Monthly Archives: August 2008

business, Consultancy, E-Commerce, money, Relationship

Value of Social Networking in Dollars

Just recently somebody tried to sell there twitter profile on Ebay. Strange as it may seem and almost laughable. He did manage to get $1,125 plus for his profile

Is this real value of his network? It may not be so far wrong. Moving into the 21st century more and more people will be conducting there sales research, people research etc online. If you do not have profile you may well be drawing a blank. People will expect to be able to reference you or check you out online. In the pursuit of sales I imagine that all these companies are going to be using these tools.

 

Would I employ somebody who is well networked? Sure I would.

The real value in social networking may be only just be starting to be unraveled, while I am not suggesting that we all start selling our profiles. I do think that individuals with well managed net works will be setting themselves up for whole lot more business at sometime in the future. As posted here by Owen, we may be related to every one much closer than we think. By networks in this blog post I am referring to social media sites, whether that is Linkedin, Facebook, community sites or a blog. To name but a few.

 

What do you think?

Management, Personal

Getting On with People

With out doubt one of the greatest business assets of any company or individual is the ability to get on with people. Bill Gates is obviously very good at it but just about any person in business has to get on with people. What if though it crosses your social or religious views. Do you think you can still get on with them?

Many people find this a great problem. Somebody thinks or acts differently than they would like. What would you do?

Do you agree with them smile and keep peace or do you tell them what you think? How good is it to keep things hidden from others and how good is it to express it?

Many questions and know clear rule of thumb.

The important thing to remember in human interaction is that you are only responsible for yourself. If the other party behaves in inappropriate manner it reflects upon them and nobody else. No matter what they are saying about you.

Taking time to respond or not to respond at all is the greatest control over the situation one has and usual is of more of a benefit to yourself and every body else in the short and long term.

Making sure you are happy and challenged it is the only way forward.

E-Commerce, money

Net Profit Campaign

For a while now I have been thinking about Company profits, and how that is relayed in the media, and in particular on the TV/Radio. When company profits are announced it is always the gross amount.

Why it that? And can we do any thing with it

What is the Gross Profit? This Wikipedia entry explains it nicely

 

Gross profit is found by deducting the cost of goods sold:

Gross profit = Net sales – Cost of goods sold

 

What I find confusing is that when these figures are quoted in the news it tells us nothing about the company. For example if it brought or sold parts of it business, this would not give an accurate view of sales or what its operating costs are? If these are high it could end up making no money. Gross profit tell us nothing at all. In fact I think it is more misleading and used by some companies as a sort voodoo explanation for its accounts.

What I would like to see it Net income used more by media as a more accurate way to gauge a companies performance. What is Net profit?

 

Net profit or other wise know as net income is:

Net income = Gross profit – Total operating expenses

The amount this calculation show us tell us much more about the company.
For example an internet company may only have Gross profit of 1 million, if it operation expenses are 100,000 than it profit base line is very healthy.

Alternatively Cement Company Y may have a profit of 1,5 million, but it operation expenses and margin is very high. Let say 60 percent. Meaning that it’s net income (profit) is 600,000. This company is then less profitable than the internet company although is has a higher profit.

Net income is what we need to focus on and concerned about. Gross profit it just voodoo business. It enough people support this idea by commenting below than I would like to take it further.

Let me know you thoughts?

Management, Relationship

Hopes and Dreams

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It’s not rocket science but this being double o day with the Olympics on the eighth and all, something different.

The root of this blog post is about what Churchill describe in the second world war when he visited his old school. He stood up said. “Never never never give up”. and than sat back down. These few words have reappeared through out history. You see them more recently in self help books by Paul Mc Kenna, or how to get rich by Naploean or in great sport to name but a few. Incredible simple words. But it is what distinguishes success from failure.

In another life time I was a musician. Extraordinarily passionate about music. I had some success and some failures. When my Son was born I decided it was time to do something else. Ten years later I remember hearing very similar music to what I had been making back then. It was then that I realised if I had pursued what I had already been doing for many years I too could have cashed in on what become very popular at that time.

I firmly believe that you can do anything, not everything though. When committed to one true desire mountains can move. There are more than enough example of this from Ghandi through to the fantastic array of modern entrepreneurs that are responsible for so many of the innovative products we see today. It starts with an idea.

Consultancy, sales

7 Selling Skills Using The Word Payment

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A customer is standing by the vacuum cleaner display. The Sales assistant approaches the customer and ask “are you looking for a upright or cylinder?”

Brooklyn

Which letter best describes the selling skills?

Product knowledge know what you are selling.

Acknowledge customer- make eye contact

You now establish the customers need & wants

Match the products to the needs & wants

Ensure the customer is satisfied.

Now close the sale

Take the money!

I was inspired by this when I visited the local electricity shop. It is kiss inspired (keep it simple stupid).

brand, Marketing

A Message From Our Sponsors

I was just reading in the IOD magazine, that Officials at UEFA Euros 2008 are monitoring football fans for non-sponsorship logos and t-shirts, in a bullish crackdown on guerrilla marketing. Although 400 unofficial brands attempted to crack the last world Cup.

Football crowd cheering

I think it is rather clever, perhaps a little heavy handed of the organisers.

What do you think?

business, sales

Outlook as your CRM Tool

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For many years I have used Outlook to manage my email and contacts. In fact it has been one of the main reasons why have I have not gone to Google mail. Outlook has some very nice features and tools that one can adjust to use for client management. In the address book it allows you to store a whole wealth of information. Set reminders, follow ups, tasks, names, companies, just about everything you can think of you might want to do as it is comes with the office package.

So when I cam across prophet software I thought it was very good idea. Building already on a strong platform they have managed to add and organise to some great tools. This is quoted from their website

“Prophet will help you

  • Streamline team communications
  • Increase productivity and customer satisfaction
  • Keep opportunities from falling through the cracks
  • Increase sales lead conversion

Unique Advantages of Prophet

  • Built into Outlook -it’s completely Integrated with Outlook and Exchange
  • Rated Easiest to Use Software in its class
  • Easy Sales Automation provides “set and forget” automated follow-up and trickle campaigns”

Taken from a recent press release Prophet explain further:

Unlike traditional CRM or sales management software, Prophet is built into Outlook, eliminating the need to manage multiple contact databases or toggle between separate applications. Built on the .NET 2.0 platform, Prophet works entirely inside Outlook and easily integrates with other critical business capabilities. As a result, Prophet turns Outlook data into the building blocks of an effective sales management solution.

An Easy & Simple Outlook CRM Software program. Try Prophet here .