Introducing Smart Trackers: Simple keyword tracking is more noise than signal!

One of the key reasons why conversation intelligence platforms became mainstream? Revenue leaders needed visibility into what their prospects and team members were saying on calls. 

The goal was simple: Learn pain points and objections so they could bridge the gap, win more deals, reduce churn, and more.

But, let’s be honest: Is it realistic for leaders to listen to dozens of calls every day?

Our research tells us that 75% of sales leaders don’t listen to sales calls — despite having the right tools in place.

To handle this proactively, a lot of conversation intelligence tools introduced keyword tracking. This lets revenue teams search and filter meetings or calls based on specific keywords discussed during conversations.

The idea was straightforward: Set up keywords as potential responses to look for, in the context of a specific question. 

You can set up keywords like top competitor names or objections and get alerts when they pop up in a call. For example, if your rep asks, “What are the other tools you’re currently evaluating alongside ours?,” keyword tracking can flag calls and meetings where your competitors were mentioned. 

Depending on the topic you want to track, you could even get instant alerts via Slack or email.

 Sounds perfect, right? Unfortunately, it’s not!

A lot of signals tend to fly under the radar, when you’re looking only for certain keywords. You miss the woods for the trees!

The challenge with keyword-based tracking

As revenue teams (Sales and CS leaders, AEs, and CSMs) became power users of Avoma, we realized that searching for signals based on keywords falls short.

Why?

1. Not everyone uses the exact same phrases

While keywords are very helpful to track and understand — real human conversations cannot be limited to keywords. In real conversations, people switch context frequently. 

For example, let’s say you want to track potential expansion opportunities with your existing customers. 

Not every customer will say “We're expanding our team” or “We need more licenses.”

They might say:

“We’re hiring.”
“There’s a new strategic initiative.”
“We have a new go-to-market motion.”
“We’re looking to boost our market presence.”

And because your keyword tracker is only looking  for the phrase “expansion” or “expand,” these key moments in the conversation won’t be tracked and will slip through the cracks.

2. False positives

Another issue is even when the right keyword is spoken and captured, the context may be wrong. 

For example, imagine a prospect  saying “the pricing is insane” about a competitor. Your keyword tracker flags it  as a potential risk, but it’s just a passing comment. 

Now you’re stuck rechecking calls to verify the context.

Enter Smart Trackers. What’s a Smart Tracker?

Imagine a tool that  truly understands what’s happening across all your conversations, even when specific keywords aren't used. 

Avoma's new Smart Trackers use AI to analyze the topics and intent discussed in your calls and meetings — allowing you to catch hidden trends and context, regardless of phrasing.

Let’s say you want to track pricing objections and take timely action. Your prospects might not use those exact phrases when they speak.

For instance, your prospect says, “We’re looking for a cost-effective solution”

When you’re on the call, you know what they mean, but a typical keyword tracker would miss to flag this as a pricing objection.

Now, with Smart Trackers, you can define the concept you want to track, and Avoma’s AI will identify relevant sentences, regardless of word order or phrasing.

This unlocks deeper insights and enables you to:

• Analyze team sentiment on specific topics
• Identify areas of improvement
• Track progress on key initiatives discussed in meetings

Some examples of the outcomes you can achieve with Smart Trackers:

• Improve deal success rates: Identify potential churn or roadblocks early by setting up Smart Trackers for objections or competitor mentions. Take proactive steps to address concerns and secure deals.
• Enhance team performance: Get immediate alerts when coaching moments happen, like objections or new product discussions. Provide real-time feedback and improve sales team performance.
• Drive product improvements: Understand trends better and act on them quickly to keep customers happy.

And with email and Slack alerts, you’ll never miss a key moment. 

Why do alerts matter?

Some situations need immediate attention, while others can wait. You don’t want to miss time-sensitive issues just because they got buried in your inbox or because you didn’t have the time to look at the dashboard.

With Smart Trackers, you can set up alerts for yourself or the whole organization based on the concept you’re tracking.

For example, imagine a prospect asks you about a specific integration that’s not yet available.

“Do you integrate with XYZ?”

An org-wide alert notifies all stakeholders instantly. Your team can collaborate to handle the objection, and prioritize the integration based on the number of requests.

With that, let’s  look at how Smart Trackers work.

How to set up Smart Trackers

Setting up Avoma’s Smart Trackers is as easy as it gets.

Just pick a concept you want to track, and add one example sentence that reflects how the concept might be used in a typical conversation.

Click “Generate more examples with AI.”

Avoma’s AI will generate relevant examples for you. You can either add more manually or generate more example sentences. Save it and you’re good to go!

The AI continuously learns from real-world conversations, so your tracking continuously improves and stays accurate.

Experience Smart Trackers today!

Avoma’s Smart Trackers are a game-changer for understanding your customers, your team, and your business. Try it today!