Casual Articles - Business

How To Make Money Online With Podcasting
In case you don't know what podcasting is, here is a brief definition about it.Podcasting is audio content, such as a MP3 Player, that is sent over a RSS feed. Podcasting is a file that is downloadable for use over the internet. Podcasting is similar to radio station broadcasts. (Except that anyone can do it with little more than a microphone).Most people think that you must necessary own an ipod to use Podcasting. The great thing about podcasting is you don't necessary need an ipods or mp3 players. Simplement with your computer or laptop, you can use podcast. The feed aggregators download the file to your computer and you listen to it whenever you want.The number of podcasts have really grown since 2005. In 2004, Google had less than 25 hits for "Podc

Gross Margin

Gross profit (sales revenue minus sales costs) divided by sales revenue.

Variations against a target value for product categories reveals information about the tendency to offer discounts to get the sale. If the sales booked number is very good, a low number here may be tolerated. If the sales booked number does not meet the target and this number is low, then some coaching of sales staff is warranted.

Sales effectiveness

Sales by Hours Worked

The $ value of sales booked over a period divided by the number of hours worked over the same period.

This indicator ascribes an individual's ability to sell. Care needs to be taken to set different targets for individuals with varied levels of experience and ability. Do no

Advertising Mistakes: A Look at Soft Drinks
The field of advertising is a very interesting industry in business and one, which is very fun to discuss. One of the finest things to talk about is all the mistakes that international corporations make when trying to market their services and products in other countries.Generally these issues occur because of translation problems or because the company does not fully understand the culture of the nation in which they are marketing their product into. Remember there are over 300 countries in the world and generally about 150 of them are pretty viable for multinational corporations with pretty good products.In reviewing the Internet's lists of multinational corporation advertising mistakes and international advertising of products while studying soft drink makers; I came across q

Most retail stores would agree that they can improve their sales performance. What I observe though, is that store mangers and sales managers often do not know how to get better performance from their staff.

To coach people to improve their performance, a standard is required against which they may be compared. The standards are usually ascribed by a performance indicator. An indicator may be in the form of an observable behaviour, or it may be a numeric or literal indicator.

Coaching retail sales people requires all three types. In my experience, a combination of the following performance indicators generates enough data to coach sales people.

Behavioural indicators may include:

Adherence to a Code of Conduct

Adherence to the organisation's business values as encapsulated in a documented code of conduct. The code of conduct should require adherence to policies and procedures and describe the appropriate interaction between sales people, customers and one another.

Behaviours which go against the code of conduct on the shop floor have a deleterious impact on customer perceptions and on staff morale. They should not be tolerated.

Personal Development

Personal Development is comprised of two indicators:

Attendance at Training Courses

The percentage of training courses attended by a Sales Consultant of the training courses recommended for the same Sales Consultant over a certain period.

Progress Towards Coaching Targets

The sales person's progress in achieving their coaching targets (for numerical targets) and/or changed behaviour (for behavioural targets).

Store managers may also be coached against leadership indicators.

Leadership

Leadership comprises four elements:

Completion of coaching sessions with sales people
Completion of customer service calls (follow-ups and telesales)
Sales people's adherence to the code of conduct
Sales people's attendance at training; the percentage of courses attended during a period of the courses recommended over the same period

Literal indicators may include:

Shop Presentation and Merchandising

Shop presentation and merchandising comprises two elements:

The number of advertising hero lines represented amongst floor stock.
Adherence to the store merchandising checklist.

Numeric indicators comprise two groups; the overall sales result and sales effectiveness.

Overall sales result

Sales Booked

The $ value of sales booked (i.e. accrued income), over a certain period of time.

The crudest indicator of a sales team or sales individual's results. It gives little information about how effective a sales person is. It is usually required, however, for headline comparison.

Expense Control

Meeting expense targets within budget for a given period.

This is an indicator for the store manager. It gives some information on how efficient the store is when it is expressed as a percentage of sales booked, as well as a straight number.

Gross Margin

Gross profit (sales revenue minus sales costs) divided by sales revenue.

Sales effectiveness

Sales by Hours Worked

The $ value of sales booked over a period divided by the number of hours worked over the same period.

