BCA

By Mike Krutza, Co-Author, Jodi Wiff

Cultivating Leaders In The Organization

Oftentimes it takes one person to get things going, to move to a certain  direction and to finally get to the destination. That person is a leader.  Startup businesses to multinational corporations want leaders, and these  institutions aim for one thing- to cultivate leaders to power their companies.  There is a hierarchy among leaders themselves and having one strong leader is  does not suffice.

In every department, there ought to be leaders synergistically  working to boost the resources of the organization. One of the best resources to  be able to discover and hone leaders in an organization is through leadership  training.

What makes good leaders? People who have the potential to be leaders, and as  preferred by companies ought to feel a sense of ownership and responsibility  towards the company. These are motivated and strong- willed individuals who  believe that what they do matters, and that they can do big things for the  company.

Among the ranks of your employees, there are those who have the  potential, and they are bound to be leaders. Bring out the leaders in these  promising individuals and utilize their potential for the benefit of the company  and everybody through leadership training.

What can leadership training do? Training people to be leaders will enhance  these leadership qualities.

Training To Boost Leadership Qualities

Leadership training boosts initiative. Initiative is taking the  extra mile and going beyond limitations. Is there an employee who takes time to  do extra work or doing what isn’t his or her job? Take notice of such person.  This characteristic exhibits drive and motivation, and this is among the  potentials of a leader. Reward these kinds of efforts and make means to improve  this motivation.

Leadership training boosts responsibility. There’s no passing the  buck for a leader. A leader knows how to take responsibility. Pay attention to  employees who sees to it that projects are accomplished on time and deliver  quality work. If an employee has been assigned to lead a project, does he or she  take charge to complete the task as expected? This is a sign of leadership  responsibility.

Leadership training boosts creativity. Creativity brings new ideas,  new inventions and astounding novelties. Creativity is the ability to think out  of the box and transcend the mundane. It is the passion to excel and exceed  expectations. It is going beyond the ordinary. Are there creative people in your  staff? These are employees whose work and ideas stand out. Creativity is a vital  quality in leadership.

Leadership training boosts people handling skills. Good  communication and interpersonal skills are musts in leadership. A leader knows  how to work well with fellow leaders and team members. Effective communication  skills of a leader will be able to resolve workplace issues and conflicts but  always taking into consideration others’ feelings. Most of all, a leader knows  feels real concern for the company.

Training leaders is bringing out the best to those who have been  called.

By the way, do you want to learn more about leadership in your company? If  so, download your FREE ebook here: Guide to Elegant Courage Leadership

Jodi and Mike specialize in executive coaching with individuals and teams. http://lighthouse-leadership.com

If you were to ask a person what a CRM is few years ago, chances are that  they won’t know what you are talking about. Nowadays, almost everyone in the  product and service industry knows about a CRM. In this article, I will discuss  the next step to customer service, the mobile CRM. Before going into the details  of mobile CRM for small businesses, let me you give a brief overview of what a  CRM software is.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is an electronic based data  management tool that provides a business with a streamlined system of data  gathering, storage, security and access. For example, the small business CRM  software is used to store customer related information such as name, address,  contact information and product or service availed of.

This information can be  accessed by any individual with proper security clearance either through a local  computer or online. Then the company can either assess a given customer or input  some more information such as last time called, concern, and date of resolution.

At any given time, different types of reports can also be made at the click of a  button such as number of complaints type of complaints, resolution time frame  and even disbursement dates.

Always remember, a small business CRM can be  tweaked to provide alerts at appropriate dates to make sure that a  representative does not forget important dates such as deadlines.

Mobile Small Business CRM: The Next Step

A small business CRM allowed business owners to easily access information  when they are in the office or if they have access to a computer. A mobile CRM  allows the same business owner to access substantially the same information via  mobile phones or tablet PC. This means that the ability to answer customer  queries, access data and record data is always with you 24 hours a day, seven  days a week.

A small business CRM in mobile form is not as simple as accessing the same  information viewable through your personal computer. This is not practical given  the difference in the size of the LED screen of a normal PC, even a laptop with  that of a mobile phone or a tablet.

