TL;DR: Braintrust, a sales and leadership coaching firm serving large enterprise clients, built a more measurable version of its coaching model by combining its proprietary methodology with AI-enabled practice and call scoring. Using Yoodli as the delivery layer, Braintrust turned subjective coaching into consistent, rubric-based evaluation tied directly to live sales conversations. The result: a $5 billion global security client reached 96% adoption and improved problem quantification by 29%; a pharma client improved client connection from 10% to 83% in three months; and Braintrust’s own team maintains 100% adoption with reps practicing at least three times per week.
About Braintrust
Braintrust is a sales and leadership coaching firm that works with large enterprise clients. Their coaches embed deeply inside client organizations, sitting in on calls, running baselines, building custom frameworks to drive measurable improvement in how sales teams communicate, qualify, and close.
The Problem
For years, as Braintrust scaled into larger enterprise environments, clients wanted more standardized measurement and tighter linkage between practice and live-call behavior.
Clients could feel that their teams were getting better. Managers noticed that conversations were improving. But when it came time to justify the investment or demonstrate progress in a business review, the answer was too often: “They just are.”
Braintrust also wanted a more scalable way for reps to practice against its proprietary methodology and for managers to see whether those same behaviors were showing up in live customer conversations. The challenge was not the quality of the coaching. It was creating a consistent measurement layer around it.
“For a long time, it was always just ‘yeah, you guys do great work’, but there wasn’t a solid number to be able to base that against. We wanted to come up with a way to actually quantify the success of what it is we train.” —Jeff Bittner, Braintrust
The Solution
Braintrust needed a way to operationalize its own coaching methodology at scale. That meant translating its proprietary frameworks into repeatable rubrics, enabling reps to practice against Braintrust’s standards, and measuring whether those standards showed up in live customer conversations.
After evaluating AI coaching platforms, Braintrust selected Yoodli because it was the best fit for Braintrust’s model.
The platform allowed Braintrust to configure custom rubrics, ground feedback in Braintrust’s own content, and score real sales calls against the same criteria used in practice. That gave Braintrust a way to extend its methodology consistently across practice, live-call review, manager coaching, and client reporting.
“You can have all the flash you want, but if what you’re generating at the end isn’t the quality it should be, who cares? The feedback Yoodli generated was by far the closest to how we would actually coach someone.”—Jeff Bittner, Braintrust
This closed the loop that had been missing. Braintrust could now show clients not just how their reps performed in practice, but whether that performance was showing up in actual customer conversations. Roleplay and reality were finally connected.
Through Yoodli, Braintrust built client programs that could:
Run AI roleplays graded against Braintrust’s proprietary methodology
Score real sales calls against the same Braintrust rubrics used in practice
Establish rep baselines before training begins
Give managers objective data to coach specific skill gaps
Create a private practice environment that increases repetition and accountability
Client impact
$5 billion global security company: 96% adoption and measurable skill gains
This client had previously used a sales training provider that saw 30–40% adoption of their tools, a common outcome when tools are rolled out top-down without buy-in from the people actually using them. After six months with the Yoodli-powered Braintrust program:
96% of the team adopted the AI coaching tool, more than double the previous provider
29% improvement in problem quantification, reps’ ability to define and articulate the prospect’s problem
12% average improvement across all measured sales skills
Strong enough results that Braintrust is now in negotiations to expand the program globally
$1 billion pharma company: connection rate jumps from 10% to 83%
Braintrust runs a baseline with every new client: before any training, reps do a “do what you do” call scored against Braintrust’s metrics, without the rep seeing the rubric. This revealed the real starting point, not the perceived one.
This pharma client believed that building connections with clients was one of their reps’ strongest skills. However, the baseline told a different story: only 10% of reps were actually connecting with clients in their conversations. Three months of Yoodli-powered practice later, that number had risen to 83%.
“They thought connection was their rep’s strongest characteristic. Come to realize, only 10% of all of their people actually connected with their clients. After three months of using this tool, that number jumped to 83%.”—Jeff Bittner, Braintrust
Trades company: 50% of annual target hit with 8 months to go
A trades company working with Braintrust has already hit 50% of their annual sales target with eight months still remaining in the year. The gains are driven by a 45% improvement in how reps uncover and prioritize prospect goals, and a 20% overall increase in measured sales skills, both of which are compressing the deal cycle.
The Outcome
Braintrust built its reputation on the quality of their coaching, and the results above reflect what becomes possible when that expertise is paired with technology that can measure it.
Clients save an average of 50 hours per person annually on sales training and coaching
Braintrust’s own internal sales team runs at 100% adoption, practicing a minimum of three times per week
Every Zoom and Teams sales call is run through Yoodli and scored against rubrics, giving managers objective data to coach from
Yoodli is the only platform Braintrust has evaluated that links roleplay performance directly to live call analysis, closing the gap between practice and performance
For Braintrust, Yoodli made its existing coaching rigor visible at scale. It enabled the firm to quantify what its methodology was already designed to improve and to show clients, with greater consistency, how practice translated into live-call performance.
“If you think your reps are practicing on their own, you’re kidding yourself. And if you think your managers are consistent with how they practice with their people, you’re kidding yourself. This tool creates a level of accountability and psychological safety that neither of those offers. It removes all subjectivity from the feedback every rep gets.”—Jeff Bittner, Braintrust
IGNITE, the applied-learning consultancy that helps sales and leadership teams drive lasting behavior change, has partnered with Yoodli, the AI roleplay platform, to scale coaching and performance across global Leadership & go-to-market (GTM) teams. This collaboration brings IGNITE’s proven Human Engagement Mastery Academy’s & performance expertise together with Yoodli’s generative AI roleplay platform.
