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Strategy-Proven Methods to Improve Sales Across the Board

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Improve Sales|Strategy-Proven Methods to Improve Sales Across the BoardImproving sales is the goal of every business. It is the only way to grow at the end of the day, and there are a lot of ways to do it. You can focus on marketing, you can work on training your sales team, you could even open your profit channels to bring in more money from different locations.

There are so many ways that you can improve sales, but at the end of the day, for any progress to be made you will need to first look internally. Improve from the inside, so that customers enjoy nothing but the best from you and your employees.

Understand the Buyer’s Cycle

The best way to improve sales across the board is to understand why, when, and how people buy. The psychology behind buying anything is often fairly simple. You need to convince someone that they need your product. This can be an entirely superfluous need, like when someone wants to buy something purely for the aesthetic, but it is a need all the same. You need to drum up the impulsion to buy and you can do that in a variety of ways.

The method you choose will depend on what your business is and what it sells. Once you know that, you will then want to target each stage of the buyer’s cycle. Building trust is one of the best pathways towards a sale and repeat business, and targeting every step in the buyer’s cycle is the way to do it.

1.Problem

Buyers always have a problem. This problem could be as simple as having a nightstand that doesn’t have a lamp yet, or a space on the wall for a painting. The problem could also be more complex. They may need a household or business item that will help them streamline their everyday tasks and chores.

Understanding the problem that your product or service solves is the perfect way to start selling your business.

2. Investigation

Once a customer understands their problem, they will begin to investigate. The only other alternative is that they saw an item that solved a problem they weren’t actively looking to solve. This is an impulse buy, and it’s harder to accurately encourage impulse buys than on-purpose purchases, especially if you run a very specific type of business.

Either way, you will want to market to attract buyers at this stage. Guides and how-tos that go into detail about the many ways that they can solve their related problem are great places to start. Not only can you insert your own product or service as a solution, but you can also showcase your skills and knowledge on the subject and win over their trust.

3. Comparison

Before people buy, they often want to compare to make sure that they are getting the best item. You can create guides or online tools that make it easy for them to compare and see why your product is the best.

4. Buy

The final stage is to buy the item. You can encourage more sales by going through the entire buying process to ensure it is streamlined and efficient.

Improve Efficiency to Streamline Sales

If there is any sort of hiccup, you could lose a sale.

1. Audit and Fix Online Sales

Regularly go .through and audit the entire buying process to ensure that there is nothing wrong with the checkout process. If you can, try to get customers to create an account in exchange for discounts or shipping tracking. It’s an easy and effective way to get them to agree to signing up to your mailing list, at which time you can retarget them through loyalty programs and work to build a lifelong relationship.

2. Use Automation to Improve Sales

Your entire business must be streamlined. This means there should be minimal time when a product is out of stock before a new shipment comes in. Use software to automate many of these tasks to reduce downtime and improve sales.

Improve the Efficiency of Your On-The-Road Sales Team

When salespeople go door to door, they need to be courteous and helpful. Anything less and you can turn a potential sale into a door slam before you know it. One of the biggest reasons a sale doesn’t go through is if it takes far too long for a rep to visit a potential client. It doesn’t matter if it’s for a free evaluation or not. People have busy lives and waiting around for a salesperson to convince them that they need something is not what they have in mind for their day.

That is why you need to do all you can to improve the efficiency of those on the ground. To do this, it is recommended that you use a Sales Route Planner. This software is simple and efficient and can even be tacked on to your existing CRM program so that you benefit from an integrated approach.

Create highly efficient routes and manage your remote teams in real-time. Get your team at their appointments on time, turn losses into gains, and improve the ROI of your efforts.

Collaborate and Expand

Always look to collaborate. Partnering with businesses, expanding your offerings, and generally looking to new markets to expand is how you will continue to increase sales. It won’t always pan out, so use metrics like unique discount codes to determine what works, and what doesn’t.

You may find that your business does a lot better working on the B2B stage than it does with B2C. In that case, there is an entirely new market and new way of selling that prioritizes physical salespeople over automated systems. Work to your strengths every time you try something new and be prepared to tweak and adjust your strategy as you go.

