awarthon

Author: Priyanka Phadke

  • Remote Selling Masterclass Part 2: Mastering your Sales Process.

    Remote Selling Masterclass Part 2: Mastering your Sales Process.

    In part 1 of the series, we talked about the key fundamentals for staying ready so you don’t have to get ready to sell and win remotely! In part two “Mastering Your Sales Process” we will share the best sales process setup and management that Linehan Group and Awarathon are seeing work best in the fast-changing world of Outbound! 

    Win your morning win the day – make your morning rituals a key part of your sales process. 

    Your morning routine has an incredible impact on how your day unfolds. As Stephen Covey says “Management works in the system leadership works on the system.” Getting your morning ritual optimized is a critical first step in your macro process. We start here because the self-discipline and leadership in managing your time is a critical element of moving through the sales process. Here is what we see works best. 

    1. The best morning routines begin the night before. Developing a list of objectives helps get the morning off to a fast, organized, and effective start. Pulling together your plan at 8 am means your competitors already have a head start on you. 
    2. In the morning, put your body and mind before your screens. Flush your system with lemon and water. Meditate, pray, or whatever works best for you to slow down before you speed up. Work out if that’s your way of refreshing the mind for the gift of a new day. 
    3. Eat a good breakfast every morning: Breakfast is the key meal of the day and can set you up for success. 
    4. Read an inspiring and innovative sales or business book / watch a powerful speaker in your industry and take that knowledge into the field to lean on and share to build relationships. These high-value conversation pieces pay dividends on calls and in meetings to show you have your finger on the pulse and should be viewed as a valued and trusted expert. 
    5. Review your plan for the day within your CRM, visualize success in meetings and on scheduled calls. Play the movie of those calls and meetings in your head, live into the best outcomes by visualizing how you will get there and what that win will feel like. 
    6. Challenge yourself to at least 2 out of the box creative type of outreach every day. Whether it’s a personal fed ex package or invitation to an event to a potential client, 104 clever, outstanding outreach activities a year will guarantee more deals. 
    7. Select 3 – 6 sales training topics to review that you can bring into your day as your key skills to develop. The best companies we work with have training refreshing before they pick up a phone! 
    8. If you have morning team meetings/sales huddles keep them brief. They are invaluable rituals to get clear on the mission for the day, to lift team focus and energy, and to train and prepare for specific big pitches. They should be skillfully prepared by the sales leader to be high value, a low time investment. 
    9. Engage your CRM. If your CRM has been carefully selected and optimized, it will make your workflow and time management a breeze. 
    10. We train our teams to use the first 10 minutes of every day to confirm all meetings on the calendar. The clients we are speaking to are busy and often things come up unexpectedly; it is critical to confirm the day ahead. 
    11. Tackle the hardest or important tasks of the day first. This makes you feel productive out of the gate, sets the tone for the day, and puts you in the right mindset.
    12. If you are in outbound sales the phone is your best friend. Allocate time slots where no one comes between you and it. We encourage uninterrupted blocks of time in the morning and afternoon to smile while you dial. We encourage scheduled, united, standing “power hours” to elevate the energy in the room and to encourage a sense of team unity in the trenches! Have conversation targets not just call targets within those blocks. “My goal is to make 60 dials have 12 conversations 3 quality conversations with next steps.” 
    13. Allocate a block of time before peak business or after peak business for lead sourcing and marketing aligned omnichannel outreach through your CRM, Linked in Navigator, DiscoverOrg, Crunch Base, and other lead sourcing and data tools. 

    Optimizing your sales process 

    Create – Document – Execute – Feedback – Measure – Improve. 

    Whether you are selling in the field, selling in the office, selling from home or even your gym you need a process. 

    Having a solid step by step, go to market plan on an individual, team and company basis is the most critical building block of business development. Great companies have created an optimal AI sales process, specifically designed for the type of market they are in and the type of product or service they sell. 

    Beyond price and product/service type, lead time decision-maker level, buyer persona, and ideal specific buyer journey need to be considered. 

    The sales team leader must set up a best-fit process. One that can be measured and improved. An important question to ask is: “have you or your sales leader thoroughly audited and maximized your sales process’s effectiveness and considered any changes that are needed because of a move to remote working.” 

    Here’s how to do it: 

    1. Evaluate the current process and why it is the way it is. 
    2. Keep the sales process to 5 / 6 stages maximum. 
    3. Develop each area from the top of the funnel to closed-won / closed lost. What are the entry and exit criteria for each stage in the funnel? 
    4. Ask; how will clients’ “best case” and “worse case” enter and exit the funnel? 5. Know your BATNAs (Best alternatives to a negotiated agreement). 
    5. Source information on why you or your team structure the calls the way they do currently? Explore the benefits and disadvantages of that – then test measure and improve. 
    6. Ensure a document crystal-clear optimized approach and establish regular training based on a constant feedback loop. 
    7. Feedback loops should be constant using the CRM, chat tools, and training sessions. 9. Get buy-in on every metric, for example, “Why do you need to have ten conversations a day, how many new opportunities does that guarantee? How many opportunities do you need daily, weekly, quarterly, and annually to hit your targets, maximize your earning potential and live the life you want! 
    8. See how much can be automated for effectiveness but do not over-rely on automation. Remember, sales is conversations and commitments it is People — stories — momentum. 
    9. Get fluent in how your partner teams fit into and impact the agreed stages, from marketing and social media to channel partnerships and account management. Always ask how these channels can accelerate your momentum and results of moving from one stage to the next and optimizing spend and contract length. 

    Remote tip! – Over-communicate and stay engaged. 

    As a remote salesperson, you can easily begin to feel isolated or siloed. This is not conducive to authentically enthusiastic outreach. Remember, as Ivern Ball said, “knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch”. Use video and chat apps like Slack to call your “sales counterparts” for inspiration and sharing of great conversations or wins outside of block booked client call slots. 

    Putting more emphasis on regular communication will ensure you and your entire team are updated on company wins and developments you can use to influence deals. It allows you to stay united and help each other when necessary. 

    Reach out and connect with friends and contacts in other industries and parts of the world to refresh perspective and to zoom out to 30000 feet before you zoom back into a surgical approach to selling. 

    Removing randomness from your sales process 

    When we think of a AI sales process, we want to understand it from the perspective of our internal identification of where the client is in the sales cycle. It does however help to align that with where the client or customer is in the buyer journey. 

    Different companies use different stages and % closed indicators for forecasting. CRMs like Hubspot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, etc. allow for very tailored sales stage set up and forecasting. 

    At Linehan Group we use Unaware – Aware – Understand – Believe – Act to determine where our potential customers are in getting to a place where they are ready to act, sign a service agreement. 

    Contact 

    Step one in the traditional AI sales process is always identifying your ideal buyer or client. Knowing who the right people are to call and pitch and organizing that outreach is your starting point. In some cases, it is a group of titles within a group of companies and industries who we know to influence the decision. For example, Marketing Directors and Finance Directors in FMCG companies. In some cases, it’s one person, Head of HR for learning and development budgets for example. Many companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on buyer persona research projects to make sure they have identified and understood the “ideal client”. Many sales units now have sophisticated lead generation software like our partner White Rabbit which seamlessly aligns with the marketing team’s processes to identify and target the “right people”. The known universe of potential buyers must be identified, prioritized, organized, and engaged through a combined, omnichannel marketing and AI sales process to have the best results. 