A New Era for Leadership Development, Human Engagement & Sales Mastery
IGNITE has long supported C-level executives, Emerging, Established Leaders, and GTM teams with personalized programs that continue learning beyond the classroom or workshop. The IGNITE SPEND Sales Mastery & ASPIRE Leadership Academy programs combine consulting, immersive training, habit development, and AI-driven micro‑learning. By integrating Yoodli into its Academy Programs, IGNITE already delivers high-fidelity coaching & customized Human Engagement experiences well beyond the classroom. Participants can reinforce IGNITE’s Human Engagement C.L.U.E. methodology in each Academy (Communication, Listening, Understanding, Empathy), through repeatable, AI-powered roleplays that reflect common conversations such as discovery calls, value articulation & both internal or external stakeholder engagements anytime, anywhere.
Empowering Sales Teams with Scalable AI Coaching
IGNITE’s partnership with Yoodli empowers Leaders and GTM teams to:
Master Business Outcome-Focused Human Engagements: Practice real-world scenarios by mastering soft skills like active listening, empathy first, discovery, inquiry, negotiation, questioning techniques, and closing.
Build Human Engagement Confidence & Emotional Intelligence: Identify Strengths plus opportunities for development like Hone listening skills, Emotional cue detection, EQ balance of application & adaptive responses.
Reinforce Learning Through Practice: Reinforce classroom learning with on-demand simulation and instant guidance via customized real-life customer scenarios.
Scale Excellence Across Regions and Roles: Bring high-fidelity coaching & repeated practice capability to support mastery across global teams.
Executive Voices on the Collaboration
Team IGNITE is excited to enter this important partnership in Human Engagement & Performance Development with Yoodli, said Paul McLean, Founder & CEO of IGNITE PERFORMANCE. By being able to seamlessly integrate Yoodli into our multiple Human Engagement Mastery Academy programs, our clients are already witnessing the benefits of this incredible technology as one of the key elements to mastering the right Human Engagement habits for sustainable Individual & team success. Our clients are raving about Yoodli –
“I loved using the AI to practice. As I said, you learn how to deal with curveballs by having someone throw repeated curveballs at you. A great repeated exercise to learn and adapt to active listening and use other traits that we learned as part of establishing the right Human Engagement Habits.”
“Yoodli is thrilled to partner with IGNITE PERFORMANCE to bring generative AI coaching & Simulation practice to their clients Leadership & GTM teams worldwide,” said Varun Puri, CEO at Yoodli. “Combining IGNITE’s multi‑dimensional ASPIRE Leadership & SPEND Sales Mastery Academy approach with our AI‑powered roleplays delivers a powerful new tool for human engagement mastery.”
About IGNITE PERFORMANCE
IGNITE PERFORMANCE FZCO is an outcome-driven human engagement consultancy offering coaching, experiential training, and behavioral‑change programs for individuals, teams, and enterprises. Their ASPIRE & SPEND Academy’s combine consulting, immersive learning & AI-supported micro‑learning to enhance Leadership and GTM performance. IGNITE’s global team includes Master Facilitators, Executive Coaches, including Learning Experts across Human Behaviour & Engagement. Learn more at 1gnite.me.
About Yoodli
Yoodli is an AI-powered roleplay simulator that enables professionals and go-to-market teams to develop communication skills through private, real-time, and judgment-free coaching. Trusted by Fortune 100 companies, Yoodli supports training in sales, leadership, presentations, customer engagement, and more. Learn more atyoodli.ai.
2Win!, a global leader in sales, demo, and customer success training, and Yoodli, an AI-powered roleplay platform, are excited to announce a strategic partnership designed to bring AI-driven practice and reinforcement into 2Win!’s renowned methodologies. This collaboration merges 2Win!’s proven frameworks for delivering winning demos and value-driven sales conversations with Yoodli’s cutting-edge generative AI technology transforming how go-to-market teams learn, practice, and master the skills that drive conversion and customer impact.
A New Standard for Sales, Demo, and Success Coaching
For over 20 years, 2Win! has helped sales, pre-sales, and customer success teams elevate performance by mastering how to tell compelling stories, deliver engaging demos, and build authentic connections with buyers. Now, powered by Yoodli, 2Win! is extending that expertise by offering clients a continuous, scalable coaching experience that complements its live workshops and online training helping teams reinforce and apply critical skills in a private, intuitive AI environment.
Through the partnership, teams will be able to:
Simulate Real-World Buyer Interactions: Practice delivering engaging, value-focused demos and sales conversations with an AI coach that replicates realistic customer scenarios.
Receive Real-Time, Private Feedback: Get immediate, judgment-free insights on delivery, clarity, message impact, and objection handling to sharpen performance.
Reinforce Learning On Demand: Access continuous practice opportunities that align with 2Win!’s trusted frameworks, ensuring long-term behavior change and skill retention.
Scale Coaching Across Teams: Enable managers and enablement leaders to monitor trends, surface coaching moments, and drive consistent performance improvements across sales, pre-sales, and success organizations.
Executive Perspectives
At 2Win!, we believe that consistent, high-impact execution is what separates top performers from the rest. By partnering with Yoodli, we’re giving our clients the tools to go beyond learning to practice, refine, and master the skills that lead to better demos, stronger relationships, and more closed deals.
— Dan Conway, CEO at 2Win!
We’re thrilled to partner with 2Win!, whose methodologies have transformed sales and success teams worldwide. Together, we’re equipping professionals with the targeted, AI-powered coaching they need to deliver exceptional buyer experiences every time.
— Varun Puri, CEO at Yoodli
About 2Win!
