Hold the room when the call gets technical
Reps practice one call with the whole buying committee, from the engineer who keeps asking to the finance lead who wants payback. Each buyer comes from your deal, and every answer is graded on your scorecard.
The calls on which a technical deal turns. Each one becomes a buyer who asks the difficult question, and a scorecard that grades the answer.
APIs, cloud infrastructure and tools for developers, where the first person to evaluate it writes code.
Technical discovery
Staff engineer“Before we go any further, show me how this fails. What happens to requests already in flight when your control plane is down?”
Scored on- Mapped the architecture they have today
- Answered the failure mode with precision
- Flagged what still needs a follow-up
A demo with the screen shared
Infrastructure engineering lead“Skip the dashboard. Show me the Terraform, and what it does to the state we already hold.”
Scored on- Demoed the workflow they actually use
- Handled the question while it was on screen
- Agreed what the next technical step would be
Scoping the POC
VP Engineering“You have three weeks, and two of my engineers. Tell me, before we start, what success looks like on day 21.”
Scored on- Wrote the success criteria down
- Named the owners and the dates
- Tied the POC back to the decision to buy
Architecture review
Principal architect“We run active-active over two regions. Where does your service sit, and what breaks if one region drops?”
Scored on- Placed the product inside their architecture
- Stated the limits in plain terms
- Claims agree with the Knowledge library
Products in security, identity and data, where InfoSec and the data owners can still stop a deal late.
Security review
Head of InfoSec“The questionnaire says the data is encrypted at rest. Who holds those keys, and are we able to rotate them ourselves?”
Scored on- Answered from the security documents that were approved
- Did not overstate the certifications
- Named who follows up, and when
Evaluating the data product
Lead for data engineering“We already run a warehouse and a pipeline that nobody wants to touch. Why is this one more thing to look after?”
Scored on- Sized what their current setup costs them
- Positioned it against the stack they already run
- Proposed a test with a clear scope
The CFO's business case
CFO“Engineering likes it. Show me what it replaces and when it pays back, in our own numbers.”
Scored on- Used the figures the buyer supplied
- Named the spend it takes the place of
- Confirmed the path to approval
Preparing the champion
Security engineer, and the champion“I am convinced. Now help me explain this to my CISO in five minutes, because I am the one in that room.”
Scored on- Gave the champion a case in one line
- Anticipated the objection the CISO will raise
- Agreed what the champion will send
Sensors, controls and embedded systems, where engineering, the plant and procurement each have to sign off.
Technical discovery
Controls engineer“Our PLCs are fifteen years old and they are staying. Which protocols do you support, and does anything on the line need fresh firmware?”
Scored on- Discovered the base that is already installed
- Answered the specifics of the integration
- Promised only the compatibility that has been tested
Scoping the pilot line
Plant manager“You may have one line, for a month. If it costs me unplanned downtime, we are finished.”
Scored on- Agreed pilot criteria you can measure
- Addressed the risk of downtime
- Set a date for the review
Procurement and the MSA redlines
Procurement manager“Legal struck out your liability cap and wants a three-year price lock. Which of those two can you accept?”
Scored on- Got something in return for every concession
- Stayed within the limits that were approved
- Protected the date for signing
The buying committee call
Engineering, together with finance and procurement“The engineers tell us it works. Our CFO will not fund it this year. You have the two of us for twenty minutes.”
Scored on- Spoke to the concern of each stakeholder
- Kept the agenda even through interruptions
- Left with a path to a decision
Practise with everyone in the room. Every stakeholder on the deal is given a seat, a voice and lines of their own on the scorecard.
- 01 · Seats
Every seat filled from the deal.
Quotain builds each stakeholder from your CRM, recorded calls and Knowledge library: their role, what they care about and the question they will ask.
The buying-committee window covers an architecture review with Northwind Health. Three seats are filled from the deal: Marcus Bell, VP Engineering, the technical evaluator, who will ask what leaves the network; Nadia Rahman, Finance Director, the economic buyer, who will ask what it costs once usage doubles; and Theo Lindqvist, Lead for procurement and security, who will ask whether legal can see the DPA first. Those seats are built from the Salesforce opportunity, a Gong discovery call and two documents in Knowledge. - 02 · Call
One call, and everyone talks.
The buyers cut in on each other and follow up on your answers. The engineer keeps asking until an answer runs out.
During the call, Marcus asks what leaves the network, Maya Ilic answers, and Marcus follows up twice. Nadia cuts in to ask about the cost in year two. Theo has yet to speak. - 03 · Score
A score for every seat.
Write criteria for each stakeholder, and the scorecard shows which seat you won and which you lost, with the line behind each.
Once the call ends, each seat has criteria of its own. Marcus met three of three. Nadia met two of three. Theo: none of three, because the DPA and the pen-test summary never received a date. Overall, the call scores 6.4 out of 10.
Built with the teams putting strategy into practice
Sales calls get technical quickly for our team. Quotain lets us rehearse the technical back-and-forth and work through tough questions before we’re in front of a customer.
Alex FleuryCo-Founder Monte
Questions technical sales teams ask before the first committee call.
Can the AI buyer keep up once the call turns technical?
Within the material you give it, yes. Quotain builds each buyer from your playbook, your CRM, recorded calls and the Knowledge library, so an engineer asks about your architecture, integrations and limits in the terms your buyers already use. Where the scorecard evaluates factual claims, Quotain checks what the rep said against your Knowledge library and marks each claim supported, contradicted or unsupported. If a topic is absent from your sources, add the document before you assign the call.
Can reps practise with several stakeholders on one call?
Yes, where you are on a team plan. A multiparty call puts a lead buyer and up to three further stakeholders on the same call, each with their own priorities and voice. They answer when the rep addresses them, follow up on one another and push back from their own side of the deal.
Can reps rehearse the technical demo itself?
Yes. On a team plan, reps can share their screen during a practice call. The buyer sees what is shared and asks about it, so the rep can run the demo against the use cases on the deal before the real one.
How does a sales engineer use Quotain?
A sales engineer runs practice calls of their own, such as technical discovery, the demo, the security review or an architecture deep dive, graded on a scorecard written for that role. Each practice call has one person from your team on it, so the AE and the SE rehearse their own parts of the same deal, separately, against those same buyers.
How does the grading work on a committee call?
On your scorecard, as with any other call. Write criteria for each stakeholder, for example “Answered the engineer's question on failure modes” and “Named the security documents and when they arrive”. Each criterion comes back met or not met, with the moment in the call that earned it.
What happens to our technical documents and our call recordings?
Customer data is scoped to your organisation, encrypted in transit and at rest, and it is not used to train models by default. Quotain does not offer SOC 2 certification or SSO at present. The Trust Centre lists the controls, subprocessors and deletion process your security review will ask for.
Which languages are the buyers able to speak?
AI buyers speak 30+ languages, among them German, Japanese, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese and Arabic. The accent is set for each buyer, or chosen from the company and the buyer context. Run a representative call in each language before that language is rolled out.
What do we need before we begin?
One type of deal to start with. Connect a call recorder such as Gong, Chorus or Fathom, or upload recordings, and add your product and security documents to Knowledge. Quotain builds the buyers from that material, and you review them and the scorecard before reps practise. With a connected calendar, reps can also prepare for the meetings in their week.
Meet the whole committee in practice first
Start for free to see Quotain seat a buying committee from one of your deals, or try our demo now.