When considering how to increase your sales and win over a bigger share of your market, ethics may not be the first thing to come to mind. And perhaps it shouldn't be the first thing, either, but it certainly ought to achieve a decent position in your list. First of all, let's quickly define what I'm talking about when considering ethics from a business point of view. It can include;
• Fair trade
• Equal rights (for ethnic minorities and women within the company)
• Carbon neutrality
• Eco-awareness
• Community relations (e.g. giving back to the town/s in which you are present)
There are of course further aspects, but the above 5 make out the foundation. Taking a stand, as a business, and publicly showing your commitment to all or any of the above ethic areas will have a positive effect on the way your organisation is viewed by society at large. An excellent example of this principle can be found in The Body Shop who famously made an incredible impact on the world of cosmetics with its fair trading policies, and quickly grew to become one of the major players in its market (however it has since been bought by L'oreal).
Even if you don't choose to take a firm stance and make ethics one of your main selling points, completely ignoring it can be incredibly bad for business, especially if your main competitors take a different approach. In fact, ethics and morals have brought entire markets to their knees; fur trade, for example, has been severely damaged by the lack of ethics involved. This is not a rule without exception, of course, as aptly demonstrated by Ryan Air who, while one of the biggest airlines in Europe, are famous for their complete disregard of ethics.
Further, it is very important that you are aware of the differing ethic priorities in different markets. What is OK in one country may be very against general acceptance, or even the law, in another. As such, always research ethics before entering a new market.
If you liked this article, and wish to read other articles like it, check out my blog at http://www.EntrepreneuRealism.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martin_Jonsson
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Selling Yourself - High Ethics & Values Helps to Determine Your Sales Success
In sales, great salespersons demonstrate high ethics and values every day by how they react to rejection, criticism and compliments. From my experience, there are a lot of tight shorts (my husband's words) in the market place. People appear to be looking as to how to criticize first instead of demonstrating how to compliment first and then offer constructive criticism. Additionally, there are a lot of knowledge egos in the marketplace.
When working with clients, one of the first activities that I have them engage in is to construct their own values statement. Many professional sales persons along with their companies have not invested the time to write down those non-negotiable 24/7 behaviors. Here is my values statement for my company:
ADVANCED SYSTEMS' values will continually raise the B.A.R. for our clients and stakeholders
Build long term relationships
Achieve sustainable results
Results that deliver positive return on investment
Daily behaviors will demonstrate creativity, faith, gratitude, intelligence, innovation, intuition, learning, patience, quality work, reflection, respect, risk taking and thoughtfulness as we work with our clients and meet new individuals.
When criticism is received regardless if it is rude or constructive, I remember that being patient, respectful and thoughtful are 24/7 behaviors and I cannot allow my emotions to violate my core positive values. Of course, this does require sometimes for me to count to 10 or maybe even 100 especially if I believe that I am correct. Sales Training Coaching Tip: For it is our beliefs that drive our actions creating our results.
This is especially true when using the written word found in emails. How many times do we read the email with a certain emotional attachment to it? And if we know the person, sometimes we can even believe we are hearing her or his actual spoken words including the reflections, pauses, speed and even mispronunciations.
Taking criticism on the chin and then responding in a professional manner shows not only high ethics and values, but overall great leadership. So the next time, you receive an email that is not necessarily complimentary or even a rude (using inappropriate language) to somewhat abrasive comment on your blog, remember to breathe first and take time to reflect before you respond. In the end by taking these actions, you will truly be the person who is demonstrating high ethics and values and this will serve you well.
Here are some quotes on anger to help you keep from reacting with regret:
He who angers you conquers you. ~ Elizabeth Kenny
Never write a letter while you are angry. ~ Chinese Proverb
Speak when you are angry - and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. ~ Dr. Laurence J. Peter
Always keep your composure. You cannot score from the penalty box; and to win, you have to score. ~ Bobby Hull
The greatest remedy for anger is delay. ~ Seneca
Selling yourself is almost a constant 24/7 endeavor. By remembering these words or some others of your own choosing can quickly set you apart as the Red Jacket in the sea of gray values.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com
When working with clients, one of the first activities that I have them engage in is to construct their own values statement. Many professional sales persons along with their companies have not invested the time to write down those non-negotiable 24/7 behaviors. Here is my values statement for my company:
ADVANCED SYSTEMS' values will continually raise the B.A.R. for our clients and stakeholders
Build long term relationships
Achieve sustainable results
Results that deliver positive return on investment
Daily behaviors will demonstrate creativity, faith, gratitude, intelligence, innovation, intuition, learning, patience, quality work, reflection, respect, risk taking and thoughtfulness as we work with our clients and meet new individuals.
