Sales Training Software: Transform Your Reps Into Stars

Sales coaching software gives data-based recommendations for each rep on your team across the full scope of selling skills they need to close more deals. Sales training platforms analyze calls, emails, and deal cycles to highlight improvement areas. Sales coaching software also generates insights into what behaviors are linked to better performance so you can inform your coaching with data on what works (and what doesn’t).

Sales training platforms track and analyze all your reps’ phone calls, emails, and web meetings, then send you insights about your pipeline. With sales training software, sales managers can give their best reps’ playbook to everyone on their team so they all level up. When you understand what sets top performers apart, you can shrink the number of reps who don’t hit quota. And, because recommendations are personalized for each rep on your team, you can build a custom coaching plan for each of your reps so they can improve where they need it most.

Gong opens a window into all the calls it records and analyzes for your teams, letting your frontline sales managers provide relevant sales training programs without intruding on every call. Reps and managers can review calls together, hearing exactly what was said without relying on anecdotes or memory. They can also review the call’s dynamics, how they conducted it (e.g., talk time, interactivity), call content, and what was discussed on the call. All of that will help them pinpoint issues that require coaching.

Here are some actions you can take to focus your training using Gong:

It answers the unknowns. What do your top performers say, for example, on discovery talk tracks compared to their teammates who struggle to achieve quota? What do they do differently during negotiations?

Gong’s AI answers those questions for you. It ranks your team and analyzes their talk tracks, showing you significant differences between what your top performers and the rest of your team say. And it goes one (amazing) step further. It takes that information and gives you personalized recommendations for each team member. It’s as simple as this:

Scorecards are a great way to ensure that training is happening and that it’s standardized. Many teams do this already in the form of a scoring guide or document that outlines the criteria for successful prospecting, discovery, and demo calls. With Gong, you can bring that right into the platform, so your reps can score their own calls; team leads and managers can score them too. 

This lets you standardize, scale, and most importantly, track the progress of new hires and other team members over time. You’ll know if new hires are fully ramped or if anyone is ready for a promotion onto a new team.

Gong is different from other sales training tools. Here are actions your team members should take to make Gong part of their daily routine:

The most successful teams incorporate guided training as part of their scheduled team meetings, one-on-one sessions, and deal and pipeline reviews. 

The key here is dedicating at least 15-20 minutes of each meeting to review specific, real-life deals and calls using Gong recordings. Just make it a regular part of meetings you already hold on a regular basis.

For example:

Hear a great call that deserves attention in your next team meeting?  Or would it be a good demo to watch for onboarding? Make a library folder for it and keep it to reference later.

The library enables sales managers and sales enablement pros to organize different types of calls in various library folders for quick and easy access.

Gong’s sales training software also lets you build and manage effective training. They’re going to help you track and measure the impact of your training, so you can scale what works.

We’re not talking about general plans and metrics that roll on for ages. These are focused training plans that focus on one or two topics or skills. You run each plan for three to six weeks, depending on its complexity, and by the end of it, you know exactly what works … and how well. Use that information to inform future initiatives and coaching strategies.

Want to focus on a particular skill, talk track, or behavior? Here’s how to put a plan into place:

Select criteria that relate to specific sales skills, talk tracks, or behaviors you want to target.
Use that criteria to create Trackers in Gong for keywords and phrases you’d like to monitor.
Identify the sets of conversations you’re tracking by creating Call Categories using Trackers, CRM and interaction data, and other criteria.
Use Call Categories to filter Gong Stats. This lets you track coaching activity and the impact of coaching on your reps’ conversations (cold calls, discovery, demo, etc).
Create Scorecards to track the impact of your plans, especially for things that are difficult to quantify in Gong Stats, such as building rapport. (That one’s nebulous, but critical.) Define the questions you’ll use to score calls. It’s good to align your Scorecards with your Call Categories.