Successful Blog

Planning Effective Sales Team Meetings

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By Deb Bixler

Your business thrives on making sure that everyone on your sales team knows what’s going on at all times. Whether you are introducing a new product or wanting to expand your service, your team needs to know your intentions.

As such team meeting planning is highly important to the strength of your direct sales business structure. Follow these simple guidelines to keep your entire team informed and involved so no key information falls through the cracks.

Plan Meetings At Same Time Every Time

home party plan meetingsSure, changes may come up that require impromptu team meetings, but in general try to keep your sales team meetings the same time every month or week. This way, your entire team will know that on a set date of the week or month a discussion will be held to discuss upcoming events and prior concerns.

A regular schedule insures regular attendance.

Make sure you email or message your team before meetings start to remind them of upcoming discussions.

Invite Team Discussion

If you begin each meeting with open discussion for your team, everyone will feel more involved in the planning of your business and you can get great feedback for what is going on in your business.

It’s important that your team knows they can speak their mind, so begin each meeting with an open discussion of concerns or questions of your team before you jump into what is on your mind.

Meetings Should Be Fun

Make meetings fun by offering snacks for the entire team and when ever possible keep the sales meetings or meeting sessions at an hour or less.

If you need to go over, let your team know beforehand so they can be prepared for a longer stay.

Provide supplies for your team to keep notes and thank each person for attending so they will know that their time is valuable to you.

Have An ‘Open Door’ Policy Team

Your sales team members need to know that they can come to you any time with issues, concerns, or suggestions for your business. The should not feel as though they need to wait for the meeting day to bring up concerns.

In having an open door policy, your team can feel comfortable to come to you outside of meetings in a private setting. Let them know that they can contact you personally, via phone, email or other avenues if they have anything come up that they feel is too important to wait for the next meeting.

You should always stay on top of situations and let your team know that their opinions are valuable to you.

Author’s Bio:
Deb Bixler retired from the corporate world using the proven business systems that made her a success working for others by incorporating them into her home business. In only 9 months Deb replaced her full time income with the sales and commissions from her home party plan business. Find her on Twitter: @debbixler.

6 Ways to Credit Your Team

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By Ben Morton

Recently I was reading an article on INC entitled ‘The Difference Between Managers and Leaders‘ by Ilya Pozin where he provided some fantastic insights. Ilya’s fifth point was this:

‘Managers want credit, leaders credit their teams’

This is a brilliant point. When it’s acted upon the impact that it has on the leader’s connection with their team, the trust that it engenders, and the respect it earns the leader is huge.

What was really interesting to me though was one of the comments from a reader.

‘How do I give credit when I answer to the MD without my staff present; how will my staff know?’

This is actually a great question which prompted me to stop and reflect on how I have actually gone about this during my leadership career. So, here are my personal and very practical tips to do this.

1. They will just know…

Here’s the key thing. If you start from a position of genuinely wanting to support your people and ‘give credit where credit is due’ then you will naturally credit you team whenever you can. By consistently crediting your team to your boss, your peers, your customers or whoever it may be, these people will eventually come back to your team and say something like this…

‘Hi John. Ben told me about all the work you put into that proposal – great job and thanks’

So you see – they will just know.

2. Reactive email

When you get that email from your boss saying ‘thank you’ or ‘great job’ why not respond, cc’ing your team or the individual, saying something like…

“Thanks Nigel but it was actually Gemma who did all of the hard work on that project so she really needs the praise. Well done again Gemma and thanks.’

3. Proactive email

Instead of waiting to redirect the credit to your team why not be proactive by sending a thank you email to your team and cc’ing your boss.

4. Ask your boss to thank them

Next time you are in a meeting with your boss and you tell him or her that it was your team that put in all of the hard work why not say something like this…

‘The team worked really hard on that project Nigel and it would be great if you could stop by and say well done or drop them a really short email.’

It would take a pretty cold boss to refuse such a request.

5. Pass on credit in public

During a team meeting or company event look for the opportunities to publicly pass on the credit, praise and thank your team or individuals for all of their hard work.

6. Use the intranet

If your company has an intranet site why not post a very short news article celebrating the team or individual’s success and attributing the credit to them.

Hopefully you’ve found this list useful and there are some things in here that you will go and apply to help move you from a good manager to an exceptional leader. I know that there are lots more ways to give credit to your team and I’d love to hear what you are doing…

Author’s Bio: BEN MORTON is a Consultant at TwentyOne Leadership specialising in the provision of high quality leadership training, mentoring and coaching. He has approaching two decades experience in leadership, learning and management along with a wealth of expertise in strategic Human Resource management drawn from experience as a Board Member in small entrepreneurial organizations and working in large multi-nationals such as Tesco and TUI Travel. Having led expeditions around the globe from the Alps of Europe to the Steppe Country of Mongolia and served two operational tours of Iraq as an Officer in the British Army, Ben understands what it takes to lead people in the most difficult of conditions. He’s passionate about sharing his knowledge, experience and expertise.

