Marketing and Sales Best Practice 1 – Social Media Publication Timing

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Best Practice ArticleReaching your audience in today’s hyper-connected world is more difficult than ever. Not only must your content be relevant and engaging, it must capture your audience’s attention through any of a number of platforms while competing with an enormous number of other publishers vying for the same limited reader/viewer attention. Winning this battle may be as much about timing as it is about content.

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About the Author

Karen Juliano, StrategyDriven Vice PresidentKaren Juliano is StrategyDriven’s Editor-in-Chief and Vice President of Communications and Marketing. Prior to joining the StrategyDriven team, she helped produce weekly programming for a Public Access Television station and served as a production assistant in the public affairs office at United States Naval Base, Philadelphia. To read Karen’s complete biography, click here.

Choose the Best Equipment for Your Business with These Quick Tips

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Choose the Best Equipment for Your Business with These Quick Tips
Photo courtesy of MathKnight

Every business needs some kind of equipment to run. For some it might be computers, for others, it could be heavy machinery. Whatever equipment your company needs, you need to take the time to select the right products. There are several factors you need to take into consideration when you’re deciding. The initial and running costs are important to think about, and so is the efficiency of your business. You don’t want your equipment to slow down productiveness or to produce less than desirable results. Before you make any decisions, take these essential factors into account.

Deciding Whether to Lease or Buy

When you have to buy expensive equipment, you should think about whether you want to rent or buy. Cost is obviously the primary factor in choosing which one is best for you. If you want to buy, you’ll have to have a large sum of money up front. If you decide to rent your equipment, you can make smaller payments. However, you may feel that this is money going to waste. In some cases, you might have the option to rent to buy, meaning you will eventually own the equipment. You need to think about other factors too, however. For example, leasing means you can keep up with developing technology more easily.

Consider Your Requirements

Before you settle on what you’re looking for, you have to have a think about your requirements. It’s best not to start by looking at what other companies use and recommend. That can come later, but for now, it could lead you in the wrong direction. Different businesses have varying needs, so you can’t just copy someone else. You need to think about what you need your equipment to do. Which are the most important factors? Is it how fast they can do the job for which they’re intended? Is it their lifespan and how easy they are to maintain and repair?

Choose the Best Equipment for Your Business with These Quick Tips
Photo courtesy of Mixabest

Think Beyond the Purchase Cost

If cost is important to you, don’t just consider the initial price of your equipment. There is rarely a piece of equipment that won’t also cost you money to run and maintain. It’s essential to look beyond the base price and work out a lifetime cost of using something. For example, fuel efficiency is critical for heavy plant operations. It wouldn’t be much use if you saved on machinery but then had to spend a lot of money on fuel. A cheaper option could require repairs more often too, which would raise the lifetime cost of the equipment.

Comparing Your Options

Once you know what you’re looking for, you can start comparing what’s available. One of the best ways to make it easier is to look for comparison sites. You can also go to manufacturer and supplier websites, where they often have a product comparison function. Choose your most important factors to consider so you can weigh your options against each other.

Choosing the right equipment is essential for your business’s efficiency and bottom line. Make sure you put some time into your decisions.

What stops business professionals from acquiring new clients?

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When business professionals don’t have the ability to bring in new clients, they have to rely on others to cultivate leads. While this model can be effective, it is obviously in your best interest to be skilled at bringing in new business on your own.

The Problem:

But the path to successful selling is blocked for many by one primary obstacle: the fear of humiliation. It is based on the misconception that selling requires that you be pushy or manipulative, and by doing so, you’re faced with the humiliation of being flatly rejected. This thought process is based on our own experiences and reactions to pushy and manipulative salespeople trying to sell us things. It reinforces our own discomfort of being rejected. Faced with the apparent obligation to engage in distasteful, aggressive sales behavior, it’s hard to imagine even giving it a try. The good news is there is a way of eliminating these undesirable sales outcomes and thus avoid the risk of uncomfortable rejection.

The Solution:

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About the Author

Larry KohnLarry Kohn has been helping professionals with their business development since 1983. He has conducted over 33,000 coaching consultations with professionals in real estate, law, accounting, financial planning, architecture, engineering, consulting and a myriad of other professions. He has coached professionals in over 1,000 firms – all designed to make their marketing efforts more targeted, successful and enjoyable. He is the developer of the newly release BizDevCoach web app, www.bizdevcoach.com. Reach him at larry@kohncommunications.com.

5 Ways Predictive Analytics Make or Break a CRM System

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Size doesn’t matter: why predictive analytics prove your customer relationship management methods are likely falling short

 
For a sales-driven organization, it isn’t the size of your data that matters, it’s what you do with it. No longer a discretionary luxury, predictive analytics are now the name of the game for those who seek to utilize customer metrics in a meaningful way to establish a tremendous competitive advantage, gain notable market share and significantly boost bottom lines. In fact, according to the 2015 State of Sales Report published by Salesforce Research, “smart selling fueled by predictive analysis is expected to jump 77% among high performers,” throughout 2016. Not only that but high performers are also four times more likely to use predictive analytics.

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About the Author

Lang SmithLang Smith is the founder of Cloud Signalytics – a first-of-its-kind predictive intelligence software platform helping major franchise auto dealerships create highly precise, individualized customer profiles to maximize sales. He may be reached online at www.cloudsignalytics.com.

Source: https://secure2.sfdcstatic.com/assets/pdf/misc/state-of-sales-report-salesforce.pdf

Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy – Don’t Bilge Your Teammates

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StrategyDriven Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval AcademyBilge (n): nonsense; worthless and vain matter
Bilge (v): to damage, to fail or expel a student

Dictionary.com

Effective teamwork demands that each team member value and respect the others with whom they are working. Nothing diminishes this more than when one team member openly attacks or in some way seeks to diminish the value and respect of another.

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Return to the Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy Forum

About the Author

is a StrategyDriven Principal and Class of 1992 graduate from the United States Naval Academy. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.