by Baskar Sundaram | Sep 5, 2019 | Business Winning, customer, Growth, Sales, Strategy
It is often believed that more choices are better. Businesses believe in offering a variety of products ranging in colour and models in the hope that it will attract customers. It is easy to believe that more options and freedom of choice make customers happy but this is far from the truth.
Choices Are Overwhelming
When you give people a multitude of options they become overwhelmed. If at all they do make a choice, they often contemplate about what they had to “sacrifice” or not choose when they made their decision. They wonder if a different decision would have made them happier. This leads to unhappiness and never being fully happy with their final choice.
This applies to buyers as well. When you offer more choices to a buyer, chances are higher that he will not buy anything. Too many options lead to anxiety and inevitably, inaction.
Making a decision is a mentally stressful and emotionally taxing process. Considering the varying factors, while making a choice, makes the entire process even more difficult. That’s why buyers find it easier to say a no than saying yes to any one of the options.
Choosing Should Be Easy
Make the entire buying process simple by cutting down your offers. Give your buyers single choice. It should be whether they should buy something or not. In every scenario you must ensure that the decision to purchase is made simple, easy and quick.
Eradicate and remove all unnecessary factors that might prolong or distress the customer. It most cases, it the vast number of options that scare away potential customers.
Simple Yes Or No
Simplicity of choices must be seen even in your marketing and sales messages. Let people make a simple choice within a limited time period.
This does not mean that you offer a single product every time. Consider your target audience and their budget and income. The idea is to provide three different levels of service to accommodate people with varying budgets and needs. This is also called “Olympic Factor Pricing.”
This is especially important when you are selling high end or costly items. It need not be taken into consideration with cheaper products because more products only complicate the process and the complication is not worth the end result.
Simplification Is Key
Reducing your options can also be applied in your marketing strategies. When you want people to share your content online, provide them with lesser options. Choose one or two of the best platforms that appeal to your audience and do not clutter your site with other icons and options.
The same can be applied for e-mail marketing. Do not overwhelm customers with innumerable offers and choices through a simple e-mail. Instead, stick to one major offer which the customer will be automatically drawn to.
Keep your homepage and websites relatively simple and user friendly. Do not bombard potential clients with your latest products and news. A simple website will be easier to navigate and let buyers make their decision.
All in all, if a business wants to improve its sales it must take away the customers’ freedom of choice by removing options. This will make customers happier and earn you profit in the long run.
by Baskar Sundaram | Sep 3, 2019 | Growth, leadership, Sales and Business Development, Team Buildng, Uncategorized
Technology improvements, financial downturns, and business model shifts – these are all common challenges that may prompt you to consider laying off employees.No one wants to go through layoffs. But, it happens, and in a lot of cases, it is necessary for the survival of a business.
Here are 5 tips to consider when laying off an employee.
1. Let Employees Know Where They Stand
An employee should not be surprised that he or she is being fired. Rather than simply commanding folks to pack their things and leave, respectful employers explain the reasons behind the layoffs. Whether the employee is not performing up to the standard or does not fit within their team, you need to be clear about the problems.
Provide precise details about issues such as customer complaints, improper behavior during meetings, missed deadlines or failure to meet sales targets. Meet the employee and give them examples of problems regarding performance or behavior.
2. Go One-On-One
Notify the employees of the decision in private before the word is out. They should be told respectfully, behind closed doors. Allow them to take the news and figure out what they are going to do with it before they have to face their co-workers.
3. Allow For Goodbyes
Standard layoff policy seems to require terminated workers to leave the building immediately, but that is often not necessary. In most cases, it is recommended that folks be permitted a chance to say goodbye to coworkers. And there is absolutely no need, under normal circumstances, to have someone escorted to the door by a security guard or supervisor.
Keep in mind that terminated workers are recent employees, not ordinary citizens. When possible, it is even better to let workers transfer their responsibilities in an orderly way, perhaps training others who will take over their former jobs.
4. Ease The Transition
Ease workers’ transition to other employment. For example provide resources to help laid-off workers find jobs, register for unemployment benefits or return to school.
By providing outplacement services, you are helping folks in your community and generating goodwill with the people being let go and those remaining.
5. Remember The Remaining Workers
With fewer employees, it is more crucial than ever to maintain productivity and keep your company running. That is why you cannot neglect the workers who are left behind–often with high levels of concern about their job security and new tasks they may be asked to undertake.
Mention clearly about job duties and expectations, especially if workers will be asked to take on tasks earlier handled by others. Furthermore, talk about each employee’s performance and what led to decisions about who to keep and who to let go. These discussions help people understand what they can do to keep their jobs. And if there is a chance there will be future layoffs, it is fair to let employees know you will continually evaluate the situation.
by Baskar Sundaram | Aug 28, 2019 | Business Winning, Growth, Sales and Business Development, Strategy
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Increasing sales revenue is a key process of developing a company successfully, but doing so is not so easy. To make matters more complicated, increasing sales does not always lead to an increment in revenue. This makes even the best advertising techniques fall short of serving towards the business objectives for profit and growth.
But if effective marketing is not enough, what is a business supposed to do to increase their sales revenue and promote healthy growth?
Here are some tips to increase your sales revenue,
1. Map Out Your Current Processes
Most businesses have an informal sales process, where everyone sort of knows what is supposed to happen and who does what.
The first thing you will want to do is plan out these informal processes to get a formal understanding of all the steps to making a sale.
2. Define Your Key Performance Indicators
Writing down your processes will allow you to track prospects as they advance from one step to the next. This will allow you to estimate how many leads successfully move through your pipeline. You will also know how long it takes to finish a sale on average from start to finish.