2Win! is a global sales, demo, and customer success training company helping organizations drive growth by mastering the art of delivering winning demos and sales conversations. Trusted by leading SaaS, technology, and B2B companies, 2Win! provides expert-led workshops, online training, and frameworks that help teams engage buyers, tell compelling stories, and differentiate in competitive markets. Learn more at 2winglobal.com.
About Yoodli
Yoodli is a generative AI roleplay and communication coaching platform that offers private, real-time, judgment-free practice opportunities for sales and go-to-market teams. Trusted by Fortune 100 companies like Google, Yoodli’s SOC2 Type 2 and GDPR-compliant platform is used to master sales certifications, product messaging, objection handling, leadership communication, and more. Learn more at yoodli.ai.
2Win! and Yoodli share a vision for empowering teams to turn knowledge into consistent, high-impact execution through continuous, AI-powered practice and reinforcement.
SalesStar, a global leader in sales performance improvement, and Yoodli, an AI-powered roleplay and communication coaching platform, are excited to announce the launch of SARA (Sales AI Roleplay Accelerator), an innovative AI-driven sales coaching companion. This collaboration combines Yoodli’s cutting-edge generative AI technology with SalesStar’s proven sales development expertise to transform how sales professionals practice, refine, and elevate their performance.
A New Standard for Sales Coaching and Enablement
For nearly two decades, SalesStar has helped organizations achieve sustainable revenue growth through data-driven sales systems and coaching. Now, with SARA, powered by Yoodli, sales teams can bridge the gap between training and execution by honing critical sales skills and practicing high-stakes conversations in a private, intuitive environment.
SARA empowers sales enablement and leadership teams to maximize their investment in coaching and training, ensuring that the behaviors learned translate into measurable results. Users will be able to:
Practice What They’ve Learned: SARA reinforces the core competencies taught in SalesStar programs, providing continuous opportunities to apply frameworks and best practices.
Build Confidence and Consistency: Reps can rehearse pitches and challenging scenarios in a judgment-free space, receiving personalized, actionable insights on clarity, tone, and conviction.
Deliver Measurable Results: SARA tracks individual progress, enabling sales leaders to link skill development directly to performance outcomes.
Scale Sales Development: On-demand access allows organizations to extend consistent, high-quality coaching across teams and geographies.
At Yoodli, we’re committed to helping sellers show up at their best. SARA, powered by Yoodli, merges our advanced AI coaching technology with SalesStar’s globally respected sales systems to deliver scalable, personalized sales development.
– Varun Puri, CEO at Yoodli
We’re incredibly excited to launch SARA and partner with Yoodli. Combining our sales expertise & methodology with Yoodli’s cutting-edge AI enables us to help clients not just learn, but actually apply & perfect the skills that drive revenue. With SARA, we’re giving revenue-driving teams the tools to practice, refine, and win more. Salespeople can now practice and master their skills in a safe cost effective environment, rather than the highly expensive alternative which is practicing on their prospects!
– Paul O’Donohue, Founder & CEO at SalesStar
About SalesStar
SalesStar is a global Strategic Sales Partner, advising & coaching companies to accelerate revenue through their Strategic Sales Systems which includes sales process transformation, leadership & team development, and competency-based coaching. SalesStar empowers sales leaders and teams worldwide to achieve breakthrough results by combining data-driven insights with expert coaching. Learn more at salesstar.com.
About Yoodli
Yoodli is a generative AI roleplay and communication coaching platform that provides private, real-time, and judgment-free practice opportunities for professionals and GTM teams. Trusted by Fortune 100 companies like Google, Yoodli’s SOC2 Type 2 and GDPR-compliant technology powers skill development across sales certifications, objection handling, leadership training, and more. Learn more at yoodli.ai.
SalesStar and Yoodli share a vision for enabling sales professionals to achieve peak performance through practice and reinforcement. With SARA, this partnership delivers an innovative solution to one of the most critical challenges in sales: turning knowledge into consistent, high-impact execution.
TL;DR:She Sells Sales Academy integrated Yoodli AI Roleplays to provide scalable, real-time coaching for over 2,000 women in sales, enhancing confidence, communication skills, and overall sales performance. By implementing a structured 4-step program, participants learned to conduct high-impact discovery calls, resulting in 89% of students reporting increased confidence and 76% reported improvement in talk-to-listen ratios, leading to stronger sales outcomes.
Background
She Sells Sales Academy is dedicated to empowering women to excel in sales through structured training, mentorship, and community support. The program helps women break barriers in sales careers by focusing on:
Building Sales Confidence: Developing communication skills to handle objections, negotiations, and closing deals.
Creating a Supportive Community: Providing mentorship and peer-to-peer learning opportunities.
Enhancing Professional Growth: Offering structured, actionable training to help women advance their sales careers.
To further its mission, She Sells Sales Academy needed a scalable, high-impact coaching solution that provided real-world practice and immediate feedback.
The Challenge
Despite its success, She Sells Sales Academy faced several challenges in scaling sales training:
Bridging the Confidence Gap: Many women in sales struggled with imposter syndrome and lacked structured practice opportunities.
Delivering Measurable Improvement: Ensuring that participants not only learned sales techniques but could also apply them effectively.
Scaling Personalized Coaching: Traditional 1:1 coaching was time-consuming and resource-intensive, limiting the number of students who could receive individualized feedback.
The Solution: The 4-Step She Sells Program + Yoodli AI
To create a structured approach to high-quality sales calls, She Sells Sales Academy implemented a 4-step tiered Program powered by Yoodli AI for real-time coaching and assessment.
Step 1: Rapport & Connection: Participants practice building trust and credibility in the first moments of a call, with Yoodli providing feedback on tone, clarity, and engagement.
