The Revenue Problem You’re Probably Overlooking

The Hidden Revenue Problem You’re Probably Overlooking

Picture this: Sat down with the VP of Sales at a scale-up, now valued at over $2 billion (because, let’s be real, everyone loves a good valuation bump) with a decent-sized revenue team,.
He tell me about how he's facing a growing concern.
Despite having every shiny tool in their tech stack—CRMs, call recorders, AI-driven insights, an LMS that no one is using—something just wasn’t adding up.
Deals were slipping through the cracks, and no one could figure out why.
The answer, of course, wasn’t as simple as the usual suspects like lack of leads or low morale. No, it was something a bit more embarrassing.

The problem? The BDRs couldn’t handle the tough conversations.
Sure, they were great at parroting scripts, following sales playbooks, and nodding along during their endless role-plays with managers. But when it came to real conversations—where the stakes were actually high and prospects threw the occasional curveball—they froze. And not the kind of freeze that makes them look cool. The kind of freeze where the deal just dies and you can practically hear the revenue draining away.

It wasn’t that the team lacked talent. Oh no, these were ambitious, eager reps. The issue was something more frustrating: they weren’t practicing the right way.

Let’s rewind to a recent "learning moment." The VP had thrown his team into a scenario at a trade show—throwing them into the wild with marketing team members playing the role of customers, armed with tough questions and zero script. Some reps?
They were rock stars, handling the situation like seasoned pros. Others? Not so much. They froze up, asked zero questions, and assumed their way out of potential opportunities. Classic, right?

The VP realized that all the Gong data in the world wasn’t going to fix this. Yeah, Gong could tell you where things went south after the fact, but that’s kind of like getting a rearview mirror and hoping it’ll make your car faster. The team needed to practice in real time, while the pressure was on, not after the fact.

And that’s when things got interesting. The VP started using an AI-powered conversation practice platform to role-play realistic scenarios—no more “idealized” training exercises where everything goes perfectly. Now, the reps could fail in a safe environment, learn from it, and actually get better before those mistakes cost them deals.

Spoiler alert: It worked. The reps who were struggling to handle objections started embracing them. They learned how to turn "no" into "tell me more," and—plot twist—they stopped missing out on the deals that should have been in the bag.

The truth is that Objections aren’t the problem—they’re the opportunity.
When your team learns to handle them like pros, they stop losing deals and start winning conversations. But hey, if you prefer letting your reps stumble through objections until the Gong report comes in to break the bad news, by all means, carry on.

Average teams are waiting for the mistakes to show up in post-call reports.
Let me guess—you love the idea of "coaching after the fact." But maybe it’s time to rethink how you’re preparing your sales team for the real world.