How to analyse sales calls: 5 signals worth coaching on

Most sales leaders only hear a small share of their team's calls. What's left are CRM notes and forecasts: what gets reported about the calls, not what was actually said. Recordings close that gap, but only if you know what to look for.

Before you record: read what the law requires.

1. Talk share: who is leading the call?

Talk share shows how much of the call the rep and the customer each spend speaking. When a rep talks almost the whole way through a discovery call, they usually learn too little about the customer's problem.

There is no universal target. A product demo naturally has a higher share than a discovery call. The number becomes meaningful in comparison: between call types, between team members, and over time.

2. Questions: do they get the customer talking?

Good discovery shows in questions the customer answers at length: "How do you handle this today?" rather than "Do you already use a CRM?". In the transcript, check whether an answer is followed by a follow-up question, or straight away by the next slide.

3. Objections: which come up, and how does the rep respond?

Objections aren't a sign of a bad call; often they are a sign of real interest. The value is in looking across many calls:

• Does "too expensive" mostly come up when the price is mentioned early?
• Do prospects keep asking about data protection? Then the answer belongs in the pitch, not only in objection handling.
• Is a particular competitor suddenly mentioned more often?

For an individual rep, the response is what counts: is the objection understood and explored first, or answered straight away with a discount?

4. Next step: was anything agreed?

The simplest and often most telling signal: does the call end with a concrete next step, such as a meeting, a contact person or a date? Calls without one are where deals quietly stall, which makes them a good place to start coaching.

5. Patterns, not one-offs

A single weak call says little. What repeats is what matters: the same objection across many calls, or a rep who rarely ends meetings with a next step. That is why call analysis pays off most when you look at the whole team, not just individual calls.

Coaching, not surveillance

Call analysis only works if the team trusts it. Review clips together, start with calls that went well, and use the numbers to open a conversation, not to build a leaderboard. If you have a works council, this is exactly what belongs in the works agreement.

How Klarruf helps

Klarruf transcribes recordings from your dialer, phone or conferencing tool, shows who spoke how much and which objections came up, and flags the calls where nothing was agreed. The insights land on the deal in your CRM. You can start for free or look at the pricing first.