Field sales managers have a lot of responsibilities.
They have to devise sales strategies, cut and assign territories, motivate their reps, analyze sales metrics, generate reports for company leadership teams… The list goes on and on.
Unfortunately, these responsibilities take time and effort, which means most field sales managers don’t have the resources they need to coach their reps effectively. This is a shame because sales coaching is incredibly beneficial. Don’t believe us? Try these stats on for size:
Companies with dynamic coaching programs achieve 28% higher win rates.
Successful sales coaching programs help teams hit quota 91% of the time.
Brands that provide quality coaching to reps reach 7% greater revenue growth.
So, how do you achieve the benefits of sales coaching without working 24/7? It’s pretty simple: invest in one of the sales coaching tools we cover in this article. Let’s dive in!
Why You Should Invest In Sales Coaching Tools
Sales coaching is the process of mentoring sales reps to achieve more in their sales careers while closing more deals and driving revenue for the companies they work for.
There’s really no “right way” to coach your reps. As long as your methods produce positive results, you should be golden. That said, sales coaching tools are recommended. Here’s why:
Organization
Sales coaching software, like the apps we list in a later section of this article, will help you organize your coaching efforts. When this happens, assessing each rep’s performance and giving them the advice they need will be much easier. It will also be easier to track progress and ensure your reps improve their skills over time, which is the whole point of this exercise.
Productivity
As mentioned earlier, field sales managers like yourself are incredibly busy people. Many don’t have endless hours to devote to mentorship. Sales coaching tools streamline the process so that you can actually do it on a regular basis. How so?
Many tools will automatically track rep activities and their success with each so you can quickly evaluate their actions. Some record sales calls, too, which makes it easy to give feedback—even if you weren’t able to catch the call at the exact time it was made.
Rep satisfaction
Finally, sales coaching platforms lead to rep satisfaction.
Trust us. Your reps want to be coached. In fact, a whopping 60% of reps say they’re more likely to quit their job if their manager doesn’t excel in this area.
Sales coaching tools will help you coach your reps consistently in an organized and thoughtful way that leads to greater rep success. When that happens, your reps will become more loyal. After all, you helped them achieve more in their careers.
Sales Coaching vs. Sales Training
It’s important to realize the differences between sales coaching and sales training. That way, you can choose the right tool for your needs and empower your reps to achieve greater success.
Like we talked about before, sales coaching is the process of mentoring sales reps so that they can close more deals for your company. It’s done on a one-to-one basis and customized to suit specific individuals. Generalist advice doesn’t fly when sales coaching.
Sales training, on the other hand, is about teaching new sales reps how to fulfill their roles.
Once a rep goes through your sales training program, they should know the ins and outs of your company’s products, how to use your team’s software solutions, how to implement the sales strategies you’ve devised, and which territories they’re responsible for.
To be clear, this article is about sales coaching and the specific tools you can use to do it effectively. With that in mind, let’s move on to the next section!
What Managers Should Look For In Sales Coaching Software
There are plenty of sales coaching tools out there. Which one should you purchase for your department? Only invest in products that have the following four features:
Sales activity tracking
First, choose software that will enable you to track rep activities.
You need to know how many sales meetings they attend, calls they make, emails and texts they send, and social engagements they generate on a daily basis.
Without this knowledge, you won’t be able to properly evaluate their performance. Just as important, you won’t know which activities lead to desired results. Were the last sales made via an in-person meeting or phone call? You need to know so you can coach your reps accordingly.
Sales sequencing
Once you know which sales activities your reps complete every day, you can leverage these insights to develop repeatable sales sequences that help reps improve their performance.
For example, you might discover that your top-performing sales rep sends seven follow-up emails to every prospect he engages with. Lower-performing reps only send three or four. So, you build a sales sequence that includes seven follow-ups and ask reps to implement it.
Look for sales coaching tools that include sales sequencing capabilities. Or, at the very least, integrate with another tool that has a built-in sales sequencer. (More on integrations below.)
Sales call analysis
Does your sales team use the phone to close deals? Then, you should definitely purchase sales coaching software with the ability to record sales calls.
