Chorus.ai - White Paper or Research Report of the Year

Company: Chorus.ai, San Francisco, CA
Company Description: Chorus.ai is the #1 conversation intelligence platform for high-growth sales teams. It records, transcribes, and analyzes business conversations in real time to coach reps on how to become top performers. With Chorus.ai more reps meet quota, new hires ramp faster, leaders become better coaches, and everyone in the organization can collaborate over the actual voice of the customer.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: White Paper or Research Report of the Year

Nomination Title: State of Conversation Intelligence 2020 Report Provides Industry Benchmarks for Sales Leaders

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The State of Conversation Intelligence 2020 report was developed to help sales leaders, mangers, and client success teams compare and improve upon their own metrics and strategies by understanding in context how they compare with other peer companies.

The report shows what a good sales call looks like at each stage of the stage of the cycle. It was developed by analyzing more than 5 million recorded sales calls from more than 300 high-growth sales teams during the first half of 2019.

The approach to delivering the report was unique - it is available on an interactive microsite. Visitors can input information about how their team performs today and then see how they compare. At the end, the site will automatically deliver to them a customized Google Slides deck that they can use to review with their team in meeting or their SKO. A generic version of the findings is also available if the visitor prefers not to enter their data about deal size, sales cycle, etc.

The site is available at: https: //www.chorus.ai/state-of-conversation-intelligence

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, Manager of Leader 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.

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.) https: //www.chorus.ai/state-of-conversation-intelligence