Connect with us

Business

How to Use Call Recording to Improve Sales Performance

Published

on

Call Recording to Improve Sales Performance

In a world where call centers are always trying to evolve and get ahead by adopting new technologies, there will always be one simple fact about sales. Some products will require people to buy from people in spite of all of the new evolution in business technology. There will always be customers who want to establish a relationship with a sales representative to be comfortable with their purchase.

People buying from people is largely driven by telephone conversations. Organizations must provide their sales staff with the proper tools and training to deliver excellent service to these calls. Every call is an opportunity for the business to understand their customer’s needs, communicate the value of their product, and establish a connection.

Call recording software is essential to ensure the sales team is equipped to provide excellent service and improve sales performance. This article will discuss how to use call recording to improve sales performance for your business.

Optimizing Sales Training and Coaching

Call recording allows managers to monitor recorded calls. The practice of monitoring sales calls allows managers to provide sales training and coaching by deploying the following tactics:

  • Provide relevant notes – Sales managers can create a checklist and listen to recorded calls to ensure their agents are properly delivering their script, note who is driving the call, and confirm the agent is asking the proper questions.
  • Review successful calls – New and poor performing agents need to hear how high performing calls handle difficult, contentious, and common situations. This provides the agent with knowledge on how to address these calls.
  • Develop proficiency profiles – Listening to recorded calls allows managers to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their staff. This allows the managers to see patterns emerge and identify common weaknesses and develop training sessions for each agent or the entire team.

Enhancing Customer Understanding and Personalization

Successful sales teams have scripts to follow to introduce and sell the product to the customer. Managers use call recording to listen to the sales agents and ensure they are following the script and gauge customer reaction. These insights may be used to identify weaknesses in the script and adjust areas that require refinement.

Measuring Sales Team Activity

Sales Activity Metrics allows managers to understand what activities the sales team members spend their day performing. These activities allow managers to directly influence and change the performance of the team. A call recording software tool may be used to record sales activities such as:

  • Number of Outbound Calls – There are multiple types of outbound calls such as following up on a lead, contacting existing customers for retention, cold calling new prospects, etc. Managers track the number of new calls vs answered, hangup, and converted. These metrics allows the manager to understand which sales agent is performing well and which agents require additional training.
  • Number of Follow-ups – Following up on a lead is critical to sales. Managers determine how many outbound calls are necessary and how quickly the agent must initiate contact. It is most effective for an agent to contact a lead as soon as it is generated. The probability the lead has moved on to a competitor increases the longer the agent waits to initiate the follow-up.

Capturing Customer Insights for Product Development

Call monitoring provides managers an opportunity to analyze customer feedback. The information captured in customer feedback can be used to improve product development. Listening to recorded calls enable the manager to gain insights on:

  • Product Development – Unsolicited feedback can provide inspiration to new features, products, and services. These conversations can also provide insight into how customers are using existing products in new and innovative ways which may lead to new product lines for expansion.
  • Competitive Insights – Sales agents may ask new customers why they chose the product if they are moving away from a competitor. Customers may mention shortcomings of competitors in these recorded calls. This allows managers to understand the weaknesses and strengths of their competitors and develop sales strategies to address this information.

Identifying Upselling and Cross-selling Opportunities

Sales teams that are not attempting to cross-sell or upsell are leaving money on the table. This is true not matter what industry or product that is associated with the business. The key to effective upselling or cross selling is call recording. Managers will need to review calls and coach agents about how to develop a strong customer relationship. Once a strong customer relation is established, managers must identify markers in the call recordings for both upselling and cross selling. Upselling markers may be identified by interest in advanced features or the customer expressing frustration with the current solution leading to an openness to an upgrade. Cross selling involves recognizing markers in the conversation to recommend additional services or products to complement what the customer has already purchased.

Improving Customer Retention

Retention is the process re-engaging with existing customers to commit to the initial sale, re-purchase the product, upsell or cross-sell, and ensure they remain with the company brand. Business managers understand that success does not end after the initial sale. Revenue is driven via retention for several companies and that is why coaching and training a sales team is essential. Essential tools such as a retention script should be available. Call recording must be utilized to ensure the agents are following the script along with maintaining a strong relationship with customers to upsell and cross-sell.

Always Focus on Improvement

Call recording can help the sales team elevate their performance by improving the skills of each and every sales agent. It is a valuable tool for training, coaching, and developing an environment for continuous improvement. Ultimately, call recording software is key to the success of any sales team.

Jim Shay is the Senior Copywriter at Versadial Solutions, a Call Recording Software company. With a background in technology and Journalism, Jim specializes in improving the performance of customer service and sales teams by providing direction and teaching companies how to fully utilize powerful incident recreation, liability control and workforce optimization tools such as Versadial. He accomplishes this by breaking down complex strategies into easy-to-follow tactics.

Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending