How to REALLY coach sales reps to have better discovery calls

Recently, I wrote about the disconnect that exists in sales between those who claim the 'discovery' stage in the sales process to be the single most important stage in winning or losing an opportunity, and the lack of time and effort being spent by sales managers helping reps improve this specific part of their game. From experience, most sales managers spend little to no time actually listening to how their reps conduct discovery, and then become mystified when a so called 'hot opportunity' ends up being stuck in the pipeline.

I feel that part of the problem here, is that many sales managers feel like they have neither the time nor the expertise to coach their reps to conduct better discovery. I can confidently say that this is largely true. In fact, here at Refract - we are solving that huge problem. So I thought I would give something back to my network, and explain the process I go through when coaching discovery conversations of my own sales reps, including the valuable use of the Refract platform to support me in this crucial activity.

Pre-strategise and role-play with the sales person

The best sales managers help their reps prepare for a sales conversation, rather than just review the outcomes (when it may be too late). Having a structure as follows would be an effective way of doing so:

1.    Asking questions about the opportunity stage, information gathered so far (from an SDR for example), profile of prospect, and the objectives of the call. Ultimately, what are the expectations and desired outcomes of the discovery conversation?

2.    Role-playing the discovery call. Whilst it is always going to be difficult to predict the actual composition and direction of the conversation, getting the rep to practicing an impactful call opening or asking some key questions they are aiming to use with the prospect will help them to ‘warm up’. Almost like an athlete doing his pre-match stretches with his coach. I’ve often found practicing some expected objections helps massively here, especially if you know they work with a competitor, or have indicated they are price sensitive previously.

3.    More thorough sales managers record the role-play conversation and play back these calls using technology such as Refract. It helps the sales rep listen out for any nuances in their language such as annoying crutch words or negative phrases they have let slip.

Get the rep to record their discovery call

From experience, busy sales managers are unlikely to be available at the exact time the scheduled discovery call is taking place. Even if you are available, I would strongly recommend not being present when the call is taking place. It places unnecessary and unnatural pressure on the sales rep, and the temptation of ‘taking over the call’ is often too strong for many managers to resist. Furthermore, in a 30-40 minute long discovery call, theres likely far too many ‘coachable moments’ to be able to remember simply from memory. Recording the call is the perfect method for capturing the conversation and leaving nothing to memory or misinterpretation

Use Refract to analyse the discovery call

Run the recording through a conversational intelligence platform like Refract to help quickly surface valuable coaching insights following on from the call without needing to sit and listen. This will include things like:

Talk:Listen time – Is the sales person falling into the common trap of dominating the call and simply not asking enough questions to the prospect? If the purpose of a discovery call is for us to essentially ‘find out’ about how we can help the prospect, then it is wise to assume we should be talking at the most, as much as the person we are speaking to.

Identify key themes on the call using AI. Good examples of this can include:

• How many ‘open ended’ inquisitive questions were asked on the call (if any!)?
• What stage were the questions asked? Were they front-loaded, consistently asked throughout, or left to the end?

• Were any negative words or phrases used which could resonate poorly with the prospect. Here at Refract, we’ve found words such as ‘maybe’ or ‘can’t’ often make prospects uncertain or dis-trusting, whilst phrases such as ‘in truth’ can have a similar impact.
• Was ‘product jargon’ used which would run the risk of confusing or switching a prospect off. We all have our own product terminology, which we speak of within the confines of our offices and understand what it means. It would be wrong to assume our prospects are as in the know.
• Was anything commercial mentioned on the call, and if so – when? It would be wrong to say outright that pricing discussed at the start of the sales call is always a negative, but it is often the case that the pricing conversation should ideally come after sufficient value is built.
• Did the sales rep try and close the sales call by using words or phrases such as ‘schedule’ or ‘next steps’ or ‘time in the calendar’?

Identify and tag key coachable moments 

A sales conversation is full of key defining moments. I’m talking about minutes and seconds events, which can make or break the outcome of the opportunity. Questions asked. Questions not asked. Questions asked but at the wrong time. Objections poorly handled. Key qualification nuggets revealed by the prospect. Key pain points revealed by the prospect. Interruptions. A sales conversation is typically FULL of coaching opportunities. Simply listening to a call and trying to remember and recall these back to a sales person by memory or pen/paper is uber difficult and time consuming. Use coaching tools in the Refract platform to make this process easier:

-      Tag these coachable moments, bookmarking them on the timeline of the discovery call. Use these to ‘snap back’ to key moments during a coaching conversations

-      Use annotation tools to drive thoughts, considerations and feedback against key moments. Ideal for prompts when holding a coaching ‘debrief’ conversation with the sales rep, or ideal for the sales rep to learn from in their own time

-      Indicate praise moments and moments of improvement on the timeline. Ensure that feedback is a blend of being both positive and constructive.

Grade calls to set objectives

One of the biggest problems I hear from sales managers when it comes to coaching, is how they can track a ROI on the time they invest to develop their reps. This is a genuine concern too. Why spend valuable time listening back to discovery calls and giving feedback, if reps aren’t going to listen and take action? I’m amazed by the number of managers who don’t actually track improvement of their reps, and then complain about the fact they hear them make the same mistakes over and over.

Build your own custom scorecards in Refract to quickly grade and measure rep performance against your sales process. Share scores with the sales rep, and track to see how they improve against these objectives the next time you coach one of their calls.

Playback the game tape with the sales rep

Once you’ve analysed the call, surfaced the highlights, and the areas for improvement – its time to do what any good coach does; sit down with your sales rep and ‘playback the game-tape’: 

-      Rather than playing back the entire sales call, simply skip between the key moments on the timeline and allow the rep to self-reflect on what happened at that stage of the conversation. Turn what would have been a 45 minute long boring coaching session, into a 10/15 minute focused and relevant learning experience

-      Ask the rep why they feel you picked out each specific moment. What did they think they did well, or what they would have done differently next time?

-      Use your feedback prompts to drive quality focused discussion and strategies for the next discovery call or the next conversation within that opportunity

Share best practice

We often learn best by observing how others do something particularly well. The same goes with discovery calls. Use great examples from other reps on the team to showcase ‘what good looks like’. This can either be entire calls, or even specific moments you’ve extracted from other calls. A good example here would be sharing two minutes worth of a series of deep-dive questions which led to pain/urgency to buy. Alternatively, it could be 30 seconds of a bright and engaging call opening where the sales rep is building strong rapport with the prospect.

Customers of Refract build libraries of these ‘playbook moments’ so that best practice sales excellence is never lost, and to quickly provide examples of inspiration for struggling sales people.

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How are you coaching your reps to have better sales conversations? Could we help you lift their game and have more valuable discovery calls which lead to deals? Please let me know your thoughts and processes in the comments below!

I will be hosting a webinar later this month about how to have more effective discovery calls, click here to find out more and register!