    Qualification 

    As mentioned above the more nurtured and qualified a lead is the better for your momentum and control over next steps in the sales proves. However the lead arrives you must still continuously qualify that lead. This is the part of the process that ensures the person you are speaking to has the budget, authority, need for what you re offering and that the timing is right. Linehan Group offers training on pitch development to ensure you know what to say and how to say it at every stage in the pitch to ensure your clients are moving forward in a committed way at each stage of their buying journey; message us directly to improve your pitch now. 

    Meeting/call preparation and management 

    1. Share videos, case studies, overviews, white papers, etc. with your ideas in advance. 2. Use “pitch to win” prep tools for virtual meetings. 
    2. Send agenda, video, and screen expectations. 
    3. Make instructions crystal clear for how to join; use one-touch mobile dial-ins. 5. Do deep-dive due diligence. Research and know what is going on in the buyer’s world. 6. Follow the pre-meeting tech checklist, so all tech is ready to go (video, webcam, audio, bandwidth, office scene, lighting, recordings, screens, files prepared to share, etc.
    4. Record for training: Ask for permission. 
    5. Open strong with rapport, story, momentum, and wow engagement; be immediately buyer-focused.
    6. Mechanics of open: Review agenda, note tech options (e.g., virtual whiteboard), review timing, ask what buyers want out of the meeting. 
    7. Collaborate: Involve the buyer; use virtual whiteboards and ask questions to generate discussion and get buy-in. 
    8. Check-in: Ask periodically if people are getting what they expect. 
    9. Mechanics of close: Know when you will wrap, check-in with enough time before the wrap to ask perception questions (e.g., Did you get what you hoped for? Did we miss anything?) 
    10. Close with the next step: Book the next meeting on the call. 
    11. Follow up with a written summary and sequence of events. 

    World-class call planning guarantees more productive customer meetings, increased credibility, a shortened sales cycle, and increased sales results. Using an efficient methodology for call planning helps to ensure that each customer call advances the sale. Set unambiguous call objectives, anticipate customer needs, identify potential value, prepare, Keep in mind your clients are also going through big changes and uncertainty. It’s never been more important to sell from your heart. Its also never been more important to ask questions through a world class consultative, diagnostic process. Even the most basic assumptions can no longer be made. As well as selling empathically, there is a great opportunity for hero selling. 

    Companies don’t just need more understanding they need cutting-edge interventions to survive and thrive through this uniquely challenging time in history. Salespeople solve problems, and solutions are at an extreme premium in a time of crisis. By getting organized, by getting clear on how you can help your clients by getting disciplined and proactive to execute product and service delivery beyond your client’s expectations, you will help your industry. You also help their industry and the economy at large. You will be using your unique skills and powers to help the world not just make a comeback but to make a leap forward and get in front of objections and visualize the call flow based on role-plays and previous live calls of the same type. This is another reason why you must get your conversations up to sharpen the axe that cuts through dead air and defensive or hostile target objections. 

    To recap:

    1. Your AI sales process starts with your preparation and organization. If you are not in the right mindset with an aggressive activity plan, no tools or process will magically get you the results you need to hit your target. Regimented, rituals are the key to unlocking consistent success in the AI sales process. 
    2. Review every element of your current process to expose the gaps, leaks and inefficiencies to be addressed and improved on. 
    3. Remove randomness from language. Understand the customer journeys and how it synchronizes with the internal AI sales process. 
    4. Know who you want to engage, and how. 
    5. Don’t waste time on non-buyers or non-deal influencers. 
    6. Execute world-class call and meeting preparation so every touchpoint is a “WOW” moment for your potential client.

     

  • Components of a Sales Readiness Platform: Automating the Last Mile of the Front Office

    Components of a Sales Readiness Platform: Automating the Last Mile of the Front Office

    This blog article will be covering the various components of a sales readiness platform. Many of the technologies emphasize marketing automation functions or sales processes like sales activity management, CRM, forecasting, customer management, and many more. These are crafted to improve the marketing capability to connect with the buyers or the sales reps’ productivity, effectiveness, and data quality in the back office. It is where sales readiness software comes into the frame as it provides an all-rounder essential set of features required for your sales team to level up. Get a free demo to learn more about the sales readiness platform. Our feature offerings to overcome your business challenges. 

    The Sales Tools 

    Although there is the availability of such tools, one area that remains untouched is the improvising in-person interactions between companies and clients. Usually, all client-facing teams must have the required knowledge, skills, and positivity to provide an interactive customer experience. As every organization prioritizes making things happen toward their business objectives, readiness actions have the majority divided and siloed. The sales teams are equipped with all the required content, tools, and advice from their sales managers/ leaders/ heads to effectively sell. The R&D departments primarily emphasize the overall growth of the organization as a whole. 

    However many companies still lack ways of periodic, scalable, and repeatable work approaches to prepare and access employees who face customers. There is no structured approach to automate and simplify things required to enhance customer engagement productivity. This is where a sales readiness platform is involved. As it provides sales reps to better utilize sales enablement and material for automating frontline officers. 

    As we all know, some organizations invest a considerable amount in their sales coaching programs to train their sales executives. It is also essential to test their performance and skills by doing a mock before facing the buyers. Therefore, sales readiness software comes in handy for your post-training performance check. 

    Sales Readiness Platform: Data-Driven, Automated Capabilities Evaluation 

    A Sales Readiness platform aims to assess how competent a customer-facing representative is. To engage a client or prospect and drive the discussion towards a particular consequence. So, in the same way, getting solutions to problems of what a sales rep can pitch and sell; practices to be appealing and deliver an excellent customer experience during the buying journey. 

    Data is the foundation of any top sales readiness program 

    A data-driven Sales Readiness platform enables the aggregation of measured abilities and competencies that best connect with sales performance and venture metrics and are most important to an organization. Those become an organization’s “capability structure” that can be utilized to recognize experience and information gaps and drive remediation through education, training, and coaching. Through this data, companies can optimize their readiness expenses and build role-specific readiness content, training, and coaching plans that map back to the framework. Then the platform helps evaluate the impact of those plans to inform constant development plans. 

    We will now be covering the various components of a sales readiness software, also known as a sales readiness platform. Let’s begin. 

    Components of a Sales Readiness Platform 

    When evaluating a sales readiness platform that aligns with data and an insight-driven approach. It is vital to keep in mind the following pointers. So let us take a deep dive into what factors form the essential components of a sales readiness platform. 

    The Delivery of Content 

    Cloud and web-based solutions with mobile abilities are essential. To adopt as the mobile workforce takes hold. Due to the new standard sales executives work remotely at a distance. Hence, they should consume content remotely with ease at their requirements from their respective devices. 

    The ongoing learning activity 

    Different sales executives have different ways to learn and adapt things. Hence, the provision of continuing knowledge is performed in various forms. It includes videos, graphics, documents, podcasts, etc. So, searching for solutions to cater the range from video to podcast and video roleplay to presentation. 

    Coaching on the Field 

    The sales executives or the sales team often look for solutions. The strategies to assist live coaching led by coaches. Online and customized coaching allows sales managers to observe, conduct, and capture one-on-one interactions. Recording the sessions helps to revisit them and find knowledge gaps, skill gaps, and presentation gaps. For further improvement, enabling the sales teams to scale up their efforts. A good sales training session should make use of data collected from various lectures conducted. To verify sales managers are teaching effectively & the sales executives continue to improve. Real-time reporting assists managers in enabling leadership to get better insights into the coaching program. 

