participants: Did they take a moment to identify everyone present during the call?
- What Didn’t Work:
- Talking Ratio: A good rule of thumb is a 70/30% split. Ideally, the customer should do most of the talking.
- Distractions: Were they constantly checking their phone, looking away, or seeming disengaged?
- Note-Taking Disclaimer: If they took notes, did they inform the prospect, so it wasn’t perceived as a lack of attention?
- Direct Responses: Did they directly answer questions? Or did they dodge them with generic or pre-prepared answers?
- Authenticity: Were they genuine in their responses, or did they come off as scripted or insincere?
- Concluding Steps: It’s essential to end with clarity. Did they set and agree on the next steps? Did they clarify the subsequent stages of the sales process?
By focusing on these areas, you can guide your team to not just meet sales targets but to excel in creating meaningful customer relationships. This approach will ultimately lead to more successful outcomes and a stronger sales team.
🔎 Read: How to Provide Feedback on Sales Calls & Appointments
Best Sales Tools for Recording
Here’s some of the best sales recording tools you might want to consider:
- DialPad: Not only does Dialpad record calls and transcribe them in real time, you can also search your transcripts to find specific points of interest. This way, you don’t have to listen to hours of recordings to find that one little thing. Apart from this, DialPad also offers other call features for your sales team, making it an all in one sales calling tool
- Call IQ by Klenty: This tool not only records sales calls across various platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and MS Teams but also centralises them for easy access. It allows you to provide feedback directly on the recordings and surfaces action items from each call. Furthermore, it offers insights into caller sentiments and talk-listen ratios, integrating seamlessly with popular CRMs like Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, Salesforce, and Hubspot
- HubSpot Call Recording: The HubSpot Conversation Intelligence tool uses AI to automatically record, transcribe, and analyse your sales calls. Since this tool is integrated with the HubSpot CRM, all of your call data will automatically be added to the associated contact records for you. This means all of your data will be centrally stored and easily accessible to your sales team. It also means you can report on-call keyword data tied to deal data or initiate workflows based on call keyword data
Ultimately, the tool you choose will depend on your specific business.
Why Your Marketing Team Should Listen to Sales Calls
More now than ever before, buyers do the majority of their research before they jump on a call with a sales person. And where do you think they get their information from?
That’s right, Google.
If your team isn’t writing and publishing articles that answer buyer questions every week, then buyers are going to be learning from competitors when doing their research. And ultimately, if you want the sale, you should want your buyers to learn from you.
Your marketing team, not your sales team, should be writing these articles. The problem is that your marketing team isn’t on the frontline with real prospects, so they likely don’t know what real questions buyers are asking every day.
As such, it’s the sales team’s job to educate the marketing team on what questions they’re being asked in sales calls, so that marketing can produce content that supports sales.
The best way to do this is through a content brainstorming session, where marketing and sales work together to brainstorm content ideas based on prospect queries.
🔎 Read: How to Run an Effective Content Brainstorming Session
But what if marketing could listen directly to those sales calls?
If marketing could listen in to the calls sales reps were having, it allows marketers to understand buyers without having to speak to sales.
We’re not saying your marketing and sales teams shouldn’t talk, because they most definitely should. We’re just saying that you can probably save time on brainstorming sessions by doing this.
That’s why, if you record sales calls, think beyond just getting your sales reps to listen back to the calls. If you involve marketing, you’re saving time and ultimately helping your sales reps in the long term. Your marketing team will better understand your sales team’s needs, and therefore be in a better position to help your sales reps with content that answers buyer questions and moves prospects down the buyer journey.
But Why Now?
Embracing the practice of sharing sales calls with your team is a necessity in today’s competitive business landscape, not just a forward-thinking strategy. The business world is rapidly evolving, and by delaying the integration of sales call insights into your team’s strategy, you risk falling behind competitors.
Every sales call you record and analyse is an opportunity for immediate improvement. Whether refining your sales pitch, understanding customer pain points better, or developing more targeted marketing content, the insights gained can have immediate benefits. Implementing this practice fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement within your team. It encourages openness to feedback, a deeper understanding of customer needs, and a collaborative spirit between sales and marketing teams.
By understanding the real conversations happening between sales reps and prospects, you can tailor your products, services, and messaging to better meet customer expectations, enhancing the overall customer experience. In an era where data is king, using actual sales call data to drive decisions ensures that your strategies are grounded in reality, not assumptions. This leads to more effective sales tactics and marketing strategies.
Now is the time to start recording your calls and listening back to them. The sooner you start, the quicker you’ll see the benefits, and the better positioned you’ll be to adapt to the ever-changing business environment.
Want to improve your team’s close rates? Check out this article.
🔎 Read: Why Your Sales Strategy Isn’t Working & How to Close More Deals
