Coach sellers to success with Outreach Kaia

Sales is complex and managers are juggling more priorities than ever in an all new sales landscape. The lack of visibility into deal details can leave managers relying more on  reps' gut feeling and less on critical deal data that can help them identify coaching opportunities and improve team performance. 

Managers are busy, and sellers need informed guidance – not hunches. Reps need coaching even when their manager isn’t available. And managers need to make the most of their reps’ available time, guiding efficiently and accurately while de-risking pipeline. Outreach has been innovating to improve team performance – because when all reps sell like your best rep, sales teams can reach their quota attainment and get a head start on future quarter goals. 

Kaia is Outreach’s AI-powered conversational intelligence software. Kaia records and analyzes calls in real time, so sellers get the support they need in the moment while managers get the insight they need to create an effective coaching strategy for the long run. Kaia monitors buyer sentiment, recaps calls and next steps, and even helps draft email communications so sellers can actually sell and managers can actually manage. Kaia doesn’t eliminate the personal, human touch, but rather elevates it. Reps can be present and managers can be effective.

Here a few ways managers can boost their teams performance and coach reps to success with Kaia:

Get visibility into what’s trending and where your reps are struggling

Every coach needs a game plan. Before managers start coaching, understanding what is trending in conversations between buyers and sellers equips managers with the perspective and insights they need before meeting with reps. This allows managers to tailor the coaching conversation with more data and insights, and guide the rep back on track on where they struggle, or where new trends require additional rep support:

• Create custom topics for any topics you might want our AI model to track, beyond the 22 out-of-the-box topics already available to you, like Competitor, Demo, Pricing or any MEDDPICC topic. For example, if your organization has recently re-positioned your product message, you can set up a custom topic to track how well your sellers are delivering the message and also how it’s being received in the market. 
• Set up custom saved views of any topic to see how they are trending over time in your reps conversations. Create alerts so you know every time this topic pops up in conversations. Ask: 
  • Are these topics coming up consistently across all deals or with a few reps? 
  • When you dive into meetings, what are the buyer reactions and how did the rep handle the conversation?

Pre-existing or custom, all of Outreach topics are AI-powered, so your reps don’t need to mention the topic verbatim for Outreach’s AI to recognize it.

Assist reps when and where it has the biggest impact

Kaia isn’t the only Outreach tool that supports coaching: Deal Health, Rep Strengths and Weaknesses… this expansive suite is the foundational component of our Sales Execution platform. With  Kaia, coaching can happen real-time or post-call. 

Real-time means reps get the support in the moment and can move the conversation forward with confidence even when the manager can’t join. Post-call coaching provides reps and managers with insights and signals on where they succeeded and where support is needed and provide feedback.When managers implement Kaia as part of the full coaching suite, they never miss a chance to support their teams. 

Questions to consider for live conversation coaching

If your rep is on a Outreach Voice call with Kaia, take a look at the Call Monitoring page and notice:

• What topics are your reps discussing at the moment? Are those topics ones they struggle with? 
• What Kaia Content Cards can be developed to guide your team? 
• Where can you use Live Listen to join and assist your rep on the fly? What notes can you write in the live transcription window to help your reps pivot?

If your rep is using Kaia for Zoom or MS Teams, consider:

• What Content Cards can be created or updated to help them with the hard questions based on the insights from topics you are tracking? 
• What additional resources can you link in the content cards for deeper information for both the seller and the buyer?

In Kaia Voice and Kaia Meetings, live analytics allow your reps to self-improve and pivot when they see participants fall silent or disengage. Similarly, it allows them to get visibility when they are or one participant is dominating the conversation. Consider these questions:

• Is your rep looking at the real time call analytics, to ensure every person on the buyer team is engaged during the conversation? 
• How balanced is the conversation?

Don’t forget that capabilities like automated transcription and action item detection further supports sellers to focus on the buyer and the conversation, and not on note taking. All this information is available after the call ends, with automated summaries and emails provided to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

When evaluating recorded calls and meetings, here are a few questions to consider.

Take a look at meeting abstracts generated by Smart Meeting & Call Assist to get up to speed quickly. Consider looking at the topics and sentiment that came up during the call and evaluate:

• Which topic is this rep struggling with? What was the buyer's sentiment in reaction to that particular topic?
• Are other reps also needing additional support with the same or similar topics? How does this align with the topics you are already tracking?
• Are reps actively listening to the buyer and moving the conversation in the right direction? Which Kaia Coach Card might be most appropriate to apply to the call and give feedback?
• What do other actions -- like bookmarks, notes, action items or Q&As -- tell you about what worked really well in the meeting or where there are opportunities?

Provide feedback through the Kaia Coach Cards to accompany 1:1 meetings to coach more succinctly and directly, to celebrate success and mentor on ways to improve. Context is imperative and coaching should be multidimensional: a combination of self-improvement efforts, manager support, enablement input, peer encouragement, tip-sharing, and more. 

Celebrate and scale success

Successful coaching leads to better outcomes. Celebrating the wins is almost as important as creating them.  When reps are successful on calls, managers can use the Coach Card Report to see the team leaderboard. Dive into specific conversations and make Clips and Playlists of those conversations to appropriately celebrate and duplicate success across teams, giving  reps a view of what “best-in-class” means for the organization.

Managers might also opt to give praise by leaving positive comments and callouts as notes in the recordings, in the comment section of a Coach Card, or in team and individual settings.

Energize your teams. Learn more about how your organization can use Kaia Coach Cards and the Coach Card Report to celebrate and replicate success, and read more how to set up the Custom Topics your business needs.

For more information on Kaia and other Outreach features, you can register for an upcoming Admin Office Hours for deep dives into our product or join us on the upcoming May edition of our What’s New, What’s Next Webinar for customers.

For more details on other AI-powered capabilities that drive sales productivity and precision, here are some helpful resources:

• Read how Fivetran is transforming their sales with Outreach Sales Execution Platform.
• Learn about the Kaia capabilities Outreach reps simply can’t live without.
• Check out our AE and Sales Manager Checklists so your teams are set up for success.