The Complete Guide to Mobile Sales Tools and How They Improve Seller Performance 

Rahul Mathew on March 26, 2024

Sales reps have always depended on the right tools to meet their sales quota. Today, a mobile device can be one of their most powerful tools. A survey found that nearly half of sales reps feel their phone is “the most effective tool for performing their jobs.

However, that mobile device must have the right mobile sales tools.

Mobile sales tools help ensure sales reps can effectively engage with buyers and move deals forward – no matter where or what device they’re using. That means they can close more deals faster. That’s music to any CRO’s ears.

When it comes to mobile sales apps, you might find yourself asking questions like:

  • What is a mobile sales tool?
  • How do mobile sales tools benefit my sales teams?
  • What are the best mobile sales tools on the market today?

We’ll answer all of these questions and more in this post.

What is a mobile sales tool?

The phrase “mobile sales tool” is one that’s used often. But what is a mobile sales tool?

Essentially, a mobile sales tool is software or an application that helps sellers do their jobs – right from the convenience of their mobile devices. A mobile sales tool enables sales teams to effectively and efficiently facilitate and streamline the sales process, regardless of location and device.

While mobile sales tools help sellers engage with buyers, it’s important to note that customers and prospects aren’t using them. Instead, mobile sales apps are used by sales reps to engage customers and guide them through the purchase journey.
Mobile sales app categories

Mobile sales apps allow sales reps to access the right information and complete key tasks from their mobile device. There are many different categories of mobile sales apps, including (but not limited to):

These allow sellers to access training and enablement activities to sharpen the skills necessary for sales success. Sales managers can also use these tools to measure sales enablement success.

These enable sales reps to find and share the right content with the right prospect at the right time.

These enable sellers to effectively communicate with buying committees throughout the sales cycle.

These help sales teams more effectively predict revenue and identify at-risk deals.

These help sellers find and connect with buyers who fit their product or service offerings well.

These equip sellers with all the information they need about a prospect – right from their mobile device.

We’ll take a closer look at some of the top mobile sales software later on.

What are the benefits of mobile sales software?

Research from Salesforce found that, on average, sales reps spend a mere 28% of their time each week selling. That means they spend most of their time bogged down with other tasks, like data entry and searching for the right information and content.

The right mobile sales tools help streamline time-consuming tasks so reps can spend more time selling.

Let’s look at some of the key benefits of mobile sales tools.

Greater flexibility

Many sales reps aren’t sitting in front of a computer at a corporate office every day. Instead, they might meet with customers in the field, travel to a tradeshow, or work from their home office. Mobile sales apps allow reps to work wherever they may be on a given day.

Increased sales productivity

Mobile sales apps equip sales reps with the right tools and information at their fingertips. They don’t have to wait to get back to their stationary computer to get things done.

For example, a sales rep meets with a prospect at their office. Without mobile sales tools, they’d have to wait until they returned to the office to log their notes in their CRM and address action items from the meeting. But with the right mobile sales tools, they can complete these tasks immediately following the meeting – right from their mobile device.

As another example, consider a sales rep engaging with a prospect at an industry trade show. If the rep waits to follow up with the prospect until they return to the office, the prospect may lose interest and become disengaged. With mobile sales tools, that rep can easily search and find content that addresses the prospect’s key challenges – and share it with the prospect immediately. By engaging with the prospect as quickly as possible, that sales rep can move the deal forward faster – and increase the likelihood of closing it.

Easy access to the right sales content

In the world of B2B sales, content has never been more important. According to the Demand Gen Report, over half (55%) of buyers rely on content to research and guide their purchase decisions more than they did in the past.

According to resesarch,

of buyers rely on content to research and guide their purchase decisions
0 %

But sales reps can’t get by sharing generic sales content. Instead, reps must provide personalized, relevant content that resonates with each buyer.

Today, many organizations focus on creating plenty of content. However, reps often spend too much time hunting for content that’ll resonate with their buyers. Research tells us reps spend an average of 440 hours per year trying to find the right content.

Reps spend

per year trying to find the right content
0 hours

With the right mobile sales tools, reps can easily find and share content that’ll resonate with each buyer – wherever they are on the purchase journey. That means sellers can spend less time searching and more time engaging with buyers and adding value.

Enhanced sales team and customer communication

Clear communication is key to sales success. Sales reps must engage effectively with buyers to understand their needs, deliver value, and move deals forward. Sales reps must also communicate internally to ensure the right people are pulled in at the right time.

The right mobile sales tools can help improve both internal and external communication. When everyone is on the same page, deals can more easily move forward.

What are the best mobile sales tools?

Mobile sales tools can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your sellers – regardless of their location and device. But what are the best mobile sales tools on the market today?

There’s no easy answer. The right mobile sales tool addresses the needs of your sales team and the organization as a whole.

Single use case vs integrated mobile sales tools

When shopping for mobile sales tools, you’ll find that some tools fulfill a single use case. For example, you may have a mobile sales tool for sales content management. Or, your team may use a mobile sales app for video calling.

There are also integrated mobile sales tools, which address many use cases. For example, a mobile sales enablement tool may incorporate content management, training, coaching, and conversation intelligence – all from one application.

When possible, consider adopting integrated mobile sales apps. These solutions address many challenges – without the need to toggle between several apps.

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at some of the top mobile sales apps used by winning sales teams.

Mindtickle

Mindtickle is an example of an integrated mobile sales app because it helps improve sales performance in several different ways.

For starters, Mindtickle enables sales teams to find and engage with training and enablement that helps them grow the skills they need to be successful in the field. Sellers can consume training and enablement on their own time from their mobile devices. Managers can access sales enablement analytics to help them understand how reps are engaging with enablement and whether this enablement is improving seller performance.

Mindtickle also incorporates content management capabilities. That means sellers can easily find and share content that’ll resonate with buyers – proven to move deals forward.

In addition, Mindtickle features conversation intelligence, which records and analyzes sales calls. That means sales reps can focus on their conversations rather than taking notes. Sales managers can also leverage conversation insights to understand reps’ behaviors. Then, they can deliver customized coaching to improve performance.

Mindtickle also includes revenue intelligence capabilities, which help sales teams more accurately predict revenue. With revenue intelligence, sales managers can identify at-risk deals and work with sales reps to improve outcomes.

Salesforce

Salesforce is a popular customer relationship management (CRM) tool among businesses of all sizes and industries. Salesforce offers a robust mobile sales app that enables sellers to manage every deal effectively – whether in the office or on the go.

With the Salesforce mobile sales app, sales reps can easily pull up key information about a prospect. For example, they can refresh their memory with details of their last interaction with the buyer. Sales reps can also use the mobile app to add notes and updates.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Prospecting isn’t an easy feat. Sellers must identify the right points of contact – and then convince those people to engage with them. It’s no wonder why 40% of sales reps cite prospecting as the most difficult part of the sales process.

of reps say prospecting is the most difficult part of the sales process
0 %

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a sales tool that enables reps to leverage LinkedIn’s network to identify the right prospects – and then effectively engage with them. With the LinkedIn Sales Navigator app, your sales reps can manage their prospecting efforts via mobile device.

ZoomInfo

Sales reps only have so many hours in the day. It’s important to prioritize their time on good-fit customers.

Yet, seven in 10 sellers feel that 50% of the prospects they interact with aren’t a good fit for their product or service offerings.

ZoomInfo is a popular mobile sales tool that helps sales reps engage with the right buyers. The mobile app enables sales reps to access powerful insights, including customer data, buyer intent, and website behavior. These insights can help sales reps find their ideal prospects.

Are your sellers equipped with the right mobile sales tools?

Modern sellers aren’t chained to a desk. Instead, they’re visiting clients, attending industry events, and traveling. With the right mobile sales tools, these sales reps can facilitate and accelerate deals from their mobile device.

Mobile sales with Mindtickle

Ready to see how Mindtickle equips sales teams with the training, enablement, content, and conversation intelligence they need to succeed – all from their mobile devices?

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What is Enterprise Sales, and What are Some of the Best Enterprise Sales Software Options?

Rahul Mathew on March 1, 2024

Focusing on enterprise sales can be a great way to grow your revenue. After all, enterprise sales drive a lot of value. Adding those big logos to your customer roster is a great way to build credibility and grow sales.

But it isn’t easy.

Sales reps going after enterprise deals must be ready to navigate complex selling scenarios. In addition, they must be equipped to address the needs of large buying committees throughout the (often lengthy) sales cycle.

Enterprise sales isn’t for the faint of heart. And just because a sales rep is skilled at closing SMB or mid-market deals, it doesn’t mean they have what it takes for enterprise sales.

In this post, we’ll explore what enterprise sales is and how it differs from other types of sales models and sales methodologies. The right technology is key to enterprise sales, so we’ll also look closely at some of the best software that winning organizations use to power their success.

What is enterprise sales?

You’re not alone if you’re not sure what enterprise sales is. Luckily, it’s a very straightforward concept.

It’s selling products and services to large companies, also known as enterprises. Sometimes, enterprise sales is referred to as “complex sales.” That makes sense, as enterprise sales tend to be more complex than other types of sales – a topic we’ll explore in more detail later.

The stages of enterprise sales

While enterprise sales is complex, it can be broken down into four distinct stages. Those four stages are discovery, diagnosis, design, and delivery. Each stage is essential to a successful enterprise software sales strategy.

Let’s take a closer look at these four stages.

Discovery is a key stage of any sale. Enterprise sales are no exception.

During the discovery phase, sellers aim to learn as much as they can about a prospective buyer. This includes:

  • What the company’s key opportunities and challenges are
  • What solutions they’ve used in the past
  • Who will be involved in the decision-making process
  • What their timeline is for solving their key challenges

Some of this information can be uncovered by doing online research and leveraging prospecting tools. Other information can be uncovered by asking prospects the right discovery questions.

After learning as much as possible about a prospect, sales reps can diagnose the problem. In other words, they can articulate the enterprise’s top pain points – and how their solutions address those pain points.

Diagnosing the problem is foundational to offering the right solution.

Once a rep understands a prospect’s needs and is confident they can address them, it’s time to develop a custom solution. This isn’t as easy as touting the features and benefits of a specific product. Instead, it involves creating a custom solution that specifically addresses the prospect’s unique needs.