You don’t have time to sit in on all of your reps’ sales calls. But you can still listen and give feedback if said calls are recorded and made available to you. When this happens, you can easily listen, take notes, and deliver powerful critiques that supercharge your reps’ skills.
Integrations
The best sales coaching software plays nice with others.
Invest in a solution that connects to the other tools you and your sales team use every day. If you don’t, you’ll waste a lot of time transferring data between apps.
Then you’ll realize that you don’t have time to transfer said data on a regular basis, and your sales coaching program will fall by the wayside, and team performance will plummet.
Integrations may not seem important, but they are. Don’t overlook them!
10 Best Sales Coaching Tools For Field Sales Teams
Now that you know what to look for in a sales coaching tool, let’s talk about the best options on the market. Here are ten apps you should consider investing in right now:
SPOTIO
G2 rating: 4.4 stars / 288 reviews
SPOTIO is the industry-leading sales engagement platform for field sales teams. With it, salespeople can create territories and generate leads, plan routes between prospects track mileage, and implement multi-channel sales sequences. Just as important, sales managers can track all of these activities so that they can better coach their reps.
Key features:
- Track each of your reps’ sales activities to understand what works and what doesn’t
- Use data to build customized sales sequences that quickly improve rep performance
- Implement multi-channel sales sequences and automate your reps’ emails, texts, etc.
- Get deep insights regarding performance and update your sales strategy as needed
- Integrate SPOTIO with other top sales tools, like Salesforce, Gmail, and Zapier
What users are saying:
“I like the way I can track my employee’s time in the field and see real-time results. Additionally, I like the ease of use for my in-the-field agents. Quick and simple training time turnarounds. Easy enough that some of my older, non-technical employees quickly understood how to use the software.” – Troy D. | Verified G2 Reviewer
“The ability to help coordinate where everyone is going, who has been where, and to be able to see it manifest in a GPS map is very useful for team management.” – Kevin K. | Verified G2 Reviewer
Brainshark
G2 rating: 4.4 stars / 560 reviews
Brainshark is a powerful platform that can be used for both sales training and sales coaching purposes. In other words, it’s a one-stop shop for sales-readiness. If you purchase this solution, your reps will always be equipped to close deals, drive revenue, and meet quota.
Key features:
- Onboard, train, and even certify new reps within the Brainshark platform
- Create a content library for your team, which they can access via desktop or mobile
- Track sales rep activity and performance to understand who’s most ready to succeed
- Use AI-powered insights to simplify the coaching process and give better feedback
What users are saying:
“We love the variety of ways we can use Brainshark to support our L&D programs- from creating and sharing CBTs, assessments, PPTs, videos, documents, etc. It’s just so versatile. Plus, the user-friendly interface makes it easy to use and learn.” – Melanie N. | Verified G2 Reviewer
“It is incredibly useful as a tool for testing the knowledge of those in your team. Making it easier to focus on problem areas with different individuals on the team.” – Katelyn R. | Verified G2 Reviewer
ClearSlide
G2 rating: 4.1 stars / 502 reviews
ClearsSlide’s goal is to “make every customer interaction successful.” That’s a tall order, but this sales coaching software does a pretty good job of making it a reality, thanks to content management, communication, analytics, and guided selling features.
Key features:
- Record sales meetings so that you can listen to them later and give feedback
- Study engagement reports that track multiple communication channels over time
- Use the content recommendation engine to help reps create top customer experiences
- Take advantage of real-time notifications to deliver immediate coaching to your reps
What users are saying:
“It’s great to share materials internally within the organization. With ClearSlide, you can search for your colleague’s great work and build upon it – creating lots of leverage within the organization.” – Verified G2 Reviewer.
“Huge library of sales presentations, marketing collateral, and email templates provide the best sales content assets.” – Jason K. | Verified G2 Reviewer
Gong
G2 rating: 4.7 stars / 5,358 reviews
Gong is an extremely popular revenue intelligence platform. Why is it so well-loved in the sales community? Because it’s both easy to use and powerful, it gives sales teams the in-depth insights they need to improve performance and boost their revenue numbers.