    Use-case Features

    The sales readiness software should enable auto-assign for new users/ employees to the appropriate readiness paths. Apart from just the long-format content/ course, microlearning should also be considered. So that the content is grasped in the form of new learning material & is easily understood by the sales executives. Post which conducting assessments in the form of a quiz, MCQ must check competency gaps. The technology used in the sales readiness software must identify gaps with the sales executives’ suggestions. To learn and practice again until perfection. Generally, the sales readiness platform also includes – interactive gamification, scenario-based questions, critical objection handling, robust reporting, and detailed scorecards. The sales executives must explore it in detail for their learning and practice. 

    Video Roleplay 

    A sales readiness software should propose remote roleplay & stimulated sales scenes for their sales executives to enhance their sales process. The video roleplay is a powerful tool when it comes to practicing, preparing, and performing. When it comes to Awarathon, we are the experts in providing this feature in the sales readiness platform. Video roleplay is one of the primary features used by our Awarathon platform. The various mediums and platforms the sales executives can utilize to prepare themselves through practice using the sales readiness software. A Sales Readiness platform should assist in skill growth for each of these kinds of engagements. 

    The Ecosystem 

    The sales enablement sessions cannot operate in isolation. Hence, it is essential to factor in data availability. As the content might be exchanged with other systems and tech solutions. The objective is to consolidate separated solutions around the same set of interconnected enterprises, marketing, and operations functions. The right set of API, data sources, integration policies, migration rules, setup guides, and so on. 

    Finishing it up 

    Measuring, forecasting, and executing the success of a sales enablement program can be a tedious task when it comes to evaluating the ROI aspect of a sales readiness platform. It is equally important to consider brand perception, revenue matrices, and brand value. As most companies aim high for customer experience and engagement at the top of their pyramid, sales readiness is a more critical part of the sales enablement strategy. When provided with the knowledge and skills required, the client-facing representatives are positive and prepared for fruitful and engaging interactions with clients, which interprets more closed deals, larger deal sizes, and, ultimately, more significant business growth. 

    Explore more about Awarathon and our dashboard, request a demo here!

  • Sales Technology Training Predictions

    Sales Technology Training Predictions

    Awarathon helps you deliver the perfect sales pitch online and is one of the best online sales readiness platform. The way to provide an ideal sales pitch online consists of 5 key elements – Knowledge, Body language, Objection handling, Pace, and Modulation which is perfectly done for us. This makes us one of the best showpad alternatives. 

    Awarathon’s AI-enabled training framework deeply assesses each of these parameters to provide actionable roadmaps to mentors and managers. Whether you need granular or big-picture insights — we’ve got you covered. Learn more about our product details in the link here – http://awarathon.com/product/ Our core feature offerings and relevant functionalities for sales teams. Hence, we call our brand showpad alternatives. 

    Let’s begin with today’s blog article, which talks about the sales tech training predictions. Good organizations have adopted the new working method by providing their employees with the required skills to upgrade themselves to the new standard of working remotely (working from home). 

    Well, this shift isn’t that easy as it requires a change in mindset too. 

    It should be coupled with a learning team that will help understand the team’s problems, and core issues and solve them with the right technology and content. This approach will help others stay motivated and help them face new challenges the work scenarios throw at them. 

    He has made a list of pointers for the Sales tech predictions for us to know. So, let’s begin one by one by taking a deep dive into each of the parameters mentioned in today’s blog. 

    1. On-Demand Training Resources 
    2. Growing Preference for Video 
    3. The Change of Devices 
    4. Daily functions with AI 
    5. Evolution to the Niche 
    6. The wave in content generated by the Sales team 

    On-demand Training Resources 

    With the increase in smart devices and video access, content creation and consumption has increased. Be it business, entertainment, tutorial, learning, or anything else. 

    Today, both customers and salespeople expect immediate access to information and the ability to communicate in real time. To meet these requirements, companies must adopt a complete platform for online sales-readiness. To ensure your sales reps can effectively deliver a perfect sales pitch online. 

    Growing preference for Video 

    Video is the new trend. Be it work or learning a skill. Learning through videos is always welcomed as it saves time, generates interest, and helps fast grasping, and memorize things better than reading long-form documents and brochures.

    So, organizations must make the most of video learning and assessment tools in their online sales readiness platform. It will assist their sales team as well in delivering perfect sales pitches online efficiently. 

    So, we predict increased importance for this modern learning – video training over the years. The more we connect online for sharing content, reading notes, understanding brands, and requesting demos. The better we grow as a business understand the role of technology in daily work. 

    The change of devices 

    The more accessible devices, the more they use. It includes our mobile phones, laptops, tablets, etc. It gives us the liberty to access things that are a tap away and get the required work done with ease at our convenience. Therefore, more and more organizations are adopting online sales-readiness platforms to improve their sales performance. 

    Professionals are switching from laptops to mobile devices due to the very reason of its accessibility. The more they use it, the more it will help them access the required content on the go, capture information, share it with peers, and make additional notes where required. 

    Daily functions with Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

    After years of research, AI plays a vital role in various domains, and the same is true for automating sales functions. AI powers the data to help organizations gain better insights, personalize the process, and automate necessary work and benchmarks based on the previous quota achieved. It is through AI, which allows sales reps to deliver perfect sales pitches online. It creates a video roleplay environment and later provides you with a scorecard of your pitch’s performance. Hence, the AI’s role in the sales process, mainly in the online sales readiness platform, is crucial. 

    Evolution to the Niche 

    The rise of customization and personalization across various domains has initiated the development of niche solutions for technology. Because technology is coming up with targeted answers to business problems, companies, and their staff will require highly relevant solutions specific to their business. 

    This approach will help meet sales strategies and improve training programs powered by peer-to-peer collaborations and agile learning. The wave in content generated by the Sales team 

    In today’s changing times, the working staff is exposed to new scenarios. Hence they require new methods to capture their learning. The document of knowledge can be done through Video as mobile is the go-to device nowadays. Therefore, we see that sales reps rely more on their smartphones to capture and share sales information due to their ease of use. 

    Capturing real-life examples and stories can reach and impact teams across the domain, allowing all to create a learning experience. All thanks to the mobile video feature for helping us in capturing what matters. Hence, we should expect that the sales team management take practical actions in content creation for sales enablement by gathering the data in various forms to benefit the company. 

    Transformation in the Sales Profession 

    Unline, like any other industry’s sales domain, is also going through a transformation led by technological advancements. Imagine the value addition and benefits this has brought to your sales team. It includes right from the sales process to become streamlined to deliver perfect sales pitches online. 

    Many firms opt for an online sales readiness platform. By shifting their work process and mindset to a digital way. It is because no matter how difficult this shift would be as of now, it is undoubtedly going to yield long-term benefits. It will save a lot of their costs on training and coaching for their teams for many organizations. Offering all these features with ease at affordable pricing enables us to be the best showpad alternatives. 