Enterprise sales often involve many stakeholders. As such, sales reps should be prepared to pitch their solution to multiple stakeholders – each with unique needs and perspectives.

The sales rep has successfully navigated a complex sale. Now, the next step is to deliver the solution to the customer. During this stage, the sales rep hands the customer to post-sales customer support, who will ensure they’re set up with the solution they purchased.

Key benefits of enterprise sales

Closing enterprise deals isn’t easy. The most successful organizations know that these deals require significant time and resources.

However, enterprise sales also provide big opportunities to organizations. The following are just a few:

Revenue growth

Enterprise deals are typically larger than small or mid-market deals. That means you can grow revenue with far fewer deals than if you focused on SMB. In addition, if an enterprise signs a multiyear contract, you’ll have recurring revenue.

Strengthened reputation

Having large, well-known brands on your customer list is a great way to build your reputation – and your credibility. With a strengthened reputation, you’re better positioned to close future enterprise deals.

Long-term relationships

The enterprise sales cycle can take a significant amount of time. This gives sellers plenty of time to build trust with buyers. When a buyer trusts a seller, they’re more likely to renew. In addition, they’re more open to upsells and cross-sales.

Furthermore, if you build a strong relationship with a customer, they may be willing to serve as a reference. When that customer moves on to a new company, they may also be willing to advocate for your brand.

How is the enterprise sales model different from other sales models?

Sales reps aim to solve their customers’ challenges. That’s the case whether they sell to a small or large business.

However, enterprise sales does differ from other sales models – including small to medium business (SMB), midmarket, and self-service – in some key ways, including:

  • Deal size
  • Sales cycle
  • Number of decision-makers

That means the sales playbook you build for one type of sales may not be practical for another type.

Let’s take a closer look at how enterprise sales differ from other common sales models.

Enterprise sales vs. SMB sales

One of the biggest differences between enterprise sales and small to medium business (SMB) sales is the size of the deals. Enterprises are large companies with more resources and more employees. As such, the dollar value of enterprise deals are often much higher.

Generally, SMB sales are much more straightforward than enterprise sales. That means the sales cycle is shorter. A seller may be able to close an SMB deal in days or even weeks. On the other hand, the enterprise sales cycle can take months, quarters, or even an entire year.

Buying committees are also much smaller in SMB sales. When selling to a small or medium-sized business, it’s not uncommon for a sales rep to meet with just one or two people throughout the entire sales cycle. Typically, these people have the authority to make purchase decisions. For example, if a sales rep sells a POS system to a restaurant with a single location, they’re likely to pitch their solution directly to the owner.

On the other hand, enterprise sales often involve a large buying committee. According to the Gartner B2B Buying Report, the average enterprise B2B buying group includes between five and 11 stakeholders – representing an average of five distinct business functions.

The average enterprise B2B buying group includes up to

Stakeholders
0

A sales rep may start with one point of contact at an enterprise, but that person may not have purchasing authority. Instead, they bring in others throughout the sales cycle – each sharing their concerns and requirements.

Enterprise sales vs. mid-market sales

Mid-market companies (also referred to as small and medium-sized enterprises – or SME) are larger than SMBs but smaller than enterprises. As such, the complexity of mid-market sales falls between SMB and enterprise sales.

Mid-market deals typically have a higher value than SMB – but lower than enterprise deals. Usually, multiple stakeholders are involved in decision-making, which is a key reason the sales cycle takes longer than SMB sales.

That said, mid-market sales don’t require the same level of time and complexity as enterprise sales.

Enterprise sales vs. self-service sales

As the name suggests, self-service sales involve a customer purchasing a product independently. There’s no sales rep involved in the process. This is much different from enterprise sales, where the sales rep is responsible for consulting buyers and adding value throughout the sales cycle.

With self-service sales, the customer does their research on their own. They can navigate to a pricing page to see a list of product offerings and corresponding sales. Then, they can purchase their chosen product right on the pricing page with a credit card.

On the other hand, enterprise deals involve a sales rep. Often, the sales rep uses consultative selling or solution selling to get familiar with the prospect’s challenges – and develop a solution to solve them.

As we’ve covered, enterprise deals are typically high-value. Self-service sales, on the other hand, are typically low value.

However, there are many advantages to offering a self-service product. For starters, the sales cycle is short, so you can close many deals quickly. In addition, self-service sales don’t require the involvement of a sales rep, which means your teams can focus on higher-value deals.

What are the best enterprise sales tools?

To be successful in enterprise sales, your sales reps must possess certain skills and competencies. In addition, it involves a number of moving pieces. You also need the right tools to manage these factors.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the best tools available.

Mindtickle

Mindtickle is an integrated revenue productivity platform that enables enterprise sales teams to execute on open deals. But how?

Enterprise sales reps require a certain set of skills and behaviors to be successful. Those skills vary from company to company.

With Mindtickle, revenue teams can build profiles that outline the skills reps need to be successful. Revenue teams can measure each rep against these profiles to identify gaps. Then, managers and enablement teams can deliver sales training and enablement that addresses the unique needs of each rep.

Of course, completing enterprise software sales training doesn’t guarantee success in the field. Mindtickle also incorporates conversation intelligence, enabling sales managers to understand whether their reps apply what they’ve learned while interacting with buyers. Sales managers can use these insights to provide customized coaching to improve behaviors and outcomes.

Mindtickle also incorporates content management capabilities. That means reps can always find the right content at the right time.

Salesforce - Revenue Intelligence

What’s more, Mindtickle includes revenue intelligence capabilities, making it easy for sales reps and managers to gain a holistic view of deal outlook. This visibility fuels more accurate forecasting. It also enables sales managers to know when a deal is at risk so they can support their reps to improve outcomes.

Other top enterprise sales tools

salesforce logo

Some other top software includes:

  • Salesforce: Salesforce is a powerful customer relationship management (CRM) platform enabling sales teams to manage the many details of every deal. For example, a sales rep can refresh their memory of what was discussed during their last conversation with a prospect. Sales reps can also pinpoint exactly where each deal is in the sales cycle.
  • Hubspot: Hubspot is another example of business sales software used to manage enterprise sales. Hubspot incorporates many rich features that boost reps’ productivity and empower them to develop relationships and grow sales.
  • LinkedIn Sales Navigator: One of the biggest challenges is connecting with the right people. LinkedIn Sales Navigator enables enterprise sales reps to tap into LinkedIn’s network to connect to the right people at the right companies.
  • Gong: Gong is a platform that helps shed light on what’s happening during customer conversations. Gong takes these insights to make recommendations for improving outcomes and closing more deals.

Start closing more enterprise sales deals with Mindtickle

Enterprise sales require a significant investment of time and effort. However, these deals also deliver a ton of value to revenue organizations who get it right.

Reps must have the right skills and the right tools for success.

With Mindtickle, your teams can access the training, enablement, coaching, and content they need to be ready for any enterprise sales deal – all from a single platform. Furthermore, sales managers have insight into what’s happening in the field. They can use these insights to deliver coaching that improves the outcome of a specific enterprise sale – and the sales rep’s future success.

More Enterprise Sales with Mindtickle

Ready to see how Mindtickle can empower you to boost effectiveness and efficiency across your entire enterprise sales team?

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5 Types of Sales Metrics to Understand and Improve Performance

Rahul Mathew on February 20, 2024

Sales performance metrics tell the story of your business and its role in customers’ lives. These metrics don’t just empower your sales team and help them improve; you can also use this information to increase visibility for planning and reporting.

Once you’ve started using metrics to track sales performance, there’s only one question: How do you use those metrics meaningfully? Fortunately, there are several best practices for tracking and analyzing this information.

Here’s a look at the five most important types of sales metrics and how to use them to your advantage.

What are sales metrics?

Sales metrics are data points that represent the performance of an individual salesperson or a full sales team. Management and other leaders use different types of sales metrics to track progress, identify issues and prepare for future growth.

Sales management metrics aren’t just for visibility. They’re also a great way to incentivize sales teams to hit targets consistently. Sales leaders can use metrics to fine-tune training and make any necessary adjustments to individual learning, contributing to better overall performance.

Essentially, sales performance metrics aim to steer sales teams in the right direction. This information helps identify problems in the sales process, grow revenue, and increase competitiveness in today’s marketplace.

How to choose the most important sales performance metrics to track

Different businesses need to track different types of sales metrics. It’s up to you to decide which are most important for your industry, customer base, and individual teams — but it’s always smart to keep these ideas in mind:

  • Have a goal: Every tracked metric should have a purpose, such as supporting sales enablement or providing insight into your sales onboarding process.
  • Unite your data: Sales metrics don’t exist in a vacuum. Ensure they work together to create visibility into your entire sales process and customer journey.
  • Skip the vanity metrics: Vanity metrics, such as views or attendee numbers, don’t actually contribute to your sales performance or revenue. Don’t get too caught up in this information.
  • Stay consistent: You don’t have to track the same metrics all the time, but always use a single method for tracking and recording data so your numbers remain consistent.
  • Learn: When choosing which sales metrics to track, remember that you’re supporting your sales team, sales forecasting, and more. Learn from your data and put those insights to good use for your business overall.

The 5 most important types of sales metrics

Since there are a plethora of sales metrics available, it can be difficult to figure out which ones to track. Let’s take a closer look at five of the most important sales metrics:

1. Sales KPIs

Sales KPIs are connected to company-wide goals or objectives, which means this data allows organizations to measure overall performance. Managers often depend on sales KPIs to make informed business decisions. That’s because sales KPIs help identify key gaps related to product-market fit, sales team efficiency, and more.

The most important sales KPIs include:

  • Customer lifetime value (CLV): The amount of money a customer will spend during their entire relationship with your business.
  • Revenue from new customers: The revenue you get exclusively from new business or first-time buyers.
  • Revenue from existing customers: The revenue you earn from up- or cross-selling to current or previous customers.
  • Year-over-year growth: Your sales performance compared to the same time period last year.

2. Hiring and onboarding metrics

With the right hiring and sales onboarding observations and metrics, managers can fine-tune job descriptions and reduce the risk of future hiring mistakes, which can cost a great deal of time, money and headaches down the road. Sales leaders will also have valuable data that informs them of when and how to recruit new candidates.

