Let’s take a quick trip back to school.

Remember that time you scored badly in a test?

Maybe your teacher asked you to take the test again, and happy to get a second shot at this, you agreed. You took the test again but scored more or less the same. 

Why? Well, here’s what you didn’t do:

• Review your answers in the first test to see where you went wrong.
• Get feedback from your teacher and ask for ways to improve.
• Fix the fundamental gaps in your understanding.

If you draw the narrative of a sales call parallel to this school-time throwback story, you’ll find they have a lot in common. If you don’t come back to analyze your sales calls, how would you know what measures to take to improve your next call? You take multiple calls; your clients say different things on each call; they raise different objections, ask different questions, respond in many ways; some only have a few minutes, while others want to spend hours in discussion. 

Now, you might not be able to tackle all of those sales objections, answer your prospects’ questions, and keep your prospects engaged while on call - resulting in another lost lead. But to ensure that your next sales call goes better, you need to analyze these scenarios by referring to your sales call recordings. You need feedback from your sales manager, or sales training and coaching to develop better sales skills. 

So, analyze your test paper (pre-recorded sales calls), ask your teacher for feedback (one on one with your sales manager), and do better the next time (get out in the field again).

By analyzing your sales conversations with a sales call coaching software (like Wingman),

• You will know where you are lacking, what sales skills you need to work on, and if you need sales training or sales coaching.
• You will be able to understand your prospect’s mindset - and learn how to establish product-prospect fit and pre-empt their objections

Data sources for sales call analytics: 

What isn’t measured isn’t managed. 

Enter sales intelligence. 

A sales intelligence tool analyzes your sales data based on the data you provide it, which should include: your sales call recordings, your CRM, integrated communication channels, and cloud platforms you need to integrate.

A sales call coaching software leverages your sales data and conversational intelligence to deliver actionable insights and metrics. By tracking these sales metrics, you can:

• Land more qualified leads and enhance your customer experience
• Track your progress towards your goals, and course-correct when needed
• Forecast future sales to inform many critical decisions and sales initiatives
• Train, coach, and reward your high, medium, and low-performing reps in your sales team 

Key elements to monitor when analyzing your sales call

Call duration: The longer the calls, the higher the win rate 

Consider the scenario of this sales call:

Mark: “Hi, this is Mark from Network Links. Is this a good time to talk?”

Julie: “No, I am in a meeting right now.”

Mark: “Oh, okay, no worries, could you tell me what time suits you?”

Julie: “I will call you back once I am free.”

Mark: “Sure, Julie. Talk to you soon!”

(Call duration: 15 seconds)

And now, give this script a good read:

Mark: “Hey Julie, I am Mark speaking from Network Links, and I think that you’re looking to buy a company-wide networking solution. We offer a vast product portfolio of robust network solutions. Did I catch you at a good time?”

Julie: “Hi, yes, we are looking for a networking solution, but can I call you later?”

Mark: “Oh, that’s perfectly fine, Julie. I just wanted to tell you that x of your key competitors use our products and have driven an ROI of yy%. We also recently won the G2 award for xxx. This will just take a couple of minutes, and I could help you decide what solution would best fit your business.”

Julie: “Umm, okay, go ahead.”

Mark: “That’s great, Julie. Could you please let me know what you are exactly looking for?”

Julie: “Sure, so we are looking to…..”

(Call duration: 40 seconds and counting..)

A long call means a more value-driven conversation with the prospect. It clearly states that the sales rep was able to engage the lead with their sales skills; it involves sales objections and questions from the prospect - which is a good sign for a fruitful sales call. 

So, when analyzing your sales conversations using sales call reporting, you should track this metric to recognize:

• The sales reps that are performing well in keeping the prospect on-call, building rapport, and bringing out the value proposition of the product
• The sales reps that get their calls hung up in just a few seconds. This can bring the need to be trained and coached for improving their sales skills to increase their sales call duration.

Talk / listen ratio: Let the lead speak

Back here with another sales call script to let you judge for yourself.

Where the sales rep talks more:

Mark: “I have gone through the essential features. Would you like to know more about our product?”

Julie: “Umm, I think I’m good for now.”

Mark: “Okay, I’ll just add that our product would be a great addition to your business software stack. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.”

Julie: “Nothing, for now, Mark. I’ll get back to you. Thanks, bye!”

(Talk / listen ratio: 75:25)

Where the lead does all the talking:

Mark: “So what’s your biggest pain point in following up leads?.”

