{"id":1973,"date":"2015-10-08T15:02:02","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T15:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.digitek.com\/?p=1973"},"modified":"2019-06-12T15:04:05","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T19:04:05","slug":"is-your-business-sales-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arli.com\/is-your-business-sales-ready\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Your Business \u201cSales Ready\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=&#8221;in_container&#8221; full_screen_row_position=&#8221;middle&#8221; scene_position=&#8221;center&#8221; text_color=&#8221;dark&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; overlay_strength=&#8221;0.3&#8243; shape_divider_position=&#8221;bottom&#8221; bg_image_animation=&#8221;none&#8221;][vc_column column_padding=&#8221;no-extra-padding&#8221; column_padding_position=&#8221;all&#8221; background_color_opacity=&#8221;1&#8243; background_hover_color_opacity=&#8221;1&#8243; column_link_target=&#8221;_self&#8221; column_shadow=&#8221;none&#8221; column_border_radius=&#8221;none&#8221; width=&#8221;1\/1&#8243; tablet_width_inherit=&#8221;default&#8221; tablet_text_alignment=&#8221;default&#8221; phone_text_alignment=&#8221;default&#8221; column_border_width=&#8221;none&#8221; column_border_style=&#8221;solid&#8221; bg_image_animation=&#8221;none&#8221;][vc_column_text]\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">You had to take a driving test before you could drive your parent\u2019s car. You had to pass an exam to get a passing grade in school. But do you have a minimum competency level that\u2019s mandatory for each of your salespeople to be considered \u201csales ready\u201d?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Are they ready to book enough appointments? Ready to handle the objections you know they will hear from customers on a regular basis? Ready to tell your company\u2019s unique value proposition the way you expect when a sales opportunity arises?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If your front lines are not sales ready, you may be relying too heavily on wishful thinking\u00a0and\u00a0the vendor promo of the month and not enough on the ability of your people to create a compelling business offer that wins you the business.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Only you really know if all your people are sales ready.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>\u201c90% of sales organizations have no means to test for critical sales competencies.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sales Performance Coach and president of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.selltowin.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">selltowin.com<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.selltowin.com\/meet-the-coach\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rick Lambert<\/a> says that \u201c90% of sales organizations have no means to test for critical sales competencies that drive success\u201d. He adds\u00a0that unlike technical certifications or accreditations required in so many fields, the sales capabilities of most companies are only measured by the revenue and profit they produce.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>The Problem<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Most companies have lost sight of the importance of teaching, practicing and developing selling skills in stride with the way their customers are evolving. The plethora of \u201cproduct training\u201d that has camouflaged itself as sales training continues to pollute sales meetings and conferences rather than focusing on the skills needed to attract and retain today\u2019s educated buyer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>The Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Test your reps\u2019 readiness by presenting them with real world scenarios within your everyday sales cycle. Actual real world situations are always best to use as your measuring stick of sales readiness.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Here are two quick ways to measure your sales readiness early in the sales cycle:<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Prospecting Test:<\/strong>\u00a0Rather than spend another sales meeting reviewing everyone\u2019s prospect funnel, ask each of your reps to role play with you to show you the talk track they are using to book appointments for face-to-face or online meetings. Is there enough \u201cbait\u201d for the fish to bite your hook? To prove your point, ask sales reps to leave you a voicemail and play them back in a sales meeting for all to hear; let them decide what they would think if they were a customer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Elevator Pitch Test:<\/strong>\u00a0In a simulated chance-meeting role-play, ask your sales reps to explain what your company\u00a0does.\u00a0Listen and see if their dialogue is product-focused or if it\u2019s more customer-centric\u00a0and benefit focused. Do they reference any successes or business outcomes the customer would enjoy by engaging your company? Did they ask you any questions? If they plowed you over with a barrage of information, chances are they are doing this with customers too.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>The Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If you believe that high activity levels will drive stronger sales results, then hopefully you also agree that the quality of each activity is critical to moving your sales needle. It\u2019s like a bald tire spinning on ice and snow; you may be getting the revolutions you think you need (the sales activities), but without the appropriate rubber meeting the road (the skill to produce a quality sales activity), you may not really be moving ahead as quickly as you\u2019d like.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Do you need help with your selling skills? Check out our new<a href=\"\/partner-pro-growth-services\/\">\u00a0Partner Pro Sales Training Platform<\/a>, custom built to make sure you and your people are \u201csales ready\u201d regardless of what you\u2019re selling!<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row type=&#8221;in_container&#8221; full_screen_row_position=&#8221;middle&#8221; scene_position=&#8221;center&#8221; text_color=&#8221;dark&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; overlay_strength=&#8221;0.3&#8243; shape_divider_position=&#8221;bottom&#8221; bg_image_animation=&#8221;none&#8221;][vc_column column_padding=&#8221;no-extra-padding&#8221; column_padding_position=&#8221;all&#8221; background_color_opacity=&#8221;1&#8243; background_hover_color_opacity=&#8221;1&#8243; column_link_target=&#8221;_self&#8221; column_shadow=&#8221;none&#8221; column_border_radius=&#8221;none&#8221; width=&#8221;1\/1&#8243; tablet_width_inherit=&#8221;default&#8221; tablet_text_alignment=&#8221;default&#8221; phone_text_alignment=&#8221;default&#8221; column_border_width=&#8221;none&#8221; column_border_style=&#8221;solid&#8221; bg_image_animation=&#8221;none&#8221;][vc_column_text] You had to take a driving test&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[30,31,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-1973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news-and-events","8":"category-our-blog","9":"tag-partner-pro-sales-training","10":"tag-sales-ready","11":"tag-selling-skills"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Being A &quot;Sales Ready&quot; Business | Digitek Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"MPS providers, imaging product resellers, &amp; MSP\/IT VAR struggling with sales readiness, following these training recommendations to prepare your employees.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arli.com\/is-your-business-sales-ready\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Being A &quot;Sales Ready&quot; Business | Digitek Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MPS providers, imaging product resellers, &amp; MSP\/IT VAR struggling with sales readiness, following these training recommendations to prepare your employees.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arli.com\/is-your-business-sales-ready\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ARLINGTON\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arlingtonindustries\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-10-08T15:02:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-12T19:04:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Vic B.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ArliDotCom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ArliDotCom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Vic B.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arli.com\\\/is-your-business-sales-ready\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arli.com\\\/is-your-business-sales-ready\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Vic B.\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arli.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/78990151233c764576006ce45a8a5269\"},\"headline\":\"Is Your Business \u201cSales Ready\u201d?\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-10-08T15:02:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-12T19:04:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arli.com\\\/is-your-business-sales-ready\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":703,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arli.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arli.com\\\/is-your-business-sales-ready\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"keywords\":[\"Partner Pro Sales Training\",\"Sales ready\",\"Selling skills\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News &amp; 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