The Career-Defining Power of A Perfect Feedback Loop

There’s a reason why we have mirrors in gyms: they provide instant feedback, letting us know if we have the right form while doing exercises. We can see if our bodies are making the wrong shape, and we can make adjustments accordingly.

It’s a perfect feedback loop. The mirror helps us to correct every mistake, so that over time, it starts to reflect a different image of a stronger, healthier self.

Imagine if we had a gym mirror for sales conversations. A way to watch your sales reflection, so to speak, so that you could immediately pinpoint issues and fix them. Over time, just like with how our muscles learn to pick up bigger weights and run further distances faster, you could build new and better sales habits so that eventually hitting quota feels easy.

Well, it turns out that the perfect feedback loop for sales actually does exist. It’s called the conversation intelligence cycle. While you may think you know what conversation intelligence is already, the cycle takes advantage of new developments in conversation technology to create a business-defining flywheel of sales success.

How Is the Conversation Intelligence Cycle Built?

The cycle relies on two specific types of conversation intelligence:

1. After-the-fact conversation intelligence (offered by Conversation AI).This technology provides “game tape” for reps and coaches. It helps them to pinpoint things that went well or poorly, and track business outcomes from calls and meetings, among other things.
2. Real-time conversation intelligence (offered only by our patented solution Moments™). This technology provides real-time support during conversations, offering nudges that are triggered by phrases (e.g. when a keyword is mentioned) or user behaviors (e.g. if a rep hasn’t asked a key discovery question in the first 2 minutes).

When paired together, these two pieces of technology form the proverbial gym mirror, offering both reps and managers a clear view of what’s happening during sales conversations and empowering them to make small, immediate changes that build up your sales muscle over time.

Wondering exactly how this works? Let’s break it down.

Making the Conversation Intelligence Cycle Work For You

1. Analyzing conversations with post-call analytics.
   Let’s say that there’s a rep who really wants to improve his calls. We’ll call him Arlo. Arlo decides to use Conversation AI (after-the-fact solution) to look for trends in his conversations, and he notices that he always gets tripped up when prospects mention a particular competitor.
2. Training to address issues or introduce new strategies.
   Arlo does a few different things to feel more confident when this competitor is mentioned. First he checks the call library that Conversation AI automatically curates to find calls where the competitor was mentioned and his fellow reps handled it well, and he takes notes on their responses. He also talks to his manager and a product marketer at his company to see what messaging they suggest using.
3. Real-time reinforcement of training with notifications on calls.
   Arlo then sets up an alert in Moments™ (real-time solution), so that he’ll be presented with a notecard every time a keyword related to the competitor comes up during a voice or video call. He starts to become more relaxed and confident every time the competitor comes up, because he knows how to handle it and can fall back on the notecard whenever he needs support.
4. Using post-call analytics to confirm results.
   After using the Moments™ competitor notifications for a week, Arlo goes back to Conversation AI to see if his call outcomes are improving. And lo and behold, he’s converting more prospects who mention this competitor! The tactics he’s tried are working.
5. Better call outcomes.
   Arlo can now use the conversation intelligence cycle to tackle other issues that he finds, or to reinforce new skills and selling techniques as he learns them. With every cycle, he’ll improve his calls more and more. To return to our original gym metaphor, it’s like isolating and working out different muscle groups each time you exercise. And Arlo is going to be buff!

Personalizing the Cycle For Your Own Needs

There are multiple different ways you can use the conversation intelligence cycle, and Arlo’s story is only one example. While this is by no means an exhaustive list, here are some other ways that sales reps could use the cycle to their advantage:

• To ensure regulatory compliance by mentioning if calls are being recorded
• To improve active listening and talk ratios
• To address vocal tics like “umm” or repeated phrases
• To support new reps with basic information about the company and products
• To make sure that necessary qualifying questions are asked
• To provide answers to both common and uncommon objections
• To suggest relevant content that prospects would be interested in

The cycle isn’t limited to sales reps either. Managers and coaches can use it to provide both individual and group feedback, or to test and iterate new messaging to continually improve conversation and deal outcomes. CSMs and Support can also use the conversation intelligence cycle to provide more efficient and detailed help to customers. Since it’s based on solutions that use groundbreaking AI technology, the conversation intelligence cycle can be used in myriad contexts to help people reach their goals.

Why This All Matters Right Now

Every sales team and every rep wants to perform better, which is reason enough to embrace the conversation intelligence cycle. But since this is a recent breakthrough in revenue technology, the companies who implement it first stand to gain the greatest lead over their competitors and their market.

We’ll leave you with one final metaphor: think of the conversation intelligence cycle like rollerblades, while all your competitors are wearing shoes. The cycle has the power to propel you faster and further than everyone else — but only if you strap on your skates before the rest of the competition. So what are you waiting for?

If you’d like to learn more about the conversation intelligence cycle and how you can implement it at your company to support your own career, your team’s success, and your company’s revenue goals, check out our ebook The New Conversation Intelligence: What Your Competitors Don’t Want You To Know.