The top hiring and onboarding metrics include:

  • Sales ramp-up time: Average time for new sales representatives to be completely productive.
  • Productivity: The ratio of sales to quota capacity, and the actual monetary impact of an increase or decrease in this productivity.
  • Retention: The number of new hires who stay with the company.

3. Training and coaching metrics

Without a strong sales enablement strategy, it’s nearly impossible to create and maintain a successful sales team. Therefore, training and coaching metrics are invaluable to those in sales, marketing, management, and just about anyone else involved in sales enablement.

These metrics include:

  • Efficiency: Time spent on training compared to time spent answering team member questions during sales processes.
  • Satisfaction: Sales representative satisfaction and engagement during onboarding, training and coaching.
  • Manager effectiveness: Quality of interaction in shadowing, ride-alongs, 1:1 reviews, two-way feedback loops, and more.
  • Cost of training: Average cost per sales representative in both money and time.

4. Outreach metrics

If your sales representatives focus on closing deals via phone, email, and social media, outreach metrics can be very beneficial, particularly when tied back to training content (learning) and skill-building activities (practice). Managers and trainers can use them to determine which outreach methods require greater attention.

Email

  • Open rate: How many customers open an e-mail.
  • Response rate: How many customers reply directly to an e-mail.
  • Engagement rate: How many customers click a link or otherwise engage with content in an email.

Phone

  • Call-backs: Percentage of prospects who call back to follow up.
  • Conversations: Percentage of prospects who agree to talk with your sales team.
  • Conversions: Percentage of prospects who move to the next steps.

Social media

  • Requests: Percentage of LinkedIn connection requests accepted.
  • Interactions: Number of likes, shares, and comments on social media posts.
  • Meetings: Number of meetings set through social media.
  • Opportunities: Number of qualified opportunities generated.

5. Pipeline metrics

Through pipeline metrics, sales managers can thoroughly understand their success throughout the entire pipeline. They can also provide insights into how their organization is dominating the market and what kind of demand there is for their products or services.

The most important pipeline metrics are:

  • Sales cycle length: How long it takes to move from prospect to customer.
  • Sales per rep: How many sales each representative makes in a given time period.
  • Sales by region: How many deals are closed in each area.
  • Average deal size: Average amount of revenue per sale.
  • Churn rate: How many customers are lost in a given time period.
  • Quota attainment: The average percentage of quota completion.

The importance of tracking and analyzing sales metrics

By making it a priority to track sales performance metrics, sales-driven organizations can:

Better optimize the employee experience

There’s a direct correlation between employee experience and customer experience. By tracking and analyzing sales metrics, organizations can gain valuable insight into what is working for their employees and what isn’t.

Provide insightful training feedback

While sales leaders can ask their new sales representatives how they feel about their training, the answers likely won’t be thorough enough to accurately gauge how they’re doing. With sales metrics within reach, however, teams can figure out exactly how effective their training program is and where they need to improve.

Increase customer retention

Retention efforts increase customer lifetime value and boost revenue as a result. To increase customer retention, sales representatives must engage existing customers to continue to buy an organization’s products or services.

There are a number of sales metrics such as customer churn, time between purchases, and loyal customer rate that can give sales leaders and the management team a close look at how well their organization is retaining clients.

How technology can help

An analytics interface is one of the easiest and most effective ways to track and manage key sales metrics. When shopping around for sales enablement analytics software, organizations should be on the lookout for the following important features:

  • Real-time alerts: An interface should offer data on real-time changes in the market.
  • Filters: Whether it’s a high-level view or a highly specific look at particular metrics, filters should allow you to customize your parameters for any given goal.
  • Sharing: Data, tools and tasks should be easy to share via email for internal parties or through public URLs for external users.
  • Collaboration tools: Dashboards should allow users to make comments, share key metrics and create slideshows. Automation features such as report scheduling and program notifications are important, too.

Mindtickle helps you make the most of sales data

Finding a sales metrics example that resonates with your team is one thing. It’s another thing entirely to use that sales metric to your advantage — and to combine it with all the other data you have at your disposal. You need a way to keep this information in one platform — a shared workspace that sales teams and other departments can access, contribute to and utilize at will.

Mindtickle’s revenue productivity platform is designed to help you understand and quantify the strengths and weaknesses of your sales team, then take data-driven steps to improve sales capabilities. With Mindtickle, you can leverage built-in reporting and analytics to measure seller effectiveness and track progress against KPIs.

Sales Performance in Mindtickle

Learn more about how Mindtickle helps you track sales performance and all sales metrics.

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This article was originally posted in April 2020, updated in March 2023, and again in February 2024. 

4 AI Sales Tools That Will Help Your Sales Team Close More Deals

Rahul Mathew on February 12, 2024

In the recent past, artificial intelligence (AI) was no more than an abstract concept for most people. But today, a large (and growing) portion of consumers leverage this technology on a daily basis – both in their personal and professional lives.

Sales professionals are no exception.

In fact, most revenue organizations recognize that AI has the potential to boost productivity – and transform the way they do business. Per our Chief Revenue Officer + Sales Leader Outlook Report, 24% of revenue organizations do not currently use AI tools. On the other hand, 76% expect AI to impact their day-to-day jobs in the next year significantly.

Furthermore, Gartner research found that over a third (35%) of Chief Revenue Officers plan to establish a generative AI operations team in their go-to-market organization by the end of next year.

You risk being left behind if your team isn’t using AI tools. Your competitors are already using AI to optimize their processes, work more efficiently, and equip their reps with more information before any sales interaction. So why aren’t you?

In this post, we’ll look closer at how winning revenue organizations leverage AI sales tools to boost effectiveness and efficiency. We’ll also explore some of the top AI sales tools teams use to make their jobs easier.

How are revenue organizations using AI sales tools?

These days, people are using AI tools to streamline and simplify many aspects of their lives. They’re tapping into AI for everything – from drafting business communications to writing code to finding recipes – and everything in between.

But how are revenue teams using sales tools?

Sales teams use AI tools in many different ways. The most obvious use case for AI is to complete mundane tasks that traditionally take up a lot of a sellers’ time. One example is call summarization.

Traditionally, sellers would have to take notes while on a sales call, which is tedious and makes it difficult to focus on the call itself. Increasingly, revenue teams are leveraging AI to analyze call recordings and compile summaries. These summaries are helpful for sales reps; they don’t have to worry about forgetting something that happened during a call. Sales managers can also use these AI-generated call summaries to understand how the call went and where the sales rep might need additional coaching to improve the outcome.

According to the Chief Revenue Officer + Sales Leader Outlook Report, the following are some of the most common ways revenue teams are using AI sales tools:

  • Serving up recommendations for training
  • Suggesting content reps should use
  • Helping reps get answers to customer questions in the flow of work
  • Gaining insight on seller performance

Getting started with simple AI use cases such as call summarization is relatively easy. However, the most innovative revenue organizations are looking beyond these obvious use cases to identify more strategic and sophisticated applications.

How can organizations measure the ROI of AI sales tools?

In the best of times, ensuring your technology investments deliver value is important. This is especially true in today’s economic environment when budgets are tight, and new spending is often met with scrutiny.

AI sales tools are no exception to this rule. Investing in AI for the sake of investing in AI doesn’t make sense. Instead it’s important to regularly measure to ensure you’re deriving value from your investment in AI sales tools.

Measuring ROI requires tracking a number of metrics. Some key metrics to track include:

How much revenue you generate in a given period and how this compares to a previous period. For example, you may track revenue for a period after incorporating an AI sales tool – and compare that to a period before you had the tool.

The percentage of sellers who are meeting quota. AI sales tools should improve seller effectiveness. As such, investing in AI sales tools should increase quota attainment.

This measures how many prospects go on to make a purchase. This metric should increase with the investment in AI sales tools.

The sales cycle is the stages a sales rep goes through when closing a deal, from initial contract to contract signing. AI tools can boost efficiency by streamlining time-consuming tasks. As a result, the length of the sales cycle should ideally decrease after implementing AI sales tools.

By automating mundane tasks, sales reps can spend more time engaging buyers and delivering value. Customer satisfaction will grow, increasing their likelihood of sticking around long-term. As a result, retention rates will increase, as well as customer lifetime value.

What are some of the top AI sales tools?

The right AI sales tools can boost sales effectiveness and efficiency. That means your sales reps can close more deals faster.

Which AI sales tools should you use? It depends on your goals for AI.

However, there are some AI sales tools that are popular across the board. Let’s look closely at five of the top AI sales tools.

Many sales organizations know the 80-20 rule all too well: the all-too-frequent situation where 80% of the revenue is driven by 20% of their reps. But when one of your top performers leaves, that can cause a major headache (and revenue shortfall) for sales departments. Instead of continuing to hope that their top reps don’t leave, forward-thinking companies turn to Mindtickle. Our platform empowers sales reps to achieve a continuous state of sales excellence by using its tools and processes to increase reps’ knowledge and improve their performance. With Mindtickle, you can correlate competencies with revenue outcomes, helping you focus on the individualized knowledge, skills, and behaviors that help your reps win deals.

Mindtickle uses AI to analyze all sales interactions, from customer calls to emails, to assess reps’ performance at each stage in the sales process. Then it uses that data to provide AI-driven coaching and training recommendations that are personalized to each rep. These recommendations, exercises, and activities help to raise the performance level across your whole sales team so all agents can become top performers and achieve sales readiness.

An AI-powered sales readiness platform like Mindtickle offers sales leaders (and their teams) many benefits that have a positive impact on the rest of the organization:

  • Managers automatically get better visibility into their reps’ performance, including specific areas for improvement so they can prioritize coaching where it will have the biggest impact.
  • It creates a team culture of continuous improvement, as reps receive training and coaching recommendations on an ongoing basis, not just once a quarter in your sales kickoff.
  • It raises the team performance standards, which leads to improved close rates, as reps are better able to manage complex or high-value sales interactions.

A platform like Mindtickle helps your sales team close more deals by ensuring all your reps are ready for their upcoming sales calls, equipped with the skills, knowledge, and best-practice behaviors to perform at their best.

Incomplete data in your CRM makes it impossible for sales leaders to monitor the progress of leads through the sales funnel or know when their reps are facing challenges and need support. Tools like Rollio make it easier for teams to update records in the CRM after every customer interaction to improve the quantity and quality of your CRM data.