Step 2: Needs Discovery: Using AI-generated insights, students ask the right qualifying questions, ensuring they understand the prospect’s pain points and personalize their pitch accordingly.
Step 3: Value Articulation: Participants refine how they position their solution effectively, ensuring their messaging is clear, persuasive, and relevant to the prospect’s needs.
Step 4: Next Steps & Commitment: Yoodli evaluates how participants set up clear next steps, handle objections, and drive toward a successful outcome.
Integrating Yoodli AI Roleplays into our program has been a game-changer. Our students now get hands-on discovery call practice with real-time feedback, helping them build confidence and improve faster than ever before.
– Shelby Sapp, She Sells Sales Academy
The Results
With Yoodli AI, She Sells Sales Academy transformed the learning experience for women in sales:
2,000+ women trained using AI-powered sales roleplays.
89% reported increased confidence in handling objections and pitching.
76% improved their talk-to-listen ratio, leading to more balanced and effective conversations.
Higher closing rates, as students applied real-time AI feedback to live sales calls.
Scalable, accessible training, ensuring that every participant receives personalized coaching, without increasing costs.
Key Takeaways
AI roleplays accelerate sales confidence by providing a low-risk, high-feedback environment.
Scalability is key. Traditional training models struggle to support thousands of learners, but AI coaching removes that bottleneck.
Data-driven insights empower continuous improvement, helping sales professionals refine their skills with precision.
Conclusion
She Sells Sales Academy successfully democratized access to high-quality sales coaching, proving that AI-driven training can scale without sacrificing personalization or effectiveness. With Yoodli, they transformed sales training into an interactive, engaging, and measurable experience helping thousands of women step into sales roles with confidence and skill. Want to learn how Yoodli AI can enhance your sales training program? Contact us at sales@yoodli.ai
FranklinCovey, one of the most trusted leadership companies in the world, is working together with Yoodli AI to offer integrated AI-powered roleplay coaching as an optional feature of its Helping Clients Succeed®: Strikingly Different Selling sales solution. This collaboration empowers learners to refine their sales conversations and communication strategies using Yoodli’s private, judgment-free AI platform.
FranklinCovey’s Helping Clients Succeed: Strikingly Different Selling, a state-of-the-art sales training solution, empowers sales professionals to achieve predictable sales results, improve sales performance, decrease ramp-up time for new hires, increase customer satisfaction, and build engaging and inspired sales leaders and teams.
The solution equips participants with a proven mindset, skillset, and toolset for sales success. Integrated with Yoodli’s generative AI technology, learners can practice essential sales roleplays like overcoming objections, aligning goals, and crafting persuasive value propositions. With real-time, actionable feedback, the AI roleplay coaching further builds upon the sales skills that learners acquire in the sales solution to drive meaningful results for sales teams worldwide.
We’re excited to work with Yoodli to integrate its AI roleplaying coaching as an option for our Helping Clients Succeed solution,” said Mark Josie, FranklinCovey’s Senior Vice President, Strategy Execution and Sales Performance Practice. “With this collaboration, our clients can experience real-time application coaching for specific client scenarios using the proven skillsets they have recently learned.
Ajay Jain, Head of Training and Enablement at Yoodli said, We’re delighted to join forces with FranklinCovey, whose Helping Clients Succeed solution inspires, trains and develops sales leaders and teams to achieve breakthrough sales results. Yoodli’s platform complements their methodology by offering tailored, interactive practice sessions that support sales professionals in delivering optimal results at scale.
About Yoodli
Yoodli is a generative AI communication roleplay coaching platform that provides private, real-time, and judgment-free feedback for GTM teams and professionals. Yoodli’s SOC2 Type 2 and GDPR-compliant technology is trusted by teams at Fortune 100 companies like Google for sales certifications, objection handling, manager training, and more. Learn more at http://www.yoodli.ai.
ABOUT FRANKLINCOVEY
FranklinCovey(NYSE: FC) is one of the largest and most trusted leadership companies in the world, with directly owned and licensee partner offices providing professional services in over 160 countries and territories. The Company transforms organizations by partnering with clients to build leaders, teams, and cultures that get breakthrough results through collective action, which leads to a more engaging work experience for their people. Available through the FranklinCovey All Access Pass, FranklinCovey’s best-in-class content, solutions, experts, technology, and metrics seamlessly integrate to ensure lasting behavior change at scale. Solutions are available in multiple delivery modalities in more than 20 languages.
This approach to leadership and organizational change has been tested and refined by working with tens of thousands of teams and organizations over the past 30 years. Clients have included organizations in the Fortune 100, Fortune 500 and thousands of small and mid-sized businesses, numerous government entities, and educational institutions. To learn more, visit www.franklincovey.com and enjoy exclusive content across FranklinCovey’s social media channels at: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
New Strategic Partnership Enhances Customer Experience with GenAI-Powered Roleplaying for GTM Enablement, Leadership Development, and Employee Upskilling
ATLANTA, GA — Intellum, the world’s leading customer education and learning management platform, is proud to announce a strategic partnership with Yoodli, an AI-powered conversation and roleplaying solution. This collaboration brings GenAI-driven video assessments directly into the Intellum Platform, enabling organizations to revolutionize skill-building and coaching at scale.
Transforming Learning Through AI
This partnership aligns Intellum’s expertise in learning strategy with Yoodli’s AI-driven roleplaying technology to deliver highly personalized and scalable skill development. By embedding AI coaching into learning workflows, organizations can create interactive, data-driven training experiences seamlessly integrated into real-world scenarios.
”We’re excited to join Intellum’s mission to improve the way the world learns. Intellum’s 25 years in the industry and robust platform made this partnership a no-brainer,” said Varun Pari, CEO of Yoodli.