Key features:
- Record calls and generate transcripts automatically for just-in-time coaching
- Learn which topics and behaviors your reps struggle with most on sales calls
- Easily provide reps with videos they can use to better handle various objections
- Receive data-driven recommendations for your reps to help improve performance
- Integrate the Gong sales coaching tool with just about any other sales application
What users are saying:
“Gong makes my job easy by auditing the calls of the sellers under me. In one go, it gives me a complete glance at the call with the call transcription turned on… It is an outstanding tool for monitoring the performance of the sellers.” – Ganta Sruthi V. | Verified G2 Reviewer
“Gong is super simple, intuitive, and easy to use. I love that it connects calls from the same account so that I can easily watch a deal happen from discovery to close. It even includes the emails that are sent between meetings so that I can learn and see what successful reps are doing between meetings!” – Andrew C. | Verified G2 Reviewer
Second Nature
G2 rating: 4.6 stars / 291 reviews
Second Nature is a unique sales coaching platform. It does not track rep performance. Instead, it uses advanced AI technology to simulate sales conversations. That way, reps develop their sales skills in a safe environment. The result? More deals and revenue.
Key features:
- Allow reps to practice selling to an intelligent AI so they can hone their abilities
- Track performance in these AI sales sessions and receive automated feedback
- Tap into a built-in learning management system (LMS) to better train your reps
- Use gamification tactics to make the sales training process more fun and effective
What users are saying:
“What I like best about Second Nature is how it helps us to equip our sales team with incredible sales skills, which gives them the confidence to engage with clients. We use Second Nature in all our organizations to coach and train our sales representatives. ” – Paige S. | Verified G2 Reviewer
“Second Nature AI represents a groundbreaking approach to training, leveraging the capabilities of AI for immersive simulation exercises. This tool has significantly enhanced our team’s preparedness for customer conversations.” – Verified G2 Reviewer
Chorus.ai
G2 rating: 4.5 stars / 2,905 reviews
Chorus, part of the Zoominfo suite of tools, is another popular sales platform that’s also equipped with top-level sales coaching tools. Use it to quickly analyze your reps’ sales interactions and receive AI-back insights you can use to level up team performance.
Key features:
- Automatically capture and analyze your sales team’s calls, emails, and meetings
- Quickly identify winning behaviors, then share insights with reps to improve results
- Sync data with your CRM of choice and use it to better forecast future sales
- Integrate Chorus with many other sales tools, such as CRMs and calendar apps
What users are saying:
“Using Chrous.ai during meetings with clients and prospects allows our team to focus on the conversation instead of taking notes. Also, the coaching analysis lets us know if we were dominating the conversation or had allowed the people on the other end to speak.” – Philip W. | Verified G2 Reviewer
“Chorus helps me to break down the large number of calls my team makes into usable portions so that I can focus on giving the best constructive feedback to help my team succeed. I enjoy viewing the transcripts to help locate keywords or phrases during meetings.” – Jason P. | Verified G2 Reviewer
Salesken
G2 rating: 5.0 stars / 352 reviews
Like many of the sales coaching platforms in this article, Salesken is a conversion intelligence tool. What does “conversion intelligence” mean, you ask? It’s a fancy way of saying, “this software gives you the insights you need to boost performance and close more deals.” Salesken is popular because it can be used by both salespeople and their managers.
Key features:
- Enable reps to use Salesken to receive real-time, AI-powered feedback during calls
- Generate call summaries automatically so reps can focus on prospects, not their notes
- Receive deep insights regarding rep performance so you can build winning strategies
- Set sales goals for reps, track their progress, and otherwise ensure their success
What users are saying:
“SalesKen is a software-based solution that gives you the tools to gain real-time insight into your reps’ performance so you can be more effective in your coaching. The software allows you to see your reps’ activity on calls, webinars, and presentations, and to get reports that help you improve your team’s overall performance.” – Aniruddha S. | Verified G2 Reviewer
“Before Salesken, my sales team was having trouble meeting our monthly goals. Our reps were spending too much time making cold calls and we weren’t seeing the results we needed to grow. I was skeptical of Salesken, but after giving it a try, I was amazed at how much more productive our team was. We started seeing results in less than a week and our sales numbers are growing.” – Atharva V. | Verified G2 Reviewer
Clari Copilot (Formerly Wingman)
G2 rating: 4.5 stars / 464 reviews
Wingman was founded in 2016, purchased by Clari in 2022, and quickly renamed Clari Copilot. Thankfully, all of the things that customers loved about Wingman remain, such as the platform’s AI-powered in-call coaching for reps and its deep analytics data for managers.
