Introducing: The State of Conversation Intelligence Report 2020

Chorus.ai, the Conversation Intelligence Platform for high-growth sales teams, today announced findings from the 2020 State of Conversation Intelligence report to show what a good sales call looks like at each stage of the cycle. The report summarizes data from more than 300 companies and 5 million recorded sales calls transcribed and analyzed by Chorus between January and June 2019.

The report provides industry benchmarks for sales leaders, managers and client success teams to compare and improve upon their own metrics and strategies.

Some findings are counterintuitive to what a sales professional might feel or believe in the day-to-day; for example, competitors are mentioned more in discovery meetings in closed won deals (5-6 times) than lost deals (3 times). The more the competitor is mentioned in early-stage conversations the better, because it means prospects are more educated and purchase-ready. Whereas, the mention of competitors in late-stage discussions is a red-flag and can lead to deals-lost. Therefore, sales representatives should embrace the discussion around competitors early on, rather than fear it.

“Our sales coaching has taken on a new life after using Chorus’ State of Conversation Intelligence Report,” said Mike Faber, Leader Manager Enablement, Zoom. “We use the report for rep and manager training by showing stats about engaging moments, questions and by showing managers what the standard coaching behavior was.”

Additional findings and opportunities include:

• Closed Won and Closed Lost deals take nearly the same amount of time to complete, with one key difference. The average Closed Won deal was 96 days, with Closed Lost being 87 days long. The key: lost deals had four fewer days dedicated to the discovery phase. If your sales representatives are spending months on a deal only to lose it, check the length of their discovery period to ensure the research is as robust as possible.

• Successful cold calls are long, but with less representative talk-time than expected. The average cold call lasts 132 seconds, but the most successful calls last 7.5 minutes. The representative talk time on cold calls that convert to the next stage is less than half the total time (or 44%) and successful calls create engaging moments which also leads to prospects asking 2-3 questions. Managers and sales representatives need to coach and self-coach to ensure their talk-track is confident, controlled and able to span multiple minutes, while being focused on asking open-ended questions that drive engagement with the prospect.

• Managers invest time and coaching later than they should. The report finds that 60% of managers coach late-stage deals, but alternatively, top managers also coach 63% of early-stage deals and garner 30% higher win rates by doing so. Managers who assist earlier in the process shouldn’t be seen as micro-managers, but instead viewed as a coach who develops representative skills throughout the entire deal cycle. Coaching shouldn’t only be for the deal but for the representative to learn and apply for more deals-won in the long term.

“Highly successful sales teams are data-driven and coached consistently and with intention. The data gleaned from Chorus’s research proves the importance of continued professional development,” said Natalie Severino, VP, Marketing at Chorus.ai. “The State of Conversation Intelligence Report provides anyone, wherever they are in their career, an opportunity to gauge and align their own metrics against the most successful teams in the industry.”

Other key insights are available in the full report, which segments data into the size of businesses analyzed, from small and medium-sized business selling (deals between $5,000-20,000), small and medium-sized business plus selling (between $21,000-50,000) mid-market selling ($51,000-100,000) and enterprise selling (deals greater than $100,000.)

For this report and other industry tools, like information on successfully closing deals and coaching strategy, visit www.chorus.ai.