After wrapping up a tough sales call, you might have one of these two thoughts -
“Wow, I totally messed that up.”
Or
“That was easy! But I wonder if I could have done better?”
If you find yourself agreeing, welcome to the club!
Either way, a recording of that sales call could uncover your customer’s view and highlight what you could’ve said differently.
When a deal goes cold, sales teams often don’t have visibility into what went wrong—and sales reps are unable to explain why the deal didn’t work out. Which puts sales leaders in a tight spot when it comes to reviewing and improving their sales reps’ performance.
Oh, the dilemma!
It is critical to understand the “why” behind a customer’s decision—did the sales rep articulate the value of the solution well? Does the pitch match the customer’s pain points? Does the customer have another vendor with more competitive pricing?
Call recordings can unearth this “why” and help managers prepare their reps better for the next call.
If you have read so far, you might be thinking - “Is it even worth the hassle to record, store, manage and mine these calls?”
Well, what if we promise that you can record, transcribe and analyze every sales call without lifting a finger?
Now that we’ve piqued your interest, let’s get going.
Why record sales calls?
As a sales manager, you can unlock robust, accurate customer insights and critical data by recording sales calls. It gives you the superpower to learn so much more from customer conversations.
You can use recorded calls for effective sales coaching. The conversation intelligence you get from these calls gives you a front-seat view of the customer’s buying journey, helping you personalize and tailor the sales process based on historical customer data. It enables you to coach reps and optimizes and fine-tunes your sales enablement programs to close deals and increase revenues.
Why many sales teams don’t record sales calls
One common question we get is, “Wait, can we even record sales calls? Is that even legal?” Telephone recording laws vary based on where you live. Your safest bet is to let customers know that their “call is being recorded for monitoring and training purposes.”
Sounds familiar? Being upfront about the recording keeps everyone on the same page, and you should be in the clear.
Here are the best ways to use your phone call recordings for sales enablement:
#1: Leverage customer pain points to close deals & win customer loyalty
Understanding your customer’s pain points is elementary, Watson. Knowing what your customers are struggling with is your golden ticket to close the sale.
Knowing the root cause of their challenges can help you formulate a pitch that truly brings out your solution for them and win their trust. When your product pitch solves customer pain points, you’ve hit the jackpot of selling. You no longer have to persuade the customer to buy. Instead, they are ready to do business with you and stick to your brand for a long time.
Your sales conversation recordings help you find out:
- What do customers like about your product/service?
- What are their pain points?
- What are the issues they are facing with a competitor’s product or service? And how can your product help the customer overcome this issue?
- What is working? What needs to be changed?
Collecting this crucial information makes all the difference between a lost sales opportunity and a high-five on a deal well closed.
#2: Spot sales reps’ weaknesses & coach them effectively
Coaching is taking people from where they are today to where they need to be.
Being a good coach is not just about sending positive vibes to your team members. It’s more about active listening. Or just reminding your team, “Hey, let’s listen to how X handled the tough sales call and closed the deal like a boss.”
Sales call recording software gives you accurate insights into how your team handles customer calls. You can quickly identify what you’re doing right and what needs to be changed. Using this data, you can train your sales reps to help them step up their game and refine their outbound call messaging. By analyzing your team’s call recordings, you can:
- Follow up with your sales team to give precise feedback instead of just repeating generic information. Reference the most effective and not-so-effective parts of the call to help them tailor their pitch accordingly.
- Help your salesforce analyze their calls independently and guide them to an improved approach. For example, they can identify gaps in their pitch and the script provided to them, tweak their responses based on the customer’s outlook, and so on.
- Provide personalized sales training for each rep using their calls as an example.
- Give specific examples of how to handle tricky scenarios and difficult sales calls.
Recording calls empower reps to learn independently from their mistakes as well as the mistakes of others. It provides them with accurate insights that help improve their on-call messaging and win rate. They are likely to take more ownership and strive for positive outcomes, ensuring a higher top line.
#3: Never miss a detail
“It’s the little details that make big things happen.”