Rollio connects with Salesforce and uses AI to enable sales reps to interact with their CRM like they’re speaking to a person. For example, agents can ask Rollio to update a prospect record in Salesforce using conversational language, for example, “Update my opportunity with Mindtickle. Add a pricing conversation as a next step, and push the close date back one month.” Rollio’s AI will interpret their instructions and update the record accordingly. This speeds up data entry, so your customer records are more up-to-date and contain more information about sales interactions compared with updating records manually.

An AI-driven tool like Rollio benefits sales reps and managers by:

  • Reducing time spent on data entry, so reps can spend their time on higher-impact sales interactions instead
  • Improving the quality and quantity of data in your CRM, so reps and managers have access to all the relevant data for prioritizing leads and follow-up sales activities
  • Giving sales leaders an easy way to get updates about their team’s activities

More complete data in your CRM helps sales professionals close more deals, as they have the full context available for their next interaction with a prospect. For example, reps can personalize follow-up messages based on their conversation, and managers can more easily support agents when CRM data suggests a deal is moving toward closed/lost.

Forrester found that sales reps spend only 23% of their time on core sales activities. Tools like Conversica enable sales organizations to increase their team productivity (in terms of touchpoints and follow-ups) without hiring more reps and increasing their headcount.

Conversica provides sales teams with an AI assistant to automatically follow up with leads via chatbot, email, or SMS. It helps increase the number of touchpoints leads have with your company by automating low-value acknowledgment messages while enabling your reps to focus on higher-value sales interactions. In addition, Conversica uses conversational AI to speed up response times and scale up your team’s productivity without needing additional team members to do so.

For sales teams, this means:

  • They can automate lead follow-up so prospects hear back from you sooner
  • Leads are kept warm and engaged between interactions with real members of your team
    Sales cycles may accelerate due to an increased number of touchpoints in the process
  • Reps have more time to personalize their interactions with customers, as low-value acknowledgment-style interactions are handled automatically

AI tools like Conversica, which provide sales teams with a virtual assistant, help them close more deals by spending more time personalizing their messages and less time on routine prospect interactions.

If sales leaders don’t know how prospects are progressing through their sales funnel, it becomes difficult (or almost impossible) to accurately plan team resources or prioritize upcoming sales interactions. A revenue communication tool like Troops gives sales teams — both reps and managers — ongoing visibility into your team’s performance by surfacing and sharing relevant updates from your CRM.

Troops connects your CRM with messaging apps your team uses all the time through integrations with Slack and Microsoft Teams. It automatically delivers notifications in your messaging tools to provide your team with insights, updates, or reminders about deals in their pipeline. It also notifies you in real-time when anything happens that will have a significant impact on revenue — such as a deal that’s marked closed/won or closed/lost.

It offers several benefits for sales organizations:

  • Sales leaders get a better overview of deal flow and rep performance
  • Improved pipeline visibility means managers can improve the accuracy of their sales forecasting
  • You can leverage team expertise to move deals forward, as all updates are visible to your whole team

AI tools that give your sales leaders better pipeline visibility help sales teams close more deals by making it easier for managers to support more complex customer interactions. Managers are more aware of ongoing sales conversations and the potential roadblocks and can support their team where needed.

AI sales tools will empower your team — not replace them

Many sales teams still have a lingering fear that AI sales tools will replace them and steal their jobs. Or they worry the AI will become a data dump, giving their teams piles of data with no context to help them draw actionable insights.

But AI technology actually empowers and enables your sales team — it helps them do their jobs better and gives them the data and insights they need to help them close more deals. There are lots of different ways AI can support sales teams, so if you’re ready to add artificial intelligence into your department’s toolkit, check out our Buyer’s Guide to Conversation Intelligence Solutions.

Buyer's Guide to Conversation Intelligence

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This post was originally published in March 2022, was updated in July 2023, and again in February 2024.

Video: How Reps Accelerate Bigger, Faster Deals with Consolidation

Rahul Mathew on February 1, 2024

Today’s post features a video from our recent “Reduce Your Technology Stack” video series. In this video, one of our revenue productivity experts, Rahul Mathew, shares how one leading cybersecurity customer transitioned away from a growth-at-all-costs mentality where many reps were underperforming into a data-driven selling org that can scale and consistently meet its revenue targets. 

Key takeaways:

  • Get more reps contributing to quota. This customer overcame a dependence on a small number of reps to meet quota each quarter. By emphasizing repeatable quota contributions from a larger and more diverse set of reps, this customer met their $50M run rate, and their revenue model is more sustainable.
  • Track the right things. Success depended on tracking both team and individual metrics. By tracking deal and pipeline risk, this customer was able to achieve repeatable quota attainment, improved pipeline health, and reduced the time to win.
  • Focus on healthy deals. This customer knew that top-line metrics weren’t what mattered. They shifted their focus to healthy, winnable deals in the existing pipeline. They analyzed their time-to-win and time-to-lose rates and identified opportunities that were ripe for improvement.

Video transcription

Hello everybody, this is Rahul Matthew from the Product Marketing team at Mindtickle. I’m here today as part of the 2024 Reduce Technology Technology Chaos video series. I’m here today to talk about how reps can actually accelerate bigger, faster deals through consolidation.

Let’s dive into a customer example. I want to discuss a specific customer – a leading AI cybersecurity provider. Their CRO was mandated to ensure they were improving revenue productivity across the organization. Now, a couple of challenges he could foresee as a CRO were – if you think about a lot of the organizations today – a lot of organizations today are moving from growth at all costs to driving revenue productivity at scale.

Secondly, having dependence on a specific set of sales reps, you know, doesn’t necessarily help you meet your run rate or revenue target. For instance, in order to meet the run rate of $50M USD, there was a growing reliance on repeat repeatable quota contributions from a larger set of sales reps.

One use case this customer could implement was tracking pipeline risk analytics and putting data into practice. Secondly, ensure there were continuous improvements, not just for the team but also for the individual reps. This resulted in repeatable quota attainment, improved pipeline health, and reduced time to win. Eventually, reps started seeing the acceleration of many of those bigger, faster deals through this consolidation exercise.

Here’s how they cut down the chaos. First and foremost, ensuring repeatable quota contributions. Now, it has become very vital to drive repeatable quota contributions, not just from a select set of reps, a select set of reps, but also from a larger number of sales reps beyond those top-performing reps. Pipeline risk analytics was vital to focus on cleansing the pipeline and identifying disengaged prospects. This involves constant risk scoring and discussions with the team to improve engagement so as to get those conversations back on track.

Building trust with the teams [was imperative.] The customer was privy to many data points, and unleashing these data points in one shot was not good. It was going to be counterproductive. Getting those data points gradually out to the team and then getting them to collaborate in a more productive way helped avoid disengagement and perceived micromanagement.

Upgrading their sales process and methodical methodology [was key.] Focusing on key milestones in the sales process helped ensure that things were on track. Insight-driven decision making [was imperative] Insights provide a contextual view. Allowing for those informed decisions to actually happen and having impactful arguments in board meetings was one of the things that they were able to do as well. [The customer also] focused on those healthy deals. There was a shift from focusing on top-line metrics to truly healthy and winnable deals in the existing pipeline. This required analyzing time-to-win and time-to-lose rates and helped identify those opportunities that were ripe for improvement, Along with reducing risks.

These are some of the things that helped this customer cut down their chaos in a significant way. If you’d like to learn more about more actionable insights from your revenue enablement or operations perspective from some pharmaceutical experts, please feel free to scan this QR code and get more details. Thank you.

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The Complete Guide to Closing More Deals Using Consultative Selling

Rahul Mathew on January 24, 2024

If you scroll through LinkedIn, you’ve likely seen many sales reps identify themselves as consultants in their titles.

But simply calling yourself a consultant doesn’t mean you’re actually acting as a consultant during the sales process.

In many cases, sellers engage in product-based selling, which involves pushing the features and benefits of a given product – without regard for whether these features and benefits are relevant to the customer.

This approach may have worked in the past.

But in today’s world, product-based selling will no longer cut it.

What you will learn

  • We’ll explore what consultative selling is
  • How it differs from traditional selling
  • How it can set your organization apart from the competition
  • Best practices for putting consultative selling into practice at your organization to start seeing results ASAP

Modern buyers are more informed than ever and often do plenty of research on their own before contacting a seller. These buyers also have high expectations for great experiences throughout the purchase journey. The most successful sales organizations are adopting a consultative selling approach to meet buyers’ lofting expectations – and start closing more deals, faster.

What is consultative selling?

First things first, what is consultative selling? Consultative selling (commonly referred to as needs-based selling) is a sales methodology focused on understanding the needs of the buyer – and then offering the best solution to fit those needs. Consultative selling can take place in person, but increasingly, it happens virtually.

Those who practice consultative selling prioritize relationship-building. Sellers take the time to truly understand the challenges and pain points of each prospective buyer and gain their trust. Then, those sellers tailor their solutions and messaging to address the buyer’s unique needs.

To illustrate consultative sales in action, consider your most recent, significant purchase – either in your professional or personal life. Most likely, you found yourself in one of two scenarios. Perhaps you worked with a pushy sales rep who waxed poetic on all the features and benefits of the product – regardless of whether those features and benefits were actually relevant to your needs. They may have also shared generic collateral with you covering information you already uncovered on your own.

Or, perhaps you had the opportunity to work with a sales rep who listened to your needs, answered all of your questions, asked some of their own thoughtful questions, and ultimately, delivered personalized, relevant experiences that helped you come to the conclusion that their solution was the best fit for your needs.

If you experienced the latter, you experienced consultative sales in action.

Consultative selling requires the right tools and technology. For example, organizations need sales training software to ensure their reps have the training required to be consultative sellers. They can also use this software to deliver continuous learning to ensure reps have the skills they need – whether their sales interactions are in the field or virtual.

Solution selling vs. consultative selling: how they differ

Consultative selling is a vastly different approach from traditional selling and requires a different set of selling skills. While the benefits are many (we’ll cover some of those benefits later on), it can be a huge shift in mindset for sellers accustomed to traditional, product-focused selling.

Traditional selling is transactional; reps are focused on winning that one sale. On the other hand, consultative selling is focused on building relationships with buyers. Those relationship-building efforts enable reps to position themselves as trusted advisors, rather than pushy sellers.