Improving sales is the goal of every business, but you must take a long-term approach in order to see success on the grand stage. Repeat business and business partnerships are far more lucrative, so market and sell with this goal in mind and you’ll find greater success in your efforts.

The Right Foundation for Your Career Advancement Strategy

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StrategyDriven The Advisor’s Corner Article |Career Advancement|The Right Foundation for Your Career Advancement StrategySeveral years ago I was invited to coach a competitive healthcare executive who wanted to be the best healthcare CEO in the region. I’ll refer to him as Bob. Confident he was already a great leader, Bob basked in the “celebrity” status he enjoyed as a business influencer in the community. However, Bob’s career advancement strategy had not panned out as he had hoped. For example, although he’d achieved the CEO role, his compensation was less than he believed he deserved. This was due, at least in part, to the underperformance of members of his leadership team. Despite the external image Bob projected, he still struggled privately with feelings of inadequacy.

From the beginning, Bob had taken a thoughtful approach to his career advancement, but the design of his strategy overlooked a key element: character development. In my experience, character, defined as one’s mental and moral qualities, is the foundation for effective professional development and career advancement. Lacking the foundational development of one’s character, career progress may be halting, hollow (e.g., gaining the CEO title and position without the corresponding compensation), or otherwise unsatisfying.

To incorporate Bob’s character into our coaching work, I needed to evaluate the stage of character development he was in — and perhaps stuck in. Using six of the seven stages I’ve identified and work with, Bob was in one of these stages: Beginning, Yuckiness, Fear, Authenticity, Boundaries, or Love. (The seventh stage is Exit, but Bob was not looking ahead to retirement.)

Assessing Bob’s place within the six stages wasn’t a simple process. Bob believed he was in the Boundaries stage and, to him, this stage included learning how to “make” his direct reports more responsible for their unsatisfactory performance. In Bob’s mind, he wasn’t advancing because of their deficiencies.

As it turned out, Bob’s self-assessment didn’t match my evaluation, which was decidedly more objective. From what I saw, it was evident Bob was still in the Fear stage of character development. How did I come to that conclusion? Well, for one thing, Bob was quick to react (versus respond) to issues that came up. And, he deflected blame. In fact, Bob habitually blamed his staff for anything that might reflect poorly on him; he used several fear-based behaviors to protect himself from his feelings of inadequacy. Furthermore, based on my work with other key leaders in the organization, Bob was blissfully unaware that his inconsistent and sometimes disingenuous leadership style caused any of the confusion and chaos throughout the organization.

I spent a considerable amount of time introducing insights, resources, and ideas Bob could connect with from his self-protective mindset, which is a characteristic of the Fear stage. I was ever so careful not to inadvertently reinforce his self-protective stance by overwhelming him or causing panic. In my work with Bob, my goal was to guide him to methodically evolve from the Fear stage to the next stage, Authenticity, where he could finally shed his fear-based behaviors. That milestone would represent a significant and positive leap in Bob’s professional growth, and it would open our development work to a whole new level of leadership behaviors that were inaccessible to Bob from the Fear stage.

In short, using character development as the foundation for professional development is, in my opinion, the most clear, caring, and powerful way to move individuals forward in their careers — and personal lives. This is why I encourage you to evaluate your stage of character development using the seven stages of the BY FABLE model: Beginning, Yuckiness, Fear, Authenticity, Boundaries, Love, and Exit.

The stages of the BY FABLE model will help you put your development in a context that allows you to be more objective and self-observant. Once you evaluate which stage you’re in, you can use that information to determine which resources, experiences, or insights will help you grow your character at work.

The BY FABLE model will work at any point in your career. Stage by stage, this framework for character development helps you find the clarity necessary to achieve greater fulfillment and success from your work, plus the career advancement you desire.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor |Terri JackeTerri Jacke is author of IS THIS A LOUSY JOB OR IS IT ME? A Real-Life Guide For Achieving Success At Work, a seasoned organizational development consultant, and founder of Inspired Training Institute, Inc. She holds an MS in Applied Leadership For Teaching and Learning from The University of Wisconsin. For more information please visit www.inspiredtraining.net.