3. Follow-Up And Measure Performance
Conducting sales meetings are a good way to ensure a regular analysis of sales data. The purpose of the meeting should be to decide what possibilities are in the pipeline and how leads are moving through the process.
Your key performance indicators can also be used to estimate individual performance. Employees usually appreciate the transparency of understanding how they are judged. It can also be a great way to encourage friendly competition within your team.
4. Use Technology To Simplify Monitoring
Your next step should be to centralize all your client and contact information. This database can be in a simple form of a spreadsheet, but as your business grows, you will probably want to spend on customer relationship management software.
5. Start Forecasting Your Sales
You can think of your processes as a funnel or pipeline. By measuring your progress rate at every step, you will be able to determine the inputs you need to accomplish your sales goals.
6. Develop Your Competitive Advantage
The customers need a reason for buying your products or services, in terms of the benefits, results or outcomes which they would not get from purchasing from your competitor.
7. Increase Your Sales
After you have planned your processes and set a prediction, it becomes simple enough to increase your sales.
Two ways to do this are to,
- Increasing Your Average Order Size (sell more products)
Consider granting discounts for larger orders, free shipping for orders over a certain threshold, or upselling and cross-selling items.
- Improving Your Conversion Rate (sell more frequently)
you can also tweak your sales script, create offers that are more appealing and provide additional training to your sales staff.
by Baskar Sundaram | Aug 27, 2019 | Business Winning, entrepreneur, Growth, Sales and Business Development
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Entrepreneurs are mostly afraid to spend money or invest in their business during economic downtime or recession. It should be understood that even recession can be an ideal time to invest in your business and expand it.
Such a time can offer ample opportunities for innovative and creative businessmen. Most people choose to be inactive in such dire times and hope that things get better. But a successful businessman will prepare his business for growth when the economy turns around.
Given below are some ways by which you can remain active during a recession
Study Your Finances
Carefully study your financial statements and balance sheet. Try to see if your business is on survival mode and if you have any additional capital that can be used for expansion or other operational activities. Study your credit statements and agreements and see if there is room for negotiation and repayment flexibility. Check your credit terms with your suppliers and see that everything is effective.
Improve Operational Efficiency
This is one of the best times to improve the overall operational efficiency of the company. Start by eliminating unnecessary processes and expenses. Be sure that your processes are effective and deliver the expected results. Avoid overproduction and using under-trained employees. Ensure that your product quality is not compromised. Almost all businesses will be affected by a recession. This offers great opportunities for you to acquire products and supplies at a lower price from sellers. You can also invest in equipment and technology that will help is optimizing your production.
Invest in external business consultancies and experts who will help you in spotting and identifying areas in which you can be more efficient. Such professionals can also help in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your company and how you can enhance and overcome them respectively.
Expand To New Markets
During an economic downturn, competition diminishes. It becomes an ideal time for exploring new markets. Assess your market and explore your options. You can consider a potential partnership with other companies to enter into new markets.
Another way to expand your market is to launch a new product or improving existing products. Keep up with your customers’ needs and provide them with the needed products and services. Make sure that you do better than your competition.
Encourage Teamwork
Include your employees during discussions and encourage your team to generate new ideas that will help boost your company. Employees might provide a different outlook or insight into the market changes and needs.
Always keep a positive outlook even during tough times. It is difficult to invest during unsure times but with proper research, your investment will prove to be fruitful down the line.
by Baskar Sundaram | Aug 26, 2019 | entrepreneur, Growth, Sales and Business Development, Team Buildng
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Honesty is a fundamental aspect of a business because it establishes the tone for the sort of work culture that you want to build, provides consistency in workplace behavior, and creates loyalty and trust in customers and prospects.
Managing a business that takes pride in being moral and socially responsible is a challenge, and many businesses end up cutting a few corners in the name of profit. But, it is nearly impossible for a business to develop trust if honesty is not a guiding policy in how the company handles every phase of its work process.
In the business world, there is sometimes a mindset that small lies are acceptable if they are well-intentioned or push you toward a goal. It is a mentality where ‘the ends justify the means’, and it is a common mentality that people have. However, lying in the workplace can generate a lot of negative effects.
Here are some ways that dishonesty can do to hurt you and your company:
It erodes the trust your employees have in you.
For a leader to be efficient, employees must trust that the leaders are fit to lead. When you hide the truth or tell a lie, you show to your employees that the truth doesn’t matter to you. That increases the likelihood that they’ll lie to you and one another.
It can affect your ability to get clients and investors.
Some people are good at sensing dishonesty. If you run into a business associate who is good at spotting dishonesty, they might take your lack of honesty as a sign that they should not do business with you.
Dishonesty triggers a stress response in the body.
This stress response stops us from staying in the present. When stress hormones are released, they stimulate our “fight or flight” response. Necessary resources are taken away from functions that are considered to be non-essential. That includes the neocortex of the brain, which controls all high-level, logical thinking. Hence, we can say, dishonesty makes you less intelligent at that moment, and thus unable to make good decisions. And that can hurt you in almost every area of your business.
On the brighter side,
Here are some ways that honesty can help you and your company:
It Establishes Your Work Culture
Honesty is one of the most effective ways to establish a work culture that will propel your company to long-term success. Work culture is all about the values and beliefs that motivate everything your company does, from how it delivers its products to the way it treats customers. As a manager, the importance you place on honesty can create the kind of work culture in which your employees feel empowered.
It Creates Consistent Workplace Behavior
When you plan a culture built on honesty, you also help encourage better workplace behavior and activity that is constant regardless of outside influences. In other words, your employees will work with a consistent code of ethics regardless of the conditions.
It Builds Trust With Your Customers
Businesses spend years building loyalty and trust with their customers, and a key way of building that trust is honesty. When customers see that a business does things the honest way and cares about producing a quality product or service, they tend to reward that business.