Revolutionizing Feedback and Skill Development
The Intellum-Yoodli integration enables organizations to deliver structured, AI-driven coaching across:
Onboarding: Help new employees quickly build confidence and align with company messaging.
Customer Success: Strengthen client relationships and improve retention.
Manager Coaching: Develop leadership skills with data-backed feedback.
Sales & Renewals: Prepare teams for high-stakes conversations with AI-powered insights.
Enhancing Learning with AI-Driven Insights
By integrating Yoodli’s AI roleplaying technology, learners receive real-time, judgment-free feedback to improve communication, sales, and leadership skills. Organizations benefit from:
Automated evaluations for greater efficiency and consistency.
Real-time performance insights to track skill progression.
Customizable assessments aligned with business goals and industry needs.
Engaging AI-driven roleplaying embedded into everyday learning workflows.
“Yoodli’s AI-powered roleplaying allows organizations to scale personalized learning and feedback in ways that are new and exciting,” said Chip Ramsey, CEO of Intellum. “Together, we’re redefining what’s possible in skill development.”
About Intellum Intellum helps the world’s leading brands deliver highly engaging and measurable learning experiences that drive customer and employee success. Trusted by organizations like Google, Meta, and Amazon, Intellum provides an end-to-end solution for modern learning strategies.
About Yoodli Yoodli is an AI-powered platform that enables organizations to improve communication skills through personalized practice, real-time feedback, and actionable insights. Yoodli is trusted by global companies to empower teams with the tools they need to succeed. For more information, visit Yoodli’s website.
Yoodli, a generative AI sales coaching platform, has announced a strategic partnership with Learning Evolution, a leading provider of e-learning and certification programs for the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) and beverage industries. This collaboration will deliver innovative AI-enhanced sales training tailored to meet the unique needs of CPG and beverage sales professionals.
Learning Evolution brings decades of expertise in tech-based learning and a robust library of training content, including certifications in category management and advanced sales techniques. This expertise complements Yoodli’s AI-powered roleplay capabilities, empowering sales teams to thrive in complex selling environments with data-driven insights and empathy-based techniques.
Revolutionizing Sales Training with AI Roleplay Technology
The partnership integrates Yoodli’s generative AI platform into Learning Evolution’s industry-leading sales training programs. Sales professionals will participate in customized roleplays that simulate real-world selling challenges, such as leveraging data for compelling sales stories and engaging diverse customer personas. These AI-driven roleplays are aligned with Learning Evolution’s proprietary rubrics, ensuring consistent and effective training outcomes.
Yoodli’s AI roleplay technology supports our mission to provide impactful, scalable training solutions for the CPG and beverage sectors. This partnership combines our deep industry knowledge with Yoodli’s innovative coaching tools to deliver targeted, results-driven training for sales, marketing and category management professionals. – Scott Matthews, CEO of Learning Evolution.
Driving Sales Success in the CPG and Beverage Industries
The collaboration emphasizes empathy-based selling and data-driven storytelling, equipping sales professionals to succeed in competitive markets. By improving interactions with distributors, retailers, and end customers, the training empowers teams to drive measurable business outcomes and enhance their sales performance.
We’re excited to join forces with Learning Evolution, a leader in sales and certification programs for the CPG and beverage industries. This partnership enables us to deliver highly specialized, AI-powered training that helps sales teams achieve tangible results in today’s dynamic marketplace. – Ajay Jain, Head of Training and Enablement at Yoodli.
About Yoodli Yoodli is a generative AI communication and coaching platform that offers private, judgment-free roleplays for GTM teams. Trusted by Fortune 100 companies, Yoodli enhances sales training, objection handling, and critical business conversations. The platform is SOC2 Type 2 and GDPR-compliant, ensuring data security. Learn more at www.yoodli.ai.
About Learning Evolution Learning Evolution is a pioneer in e-learning and certification programs for the CPG and Retail industries. Offering custom training solutions, certifications, and private-label LMS platforms, Learning Evolution focuses on data analytics and sales excellence to help organizations worldwide achieve their goals. Visit www.learningevolution.com.
If you’re looking to grow your audience, sales prospecting is an essential method for doing so.
Our comprehensive guide will walk you through everything you should know about prospecting, including why it’s important, how the process works, types of prospecting methods, strategies for growing your audience, and investing in your sales team.
What Is Sales Prospecting?
Sales prospecting is the process of finding prospects, which are potential clients. Prospects are potential clients. Prospecting is an important part of any strategy, as it helps build a pipeline of folks who are likely to be interested in the solution you’re selling.
The process usually involves researching, pinpointing, and qualifying folks who might make good customers.
Sales prospecting vs. lead generation
Both prospecting and lead generation are terms that go hand-in-hand. At the end of the day, they’re both methods for finding potential customers. While lead generation gives teams a pool of potential clients to look at, sales prospecting helps prioritize the most likely folks to convert.
Why is sales prospecting important?
Sales prospecting is important because it provides a good foundation on which teams can build their sales strategy. The process not only helps pinpoint potential clients, but also helps:
Form a solid sales pipeline
Generate sales opportunities
Facilitate lead generation
Boost business growth
What does the sales prospecting process look like?
The sales prospecting process can vary depending on a few factors, but in general, it boils down to identifying and qualifying potential clients. The process kicks off with research. Sales reps will find potential customers and research them to learn information like the industry they work in, their role, their employer’s size, and other relevant information.
Once teams have all the necessary information, they can work on qualifying. Reps look at factors like the client’s budget, whether or not they have the power to make decisions, and their needs and pain points. This data helps sales teams know if they might be a good fit for the solution they’re selling, be it a product or service. From here, teams can prioritize leads based on who’s most likely to convert to a customer.