Julie: “Hmm. Basically I want to fire a follow-up email to leads who have seen my first sales email and yet haven’t replied. Is there an option to automate that follow-up?”

Mark: “Absolutely. This is possible through our email automation system integrated into our platform. Is there anything specific you want from this feature? ”

Julie: “Okay, and can I schedule multiple emails at the same time? For example, right now, I cannot keep track of who has opened my email and who hasn’t, let alone respond to all my leads in time. So, can I automate and schedule all the emails, such as one email for all those who have booked their seat in an event through our first mail, and the other one to those who haven’t responded?”

(Talk / listen ratio: 25:75)

In the first scenario, the lead is not very interested in the product, and the sales rep is talking for 75% of the time. Even so, the call doesn’t end on a positive note. And we all know what an “I’ll get back to you” from a lead means (sigh!).

In the second scenario, however, the talk / listen ratio of 25:75 gives us great insights into how productive the call went. Julie is quite interested in the product, and Mark is speaking just enough and stopping whenever he feels that Julie has more to say. For a good talk / listen ratio:

• Start with a brief introduction and establish your reputed place in the market.
• Bring out your value proposition while building rapport and engaging with your lead.
• Take pauses when needed, speak less and be on-point.
• Let your lead lead your sales call.

So, do track this important sales metric while going through actionable sales insights using your sales call coaching software.

Competitor mentions: an opportunity to seize the day

Yeah, competitor mentions are good, actually! Because they give you the opportunity to establish credibility and can also inspire fear of missing out. This is how a good salesman would respond to a competitor mention:

Julie: “I already have a vendor.”

Mark: “Oh, that’s good to know. MarketingHub is a great company. Some of our customers have used their product, and they have found that our product makes marketing automation much easier. They were really surprised how our software could allow for location-based personalization. Does your current vendor provide that?”

See how Mark grabbed this opportunity to tell his lead more about their product’s value while inspiring a little bit of competitiveness. These competitor mentions are one of the most important sales elements to track through sales call reporting; this is why:

• You will know who your key competitors are and have battlecards ready to establish your unique value props.
• It gives you the required information to tweak your own solution plans and price structures, upgrade your product features, or improve your marketing and advertising strategies to get ahead of the competition.
• It guides your way through future sales calls as you can anticipate the competitor-related objection in advance now. 

Customer pain points: be your prospect’s therapist

According to a report by Salesforce, 85% of prospects and customers are dissatisfied with their on-the-phone experience. On the other hand, you’d be surprised to know that 75% of prospects are willing to make an appointment or attend an event based on a cold call alone. The overwhelming overlap of these two statistics hints that your prospects want to be heard, but the sales teams often fail to build rapport and establish value.

However, if you are a good salesperson, you’ll be able to lend a friendly ear to your prospects and identify their pain points as they open up to you. A customer sharing pain points is a green flag: they trust you enough to consider you can fix those problems. Use your sales intelligence tool to mine those opportunities! 

Objections raised: the more the merrier

Do objections terrify you? They shouldn’t. When your lead raises an objection as you are pitching to them, they actually want to know more about your product and give you the opportunity to prove its worth.

Your leads might raise objections like:

“I don’t have the budget.”

“I already have a vendor.”

“We’ll get back to you.”

“Your competitor is cheaper / better.”

“I need to talk to management.”

“I don’t really need your solution.”

“I’ve never heard of you.”

You can use smart sales objection handling scripts to tackle those and utilize this opportunity to close the deal! 

Remember, the more objections your prospects raise, the more insights you get into what bugs them and how you should establish your product value with a problem-solution approach.

To actualize these measures, you need your sales data and intelligence to come together and deliver actionable insights. This is where Wingman comes to your rescue. Our sales call coaching software is driven by sales intelligence to enable sales analytics for you. But we understand that you don’t need just a sales software, you need critical metrics and pivotal moments in your sales calls presented to you on a hot plate!

Here’s how Wingman analyzes your call transcript and automates sales call reporting to give you the metrics that matter:

With Wingman’s sales call reporting features, you can automatically track critical metrics such as talk / listen ratio, moments of hesitation, sales objections, call duration, and longest monologues - in real-time.

Let Wingman show you the right path to intelligent sales analytics. Now that you know what to look for when analyzing your sales calls, fire up your sales call coaching software to get the insights you need!