By definition, call recordings create logs of all interactions between a client or prospect and a business. This can be achieved regardless of the call or video call provider you are using, either using built-in call recording or adding a call recorder app.
Often transcribed automatically by conversation intelligence platforms, organizations now use recordings to benefit the whole organization.
Table of contents
Why should you record sales calls?
Sales call recording and CRM documentation
What are the benefits of sales call recording?
How to use call recordings for sales coaching
Call recording - GDPR, security and permissions
What happens to sensitive or private data in sales call recordings?
Automated sales call recording and analysis
So...why record sales calls?
Using call recording tools may sound like micromanagement, but in most cases, it’s the complete opposite. In fact, businesses that add call recording into their workflow aim to:
- Encourage reflection and continuous improvement.
- Help sales reps develop skills and better prepare for customer calls.
- Empower reps to self-coach and peer-to-peer coach.
- Reduce administrative tasks like creating meeting notes and actions.
- Make it easier for team leaders to find and listen to key moments to coach reps on.
- Make collaboration across departments easier, and more effective.
It’s worth noting how common call recording is nowadays. There is so much to be gained from it and due to its automated nature, you achieve many benefits without any extra work from your side. Its increasing popularity also means customers very rarely have issues with calls being recorded.
Let’s take a closer look.
Why should you record sales calls?
Many call recording tools provide auto-transcription, which frees reps to focus on the conversation as it happens, instead of having their focus pulled by note-taking. You never need to ask a prospect or customer to repeat what they just said or worry that you missed a key detail.
Call recordings capture everything in the video and transcript, so you can revisit them. This is great to hear both what was said and how it was said - which can be the difference between winning and losing a deal.
Conversation intelligence (CI) also allows you to time-stamp notes and mark key moments of the conversation during a call. That way, you know exactly when a specific point was made.
Call recording platforms take care of repetitive administrative tasks like logging the activity. In fact, tools like Jiminny Sidekick automatically find and update the CRM record for the contact you’re meeting with. Your CRM stays effortlessly and automatically up-to-date without losing momentum or worrying about manually logging everything at the end of the day.
Call recording facilitates communication across the business. The practice makes it easier to brief others when preparing for customer handovers or sharing client feedback with other teams.
All you need to do is share the recording with the appropriate individuals. This enables them to hear what the customer said and exactly how they said it — no paraphrasing necessary.
Sales call recording and CRM documentation
Sales call recording tools that integrate with CRMs make for very reliable and thorough CRM documentation, as meeting transcriptions and follow-up actions are automatically sent to the CRM records after each meeting.
Having this sales record means managers have visibility (not to mentioned peace of mind) on team activity and can track sales opportunities within the CRM.
What are the benefits of sales call recording?
It’s not all about sales…
Documenting the voice of customer through call recordings make for benefits across the business.
- Marketing teams can use call recordings to gain insight into market perceptions about trends, competitors and where they sit in the marketplace. They can also pick out great customer stories to use as case studies.
- Product teams receive more accurate and direct feedback on the products they create, their use cases and future development requests
- Customer Success and Support teams better understand customer needs, whether they are using the product as intended and how competitors are positioning and performing in their CS teams.
- Operations teams can get to know more about the process and functional requirements of customers, how their needs are changing and how this might impact them as a supplier. This allows for process planning and strategic decision-making, to name just a few.
- HR teams can utilize call recordings in their onboarding process, to get new hires quickly up to speed on what the company does and lay out benchmarks for best practices. The visibility they gain in collaboration with the Operations team also makes for better resource and recruitment planning.
How to use call recordings for sales coaching
This is the big one! Your call recordings could be the key to increasing your conversion rate and turning your team into a high-performance powerhouse.
Most employees want help developing skills so they can advance their careers. Call recording makes this possible by facilitating more and better coaching opportunities so they can improve incrementally every single day.
The recordings make it easy to understand how and where a rep is performing well, to double down on areas of skill, and which areas need improvement.
Leaders and managers get more time to coach because CI makes it fast and easy to find the best coaching moments. Coaching sessions can then focus on key areas, relevant to each rep, making everyone’s time more effective. Reps can also self-coach by listening back to calls, identifying and tracking the patterns and finding their own areas of learning.
It’s also easier to gather input from peers on specific calls or call snippets. Asking for feedback and advice within the team makes for better team cohesion and knowledge sharing. The best-performing reps can share textbook calls with the team, so people know what good looks like.
Call recording - GDPR, security and permissions
Can you sense the elephant in the room?
Don’t worry, we’re not going to ignore security concerns.
First up, if you are recording calls, you do need to make this known to everyone on the call with you. But this doesn’t have to be a big deal.
We’re all used to hearing ‘this call is recorded for monitoring and training purposes’ by now. Chances are, your prospects won’t think anything of it either. But if they do, you can simply turn the recording off for that call.
Now let’s talk sensitive data.
What happens to sensitive or private data in sales call recordings?
You have a few options here, and the best call recording tool providers are well-placed to ease any concerns, talk it through and put in place the necessary steps for you. Here are a few things to consider:
- Some tools allow call recording to be paused while sensitive or private information is shared and then unpaused afterward, so the call can continue seamlessly.
- It is also possible in some tools to limit access to call recordings to only certain individuals or groups within an organization, so you can keep sensitive information with only the people who need it.
- Ask what security processes and accreditations a platform has before signing your agreement. Your provider should be hot on this and more than willing to share.
Automated sales call recording and analysis - the game-changer
Each call recording platform comes with its own features. But those with a focus on CI allow you to automate functions that save time and improve operations For example:
- Setting up a notification every time a customer mentions a given word, so you know straight away when a certain competitor or product feature is coming up in conversations. This can be really handy to keep an eye on industry trends and competitors or to understand your most common sales objections.
- Create frameworks that calls are scored against, so you can see how well your reps are performing in all their calls at a glance. This aids rep onboarding and development.
- See which topics and themes are talked about the most within each department’s call recordings to understand internal and external discussions top level, before diving into more detail.
Ready to jump into CI, RI (revenue intelligence) and see how they fit with call recordings? Read more here.
Tom Lavery is the CEO and Co-Founder of Jiminny, the leading conversation intelligence and sales coaching platform that helps companies maximize their revenue. With over 15 years of experience in high-growth VC/PE-backed SaaS companies, Tom was previously SVP at Reward Gateway, now sharing his wealth of knowledge as a speaker in the conversation intelligence space.
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