When criticism is received regardless if it is rude or constructive, I remember that being patient, respectful and thoughtful are 24/7 behaviors and I cannot allow my emotions to violate my core positive values. Of course, this does require sometimes for me to count to 10 or maybe even 100 especially if I believe that I am correct. Sales Training Coaching Tip: For it is our beliefs that drive our actions creating our results.
This is especially true when using the written word found in emails. How many times do we read the email with a certain emotional attachment to it? And if we know the person, sometimes we can even believe we are hearing her or his actual spoken words including the reflections, pauses, speed and even mispronunciations.
Taking criticism on the chin and then responding in a professional manner shows not only high ethics and values, but overall great leadership. So the next time, you receive an email that is not necessarily complimentary or even a rude (using inappropriate language) to somewhat abrasive comment on your blog, remember to breathe first and take time to reflect before you respond. In the end by taking these actions, you will truly be the person who is demonstrating high ethics and values and this will serve you well.
Here are some quotes on anger to help you keep from reacting with regret:
He who angers you conquers you. ~ Elizabeth Kenny
Never write a letter while you are angry. ~ Chinese Proverb
Speak when you are angry - and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. ~ Dr. Laurence J. Peter
Always keep your composure. You cannot score from the penalty box; and to win, you have to score. ~ Bobby Hull
The greatest remedy for anger is delay. ~ Seneca
Selling yourself is almost a constant 24/7 endeavor. By remembering these words or some others of your own choosing can quickly set you apart as the Red Jacket in the sea of gray values.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
TOTAL QAULITY MANAGEMENT - THE 5 CARDINAL OBJECTIVES
Quality is defined as providing products and services that meet the negotiated needs of internal and external customers. Doing the right things right the first time, every time. From this definition the following come through easily as cardinal objectives of total quality management.
1) To make workers understand the importance of everyone in the supplier-customer chain. The contribution of each person affects the quality of the final product. Everyone is both a supplier and a customer: customer to those who supply his requirements to be able to perform his duties and supplier to those who use the result of his work.
2) Accountability. By breaking jobs down and assigning specific and well-defined responsibilities to each person who has been given commensurate authority to act, each person has responsibility for the quality of his output.
3) To make workers appreciate the need for cooperation and team-work. It is like a game of football, every department, every individual is important and there must be effective cooperation among all for the organization to be able to score good and quality goals in the market place (i.e. meet the negotiated needs of consumers).
4) Measurability. In order to produce quality final product, output must be measurable at every level for effective monitoring and evaluation for the purpose of timely intervention and corrective action whenever output is suspected to fall sort of quality.
5) To ensure commitment to continuous improvement. Nothing is static, what is new today will soon become outdated and what is quality today will become substandard. Consumer needs and requirements are ever changing hence organizations must strive for continuous improvements and be proactive to technological and other changes in the environment to avoid decay
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adeola_Adedayo
1) To make workers understand the importance of everyone in the supplier-customer chain. The contribution of each person affects the quality of the final product. Everyone is both a supplier and a customer: customer to those who supply his requirements to be able to perform his duties and supplier to those who use the result of his work.
2) Accountability. By breaking jobs down and assigning specific and well-defined responsibilities to each person who has been given commensurate authority to act, each person has responsibility for the quality of his output.
3) To make workers appreciate the need for cooperation and team-work. It is like a game of football, every department, every individual is important and there must be effective cooperation among all for the organization to be able to score good and quality goals in the market place (i.e. meet the negotiated needs of consumers).
4) Measurability. In order to produce quality final product, output must be measurable at every level for effective monitoring and evaluation for the purpose of timely intervention and corrective action whenever output is suspected to fall sort of quality.