This indicator ascribes an individual's ability to sell. Care needs to be taken to set different targets for individuals with varied levels of experience and ability. Do not

Just The Facts
Attitudes are more important than facts. Dr. Karl Menninger Attitudes are intangible and highly personal. They’re based on your experience, but more importantly, on your interpretation of that experience. That is, how you understand the “facts” of a given situation. People who interpret the facts of their experience positively tend to be self-confident. Not surprisingly, the best predictor of success is your level of confidence. Confident people tend to initiate action and control their environment--even under difficult conditions. Your degree of self-confidence will determine the kinds of risks you take, the amount of effort you’ll expend, and the strength of your perseverance in time of trouble. Your confidence will determine the amount of fl

. The code of conduct should require adherence to policies and procedures and describe the appropriate interaction between sales people, customers and one another.

Behaviours which go against the code of conduct on the shop floor have a deleterious impact on customer perceptions and on staff morale. They should not be tolerated.

Personal Development

Personal Development is comprised of two indicators:

Attendance at Training Courses

The percentage of training courses attended by a Sales Consultant of the training courses recommended for the same Sales Consultant over a certain period.

Progress Towards Coaching Targets

The sales person's progress in achieving their coaching targets (for numerical targets) and/or changed behaviour (for behavioural targets).

Store managers may also be coached against leadership indicators.

Leadership

Leadership comprises four elements:

Completion of coaching sessions with sales people
Completion of customer service calls (follow-ups and telesales)
Sales people's adherence to the code of conduct
Sales people's attendance at training; the percentage of courses attended during a period of the courses recommended over the same period

Literal indicators may include:

Shop Presentation and Merchandising

Shop presentation and merchandising comprises two elements:

The number of advertising hero lines represented amongst floor stock.
Adherence to the store merchandising checklist.

Numeric indicators comprise two groups; the overall sales result and sales effectiveness.

Overall sales result

Sales Booked

The $ value of sales booked (i.e. accrued income), over a certain period of time.

The crudest indicator of a sales team or sales individual's results. It gives little information about how effective a sales person is. It is usually required, however, for headline comparison.

Expense Control

Meeting expense targets within budget for a given period.

This is an indicator for the store manager. It gives some information on how efficient the store is when it is expressed as a percentage of sales booked, as well as a straight number.

Gross Margin

Gross profit (sales revenue minus sales costs) divided by sales revenue.

Sales effectiveness

Sales by Hours Worked

The $ value of sales booked over a period divided by the number of hours worked over the same period.

This indicator ascribes an individual's ability to sell. Care needs to be taken to set different targets for individuals with varied levels of experience and ability. Do no

Hanging Onto Your Customers
What is a customer worth to your business? No matter what figure you come up with, the actual answer is that they are invaluable. Any customer or clients that you have, you should provide the best service to them so that they keep coming back - bringing their friends with them.You can maintain a customer base by providing them the services they need and expect. You can grow an ever expanding customer base by providing just a little bit more than your clients expect.Here are eight ways to provide exceptional customer service: SAY, "THANK YOU" Don't you appreciate the fact that your customers could be going somewhere else? If you appreciate them, then you need to show them that you do. As soon as you provide your service to your customer, you sh

Store managers may also be coached against leadership indicators.

Leadership

Leadership comprises four elements:

Completion of coaching sessions with sales people
Completion of customer service calls (follow-ups and telesales)
Sales people's adherence to the code of conduct
Sales people's attendance at training; the percentage of courses attended during a period of the courses recommended over the same period

Literal indicators may include:

Shop Presentation and Merchandising

Shop presentation and merchandising comprises two elements:

The number of advertising hero lines represented amongst floor stock.
Adherence to the store merchandising checklist.

Numeric indicators comprise two groups; the overall sales result and sales effectiveness.

Overall sales result

Sales Booked

The $ value of sales booked (i.e. accrued income), over a certain period of time.

The crudest indicator of a sales team or sales individual's results. It gives little information about how effective a sales person is. It is usually required, however, for headline comparison.

Expense Control

Meeting expense targets within budget for a given period.

This is an indicator for the store manager. It gives some information on how efficient the store is when it is expressed as a percentage of sales booked, as well as a straight number.

Gross Margin

Gross profit (sales revenue minus sales costs) divided by sales revenue.

Sales effectiveness

Sales by Hours Worked

The $ value of sales booked over a period divided by the number of hours worked over the same period.

