Your employees hold meetings with clients. They see proposals, orders and turnover. But how are these results achieved? Anyone who wants to develop the quality of client conversations needs insight into what happens during the conversation: how objectives are clarified, clients are understood and solutions are linked to their benefits.
By conversation quality, I don't mean how convincingly someone presents their product. For me, what matters is how an employee conducts the conversation to understand the customer's situation and arrive at a suitable outcome together. Managers can recognise, discuss and purposefully develop this quality as sales coaches of their own employees.
From Gregor Minichberger, Sales Trainer and Coach.
Sales results don't tell the whole story
Revenue, conversion rate and activities are part of sales management. However, for an employee's development, I also want to understand: What did they specifically do during the call? What part of that was helpful and what could they do differently next time?
An order alone does not answer these questions. Nor does a lost order automatically show that the meeting was poorly handled. That is why, during reflection, I separate the sales outcome from the conversational behaviour, without ignoring either of the two.
For managers, customer interactions can remain a black box: the employee was there, the manager wasn't. My approach is to put a light switch in their hand. They learn to gain insight using concrete criteria and appropriate questions, and to initiate development from that.
How can conversation quality be recognised?
I define quality by concrete behaviour, not by a general impression such as „sells well“. The following six areas provide starting points for preparation, observation and reflection. Which of these are currently important depends on the customer, the reason for the conversation and the sales situation.
Preparing an outcome, not just an activity
„I'm showing the customer our new product line“ describes an activity. „I'm agreeing with the customer which products they will include in their range“ describes a targeted result. For me, objectives are anticipated results: they give the conversation direction.
As a manager, you can discuss the formulation of the goals before the meeting. Afterwards, you can compare the intention with the actual result together.
- Preparation: „What is the desired outcome of this meeting?“
- Reflection: „What did you set out to do? How did it go?“
Establish a shared target framework with the customer
A prepared sales goal is not yet a mutually agreed meeting objective. I want to see whether the employee presents their concern clearly, asks about the customer's goal and works out the common interests.
This is not about a memorised opening. What matters is that both sides know the purpose of the conversation and which topics are important for it.
- Preparation: „How do you phrase your conversation goal to the client?“
- Reflection: „What goal did the client state and what have you agreed on?“
Understanding the customer's situation
Open questions are not an end in themselves for me. I want to know what information the employee has gathered about the customer's situation and how they have picked up on key statements. This involves listening and asking follow-up questions instead of prematurely jumping to one's own solution.
A rigid target for the share of talking is not my benchmark for that. I am interested in what the employee has understood and what they base this understanding on.
- Preparation: „What questions do you ask to understand the customer's situation?“
- Reflection: „Which question gave you the most important information?“
Connect product and customer benefit
A product feature is not yet a benefit for this customer. The crucial factor is whether the employee connects their solution with what the customer wants to achieve. In doing so, I distinguish between a presumed advantage and a benefit that the customer has mentioned or confirmed themselves.
Another starting point lies in the documentation: is this benefit recognisable in the proposal, the accompanying email or the sales opportunity in the CRM? This makes the reasoning traceable, but does not replace insight into the entire course of the conversation.
- Preparation: „What does the customer want to achieve and what contribution does our solution make to this?“
- Reflection: „What benefit have you heard from the customer?“
Working with objections instead of just counter-attacking
With „too expensive“, I'm not just interested in whether the employee can come up with a quick answer. I want to understand how they addressed the objection and what options they had to continue the conversation.
In coaching, we develop matching alternatives to suit. Methods provide structure; the answer should fit the employee, the client and the situation.
- Reflection: „What objections did you hear and how did you respond?“
- Development „What alternative would you have had for your answer?“
Combining cooperation and own interests in negotiations
In my approach, readiness to cooperate does not mean fulfilling every demand. An employee should be able to show where a joint solution is possible and what quid pro quo or condition is part of meeting someone halfway.
This can be prepared: Which demands are to be expected? What scope is there and what would we like to agree on in return?