    The next is here – Showpad Alternatives 

    Awarathon is one of the best Showpad alternatives as it provides a robust and secured platform for post-sales training. We enable sales teams with the right technology to deliver expected outcomes. Understanding core business problems and providing solutions to them has become the need of an hour. Upskilling, training, learning, motivating, managing, and tracking employees’ performance is a challenge many organizations with the sales team face today. Solution and data-driven tools in the market focus on particular issues leaving all your worries on the AI and focusing on your core business goals. 

    As the sales industry’s work role continues to evolve, the sales readiness technology will also include those parameters through technology for your service. However, enabling you to focus on what matters the most and leave the rest automated with better tracking, management, and reporting systems a click away. 

  • The role of Sales Coaching Scorecard in Coachable context

    The role of Sales Coaching Scorecard in Coachable context

    Sales Coaching Scorecard 

    Before we begin this blog article on Sales coaching scorecards. A quick brief about us – Awarathon. Awarathon is a competitor to Mindtickle and Brainshark. It is a complete sales readiness platform that comes with top-class and relevant feature offerings. To solve modern-day business problems when it comes to sales. 

    Sales-oriented organizations were sales operations, contributing the majority of the work. The challenge faced by sales managers is not about data but how to manage the data. But how to make the most in terms of regulating it as an integral part of your sales process. As there is no backup team. To manage the data, evaluate it, and provide the sales team with an insight to perform better. It is a vital problem that the organization must address to improve sales and achieve its quotas ultimately. 

    Therefore, for Awarathon’s customers, the solution is a Sales Readiness Scorecard. 

    It inserts data from sales coaching courses into a ‘coachable’ context. As it allows sales readiness leaders to collaborate with the sales team to enhance sales performance. These scorecards are enriched with data from CRM to make the ‘coachable’ context stronger. 

    So, what exactly is ‘coachable ‘context & what’s its importance? 

    The ultimate objective of sales training is to help your sales reps achieve their quotas and streamline the sales process. Also, be self-motivated, negotiate well, understand the industry and product offering, and make fundamental decisions. When it comes to scorecards, the core context refers to the sales representatives only. 

    These sales coaching scorecards take extensive data about coaching and learning to incorporate it into the sales reps. It makes it feasible for the sales enablement team and sales managers. To focus on what matters the most, allowing the sales reps to focus on parameters that can drive success. The sales readiness scorecard automates the data completely, doing the necessary and possible calculations. To generate context which matters to the sales reps. 

    Organizations can manage the following with the help of a sales readiness scorecard.

    • Organization of data 
    • Onboarding cohort 
    • Comparison of data 

    With the CRM add-on for the sales readiness scorecard, you can automatically connect performance metrics with your readiness data. It is a lot more straightforward and time-saving than ever before. Thanks to the sales readiness platform. This is because the features of scorecards are incorporated into the sales readiness platform. To enable your sales team to meet its quotas and improve the sales process effectively. It also includes efficiency metrics, including the pipeline created, opportunities generated, closing rates, sales cycle, the average price of selling, and many more relevant parameters for your team’s understanding. 

    The next thing you might ask now is what makes the data ‘coachable’? 

    Scorecards insert data into a coachable context. This is because scorecards help sales representatives with three primary objectives. 

    1. Identify the problems of sales departments. 
    2. Motivate to improve sales performance. 
    3. Hold accountable for weekly performance. 

    Identify the problems of sales departments. 

    Scorecards enable the sales readiness team to diagnose problems such as – reps not completing coaching, and struggling to master product understanding to gain knowledge. This insightful information is then shared with the sales managers to know what their team lacks and assist them with their specific problems. 

    With the CRM, performance data is inserted into the readiness data. It improves the diagnostic power of the sales readiness scorecard so that you can help your sales reps achieve results. 

    For example, if a sales rep cannot say the pitch properly, you can help him with the sales communication part. If a sales rep struggles with closing a deal for a winning opportunity, you can help him negotiate skills that belong to the later stage of the consumer journey. As mentioned earlier, Awarathon is one of the competitors to Mindtickle and Brainshark. 

    Motivate to improve sales performance. 

    Scorecards are the easiest way to show your sales reps their performance and motivate them in areas where they are performing better. Because of each sales rep’s scorecard, they are now encouraged to practice and serve better to improve their sales and achieve their quotas. 

    Their perspective towards sales training will change, instead of just seeing it as a daily chore or a compulsion to perform the task. They will now see it as the key to success. With a CRM add-on with a sales readiness scorecard, their sales performance will be calculated automatically, helping the sales managers to save time and evaluate accurately. 

    Hold accountable for weekly performance. 

    The sales readiness scorecard provides the record score promptly weekly, and fortnightly, which you can share with your reps as a sales manager. Your sales reps now know that as you are tracking their performance and coaching completion metrics. They will now start taking work a bit more seriously, ensuring that the deadlines are currently met, unlike before when tracking was not in place. Proper follow-ups can ensure completion enabling the sales team to achieve scalable outcomes. CRM with sales readiness scorecards helps sales-readiness teams know the team’s accountability for continuous improvement. Comparisons to understand what’s better and where modification is required. 

    Summing it up 

    When the sales reps and managers have the required things to identify problems, motivate sales staff, and maintain accountability, it is known as a ‘coachable’ context. Sales readiness scorecards automatically incorporate all the readiness data into your sales team’s context & can be enhanced by adding performance data if you are a customer of any CRM software. 

    Explore more about sales-readiness scorecards by requesting a free demo with us and getting to know more about our feature offerings and know more about us. Fill in the form; our representative executive will get in touch with you shortly. We are one of the best competitors to Mindtickle and Brainshark. 

  • The Remote Selling Masterclass

    The Remote Selling Masterclass

    Today we focus on the key fundamentals. As we move through the sales journey, we will be taking things up to an advanced and detailed level to help you win remotely. We will explore and explain the various tools, hacks, tips, and techniques that will help your pipeline and business grow. Let’s get started! 

    What is Remote Selling? 

    Remote selling or Virtual selling is a process where both the buyer and the seller are involved virtually rather than through in-person meetings while engaged in pitches, meetings and negotiations. Virtual selling helps both the parties (the buyer and the seller) save time, and cost, allowing them to work from their respective locations with ease. 

    Remote selling is now the standard operating procedure for many companies. Successful companies and sales teams have had to adapt fast to the new world. Processes have changed, tools have changed, and client behaviour and expectations have transformed. Here is what we are seeing work best in the companies and industries we see thriving in 2021. 

    The Fundamentals of Remote Selling 

    The fundamentals of remote selling are often neglected but It’s much more than a simple change of chair! The truth is that a below-par remote set-up and remote sales process can have a significantly detrimental impact on the pitch, the communication, the perception, the relationship and ultimately the deal. 

    While working from home, it can be difficult to stay focused and reach peak productivity levels in an environment that says, “Relax with my family,” not “Smash my targets!”The best salespeople, who get the most consistent, high revenue earning results, are disciplined and organized, they create and protect a sales-supporting environment. They are ruthless in rituals. 

    Here are a few points to make your space a temple of sales excellence: 

    Create a Dedicated Workspace.

    Ensure that your place is where you have blocked out potential distractions. Losing focus and refocusing is a significant cause of frustration and ultimately burnout. Declutter: Clutter can increase distractibility; use two or three screens when you work. A room in a house is ideal but understandably not always possible. If you live in a small apartment, create an area or specific corner of a room. If you are selling at a world-class level, you will ideally have a headset, and cloud telephony, and spend most of your time smiling and dialling, staying in your client’s world. By working in the same location every day, you will train your brain to get into work mode every time you step into that space. 