5) To ensure commitment to continuous improvement. Nothing is static, what is new today will soon become outdated and what is quality today will become substandard. Consumer needs and requirements are ever changing hence organizations must strive for continuous improvements and be proactive to technological and other changes in the environment to avoid decay
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adeola_Adedayo
HOW TO BECOME A GREAT COMPANY
The most profitable organizations are not necessarily the best. Exceeding your annual financial projections does not mean that employees and customers perceive you as a great company. If you are the #1 profit generator in your industry, you as the business owner or CEO have achieved great accomplishment. But can you really identify if you are a great company in all elements of the organization.
It just takes one critical mistake by the leadership team in any company, and you can hit rock bottom very fast. We have seen many examples of this in the past years so their is no need to elaborate.
So how do you as a business owner, president, executive, or manager, lead your team in a significant direction to produce a great company. One key element we must all understand is that know matter what industry you work in; technology, sales, retail, education, marketing, or finance, we are always working with people and leading people. "Your people is your greatest asset, and if you can inspire and motivate them to operate on a high-level every single day, then you will create opportunities to develop into a great company".
There are "four key leadership strategies" that I want to give you that will create opportunities and the positive and exceptional environment you will need to become great.
1. Hire true leaders, not followers: Have your HR department or a consultant restructure the interviewing questions and analyze the hiring process to identify key opportunities for significant improvement. Why? Because "great leaders" are the ones who produce and develop great companies!
2. Listen very carefully to your employees ideas and embrace their ideas and suggestions: Your people are on the front line and they have the key experiences with customers, therefore they understand the companies systems. They know what produces value and what does not. Many employees have ideas to improve the companies bottom line, but if the leadership team does not ask them for their ideas, it becomes a missed opportunity. "Change that now, and talk to your employees".
3. Develop an organizational culture of positive communication and positive energy: There are many ways to do this, and I just gave you one in the second strategy, but here is another. Let your employees know from "day one", that negative talk and negative energy will not be tolerated. In addition, communicate a positive and powerful leadership statement daily. Here is one to consider: "ABC Corporation works very hard to meet our customers needs, and we help our employees reach their maximum potential". Communicate this among your peers every single day until it becomes a "philosophy".
4. Develop your leaders decision-making skills: This is every leaders responsibility, however, if you want to be a great company and sustain long-term success, you have to develop, mentor, and teach your employees to make great decisions in the mist of adversity and complex situations. How do you do this?
Very simple: Have daily meetings in the range of 5 -15 minutes and brainstorm situations and incidents that could potentially hurt or damage your companies reputation or bottom line. After a quick brainstorming session, have your employees communicate their solutions and strategic decisions to handle the problem effectively. "Not only will your employees decision-making skills dramatically improve, but you will increase your employees confidence".
There are many more leadership strategies that you can implement to produce great opportunities to become a great company and inspire your employees, but if you master these four, you will see "significant improvement" in several areas of your organization. There is no time to waste, get started today!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alexander_Mobley
It just takes one critical mistake by the leadership team in any company, and you can hit rock bottom very fast. We have seen many examples of this in the past years so their is no need to elaborate.
So how do you as a business owner, president, executive, or manager, lead your team in a significant direction to produce a great company. One key element we must all understand is that know matter what industry you work in; technology, sales, retail, education, marketing, or finance, we are always working with people and leading people. "Your people is your greatest asset, and if you can inspire and motivate them to operate on a high-level every single day, then you will create opportunities to develop into a great company".
There are "four key leadership strategies" that I want to give you that will create opportunities and the positive and exceptional environment you will need to become great.
1. Hire true leaders, not followers: Have your HR department or a consultant restructure the interviewing questions and analyze the hiring process to identify key opportunities for significant improvement. Why? Because "great leaders" are the ones who produce and develop great companies!
2. Listen very carefully to your employees ideas and embrace their ideas and suggestions: Your people are on the front line and they have the key experiences with customers, therefore they understand the companies systems. They know what produces value and what does not. Many employees have ideas to improve the companies bottom line, but if the leadership team does not ask them for their ideas, it becomes a missed opportunity. "Change that now, and talk to your employees".