Mobile CRM access means that a small  business CRM must undergo a few tweaks to make information concise and better  arranged to allow a slower processor to view and select data with ease.

Advantages of a Mobile Small Business CRM

Imagine yourself on a business trip with only your cellular phone or tablet  on hand. Your employee or co-worker calls you and says he has your customer on  the line and he wants to talk only to you. The customer is always right, so you  access your mobile internet browser, enter your security code and you are now  able to view the client’s portal.

You then take the call and smoothly process  the transaction. Detractors would argue that your co-worker or employee can do  the same job; however, actual business owners know that repeat customers are  made through personal rapport and loyalty.

Customers will also tell you that  they prefer to talk to one representative so that he or she does not have to  keep explaining the same thing over and over again.

And just before I drop my pen, if you need Expert Advice on How to Start a Business from scratch; please feel free to  visit my blog.

Make life easier and  simplify your business today by visiting http://www.maximizer.com.au/ for more information.

By Xavier A. Rault

Once upon a time, women managed the family finances, making decisions about  home purchases, clothing, food and other necessary items. If a store owner  provided poor service, there wasn’t much the customer could do. She might gossip  with the neighbors about it, or perhaps discuss it over a cup of coffee. But  ultimately, there was little competition for the store owner’s goods and the  complaints of one person had little impact. Life and profits – for the store  owner went on as usual.

Technology has changed the face of consumerism 

Fast forward to 2007. Technology has changed the face of consumerism,  empowering shoppers to be smarter, more demanding and more resourceful.

With  literally hundreds of retailers providing the same products at similar pricing,  today’s consumers have endless options and can tailor purchases based not just  on price or product availability, but on other variables like return policies,  ease of online purchasing and payment options.

Anger a customer today, and chances are the news will spread like wildfire  through YouTube, Myspace, Yelp, Angieslist and Amazon, as consumers “take to the  airwaves” to let other unsuspecting shoppers know of their experience.

According  to iProspect and Jupiter Research, 25 % of the U.S. population visits sites like  these at least once each month, sharing complaints and compliments about  retailers with other shoppers.

People rely on recommendations of other customers

In an online retail world where products can’t be  touched and the store owner has been replaced with a web page and Shopping Cart,  people have come to rely on the recommendations of other customers. Like the  shot heard “˜round the world, consumer complaints can and do make a  difference.

In just the past ten years, technology has turned most of us into savvy  Internet shoppers and driven prices downward, as consumers are able to purchase  24/7 and have their purchases delivered immediately. While this ability does not  negate the need for the human touch, many experts believe today’s technology is  just the tip of the iceberg.

Al Myers, senior vice president of TNS Retail Forward Inc., believes that  “for those consumers and companies who can handle it, technology will continue  to improve the whole proposition. It has to, because the industry can’t find  enough people, train enough people and the customer isn’t willing to pay for  better service when a competitor has it for a lower price.

Service with people makes it harder to compete

We’re not saying the  trusted salesperson will be replaced at Saks, Neiman’s or Nordstrom’s, but in  most of retail, providing service with people is going to make it harder for  them to compete.” Myers concluded, “It won’t be long before we are scanning  entire grocery carts and paying for its contents with a thumbprint. Mirrors will  send images to friends from dressing rooms, replacing the salesperson with the  vested interest in telling you it looks good.”

As retailers move from bricks  and mortar locations to Internet-driven environments, the balance between  operational needs and profits and customer demand for low prices and excellent  service will continue to be a difficult one. But will the customer experience  improve for those retailers who struggled with it to begin with?

As Myers noted, “The same companies that provide bad customer service will  provide bad technology and vice versa.”

Mystery  Shopping Companies Can Help You Reach Your Customers Expectations.  ICC/Decision Services (iccds.com) Can Help Your Customer Service Experience.

