What Is Sales Call Recording and Why Do You Need It?

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Making a successful sales call is all about good communication. Agents must engage with their leads. They must pitch a relevant value proposition and win the person’s trust—all within a few minutes. 

Sales representatives need to know which words and tone to use and to avoid during a sales call, they also need to be able to listen to calls, not make assumptions. Sales call recording tools are designed to help sales managers address those issues. 

Recording and reviewing calls can give sales and customer support teams access to a wealth of information. Companies can use it to assess how well their team handles customer calls and to identify growth opportunities. 

In addition, having access to such information can help you understand customer needs and improve the customer experience. Want to know more? Keep reading!

What Is Sales Call Recording?

It is the process of recording telephone conversations between your company’s sales agent and a lead or customer. Integrating sales call recording tools with your communication network is the easiest way to record calls, both incoming and outgoing. 

Calls can be recorded using integrated recording software or the inbuilt features of a VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) communication solution. For instance, Aircall plans offer automatic call recordings. Once recorded, conversations can be played back as many times as required. 

What Is a Sales Recording Software Solution?

Sales recording software uses technology designed to capture and save phone conversations. Some advanced software may also provide a transcript of the conversation. This software can be integrated with various communication solutions and accessed through web browsers as well as mobile apps. 

How Can Sales Reps Benefit from Call Recording?

Listening to recorded calls provides unique insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the sales team. Let’s look at how sales reps can benefit from call recordings 

Capture details

Human memories aren’t reliable. Between listening to the customer and answering questions, agents might miss out on a few details. Asking the customer to repeat themselves could degrade the experience.

But when sales calls are recorded, sales reps can play them back and pick up on any missed details. This feature can be especially helpful when troubleshooting deals. 

Build a reference database

Inbound and outbound call recordings can offer a valuable source of information for future calls. 

Let’s say the customer on a call has concerns similar to those expressed by another customer. If only you could remember what you said on the first call and repeat that conversation… 

Call recording allows sales teams to replay conversations to remember what worked and what didn’t. While agents can remind themselves of persuasive words and phrases that have been used in the past to convert leads into customers, they can also pick up on pitches that weren’t as successful. Sales call recording provides businesses with the data required to replicate successful calls. 

Identify opportunities for improvement

Listening to sales calls is a great way to brush up on sales pitches, e.g. when a sales rep struggles to answer a particular question. Refining product knowledge sheets can prevent a similar situation from happening again in the future. 

You can also spot instances where changing the conversational tone could win over the customer’s trust, or where saying things differently could improve the customer experience. 

Sales agents can listen to their own calls as well as calls handled by peers. Seeing how others delivered pitches is a great way to level up their game. 

Track progress on key performance metrics

Using a sales call recording solution makes it easier to keep an eye on call metrics, such as call duration or the number of calls handled in a day. Comparing recent and older call recordings allows sales teams to keep track of an agent’s progress and performance. Sales reps can see where they have improved and what areas they need to work on. 

How Can Sales Managers Use Call Recording to Boost Team Performance?

Sales call recordings are a great tool for sales managers looking for ways to improve their team’s performance. They can leverage this data to make decisions and optimize internal sales processes. Let’s look at the different ways sales managers can use call recording tools.

Provide targeted feedback

Sales team managers used to listen to live calls to give agents feedback on their sales performance, which limited the number of calls they could review. Feedback was therefore provided based on one or two calls, or overall performance. 

Being able to access sales call recordings allows team managers to review a larger number of calls, giving them a better idea of the agent’s conversational and sales skills. With sales call recording, managers can provide more targeted feedback to each agent on their team. 

Train new sales agents

Along with a script, newly onboarded agents need guidance on the tone to be used with customers, on how to move prospects up the sales funnel, and so on. They need to be walked through different scenarios and the company’s sales processes. A cookie-cutter approach isn’t likely to work here. 

Listening to an experienced sales agent close a deal as part of the onboarding training can be very helpful. The recording of successful calls illustrates the company’s communication policies and sales strategy. 

In addition, listening to calls where deals have not gone through helps with sales coaching and also aids trainees learn from another agent’s mistakes. 

Resolve disputes

Any sales manager knows that tempers can flare during a sales call. A simple misunderstanding can snowball into a bigger problem and managers can get caught in the classic ‘he-said-she-said’ scenario. 

Leaving such situations unresolved could result in the loss of a customer. But call recording eliminates bias and provides sales managers with the evidence required to resolve any dispute in a timely manner.

Enhance the team’s sales approach strategy

When the revenue for sales calls isn’t as high as you’d like, it’s time to re-evaluate the team’s sales strategy. The script may need to be tweaked. Or, the team may be calling potential customers at the wrong time of the day. 

Replaying successful and not-so-successful phone calls helps managers identify hurdles affecting conversion rates. They can hone in on common customer questions and objections and use this data to address any issues. They can strategize new plans for their sales approach and raise the conversion rate. 

How to Choose a Sales Call Recording Software Solution?

As explained above, sales call recordings are extremely useful. So, the next logical step is to figure out a way to record these calls. There are many software solutions available on the market today to record incoming and outgoing sales calls. 

That said, you need to pick the right software to reap all the benefits a call recording solution has to offer. Here are a few points you should keep in mind when choosing a call recording software.

Pricing is an important factor, but it isn’t the only criterion. The software needs to suit your company’s size and be scalable. It should also have an intuitive, easy-to-use interface. 

Recorded call files should be easy to sort and filter. For this, you must be able to tag recordings. The software you choose must also have advanced search capabilities. Let's say you want to listen only to calls handled by a particular agent. Or, you want to review calls made on a particular date. 

Above all, data security must be prioritized. When customers share their personal information with businesses, they trust you to keep their data safe. Hence, the software must meet the latest security and encryption standards. 

Can VoIP phone systems be the ideal solution? 

Upgrade your communication system to a VoIP phone system with call-recording capabilities. Why work with a complicated system of multiple moving parts when you can use a simple unified solution?

Call recording is a common feature of VoIP phone systems. Depending on the service provider, it may be included in the subscription plans or available as an add-on. Subscribers may also have the choice to automate recording and control it manually. Recorded call files are stored in the cloud and accessible through a dashboard. 

VoIP plans also make provisions for recording sales calls in compliance with legal requirements. Businesses can play customized messages to inform customers of the recording. You could say: “This call is being recorded for training and quality purposes”. 

The advantage of upgrading to a VoIP system extends beyond its call-recording abilities. It can be instrumental in building a professional brand image for over-the-phone customer interactions. 

For example, a VoIP network is not linked to devices but rather to virtual accounts. Users can access them remotely from any internet-connected device, which increases brand accessibility. 

VoIP plans include many more features on top of those already offered by basic phone systems, including call conferencing, call forwarding, customized hold music, intelligent call routing, call transcription, call analytics, and so on. 

Discover Aircall’s Call Recording Feature

Aircall is a leading VoIP service provider. Businesses can choose from three monthly subscription plans, all of which include a wide range of business phone features such as call recording and call transcription. 

This feature is activated whenever an agent picks up the phone to make or receive a call. These recordings can be retrieved and played back on demand through the connected CRM or Aircall Phone application. They can also be shared with the rest of the team.  

Setting up an Aircall account with call recording is quick and easy. Once you’ve chosen a plan and created user accounts, the call recording settings can be fine-tuned from the Admin dashboard. 

Sign up for a free 7-day trial to see how Aircall's call recording and sales coaching features can make a difference for you and your sales team.

Published on November 3, 2023.