3. Develop an organizational culture of positive communication and positive energy: There are many ways to do this, and I just gave you one in the second strategy, but here is another. Let your employees know from "day one", that negative talk and negative energy will not be tolerated. In addition, communicate a positive and powerful leadership statement daily. Here is one to consider: "ABC Corporation works very hard to meet our customers needs, and we help our employees reach their maximum potential". Communicate this among your peers every single day until it becomes a "philosophy".
4. Develop your leaders decision-making skills: This is every leaders responsibility, however, if you want to be a great company and sustain long-term success, you have to develop, mentor, and teach your employees to make great decisions in the mist of adversity and complex situations. How do you do this?
Very simple: Have daily meetings in the range of 5 -15 minutes and brainstorm situations and incidents that could potentially hurt or damage your companies reputation or bottom line. After a quick brainstorming session, have your employees communicate their solutions and strategic decisions to handle the problem effectively. "Not only will your employees decision-making skills dramatically improve, but you will increase your employees confidence".
There are many more leadership strategies that you can implement to produce great opportunities to become a great company and inspire your employees, but if you master these four, you will see "significant improvement" in several areas of your organization. There is no time to waste, get started today!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alexander_Mobley
Monday, May 3, 2010
SOME OF THE BEST THOUGHT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES
You must have heard a lot about money management, in the same way you must have read about time management skills. Surprisingly, the topic of thought management has not been discussed like that, probably because the notion of thought management is not as practical as money management or time management (knowing that our brain is a much more complex thing than those profit and loss statements or time tables). Still, thought management is an equally important topic with a direct impact on our ambitions. All of these multi-national companies, business tycoons and huge organizations must have started from thoughts. Negative thoughts result in stress, panic and the sense of helplessness. Positive thoughts invoke calmness, self control and composure.
You must learn to treat these thoughts as mere thoughts which have no control over the course of your life, otherwise negative or distracting thoughts will consume lots of time and energy. They can shatter your confidence and halt your progress. It's hard to hold back thoughts from coming to your mind. It's only natural for our brain to keep working all the time, which means there will be some thoughts going on in your mind, all the time. So, how are you supposed to manage negative thoughts if you aren't even able to stop them? Answer is that even though you cannot get rid of these thoughts altogether, you can replace them with thoughts of your liking.
First thing is to analyze your thought pattern more closely; most of our thoughts are being triggered by some specific situations and circumstances. For example, you'll find out that negative thoughts seem to wane when you are in company of your close friends, whereas they grow stronger when you are alone. Similarly, you'll see that the chain of negative thoughts is often triggered by some failure. Once you are able to establish such connection, you can do various things like spending more time with your friends, keeping yourself busy, or keeping your thoughts in check when you've fallen short of your expectations.
Most of the negative thoughts stem from the fear of change; this fear alone can bring about various other types of negativities. Good thing about fear of change is that it mostly stems from our ignorance and can easily be tackled by acquiring more knowledge and information. No matter how strong your thoughts seem to be, continuously remind yourself that they are just a random product of your mind and that thoughts bear no control over your life.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=William_King
You must learn to treat these thoughts as mere thoughts which have no control over the course of your life, otherwise negative or distracting thoughts will consume lots of time and energy. They can shatter your confidence and halt your progress. It's hard to hold back thoughts from coming to your mind. It's only natural for our brain to keep working all the time, which means there will be some thoughts going on in your mind, all the time. So, how are you supposed to manage negative thoughts if you aren't even able to stop them? Answer is that even though you cannot get rid of these thoughts altogether, you can replace them with thoughts of your liking.
First thing is to analyze your thought pattern more closely; most of our thoughts are being triggered by some specific situations and circumstances. For example, you'll find out that negative thoughts seem to wane when you are in company of your close friends, whereas they grow stronger when you are alone. Similarly, you'll see that the chain of negative thoughts is often triggered by some failure. Once you are able to establish such connection, you can do various things like spending more time with your friends, keeping yourself busy, or keeping your thoughts in check when you've fallen short of your expectations.