- Preparation: „What customer demands are we expecting?“
- Development „How do we link our cooperation offer with a suitable counter-demand?“
How do leaders gain insight when they were not there?
I distinguish between direct observation, the employee's account and information from documents. All three can be helpful for coaching, but they do not allow the same conclusions to be drawn.
- Joint preparation: Discussion goals and prepared questions show the intention with which the employee enters the meeting. They do not yet show how the conversation actually went.
- Specific debriefing: Let us describe a situation: What did the customer say? How did the employee react? That makes the reflection tangible, but remains the employee's perspective.
- Quotes and CRM entries: Here it can be checked, for example, whether customer concerns, benefits and agreements are recorded in a comprehensible manner. Good documentation is not automatically proof of a good conversation.
- Agreed accompaniment: When attending a client meeting, you can directly observe conversational behaviour. Clarify your role and the focus of the subsequent reflection beforehand.
First, choose a manageable focus. The question „What have we learned about the benefit for this customer?“ leads to a different meeting than a blanket „How was the appointment?“.
As a sales coach, you operate the light switch
By sales coach I mean a manager who prepares and debriefs customer meetings together with their team members and initiates learning from them. They do not have to conduct every meeting themselves. Their task is to stimulate the employee's thinking through questioning and to work on specific sales behavior.
The foundation is a clear agreement: What do we want to work on? Why are we discussing these situations and how will we use the insights? The leadership role remains, but the coaching should not be announced as open reflection if the answer has already been dictated anyway.
My recommendation for getting started: take a specific deadline, a quality aspect and a development task. Agree on what the employee will try out by the next suitable discussion and when you will review it again. That way, the meeting does not end with just an assessment.
An example: From presumed to stated benefit
The following example is constructed for illustrative purposes and is not a client reference. It shows how a debriefing can be turned into a concrete task for the next meeting.
An employee reports: „The client finds our solution interesting. I'm sending them a quote.“ When asked which benefit is important to the client, they reply: „This will surely save them time.“
Now a distinction is important: did the customer mention the time saving themselves, or is the employee assuming this benefit? The manager asks: „What benefit did you hear from the customer?“ If it turns out that the benefit was only assumed hitherto, this creates a clear action item for the conversation.
During the next contact, the employee could clarify: „What would change for you in your daily routine if we were to simplify this process?“ Afterwards, both discuss what the customer actually mentioned and how this is reflected in the proposal. The developmental task is therefore not to „argue better“, but rather: to work out the benefit relevant to this customer and connect it with the solution.
So that insight becomes application
I combine training and coaching with tools and support measures that aid implementation in daily sales. Depending on the initial situation, this can be preparation aids for meetings, jointly developed questions, suitable CRM fields or short exercises on typical objections during team meetings.
Not every team needs every measure. The crucial thing for me is which support enables the next concrete learning step and how the manager accompanies it. You can find out more at „How I work“.
Frequently asked questions about the quality of customer conversations
Can I measure conversations quality without recording calls?
You can observe and discuss specific quality characteristics even without records, for example on the basis of agreed accompaniments, preparations or offers. Record what your assessment is based on and what you cannot evaluate. A score does not automatically make an assessment objective.
Do I need to be present for every customer conversation?
That is not necessary for my approach. Select conversations specifically and combine agreed accompaniments with the preparation and reflection of other appointments. In doing so, clearly distinguish between your own observation and the employee's account.
Should I assess all employees using the same criteria?
I recommend shared terms so that it is clear within the team what is meant by conversation quality. However, which criteria are relevant in a specific situation should match the occasion and the task. For example, not every customer conversation is a price negotiation.
What is a sensible first step?
Choose an upcoming customer meeting and a focal point with an employee, such as clarifying customer value. Discuss the preparation and arrange a brief debriefing. From this, derive what the employee wants to maintain or do differently at the next suitable appointment.
Let's talk about your team's customer conversations
Would you like a clearer picture of how your team conducts customer conversations and where you can support their development as a sales coach? Together, we will determine which criteria, tools and supporting measures fit into your daily sales routine. So that you not only talk about results, but can also purposefully support the work behind them.