Best Sales Coaching Software, Ranked [Free & Paid]
October 21, 2024
One of the most important aspects of being a sales manager is providing your team with adequate coaching and feedback. After all, it’s through these development conversations that your reps will learn what they’re doing well and where they need to improve.
According to a CSO Insights study, there’s a direct correlation between coaching and quota attainment. When coaching skills exceed expectations, 94.8% of reps meet quota. When coaching skills need improvement, only 84.5% hit.
Unfortunately, carving out time for regular coaching sessions can be challenging, especially if you’re already stretched thin. That’s where sales coaching software comes in.
Sales coaching software is any tool that helps sales managers coach their reps more effectively and efficiently. Some sales coaching tools focus on making it easier to give feedback, by recording calls or providing real-time call monitoring capabilities. Others help with the creation and execution of development plans.
To help you find the right sales coaching software for your team, we’ve put together a list of the best options on the market, both free and paid.
The 6 Best Sales Coaching Software in 2022
Whether you're looking to improve sales productivity or simply provide better feedback to your reps, these sales coaching software options will get the job done!
- Grain
- Gong
- Chorus.ai
- Brainshark
- Mindtickle
- SalesScreen
1. Grain: Record, annotate, and share key moments from sales calls
Grain allows you to automatically record, transcribe, summarize, and organize every call your reps make in a shared video library, so you can review, clip, and share key moments—with your annotations.
Came across a moment you’d like to comment on? Just select the text in the transcript, click “create highlight”, and add your note. Voila! You now have a shareable video clip with your feedback ready to share with your reps on Slack, Notion, or any other collaboration tools you use.
On the other hand, your sales rep can create and stitch together multiple highlights to create a reel of key moments (or Grain stories) for you to watch. You never have to shadow live calls or listen to an hour-long recording; just go over the highlight reel to learn what worked and what didn’t. Understand what sets your top performers apart and how they handle pricing questions, objections, and more.
With highlights and stories, you can also create sales enablement content to send to prospects—with ease.
Last but not least, you can search across sales calls using keywords and #tags. Want to find a highlight you’ve created or a sales call recording from last week? Just type your keyword and hit search. Search can help you identify patterns and areas for improvement from past calls and deepen your customer understanding and pain points.
In a nutshell, Grain enables you to coach your team by making the sales call recordings editable, searchable, and shareable. Using Grain allows your sales reps to easily take notes while on Zoom and lets you focus on providing value rather than shadowing calls or listening to hours of recordings.
Pricing: Free version + paid plans (starting at $15/user/month billed annually)
G2 Rating: 4.6/5
ProductHunt Rating: 5/5
2. Gong: Analyze customer interactions to find opportunities
Gong is an AI-powered sales intelligence platform that helps you improve sales productivity and close more deals. It offers call recording, transcription, and advanced analytics, among other features to help sales managers coach their teams. As an enterprise solution, Gong analytics is especially handy when you have a large sales team where it can get challenging to keep track of everyone's performance.
With Gong, you can see which reps are using certain selling techniques and how effective they are. You can also listen to recordings of their calls and read transcripts to get a better understanding of what happened during the interaction.
And if you want to provide feedback, you can do so easily with the built-in CRM integration. In fact, that's where it shines–Gong integrates with almost any tool you use, whether that's your web conferencing platform, VoIP, or CRM.
Gong's extensive toolkit of analytics provides you with details such as trends and patterns, individual and team performance, areas of improvement, and more. That way, you're always one step ahead and can provide your sales reps with the best coaching possible for what they need.
Pricing: Platform fee + custom cost per user. Here's detailed info on gong's pricing and alternatives.
G2 Rating: 4.7/5
Gartner Rating: 4.6/5
3. Chorus.ai: Understand what drives sales
What distinguishes Chorus.ai from other sales coaching software is that it's not just a call recording tool–it's a conversation intelligence platform. To achieve that, it allows you not just to view data on call recordings but also emails and deals' contexts. So if you're looking for a sales coaching solution that will give you a complete picture of your reps' performance, Chorus.ai is your best bet.
Based on the outcomes of the discussions, Chorus.ai provides you with information that will show you which winning tactics and methods your team should implement.
For instance, if you see that a particular sales rep is often the one who closes deals, you can analyze their conversation patterns to find out what makes them successful. Then, you can use these insights to tailor your sales training and coaching initiatives accordingly and boost your team's win rates.