By Roses Mark

Due to arrival of Social Media everything has altered. An online community of  Twitter or Facebook users can make or break your business with their mobile  platforms. Your company or service may be getting hundreds or thousands of good  or bad reviews on the new mobile sites like Gowalla or Foursquare. Social  Network management is growing exponentially.

Social Media tools help integrate activities

It’s in a more efficient manner manages outbound & inbound interactions  along with other small business marketing activities. They rationalize and  strengthen how to participate in significant conversation happening around in  different platforms like blogs, networks, and other public or private web  communities and sites.

SMM tools also helps you integrate activities with your other business  marketing campaigns. Here are five tools that can make your life easier:

1. TweetDeck

TweetDeck is your best (free) tool if you’re looking to administer all your  personal social profiles. TweetDeck allows you to connect across Twitter,  Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare and Google Buzz. You can update all or  specific networks with the same status at one time.

TweetDeck is probably best when dealing with four or five accounts at a time,  though the dashboard is generally easy to use.

2. CoTweet

CoTweet is a brilliant tool for small businesses or division of larger  businesses that thrive social media duties among team members and have a  customer-service approach to engagement.

CoTweet allows follow-up messages to be assigned to specific managers. This  can make responses more pertinent as team members with upbeat knowledge bases  can handle appropriate questions and comments from followers.

3. HootSuite

HootSuitefree version allows you to add five networks and supports Facebook,  Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, MySpace, PingFm and WordPress.

HootSuite is best for actively-managed accounts because its design focuses on  streams, which are housed in customizable tabs. You have the elasticity to  organize tabs by account, network or content, making it easier to monitor a  definite type of feed.

4. Spredfast

Spredfast has everything you need for agencies managing social media with  high ROI demands.

Its biggest advantage over other SMM tools is analytics. Measurement is  determined by the amount of content distributed, how many people were reached  and whether the intended audience was engaged.

5. Engage 121

Engage121 is best in its class at encircling monitoring, broadcasting and  engagement.

The tool is extremely customizable and can support just about any site with a  community presence. Permissions may be set to allow & approve a message from  corporate before it is distributed to area followers, maintaining a local voice & brand consistency at the same time.

The process needs be sustained to maximize opportunities

In conclusion, follow these procedures and you will be successful in social  networking and marketing that will drive profits in your business. Using  networks includes making use of a process. Therefore, you need to remember to do  this on a regular basis so that you take full advantage and attract more  followers in the future.

Roses Mark is a Social Media enthusiast and an Internet entrepreneur. Spent  over 10 years working professionally with Internet business employers worldwide,  he frequently writes articles involving new-age, social media and personal  motivation. You can find him all around the web via Facebook, Google & on  Twitter as @Socialcubix

Team Work, Defined

Is your project team a team? Is it really a work group? Does it matter?

Defining the word “team” may seem academic, but it helps you to be clear about your work and what kind of team is needed. Different kinds of work require different ways of working. For example, a group that periodically shares information is different than a multi-disciplinary team whose work is integrated or a project team trying to solve a complex problem.

Here’s what you need to know: The more interdependent the group, the more complex the work, and the more diverse the group’s goals, the more attention must be paid to how the team functions.

By Wally Hauck

You may have heard the interesting story “allegedly found in a diary in  Magellan’s own handwriting”, which describes how the South Americans he first  encountered in the early 1500′s could see the boats that his explorers landed  in, but not the ships anchored offshore. As the story goes, only their shaman  was finally able to make out the ships offshore because he was open to the  possibilities of strange things from other worlds.

The story may or not be true but the lesson for Human Resources is valuable.  Being open to very new ideas from different worlds would be very useful for this  important function within an organization.

Performance review is a form of control

In my opinion, the current performance review process and rewards and  recognition are a form of control that is left over from the industrial age and  Taylor Scientific Management methods. Like the South Americans in 1500′s, HR  professionals are having trouble seeing a world without these outdated  management tools.

There are consultants today making a great living claiming the Millennial  Generation is very different and the workplace must adapt to their special  needs. I can agree that their behaviors and beliefs may be different because the  context within which they grew up.

