My Call Review Process (updated with AI)

Not because I love the sound of client reps talking for many hours per week 😅, but because it's one of the highest-leverage activities a sales leader can do.

Therefore, a Fractional Sales Leader too.

Back in the day, before AI recorders, I'd shadow my teams live.

Call after call.

Shadowing, shadowing, shadowing.

I did it because my manager did it. And it was great, to be honest.

That's how I learned, coached, and helped them grow.

But when you're leading multiple teams, live shadowing doesn't scale.

But thanks to AI and technologies and the friends of Fireflies, Fathom, Gong - suddenly I could review calls on my own schedule.

Still, it meant listening one by one.

(And no, I don't believe in automating this entirely. Coaching needs a human brain.

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Call Reviews: The Most High Leverage Activity For Coaching

Most leaders (and founders) skip or half-commit to call reviews.

They think it's enough to scan CRM notes or look at numbers.

Here's the reality: feedback on live calls, scored against a framework (BANT, SPICED, MEDDIC), is 

where salespeople level up fastest.

You can see how they ask questions.

You can hear how prospects respond.

You can catch what's working before it becomes a habit — and stop what's not. ù

But I get it...it's time-consuming. You can easily spend 5-6 hours per week on this. 🤨

When I had one team, I could sit in on a couple of calls a day. But with three, four, five teams? That becomes dozens of calls. 

Which is why I built my own structured process.

My call review process

It's simple but effective:

1. Plug in an AI recorder (Fathom, Fireflies - take your pick).
2. Send the call into Slack 
3. Listen at 1.5x speed (2x is too fast, you miss the nuances).
4. Share the transcript with my AI Call Review Agent (built on Inscaler GPT).
5. Fill out my call scorecard, using a Start / Stop / Continue framework.
6. Double-check my notes against the AI agent's summary.
7. Send the call scorecard back to Slack.

That's it. Structured. Repeatable. Scalable.

The right way to give feedback

Reviewing the call is not enough. 

Giving feedback is as essential as the feedback itself.

Most people make one critical mistake: they jump straight to spotting errors. (trust me, we all do this!)

But the reality is that nobody enjoys being told only what they did wrong.

That creates resistance, not growth.

Instead, I use this order:

• Continue – what you're already doing well, keep at it.
• Start – new behaviours or tactics to test.
• Stop – habits that hurt performance and need to change.

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Reward first. Suggest next. Correct last.

That sequence builds trust, motivation, and long-term improvement.

Final thought

Reviewing calls has been one of the most important activities of my career in sales leadership.

As well as in my fractional journey with my clients.

It's not glamorous. It doesn't scale infinitely. 

But it's the difference between reps who stagnate and reps who grow into closers, managers, and leaders.

If you're building a team, don't just look at the dashboard.

Don't just scan the pipeline.

Go where the learning really happens: the calls.

Because every great sales culture starts with leaders who listen.