10 Real-Time Notifications Every Revenue Team Needs in Their Playbook

Conversation Intelligence has quickly become a revenue-critical technology for sales and marketing teams. It’s easy to see why: revenue teams are able to unlock exponential growth when they extract actionable insights from their conversations with buyers.

The reality is 70% of sales training is forgotten within a week according to Gartner’s research. 

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Patented technology by Revenue.io allows you to teach something once, then scale sales expertise across every call. Moments™ powers the data-driven algorithmic selling model across the Revenue platform. Never worry about reps forgetting training, saying the wrong thing or not having the right information on calls again.

This is post, we’ll take a closer look at what real-time guidance actually looks like in reality. We’ll outline 10 proven notifications our revenue team uses to engage buyers and deliver a great customer experience every time. Each example below contains the Notification name, who it’s targeting, how the notification gets triggered, a brief overview of its intended use, and a screenshot of the notification itself. 

10 Real-Time Notifications Every Revenue Team Needs in Their Playbook 

Best Practices

Name: Qualification Criteria
Notification Targeting: SDRs
Triggering Criteria: When a rep doesn’t mention your qualifying criteria within the first 3 minutes 

Overview: Best practice Notifications recommend methods demonstrated to produce optimal results for reps in their customer interactions. 

In this example, we’re highlighting a key part of our qualification criteria that a rep must ask every buyer during the qualification process (for Revenue.io, we require reps to verify usage of Salesforce.com). This helps ensure reps are following the playbook and properly qualifying prospects. You can set this up with any and all of your important qualification questions. This is also a great way to reinforce BANT, MEDDIC, ANUM or whatever sales methodology you use. 

Other examples: 

• Intro or Opening 
• Needs Assessment

Competition

Name: Big Name Competitor Mention
Notification Targeting: Sales Reps
Triggering Criteria: When the phrase “Big Name Competitor” is spoken by the buyer. 

Overview: Competition Notifications provide helpful information and messaging guidance to equip reps with ways to counter rival companies and address their offerings while on a call.

In this example, our fictitious Big Name Competitor was mentioned, and we want to make sure our reps are armed with all the information they need to win against them. You’ll see we’ve included some of our differentiators, then we’ve embedded a link directly to a battlecard if the rep needs more information to arm themselves with the knowledge to handle the competitive deal. 

Other examples: 

• Competitor Advantages
• Competitor Disadvantages
• Competitor Features 

📣 Pro tip: Be sure to include variations of competitor names as the triggering keywords so that alternative or short-hand mentions of competitors can still trigger helpful battlecards.

Escalation

Name: De-escalate Angry Complaint
Notification Targeting: Sales Reps, Support Reps, CSMs
Triggering Criteria: When the buyer mentions the following words: “frustrated,” “pissed off,” “cancellation,” “terminate contract,” or “refund,” notify the rep and the supervisor. 

Overview: Escalation Notifications arm reps with suggested tips to quickly handle critical situations. These notifications can also provide supervisors a notification to listen in or even barge in on a call to further support the rep.

This is an example of a Notification that works in nearly all cases when you’re on the line with an irate customer. Staying calm in the moment is difficult, so having this reminder can help reps keep their cool. If a customer was calling in disgruntled about a known issue, a Notification can be set up with specific talking points for how to address it with customers in an empathetic fashion. 

Other examples: 

• Customer Threatens to Leave
• Known Issue/Bug

Next Action

Name: Book the Meeting
Notification Targeting: SDRs
Triggering Criteria: When the phrases “next steps,” “calendar,” “schedule,” or “time to chat” are not mentioned 5 minutes into the call. 

Overview: Notifications that fall under the Next Action category provide helpful tips for reps with immediate next steps or specific calls-to-action to take in pursuit of desired results. 

This is an example of an SDR on a call with a prospect that is running long, but the SDR hasn’t asked for a next meeting yet. Sometimes, reps can lose track of time, so having a helpful nudge can keep reps productive and on track to hit their activity goals for the day. 

Other examples: 

• Find the Decision Maker
• Submit a Proposal
• Send Content/Assets 
• Get Executive Buy-in 

📣 Pro tip: Run a report in Salesforce to find the average call duration for every call that results in a booked meeting. Then, set the notification to fire a minute or so before that average time.

Objection Handling

Name: Sales Objection – Send Me an Email
Notification Targeting: Sales Reps
Triggering Criteria: When any of the phrases “send me an email,” “shoot me an email,” or “send me some information” are spoken by the buyer. 

Overview: Every rep faces objections, and that’s why this category of Notifications is going to be an important one. These Notifications suggest responses or tactical ways for reps to counter common objections, hesitance, or resistance on calls. 

In this example, the rep is getting brushed aside. The goal is to try to get some information from the buyer about how you can help while remaining courteous and respectful. Here, we’re putting the exact wording a rep can use, because they’ll need to be able to use it quickly in this situation. 

