Listening to Sales Calls: 4 Things Marketers Can Learn

Many B2B companies preach sales-marketing alignment, but few have it.

It’s not uncommon for sales and marketing teams to operate in silos, having little idea of what each is working on.

At Cognism, marketing and sales are aligned under what CMO Alice de Courcy calls a shared destiny. Both teams work together towards one key goal and one core metric: revenue.

So, how can you get your B2B sales and marketing teams working in sync?

One of the best methods for alignment is having your marketing team regularly listen in on live sales calls. Or listen back using sales call recordings to learn the ins and outs of the buyer’s journey.

It’s a great way to get your teams on the same page and convert leads faster and more effectively.

In this blog, we speak to Cognism’s marketers about the insights they get from listening to sales calls. You’ll hear from:

• Tim Hughes, Demand Generation Lead
• Jamie Skeels, Senior Demand Generation Manager
• Joe Barron, Senior Content Manager
• Laura Rieger, former Senior Demand Generation Manager (DACH)
• Ashleigh Frank, former Demand Generation Manager
• Emma Sands, former Customer Marketing Manager

Let’s get started! Use the sticky menu or scroll 👇

1. Identify key messaging

What’s the number one thing that marketers can learn from listening to sales phone calls?

It may sound obvious, but hearing cold calls can help marketers better understand their ICP. If you aren’t listening to customer interactions, you’re making assumptions that aren’t grounded in data, which can cost you time and money!

Ashleigh explained that for campaign planning, understanding your ICP is vital to identifying key messaging that works.

“Listening to sales reps on their calls can really help you understand your core ICP. You’ll be able to understand your audience’s main pain points, which is vital when planning your next campaign.”

“This ensures your messaging is relevant and impactful.”

There’s no doubt it’s important to hear what your customer’s pain points and triggers are. But knowing what sales messaging resonates with your potential customers is also crucial.

Tim said:

“Other than uncovering our customers’ pain points and buying triggers, sales call recordings are a great way to hear how our SDRs are positioning the product to our prospects.”

“I’ll identify the key messages they say, see which ones resonate most with the customer and ensure this is reflected in our ad copy.”

A marketer listening to cold calling? Surely that’s a waste of bad time?

Not so! It has two distinct benefits. It allows you to improve your messaging by:

1. Identifying pain points experienced by the customer.
2. Hearing what sales conversations persuade the buyer.

Press ▶️ to watch Cognism’s CMO Alice de Courcy and VP Sales Jonathon Ilett discuss sales-marketing alignment.

2. Discover unexpected uses for your product

As marketers, we often have an idea of what our product is used for, and based on our data, we’re mostly right.

But there are cases where new uses for your product come up in sales discovery calls. These cases often fly under the radar.

For example, let’s say you have a task management tool that B2B software companies generally use. But lately, you’ve heard of non-profits using your tool’s free version to help them organise their outreach to donors. This is a golden opportunity for a marketer.

Similarly, Cognism’s Chrome Extension is our product’s ‘freemium’ version. Once users download it and are wowed by the features and GDPR-compliant data, they upgrade to the full version.

Armed with this knowledge, content marketers can:

• Create new content focusing on new verticals.
• Schedule interviews for future case studies.
• Craft new social campaigns.

A savvy marketer sees unexpected uses of a product and builds on it. That’s brilliant data-driven marketing.

3. Learn how to speak your customer’s language

For B2B marketers, speaking your customer’s language should be second nature. But it’s easy to get carried away and add unnecessary jargon. That only dilutes what you have to say.

Using software like Gong to listen back to successful sales calls is a great way to ensure clarity in your writing. 

Joe told us:

“It’s very easy to get caught up in your own world and get attached to buzzwords. Listening to sales calls gives you a window into how sales reps and customers talk to each other and what they care about. It’s a big help in content planning and messaging.”

Listening to calls is also great for marketers because it teaches them to learn a skill from salespeople. One they don’t use as regularly: active listening.

When creating content from a brand’s perspective, you can quickly lose sight of how you’re appealing to your customers. You might think that’s how they think and feel. But have you really listened?

Laura said:

“Sometimes we think we know our audience best, but to be honest, I think most marketers see the world through their brand’s lens. We might use words and phrases that don’t feel natural for our audience just because it’s our preferred brand messaging.”

“So listening to customer calls enables me to speak to my target audience with the right tone and in a way that sounds appealing to them and not me.”

Creating authentic and value-led content is the best way to put your customers at the centre of your marketing.

When listening to sales rep interactions, focus on:

• How to speak to your customer naturally, using the right tone.
• How to stay authentic and avoid getting hooked on marketing buzzwords.

4. Uncover motivations and buying triggers

We’ve covered the benefits for marketers regarding listening to sales calls. But what about your customers?

Arguably, the biggest reason for listening to call recordings as a marketer is to help uncover your buyer’s ‘why’. If you don’t know their motivation for buying, you can’t propose your product or service as a solution to their problem!

Jamie said that without knowing and understanding the ‘why’, marketers are taking a stab in the dark

“Motivations and buying triggers - if you don’t know them, you’ll always be chasing the wrong message. You can guess. Many people do, but the chances of success narrow significantly.”

“Listening to calls and talking to customers gives certainty on WHY they came to you. You still have to test and see what works, but the learning curve is (usually!) shortened dramatically.”

Getting down to the granular, word-for-word detail that customers and SDRs use in sales calls is great. But it’s also useful for marketers to widen their scope and understand where their solution fits in the customer’s tech stack.

From a customer marketing perspective, Emma said that customer adoption and product retention are likely to be higher if the product fits neatly into the buyer’s daily workflow.

She said:

“Active listening to case study calls helps marketers understand why Cognism was chosen against other vendors.”

“It’s also a great way to get a holistic picture of how Cognism fits into a salesperson’s day-to-day workflow. These two reasons can help shape the messaging when pitching and marketing to prospects.”

Listening to sales calls: key takeaways

Let’s recap. Why is it essential for marketers to listen to sales rep interactions?

Here’s why:

• It improves marketing and sales alignment.
• It helps marketers identify key messaging.
• You can discover unexpected customer uses of your product, leading to further innovation.
• Speaking your customer’s language is the fastest way to authenticity.
• It uncovers motivations and buying triggers.