    Make physical and psychological comfort a priority. 

    We usually say culture is king, but comfort is up there in the royal family of effectiveness when making sure you can get into a world-class sales flow state. Invest in quality ergonomic furniture, and your work will improve. Get the temperature right in the room. A recent neuroscience study carried out by wellbeing practitioners Cohere stated that those who get enough natural light sleep better and are up to 40% more productive. If possible, your home office should have a window that lets the sun in, making the remote working experience much more effective. 

    Comfortable headphones: 

    A comfortable headset can be worn all day while blocking out all distractions. This allows you to stay focused on work and enjoy the music for a “non-live” activity. Create a playlist for yourself that gets you fired up, whatever that may be for you. Every time you book a call-back or meeting or ideally close a deal, get that favourite tune of yours blaring to ignite the brain’s serotonin and reward centres. Thunderstruck or Final Countdown has shown excellent results for us! Take breaks throughout the day: When you are selling, you can get into a zone where hours can fly by. Set alarms and block your time. The blocks of time are guidelines you should stick to for your mind and body’s sake. Of course, you can make exceptions if a call is going well, or you need one more deal to hit your quota. The point is not to underestimate the benefits of ritualized breaks and time for clearing your head. It goes a long way to ensuring you have a steady energy level all day as opposed to peaks and troughs. 

    Optimize your technology stack 

    1. Your internet speed: 

    You probably have internet access in your home. But is your network speed fast enough to support your work activities? If not, use an ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi while you look at upgrading. 

    1. Setting up your phone: 

    Make sure your company has provided you with the phone set-up and tech to remove any possible glitches or slowdowns in your daily sales plan. Just calling Air call, or any cloud telephony service provider is ideal. These are the most cost-effective, streamlined ways to get call volume up and ensure you can track activity and metrics seamlessly. 

    Make sure you have had the training to leverage an integrated sales tech stack. You might already use lead generation, email automation, and CRM solutions regularly. But now that you’re working remotely, you will have to learn how video conferencing software like Zoom works, choose and master one conferencing tool but be ready to use others if clients prefer. 

    1. The sales tools you need: 

    Your organization needs to invest in the right tool/s matching your business objectives. There are a fast-growing number of tools to ensure you spend most of your time selling to the right people. Sales CRM software like Pipedrive, sales coaching software, sales management software, sales readiness software like Awarathon, and sale prospecting AI software like White Rabbit. The company or team leader should guide you in optimizing your tech stack based on the business goals you wish to meet. Hence, sales readiness software is essential to perform your sales process online and streamline business objectives effectively.

    Here are four top video conferencing solutions: 

    Zoom: Zoom usage has skyrocketed during the pandemic. This tool includes useful features like HD audio and video, recording and transcripts, screen sharing and co-annotations, and virtual backgrounds. On the downside, Zoom has had security issues in the past. Even so, Zoom is a top option for many remote salespeople. 

    Skype: Skype is a popular video conferencing option. It will allow you to make international calls for free and host meetings for up to 50 people. Other handy features include subtitle and translation services, screen sharing, and the ability to record calls. For both team meetings and client calls, Skype is a solid option. 

    Google Meet: Google Meet is a video conferencing solution that’s part of Google’s widely used G Suite. This tool isn’t quite as featured-packed as other options, but it’s incredibly easy to use and free for G Suite users. Use Meet to host secure meetings for 250 people, get access to screen sharing, and more. 

    ClickMeeting: Lastly, we have ClickMeeting, a fully-featured video conferencing solution. This tool enables users to host team meetings and client calls, record and send product demos, and host live webinars. It also comes with top features like custom branding; in-meeting digital whiteboards, polls and surveys, and CTAs; and a detailed analytics dashboard. ClickMeeting requires a monthly fee to access top features, but it can be used for free for the first 30 days. Certainly worth trying. 

    VIDEO tips 

    1. Use video for every meeting! 
    2. Use an HD webcam and test before the meeting. 
    3. Adjust head position: The top of the head should be 10% to 15% from the top of the screen 4. Look at the speaking client on screen. 
    4. Position the camera at eye level or slightly above 

    Lighting Tips 

    1. Manage face lighting, so it is natural. 
    2. Reduce backlighting and overheads that create dark faces and glare. 
    3. Use purpose-built video lights such as ring lights or desk lights and dimmers if possible. 4. Use colour temperature adjustments for hue control; stay more white/blue than orange. 5. Green screen: If room lighting is hard to control, use face lights and a green screen with the digital background photo. 
    4. Preparing, planning, and scheduling

    Plan actions weekly and review daily. Track progress with your direct report or accountability partner: Stay motivated by committing your results to someone else and being accountable for them. A defined schedule is often the difference between failure and target, smashing productivity as a remote salesperson. If you work from home for the first time, you need to develop more discipline than ever before to get up early and stick to a highly productive schedule. Set a manageable schedule and stick to it. Decide when you’re going to start, when you’ll take breaks, and when you’ll sign off for the day—before your day begins. 

    Get power from your why EVERYDAY in EVERY conversation. 

    1. Why do I love what I do? / Why do I love sales? 
    2. What is my purpose at my company? 
    3. What is different about the method we use to solve the specific problem of our clients why is it awesome? 
    4. What will it feel like and what will change in my life if I succeed against my goals today, this week, this month, this year? 

    So you’ve nailed the fundamentals. Now it’s time to drive activity and performance. In the forthcoming chapters in the series, we will explore the sales process, sales coaching & sales readiness software finishing the series by closing the sale. 

    Get in touch to immediately improve your overall sales performance through sales coaching and sales readiness software. 

  • Is sales readiness & sales enablement the same?

    Is sales readiness & sales enablement the same?

    Today, we are going to talk about Sales readiness and Sales enablement. These terms are often used interchangeably. Hence there is a lot of confusion. So, today’s blog article is for all those who want to clarify their concepts and learn more about this business’s sales tech part. Let’s initiate by taking a deep dive into the various aspects and better understanding these things. 

    Is sales-readiness & sales enablement the same? 

    Sales readiness and sales enablement terms are often in use for one another. The reason can be because these terms are misunderstood as one. But this is not the case; these are two different terms. Why are these two terminologies in trend nowadays? What’s all the confusion? 

    Companies today are finding new and proven ways to meet their sales quotas and streamline the process. Due to the current work scenarios, there have been a couple of restrictions on performing field sales, meeting in person, visiting the client for updates, and closing deals. Hence, organizations are seeing sales enablement and sales readiness as a solution. 

    It is essential to know the differences between these two terms used by sales reps and sales-driven organizations. Let’s begin exploring more on these terms for a better understanding. 

    Sales Readiness and Sales Enablement 

    Sales enablement involves a broad range of tasks and roles that influence the entire process of sales. The term might hold a different meaning to different organizations. 

    Hubspot defines sales enablement as – “Sales enablement is the iterative process of providing your business’s sales team with the resources they need to close more deals. These resources may include content, tools, knowledge, and information to sell your product or service to customers effectively.” 

    Know more – https://www.hubspot.com/sales-enablement 

    Research claims that organizations that use sales enablement have shown better results than those that don’t employ sales enablement and follow the traditional/ conventional ways and methods of performing sales activities. 

