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Sales
Monitoring in Q1 – Top 10 Continued
The first quarter is a critical time in your business
to measure success and monitor and correct deficiencies.
Last month we looked at five areas to monitor, which
in review are:
1. How are you tracking against sales targets to date?
2. What new things are your competitors doing?
3. Are your customers paying on time?
4. What sales training courses have you targeted for
participation this year?
5. What special dates do your clients have coming up
this year?
In my top 10, there are five other areas that are critical
to your growth targets for the coming year.
6. What is the condition of the prospect pool and your
sales pipeline? In the prospect pool, you should have
a good mixture of small, medium and large prospects
that you have qualified from the previous year as worthy
targets to bring on as clients this year. We often forget
that the pipeline that leads to this pool needs to be
constantly filled as well with prospects to monitor
over the next several months. Keep the pipeline full
so it doesn’t dry up.
7. Have there been any changes to your cost structure
from suppliers, or from your own internal activities?
If you have had even marginal cost increases, do your
prices reflect this increase? Conversely, if you have
attained cost decreases through increased quantity breaks
or through improvements internally in your processes
or systems, have you realized increases in profit margins?
If you have not seen any cost decreases, but you notice
that your competitors have lowered prices, it may indicate
that there are areas that you should be monitoring closer.
8. Are you collecting new testimonials from satisfied
clients? Old or overused testimonials could have a negative
effect on your sales efforts. Any time that there is
an opportunity to get a written testimonial (picture,
success story etc.) you should build your testimonial
file. Quite often after a business has achieved some
measure of success, they neglect to pick up testimonials
from clients, preferring to rely on the old standbys.
9. What is your current closing ratio on proposals,
sales calls and cold calls? It is critical to measure
this in order to identify problem areas and time consumers.
Keep in mind, that for every hour you spend not making
the sale, there is an associated cost involved that
needs to be covered by other revenue.
10. Finally, have you set Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs) that you measure weekly or monthly to ensure
that you stay focused on measurable results. Stay challenged
in your business, and don’t sit and watch things happen.
Be in a position to understand why they happened.
Jeff Bowman is professional sales and productivity trainer,
speaker and facilitator with Bowman Training Initiatives
and The Marketing PAD. He can be reached at
www.bowmantraining.ca or www.themarketingpad.com
.
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Use home equity to roll up your
debt
Have you taken a browse through the self-help section
of your local bookstore lately?
What you’ll find is an incredible selection of books on
stress management. It’s a growth industry: it seems that
many Canadians are looking for stress relief. Well, here’s
a guaranteed stress-buster for some home owners: Roll
up your debt. That’s right: use your home equity to trade
bad debt for smart debt – and give yourself some financial
breathing room each month. You can save money too.
In many households, money is a leading cause of stress
(second only to a sick family member). If too much debt
has slowed your monthly cash flow to a trickle, it’s time
to talk to a mortgage planner. The right re-financing
package can help put an end to the monthly squeeze of
too much credit card debt or too many loans.
There’s no question that the individual debt load of Canadians
is growing. The good news is that individual wealth has
been growing too. Not surprisingly, the biggest factor
in the upswing of personal wealth has been the rising
market value of real estate. How does that influence the
debt picture? With all the attractive mortgage options
now available, that extra equity gives homeowners the
opportunity to consolidate their other debts: including
credit cards and other high-interest unsecured loans.
The combination of low mortgage rates and high housing
valuations are creating an environment for smart debt:
low interest manageable debt secured against your home.
There’s no way to know how long these low rates will last,
but Canadians are refinancing in record numbers to take
advantage of what has been an historic opportunity. Independent
mortgage planners – who have access to more than 50 different
lenders, including most of the major banks, have become
specialists in helping Canadians restructure debt. In
addition to offering access to a broad range of mortgage
options, these experienced planners provide credit advice
and debt management tips that can help save thousands
of dollars.
Mortgage planners agree that homeowners are recognizing
that they need to get smart about debt. Canadians pay
a shocking amount of money on their high-interest debt,
whether it’s credit cards, unsecured loans, or tax bills.
It all adds up. Run late on a payment – or run short on
the minimum amount – and your credit rating can be affected.
But if you have equity in your home, there’s no good reason
to be carrying high-interest, unsecured debt.
The benefits of rolling up your debt are immediate and
longlasting: improved cash flow, fewer payments, a brighter
credit picture, and potentially big savings on your overall
interest costs.
Home equity debt consolidation is a golden opportunity.
Aside from the debt stress relief and interest savings,
restructured debt also gives homeowners a fresh start
at responsible financial housekeeping: sensible spending
and saving habits.
Carol Kollar, AMP of Mortgage Architects can be reached
at 905-789-8198 or by email at carol.kollar@mtgarc.ca.
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Beware
of Environmental Liability!
Recently a restaurant proprietor wanted to determine
his liability for payment of a tax bill to the City.
Two previous tenants had operated restaurants out of
the premises.
So, here’s what happened. The first tenant undertook
some renovations to install the additional washrooms
required for a restaurant. The Landlord who was the
owner of the plaza agreed. There was, however, a small
error made by the plumbing installer. The sanitary drain
was connected by mistake to the storm sewer system.
This resulted in waste products being discharged into
a local creek. This situation went unnoticed for several
years until there was a complaint by a neighbour. The
City investigated, rectified the damage and sent a bill
for the cleanup to the owner of the plaza. I should
tell you this wasn’t cheap. The bill for the cleanup
was more than $ 40,000.
The applicable law in this situation is the Environmental
Protection Act. In Ontario, this is a strict liability
statute. It doesn’t matter whether it’s your fault,
you may still be responsible. The Act imposes liability
upon a “person responsible” who is defined to be the
owner or the person having charge, management or control
of a source of a contaminant. In this case, the noxious
waste products were initially under the control of the
restaurant proprietor and flowed from his plumbing system
into the common system for the plaza before they entered
the City’s storm sewage system.