Modern Day Screening: The Importance of Pre-Employment Testing to Discover the Ideal Job Candidates

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Pre-Employment Testing|Modern Day Screening: The Importance of Pre-Employment Testing to Discover the Ideal Job CandidatesJobs are becoming more technical and people have to learn more and do more to qualify for these positions. Employers don’t usually like to take a lot of time to screen applicants individually so instead they rely on other methods, such as testing to weed out those who are not a fit. Such testing is known as pre-employment testing and it is useful in helping employers screen for those who would be ideal to fit into their company. This article will address some of the measures taken to screen potential employees for possible job opportunities.

Things That Are in Pre-Employment Testing

It is critical on both sides of the employment grid for a test to be used to see who will be a good fit for each other. In these kinds of tests, a person’s personality traits, his or her characteristics, skills, behaviors, and thinking skills will be measured, especially in terms of the job being applied for. It saves time when a person can be sufficiently matched to a particular job function, facilitating the employment process. These tests will also check to see how advanced a person is in the use of software and other technical applications.

More Reasons Pre-Employment Testing is Valuable

One thing that must be carefully scrutinized is whether or not a given pre-employment screening has information that will fulfill the criteria necessary for proper matching. Some aspects of an individual simply cannot be captured in a test and will only come to the surface after a person is working for a while. Aptitude tests may be able to measure a person’s ability to learn but they will not be able to capture if that person actually has enough basic skills to begin the work. Some people test well but do not perform well in actual applications.

A Final Look at Pre-Employment Testing

Other tests that are used for pre-employment are personality profiles, drug screenings, and integrity testing, all of which have limited value. However, pre-employment tests can rapidly narrow down the list to people who are qualified for the next phase, interviewing. It will help the employers to minimize the chances of hiring an employee who is surely a bad fit, and reduce the turnover rate in the company. As an added benefit, using an online format for pre-employment testing facilitates the screening and hiring process of employers, which is always desirable for those with limited time.

Final Tips of Pre-Employment Testing

Potential employers should make sure their pre-employment tests meet all the requirements of the Equal Employment Opportunity grid, so as to not be in danger of discrimination. They should avoid questions that are obviously too personal and have no bearing on the job being applied for. If they are using tests outside of their facility, they should thoroughly research the validity and integrity of the tests being used. The employers should ensure to use the right tests to arrive at the right information necessary for the jobs being applied for. The employers should not rely singularly on these tests for employment, but only use them as an initial base for the hiring process. Any future questions about these tests should be discussed with the agencies that originally put the tests together.

Find more entrepreneurship and investment ideas at businesstrex.com.

How Can Brand Identity Boost Your Online Business?

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Brand Identity|Brand Identity Design and How It Boosts Your E-CommerceIn the world of the internet, developing and maintaining a compelling and authoritative brand identity for your e-commerce organization is paramount for driving success and staying competitive. The e-commerce business environment is fiercely competitive and overwhelmed with too many businesses.

So, if you want to start your own business online, effective branding can help you achieve your business and marketing goals. Your brand identity allows you to attract the target audience, convey your brand message most effectively, project your values, and get ahead of the competition curve.

The success of your brand depends on how effective your brand identity is. This identity represents your business in all its splendor. Think of it as your business ID in the online business world. It’s how you present yourself to the world of consumers and one of your business’s most valuable assets.

The Importance of a Strong Brand Identity

There’s much more to your brand than just a logo. Although brand identity is the very personification of your business online, it’s just one aspect of effective branding. However, building a strong brand identity is the very foundation of your branding.

Here are a couple of good reasons why building a strong brand identity matters considerably for your success:

  • It allows you to develop a brand personality that your customers can relate to.
  • It helps shape the way your consumers perceive your business.
  • It projects the promises and expectations your business extends to your consumers in terms of trustworthiness, reliability, service, quality, and authoritativeness.
  • It helps establish a meaningful relationship with your target audience.
  • It helps create loyalty and trust from both your partners and customers.
  • It helps you become more relevant and competitive in your business niche.
  • It helps your consumers differentiate your brand from the competition.
  • It positively affects the purchasing decisions of your customers, directly resulting in higher profitability.