This indicator ascribes an individual's ability to sell. Care needs to be taken to set different targets for individuals with varied levels of experience and ability. Do no

God Bless The Refrigerator Magnet!
Ah, my very favorite promotional product of all, the refrigerator magnet. They are my favorite, because they are so extremely inexpensive, and extremely effective in getting your company name seen in countless locations.They don’t make the greatest commission for a salesman of advertising specialties, but I can’t stop myself from recommending these little beauties first and foremost to my new customers and prospects. And the reason is so simple. They WORK! I’ve yet to approach anyone in any kind of business where I don’t feel that a refrigerator magnet will be effective advertising. Granted, some are more suited than others, but I still maintain that they’d be of use to any business.Domino's Pizza is notorious for giving out a magnet with deliveries that includes their logo

meric indicators comprise two groups; the overall sales result and sales effectiveness.

Overall sales result

Sales Booked

The $ value of sales booked (i.e. accrued income), over a certain period of time.

The crudest indicator of a sales team or sales individual's results. It gives little information about how effective a sales person is. It is usually required, however, for headline comparison.

Expense Control

Meeting expense targets within budget for a given period.

This is an indicator for the store manager. It gives some information on how efficient the store is when it is expressed as a percentage of sales booked, as well as a straight number.

Gross Margin

Gross profit (sales revenue minus sales costs) divided by sales revenue.

Sales effectiveness

Sales by Hours Worked

The $ value of sales booked over a period divided by the number of hours worked over the same period.

This indicator ascribes an individual's ability to sell. Care needs to be taken to set different targets for individuals with varied levels of experience and ability. Do no

You Didn't Use Brainstorming to Select Your Measures, Did You?
IntroductionWhen Alex Osborn invented the creativity technique called brainstorming, I wonder if he had any idea just how extensively business would apply it. Almost every meeting employs some kind of brainstorming event, but there’s one meeting that really should leave it off the agenda: the performance measure selection meeting.There are 5 common ways people select performance measuresThe selection of performance measures has never really been treated as anything more than a trivial, and often pesky, decision brought around by the annual business planning workshop. Usually people will take the fastest route to finalising a list of performance indicators in the KPI column of their business plan, and depending on your organisation, the fastest routes are usually some comb

Gross Margin

Gross profit (sales revenue minus sales costs) divided by sales revenue.

Sales effectiveness

Sales by Hours Worked

The $ value of sales booked over a period divided by the number of hours worked over the same period.

This indicator ascribes an individual's ability to sell. Care needs to be taken to set different targets for individuals with varied levels of experience and ability. Do not set everyone the same target.

Items per Transaction

The number of line items sold over a period divided by the number of transactions occurring over the same period.

This indicator gives an indication of the sales person's ability to cross-sell.

Average Sale Value

The $ value of sales booked over a period divided by the number of transactions occurring over the same period.

This indicator gives an indication of the sales person's ability to up-sell.

Conversion rate

The number of transactions recorded in a period divided by the total number of customers who entered the store in the same period.

This indicator is the strongest indicator of sales ability. It requires a store traffic counting system. The simple ones are cheap and should be used. Properly set up, their accuracy is within the 2 to 3% range. The more sophisticated versions enable indicative conversion rates to be determined for an individual sales person.

When this indicator is combined with items per transaction, the average sale value and the gross margin indicator, any store manager should be able to coach a sales person on their effectiveness.

Warranty Sales

The number of extended warranty sales made over a period, divided by the number of transactions over the same period.

When the sales item is a physical good capable of carrying a warranty, this is a simple indicator of add-on sales effectiveness.

Retail selling appears at times to be an art rather than a behaviour or skill. It is not. It can be coached. To coach any behaviour or skill there must be an appropriate standard to reach and an indicator to measure progress towards the standard.

Utilising a combination of behavioural, numeric and literal indicators related to performance standards, sales people can be coached to improve their performance.

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Are you ready to step up to the big time? The reason I ask, is a lesson I learnt once when I got myself promoted...

You’re terrible with names. You forget someone’s name within ten seconds of their introduction, and it embarrasses you. In fact, it’s possible you won’t even approach someone whose name you have forgotten. As a result, you will miss out on a valuable business contact.

If you want to get the most out of your resume, you need to come up with a resume strategy that will work best for you in your particular situation. Also, you must avoid the strategic pitfalls that every resume writer needs to be aware.

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