The prospecting process also includes the initial contact (like through cold calling or email campaigns) and moving qualified potential customers through the sales pipeline.
Types of Sales Prospecting
There’s not one universal type of prospecting. In fact, there are multiple different channels and avenues when it comes to looking for potential customers.
Here are the most common types of sales prospecting, from inbound and outbound to referral-based prospecting.
Inbound vs. outbound sales prospecting
Inbound and outbound prospecting are two of the most common types. The main difference between the two is how the leads are sourced. With inbound sales prospecting, reps use a targeted approach to attract leads to them, whereas outbound prospecting requires reps to proactively contact potential customers.
Both inbound and outbound sales prospecting have their pros and cons. In general, though, outbound prospecting can be a bit more challenging. For example, it requires more effort, it’s riskier, and this type carries higher rejection rates for reps. Without inbound prospecting, reps have an easier time boosting brand awareness and finding higher-quality leads.
Some examples of outbound sales prospecting methods include things like:
Email campaigns
Social media outreach
Physical mailers
Cold calling
On the other hand, inbound prospecting methods include strategies like:
SEO strategy (like optimizing site content to attract users)
Content marketing
Social media marketing
Referral-based sales prospecting
Referral-based sales prospecting is exactly what it sounds like: Reps lean into existing relationships to find leads. For example, sales teams often leverage existing customer referrals to expand business. It’s a great, cost-effective strategy that can boost a brand’s credibility, increase customer loyalty, and lead to higher conversion rates.
This type of sales prospecting can be used internally, too. Companies can encourage their employees to refer other people. Some brands even use incentives for employee referrals.
B2B vs. B2C sales prospecting
Depending on the type and nature of the business, sales prospecting can look a little different. For example, business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) prospecting processes vary.
With B2B prospecting, sales teams are usually looking at higher transaction values, long-term relationship maintenance, and longer sales cycles. That’s because brands selling products or services to other businesses usually involve more money, more decision-makers, and other nuances and complexities.
B2C sales prospecting, on the other hand, focuses on selling to individual consumers instead of large brands. That translates to smaller purchases, fewer decision-makers, and shorter sales cycles. There’s more of an emphasis on mass marketing and the overall customer experience.
How to Improve Sales Interactions With Yoodli
No matter what type of sales prospecting your team uses, practicing interactions with customers is a smart idea. Luckily, with Yoodli, your reps can improve their interactions and increase their chances of sales success without risking real opportunities or clients.
Yoodli — a sales coach powered by AI technology — provides a platform where reps can use realistic roleplay to improve customer interactions. The more comfortable a sales rep is communicating with prospects and clients, the better. In fact, top companies like Google, Korn Ferry, and Dale Carnegie have all leaned into Yoodli to increase seller attainment and decrease ramp.
Here’s how it works. Yoodli’s platform provides a plethora of existing sales roleplay scenarios to choose from. Reps can also build their own custom roleplay from scratch using Yoodli’s Builder to practice specific scenarios. Whatever the case, reps can engage in human-like conversation with an AI generated partner to best practice their skills and abilities.
Once the roleplay is finished, Yoodli offers intelligent sales coaching. It’ll highlight areas of improvement for sales reps based on how their roleplay went. For example, Yoodli evaluates your delivery, listening, and speaking patterns to provide actionable tips and feedback. This allows reps to skip the guesswork and go directly to improving customer interactions.
You can improve your team’s sales prospecting efforts by investing in their communication skills.
Yoodli also offers personalization capabilities for admin. For example, companies can adjust the tool for their own use cases, based on their own brand’s methodology. And Yoodli offers enterprise-grade privacy, with SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and more.
Find out more about how you can get started with Yoodli for free at https://yoodli.ai/ to complement your team’s sales prospecting efforts.
6 Sales Prospecting Methods to Attract Quality Leads
Whether you’re an experienced rep or you’re new to the role, you need to have multiple strategies for prospecting in your arsenal. Here are some of the best sales prospecting methods to attract quality leads.
Cold calling
One of the most well-known methods for sales prospecting is cold calling. This method involves contacting folks who haven’t shown previous interest in your product or service. Some people think of cold calls as an outdated way to generate sales, but modernized cold calling is a method worth considering.
For example, in today’s competitive landscape, you can use strategies to personalize your cold call opening lines to better engage with prospects. Modern-day cold calls also emphasize the importance of researching prospects, building rapport, and using tech like automated dialers and voicemail drops.
Cold calling as a sales prospecting method works best when reps:
Focus on the prospect’s most pressing needs
Pair cold calls with other methods for prospecting
Home in on major decision-makers in target accounts
Email marketing
Another worthwhile sales prospecting strategy is email marketing and targeted email campaigns. Sales teams can put together targeted email lists of potential clients and use marketing tactics to customize emails for prospecting.
While email marketing can be hit or miss, just like any other prospecting method, sales reps can also monitor and evaluate the results of these campaigns to improve them down the line. For example, teams should plan to track metrics like click-through rates, email open rates, and conversion rates. That way, you’ll be able to see what subject lines do best, which campaigns fell short, and other key insights that can help you adjust your next campaign.
Networking
A more underrated way to go about sales prospecting is via networking and participating in industry events. Reps can go to industry events like meetups, conferences, trade shows, and workshops to connect with potential customers and start building relationships. Similarly, you can also join professional associations and organizations to meet other professionals in the industry who can share ideas and introduce you to other potential clients.
Social selling
With social selling, the idea is to leverage social media platforms for sales prospecting. Although it wasn’t really a consideration 30 years ago, social media has revolutionized many industries, including sales. For example, when sales prospecting, reps can interact with potential customers through professional social media profiles, like on LinkedIn.
