The B2B sales process is continuously evolving, and thus the methods used to ramp reps more quickly and increase deal velocity must too. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how sales teams approach the sale. Until now AI has primarily been used to automate repetitive tasks, freeing up more time for selling. But now sales teams can leverage AI to coach reps in real-time with specific sales best practices aligned to their unique sales process. This is very different from the call recording technology you’re using today. Real-time sales coaching powered by AI uses machine learning algorithms to provide personalized insights to reps, helping them to close deals faster and more effectively. In this blog post, we will explore how real-time sales coaching powered by AI is helping teams unlock sales acceleration and how to start using it in your sales process.
More Effective Coaching
Many sales managers find themselves in a leadership position after being a top performer themselves, but their experience as a closer doesn’t mean they’re great at coaching. What's more, is that sales managers are asked to manage the team, close deals, meet targets, and report to higher-ups, all which steal time away from coaching. In fact, a recent report by Salesforce.com, shows that managers only spend about 20% of their time per year coaching. With the adoption of call recording technology, most sales coaching is done by leaving comments on the call recording for account executives to review, but this often results in poor retention. If a sales manager does carve out time to coach it’s usually done sporadically in a one-on-one format. Both of these approaches do not provide the necessary level of consistent coaching sales reps need to continue to grow and develop. Using AI to analyze data from sales meetings and to provide immediate personalized coaching either during the meeting to help guide the conversation or afterwards based on your unique sales process is proving to be far more effective.
Improved Performance
Underperforming account executives have to change their behavior in order to achieve different results. Most coaching doesn’t compel behavior change and thus doesn’t improve performance. To influence behavior change, coaching must be timely, specific, and rooted in the sales principles. Checking all those boxes is hard for a front line sales manager who is responsible for a team of account executives, including hiring, training, and supporting through deal cycles to hit quarterly targets. Adopting AI powered coaching that leverages sales best practices provides quick coaching, specific to the rep. Coaching can be served up during the call to help the rep steer the conversation or provided immediately afterwards based on how the conversation went. Receiving coaching in real-time influences faster behavior change which results in improved performance.
Enhanced Buyer Engagement
Providing reps coaching more quickly also helps reps to engage with buyers more effectively, in real-time. By analyzing conversation data during sales calls, AI understands and provides recommendations for what to say and do based on how the conversation is materializing. Imagine a sales rep asking proper discovery questions and then being prompted to ask the second and third level questions they rarely get to. Or, think about a rep being presented with a question related to a competitor and instantly having the 2-3 talking points provided that they should use to address the question. Real-time coaching during sales calls help reps to build stronger relationships, uncover pain points worth solving, and follow sales best practices resulting in faster cycles and winning more deals.
Whether it be for onboarding and ramping new reps or for up leveling current C and B players, real-time coaching is changing the game. As sales teams continue to grow remotely and sales managers struggle to do more with less, AI powered coaching is the transformative solution we need to help reps close deals faster and more effectively. If you’re ready to explore real-time sales coaching, visit OverQuota and request a demo to see it in action.