The year is 2023, and the tech landscape has transformed. Remember when "Conversational Intelligence" was all the rage in 2015? That was the year industry leaders like Gong and Chorus (now teamed up with ZoomInfo) came into play. But things change: Gong, for instance, has rebranded away from that early identity.

If terms like "sales call reviews" or "sales enablement platforms" sound alien, you're in luck. We're here to decode the jargon and walk you through this evolution. And just to give you a head start, we've peppered in some expert tips along the way.

So, what triggered Gong's shift from conversational intelligence to branding itself as a Revenue Intelligence platform? And how do the two differ? Let's unravel the story.

Conversational Intelligence Vs Revenue Intelligence

Conversational Intelligence refers to the technology that enables organizations to analyze, understand, and improve communication between their teams and customers. CI tools leverage AI and machine learning to transcribe, analyze, and provide insights from sales calls, meetings, and other interactions. They help sales teams spot communication trends and patterns, enabling them to enhance their strategy and boost success rates.

Revenue Intelligence (RI), on the other hand, focuses on delivering actionable insights that help organizations optimize their revenue-generating activities. RI platforms collect and analyze data from various sources, including CRM, email, calendar, marketing touchpoints, and call recordings, to provide a comprehensive view of the entire sales process. This allows sales teams to identify bottlenecks, streamline workflows, and make data-driven decisions to enhance overall revenue generation.

Key Differences Between Conversational Intelligence and Revenue Intelligence:

• Scope: While both conversational intelligence and revenue intelligence platforms analyze sales interactions, conversational intelligence primarily focuses on communication patterns and techniques. Revenue intelligence encompasses a broader range of data sources to provide a more comprehensive view of the entire sales process.
• Application: Conversational intelligence platforms excel in helping sales teams refine their communication skills and approach. Revenue intelligence platforms are more geared towards optimizing sales processes, improving cross-functional collaboration, and enabling data-driven decision-making.
• Target Audience: Conversational intelligence targets sales reps and managers to enhance communication and client relations. On the other hand, revenue intelligence serves a wider group, from sales leaders to marketing and customer success teams, all aiming to boost revenue.

So, is Gong Really a “Revenue Intelligence” Software?

Debatable. Despite calling itself a revenue intelligence tool, Gong continues to focus on analyzing sales interactions, offering insights into communication patterns, deal progress, and risks. So while it does go beyond traditional conversational intelligence software, it does not fully meet the criteria for revenue intelligence, which typically requires a much larger data source, including tracking activities across various marketing touchpoints.

The critical thing to remember here is that Chorus says on its website that it "Captures and analyzes customer calls, meetings, and emails" - which is practically everything that Gong did too, until 2022. 

The good news for Gong? It stands out with that promise of revenue intelligence, making it sound more appealing to sales leaders.

Intelligent move. But that’s where it ends.

Gong Vs Chorus: What are the Differences in 2023?

As of 2023, Gong and Chorus have both evolved, offering unique features and capabilities to cater to different organizational needs. Here are five key differences between the two platforms.

Feature Focus - Gong Vs Chorus

Gong concentrates on communication patterns and deal insights, whereas Chorus promotes data-driven decisions and offers a broader perspective on the sales process.

Why are we saying all of this in the past tense? Because Gong's had several tricks up its sleeve this past year, bringing AI sales enablement and AI sales assistance as its differentiating features.

Who stands where in the AI sales assistance race?

Recently, Gong launched Gong Assist. It automates mundane tasks like updating CRM and drafting customer emails. All from a single tool.

Gong Forecast, too, creates roll-ups and revenue insights and highlights risks. In addition, Gong claims that it gives teams total visibility into pipelines from front to bottom line, ensuring reliable revenue predictability.

Chorus is yet to offer any of this, keeping itself restricted to the world of conversational intelligence.

What’s missing in Gong’s AI-based sales assistance?

Chorus may be missing the AI bus for now, but Gong’s missing something too. And that’s emotional intelligence.

You can have all of the insights from all calls and emails. But without evaluating your prospects on the non-verbal cues they leave behind in these interactions, you’re missing significant insights across nearly every sales workstream. From next steps and meeting summaries to deal and revenue intelligence, every salesperson and leader needs to have a finger on the pulse of the prospect’s real objections, needs, and concerns. 

And that's precisely what we have built with Sybill - the only sales intelligence tool out there that considers non-verbal cues and behavior intelligence to provide a more holistic view of every deal. More importantly, it pushes these insights into the manager, leader, and reps' email and Slack, so everyone is constantly on the same page on what's really going on with every deal.

Check out Magic Summary if we’ve piqued your interest.

And if that wasn’t enough, we bring automatic call summaries to Gong and Chorus too. Check out how.

Market Intelligence - Gong Vs Chorus

Gong offers unique content called "Gong Labs," which provides data-driven insights and best practices from analyzing millions of sales calls. These insights help sales teams understand industry trends and improve their sales techniques. 

Chorus does not currently offer an equivalent feature.

Integration with Marketing - Gong Vs Chorus

Gong does not yet track activities across various marketing functions, which limits its scope as a Revenue Intelligence platform. 

Neither does Chorus, but with its integration with Zoominfo, Chorus can now integrate contact and company intelligence for GTM teams. That means the entire relationship history for each prospect and insights into past interactions. How much does this help GTM teams? That's worth asking.

Sales and Marketing Alignment: The Sybill Way

Last year, we built Sybill's Marketing Partner. This AI tool processes calls (even from Gong) to give detailed feedback on how each slide or message affects different buyer personas. We've also incorporated body language and emotional intelligence, making sure sales and marketing teams sync up on both spoken feedback and non-verbal signals.

So if your messaging gets specific buyer personas to want to check their emails instead of listening to your sales rep, sure as hell you’ll know about it. And that’s an opportunity for sales and marketing teams to act.

Check out how you can use your sales calls to align with marketing on messaging that means business.

And hear what Sybill users have to say about Sybill Marketing Partner.

Coaching and Training

Gong's platform includes a robust coaching and training component, providing sales managers with tools to create personalized coaching plans, review sales calls, and share best practices. 

While Chorus also offers coaching capabilities, Gong's tools are generally considered more extensive and refined.

But What’s Coaching Without Emotional Intelligence?

Not much, if you ask us. That's precisely why Sybill goes beyond conversational intelligence to analyze verbal and non-verbal cues, as well as winning behaviors of sales reps, providing sales managers and leaders with precise coaching guidelines. 

By eliminating guesswork, sales leaders can coach their teams more effectively and efficiently, based on individual strengths and areas for improvement, ensuring that each sales professional receives personalized guidance tailored to their specific needs. 

And because call insights are automated and land directly in the manager and reps' Slack and email, Sybill users foster a culture of continuous learning. But more importantly, effective learning that saves deals before they go south.

Time to Look Beyond?

We have. Because in 2023, AI sales assistance and enablement are changing at breakneck speed. 

Even as Gong Vs Chorus debates continue on search engines, if not elsewhere, sales reps have already achieved left and right brain superpowers that make them smarter, more effective, more efficient, and more empathetic.

It's time to dig deeper than good old (2015, remember?) conversational intelligence.

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