Glossary

Glossary of AI sales training

Simulation, roleplay, AI sales coaching, sales enablement: these words cover precise realities that are often confused with one another. Fifteen short definitions, with no needless jargon, to find your way.

AI sales simulation

An AI agent plays the role of a customer or prospect facing a sales rep, with the objections and the vocabulary specific to their industry. The rep repeats the meeting until the right reflex is acquired. At Marvin, these agents are configured from 25 years of b-flower field expertise.

Sales roleplay (AI sales roleplay)

Sales roleplay is the exercise where a rep replays a sales meeting facing someone who takes the customer's role. With AI, that roleplay no longer needs an available colleague: a conversational agent takes the role on demand, as many times as needed. It is the technical basis of AI sales simulation.

AI sales coaching

Sales coaching means helping a rep progress on their specific sticking points, meeting after meeting. AI sales coaching adds a layer of analysis: the AI automatically spots where a rep gets stuck in their meetings, and gives the manager coaching priorities instead of leaving them to guess. The manager keeps control of the human support.

AI sales training

AI sales training means having a rep repeat their real sales scenarios, facing AI agents, until the right reflex becomes automatic. It differs from classic training, which conveys a method in a room but does not make the rep repeat the gesture. The two complement each other: training gives the framework, practice makes the reflex hold on the day of the meeting.

Sales meeting simulator

A sales meeting simulator reproduces the conditions of a real sales meeting: objections, stakes, typical counterpart. It lets a rep practise before facing a real customer. An AI-based simulator adapts difficulty in real time and assesses every exchange.

Field conversation analysis

Field conversation analysis means analysing a sales meeting that happens face to face, outside the frame of a call or a video meeting. Most conversation analytics tools ignore that case because they are designed for the call. It is the blind spot Marvin fills for mobile sales forces.

Sales enablement

Sales enablement covers the tools and content that equip a rep to sell: pitches, product content, field applications. It is a discipline complementary to AI sales training, which is about practice and repetition rather than equipment. SalesApps, Marvin's partner, is the French leader in sales enablement.

Sales forecast

The sales forecast is the prediction of the revenue a team will deliver over a given period, based on the deals in the pipeline. An imprecise forecast, often at plus or minus 40 %, makes steering difficult for sales leadership. A structured coaching and training process can bring that margin of error down to around 12 %.

Sales onboarding

Sales onboarding is the period during which a new rep becomes autonomous and fully productive in their role. With no structure, that ramp to autonomy takes 9 months on average. A structured onboarding plan, combined with AI training, can bring it down to 4 months.

Sales skill development

Sales skill development refers to a rep's measurable progress on precise skills: discovery, argumentation, objection handling, closing. It requires knowing where a rep stands today, then improving that precise point. This is what skills mapping measures.

Sales training

Sales training conveys a selling method to a rep, usually in a room or remotely, over a limited time. Without rapid practice, 80 % of its content is forgotten within 30 days. It remains necessary but insufficient on its own: it needs a continuous practice relay to embed the reflexes.

Sales skills mapping

Sales skills mapping is an objective view of each rep's level on the key skills of their role, built from real data rather than a manager's subjective assessment. It makes it possible to prioritise coaching effort where it has the most impact.

Sales ramp-up

Sales ramp-up is the time a rep needs, whether new or repositioned, to reach full productive capacity. A 9-month ramp-up is common with no structured process. With dedicated training from day one, it can be cut in half.

Sales debrief (post-meeting)

The post-meeting sales debrief means analysing a meeting right after it happened to identify what worked and what got stuck. Done manually by a manager, it takes several hours a week on average. With AI, an individual report can be generated in under two minutes after the meeting.

The Sales Performance Equation

The sales performance equation reads Process × Coaching × Practice = Predictable performance. The three factors work together: if one is at zero, the overall result is nil. It is the framework b-flower and Marvin use to diagnose a sales force.

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