However, for those uncomfortable with engaging with prospects on social media, these platforms can also be used to pinpoint and research potential customers. Platforms like LinkedIn can also be used to:
Connect with leaders in the industry
Ideate, write, and share sales and thought leadership content
Pinpoint and research major decision-makers
Teams can even use other platforms, like Facebook, to join relevant groups where they may be able to get more information about potential customers. For example, if you sell products like essential oils, you could join “holistic” Facebook groups to gather more information about your target audience and how you can better sell to them.
Content marketing
Similarly, content marketing can be a valuable strategy for finding sales prospects. Investing in the time and effort it takes to make high-quality content for potential customers can spark interest in folks who might not have been interested in your solution originally. Teams can leverage content types like articles, webinars, blog posts, videos, and white papers to attract potential customers to their business. Sharing this content on social media platforms, as mentioned above, can improve results. Make sure this content is optimized for search engines and follows solid SEO best practices.
One specific sales prospecting strategy in content marketing includes leveraging content valuable to prospects in exchange for customer contact data. For example, offering free, downloadable PDFs where customers input their name and email address can provide sales teams with the necessary information they need to follow up.
Referrals
Last but not least, referrals can be a beneficial method for sales prospecting. Reps can lean into their existing relationships with clients to meet and interact with potential customers. Not only that, but sales reps can use their relationships with friends and family to generate referrals and potential business. It’s just another example of why relationship building and rapport are essential in any sales environment.
Common Sales Prospecting Challenges
Sales prospecting isn’t always smooth sailing. In fact, it can be quite the challenge, especially for new or inexperienced reps. Here are some of the most common pitfalls and challenges you might encounter when sales prospecting.
Objections and concerns
When you’re a sales rep, you need to be prepared for customer concerns and pushback. It’s a normal part of the sales process, but objection handling and the ability to adequately address customer concerns are essential. If you find that you’re struggling with objections, plan for the most common objections and prepare what you’d say. For example, one of the most common objections is, “It’s too expensive.” With regard to the solution you’re selling, anticipate that objection and have a thought-out response ready.
Make sure you face any customer concerns head-on and use probing questions to understand where their concerns are coming from. At the end of the day, you can always reframe concerns as opportunities to show how your product or service can solve their problem.
Rejection and staying motivated
Facing rejection and staying motivated are some of the all time most common challenges when it comes to sales prospecting. It can be difficult to feel rejected when looking for and communicating with potential customers.
If you and your team struggle with rejection and staying motivated after the fact, make a plan to be more resilient. In sales, rejection is only natural. Not every potential buyer is going to want to make a sale. Framing any perceived rejection as a learning opportunity can help you develop a more resilient mindset. Working on your emotional intelligence can also make this process a bit easier.
Managing time wisely
It’s not a secret that sales prospecting can take up a lot of your time. However, it doesn’t have to eat up all your time. You can manage your time wisely by focusing on the most high-value opportunities using return on investment (ROI). Sales teams can use popular tools like customer relationship management (CRM) systems to see where you can automate tasks and save time.
Although it can be uncomfortable for some reps, learning to say no to activities that waste time is necessary. Extra requests or meetings that aren’t relevant or necessary that you can take off your calendar are great opportunities to save time.
The Bottom Line
Sales prospecting is an essential sales strategy to find qualified prospective customers to generate sales. No matter what particular industry you work in, prospecting should be baked into your process for boosting sales. With enablement tools like Yoodli, you can facilitate prospecting for your sales team by investing in their communication skills.
With such a competitive marketing landscape, learning how to write a good value proposition can put you ahead of the game. Whether you have an existing proposition or you’re new to the game, we’ve got you covered.
In our ultimate guide, we’ll tell you all there is to know about these value propositions, including why they’re important, how to write a compelling proposition, how to test and refine them, and how to effectively deliver them.
What Is a Value Proposition?
A value proposition is a statement that explains a product or service’s benefits to its customer base. It’s similar to a mission statement in that it exists as a declaration of intent. It gives clients a concise summary of why they’d choose your company’s products or services over a competitor’s.
Value proposition vs. mission statement
Even though both value propositions and mission statements convey a declaration of intent, they’re two different terms. A mission statement is created to describe why a company exists, its core values, and its goals, whereas a value proposition homes in on the value and benefits your company’s solution brings to the target audience.
Why are value propositions important?
Value propositions are important for companies because they help guide a company’s sales and marketing efforts. A solid value proposition can not only act as a guideline for sales, but it also helps:
Your company stand out from the competition
Attract and convert folks to clients
Boost credibility, trust, and client loyalty
Having a solid value proposition is extra important for teams who prefer frameworks like value selling.
How to Write a Compelling Value Proposition in 4 Steps
If you’ve never written a value proposition before — or perhaps your company already has a value proposition that could be better — you’re in the right place. Crafting a compelling statement showcasing the benefits and advantages of your company’s solution over competitors can be tough.
Luckily, it doesn’t have to be. Here’s how you and your team can learn how to write a compelling value proposition that helps your brand stand out from the crowd.
1. Pinpoint your target audience.
First and foremost, identify who your target audience is. Do you have an ideal customer profile (ICP)? If so, what does that look like? Learning who your ideal clients are — including their goals, pain points, concerns, and demographics — is the best place to start. It’s impossible to cater to a target audience you’re unfamiliar with.
Depending on your existing work in this area, you might want to do some market research to get insights into what your target audience looks like. You can leverage things like competitive analysis, surveys, and interviews to paint a better picture of who your customer is.