    Sales readiness, however, is about ensuring that your sales reps have the skills, required knowledge, and proper access to content to have significant and smooth interactions with their buyers in the consumer buying journey. The core readiness activities are – quizzes, assessments, practice sales pitches, and consuming content for better training. These contribute to the sales reps being more productive and effective, streaming the sales operations, and providing positive outcomes. 

    The ultimate objective of sales readiness is to help prepare your sales reps to close deals better by handling critical conditions and managing the sales process well. The buyer must be convincing, pitching must be done with accurate product information, understand the feature offerings & feel trusted about the seller’s organization. It is the difference between sales readiness and sales enablement. 

    To conclude – sales readiness is a component of sales enablement, which involves getting a solution to the problem. Are your sales reps ready? Sales enablement is a broader concept, which includes – management, communication, and collaboration as well. Awarathon is an exact match for Highspot competitors. 

    Sales readiness is not Sales coaching. 

    Yes, you heard that right. Sales coaching is an integral part of preparing your sales reps to succeed. It includes parameters like product details, processes, methods, handling situations, FAQs, etc. 

    But coaching is the first step, whereas the core objective is sales readiness. 

    Reading, learning, and gaining good subject knowledge is far more different than mastering it. Say, for example, you read books, watch tutorials, and observe gameplays on playing chess. Does this mean that you have now learned it? No, right. Similarly, just because the sales rep has completed his coaching does not mean he/she is now ready to perform live sales. 

    And this is precisely where sales readiness comes in. It includes assessments, quizzes, practise pitching, and many more details to monitor your performance before you start doing the live sales process with buyers. 

    A work approach driven by sales readiness would equip your sales reps and teams to practice the new messaging independently. This approach will help the sales managers provide constructive feedback/ insightful suggestions to their sales reps to improve where required. The form can then assess if sellers can do real justice to the company in terms of accuracy, consistency of message delivery, and other critical relevant factors before trying out to sell with a buyer. 

    To conclude, sales training or sales coaching will not help your sales reps mark their paths toward success. But a sales readiness strategy will do both. 

    The way towards Sales readiness 

    To prepare, its sales team needs to put in their work. Sales managers might not have the time or the required skills to train their sales reps. 

    Sales reps are not held accountable for implementing what they have learned in their sales training programs. They focus more on achieving sales quotas. Without the learnings brought into action, without streamlining the process, without understanding your buyers, without product understanding, without a practising sales pitch, without learning where you lack, is meeting numbers also possible? 

    It is where sales-readiness plays a vital role. But it requires organizational commitment. Once a need to change is made, the way is seen clearly. 

    Building a readiness strategy that ensures reps can make the most of every interaction they have with the buyers. Therefore, even if the organization invests in a sales enablement leader to guide, investing in technology that supports sales cannot be ignored for long-term benefits. 

    A quick brief about Highspot Competitors 

    Awarathon is one of the best Highspot competitors. Awarathon is a first-of-its-kind AI-enabled video roleplay platform that ensures your sales teams make the perfect pitch. Consistently. It is a dynamic tool for video-roleplay-led sales coaching. Its feature-rich platform goes beyond basic video-roleplay functionality to comprehensively address the needs of a fast-growing sales team. 

    Our proprietary AI trainer breaks down each element of the perfect sales pitch to provide actionable feedback to reps so that your company’s message is communicated consistently. From body language to gestures to contextual speech intent, the software maps every essential knowledge and skill parameter. Robust, customizable reports help you identify critical gaps and improvement areas. Detailed insights help you address learning needs at a team and rep level in a targeted manner. This makes it one of the best Highspot competitors. 

  • The power of perfection

    The power of perfection

    Practice sales pitch online is an art to master till you are perfect. There are various definitions and meanings to the term perfection. As we all know, perfection is a continuous process as it takes time, so learners often ignore it. Perfection requires practice. Before practising, you should learn so that you benchmark your practised efforts and perfect them well. Learning a skill or adopting a change in your career or work looks no age. If you want it, you should go for it. It even applies if you’re going to perfect the art of virtual selling. The art of perfection is mainly applicable to practice sales pitches online, study the product brief shared by your sales manager, and practice by working on your body language and communication skills. The soft skills you wish to master. 

    What is Perfection? 

    According to Wikipedia, Perfection is a state, variously, of completeness, flawlessness, or supreme excellence, and it requires practice to achieve it. The conditions where we apply soft skills are evolving, and so we must be aware of the technical upgrades going around. So that we are not left behind and make the post of the technology in those particular aspects. For example, practice sales pitch online. 

    Gone are the days where salespeople used to practice in front of the mirror for hours together to deliver the perfect pitch. With the help of sales readiness platforms like Awarathon, Brainshark, Mindtickle, and Allego, sales process automation, tracking performance, conducting assessments is now feasible for your organization’s growth. 

    What matters the most for perfection? 

    Along with just practice, it is also essential that you carry your experience and learned skills, insights developed. It will help you achieve steady improvement over time to master your soft skills like sales pitch effectively. 

    No matter the role we play in an organization to improve its sales. It may be sales reps, sales managers, sales head sales coaches, etc. Practice is the key for all of us to excel. But backing it up with the right set of tools is important. Therefore, this is where Awarathon’s role starts, which we will be briefing below. 

    The role of Awarathon in Practice Sales Pitch Online 

    Awarathon is the best video-based roleplay platform. It is also known as a sales readiness platform that stands for delivering perfect pitch always. Consistently. Awarathon incorporates the five core elements for an excellent sales pitch. It includes knowledge, body language, objection handling, pace, and modulation. It is one of the best alternatives to Mindtickle and Brainshark. 

    Awarathon’s AI-enabled training framework deeply assesses each of these parameters to provide actionable roadmaps to mentors and managers. Whether you need granular or big picture insights — we are including it all. 

    Improving sales readiness is not easy unless it is couple with artificial intelligence. Hence, this is what helps Awarathon evaluate your sales reps’ performance when it comes to practice sales pitches online. It is what makes Awarathon the best alternative to Mindtickle and Brainshark.

  • Why mobile training is required, Even while working remotely from home

    Why mobile training is required, Even while working remotely from home

    For all those first time readers who don’t know what Awarathon is? Well, Awarathon is one of the competitors to Rehearsal VRP. In today’s blog article, we will discuss the various aspects of why Training Needs to Be Mobile, Even While We Work From Home. It highlights the multiple aspects to showcase the importance of a mobile device in daily work operations. So, let us begin the article by starting and begin exploring. 

    Is living without our phones difficult? 

    The answer is yes. We all cannot live without our mobile phones. It is because there is so much in it, perhaps everything you ask. Also, due to the current situation, we are using our mobile phones more than ever. Research says that mobile and internet data is rising with the increasing number of people working from home. 

    Well, we love our smartphones. It is because they have got us covered with almost everything we ask for in our daily work. Right from emails, video calls, reminders, paying your bills, buying daily essentials, ordering food, working on an urgent project, messaging your peers, maps while travelling, reading a book, listening to music, watching a movie, health data, capturing memories, scanning documents, online trading, gaming, and the list goes on. 

    Hence, most people buy expensive smartphones. In order to get the best possible experience on their screen. As it is with a powerful processor, battery, and other required support like better apps, connectivity, etc. 