Similarly, if you find that a particular sales rep is struggling, you can use Chorus.ai to see what's going wrong and help them get back on track. The platform offers a wide range of features that will come in handy when coaching your sales reps, including scorecards, curated playlists, and more.
Pricing: Free trial + custom pricing for paid plans
G2 Rating: 4.5/5
Gartner Rating: 4.3/5
4. Brainshark: Train your team with tailored content programs
If there's one thing Brainshark is known for, it's sales readiness. From training new reps to giving sales coaches the ability to create and upload their content, Brainshark has everything you need to get your team up to speed and ready to sell.
The sales training tool follows four phases: Content Authoring, Onboarding & Training, Readiness Scorecards, and Coaching & Practice. In each stage, you'll find various features and resources that will support you in achieving your sales coaching goals.
For instance, in the Content Authoring stage, you can create and upload your own training content. And in the Onboarding & Training stage, you can use Brainshark's courses to get new reps up to speed quickly. Meanwhile, in the Readiness Scorecards stage, you can assign scorecards to track their progress and ensure they're meeting your expectations and staying on the same level as their peers.
And in the Coaching & Practice stage, you can provide reps with the ability to practice their pitches and get feedback from both you and their peers using text and video coaching assessments, accompanied by AI scoring and feedback.
So if you want to create a sales coaching solution that's tailored to your specific needs and requirements, Brainshark should be on your list.
Pricing: Free live demo + custom pricing for paid plans
G2 Rating: 4.4/5
Gartner Rating: 3.3/5
5. Mindtickle: Build a customized training program for sales reps
Personalized coaching is what sets MindTickle apart from other sales coaching software. The platform offers a wide range of features that allow you to create a customized training program for each rep based on their specific needs and goals.
For instance, you can use the content library to create custom playlists of training modules for each rep. That way, they can focus on the topics they need to work on the most and progress at their own pace.
Plus, because not all sales reps are the same, MindTickle also allows you to customize the learning method for each individual. So if some reps learn better by watching videos, others by reading articles, and others by virtual role-play, you can adjust the learning process accordingly.
And to ensure that reps are retaining the information they're supposed to be learning, MindTickle offers a variety of reinforcement activities, such as simulated sales scenarios and micro-learning. That way, you can be sure that they're internalizing the material and will be able to apply it in real-world sales situations.
Finally, if you're overwhelmed by the whole process and don't know where to start, MindTickle offers a wide range of templates that you can use to create your sales coaching program in the form of downloadable Quick Start Kits–these include instructional guides on Field Communications, Remote Coaching, Sales Onboarding, and Virtual Sales Kickoff.
Pricing: Free live demo + custom pricing for paid plans
G2 Rating: 4.7/5
Trustradius Rating: 9.2/10
6. SalesScreen: Gamify your sales coaching
Want to bring a fun element to your sales coaching program, SalesScreen is the platform for you. With its gamification features, you can turn sales coaching into a game and make it more engaging for your reps.
Through SalesScreen, you can develop unlimited competitions, leaderboards, and challenges – all of which you can customize to fit your specific goals. For instance, you can create a leaderboard to see who's making the most sales calls or a challenge to see who can close the most deals.
Not only will this make the process more fun for your reps, but it'll also help them to stay motivated and engaged. And as a bonus, you'll be able to track their progress and see who's performing well and who needs more help.
It's also worth mentioning that SalesScreen is super data-driven–by connecting to your CRM, the platform can provide you with insights into your reps' performance and pipeline. That's apart from the standard analysis of call recordings, email, and chat logs that the platform offers.
So if you're looking for a sales coaching solution that's both fun and data-driven, don't miss SalesScreen.
Pricing: Free live demo + custom pricing for paid plans
G2 Rating: 4.8/5
Trustradius Rating: 8.5/10
The Bottom Line
The best sales coaching software for your team ultimately depends on your requirements and goals.
Use Grain if you’re looking to leverage sales call recordings to coach your reps, improve the sales process, identify key themes, and create training and onboarding assets. Or, try Gong if you have a large sales team and need to be able to track and measure progress at an organizational level.
Meanwhile, Chorus.ai is for you if you want to track not just calls but also emails and deal stages to get a better understanding of the sales process, while Brainshark should be your go-to if sales readiness is your primary focus.
If you're looking for a platform that offers personalized coaching and allows you to customize the learning method for each rep, then MindTickle is best suited for you. And finally, for fun and games-based learning, SalesScreen is the platform you need.