2. Figure out what your target audience’s needs are.
Once you have an idea of who your customer is, the next step is to narrow down what their needs are. Try to put yourself in their shoes for a minute. What pain points, concerns, and needs might they have with regard to your offerings? If you’re drawing a blank, you can always talk directly to your target audience via surveys or interviews to hear about what frustrates them, what they need, and what they’d like to get out of a solution like yours.
If you have an existing company, it’ll also help to go through any reviews left on Google or social media accounts connected to your brand. Customers will often air out any grievances they have with a product or service this way, and it’s well worth reviewing these testimonials to get honest feedback.
3. Consider any unique selling points and advantages your solution offers.
Arguably the most essential step in learning how to write a value proposition is thinking about the unique advantages it offers. What makes your product or service stand out from the crowd?It can help teams to manually list out various benefits and key features of the solution to narrow down how it’s a better choice than competitors.
When thinking about what your brand has to offer, don’t be afraid to quantify its value using numbers. Leaning into relevant data points, metrics, and other insights can help showcase your solution’s value to your customer base.
4. Write your value proposition (or refine an existing one).
When it’s time to write your value proposition, remember to keep it concise. One of the most common mistakes teams make when learning how to write a value proposition is drafting a lengthy, long-winded statement. However, the main problem with that is that consumers most likely won’t remember a lengthy value proposition. Instead, keep it short, straightforward, and to the point. Avoid any negative language and focus on using action verbs to describe the benefits of your company’s solution.
Another common pitfall to avoid with writing value propositions is to steer clear of describing just its features. Your focus should be on the advantages and benefits of the solution over its features. Think about how your product or service helps your target audience meet their goals.
Tips for Testing and Enhancing Your Value Proposition
But your value proposition journey doesn’t end once you write it. On the contrary, you’ll want to keep testing and revising it to make sure it aligns with your target audience’s needs. Here are some tips and tricks when it comes to testing and refining your value proposition.
1. Take a look at client feedback.
Plan to review client feedback when learning how to write a value proposition and when refining it. Similarly to the prep work you’ve done to write your proposition, aim to use those same methods to ensure your current value proposition lines up with what your customers expect.
For example, you can create a survey with targeted questions and pinpoint areas for improvement based on that customer feedback. However, you could also review existing client feedback in the form of online site reviews and testimonials on social media to get a clearer picture of what your audience expects and how your solution aligns with their expectations.
Another way to evaluate feedback from customers is to look into customer support interactions. What sorts of concerns or questions do clients have when they reach out to your customer support team? This can yield valuable insights for tweaking your value proposition. At the end of the day, a solid proposition can shorten your sales cycle, so it’s worth spending time to get it right.
2. Check out key performance indicators (KPIs).
Once your team has written and published a value proposition, take a look at the key performance indicators (KPIs) to see how the proposition performs. Which KPIs your team narrows in on will depend on what makes the most sense for your brand. For example, keeping an eye on revenue and sales insights can be a great place to start.
You could also look at other indicators, like customer acquisition cost (CAC) to see if the proposition affects the efficiency of customer acquisition or customer lifetime value (CLTV) to see if your proposition could help grow your clients’ loyalty and trust.
There are tons of other KPIs worth exploring when it comes to the value proposition, so find out what works best for your brand.
3. Experiment with A/B testing.
You can also use A/B testing to experiment with different value propositions. For example, a brand might write a few versions of their company’s value proposition to test. From there, go-to-market teams can experiment by testing these propositions on various channels, such as email campaigns, marketing materials, and on the website or social media.
The key with A/B testing is to look at the key metrics and client engagement to find out which of your value propositions resonated best with your audience.
4. Train your sales reps to communicate the value proposition effectively.
Another crucial step in testing and refining your value proposition is training your sales team to communicate it efficiently. Once you’ve written a new proposition or updated an existing one, create some sales training materials for the team to facilitate communication. For example, you might have materials that demonstrate how to communicate this proposition to customers, as well as examples of what to do and what not to do.
You can also leverage routine training sessions to field any concerns or questions and reinforce the proposition and its delivery. Using a sales enablement platform like Yoodli can make this process much easier.
How to Improve Your Value Proposition Communication With Yoodli
Yoodli — an intelligent sales coach powered by AI technology — is a platform that offers realistic sales roleplays for teams to improve the way they interact with customers. When you’re dealing with something as critical as a value proposition, it’s important to make sure your sales reps are on the same page. Yoodli offers teams a platform where they can safely practice the way they communicate their brand’s value without risking a lost opportunity.
In fact, companies like Google, Dale Carnegie, and Korn Ferry have already used Yoodli to improve their sales process.
Reps start by choosing an existing sales roleplay on Yoodli’s platform — like cold calls or customer discovery calls — or crafting their own specific roleplay from scratch. They can then practice their delivery and communication with an AI-generated client. With Yoodli, no one roleplay is the same, and there are tons of AI personalities to pick from. This helps teams get experience with a plethora of different kinds of customers.
Practice with a number of different customer personalities when communicating your value proposition.
But Yoodli doesn’t just exist as a platform for value proposition practice. It’s also a sales coach, and as such, provides reps with a detailed report on how their interaction went. They’ll get specific insights into their listening, delivery, and speech patterns with specific feedback for how they can improve. The admin at your company can even personalize Yoodli for their own means using their brand’s methodology. Plus, Yoodli also has enterprise-grade privacy, including SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and more.
Learn more about how you can get started with Yoodli for free to improve your team’s value proposition communication at https://yoodli.ai/.
The Main Takeaway
A value proposition has the power to make or break a brand. With a compelling value proposition, companies can reap the benefits of improved sales success and boosted customer loyalty while also standing out from the competition. Just make sure your teams are confident in communicating a proposition, and lean on a tool like Yoodli to take their communication skills to the next level.
