Practice a Call: Learn Backdrop With Mike, Then Sell to Rachel
Two AI practice partners. Mike gives you a short guided tour of the live panel, and Rachel plays a tough buyer so you can rehearse a real discovery call.
A practice call is a real Backdrop call, but the person on the other end is an AI. Backdrop records it, and everything a live call does still happens: the transcript, the goals bar, the chat, and the write-up when you hang up. You can practice with two people:
- Mike gives you a guided tour of the live panel, then hands you over to Rachel. Start with Mike if you're new.
- Rachel plays a tougher buyer. There's no tour, just a discovery call to run your own way.
Before you start
Put on headphones. Backdrop suggests them when your practice partner joins, and they keep that voice out of your microphone. Backdrop also needs the microphone and system-audio access it uses on a real call. If you haven't recorded before, your computer asks for both. You don't need a meeting on your calendar or a conferencing app open, because the whole call happens inside Backdrop.
Choose who to practice with
Click Practice a call in the sidebar, right under Home.
Backdrop asks Who do you want to practice with? Pick a card, then click Start with Mike or Start with Rachel.
Three other buttons go straight to Mike and skip the choice:
The Finish setting up checklist on Home opens with Take the tour with Mike. It's a required step. Click Call Mike.
Once you start, Backdrop switches to the live panel and begins recording. A notice reads Mike Johnson is joining as your buyer. Headphones work best. (or Rachel Moore), and a moment later your practice partner starts talking.
Mike: a guided tour
Mike is your guide for the first part of the call. He walks you through the live panel one part at a time and highlights each part as he talks about it. The tour takes about four minutes.
The chat. At the bottom of the panel, type any question during a call and the answer shows up right above it. Mike asks you to try a ready-made question such as What should I ask?
The goals bar. Each sign is one thing you want to cover on the call, and Backdrop follows it on its own. Your first goal, Small talk, is already there. Red means it hasn't come up yet, not that you did something wrong.
The goal card. Hover over a goal to open its card. The big line on top suggests what to ask next, a tick marks something the call already covered, and an exclamation mark shows what's still missing. Mike then plays the buyer for a moment of small talk so you can watch the card change.
Your own goal. In the chat, type Track followed by what you want to find out, for example Track their budget. The new goal appears on the bar.
At the end, Mike asks if you have questions and offers to go over any part again. Then he asks whether you want to practice with Rachel. Say yes and he hands the call to her, so you don't have to start over. Say no and Mike says goodbye and ends the call.
Say next, go back, or repeat at any point to move through the tour.
Leaving your first tour
The first time you take the tour, stopping the call early asks you to stay. Stay with Mike keeps the tour going, and Leave anyway ends the call. The checklist step stays open until you finish a tour.
Rachel: a tough buyer
Rachel is Rachel Moore at Contoso. Contoso is made up, but it's the kind of company you sell to, and Rachel has the title of the person who usually buys what you sell. From her first line, it's your discovery call.
- Rachel knows your company. What you sell and who you are come from the same sales hub that powers Backdrop's answers.
- Rachel makes you earn it. She has a real problem your product could solve, along with what it costs today, the budget, the timeline, who signs off, how she'll decide, and another option she's looking at. A vague question gets a vague answer, and she never brings up the budget, who signs off, or how she'll decide unless you ask.
- Rachel pushes back. Expect one pointed question about how your product works (pricing, security, or an integration) and at least two objections, such as price, timing, or the effort to switch. A generic answer doesn't settle one.
- Rachel wants to talk about her problem. Pitch too long without asking about her situation and she gets impatient.
- Rachel keeps it short. A sentence or two per turn, like a busy buyer on a work call.
- You close the call. Rachel waits for you to wrap up, says goodbye, and then hangs up. That ends the recording.
Stuck on how the app works? Ask Rachel, for example what does the goals bar do? She steps out of character to answer in a sentence or two, then says Back to the call and picks up where you left off.
What to try with Rachel
Watch the goals bar. The goals that stay red are what you haven't covered yet, so let them pick your next question.
Hover over a goal and use the suggestion on its card when you're not sure what to ask next.
When Rachel asks a product question or pushes back, type it into the chat and answer from what comes back.
During a Call covers the live panel in full.
Language
Mike and Rachel both open in English, then answer in whatever language you speak to them in, or ask them for. The transcript follows the language on its own.
After the call
A practice call is saved like any other, under Recent calls on Home, with the summary, the goal scores, and a draft follow-up email. There's no separate practice score: the call is graded the same way a real one is. See After a Call.
When your first tour with Mike ends, Backdrop asks you to pick your call goals, the goals it tracks on your real calls. Finishing the tour also ticks Take the tour with Mike in the setup checklist.
If your practice partner doesn't join
Two messages can appear instead of a voice.
Your practice buyer couldn't join. Try again in a minute. Backdrop couldn't connect them. Click stop, wait a minute, and start a new practice call. Mike and Rachel learn about your company from your sales hub, so they can't join until setup has finished building it.
Your practice buyer dropped. End the call and try again. The connection failed partway through. Click stop and start a fresh practice call.
If they're connected but you can't hear anything, check that your headphones are your computer's selected sound output. Practice calls play through whatever output your computer is set to use.
If it keeps happening, use Chat with us at the bottom of this page.
Next step
Ready for the real thing? Before a Call walks through the Prep page you'll read in the minutes before it starts.
Connect your calendar
Skipped the calendar step during setup, or need to switch calendars? Connect Google Calendar or Outlook to Backdrop any time from Home or Settings.
Before a call
Backdrop's Prep page gathers where the deal stands, the company, its numbers, who's coming, and an opening talk track, so you can read the account before a call.