How to find product feedback patterns in sales calls automatically

• First sales calls are similar to product discovery calls in their focus to understand pain points and current solutions
• Product feedback channeled from sales to product is mostly flawed
• Analyze the source data, the call recordings, to get holistic feedback patterns

Strong sales reps ask qualifying questions in their first call with prospects, not talk about their product. What kind of questions does a sales rep ask?

• How do you solve [prospect’s problem] today?
• What are your challenges with this approach?
• What happens in 6 months if you change nothing?

And the list goes on exploring the acute pain point of the prospect to understand which features of the product could solve that problem.

Maybe it’s just me, the product person, but don’t they sound familiar? These questions resemble the questions asked in product discovery calls trying to understand how to improve the conversion funnel.

It’s no coincidence. Both sales and product need to develop a deep understanding of (1) how a potential new customer solves a problem today and (2) where they experience pain in this process. The difference is, a sales rep will do around 40 calls a week while a product manager may do 4. 

I know, 4 is an arbitrary pick. :) But I think we all agree about the  magnitude of difference between the two roles.

So let’s learn from sales reps about product pain points, shall we?

The backlash of diverging incentives

I have some bad news for you: sales reps are measured on leads & contracts closed - not on pain points passed on to the product team. While product feedback does get back to the product team, it has two inherent flaws:

• Myopic feedback: Sales people will emphasize feedback that will help them close deals. Sales tends not pass on a lot of other insights (e.g., what the prospect shared about a competitive product) that would be invaluable for the product team

• Shallow feedback depth: You’ll get a ticket, a note, maybe a Slack message from Sales. It lacks the context of how and what the prospect said, which are essential layers of a product insight.

Sales doesn’t do this because they are lazy - the opposite. Their job is to close deals and everything else they do on top is systematically not incentivized. 

Where does this leave us? First sales calls are a goldmine of insights about pain points, unmet needs and other product feedback but they are inaccessible to product teams. 

Forget the current process, analyze the raw data

How about not optimizing a flawed process but trying something new instead? 

Sales calls are typically recorded. If they are not, start recording them today. Not just for the sake of product feedback but for the sake of improving the sales team’s performance.

Instead of relying on Sales to pass on product feedback, let’s analyze the source data - the recordings. Airtime can analyze up to 1000 calls in a batch and crystalize feedback patterns. On top of that, it can also pull together relevant feedback from this call database about any of your questions - like “what did prospects say about our [wow] feature?

Advantages?

• Saving time for sales & product: Product gets an automated feedback channel about prospect needs without any manual work for either the sales or product team

• Holistic feedback patterns: Anecdotes, shallow feedback and recency bias are eliminated and what remains is true data-driven insights what potential users need most to convert. 

• On-demand product insights: The accumulated database of sales calls is a kind of research repository. It’s possible to slice and dice that database by anyone simply asking questions. No highlighting, tagging and maintenance needed

Wait, why not just use the sales team’s meeting summary tool?

Fireflies, Gong and similar meeting summary tools are game changers for sales & customer success teams. However, they have a couple of vital shortcomings from a Product perspective:

1. Lack of pattern analysis: Their focus is on individual call analysis. But that is anecdotal evidence for Product

2. Lack of on-demand insights: Every product team has a continuous flow of questions, hypotheses or assumptions as they add new features to their software or change existing ones. Meeting summary tools were not built to be a user insight repository

This how you can start exploring feedback patterns in a minute

Airtime turns user calls into product insights. Using the video or audio recordings of calls, Airtime identifies & interprets recurring feedback patterns within seconds for up to 1000 calls in a single analysis. 

If you have a specific question, Airtime will pull together all relevant feedback for you so you can have a holistic view of customer feedback.

No manual work with highlighting, defining labels, tags or keywords.

Here is a 1 minute demo to give you a glimpse.

A number of Airtime clients have been using Airtime to tap into product feedback from sales calls. 

For instance, Kitchn.io has been analyzing feedback patterns using initial sales call recordings in fireflies. 

Kitchn.io is a platform boosting the productivity of marketers through  paid social ads automation. Check out what Simon, their Co-founder had to say about Airtime.

It couldn’t be more simple to give Airtime a spin:

• Create a free Airtime account
• Transfer call recordings into Airtime
• Hit the “Pattern analysis” button

Done. 

Airtime provides you the key patterns as well as sources from individual recordings so you can track back patterns to individual prospects. 

Check out Airtime using our free trial or book a short demo with us if you’d like to discuss how to best use Airtime for your use cases.