“A region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing — no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light — can escape from it” (Wikipedia).
A black hole.
Too often, sales teams spend a significant chunk of their workday in a black hole of subjectivity.
The antidote?
Game tape.
Professional athletes review past performance to constantly improve their game.
What would happen if your reps used game tape?
How (uber-successful) sales teams use this “film” is the key. Here are five hacks to use sales call recordings to beat your personal best.
Sales Call Recording Tip #1: Listen to Gong calls
Having game tapes that nobody watches is kinda sorta altogether silly madness. It’s like recording your team’s hoops game only to let the tape (err … .mov file) gather virtual dust in a folder somewhere in the cloud.
The key: Listen to the game tape. Review the calls. You can do this sans Gong, but again, that seems silly (to us).
But, Jonathan, I don’t have enough time. I don’t know where to start. JC! How do I even know it’s working?
First, lean into the data — data that will inform and drive your coaching and decision-making. All the more important when you’re away from the sales floor and can’t shadow calls as they are happening.
Data is power.
And good data is shareworthy.
Top sales coaches extract the data stored in reps’ heads and share it with the rest of the team.
Even better: Create a call recording library of user-generated content of the “hall of fame” worthy content.
Second, don’t make the same mistake twice.
Recorded calls prevent sales teams from repeating the same mistake — like losing deals to the same objection.
Store call recordings in an easy-to-access library to help your team understand the tactics that work AND those that don’t.
Literally, every rep can listen to real-life examples and learn from the best-of-the-best sellers on your team.
But remember: It’s one thing to tell someone to do (or not do) something. It’s an entirely different ball game to have them learn it on their own through reviewing call recording clips.
Sales Call Recording Tip #2: Create the ultimate sales playlist
There is no reason to make up customer quotes. There is no need to have generic testimonials.
Those days are gone.
Sales call recording software provides real, authentic, best-in-class examples of the best customer conversations: actual calls.
And a platform like Gong means you can create sales training playlists — the ultimate playlist if you will — to get your team up to speed on best practices that are proven to work.
Next step: watch buyers’ objections evaporate on your team’s calls.
Also, new reps will ramp up faster and more efficiently. It means your average reps will level up thanks to stored team knowledge, proven talk tracks, and best practices (again, think sales call recording library).
And lastly, reps love it. That’s right, with sales call recordings your team will have total and complete visibility and transparency — all customer-facing interactions on web conferencing, VOIP, phone, in-person meetings and emails will be saved, indexed, and instantaneously searchable and sortable.
Sales Call Recording Tip #3: Glean needle-moving insights
Listening to the game tapes means you get more than just words and conversations.
The power is in the insights.
Which talk tracks are your top performers using (and which ones they aren’t)? Which competitors who are beating the pants off of you (if so, why)? Are customers reacting positively or negatively or are they indifferent to a new feature or messaging?
The conversations — and the insights in those conversations — is the key.
In addition to market insights, sales call recording software helps reps understand the best ways to handle objections.
Instead of reading from a script, the game tapes allow sales reps to hear how the objection is addressed — listen to the full conversation, understand the nuances to the question (and the answer) and turn an objection handling comment into their own.
Finally, game tape insights can be gleaned to get a handle on how well new sales methodologies and processes are being followed — a perfect opportunity for a coach to coach, helping a sales rep grow into an all-star.
Sales Call Recording Tip #4: Empower your team to self-coach
Sometimes the best coaches stop talking (or coaching) and get out of the way.
Or just a reminder “Hey, listen to how [insert top rep name here] handled that situation last week.”
Sales call recording software means that you, the coach, can share the appropriate game tape clip and let your best reps do the coaching.
If sales reps feel empowered to learn independently without a sales manager telling them what to do, they will have more ownership over the positive outcome.
True story: When a top performing rep at Gong first started using Gong, they immediately noticed ways to make their discovery questions better. Using Gong’s sales call recording, they quickly found their areas of improvement. They began tracking week-over-week progress (like self-tracking with a running app to improve your stats every week). And a little inspiration from seasoned reps on the team didn’t hurt either.
(If it can work for them, it can work for you)
Sales Call Recording Tip #5: Share the voice of the customer
If appropriately used, game tape can help provide actual, unfiltered customer reality.
No more guessing. No more assumptions. No more opinions.
Top-notch sales recording software enables everyone on the team to pass along customer feedback… feedback from real-life sales calls.
As a salesperson, we often think about how this information can help us close more deals.
However, the data and insights pulled from the voice of the customer can also help product. And support. And marketing. And product marketing. And…
You get the picture.
Sales Call Recording Bonus Tip: Improve peer coaching
Building on tip #4 (empower your team to self-coach), sales call recording software also means peers can help coach other peers.
Imagine this scenario: Your company just released a new product. You are struggling with how to best adopt the new messaging. You’ve tried it on a few future customers, but it feels awkward and over-rehearsed. In short, you are stuck.
You consider asking your manager, but she’s busy with end-of-month deal closing.
You decide to go to the game tape, the ultimate sales playlist (see tip #2). You click on your team’s sales call recording library and voila! It’s all there!
You begin listening to the top reps’ calls to understand how they are messaging the new… messaging. You then leave a comment in the call clip and tag that rep with a specific question.
Peers helping peers win.
Create your game tapes today
If you’ve read this far (or even just skimmed to the end — that’s cool, I do that sometimes too), you are likely thinking, “Great. But what does this look like for my team?”
Good news: It’s not rocket science (emphasis on the rocket). We’d argue that it is science, in a way.
Sales call recording platforms (like Gong) connect directly to your team’s online calendar. It then automagically joins and records all sales calls. Then, the call recorder analyzes the data using AI and machine learning to deliver team-specific insights.
Your game tapes include data and insights from your customers and your market.
You’ll see the unique blueprint to be more successful.