If you run a sales team, you’ve probably heard the pitch: “Just use conversation intelligence to scale what your top reps do!” Easy, right? But most teams get stuck in dashboards, overwhelmed by data, and never actually change what happens on calls. This guide is for sales leaders, enablement folks, and managers who want real, practical ways to use Gong to figure out what your best people do — and actually help everyone else do it too.
Let’s cut through the noise and get to the stuff that actually works.
Step 1: Get Your Data House in Order
Before you start hunting for winning behaviors, make sure Gong is set up to capture what matters.
- Connect the right calls. Make sure Gong is pulling in ALL sales conversations — not just demos, but discovery, negotiations, even those “quick check-ins.”
- Tag your reps and deals. If your CRM sync is a mess or reps aren’t assigned properly, your analysis will be too.
- Define “top rep” for your team. Don’t just pick the loudest or highest-grossing person. Look for consistently strong performers and those closing the right kinds of deals.
Pro tip: Garbage in, garbage out. If your call recordings are full of background noise or reps who forget to hit “record,” fix that first.
Step 2: Figure Out What “Good” Actually Looks Like
This is where most teams get lost. They try to copy everything a top rep says, thinking it’s some kind of magic script. Don’t do that.
Instead:
- Pick 2-3 meaningful behaviors. For example: asking hard questions, pushing for next steps, handling pricing objections early.
- Watch (don’t just read) a handful of real calls. Notice how top reps do these things — what do they say, when do they say it, how does the customer react?
- Compare average vs. top rep calls side by side. Gong’s call library makes this easy. Look for patterns, not one-off moments.
What you’re after isn’t word-for-word scripts — it’s repeatable moves that actually change outcomes. If you can’t directly tie a behavior to better results, skip it.
Step 3: Use Gong’s Analytics, But Don’t Drown in Them
Gong is loaded with dashboards, filters, and “insights.” Some are gold; some are just shiny objects.
Useful things to focus on:
- Talk ratio: Are top reps listening more than talking? (Usually, yes.)
- Question count and type: Are they asking open-ended questions, or just ticking boxes?
- Next steps: Do calls end with clear action items, and do those lead to faster deal cycles?
- Objection handling: When in the call do they handle objections — and do they bring them up first?
- Topic tracking: Are top reps spending more time on pricing, value, competitors, or something else?
What to ignore:
- “Sentiment analysis” that claims to spot “happy” or “nervous” customers. It’s not useless, but it’s rarely actionable.
- Fancy word clouds or generic “engagement” scores. If you can’t explain it to a new rep in one sentence, skip it.
Reality check: Gong’s analytics are only as good as the questions you ask. Don’t chase every metric just because it’s there.
Step 4: Build Simple, Concrete Playbooks
Now that you’ve found 2-3 behaviors that matter, write them down. Not as a 20-page PDF — as a checklist, a cheat sheet, or a short video.
How to make it stick:
- Use real call snippets. Pull 30-second clips from Gong that show the behavior in action. It’s way more convincing than a bullet point.
- Keep it painfully specific. Example: “Ask three open-ended questions in the first 10 minutes,” not “be curious.”
- Make it easy to find. Pin the playbook in Slack, your LMS, or wherever reps actually look.
What to avoid: Over-engineering. If your playbook tries to cover 12 things at once, nobody will use it.
Step 5: Get Buy-In — Without Forcing Scripts
You can’t just hand out a checklist and expect everyone to change. Top reps have their own style; so do rookies. Your job is to give them the moves, not force them into a mold.
- Run team sessions where you play winning snippets. Let reps hear what “good” sounds like.
- Ask your top reps to share their thinking. Often, the why matters more than the what.
- Encourage reps to adapt, not copy. The best behaviors are principles, not catchphrases.
Quick tip: If reps feel like you’re turning them into robots, they’ll tune out. Focus on outcomes, not scripts.
Step 6: Track If It’s Working (and Adjust)
Don’t just launch the playbook and move on. Use Gong to check if things are actually changing.
- Spot-check your calls. Are more reps doing the behaviors you want? Are deals moving faster, or closing more often?
- Ask for feedback. What’s actually useful? What feels fake or forced?
- Tweak your playbook. Drop anything that isn’t making a difference. Add new moves as you spot them.
Don’t obsess over perfect measurement. If your team is getting better at one thing, that’s a win.
What Works, What Doesn’t, What to Ignore
Works: - Using Gong to find specific, repeatable moves that drive better outcomes. - Sharing real, short call examples instead of just telling people what to do. - Making playbooks dead simple and actionable.
Doesn’t work: - Expecting AI or dashboards to magically tell you what to do. - Copying scripts word-for-word. - Assuming what works for one rep will work for everyone, every time.
Ignore: - Overly detailed sentiment analysis or “AI insights” that don’t tie back to real results. - Playbooks or reports nobody reads.
Keep It Simple, Get Results
Gong is a powerful tool, but it won’t fix a broken process or culture. Use it to find the handful of things your best reps do, show the team what “good” looks like, and make it easy to practice. Then, watch what happens, adjust, and repeat.
Don’t overthink it. Simple, real-world coaching beats another dashboard every time.