Other examples: 

• Sales Objection – Busy Right Now, Call Me Later
• Sales Objection – Not the Decision Maker
• Sales Objection – How Much Will it Cost?
• Sales Objection – No Budget

Policy

Name: Compliance – Call Recording
Notification Targeting: Support Reps, AEs
Triggering Criteria: If the word “recorded” or a similar phrase has not been spoken by the rep in the first 30 seconds of a call.

Overview: Policy Notifications outline acceptable processes determined by the company, or relevant laws enacted by governing authorities that reps need to follow

In this example, we are again listening for a phrase that has not been said by the rep within a given timeframe. These types of alerts are helpful to remind your reps about rules and regulations in your industry. 

Other examples: 

• Updates to Policies or Processes
• Processes Around Personal Identifiable Information (PII)
• Processes Around Sensitive Information (e.g., credit card numbers) 
• Legan Regulation
• Customer Requirement

📣 Pro tip: Triggering criteria should never be longer than a few words, for transcription accuracy. For example, here we used the phrase “recorded” rather than “This call is being recorded for quality and training purposes.” This will result in much more accurate triggering.

Relevant Resource

Name: Relevant Case Study
Notification Targeting: Sales Reps
Triggering Criteria: When either the buyer or the rep mentions “lack of pipeline,” “manual logging,” “HPE,” or “Hewlett Packard.”

Overview: Relevant Resource Notifications provide supplemental information or contextual materials to assist reps on a call so they can immediately increase value to the conversation. 

In this example, we’re providing some top-level talking points to reps along with a link to a relevant case study that the rep can review and describe in real-time. In this case, “manual logging” and “lack of pipeline” were business challenges that Revenue.io addressed for HPE. For reps who are familiar with the case study, we also allow them to pop up the case study just by mentioning the customer name. 

Other examples: 

• Proof Points Per Key Persona and/or Industry
• Research Facts
• Technical Questions
• Blog post, podcast, eBook, industry reports (e.g., Forrester or Gartner)

📣 Pro tip: For relevant resources like case studies, train reps to grab the case study URL and text it to the prospect live on the call, via the RingDNA Dialer.

Positioning & Messaging 

Name: Positioning Statement for B2B SaaS
Notification Targeting: SDRs
Triggering Criteria: When a buyer mentions the phrases “what is Revenue.io” or “what do you do” or “what are you selling”.

Overview: Positioning & Messaging Notifications coach reps on what to communicate, how to pitch, or the most impactful way to respond to customers on a call.

Here, we are providing reps with a positioning statement for the B2B software industry. This is particularly useful to newer reps that are onboarding or seasoned reps that are selling into a new industry for the first time and need a value proposition specific to that industry. The ultimate goal is to have reps rely on this less and less as they learn. This type of Notification can be targeted at reps on certain teams (for example, only new SDRs or AEs in a specific geography). 

Other examples: 

• Value Props Per Key Persona, Industry and/or Product
• Elevator Pitch
• New Brand Positioning or Messaging

Behavioral Etiquette

Name: Reflective Listening
Notification Targeting: Sales reps
Triggering Criteria: When a rep has not mentioned the phrases “It sounds like” or “It seems like” or “It feels like” 5 minutes into the call.

Overview: Behavioral etiquette Notifications can reinforce conversational best practices. 

In this example, we are highlighting the conversational etiquette skill of reminding reps to respond to the person they’re talking to by reflecting the thoughts and feelings they heard. It’s relatively common knowledge for reps to listen more than they talk at key points in the conversation, and countless studies prove that top-performing reps only talk about 40-45% and listen the rest of the time. Something that helps our reps with their talk-to-listen ratio is practicing a technique called reflective listening. If reps aren’t using common reflective listening phrases, it could be a sign they’re talking too much or aren’t clarifying the needs of the buyer or customer.

Other examples: 

• Profanity Alert
• Reminder to Listen
• Too Many Interruptions
• Talking Too Fast

Announcements

Name: Limited-Time Promotions
Notification Targeting: Sales reps
Triggering Criteria: When “promotion” is not mentioned in the first 3 minutes of a call. 

Overview: Announcements Notifications are for worthwhile news, public statements, or important updates for reps to discuss or promote while on a call. 

In this example, we’re looking at a limited-time promotion announcement. For B2C companies and teams that rely on sales volume, it’s common to run promotions for holidays and special events. In our Notification, we’re providing reps with a high-level overview of the promotion, along with a link to a page that provides the full details. 

Other examples of Announcement Notifications: 

• New Product/Feature Releases 
• Rebrand Announcement
• Event Reminders
• Company Announcement

It’s time to embrace the future of Conversation Intelligence

Most sales leaders find themselves in an endless struggle to find time to coach and manage their teams. This leads to stalled deals, missed quota, and slowed growth. The future belongs to the sales leaders who put their teams first and build a real coaching program. It’s time to embrace the next generation of Conversation Intelligence. Let the AI-powered, real-time guidance from Moments™ by Revenue.io help you deliver critical information at the exact moment reps need it and transform your team today.