For sales reps, having their calls recorded has become common practice. While it has a host of benefits, it can have some downsides, and some sales teams stay away from recording their team's sales calls.
So, who is in the right? Should you record sales calls or not? Let's find out.
Benefits of using sales recordings
Recording sales calls can benefit individual sales reps, your sales and customer support teams, as well as your overall business. Here are some of the most important benefits of using sales call recordings.
Reviewing your sales strategy
When reps are on sales calls, they usually have a script to work through and an approach to selling a product or service. But is it the only right way to approach a prospect?
Sales call recordings allow you to take a look at the effectiveness of your sales calls in detail. How the prospect responds, what objections they have, what questions they ask and more. It gives you a birds' eye view of your sales strategy and helps you pinpoint areas for improvement.
Capturing details
Your customers are an invaluable source of data for marketing, sales and customer support. So if you don't use sales call recording software, you just might miss a huge chunk of data. Without recording calls, you're relying on your sales reps' memory to capture customer insights.
Sales call recordings help you capture details about customer complaints, issues with your product, their objections to competitors, pricing structure comments, and more. And if your sales call recording software has note-taking embedded in the product, you can easily search for those details later.
Coaching and training of new sales team members
Learning by doing is often the most effective learning method, but you may not want to throw sales rookies into the deep waters from day one.
Sales call recordings are an excellent opportunity for new sales reps to learn how their more experienced co workers communicate with customers and present the highlights of a product or service. Simply choose a few of your best sales calls and use them as training materials to existing and new sales team members.
Dispute resolution
Conflicts are not pleasant, but they can happen between customers and sales representatives. If a customer is accusing your sales rep of insulting them, giving them false information or something along those lines, recording sales calls helps.
Simply take the call recordings and listen to them and you'll learn who is to blame and how to make things right.
Collecting sales and marketing data
Refining your marketing and sales process starts with listening to your customers. Call recordings help you with marketing and sales research, so you can identify:
- the exact terms your customers are using
- their sentiments towards your competitors
- common objections about features, pricing, customer support, and more
- how your product or service solves their pain points
Instead of investing months in customer research, you can simply tap into your inbound and outbound calls and find out what your (potential) customers have to say about you and your product, your competitors and more.
Challenges of using sales call recordings
Recording sales calls is not the silver bullet for your sales team and your business. If you're thinking about introducing recordings in your sales process, you should also be aware of potential downsides.
Legal compliance
Depending on where you and your customers are based, there could be legal issues with recording sales calls. Laws such as GDPR or industry-specific laws such as HIPAA have special clauses around recording calls and collecting customer data.
Before you start to record sales calls, make sure to inform yourself about the legal frameworks in your country and industry.
Employee resistance
Sales professionals often expect to have their work monitored with recording software. Some of them may be up for it but others can be uncomfortable working and knowing that they are being recorded. You can expect a pushback with some sales teams and individuals.
Selective recording
If an employee is aware that a particular sales call is being recorded, they can act differently compared to their usual day. If they know that a sales call recording tool is on, their sales performance will not be a good representation of how they usually behave. So, it's best to keep the call recording feature on at all times.
Privacy concerns
You will have to disclose to your customers that you record calls. For a portion of your customers, this can cause distrust as they will have no idea how their information will be used. They may be less open and honest during the call, causing inaccurate information and lowered sales performance.
Storage and security concerns
A good call recording system ensures that all of those phone calls are stored in a safe location. As the number of recorded sales calls grows, so will the storage required for it. You'll also need to ensure that the sales conversations you record are secure, both for the sake of your business and your customers.
Sales call recordings vs law
Call recording can be against the law in your area, so sales managers should get familiar with legislation before purchasing call recording software. For example, some states in the USA allow one-party consent, while others require both parties to consent to call recording.
In the UK, call recording is legal with at least one party’s consent. In Canada, one-party consent is valid too, but different provinces can have different laws. The bottom line is: do your research depending on where you and your customers are located.