In addition, traditional selling focuses on pushing the features and benefits of the product in question – without any regard for how those features may (or may not) help the seller achieve their goals. Conversely, consultative sellers work to understand the needs of each buyer. They practice active listening and ask thoughtful questions to gain deeper understanding. Then, they offer solutions that will address the buyer’s unique pain points and help them achieve their goals.

Solution selling

Consultative selling

  • Transactional
  • Reps focus on delivering their sales pitch
  • One-size-fits-all experiences and messaging
  • Focused on the features of the product
  • Seller is in the driver’s seat
  • Prioritizes relationship-building
  • Reps focus on understanding the buyer’s needs and pain points
  • Experiences and messaging are tailored to the specific buyer
  • Focused on the benefits to the specific buyer
  • Buyer is in the driver’s seat, with the seller guiding them along the way

Traditional, product-focused selling may still work in some circumstances – namely, low dollar value transactions.

However, traditional selling simply isn’t effective for high-touch B2B sales. B2B sales organizations must make the shift to a consultative selling methodology if they expect to meet their targets and grow revenue.

Benefits of consultative selling

Increasingly, sales orgs are shifting from traditional, transactional selling approaches to consultative selling. This isn’t surprising, as the consultative sales approach delivers myriad benefits to buyers and sellers alike.

If you’re delivering the same, generic pitch to every buyer, they’re likely to tune you out. When sellers take the time to get to know a buyer and share solutions to their key challenges, it leads to a much more engaging experience for buyers.

Reps who practice consultative selling are able to demonstrate their understanding of a buyer’s business and needs – and deliver personalized solutions that meet those needs. Buyers are more likely to purchase a customized solution from a trusted consultant.

Consultative sellers take the time to understand a prospect’s pain points. By doing their research and asking the right questions, these reps can shed light on unrecognized needs. This can lead to larger deal sizes.

Consultative selling is all about relationship-building. When reps build rapport with customers, they’re more likely to stick around long term. They may even refer others in their networks looking to solve similar challenges.

 

1. Do your research

These days, buyers do plenty of research before reaching out to a sales rep. Make sure you’re doing your research, too. This background work is key to getting started on the right foot with the prospect.

The company’s website and LinkedIn are great starting places to uncover insights. Industry publications and social media can also be great sources of information. In addition, be sure to check your CRM for information on any past interactions with the company.

You’ll want to gain a deep understanding of things like:

  • Who the company is
  • Company size
  • Product and service offerings
  • Target market
  • Key competitors
  • State of the industry

Remember: the goal is to uncover as much information as possible about the company and your point of contact. This research will lay the foundation for a successful consultative selling process.

2. Ask the right questions

There’s plenty you’ll be able to learn about your prospect through your research. But this won’t tell you all you need to know to make recommendations.

You’ll also need to ask plenty of questions to gain a full understanding of your prospect’s needs and pain points. Don’t pose generic discovery questions, though. Instead, tailor your questions to the prospect and what you’ve already learned about them through your research.

Remember: nobody wants to feel like they’re being interrogated. While it’s important to ask questions, be sure you’re giving your prospect plenty of opportunity to ask their own questions, too. Per our 2023 State of Sales Productivity Report, on average, customers speak 38% of the time on calls. However, customers speak 57% of the time during top reps’ discovery calls.

Amount of time customers speak on discovery calls
0 %

 

3. Actively listen

It’s important to ask the right questions. But it’s just as important to actively listen to your prospect’s answers. This sounds simple enough, but it’s an area where many reps struggle.

When your prospect is answering your questions, be sure you’re giving them signals to indicate you’re listening. Avoid distractions, remain engaged in the conversation, and paraphrase their answers to ensure understanding. Be sure to add value to your summaries whenever possible. Active listening is key to building trust with the prospect.

4. Diagnosis the problem – and determine how you can help

Based on your background research and your conversations with your prospect, you should have a clear understanding of their current state – and their goals for the future. You should also understand what their main problem or challenge is. The next step is to determine how (and whether) you have a solution to help them overcome their key challenges and achieve their primary goals.

5. Educate and provide value

Once you’ve identified your prospect’s problem and figured out the right solution, it’s time to educate your prospect and provide value, whenever possible.

This is the point in the consultative selling process where you can tap into your industry knowledge to offer insights on how the prospect can overcome their problem. You may even have a case study focused on how a similar company overcame a similar problem.

If your product offering is a good solution for a prospect’s solutions, you can also educate them on how it’ll help them overcome challenges. But remember: one-size-fits all sales presentations and collateral won’t cut it. It’s essential to tailor your materials and your conversations to the needs of each buyer.

6. Guide prospects to a decision

In traditional selling, the rep is in the driver’s seat, attempting to push the deal to the finish line. However, in consultative selling, it’s a more collaborative process.

Be prepared to answer questions and overcome objections. In addition, remain patient – and avoid being pushy. The time and effort you’ve spent gathering information and building rapport will help you guide your prospects to a decision.

Consultative selling with Mindtickle

Consultative selling requires a shift in mindset for those accustomed to more traditional selling approaches. However, the effort is worth it as consultative sales empowers sellers to engage buyers, become trusted advisors, and close more deals more quickly.

But shifting to a consultative selling methodology doesn’t just happen with a flip of the switch. Instead, it’s imperative to equip your teams with the training and tools they need to be successful with consultative selling.

Mindtickle empowers businesses with a single, powerful platform that incorporates sales training, sales enablement, and call insights. Sellers can access all training and content they need to learn the ins and outs of consultative selling. In addition, they can turn to the Mindtickle revenue productivity platform to find the content they need to guide each sale toward the finish line. Finally, sales managers can tap into call insights to understand where their sellers are shining – and where they need more coaching to improve their consultative selling techniques.

There’s no need for sellers to juggle different, disparate platforms. Everything they need to ace consultative selling is within the Mindtickle platform.

Learn more about how Mindtickle can help your teams conquer consultative selling, or request a personalized demo today.

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This post was originally published in September 2023 and was updated in January 2024. 

What are Sales Goals and How to Set Smart Sales Goals for Your Sales Reps?

Rahul Mathew on December 6, 2023

Setting goals is important in all areas of life – both personally and professionally. The world of sales is no exception.

Sales goals help ensure your entire sales team is aligned. Each sales rep must understand the overall goals of the company – and the part they play in achieving those goals.

As a sales leader, it’s important to set goals that will motivate your sellers and ensure they know what’s expected of them. In theory, this seems easy enough. But in reality, setting effective goals (and then achieving them) can be challenging.

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at why sales goals are important to sales teams, how to set effective ones, examples of common sales goals, and steps you can take to track and achieve them.

What are sales goals and why are they important for your sales teams?

According to the dictionary, a goal is “an aim or desired result.”

But what are sales goals?

They are clearly defined objectives set for individual sales reps and sales teams. Sales goals articulate what the sales rep or sales team is expected to achieve within a specific amount of time.

Individual rep vs. group sales goals

Some sales goals are created for a specific sales rep. Others are developed for a subgroup of the sales team. For example, an organization might have goals for reps in specific regions – or with specific titles. Finally, some goals are developed for the sales organization as a whole.

Long-term vs. short term sales goals

Sometimes, sales goals are long-term goals. For example, a sales team might have a goal to increase revenue in their region by 20% during the fiscal year. Other goals are short-term. For example, a sales development team might have a goal to increase cold calls by 50% this month.

What are SMART sales goals?

Setting a goal like “sell as much as possible” isn’t the best approach. Instead, the most successful sales organizations use the SMART methodology to develop goals.

The idea of SMART goals was first introduced in a 1981 issue of Management Review. SMART is an acronym that guides individuals and teams in setting more effective goals. SMART goals are:

Generic goals like “close more deals” or “increase revenue” aren’t effective. Instead, goals must be specific, with details about how that goal will be achieved.

If you can’t measure something, there’s no way of knowing whether you were successful. Goals must have specific numbers attached to them.

Stretch goals are a great way to challenge reps. But goals must also be achievable.

Goals must be related to your company’s overall goals and strategy.

Goals must have a specific time attached to them. For example, close 50% more details by the end of Q2 2024.

Why are sales goals important?

Imagine you were going for a hike in the woods but had no idea where you were going and no map to guide you. Chances are, you’d lose your way at some point.

This is similar to what it’s like when sales reps don’t have sales goals.

Without goals, your sales teams don’t know what’s expected of them. They don’t know what they’re working towards – much less how to get there. In such a scenario, sellers are left to their own devices, and your chances of growing revenue are slim to none.

Creating goals is an important way to align your sales team and ensure they understand expectations. Clearly defined sales goals ensure sellers understand the overall objectives of the sales team – as well as the part they pay in achieving those objectives.

Sales goals examples

There’s no magic set of sales goals that will work for every single sales organization. Instead, it’s important to develop sales goals that make sense for your organization.

However, seeing some common, real-life examples of sales goals can be a great way to get the ideas flowing. Here are a few sales goals examples.

Generate more revenue

Reduce sales cycles

Achieve quota

Reduce churn rate

Reduce customer acquistion cost

Improve prospecting

Sales goal example #1: Generating more sales revenue

Increasing sales revenue is a top priority of any sales organization. As such, it makes sense to have a sales goal related to generating sales revenue. Because revenue is quantitative, it’s relatively easy to set a sales goal related to it.

Sales goal example #2: Reducing the sales cycle

A given deal includes several steps – from prospecting to closing the deal. Ideally, a seller would flow through these steps as quickly as possible. After all, the faster a deal goes through the sales cycle, the faster that revenue will hit the bottom line. In addition, when the deal closes, it’ll free up the rep’s time to focus on other opportunities.

  • An example of a sales goal related to reducing the sales cycle might be: Reduce time to close in Q2 by 10% by focusing on good-fit prospects and delivering personalized pitches to prospects that create urgency to act.
  • An example of a goal related to generating sales revenue might be: “Grow monthly recurring revenue by 25% in 2024 by improving cold calling tactics and increasing win rates.”

Sales goal example #3: Achieving quota

The more sales reps meet their sales quota, the more likely you are to reach your revenue growth goals. So it’s not surprising that sales quota achievement is a common sales goal.

  • An example of a sales quota achievement goal is: “80% of sellers in the Northeast region will achieve 80% of their sales quota in Q3.”