    Traditional thinking might assume that the app on the mobile can only be useful for entertainment purposes. It may not necessarily be the case in every situation, especially when organizing sales teams. As they require the best video based roleplay platform to manage their sales work and process online effectively. 

    Accessing the most relevant content for training and feedback from our teams via mobile is still extremely important. To practice sales pitch online, take an assessment quiz, etc. So, sales productivity apps such as Awarathon enable organizations to maintain and even enhance communication and collaboration wherever and whenever it works. Apart from just Awarathon, there are many competitors to Rehearsal VRP. 

    Teams adjustment to New Challenges 

    This year is revolutionary. It came up with several changes and challenges we got adopted. The work conditions today have changed significantly as compared with months ago. 

    Working from home can be challenging for those living with more people in their families or those who share apartments with others. Those who have a dedicated workstation at their homes might be happy with this new working normal. Many are setting up work things at their homes by doing the necessary changes, learning to make effective use of their home, and utilizing items available before ordering anything new. 

    Some are searching for a better place to live, which can be rented, or some are happy making the adjustments in their existing homes: different people, different stories when it comes to managing their work-life balance.

    Therefore, there is a need for the best video based roleplay platform for sales departments’ virtual work. You, as sales reps or managers, can access your mobile app anytime, anywhere. To track your performance, access required content, or attempt your assessment quiz. 

    Hence, we still need a mobile, even though most of us are no longer on the go due to its importance, which can never be ignored. 

    How can organizations assist? 

    Companies must support mobile access to critical capabilities. The company’s managers and leaders must realize how the times have changed, so we have to depend on technology like never before. Stats also show that mobile use has increased as it has become essential for literally everything work. Today as we see, everything is connected to our mobiles. It includes – banking transactions, shopping, communicating, entertainment, food, travel, plan, capture moments, daily essentials, learning a skill, work matters, etc. 

    So, why not equip your sales team with the best video based roleplay platform enabling them to work effectively and seamlessly. Besides, allowing you as a sales manager to track sales performance and forecast. 

    Is Sales Readiness the way forward? 

    For your sales team to achieve your sales goals, a sales readiness platform is the way forward. In a word, with global business disruptions and changes, one must think agile to remain sustainable in the long run. 

    If your working firm does not support mobile access to critical and core capabilities, your team is missing essential elements refraining you from your business growth. Hence, a best video based roleplay platform sales readiness is a must but not an option considering long-term benefits to meet for an all-round sales development & grow more. 

    Adaptation of the right technology at the right time is crucial. Hence, neglecting the importance and carrying on with the traditional ways is not a smart move. To accomplish the objective in today’s situation where both the employee and the employer faces uncertain challenges and pressure, one cannot broadcast or implement the old school methods. The legacy approach relies on platforms before the mobile (smartphone), redefining the way we operate it. Hence, not letting the companies set learning in their working staff members. 

    In a world full of business disruptions, the bottom line is that the firms must prepare for an unprecedented agility level to remain competitive long-term. If your business isn’t serving mobile access to significant capabilities—including training, coaching, and development—you’re dropping out on a necessary opportunity to support your workforce during the pandemic and beyond.

    Request a Free Demo with – Competitors to Rehearsal VRP 

    Experience Awarathon today! We help sales teams in mid-market companies make perfect, winning pitches. Please fill out the form below to show you how through a custom, live demo, or to know more about us. 

    What do you think your organization today requires to grow?Apart from the mobile-first approach and the sales coaching it receives. Does it also require the best video-based roleplay platform for online sales readiness? So, that your sales head can strategize, execute, track and forecast sales figures with ease. 

    If yes, then get in touch with us by filling out the demo form and helping you rise above the tide effortlessly with Awarathon. 

    Awarathon is one of the competitors to Rehearsal VRP, offering all the sales readiness solutions under one roof. It includes a bunch of power-packed features to help you grow in the right direction.

  • Sales Onboarding – Best Practices

    Sales Onboarding – Best Practices

    In simple terms, sales onboarding is an informative program. It provides newly recruited sales reps with the right and required knowledge. It also assists the sales reps on how to leverage the sales efforts with the provided sales tools. Hence, it is essential to understand and follow sales onboarding best practices. 

    An onboarding program should be defined well. As it will allow sales reps to learn with a defined objective & detailed material available across the organization. This entire process ensures that all sales reps have what they require. So, they can achieve their sales quotas & now that they are ready to pitch online. 

    A substantial sales on-boarding program should provide the sales reps with a strong. Also a clear, and definite working method. To help them gain more confidence and credibility in their work role, boosting the team’s overall sales success. 

    Sales Onboarding Best Practices 

    An on-boarding process effectively implemented from scratch can improve sales opportunities. To also close more deals & perform better sales pitches. 

    Here are a few best practices for sales onboarding for your organization. It makes us one of the best alternatives and competitors to allego. 

    – Create a company story 

    – Provide perfect communication 

    – Focus on the right customers 

    – Check the process 

    – Offer continuous support 

    – Give engaging training formats 

    Create a company story: 

    The clarity in objectives is vital in this stage for building your brand’s story. What are your organization’s values? Have you defined the mission and the vision statements? Your thoughts on the organization’s core offerings? How is your organization differentiated from your competition? 

    Getting concrete solutions to all these questions. As it is essential at this stage of the online onboarding process. Your sales reps must be aware of all these things before approaching a new buyer. Without this, there will be no clarity in communication and lead to confusion by sharing inappropriate details. 

    Provide better communication: 

    Once the objective is crystal clear, the communication should also be the same. It should be clear, concise, and easy to understand both internally and externally. New reps must also be trained in a similar format so that the messaging across the entire team is consistent. 

    The onboarding process should provide essential messaging tips. Basically, for the various sales situations, challenges, problems, and opportunities. It is one of the crucial steps which form the fundamentals of sales onboarding best practices. 

    Focus on the right customers: 

    Understanding and identifying the right customers for any business is fundamental. Your entire efforts, time, and work are involved in this process. If you work on the wrong set of prospects, you will have to make a fresh start & it can be tiresome and frustrating. 

    Hence, knowing the right customer base for your offering is essential. Build sample profiles of buyers that nearly match the product offering and add industries and personalities. 

    Learning the art of picking up and choosing the right potential buyers is a good work approach to help new sales reps understand the process effectively & hence be practice. When in doubt, refer to your buyer persona. 

    The process matters: 

    Refer to the whitepapers, manuals, other documents, and papers, material for onboarding, etc. Have a centralized messaging system that will assist in improving the result of the process effectively. 

    The simple and effective system will help your sales reps be more confident when their sales process begins, assisting them to review, go back & check what is required at that moment. Hence, studying the work process and the approach is essential for the sales team’s smooth functioning & enabling drive results. 

    Offer continuous support: 

    The sales readiness platform must standardize your messaging as it is the first step towards sales improvement and retention. The team must provide on-going support internally & externally. The sales reps, as well as the new clients on board. 

    Give engaging training formats: 

    Taking the help of technology, you can create an engaging and exciting online onboarding experience. It includes techniques like – microlearning, gamification, and eLearning. As it helps you present information in various formats & keeps new hires engaged in the long run. Also, improving the process of the sales pitch to the next level. 

