Build a self-coaching routine as a rep

Who can use this: Any team member

Available on: Enable, Enable Essentials

Ideal for: Sales rep

You want to sharpen your pitch and win more deals, and you don't want to wait for your manager to coach you. Build a steady rhythm of reviewing your own calls, asking for feedback, and learning from your peers, and use your call data to see whether you're improving.

Step 1: Review your own calls

Listening to your own calls shows you what you said, how your customer reacted, and what you need to follow up on. Listen to one of your calls each week, and raise the playback speed to save time.

• Check that you captured the main points and next steps, and follow up on any action items.

• Listen for details that could help unlock the deal.

• Add comments on key moments, such as bookmarks for clever objection handling, concrete next steps, or deal notes.

• Tag people in a comment to ask for help, ask a question, or share information with the team.

Look out for the email that says a call is ready to review, and the daily digest that lists your calls of the day. Learn more about giving feedback through comments.

Tip:

Before a meeting with an important prospect, listen to your previous calls with them to refresh your memory.

Step 2: Check your call stats

Call stats show how the conversation went, not only what was said. Use them to see whether you talk too much or too little, and to track how you improve over time. To see interaction stats, click the stats icon on the right side of the call. If your company has turned on Whisper for call interaction stats, a green dot means a stat is within the recommended range and a yellow dot means it is outside it.

• Talk ratio: The percentage of the call in which you spoke. The recommendation is no more than 65%.

• Longest monologue: The duration of the longest speech you made. The recommendation is no more than 2 minutes 30 seconds.

• Longest customer story: The duration of the longest customer-talking segment, which can include short interruptions by you. The recommendation is between 1 and 2 minutes.

• Interactivity: How often the conversation switched back and forth between you and your customer, on a scale of 0 to 10. The recommendation is 5 or more.

• Patience: How long you waited after the customer finished talking before you took over. The recommendation is between 0.6 and 1 second.

Learn more about call interaction stats.

Step 3: Ask for feedback

Your manager can give you guidance on a particular moment in a call, or score your overall performance. Request feedback from your manager once a month to keep them involved and get their support in the areas you want to improve.

Peers are a good source of feedback too. Tag them in a call, or ask them to give feedback or score your calls. Learn more about requesting feedback on a call.

Step 4: Score a call

Scoring a call lets you evaluate how you think it went, and gives you a measurable way to track your improvement. Score one of your own calls each month. You can also score a peer's call once a week to give them feedback and positive reinforcement. Learn more about scoring a call.

Step 5: Learn from your peers

Listening to your peers' calls shows you how others handle the situations you face. Listen to one peer's call each week.

• Start with calls from top closers, calls in recently closed-won or closed-lost deals, and calls in specific vertical markets.

• Search for calls from any stage of the sales cycle, including calls that mention your competitors. Learn more about searching for calls.

• Use the library folders your company has set up to learn the product, how to pitch it, and what good calls look like at each stage. Learn more about your libraries.

• When you have a call others could learn from, such as one about competitive positioning, pricing negotiation, or overcoming objections, add it to the relevant library folder. Share your folders to help others self-coach too.

Step 6: Track your progress

Check your stats once a month to see whether you're improving, staying the same, or slipping, and compare yourself with the rest of your team. As the habit settles in, listen to your own calls daily, and request feedback and score calls weekly.

To check your progress:

1. From the left sidebar, click Insights, and select Team.

2. Review the tabs that matter most for self-coaching:

   • Interaction: Monitor your conversational skills.

   • Topics: See how much time you spent on key topics.

   • Gong usage: See how you use Gong compared with top-performing reps.

   • Coaching received: See how much coaching you've received, how, and when.

Learn more about reviewing team coaching activity with Gong usage.

Frequently asked questions