The Benefits of an Effective Brand Identity

A strong brand identity benefits your e-commerce business in several different ways.

1. Branding Makes Your Business Look Bigger and More Serious

We live in a visual world, where the average consumer’s attention span is no more than 5-10 seconds. Therefore, you need something captivating to grab the attention of your target audience.

When consumers see a professional brand that’s continuously providing consistent and relevant content on social media, website, and business cards, they start visualizing your company as worthy of their attention.

Modern consumers look for brands that offer real solutions to daily problems. More importantly, they won’t have any issues paying more if they perceive your business as well-organized and established.

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Brand Identity|Brand Identity Design and How It Boosts Your E-Commerce2. Your Brand Identity Gives You a Relatable Persona

Building a brand around your business is as much about you as it is about your consumers. They need a brand they can relate to, put their trust in, and get more than they expect with each interaction.

If you want to stand out from the rest and make people buy your products or hire your services, you’ll need to work on your branding efforts. A good brand identity is what gives your business a personality that your consumers can relate to. With a good relationship comes trust and, ultimately, respect.

3. Trust and Loyalty

If a brand develops a loyal following, they won’t be having any trouble with getting ahead of the competition. More importantly, a strong and unique brand makes a difference in the marketplace too.
By conveying your brand’s values, you can build a meaningful and emotional long-term connection with your target audience. The main result of that connection will be improved customer loyalty.

When customers are loyal and happy, they tend to talk about you and recommend your brand to people they know. After all, word of mouth is still the number one marketing tool.

4. Conveys Stability

Building and investing in maintaining a strong brand identity allows you to present your business as authoritative, successful, prosperous, and stable. A well-organized and defined brand identity speaks volumes about your business and sends a clear message that you’re the one consumers should be talking to.

5. Makes Your Brand Memorable

Modern consumers are all about consistency. They appreciate brands that invest in an effort to satisfy their needs and overcome their expectations. Building a brand identity is all that and more.

Aside from providing your consumers with exceptional customer service and user experience, a strong brand identity helps your consumers memorize you and remember your business.

If you consistently keep your brand identity accessible via all available communication channels, your prospects will see your brand. The more they see your business, the more likely they are to reach out and contact you.

Tips on Developing a Strong Brand Identity

Since a strong brand identity is one of the main driving factors of success, the following tips should help you develop and take control of your brand identity in a way that matches your business and marketing strategy.

Start with a visual identity!

The first step toward developing a strong branding is creating your visual identity. It has to align with your business and marketing strategy and goals, as well as your business vision.

More importantly, it has to send a clear message about your company, culture, and mission. Hopefully, it will be enough to entice your target audience to start being interested in what you have to offer.
Pay special attention to your online reputation!

Regardless of how successful you are or how strong your brand identity is, monitoring your online reputation should always be your top priority.

It puts you in control over how potential prospects and loyal consumers perceive your business and allows you to take advantage of ongoing and upcoming trends in your industry.

It also allows you to contact satisfied consumers who will be more than happy to say a few positive words about you online. You can never have enough positive reviews.

Always Deliver Top-Quality User Experience!

Modern consumers are more demanding than ever. They expect you to exceed their expectations. Therefore, aim to deliver the best user experience with each interaction and across all available communication channels.

Conclusion

Starting a business online is all about creating a strong brand identity design. Having everything you need for your business is one side of the coin while getting everything you need for building effective branding is the other.

Only by putting the two pieces together will you get ahead of the competition curve and keep your consumers happy. Keep in mind that your business focuses and vision have to be aligned with your brand identity.

Focus your brand on your customers, and you will reach a broader target audience. If you need help with your brand identity design, hiring creative design companies is the best way to get on top of your brand identity game.

They have both skills and knowledge it takes to come up with an effective and competitive design that will put your e-commerce business on the world map.

3 Best Content Writing Services for Your Business

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StrategyDriven Recommended Resources Article |Content Writing Services|3 Best Content Writing Services for Your BusinessImagine successful online business — this will be great content working behind the scenes. Connecting your business to new customers, retaining the regular ones, boosting your brand awareness and helping your company improve sales – this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to content and how it assists businesses in becoming better.

