How to Use Call Recordings to Coach Reps to Success

One of the most rewarding aspects of managing an inside sales team is helping your reps to become more successful salespeople. Hiring sales reps is one of the most important investments that a company makes. And turnover is costly! In fact, a DePaul University’s Sales Effectiveness Survey found the average cost of turnover for a single sales rep to be $114,957! That’s why it’s so important for inside sales managers to intervene early and often, ensuring that reps are on pace to meet their goals. And one of the best ways to coach reps to success is by using call recordings.

Going Beyond Call Metrics with Call Recordings

Predictive analytics can tell you when a sales rep is not on pace to meet goals. But to truly discover why a rep is lagging, it’s vital to listen to actual call recordings. By listening to individual sales calls, you can gain deep insight into some of the best ways to help reps improve.

Recording phone calls has been a favorite tactic in the customer service industry for decades in order to improve agents’ effectiveness. But inside sales teams can benefit just as much from recording phone calls. Managers can hear, first-hand, which pitches are converting phone leads and which are causing prospects to head for the hills.

3 Ways Call Recordings Can Ramp Up Revenue

Here are 3 powerful ways that recording phone calls can help you provide sales coaching to reps.

Pivot Messaging to Be More Successful

By listening to call recordings discover that your all-star reps are actually using entirely different approaches to what you would have prescribed. The best sales reps are famous for thinking on their feet. They may have discovered angles or selling points that had never even occurred to you. And often this can be replicated. Likewise, you might find that lagging reps aren’t actually following the sales training you provided and are delivering the wrong messages.

Identify Common Barriers and Then Smash Them

More often than not companies will encounter specific sticking points over and over again. Without closely monitoring the content of calls, however, it’s difficult to know what these sticking points are. Listening to calls gives sales leaders the power the ability to identify routine causes of friction and then work with reps strategically to break past these barriers during future calls.

Help Reps Succeed Consistently

One of the biggest blocks that prevents individual reps from succeeding is a lack of consistency. Sales guru Tony Robbins once said, “it’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.”  This is so true in the world of inside sales. The most powerful sales tactics are usually those that are easiest to replicate.  I know I’ve observed that a particular rep might have one week where he’s red hot followed by a week where he can’t close anything other than the door to the microwave. Sure, every rep is going to have good weeks and bad weeks. But by listening to call recordings, managers can gauge whether there are factors at play other than luck. Perhaps reps aren’t consistently following their sales playbook.

Using Call Recordings as a Coaching Tool

Call recordings can be powerful training tools. They’re great during one-on-one sessions with reps. And some of the most successful sales organizations we’ve worked with also critique call recordings as a group. In order to help you coach your reps to success, we created the Ultimate Inside Sales Call Evaluation Checklist. This will help you identify where each rep is strong, as well as key areas for improvement.