Even I can remember the 60′s and how my  generation felt unique. We expressed ourselves in my new ways because of the  context of the 60′s. We had different music, lots of love, drugs, and anti-war  sentiments. The Millennial Generation has computers, iPods, iPhone, iPads, the  Internet, multi-tasking, social consciousness etc.

Each generation is NOT entitled to it’s own principles

Each generation is entitled to its own behaviors and tendencies. It is NOT  entitled to its own principles. The principles upon which the typical  performance review and pay for performance policies are based are flawed. The  shift from the menial task Industrial Age workplace to the complex system  knowledge age is shedding the bright light of truth on why and how these polices  no longer add value.

They don’t work anymore, not necessarily because of the  generational differences per se but because the nature of work has changed. We  don’t do menial tasks any more. Menial tasks can be done by computers. For  example, if we wish we can shop and then checkout at the grocery store without  even contacting a human.

We need less control and more freedom and choices

To function more effectively in the knowledge economy we need less control  and more freedom and choices. If we want to understand what the millennial  generation needs we can read the book Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. They want  the same things we all want including to know why and how our work makes a  difference to others. They want challenge, feedback, a sense of progress, and a  chance to focus on their work. They want to use their creativity and they want  freedom.

These principles of motivation don’t change over generations and they  don’t get satisfied with rewards and recognition and they certainly can be  damaged by the typical performance review. That is why as many as 60% of people  see either no value or see negative results immediately after participating in a  performance review.

I am hopeful HR professionals can begin to see the ships off shore soon.  Those ships are from the new knowledge economy and they don’t carry policies  that include the typical performance review or the typical pay for performance  policy.

Learn how to improve employee engagement in your team:
http://www.wallyhauck.com/

Learn to improve leadership skills:
The Art of Leading: 3 Principles for  Predictable Performance Improvement
http://www.wallyhauck.com/page.asp?PageID=10041

Greater ability to demonstrate efforts vs. financial impact of marketing programs

According to Sagefrog Marketing Group, 68% of US business-to-business (B2B) companies allocate 5% or less of their company revenue on marketing. For an enterprise-level company, this could mean millions of dollars. But for SMBs, marketing money could be much tighter.

Although April 2011 data from Forrester Research suggested companies with 100 to 499 employees tend to allocate a slightly higher percentage of their company revenues to marketing than companies with more than 1,000 employees, these percentages still remain only a tiny wedge of total company revenue.

Given how tightly B2B companies tie marketing budget to company revenue, one would assume the majority of companies are closely measuring the effect of their marketing efforts on their bottom line.

 

Only one of three B2B marketers now report financial metrics to management 

However, research from Lenskold and the Pedowitz Group indicated only about one in three B2B marketers worldwide report financial-contribution metrics to senior management.

Though a third of B2B marketers track revenue metrics associated with marketing-generated opportunities, closed deals and percent of total sales, 35% said they do not report any financial-contribution metrics to executives.

Slightly fewer (33%) did not track return on investment (ROI) at all this year—a percentage mostly unchanged since 2009, indicating little movement on the part of B2B companies worldwide toward holding their marketing departments more accountable for the company’s bottom line.

 Marketing-performance related metrics is the norm now

For now, it appears marketers are more likely to be held accountable for marketing-performance-related metrics. More than half (58%) report the number of marketing-qualified leads to senior management and 48% track the number of opportunities generated. Far fewer B2B marketers report lower-funnel metrics like percent of opportunities converting to closed sales (40%) and number of days from lead to closed sale (20%)—a particularly important metric to understand for proper campaign flight and window of measurement.

Undoubtedly, these types of metrics are much easier to track and report than financial-related metrics that require a closed-loop reporting setup that takes time, effort and financial investment on the part of marketers and internal stakeholders. For example, the marketing department must work closely with sales to align metrics and often must invest in CRM technology or software to accurately track campaign influence through the life of the sales cycle.

Those B2B marketers who are able to move beyond performance-related metrics will not only be able to better justify their existing efforts, but also their future marketing budgets.

For complete data charts and story, go to e-Marketer.com