Key features:
- Receive real-time feedback to improve rep performance during sales calls
- Generate call summaries, next steps, and suggested actions on autopilot
- Automatically surface crucial deal data like objections and competitor mentions
- Produce scorecards and review trends to easily monitor rep progress over time
What users are saying:
“One of Wingman’s main advantages is that it helps sales teams perform better by offering in-the-moment coaching and monitoring of sales discussions. This can assist salespeople in determining areas where they can strengthen their strategy and raise the likelihood that they will close deals.” – Shivam S. | Verified G2 Reviewer
“I don’t have the time to be on every sales call to learn about our customers and see what they’re comparing us against in the market. Wingman helps to consolidate this information easily with filtered searches and keywords.” – Hayat R. | Verified G2 Reviewer
Mindtickle
G2 rating: 4.7 stars / 1,837 reviews
Mindtickle is all about personalization, which is why it makes our list of best sales coaching software. Use this app to successfully onboard, train, certify, and coach your sales team.
Key features:
- Build complete training programs to ensure your reps are ready to sell
- Create competitions to make the sales training process a lot more fun for your team
- Receive performance data for each of your reps, so you can coach them effectively
- Use templates to build a solid foundation of your department’s sales coaching program
What users are saying:
“I like the packaged deal you get with Mindtickle’s offering – Enablement-friendly CMS, Call Recording, LMS, Digital Sales Rooms (DSRs) and more. The quick reaction time by the Support team is also fantastic and always appreciated!” – Brandon F. | Verified G2 Reviewer
“I like Mindtickle because it has a bunch of cool things to help sales teams get better. It’s easy to use, has fun training stuff, and shows you all sorts of numbers and data. Plus, it can tell you where your team can do better, which helps everyone work more efficiently.” – Mike B. | Verified G2 Reviewer
SalesHood
G2 rating: 4.6 stars / 609 reviews
The last sales coaching platform we’ll talk about today is SalesHood, which aims to help sales teams become more productive, close more deals, and drive more revenue. We’re happy to report that this app largely achieves its mission while remaining quite user-friendly.
Key features:
- Host all of your sales content, then distribute it to reps and/or customers as needed
- Understand which sales activities produce the best results so you can replicate them
- Receive coaching recommendations that keep you and your team uber-efficient
What users are saying:
“The SalesHood interface is exceptionally user-friendly, the content library is highly comprehensive, and the customizable learning paths are a great way to showcase an enablement strategy. Most importantly, the analytics and reporting are robust, helping track and measure the effectiveness of enablement initiatives.” – Brent M. | Verified G2 Reviewer
“Saleshood is a one-stop repository for all the training material and modules that need to be provided to any new [employee]. The content is precisely segregated and tracking the progress on each module is extremely easy.” – Verified G2 Reviewer
Our Selection Criteria
You’re probably wondering how we chose these ten sales coaching tools. It wasn’t complex. We simply looked for apps with quality features, plenty of integrations, and good reviews.
- Features and functionality: All of the sales coaching platforms we discussed have the features and functionality you need to build a top-level coaching program.
- Integrations: The solutions we covered also feature integrations with many, if not all, major sales applications, such as Salesforce, Gmail, and Microsoft Outlook.
- User reviews: Features and integrations are great, but what do actual users think? Rest assured, the solutions above are all loved by their respective users.
Start Coaching On The Right Sales Motions
Sales coaching software will make you a better field sales manager.
Once you add this tool to your department’s tech stack, you’ll develop a more organized and productive coaching program that will keep your reps satisfied and progressing in their skills.
Now you just have to choose one of the options above. All of them will benefit your team. But given the fact that you’re in field sales, we definitely recommend SPOTIO.
Our platform was specifically built to help field sales teams achieve more. As such, it has the features you need to better coach your reps. (It also has features your reps can use to become more productive and close more deals. So it’s a complete win on every level!)
Sign up for a free demo of SPOTIO today to see our industry-leading features in action.