How to use sales call recordings to improve sales
Now that you know the ins and outs of sales call recordings, let's take a look at some practical ways you can use it in your sales processes and day-to-day operations.
Training and onboarding
Go through your existing sales call recordings and find ones that stand out for one reason or another. For example:
- an agent has handled a difficult customer really well
- a sales rep was able to sell to a customer who was unlikely to purchase
- a rep was able to sell a new product in a target market that is traditionally difficult to sell to
Use this library of sales sales with key moments to coach your reps on how things should (not) be done.
Improving communication skills
Even the best call recording software won't be able to tell you if a rep is communicating well. You'll need to listen in on your calls and look out for:
- tone
- clarity
- pacing
This helps you determine the best way to deliver a script and explain the benefits behind the product that you're selling. By pinpointing the best communication practices, you can improve your future calls and train your entire sales team on your own materials.
Performance evaluation
Sales leaders typically keep a close watch on the most relevant sales metrics, such as the number of closed opportunities. But this doesn’t tell the whole story.
When a rep is underperforming, you can gain insight into their performance by listening to their recorded calls. These can give you valuable information about why they're not hitting their quotas.
You can also use this information to find your team members' strengths and weaknesses. Based on this data, you can assign them different types of leads and give them the kind of work that they excel at.
Objection handling
Be it pricing, features, user experience or something else, customers can have objections to whatever you're selling.
Thanks to call recordings, you can learn how team members handle these objections. These insights can be used for creating sales training materials, looking into sales enablement platforms, or developing new sales pitches.
Improving sales scripts
In general, sales scripts are based on best practices identified from existing customers and your own research. But even the best scripts can fail, which is why recording solutions can identify the ones that (don't) work.
By listening in to a recorded call, you can determine which sales scripts perform well and which ones belong in the past.
Key takeaways
- Recording sales calls helps your teams by giving them opportunities to learn, collect marketing and sales data, improve your sales strategy, and resolve disputes
- There are some downsides too, such as privacy concerns, storage issues, selective recording, legal compliance, and more
- In general, the pros outweigh the cons, and using call recordings can refine your sales process and improve your team's performance
Conclusion
While there are some potential downsides, sales call recordings are one of the best ways to improve your overall sales efforts. There are plenty of sales tools that offer automatic call recording and even transcribe the audio for you, making sales recording simple.
At Capsule, we can help you get started with your sales process properly - by giving you a solid foundation and a great CRM. Unlike enterprise CRM tools, Capsule is intuitive, easy to use and doesn't come with hidden costs.
Don't take our word for it - grab your free trial today.
Frequently asked questions
What is sales call recording?
Sales call recording is the practice of using recording software to capture phone conversations between sales reps and customers. This is a crucial part of the sales process, enabling sales teams to review and refine their sales strategies.
How do you monitor sales calls?
Monitoring sales calls involves using call recording software to capture and analyze the interactions between sales reps and customers. Sales managers often use these recordings to assess the sales team's performance and provide targeted sales coaching.
Why should you record sales calls?
Recording sales calls is essential for several reasons: it helps in training new sales reps, refining sales strategies, ensuring quality assurance, and maintaining a record of customer interactions. It's a valuable tool for analyzing sales calls and improving the overall sales process.
Is it possible to get call recordings?
Yes, it is possible to obtain call recordings through call recording software or sales call recording tools. These systems automatically record phone conversations, making them accessible for review and analysis by the sales team.
Why are calls recorded for customer service?
Calls are recorded for customer service to monitor the quality of customer interactions, provide training and feedback to customer service reps, and ensure compliance with company policies. Recorded calls also serve as a reference for resolving customer issues and improving service.
How should sales calls be?
Sales calls should be structured, goal-oriented, and customer-focused. Sales reps should use effective sales techniques, listen actively, and address customer needs. Utilizing sales scripts and leveraging insights from recorded sales calls can lead to more successful outcomes and closing more deals.
