Elqo vs Second Nature: Practicing a Conversation vs. Proving You Know the Material

Second Nature is one of the more mature names in AI sales roleplay, founded in Tel Aviv in 2018, now backed by $38 million across two funding rounds, with Fortune 100 customers and a claimed 2,000+ teams worldwide. It is also one of the few competitors in this series that genuinely does voice-based practice. Reviewers specifically mention VoIP and video call recordings, so this comparison needs a different angle than the “Elqo does spoken response and they don’t” framing used elsewhere. That framing would be false here.

The real distinction between these two products is not the input format. It is what is actually being measured.

The core difference

Picture a sales rep getting ready for a big pitch. Second Nature is the practice partner, a realistic simulated buyer they can rehearse the conversation with as many times as they want, who flags when they pitched too early or missed an objection. Elqo is the exam right before the real thing, a check that confirms they actually know the product facts, the compliance requirements, or the policy details well enough to explain them correctly, not just that they can hold a smooth-sounding conversation.

Those are different skills. Someone can be a confident, articulate conversationalist in a roleplay and still get the actual facts wrong. Someone can know the material cold and still be awkward on a live call. Second Nature trains and scores the first thing. Elqo verifies the second.

What each tool does

Second Nature

Second Nature is an AI roleplay platform built around realistic, conversational practice sessions with AI-driven personas. Sales teams can rehearse discovery calls, cold calls, objection handling, product demos, and complaint handling, in 1:1, group, or chat formats, available on any device in 30+ languages according to the company. Admins can build a custom scenario in around 15 minutes per a customer quote on the site, and sessions get embedded into onboarding, certification, and pre-meeting prep. A “Deal Coach” feature extends this into live deals, flagging risk and gaps in real time.

After each session, the platform evaluates performance automatically and surfaces feedback on things like communication and product knowledge, with manager-facing dashboards tracking scores and trends over time. Vendor-reported results include a 34% reduction in ramp time and a 46% increase in average deals closed. Those are company claims, not independently verified. Ask for the evidence in a demo rather than taking them at face value.

Elqo

Elqo is a performance readiness platform. It takes training content that already exists, videos, slides, PDFs, documents, and turns it into a scored assessment, grounded directly against that source material. Learners respond out loud, in writing, or via multiple choice, and Elqo checks whether what they said actually matches the material they were supposed to learn, not whether they handled a simulated conversation smoothly. No scenario has to be scripted, and no roleplay persona has to be configured. Upload what you have and get a live assessment.

Feature comparison

Dimension	Second Nature	Elqo
Core category	AI roleplay for conversational skill practice	Comprehension assessment grounded in specific source material
What’s actually measured	Conversational performance: tone, objection handling, pitch structure	Whether a response matches the content of the source material
Input format	Voice (VoIP) and chat/text, confirmed by reviewers	Spoken, typed, or multiple choice
Setup	Build a custom scenario/persona (about 15 min per vendor example)	Upload existing content, no scenario building required
Live deal support	Yes, “Deal Coach” flags risk on real deals	Not a stated focus
Founded	2018	Recent
Funding	$38M across two rounds	Not publicly disclosed
Team size	About 45 employees	Small, not publicly disclosed
Customer base	2,000+ teams claimed, Fortune 100 customers	Not publicly disclosed
Public reviews	Limited, 4 reviews on Capterra (5.0 average, two from 2021)	Limited, early-stage
Security certification	Not evidenced in this research	Not evidenced
Pricing	Not public, demo/quote-gated	Published tiers, $3,000–$12,000 AUD/year for 1–500 users

Who each is actually right for

Second Nature makes the most sense for a sales team that needs reps to get comfortable handling live conversations, pitching confidently, recovering from objections, reading a buyer, before they are in front of a real prospect. If the risk you are managing is “will this rep freeze up or fumble the conversation,” roleplay practice against a realistic AI persona is the right tool, and Second Nature has a genuine head start here with years of iteration and a large claimed customer base.

Elqo makes more sense when the risk you are managing is different: “does this person actually know the thing they are supposed to know.” A rep can be smooth and confident in a roleplay and still misstate a compliance requirement or get a product detail wrong in a way that creates real liability. Elqo is built to catch that failure mode, grounded checking against your actual source material, not a generic conversational score.

Pricing

Neither publishes a full public rate card on the marketing site. Second Nature’s $38 million in funding, roughly 45-person team, and enterprise customer base point toward a sales-led, likely higher-touch pricing motion, consistent with its “Explore Enterprise” call to action. Elqo’s published tiers, $3,000 to $12,000 AUD per year covering 1 to 500 users, are a smaller commitment. See Elqo pricing.

Can you use both?

Yes, and these fit together better than most pairs in this series, because they are not really solving the same problem. A team could use Second Nature to get reps comfortable and confident handling live conversations, and use Elqo to separately verify they actually know the product facts, compliance details, or policy content they need to get right regardless of how the conversation goes. One builds conversational skill. The other proves content comprehension. Neither replaces the other.

The verdict

1. If the failure mode you are worried about is a rep freezing up or fumbling a live conversation, Second Nature’s realistic roleplay practice is purpose-built for that, and it has real maturity behind it.
2. If the failure mode you are worried about is a rep confidently saying something wrong, that is Elqo’s reason for existing. Conversational polish does not catch a factual error. Grounded scoring against source material does.
3. If you want voice-based practice specifically, do not assume Elqo is the only option here. Second Nature genuinely offers that too. The question to ask in a demo is what is being measured, not just what input format is supported.
4. If budget and setup speed matter, Elqo’s published pricing and no-scenario-building setup is the faster, lower-commitment starting point.
5. If you are already running roleplay practice somewhere else, including Second Nature, Elqo does not compete with that investment. It answers a different, narrower question about the same team.

Second Nature trains people to handle the conversation. Elqo proves they know what they are talking about. Most teams that take training seriously eventually need both. Do not confuse one for doing the other’s job.

Sources

• Second Nature product page
• Second Nature reviews on Capterra
• Second Nature (AI Company) on Wikipedia

Frequently asked questions

Does Second Nature already do voice practice?
Yes. Reviewers mention VoIP and video call recordings. The difference is not the input format. Second Nature scores conversational performance. Elqo checks whether a response matches the source material.

Can a team use Elqo and Second Nature together?
Yes. Second Nature gets reps comfortable handling live conversations. Elqo separately verifies they know the product facts, compliance details, or policy content they need to get right.

Which one publishes pricing?
Elqo publishes tiers from $3,000 to $12,000 AUD per year for 1 to 500 users. Second Nature’s pricing is not public and is demo-gated.