In this article we won’t be persuading you why it’s important to invest in content writing, as we will shed the light on services that can create the best content for your business.

What Content Writing Services You May Need

There are several types of content you may need. Let’s have a brief look at the most common ones:

SEO Content

This type works for your website to bring more traffic. To put it short, this is a combination of keywords and interesting info to drive your target audience to your business.

Press Release Writing

As soon as your company is thinking about releasing a new product or service, you may need this service. The professional writers will know exactly how to grab the attention of your target audience.

Ghostwriting

This is a general term for the type of writing that doesn’t involve publishing the writer’s name. The author gets paid, but their name remains uncredited. Usually, companies use such services for writing their articles, social media posts, banner ads, video scripts etc.

Dissertation Writing

Starting a business and completing your degree at the same time may not be the best idea. In both cases you have to go all in and be fully involved in the process to succeed. This is the reason why writing a thesis or dissertation can become an unnecessary distraction from business. Business owners may feel the need to get some dissertation writing help from specialized sites that write and edit theses and dissertations for students who are busy with their business.

Feature Writing

In case you need to keep your audience updated regarding the latest news in your niche, such type of content writing service will assist you greatly.

Instructional Design

Whether it’s in the form of an infographic or blog article, the aim is to choose a particular skill or need of a user, and present it in an interesting way, so that the reader will immerse in the content.

Business Writing

Whether it’s annual reports or any email newsletters, you pay professionals to craft this type of content flawlessly.

How Does Content Writing Service Work?

The idea is pretty simple. A business has a list of writing content that needs to be crafted on the regular basis. You choose a service, place your order for a particular type of content and expert writers get down to satisfying your requirements.

3 Best Content Writing Services for Your Business

Express Writers

StrategyDriven Recommended Resources Article |Content Writing Services|3 Best Content Writing Services for Your Business With 9+ years of experience, Express Writers have established the reputation of a trusted and professional content writing company that is ready to satisfy even the rigid demands.

Top Services: Blogs, Content Marketing, Email Newsletter, Adverts, Articles, Press Release, Storytelling, Website Content, Infographics.

Prices: Competitive prices ranging from $0,02-0,08 per word depending on the content level of complexity.

Benefits:

high quality;
around the clock support;
unlimited reviews;
100% unique content.

Drawbacks:

no refunds.

Contacts: You can send your request via email or call the company.

Crowd Content

StrategyDriven Recommended Resources Article |Content Writing Services|3 Best Content Writing Services for Your BusinessA simple and powerful platform to get your content done flawlessly and fast. With the client satisfaction rate of 4,4 out 5, the company always aims at creating impeccable custom made content.

Top Services: Article writing, Blog posts, Copywriting, Ghostwriting, SEO Content, Website Content, Product Descriptions, Press Releases.

Prices: The rates range from $0,02 to $0,45 per word depending on the requirements you have. Plus, you can calculate the price for your order with an online calculator on their website.

Benefits:

affordable rates;
client-oriented approach, as well as great client support;
100% unique content.

Drawbacks:

no refunds;
delivery times can be a bit slow.

Contact: 1-888-983-3103, or via Chatbot, through the web form on the website.

StrategyDriven Recommended Resources Article |Content Writing Services|3 Best Content Writing Services for Your BusinessScripted

A bit pricey solution, but perfect for huge companies interested in flawless content.

Top Services: Social Media Posts, Blog Posts, Press Releases, Video Scripts, Transcriptions, Web Pages, Newsletters, Product Descriptions.

Prices: a 30-day free trial, membership fees ranging from $149 to $1,299 per month.

Benefits:

first free month to using a platform;
offer refunds;
very fast response time;
unlimited reviews.

Drawbacks:

prices way above average.

Contact: 1(866) 501-3116, Chatbot, or through a website form.

Why Use Content Writing Services?

The competition for great digital content has become really rough. If you want your business to at least keep up with the times, or even better, stay ahead of your competitors, it’s vital to turn to expert content writers who know how to help your business prosper.