When attending a sales call, it feels like multiple tabs are open in your head. It’s a lot of pressure—you’re expected to ask the relevant questions, identify the customer’s concerns, explain the benefits of the product - all without taking too much time or upsetting the prospect. Phew, that’s a tall ask.
Chances are, you may miss out on crucial details that help you close the deal. When you have a recorded call, you can go over the conversation, highlight the missed details and curate the next steps to onboard the client right on your screen. With a call recording, you can:
- Avoid the embarrassment of asking the customer to repeat information they have already shared on the call.
- Replay not just the words, but the tone of voice of the customer as well, which tell their own story.
- Share the call with colleagues and top performers for their feedback.
#4: Get authentic customer stories
Nothing sticks in a customer’s mind like a great testimonial from another satisfied customer. It’s the ultimate seal of trust.
Gone are the days when businesses could get away with ghostwritten customer testimonials. Tech-savvy customers can sniff a fake review from a mile away. And, if they suspect fake reviews, they can always take to social media to air their suspicions.
Sales call recording software provides authentic, honest, and genuine customer testimonials. When customers are happy with your service or product, you don’t have to go fishing for compliments; they will likely express their happy feelings on call. You can turn this positive feedback into success stories or customer testimonials.
By recording customer calls:
- You can focus on the specifics rather than weaving tall claims or exaggerating what the customer said.
- Your marketing team can analyze recorded calls, pick up the compliments and publish them on your site or social media pages after getting permission from the customer.
This is an excellent incentive for potential customers to experience your product. It also enables you to build brand authenticity and trust. Woohoo, two of the most valuable currencies in the business world.
#5: Resolve disputes amicably
No more he said, she said, or we all said, what?!
The age-old adage “The customer is always right” is not true. There may be conflicting statements between customers and salespeople arising out of pure miscommunication. For example, a rep may have offered a 20 percent discount on the first month's subscription, while the customer may have misunderstood it as a discount for the whole year!
You don’t have to choose sides when you have sales call recordings at your disposal. Use call recordings or transcriptions to understand the actual situation. You can play the recordings and verify the statements without offending the customer.
#6: Fine-tune your sales strategies consistently
We learn from reflecting on our experiences and mistakes. (John Dewey).
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Instead of doing the same thing over and over again, you can use sales call recordings to refine and optimize your team's performance and sales strategies consistently. It’s about being at the top of your game, not just for the season but forever.
With recorded phone calls of your sales conversations, you can:
- Identify the common problems and objections from customers
- Understand why your cold calls are not converting
- Decipher the reason for a longer sales cycle
- Identify the major sales hurdles
- Create a plan to overcome these hurdles in real-time
- Build new sales strategies and techniques to increase sales
The power is in the insights
To rephrase our friendly neighborhood web slinger, “With sales call recordings comes great insights, and with great insights come great sales.” Is that too many “greats” in a sentence? You get what we mean, though.
Listening to sales call recordings is more than replaying customer conversations. It’s a treasure trove of valuable and accurate insights that empower your sales team to do better. You’re providing them with the ammunition to fire from all cylinders and hit sales targets like a boss.
If you’ve read till here, how about learning more about Clari Copilot? Here’s what you can expect:
- Powered with cutting-edge automation, our sales call recording software provides you with best-in-class call recording and transcripts so that your team can learn from their mistakes and never repeat them.
- Our software integrates effortlessly with your existing tech stack from CRM to diallers, video tools, and more.
- With the power of conversation intelligence, apply advanced filters to unlock powerful insights from every sales call and accelerate your sales earnings.
- Automate sales call reporting and analyze call transcripts to get the right metrics that matter - no fluff, no fine print, no jargon to wade through. Easy to understand and to the point metrics.
- Our real-time sales coaching software is your trusted ally. It’s like you’ve got a personal sales guardian angel guiding you on every customer call.
Clari Copilot can enable you to transform your sales reps into rockstars of the sales world by offering them data-driven sales enablement insights every step of the way. Interested? Book a demo and see for yourself why our customers adore it.