Sales goal example #4: Reducing churn rate

It’s more expensive to win a new customer than it is to retain an existing one. As such, sales organizations must aim for a high customer retention rate.

  • A sales goal example related to churn might be: “Reduce customer churn by 25% in the last two quarters of 2024 by improving client success hand-off and adopting a more proactive approach to customer success.”

Sales goal example #5: Reducing customer acquisition cost

Customer acquisition cost – often referred to as CAC – is the amount of money spent to convert a lead to a customer. This cost includes several factors, including:

  • Marketing campaigns
  • Your employees’ time

The longer it takes to convert a lead to a customer, the higher the CAC. As such, it makes sense to create a sales goal related to reducing CAC. An example could be: “Decrease CAC by 10% this quarter.”

Sales goal example #6: Increase cold calls and improve prospecting

Cold calls aren’t anyone’s favorite part of sales. But they’re necessary to meet sales targets.

Many sales organizations set sales goals directly related to cold call quantity. For example, “make 100 cold calls this week.”

When it comes to cold calls, it’s about both quantity and quality. Of course, you want your sellers to be making a lot of calls. But you also want them to be connecting with qualified prospects.

Tips for setting sales goals

Now that you know some common sales goals, it’s time to set your own. But how? There are some tried-and-true steps to take to get started with setting sales goals.

Step 1: Determine the type of sales goal
Step 2: Develop the goal based on the SMART methodology
Step 3: Strike the right balance between challenging and achievable
Step 4: Consider incentives
Step 5: Clearly communicate your sales goals
Step 6: Measure success of your sales goals

Step #1: Determine the type of goal

Before developing a goal, you must first determine what type of goal it is. For example, is it a goal for the entire sales team? Or is it a goal for a specific portion of your sales team or even a specific seller?

Next, determine what category of goal it is. For example, is it a sales goal related to revenue? Or perhaps you are aiming to develop a sales goal related to deal size.

Some organizations opt to start with sales goal templates. Sales goal templates can be a great starting point that can be customized to fit the needs of your business.

Remember: any sales goal you create should be aligned with your overall business strategy and objectives.

Step #2: Develop the goal based on the SMART methodology

Vague goals aren’t effective. As an example, consider a sales goal of “increase sales revenue.” Sure, this goal provides a high-level overview of the objective. However, we don’t know how much the team is aiming to increase revenue – or what the deadline is for doing so.

A better approach is to write SMART goals that are:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Achievable
  • Relevant
  • Time-bound

Make sure the SMART goals you set check every box on this list.

Step #3: Strike the right balance between challenging and achievable

You don’t want to set a goal so high that it’s impossible to achieve. That will only frustrate your sellers. What’s more, when these unrealistic sales goals aren’t achieved, it’ll damage morale.

But you also don’t want to set your sales KPIs too low. If your sales targets are too low, your team isn’t achieving its full potential.

Instead, it’s important to ensure your goals are challenging, yet achievable. Stretch goals are great, but they must be realistic, based on past sales data and sales enablement analytics.

Step #4: Consider incentives

Each member of your sales team should have a clear understanding of how they’re compensated based on individual and team performance. But for some sales goals, you may want to incorporate an additional incentive or reward.

Step #5: Clearly communicate your goals

Let’s say you spend time and effort developing individual and team goals. But then you don’t communicate those goals with the teams. If your sales reps don’t know their goals, how can they be expected to achieve them?

Be sure all sales reps know their individual and team goals. It’s also important to provide context for the goals. For example, a sales rep may scoff at a goal related to cold calling. However, if they understand the reason behind this goal (for example, increasing pipeline and closing more deals), they’ll be more motivated to achieve it.

Step #6: Measure progress toward your sales goals

When it comes to goals, ongoing measurement is key. Otherwise, you have no insight into whether you’re on track to achieve those sales goals.

Be sure you can easily track progress on individual and team levels. Of course, sales managers and leaders should have easy access to this information. However, it’s also important that each sales rep has insight into their progress.

Tracking and achieving your sales goals

Now that you’ve set your sales goals, it’s time to work toward achieving them. But how can you improve your chances of achieving your sales targets? Here are a few tips that can help.

Continuously measure progress toward sales goals

Let’s say you set a sales goal to increase each rep’s percentage of closed deals by the end of the quarter. But you don’t measure their progress until the last day of the quarter. If your reps fall short, there’s not much you can do at that point.

Don’t wait until the end of the goal’s specified time period to measure results. Instead, measure progress toward your sales goals on an ongoing basis. That way, you can identify challenges early on and work to correct them. Once you’ve overcome those challenges, you’ll be better equipped to achieve your sales goals.

Provide visibility into progress

Sales leadership should easily be able to access data, sales dashboards, and reports to see how their teams are progressing toward their goals. However, it’s also important to provide sales reps with visibility into progress. Seeing where they’re at in terms of achieving their sales goals can motivate them to work harder to achieve them.

Define what it takes for a sales rep to be successful

At every sales organization, there is a set of skills and competencies necessary for success. It’s important to document those competencies in an ideal rep profile (IRP). Then, measure each rep against that IRP to determine where there are gaps that need to be addressed.

Deliver training and enablement to improve key sales skills

Imagine it’s halfway through the quarter. You have a sales rep that looks like they’re going to miss their sales quota – yet again. But they’re not able to articulate what’s going wrong.

By leveraging conversation intelligence, you notice the rep is faced with a lot of objections on sales calls – and they’re having trouble overcoming those objections. There’s no doubt this is standing in the way of them achieving their sales KPIs.

Sales managers can use these insights to provide additional sales enablement and practice opportunities for this rep. For example, they assign the rep some bite-sized learning content or ask that they complete and submit some role-plays for review. In addition, the sales manager can deliver individualized coaching to help the seller boost their objection-handling skills, which will increase their likelihood of meeting their sales goals.

Recognize success toward sales goals

When your sales reps achieve their sales goals, be sure to recognize their achievement. Of course, bonuses and incentives are a great way to motivate your team. But verbal recognition can be effective, too. Remember: a little recognition can go a long way in motivating your team to continue to aim for success.

Crush your goals with Mindtickle

Setting sales goals is a foundational way to align your sales team and improve sales performance. It’s important to take the time to establish thoughtful, data-driven sales goals – and then ensure every seller has what it takes to achieve those goals.

Today, some of the best sales organizations depend on Mindtickle to crush their sales KPIs.

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Mindtickle equips sales leaders with the data they need to develop and track challenging, yet realistic sales goals. In addition, sales reps can access the training, enablement, and content they need for sales success – all in one revenue intelligence platform. What’s more, Mindtickle incorporates conversational intelligence which enables sales managers to understand what’s happening in the field so they can provide coaching to improve outcomes.

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4 Objectives of Effective Sales Coaching

Rahul Mathew on October 12, 2023

B2B customers only spend 17 percent of their interactions with a salesperson. This means that every second of an interaction counts. Effective sales coaching can empower sales reps with the resources and skills they need to leave a lasting impression.

Amount of time B2B buyers spend with sellers
0%

 

Understanding the objectives of sales coaching and how to avoid the most common pitfalls won’t only strengthen your sales coaches’ influence — it will also improve the end performance of your sales reps..

What is sales coaching?

Sales coaching is the ongoing, one-on-one mentorship of each rep on a sales team. It is a conversation between the rep and a coach, where the rep does most of the talking while the coach listens, observes, and offers feedback.

Coaching is different from onboarding, where new information is presented to many reps at one time. It’s also unique from training, which can happen in many different forms, including virtual training and micro-learning.

Here are a few characteristics of coaching that make it different from training:

While a training event provides a baseline education or a foundation, coaching builds on this foundation with continual sessions. Many successful sales organizations make coaching a weekly practice, and some even establish daily coaching routines.

Unlike a training session that involves the whole sales team, each coaching session is tailored to the needs of an individual rep. The coach knows the rep, as well as their strengths, challenges, and areas needing improvement.

While training is designed to impart new information about products, customers, strategies, competitors, etc., coaching is behavior-based. It corrects a rep’s unfavorable behaviors and habits while reinforcing effective ones. In fact, quota attainment increases by 7% when coaches focus on sales rep behavior.

 

Why does effective sales coaching matter?

Having a strong coaching relationship is important to gain employee trust and work together to develop sales skills. But the secret sauce to coaching is making sure to build a program and approach where reps are coached the right way.

Apart from building an environment where growth is supported, sales coaching can also:

  • Optimize sales training information and skills to be incorporated into day-to-day practices.
  • Show sales reps you care about their personal development and growth in their role.
  • Create personalized KPIs and development plans that are tracked with employees.
  • Share, in a safe environment, valuable feedback for improvement.
  • Teach sales reps to leverage sales enablement tools to track and monitor their skill development progress.

 

The 4 key objectives of sales coaching

Research from our 2022 State of Sales Readiness found that 85% of reps report being coached on closing open deals but only 24% report being coached on long-term skills. The best sales managers make it a priority to deliver a mix of opportunity, skills, and targeted coaching to truly drive results.

Here’s how to build a coaching approach that focuses on developing long-term skills rather than just focusing on short-term deal remediation.

1. Ensure reps refine and improve their sales skills

Most sales reps forget 70% of their sales training, with 87% of sales reps forgetting that 70% within the first month of training. Sales coaching helps with this by reinforcing training concepts and applying them to the unique needs of each rep.

Coaching starts with analytics that pinpoint each rep’s strengths and weaknesses. For new hires, the sales coach might target foundational behaviors and best practices like empathetic listening and objection handling. Over time, the coach’s focus might transition to negotiation skills and effectively presenting value.

As the rep’s career progresses, they’ll flourish into a highly skilled advisor that buyers depend on.

2. Build confidence and encourage skill development

Many sales leaders incorrectly assume that coaching creates discouragement and a lack of confidence. Such leaders often come from organizations that only coach their reps after they’ve lost a deal. In that circumstance, coaching is viewed as a negative, as it is often read as a type of punishment.

Proper coaching, however, is an integral part of every sales rep’s daily or weekly routine. Effective coaches build confidence by praising their reps’ daily wins, along with helping them overcome their weaknesses.

3. Provide consistent practices and expectations across the sales team

It’s common for sales organizations to lack standard best practices for their teams to anchor themselves to. Without a standard set of guidelines and repeatable steps to take, it’s almost impossible to help reps correct their courses of action.