The Act imposes liability upon the owner of the plaza
as well as the restaurant proprietor.
So far, so good! That seems to make some sense. But,
there are a few complications. The present owner of
the plaza received the bill, but the contamination took
place before he owned the plaza. The same was true for
the tenant. The first tenant undertook the faulty work,
sold the business to the second tenant (when the contamination
occurred), who sold it to the present restauranteur.
In this case, the present tenant is obligated to bear
the loss and is left with a right to recover funds from
others. That’s not the City’s problem.
So, be careful about the risk of environmental liability
and have the issue properly addressed in all leases
and sale agreements.
Brian Madigan LL.B., Realtor is an author and commentator
on real estate matters, Coldwell Banker Innovators Realty
Brokerage, 905-796-8888, BRMadigan@rogers.com
or visit www.OntarioRealEstateSource.com
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Doing
it right involves asking your customers
When we think of “doing it right”; generally, the first
thought that comes to mind is not to make any mistakes.
However, is that all it means in a successful business?
Take for example the task of making and delivering
a pizza for a customer. Doing it right could mean a
number of things depending entirely upon your perspective.
For example:
The franchise owner:
• Ensuring that the type of pizza ordered looks / tastes
the same as the last time it was ordered
The store manager:
• Ensuring that the delivery is made within the time
frame committed without having to give it for free
• Ensuring that no more than the prescribed portions
of each topping are placed on the pizza
The ordering customer:
• Receiving a pizza that contains exactly the toppings
they ordered
• Receiving a pizza that is still hot or at least warm
The delivery person:
• Getting enough deliveries to make a profit for the
shift
• Getting enough information to deliver the pizza to
the right location every time
• Getting the pizza in such a condition as to generate
a tip for each delivery
To remain successful in a business you need to take
into consideration the perspectives of each and every
person who touches or is touched by your service or
product. This can seem to be a daunting task, especially
when you are already stretched to the limit by price
and cost restrictions.
Fortunately there is an answer to this dilemma that
can be implemented by an organization of any size. That
answer: the ‘focus group’. The focus group can be a
formal structure coordinated and facilitated by a professional
or it can be as basic as asking for feedback from a
group of trusted friends and business associates.
How the group is structured may well influence the
significance of the outcome. However, how the group
is structured is not as important as whether or not
you actually do structure a focus group on a regular
basis.
In the writer’s opinion, “doing it right” means simply
asking a focus group if you are doing the following:
“ensuring that the right people are doing the right
thing in the right way at the right time for the right
reason at the right cost”. These six right things can
be the reason for success or failure of your business
venture. Have you considered all six in your business?
Gordon Newman is President of The Newman Learning Group
Inc. an organization dedicated to providing value add
solutions to improve the bottom line performance of
organization and individuals. Gordon may be reached
at gordon@newmanlearning.com
or 905-790-2944
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RFID
technology raises the bar? If you are using
the 407 ETR, filling up at Esso with their Speedpass
system, buying clothing at the Gap, or wondering how
your luggage is tracked when traveling, then you’re
experiencing RFID technology.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic
identification method, that stores and remotely retrieves
data using tags (aka transponders). An RFID tag can
be attached or incorporated into products, animals,
or people for the purpose of identification using radio
waves. Think RFID is ahead of its time?
Here’s a little history lesson:
In 1946 Léon Theremin invented an espionage tool for
the Soviet government which retransmitted incident radio
waves with audio information. Sound waves vibrated a
diaphragm which slightly altered the shape of the resonator,
which modulated the reflected radio frequency. Even
though this device was a passive covert listening device,
not an identification tag, it has been attributed as
the first known device and a predecessor to RFID technology.
(source www.Wikipedia.org)
The technology used in RFID has been around since the
early 1920s according to one source (although the same
source states that RFID systems have been around just
since the late 1960s). A more similar technology, the
IFF transponder, was invented by the British in 1939,
and was routinely used by the allies in World War II
to identify airplanes as friend or foe. Transponders
are still used by military and commercial aircraft to
this day. (source www.Wikipedia.org)
In practical business terms, imagine your people never
making an error while picking or shipping an order.
Imagine your computer knowing the new location of a
moved pallet – automatically. These cost saving performance
improvements are only a few of the benefits of RFID.
RFID technology is evolving just as other new technologies
have, for example bar code readers and wireless networks.
Today, bar code readers can read any symbology set;
however when first introduced, it was necessary to match
reader to symbology. Similarly, when wireless networks
were first introduced, it was difficult to get them
working properly.
In contrast today, if you have a new laptop and a new
access point, the system will work, in most cases, right
out of the box. RFID Technology and Inventory Control
Software – are a perfect match. By utilizing the automation
made possible by RFID, the tracking of inventory movement
can be largely automated. Imagine taking product from
storage to delivery truck –and your computer knowing
about it - without your input.
Portals can be set up at strategic locations (such as
a shipping door) with 2 or more readers ready to scan
the RFID tags as they pass. By interrogating the data
sent by the scanners, your inventory software knows
whether the product is moving from the warehouse to
the truck - or from the truck to the warehouse, preventing
users from making costly mistakes.
While some envision RFID as a replacement for older
barcode technology, others believe RFID may never completely
replace barcodes, because of cost issues and the advantages
of having more than one independent data source on the
same object. But there’s no getting away from the obvious
- once RFID is working … it’s incredible!
Imagine the possibilities!
F. Charles Waud is the President of WaudWare Incorporated,
a software development company specializing in PICS
(Produce Inventory Control System) - for the fast-paced
produce and distribution industries. For more information
call (905) 846-9737 or visit www.waudware.com
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