Problem and solution
My reps don't practise their sales calls. How do I change that?
You have asked, reminded and put it in the calendar, and still the practice slot is the first thing to go. Reps skip practice for understandable reasons, and most of them are fixable without a speech about discipline.
Practical guidance for call training. Practice with DIRI AI is for coaching, not for rating or ranking people.
What it feels like
You announce a practice session and watch the excuses arrive in good faith. There is a call block to finish, a customer to chase, a quarter to hit. The few who do show up are usually the ones who need it least, and the rest treat practice as something that happens to other people.
It leaves you in an awkward place. You can mandate it and get resentful compliance, or you can drop it and watch the same weak openings and fumbled objections show up in live calls for another month. Neither feels like leadership, and both cost you the thing you wanted, which is a team that gets a little better every week.
Why it happens
Practice has no visible payoff
A live call gives instant feedback: a meeting, a hang-up, a commission. Rehearsal gives nothing you can see for weeks. When time is tight, people choose the activity whose reward they can feel today.
It feels unsafe
Rehearsing in front of the team or the manager feels like being tested. If any practice result might end up in a performance conversation, sensible people avoid it. Fear of looking bad is a rational reason to stay away.
The ask is too big
A forty-five-minute workshop is easy to cancel. A vague "please practise more" gives nobody a starting point. Large, undefined commitments get postponed by anyone with a full diary.
Nobody is practising anything specific
Practice without a target feels like busywork. A rep who cannot answer "what am I trying to get better at today?" will rarely start, because there is nothing to finish.
A method you can use this week
- Make it five minutes, attached to something they already do Do not add a new meeting. Put one short round directly before the daily call block: "before you dial, do one round on the opener". Anchoring a new habit to an existing one is the most reliable way to keep it alive.
- Give each week one specific target Name a single skill, for instance "saying the price and then waiting". When everyone practises the same small thing, they can compare notes at lunch and it becomes a team topic rather than a private chore.
- Say out loud that practice is never scored against them Tell the team in plain words: "Nothing from practice goes into reviews or rankings. It is just rehearsal." Then keep that promise strictly, including in your own head. One broken promise ends the habit.
- Practise first, and do it badly in public Share one thing you rehearsed and the part that went wrong. A manager who admits a clumsy objection reply makes it acceptable for everyone else to be imperfect.
- Close the loop in thirty seconds At the next stand-up ask one question: "Did anyone use something from this week's practice on a live call?" Hearing a colleague say yes is the visible payoff that the practice itself does not give.
Drill: The five-minute team starter
Run it once with the whole team at the start of the call block, standing up, with no slides. Pick an opener or an objection everyone hears, for example "we're happy with what we have". Pair people off before you begin.
- Minute one: you read the situation aloud in two sentences, and each pair decides who starts as the seller.
- Minutes two and three: the seller says their reply aloud to their partner, who answers naturally in one sentence. Just one exchange, no discussion.
- Minute four: swap roles and repeat the same objection. The new seller must change at least one word from what they just heard.
- Minute five: each person says to their partner the one line they will try on the next live call. Finish and dial.
How you know it worked: It worked if the room is louder at the end than at the start and at least some people repeat their line on a live call that afternoon. If people grumble about the length, shorten it rather than cancel it.
How DIRI AI helps
DIRI AI is useful here because it removes two of the reasons people give: no one is watching, and a round takes only a few minutes. A rep picks a situation or writes their own, chooses the difficulty and client type, and speaks aloud to an AI customer, clearly labelled as AI, that reacts to what they say and keeps its own motives and objections. The Free plan allows 3 calls a month of up to five minutes each, with no card, which fits neatly in front of a call block.
The report afterwards is where reps see a visible payoff: a score, quoted key moments from their own transcript, the effect of each moment, one concrete next change and better phrasings, plus the full transcript. They can repeat a situation and compare attempts, and their history stays in their account. As the manager, ask them to bring one moment they found useful to a short chat instead of asking for numbers. Team plans exist, and a 90-day team pilot for up to ten advisors is available if you want to test the habit in a small group.
Keep expectations grounded. An AI customer does not replace real customers or a human coach, and the score is a guide for practice, not a validated measure. Practice is for training and coaching, not for evaluating or ranking employees, and the report must not be the only basis for any decision about a person. That promise is also what makes reps willing to use it. Voice recordings are off by default.
Try it on a practice call
Free plan: 3 calls a month, up to 5 minutes each, no card. You talk to a customer played by an AI, then read a report that quotes your own words.
Questions people ask
Should practice be mandatory?
Make the slot a team norm and make taking part easy, but avoid tracking who did what as a performance measure. Compliance driven by fear produces shallow rounds. Visible usefulness produces repeat practice.
How often should reps practise?
Short and frequent beats long and rare. A few minutes before a call block on most days, or a few times a week, is more realistic than a monthly workshop.
What if my best reps say they don't need it?
Ask them to practise the hardest thing they have heard recently and to share what they did. Strong reps often become the best demonstrators of a good reply, which also helps the team.
Is practising with an AI customer enough?
It is a convenient place to repeat a skill, but it does not replace live calls or a human coach. Pair it with a short live debrief so the practice connects to real work.