    In this read, you understood how a consistent behavior model makes the onboarding process run smoothly & what role the sales onboarding best practices play. Hence, the organization should not ignore the part of communication and clear messaging in onboarding.

    Online Onboarding with best alternatives and competitors to allego 

    Awarathon is a complete sales readiness platform. It offers sales onboarding and sales training features, which improve sales productivity effectiveness. It is one of the best alternatives and competitors to allego. 

    Awarathon offers a customer-friendly platform with its interactive dashboard & insightful analytics to track your sales reps’ performance and make sure your sales team is on the right track. 

    Awarathon comes with many power-packed features, including an advanced AI indexer, robust sales reports, sales performance integration, in-app feedback, complete data security, and customer support. 

    Can sales onboarding decrease ramp time? 

    Yes, sales onboarding can decrease the ramp time. 

    An average ramp time for new sales reps is generally between 10-14 months. At the same time, an effective onboarding program can improve the onboarding process and decrease ramp time. As it uses techniques that include the following: 

    The setting of Goals. 

    A robust, defined, and repeatable process. 

    The resources are accessible with ease. 

    The firm’s experience. 

    What are the perks of a sales-specific onboarding program? 

    1. According to CSO Insight, Organizations that implement a successful sales onboarding program observe 6.7% growth in quota attainment and lower turnover rates. 2. As per SHRM, Firms with a standard onboarding process see 50% more productivity from hires, which are new and enhance employee engagement. 
    2. As per SHRM, Companies with ineffective onboarding lose about 17% of the new hires in the initial three months. 

    Effective Sales Onboarding with best alternatives to Allego 

    The Awarathon’s sales readiness platform provides training and onboarding features as well. It includes effectiveness in overall productivity and boosts efforts. 

    Awarathon has a user-friendly dashboard that is easy to use, navigate and track everything you want at your fingertips. It includes right from sales rep progress to the onboarding module to training and many more. 

    It makes us one of the best alternatives and competitors to allego.

  • Ways to enhance your Sales performance in Q1

    Ways to enhance your Sales performance in Q1

    Improve sales performance online. In our today’s blog article, we have listed down a few points to help you improve your sales performance in Q1. It requires two core things: improving your sales process online and the second by using a robust sales readiness platform. 

    Why improve sales performance online? 

    It becomes essential to improve sales performance online. As we all know, how difficult 2020 was for every business. Mostly when it comes to acquiring new business, your sales team must be trying their best to meet those quotas. The process is not easy – follow-ups, new pitches, creating a sales pipeline, and not adding to the list. 

    Your sales reps might not necessarily close the deal. But yes, they play a vital role in bringing the buyer to the closure stage, and it is not an easy job. Especially when generating a new sale is not so easy due to the pandemic. 

    Therefore, improving sales performance online is the way forward. Just imagine the value it brings to the table. Right from saving time to cost to improve the process, a lot adds to the list. Every method comes with its own merits and demerits, be it an online or traditional sales process. 

    But today we are talking about improving the sales process online is because it is the need of the hour and hence its importance should not be ignored.

    In our today’s article, we will discuss the various sales tips that your reps can implement to boost Q1 & achieve their quotas with ease. So, that they can improve sales performance online.

    Assist your team focus on their sales pipeline: 

    When time is limited, it is important to make the most of it. It can be done by focusing on things that matter to bring your customers close to you. 

    As a sales manager, you must encourage your team to focus on buyers as per priority—Follow up where it is required the most. Always emphasize building their pipeline (the funnel) so that your sales reps don’t run out of prospects to pitch. 

    Remind them that not all buyers bring in the same revenue; hence priority matters (quality vs. quantity). Identify your buyers from their requirements, speech, queries so that you know which buyer will yield more revenue and who will waste your time. 

    If your sales team is big enough, you can opt for one of the best video-based roleplay platforms. We are the best alternatives and competitors to Allego and Rehearsal VRP. 

    Generating the right content: 

    Deal desks are created to provide your sales reps with the resources they require with proper labelling or notations not to need to run around when on a call with the buyer. As the content helps the sales reps to accelerate their sales process, gain better knowledge, answer the buyer effectively, and close deals with ease. 

    It also suits best for cross-functional roles, long and complex sales cycles, slow internal sales processes, etc. Therefore, the role of the best video-based roleplay platform is a must in such situations. We are one of the best alternatives and competitors to Mindtickle or Brainshark. 

    To strategically approach Sales coaching: 

    The value of sales training and coaching cannot be ignored. It is still a good practice, and most organizations, no matter the size, implement it. As a sales manager, you should also focus on making sure that your sales teams emphasize activities/ tasks that matter in generating new business. It is because now, in this quarter of Q1, they will have to perform better than Q4. 

    You can also consider the informal ways of coaching activities to help identify quick problems and address skill gaps, knowledge gaps, and other vital areas where your reps lack. Informal coaching really comes in handy, allowing us to access problems effectively. 

    For instance, solve a business problem or a live case study to find what solution your team comes up with, perform q & a session to make sure all are on the same page, take surprise assessments on product knowledge, etc. It is also one of the core factors when it comes to improving your sales process online. 

    Use Marketing for Support: 

    Content is the key. Content is widely used in every business aspect as it is an important ingredient for communication. But, for your sales reps, what’s more, essential is that they are accessed to the right content at the right time. Your sales and marketing departments must be on the same page to refrain content gaps, perform internal coordination and meet internal business objectives well. Teamwork is a must, and this is an ideal case of it being used. The content should be engaging enough to meet the buyer’s perspective and address the pain points. 

    Another solution to this is also to go for the best video roleplay platform which manages, automates, and helps you execute sales tasks with ease. You can know more about what features make a sales readiness platform offer – here.

    Technology matters: 

    There are a million things every sales rep has to perform and undergo. Right from executing tasks to manage them to generate reports. Their plates are always full of work. But the fun part is if you are using a robust sales readiness platform or the best alternative to mind tickle or Brainshark, then your half job is done. It includes creating, organizing, delivering content to your respective sales force. But, is content enough? Will content alone surpass? The answer is simply no. This is where sales coaching and assistance from the marketing team is involved. 

    For example, sales enablement leaders can create unformal learning stuff on topics that matter, learnings from Q4 should not be ignored, and personal experiences from reps must be shared. The sales reps using the best alternative to mind tickle or Brainshark can access on demand training on the go with ease. 

    Access things that matter to them the most seamlessly without asking or coordinating with the team members. Hence, enabling them (sales reps) to have key information when needed, sellers can display meeting equipment & knowledge. 

    Why choose Awarathon’s Sales Readiness Platform? 

    Awarathon is a first-of-its-kind AI-enabled video roleplay platform that ensures your sales teams make the perfect pitch. Consistently. It is a dynamic tool for video-roleplay-led sales coaching. Its feature-rich platform goes beyond basic video-roleplay functionality to comprehensively address the needs of a fast-growing sales team. 

    Our proprietary AI trainer breaks down each element of the perfect sales pitch to provide actionable feedback to reps so that your company’s message is communicated consistently. From body language to gestures to contextual speech intent, the software maps every key knowledge and skill parameter. Robust, customizable reports help you identify critical gaps and improvement areas. Detailed insights help you address learning needs at a team and rep level in a clearly targeted manner. 

    This makes Awarathon one of the best alternatives and competitors to Allego and Rehearsal VRP.