Successful sales organizations use onboarding sessions to teach reps about the organization’s best practices, and they reinforce these standards with coaching. These one-on-one sessions are a great opportunity to identify and correct behavior that doesn’t fit with the organization’s vision or standard process.

4. Increase revenue

Organizations that provide effective sales coaching enjoy 16.7% higher annual revenue growth than those that don’t. That’s why it’s important for sales leaders to resist the temptation to “be the hero” and take the reins of a lagging deal to score the big win. By taking over, sales leaders deprive their teams of the ability to refine their skills and improve.

Sales organizations that establish coaches rather than “heroes” are able to turn every member of their salesforce into competent deal closers. It’s more profitable to have 100 highly skilled closers than a handful of heroes.

The challenges of sales coaching

Most sales leaders understand the importance of coaching but struggle to find the time and support to implement an effective coaching program.

Here are the four most common challenges in sales coaching:

Some sales reps don’t feel they need sales coaching

Many reps want training and coaching because they understand that it boosts their career development. Others, particularly those who consistently hit their sales quota, are hesitant.

Reluctance to sales coaching can be solved by instituting a culture of coaching where everyone — including the coaches themselves — is mentored and coached.

Sales coaches and managers can lead by example by continuing to receive coaching and working to develop their own skills. It’s good practice to strike a balance between formal and informal coaching, as this will let your sales reps know they’re not being graded and evaluated but can use the coaching session as a tool for improvement. It’s especially important early in the sales coaching process — when reps are hesitant — to reinforce a culture of continuous improvement.

Leaders are unsure how to measure success

Many sales leaders want to make a business case for establishing a coaching process at their organization, but they have no idea how to measure success or ROI. Fortunately, the right sales coaching platform provides all the analytics capabilities and metrics needed for this

With the right sales enablement tool, you can set goals for the entire team as well as individual reps.

When you understand an individual rep’s strengths and weaknesses, you can set performance goals and coach toward these. Whether it’s contract value, win rate, time to productivity, or another sales KPI, you can track the individual’s performance on a given metric over time to evaluate the effectiveness of your coaching.

Teams don’t want to put forth the time and resources required

Time and resources are common challenges for organizations looking to expand their sales coaching. It takes time from both the sales rep who is being coached and the leader doing the coaching. It may involve implementing and learning new technology, adjusting schedules, and even changing the department’s culture.

This investment seems daunting, but the long-term value far outweighs the initial investment of time and effort. Organizations that spend time reinforcing skills and use coaching to reach set goals can raise sales rep productivity by 25% in as little as 18 months.

It’s a good idea to include a sales enablement platform that empowers both sales reps and coaches with insights, centralized content, and courses to help save time and track improvement. This shows sales reps insights into their improvement and encourages continuous development.

 

Lack of understanding of what makes a strong sales coaching program

What makes a good sales rep is often different from what makes a good sales coach. Unfortunately, many organizations promote high-performing reps without investing in training and ongoing development for the sales coach in their new role.

To create an effective coaching plan, it’s important to implement coach training in your organization. Have coaches complete their training before they begin coaching salespeople. And use one-on-one mentoring, virtual training, and other tools to ensure your coaches are well-equipped to develop sales skills in other reps.

The above challenges are temporary ones, and they are usually resolved as the coaching system progresses. Once all reps see the career advantages of coaching, and once top leadership understands the competitive benefits, you can encourage the entire department to embrace continuous development.

4 tips for measuring sales coaching effectiveness

Measuring the impact of sales coaching is important to help understand the ROI of time and other resources invested in coaching sales reps.

However, calculating sales coaching impact is a bit more tricky.

But don’t worry — we’ve got four simple tips that’ll help you measure your sales coaching effectiveness.

1. Keep track of sales performance

Forty-seven percent of companies look at the performance of the overall team to gauge the success of sales coaching. This will help you understand how behavioral change and skill development translate to higher win rates and improved performance.

To measure the impact of sales coaching, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the following sales metrics:

  • Sales cycle length
  • Quota attainment
  • Conversion by deal stage
  • Average revenue generation

Keep track of the skills developed through coaching sessions to see the influence they have on quota attainment. This will help you understand where your training has been the most useful and what skills need a little more improvement.

2. Assess sales reps’ skill development

With sales coaching, the goal is to identify weak sales traits and skills and then support sellers to grow their skills and knowledge.

Part of calculating the impact of sales coaching is to see how learned skills pass from theory into practice. You’ll want to ensure sales reps use their new skills in all their interactions and note the impact it has on closing rates.

Keep an eye on the following measurements to calculate the impact sales coaching has on sales reps’ skills:

  • Number of sales skills improved
  • Behavioral changes around selling approaches
  • Amount of new skills learned

 

You can use skill tests and quizzes to measure skill improvement. And sales enablement platforms can help automatically keep track of interactions and score each seller on their skill level.

3. Create anonymous surveys and feedback polls

Employee turnover is expensive, with the average cost of replacing a sales hire being 2.1-2.5 times their salary.

However, sales coaching and training can increase employee engagement by 10% and improve the overall employee experience. In fact, organizations that focus on personalized development increase retention rate by 34% on average.

Keep track of employee engagement through surveys and polls to understand the correlation between sales coaching and employee engagement.

Some good indicators to keep an eye on are:

  • Average employee engagement scores
  • Average employee turnover
  • Average employee satisfaction

Sales coaches are also at the front line to hear sales reps’ concerns and worries. This puts them in a position to proactively improve their employee experience and come up with solutions with the reps being coached.

Not only does this help with sales rep engagement, but it empowers employees to succeed in their roles while improving company profitability.

A sales coaching platform empowers your whole team

To coach effectively, you need a combination of data insights, content resources, and skill assessments. This requires content and course preparation and tracking abilities to measure sales reps’ improvement. This can be challenging if you don’t have a way to store and connect all the skills and sellers’ insights.

However, it doesn’t have to be.

A sales enablement platform like Mindtickle includes robust sales coaching features for your team to build on.

Moreover, Mindtickle offers bespoke competency maps to identify areas for coaching, micro-learning modules, insights to track improvement, and an ideal rep profile to inspire sales reps.

Sales Coaching in Mindtickle

Request a demo to learn how Mindtickle can help you develop and implement effective sales coaching in your own organization.

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This post was originally published in January 2020, updated in December 2022, and again in October 2023. 

4 Sales Productivity Metrics to Monitor Team Performance

Rahul Mathew on October 3, 2023

From selling skills and customer satisfaction to sales and revenue, there are plenty of sales activity metrics to keep you busy. But which are actually accurately measuring sales productivity and effectively monitoring your team’s performance?

Here’s how to measure key sales performance metrics (and how to avoid common mistakes).

What are sales productivity metrics?

Sales productivity metrics are data points you use to track your team’s successes and impact on revenue. Depending on your organization and industry, different metrics like monthly revenue, number of employees, win rates, time-to-first-deal, etc. might be part of the equation.

Types of sales productivity metrics

No matter the sales org or industry, there are two basic kinds of sales productivity metrics: leading and lagging.

Leading indicators, such as customer satisfaction, help predict future performance and sales.

Lagging indicators, such as revenue numbers, help explain what happened in the past.

 

Naturally, you need a good mix of leading and lagging indicators to properly measure sales rep productivity.

Choosing key sales performance metrics

Key sales performance metrics look a little different for each company. You want to measure key performance indicators (KPIs) and revenue outcomes, sure — but you also need data on how your unique processes and workflows are functioning. The trick is to choose metrics that create insight into four things:

What your reps did
How they did it
Why they did it
What were the results

 

With this information, you won’t just be able to monitor performance — you’ll be able to proactively improve it (and see those results reflected in real numbers).

4 essential sales productivity metrics to monitor

Ready to choose the sales productivity metrics you’ll keep an eye on? Don’t forget to include these essential benchmarks on your list:

#1: Average revenue

It makes sense that revenue is the primary measurement for sales productivity.  Average revenue is a particularly helpful metric because it can be broken down in so many ways. Here are just a few examples:

How much money does the average customer bring to your business? What’s the difference between current and new customers in terms of revenue?

How much is your product or service worth? Do you have a bestseller? Are certain offerings lagging while others make incredible revenue?

Which sales reps bring in the most money?

 

#2: Market penetration

If you want to know how great your sales reps are at getting products and services in the right hands, one place to start is market penetration. This metric measures how much of the available market you “own” through your offerings.

But what does that look like on paper? Check out this market penetration formula:

(Number of Customers / Target Market Size) x 100 = Market Penetration Rate

The higher your market penetration, the better your sales reps are doing. They might even have an easier time making sales if your brand’s reputation and offerings are already well-known.

#3: Retention rate

Sales rep productivity metrics aren’t just about the sales themselves. These numbers also reflect vital elements of the customer experience and, in turn, how many future sales can be created by a good initial sale. That’s why customer retention rate is another key metric to track.

Here’s how to determine retention rates:

  1. Choose a time frame.
  2. Find the number of customers at the start of that time frame. (Call this “S.”)
  3. Find the number of customers at the end of that time frame. (Call this “E.”)
  4. Perform this calculation — E – S — to find the number of new customers. (Call this “N.”)
  5. Plug your numbers into this formula: [(E-N)/S] x 100. This is your customer retention rate.

#4: Sales rep habits

Which sales reps are making the most calls? Which are taking the most notes, sending the most emails, and pushing the most products or services per sale?

These habits might not tell a full story on their own — but compare them to sales data and you’re sure to find relevant patterns. For example, maybe a high number of notes correlates to a high number of sales because reps are better able to build real relationships when they keep track of customer information.

Whatever your research uncovers, be sure to track these sales rep productivity metrics regularly to monitor progress, intervene when necessary, and celebrate big wins.

 

How can monitoring sales productivity metrics increase sales performance?

Your first steps are to decide which key sales performance metrics to track, how often to gather data, and what you’ll do with this information. That’s when you’ll start seeing results.

