Call Data: When Sales Agents ‘Restate Needs’ Conversion Rate is 83%

McKay Allen

If you’re familiar with Convirza, you know that we’ve analyzed A LOT of phone calls.

The purpose of this research was to figure out which phone events–whether marketing or sales related–impacted phone conversion rates.

And so we did.

We analyzed millions of calls across dozens of industries to get this data. In this blog post we’re going to discuss what we learned about conversion rates when the agent restates the needs of the caller.

Here’s the data: when the agent clearly and effectively restates the caller’s needs, calls convert at 83%. Again, this is across millions of calls from dozens of industries.

What Does ‘Restate Needs’ Mean?

Any sales trainer worth anything will know the answer to this question. Basically, if I call a business and say, “I need a new set of tires,” the agent (any employee answering the phone) would say, “Alright, so you need a new set of tires.” This is obviously a very basic example, but it describes what restating the needs means.

The purpose of restating needs is basically twofold:

1) Clarity – Most problems on sales calls (and marriages) start when there is a miscommunication. The caller is asking for one thing and the agent thinks the caller is asking for another. That’s why restating needs is so critical. The agent needs to restate what he ‘thinks’ the caller is saying simply to confirm that that is, in fact, what the caller is saying. Because knowing what the caller is saying is sort of a big deal.

2) Comfort – In addition to ensuring exactly what the caller means, restating needs is important because it lets the caller know that the agent is listening.

The most frustrating thing in the world is when you call a company, tell them your problem, and the agent starts to try to ‘fix’ things before they really understand what the problem was to begin with. They didn’t listen. Maybe they answer a question you never really asked, or fix a problem you didn’t have. It is obvious they weren’t listening.

Restating brings significant comfort to the caller. Restating needs lets the caller know that you are clear on exactly what they need. And, if you aren’t clear on what they’re asking for, it allows them an opportunity to clarify even more.