Conversation intelligence for the sales of the future
Conversation intelligence for the sales of the future
Conversation intelligence for the sales of the future
We can also make ambitious claims: Conversation Intelligence (CI) makes sales conversations even better. It helps with the consistent structuring of sales processes. For example, thanks to Conversation Intelligence, important qualification results are never again lost when leads are transferred between SDR and AE. The problem is that the claims come without any context. This is exactly what successful salespeople do NOT do when they want to convince their counterpart of the added value of their offer. Even in the cold call, for example, they have to make the product's performance tangible for the lead in order to book a follow-up appointment. No matter how powerful Conversation Intelligence may be, the other person can only classify a value proposition and check its relevance to their own situation if they understand the approach. And that is exactly what we want to achieve with this article: Away from buzzword status and towards a sound understanding of Conversation Intelligence. So how does the concept work and what mechanisms does it use to actually make sales work more successful?
Conversation intelligence: the substance behind the buzzword
We could say: a look back into the past. But it's actually more of a look into the present. In many organizations, sales meetings are documented sporadically at best. Employees write down the most important insights on a piece of paper or in a Word document. Regardless of whether they use the analog or digital pen-and-paper method, a lot of important information is lost in the process. Not only are the notes inevitably incomplete, after all, salespeople focus their attention first and foremost on the other person and only incidentally on the documentation of the conversation. Notes or text files are also "stupid". They record information in a completely unstructured way. Automatic evaluation options? No way! Even sharing the information with the sales team is difficult.
Deals are decided in sales talks
The prevailing approach does not do justice to the key role of sales conversations. From our point of view, this is precisely where the success or failure of the sales process is decided. And in two respects:
Can we strike a deal together?
Do we prioritize the opportunity internally so that we work as efficiently as possible?
Everything revolves around the question "Can I find out exactly what I need for a successful sales process in a sales meeting?" Salespeople need to understand better and better which products and which product features are best suited to address the other person's pains. Only those who know what is relevant for the other person can communicate accordingly and create added value with every touchpoint on the way to closing the deal.
In addition, the sales team should also look at itself. Are we really working on the most promising opportunities with the appropriate priority? Or are we perhaps sometimes investing too much energy in a race that we have already lost? Big names, a possible record order volume or personal ambition: many factors can lure salespeople onto the wrong track in everyday life. Consistent prioritization only works on the basis of defined objective criteria such as lead scoring. A CI system helps to obtain the relevant information and take it directly into account in the scoring.
Call quality as the great unknown
Information is therefore the currency that matters in successful sales. And what better way to obtain information than through a direct conversation? However, the prevailing discussion documentation provides no information as to whether sales discussions are going well or badly. Should I not have been satisfied with the answer here, but should I have asked again? Giving in or being persistent can make the difference between a superficial conversation and a discussion between experts, as is necessary in value-based selling. This also applies to dealing with objections. A good objection handling approach dispels concerns convincingly. Poorer approaches put the other party off or, in the worst case, reinforce existing doubts about your offer.
Conversation Intelligence provides feedback and live support
Conversation Intelligence offers salespeople support with these questions in their conversations - without them having to constantly fumble with pen and paper. This is real-time support. Sales staff document the conversation via audio recording or with a mouse click and text entry in the CI system. A Conversation Intelligence platform evaluates the input live and responds immediately with recommendations that make the conversation even better. Whether it's a suggestion for the best line of argument to deal with the objection at hand or a transition to the next qualifying question, the system uses all past conversations as a knowledge base. The artificial intelligence (AI) can recognize patterns in the call recordings, transfer them to the current call and assist the salesperson in real time.
This allows salespeople to keep the focus of their attention exactly where it belongs: on the other person. On the one hand, Conversation Intelligence provides the ideal basis for conversation documentation - highly automated and structured. On the other hand, the software converts the input directly into live support. In this way, the approach combines previously isolated elements into an automated cycle: Documentation, analysis, coaching, implementation support.
Advantages of Conversation Intelligence
The team can discuss their own interview behavior in workshops and find optimization approaches. During the onboarding of new sales employees, coaches join the meetings to provide feedback afterwards. However, with this input, the salespeople then face the leads on their own again in the next sales meeting. It takes time for new behaviors to become established. Conversation Intelligence minimizes these intervals through integrated documentation and conversation support - and thus creates significant advantages for the sales business:
Voice of Customer
The team can document conversations more comprehensively and thus capture nuances that previously went unnoticed. Without losing focus during the conversation, salespeople collect more valuable information that can be analyzed efficiently afterwards. The benefit: a much better understanding of what the market and customers want at any given time.
Analysis of conversations
Lead intelligence, call time and call outcome - before Conversation Intelligence, this was the only information available on the sales call. With Conversation Intelligence, the call process becomes transparent. Salespeople can understand the situations and identify optimization potential.
Systematic training and onboarding
Until now, the results of training courses and workshops have mainly been shaped by the participants' gut feeling. Conversation Intelligence now provides hard data-based analyses alongside this. Which objection handling works and which doesn't? Or do both work, but for different customer segments? Conversation Intelligence also provides these insights in the ongoing conversation situation. Thanks to optimized onboarding, newcomers can get to the front line faster and experienced ones can improve even more.
More Deal Insights
You're always wiser afterwards. In retrospect, it usually becomes clear why a deal worked or failed. The next step is to transfer the findings to new opportunities. What do successful deals have in common? Conversation Intelligence uncovers these patterns and makes them transferable to new processes.
Focus on conversation
What's the catch? After so many advantages, there must be a shortcoming. However, Conversation Intelligence resolves the crucial conflict of objectives: More documentation or full presence in the interaction with the other person. Conversation Intelligence combines better call recording with an increased focus on the other person and thus has a doubly positive effect on the quality of the conversation.
Using Conversation Intelligence successfully
Conversation Intelligence is essentially based on the optimized collection of data and its automatic evaluation. However, not all data collection is the same. Conversation intelligence, which really wants to make the hidden mechanisms in conversations visible, uses structured data. Following the pattern of "who said what and when", Conversation Intelligence reveals the content of the conversation. Unstructured data, on the other hand, is of little use. Huge amounts of data ultimately result in unhelpful statistics on the distribution of conversation shares or the average duration of successful conversations: zero practical benefit.
It should now be clear that Conversation Intelligence must be a digital solution. Real-time call support and centralized and efficient documentation leave no other solution possible. Anyone who wants to make use of artificial intelligence in sales in the future also needs to create the right digital basis. On a digital CI platform, every conversation is already an important resource for gaining knowledge. One of the criteria for a suitable Conversation Intelligence solution is therefore that it fits into the existing digital sales infrastructure.
Conversation Intelligence prepares the sales business for the future
Successful salespeople start qualifying early and don't stop until the deal is closed. At every stage of the sales process, information determines success or failure. The quality of the conversation is therefore a key success factor for good sales work. This is exactly where Conversation Intelligence comes in. Collecting more information and being fully present in the conversation at the same time: This not only takes conversation documentation to the next level. With completely new possibilities for analysing data, whether in the follow-up or as part of real-time conversation support, Conversation Intelligence systematizes the development of expertise across the entire team. In view of the further development of AI applications, every digitally recorded sales call today is an investment in the future.