Here’s a simplified look at how it works:

  1. You notice an issue. For example, say your sales productivity is slipping and you have a low average revenue per customer.
  2. You compare other metrics. You need to compare all your data points to see the full story. If n this way, you’ll uncover patterns — for example, maybe sales reps are pushing products or services that don’t make as much money.
  3. You implement targeted solutions. Now that you’ve seen the patterns, you can put effective tools, training, or processes into place. In this case, you might train reps to offer the right products or services at the right times — not just to increase revenue, but to boost retention, too.
  4. You track changes. Keep an eye on the same metrics you tracked before. If you see significant changes, your tactics are working; if not, it’s back to the drawing board.

The basis of this process is simple: Monitoring sales productivity metrics gives you the insight you need to identify gaps and fill them with the best possible solutions. Without this information, you’d be left guessing where your sales reps are struggling, what works and what doesn’t, whether your “fixes” actually fixed anything, and more.

3 mistakes to avoid while tracking sales productivity metrics

Tracking key sales performance metrics isn’t always easy. Here are a few mistakes to avoid (and how to do better):

Tracking the wrong things
Changing your tracking process
Failing to act

 

#1: Tracking the wrong things

Not every metric is equally helpful. It’s up to you to make sure you find the numbers that matter — and the best ways to track them. If you get caught up in the wrong metrics, you could end up with a skewed view of sales rep productivity, revenue, and more.

#2: Changing your tracking processes

Say you have a process for tracking a certain metric, and then you abruptly change course. The numbers gathered before the change aren’t comparable to those gathered after — which means you’ve wasted time and effort. When it comes to tracking key performance metrics, make sure to stay consistent in your processes, schedules, and more.

#3: Failing to act

Key sales performance metrics are just information. If you don’t use that information to make decisions and implement changes based on what you learned, you won’t get value from your data. That’s why it’s important to have a plan of action — because it’s the best way to turn metrics into actionable insights.

Conclusion

Wondering how to measure sales rep productivity when there are so many metrics to consider, numbers to juggle, and mistakes to avoid? The key is to have a good foundation — and that all starts with a single revenue productivity platform. When performance and the processes that track it are in the same place, it’s much easier to create a clear, streamlined story of your sales successes.

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This post was originally published in February 2023 and was updated in October 2023. 

How 10 of the Best Conversation Intelligence Software Solutions Stack Up

Rahul Mathew on September 12, 2023

When sales teams are looking at conversation intelligence tools, it’s like shopping for the latest tech gadget—you want to make sure it does what you need it to.

But if you pick the wrong one, you’ve just shelled out a ton of money for something that doesn’t do what you need.

Evaluating a conversation intelligence tool is easier when you know what’s out there and the strengths and deficits of each. In this blog post, we’ll give you the rundown on what a conversation tool is, how it works, its benefits, and the top 10 tools on the market right now.

What is conversation intelligence?

Conversation intelligence, also known as Call AI, is technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to review sales conversations and compile data-driven insights for improved sales rep performance.

How does conversation intelligence work?

Conversation intelligence software automatically records, transcribes, and analyzes sales calls, providing direct visibility into what reps are saying and doing on calls every day. It surfaces the insights revenue leaders need to make sure their reps follow best practices, saying the right things in the right moments to increase win rates and close deals more efficiently.

What are the benefits of conversation intelligence?

Here are a few of the benefits the best conversation intelligence software solutions deliver:

Immerse them in the ways your best-performing reps approach discovery and handle objections.

Better understand the specific mix of sales training, coaching, and tools each individual rep needs to succeed.

See which enablement talk tracks, content, and training best practices are being used in the field — and which ones lead to closed-won deals.

Use real-world buyer interactions to personalize coaching to each rep.

Address the challenges that are blocking reps from progressing deals and improve win rates on complex deals.

Build deeper understanding of your ideal customer’s needs and drive go-to-market strategies, sales methodologies, and even product roadmaps.

Compare the best conversation intelligence software solutions

1. Mindtickle

Mindtickle delivers the only single, integrated platform to build and implement an effective sales readiness strategy. Revenue leaders rely on the conversation intelligence functionality in the platform to surface insights that help their teams increase knowledge, internalize ideal sales behaviors, and quickly adapt to change. Mindtickle also offers revenue intelligence technology to provide deal and account health scores after analyzing all of the calls, emails, and meetings that took place. Then it serves reps up with content to send to customers and trainings that will help them win more deals.

Feature highlights

Get everything sales reps and leaders need to be successful, all in one place. Mindtickle’s Call AI is built into a system of record that delivers customer insights, training, onboarding, and content all in one place. It’s one data model and one security model for all.

Automatically transcribe and analyze every sales conversation and unlock valuable insights that let you pinpoint and replicate winning rep behaviors.

Use data from real-world buyer interactions to inform more relevant and effective sales coaching. Drive meaningful behavior change through personalized, adaptive experiences.

Unlock deal and account health scores, including risk analytics, to guide reps on how to win more deals. Suggest relevant content and training based on a rep’s in-field performance.

 

Worth noting: G2’s audience of software users ranked Mindtickle #2 on the “Top 50 Best Enterprise Software Products” and #5 on the “Top 50 Sales Software Products” list for 2022.

Mindtickle’s revenue intelligence product is provided through a deep technical integration with BoostUp.ai.

2. Allego

Allego is an all-in-one, rep-centric platform that ensures sellers have the skills, knowledge, and content they need to optimize team success in a virtual world. Built-in functionality allows teams to analyze sales calls, demos, and meetings, identifying key moments to drive the best future outcomes.

Feature highlights

Transcribe and analyze conversations to help teams find key moments that provide a holistic view of what’s working and what’s not.

Learn how buyers respond to messaging and interact with content at each pipeline stage to accelerate future deals.

See how reps are handling calls and provide just-in-time learning or coaching based on the insights.

3. Chorus.ai

Chorus.ai transcribes and analyzes sales meetings in real time so revenue teams can identify winning behaviors and replicate them across teams, drive adoption of process best practices, and upskill teams at scale.

Feature highlights

Capture and analyze all customer meetings, calls, and emails in one place.

Surface which competitors are coming up in conversations, plus see common themes and questions on the minds of customers and prospects.

Give new reps access to a curated library of best calls with automatic recommendations on coachable moments. Smart Playlists automatically add new calls when they meet predefined criteria.

4. Salesloft

Salesloft is a sales engagement platform that offers sales execution, conversation intelligence, and opportunity management. Conversations is the AI-based call and meeting analysis product within the platform.

Feature highlights

Create an exact record for every call to understand what was said and who said it.

Help sales managers identify trends, understand where buyers lean in, and prioritize where sellers should best spend their time.

Build custom playlists featuring clips from the best and worst calls to help with coaching, onboarding, and ongoing skill development.

5. Gong

Gong autonomously captures frontline conversations to help revenue teams better understand deals, teams, and markets.

Feature highlights

Gather insights from calls, emails, in-person interactions, and CRM to show revenue leaders which deals are on track to close and which need course correction to continue moving forward.

Hear directly what buyers are saying and understand what a strong sales conversation looks like for your business.

 

Turn data-based guidance into coachable moments and share top-performers’ playbooks across the board to level up the performance of your entire team.

6. Observe.AI

Observe.ai transcribes call center agent conversations and analyzes them to surface insights that improve customer experience, drive revenue growth, boost operational efficiency, and mitigate compliance risk.

Feature highlights

Analyze conversation transcripts and get search results within seconds to help uncover trends and market needs, assess offerings, and expand your lens on your customer experience.

Organize and categorize conversations to better identify, track, and act on the moments that are most meaningful to your customer experience.

Get more comprehensive insights with recommended keyword and phrase variations that dig into the nuances of customer-agent communication.

7. Outreach

Outreach helps revenue organizations automate sales engagement and act on revenue intelligence to improve their efficiency, predictability, and growth.

Feature highlights

Use Natural Language Processing to understand the context of sales conversations. Track key moments in every conversation and prompt reps to self-correct when they’re doing more talking than listening.

Search keywords in transcripts, notes, or content cards to find relevant recordings and moments that give you visibility into your prospects’ pain points and requirements.

Monitor deals from one dashboard that shows the status of all deals and provides access to individual plans.

 

8. Wingman

Wingman is an actionable platform that unlocks insights from every sales interaction. Record calls, review deals, scale coaching, and build a repeatable sales machine.

Feature highlights

Get calls transcribed, analyzed, and organized into a searchable sales call library you can use for coaching, onboarding, and product intelligence.

Receive alerts that help you identify deals that need immediate attention.

Share playlists of winning sales tactics with your entire team to accelerate onboarding, promote peer learning, and improve internal team alignment.

9. Revenue.io

Revenue.io is a RevOps platform for conversation guidance, sales engagement, and live call insights and analytics. The Conversation AI product within the platform automatically surfaces the moments and conversations that are ripe for coaching.

Feature highlights

Get notified when a rep needs guidance or asks for help for easy identification of coaching moments.

Annotate and organize calls into libraries around key themes to simplify finding moments that matter for team onboarding and long-term support.

Correlate sales behavior with opportunities, revenue, and any other sales outcome that matters to the business.

10. Jiminny

Jiminny records, transcribes, and analyzes your sales team’s successes and learnings so your team is empowered to collaborate, coach, and improve revenue effortlessly.

Feature highlights

Get new hires up to speed in a third of the usual onboarding time. Use conversation playlists compiled by your more experienced sales talent to educate reps.

Capture key and shareable moments of calls then send them via email, links or MS Teams and Slack. AI-generated call summaries turn call transcripts into bullet-point lists of key conversation points.

Set up playbooks tailored by team, CRM activity, and conversation. Live Coaching adds real-time chat and scores to live conversations to refine technique on the fly.

Remember: Conversation intelligence is a means to an end

Conversation intelligence tools give revenue leaders the insights needed to help drive the right behaviors in the reps on the front lines of business every day.

With so many options to choose from, it’s important to consider a frictionless way to meaningfully impact rep readiness. The real power of conversation intelligence comes when the technology is plugged into a larger system of record that makes it push-button easy to help reps win more deals. To do that, you need to recommend relevant content, training, templates, and checklists once the insights are surfaced to not only provide value to your reps, but to drive real behavior change in the field.

Sales reps are busy and have a single-minded focus on making quota. Ease of use is key to the adoption of any technology you introduce to their workflow. At the end of the day, the best conversation intelligence software solution for your business is the one that your reps will actually use.

See Conversation Intelligence in Mindtickle

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This post was originally published in September 2022 and was updated in September 2023. 

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