How to guide sales calls in real-time: 4 manager best practices

Sales managers often feel like a Monday morning quarterback, giving feedback on plays after the outcome of the game has already been determined. In fact, roughly 64 percent of sales managers reported that their reps brought them into a deal too late eight or more times, according to a recent Outreach survey.

Later is too late, and the result is missed opportunities and revenue. Here are some of our best practices for giving sales guidance to your reps in real time.

Know when the next meeting is approaching

It’s impossible for sales managers to attend every meeting. Instead, they can check to see which meetings their reps have on the horizon. You can have your team share their Outlook calendar with you so you can see upcoming prospect meetings. Or, using Outreach’s Sales Execution Platform, you can see upcoming meetings at a glance by checking the “Status” column in Outreach's “Opportunity” view and hovering over the calendar icon.

See how your sales reps are working the deal

Before the prospect call, use your Outreach to quickly inspect the deal. Identify risks based on level of activity, engagement, and upcoming events. Notice any shortfalls in the game plan? Let your reps know what’s missing and what needs to happen next. You can be address via email or in your next 1:1 meeting. With Outreach, you can also create action items and assign them to reps in the moment to quickly get the deal moving again.

Put the right messaging in front of your team

New reps may struggle to remember key details about products or offerings, while experienced reps may know the product so well they “throw the kitchen sink” at prospects. Lack of information or too much information can make customer interest dwindle.

Work with your marketing team to create on-brand, effective messaging that reps can use during prospect calls. To ensure that they have the most up-to-the-minute information, leverage Kaia’s Content Cards, which pop up based on keywords in the conversation. They help to provide compelling product, service, pricing, and competitive insight when it’s needed most — in real time.

Surface action items and see when they're completed

In an Outreach survey, roughly 41 percent of managers said their biggest pet peeve about their reps' follow ups are incomplete action items and missing next steps. The last thing you want to do, however, is micromanage your team. Studies have shown that lack of autonomy at work elevates stress and can have other negative health effects, reported NPR. Instead, you want to make it easy for them to surface action items and complete them.

Kaia, an intelligent assistant that guides reps using AI and machine learning, automates this process with meeting transcripts, bookmarked notes, and action items. You get a highlight reel with a clear line of visibility into what should happen next. No more guessing or asking reps where things left off.

Real-time sales guidance gives reps confidence in the moment — and saves managers time every step of the way. Learn how this new approach makes reps more effective before, during and after prospect calls in Outreach’s exclusive ebook, “How to Guide Sales Reps to Win Deals Before, During and After the Meeting.”