Amid the rise of digital-centric selling, the blueprint for effective buyer engagement has changed. Those prepackaged PowerPoint decks and static presentations that customer-facing sales teams used to rely on are no longer enough to develop meaningful relationships with prospects in virtual selling environments.
Sales reps today must understand how to deliver the right messaging in the right ways — and not just from a product value proposition standpoint. More than ever, their tone of voice, articulation and overall vibe during buyer conversations can make or break the outcome of a sale.
This is where the role of productive sales coaching and training is paramount. According to McKinsey & Company, outperforming sales organizations commit to nearly 80% more coaching and are 57% more likely to tailor their training programs for personalization compared to industry peers. Yet with the fast-paced nature of sales coupled with the widespread adoption of remote work structures, managers have less and less opportunities to provide personalized in-person coaching for their teams.
However, the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have opened new pathways to productivity to help bridge that guidance gap. The integrated use of conversation intelligence, like Bigtincan’s VoiceVibes product, enables organizations to streamline the often-elongated process of developing buyer-ready sales teams with AI-driven speech coaching and rehearsing.
Automated Speech Coaching Insights
A sales enablement solution equipped with conversation intelligence technology can automate the analysis of sales pitch audio recordings and, in turn, generate actionable insights on the seller’s tone of voice, vocal clarity, pace and filler word usage. VoiceVibes, for example, generates objective feedback and personalized scoring metrics that indicate how a sales rep was perceived by their audience. The scoring is based on extensive proprietary data sets and machine learning analysis of audience engagement levels throughout the interaction.
If a particular message was delivered in a way that is likely to generate a positive response from the listener — such as, “Oh, wow! I didn’t know that. How awesome!” — the solution will identify the positive “vibe” in that rep’s voice and report it on a digital dashboard. That way, the seller knows to keep leveraging the message as a key driver of future prospect interactions. This extensive level of insight simply isn’t attainable through in-person coaching alone. An integrated approach that blends peer-to-peer engagement with AI-driven conversational intelligence maximizes the productivity of the manager-rep coaching dynamic.
Personalized AI-Driven Rehearsing
Given the competitive nature of the sales environment, enhancing seller productivity also requires personalized guidance before buyer interactions take place. This is why the role of AI-driven speech coaching technology extends beyond solely analyzing pitches after the fact. It also enables customer- facing reps to master their communication skills prior to a product pitch, prospect meeting or cold call, ensuring that their messaging techniques are polished and ready for the first interaction. You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
With the right conversation intelligence solution, sales teams can rehearse several versions of the same pitch and then assess which version would be most effective in a real-world setting. This self-learning capability allows them to adopt a proactive approach to their own professional development and enter any sales conversation with confidence to close the deal.
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