Most of the negative thoughts stem from the fear of change; this fear alone can bring about various other types of negativities. Good thing about fear of change is that it mostly stems from our ignorance and can easily be tackled by acquiring more knowledge and information. No matter how strong your thoughts seem to be, continuously remind yourself that they are just a random product of your mind and that thoughts bear no control over your life.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=William_King
WHY SOME BUSINESS PROJECTS FAILS
It is important that project managers are both familiar with and follow established tools and techniques of project management. Good leadership at management level is crucial. Poor management skills will undermine established methodologies. It is very tempting to take so-called 'short-cuts' instead of applying the methodology.
This can happen for several reasons:
1 - 'Catching up' when the project is behind schedule 'catch up.'
2 - Costs are over-running budget and some steps are skipped over.
3 - Team members are untrained in the methodology and do not
know they are taking short cuts.
Cost overruns:
If the scheduling and technical details are too precisely defined before project start then there may be insufficient time and money to implement the project methodology properly - creating cost overruns relative to the budget.
Poor people management:
People need to be managed appropriately to ensure that they remain motivated,committed and able to perform well during the project.
Uncertainty and Change:
In an ever-changing world the most successful organizations are those which can adapt to deal with emerging contingencies. Not all projects are robust enough to absorb these changes. It is important that any change management processes in the organisation generally be applied to the management of these projects.
Unresolved Problems:
It is most important that we deal with problems quickly and fairly rather than ignoring them or being arbitrary in our problem-resolution processed. This shows others that we want things done right, but that it is also OK to make mistakes.
Rewards:
We need to acknowledge what rewards people expect and to understand that they cannot be expected to actively engage in the project if they feel under-rewarded.
Risks and New Ideas:
We need to foster new ideas and risk-taking within agreed parameters, rather than a culture of fear and risk-aversion.
There are some key ways that we can help to avoid failure:
Have a plan and know what we are doing. Understand change management and how people deal with change. Make sure that the people in top management whose support we need support us. Listen carefully to any concerns stakeholders have and deal with these to their satisfaction.
Make sure that project objectives dovetail with overall business objectives and remember no business enterprise or project is completely devoid of risks we need to be able to analyse possible risks and have measure in place to prevent them or to deal appropriately with them should they occur.
To stay on top of your business and business needs, you need professional services and software, click here now Professional Business Software to check out the huge catalog of trusted business software provided by Avanquest.
Source.http://ezinearticles.com
This can happen for several reasons:
1 - 'Catching up' when the project is behind schedule 'catch up.'
2 - Costs are over-running budget and some steps are skipped over.
3 - Team members are untrained in the methodology and do not
know they are taking short cuts.
Cost overruns:
If the scheduling and technical details are too precisely defined before project start then there may be insufficient time and money to implement the project methodology properly - creating cost overruns relative to the budget.
Poor people management:
People need to be managed appropriately to ensure that they remain motivated,committed and able to perform well during the project.
Uncertainty and Change:
In an ever-changing world the most successful organizations are those which can adapt to deal with emerging contingencies. Not all projects are robust enough to absorb these changes. It is important that any change management processes in the organisation generally be applied to the management of these projects.
Unresolved Problems:
It is most important that we deal with problems quickly and fairly rather than ignoring them or being arbitrary in our problem-resolution processed. This shows others that we want things done right, but that it is also OK to make mistakes.
Rewards:
We need to acknowledge what rewards people expect and to understand that they cannot be expected to actively engage in the project if they feel under-rewarded.
Risks and New Ideas:
We need to foster new ideas and risk-taking within agreed parameters, rather than a culture of fear and risk-aversion.
There are some key ways that we can help to avoid failure:
Have a plan and know what we are doing. Understand change management and how people deal with change. Make sure that the people in top management whose support we need support us. Listen carefully to any concerns stakeholders have and deal with these to their satisfaction.
Make sure that project objectives dovetail with overall business objectives and remember no business enterprise or project is completely devoid of risks we need to be able to analyse possible risks and have measure in place to prevent them or to deal appropriately with them should they occur.
To stay on top of your business and business needs, you need professional services and software, click here now Professional Business Software to check out the huge catalog of trusted business software provided by Avanquest.
Source.http://ezinearticles.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)