How to Make Your Blog Stand Out in the Crowd

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By Tracy Vides

To err on the side of diplomacy has always been a safer bet than being blunt. Diplomacy is everywhere. Being nice is an all-pervasive disease. To be boring, just like diplomacy, works for a lot of people.

As long as you don’t stand out, you don’t ask for trouble. To stay out of trouble is a global requirement.

People start blogs just as they start political parties, form governments, and start businesses. Since most people try to stay safe, their blogs will reflect that ‘safe’ vibe. As a result, the content is usually trite.

Rehashed, over-used, and boring blog posts are the staple of the blogosphere, as this slide deck from Velocity Partners makes painfully clear. It’s tiring to see just another blog out there.

We agree that there’s only so much information that can be shared on a topic. But who said that you’d have to keep it bland?

Popular blogs share the same content, but they do it differently.

Only a few bloggers stand out. They are different. Their voice is powerful. Their content is engaging. How do they manage to do that? What’s the secret sauce?

They are bold. They are beautiful. They write what they want to.

Here are some ways to make your own blog stand out from the rest:

Stick to Your Opinion, Don’t Waffle

Pick up a few facts, put your brain to this data, and craft your own opinion (rolled into a blog post). While you use your own voice, personality, and writing style to express your justified opinion, take a vow (in writing, if you can) that once the blog post goes live, you won’t budge from your opinion. Even if the string of virulent comments might want to make you think about your initial stand, don’t bother updating your blog post with the new school of thought.

Blogs get their mojo from opinionated writing. There’s no place for you to waffle here. No changing shoes once you wear them.

One caveat here:

One danger, when you’re writing lots of quick, opinionated blog items about the latest developments, is that you never get around to stating fully, in one place, what you think about a particular topic.

– Mickey Kaus

Write for the Emotion Connect, Not the Spider’s Web

Google is powerful. Bloggers all over the world love a continuous, incoming stream of traffic from search listings. Yet, you have to let go of the obsession to rank in search. I’m not knocking down SEO or SEM, do what you have to do. Just don’t assume that your blog promotions or marketing for your blog depends wholly and completely on Google.

Stop writing for search engines, because that makes your blogs read like school textbooks or poorly maintained journals of manipulative keyword-stuffing maniacs. Or worse, like The Dullest Blog in the
World.

If you ever have to create a blog post, do it for the reader. Google search takes care of itself. Your readers will thank you for it.

Bring in the Fun

Whether it’s a blog post or the copy (long-form or short-form), you need to use interesting and engaging content to market your products or services. Work hard to bring in the fun in your writing.

Your ultimate goal: bring that smile on your readers’ face, convince and convert.

While your blog post should have facts and opinion rolled together, your sales copy would have to be brief. Yet, make sure you bring in the humor when you are writing.

Stop being a bore.

Plant the ‘Feel’

Marketers now need to don the role of publishers through blogging. All marketers must work to ‘plant the feel.’

What do I mean by that? By making customers ‘feel,’ you bring a string of emotions, desires, needs and wants to the fore. Your customers almost visualize what you are writing about. The ‘feel’ factor can do wonders to your blogging efforts whether you are a physics teacher blogging about quantum mechanics or a tiny mom & pop e-commerce store that sells handcrafts online.

Stay Consistent

Add blogging into your lifetime to-do list. Blogging ought to happen every single day (or whatever frequency you like to blog with). While you might think that this was probably the first lesson you learnt about blogging, it’s one of those things that will help you stand out from millions of other blogs.

Why?

Most other blogs are dead. Most bloggers don’t update regularly. Some lose steam, while others just aren’t blessed with the commitment it takes to see a blog through success.

By blogging regularly, you are already in the top percentile of bloggers who are real, professional and serious.

Hook Up with Readers Personally, the Human Way

Forget about building relationships through your blog the usual way. If it’s usual, then everyone does it. You’d still have to build relationships with your regular readers, but how do you make a difference? It’s called ‘The insane reach out plan.’

The Insane Reach out Plan for the time-starved reader (that’s you):

  • Got a comment? Go hunt that commenter down and then follow his or her blog. Leave comments to reciprocate.
  • Find out who your readers are and then connect with them on social media to continue the =93small talk=94 that forms the bridge between your relationships.
  • Find opportunities to highlight some of your readers. There’s a reason why widgets that show ‘recent comments’ or ‘top comments’ or ‘most active contributors’ are downloaded by the thousands.
  • Sit down and send out emails to some of your regular users. Most popular bloggers tend to get high volumes of emails from readers, most of which end up unanswered. Turn this practice upside down. Actively send out emails instead.
  • Whenever possible, call or meet your readers.

Hard work? Yes.

Payoffs? That’ll require another blog post.

Necessary? No. But mandatory.

The only blogs that’ll work today are those that continuously produce content that gives something to readers that they can think about. Your blog is like a public kitchen giving food for thought to your readers.

That’s a grim challenge, yes, but others are doing it already!

It’s useless to worry about word counts, SEO, the size of your social media network, the platform you use for blogging, and the hosting account your blog depends on.

Worry about value. Lose sleep over how to make your content better. Brainstorm ways you can make your blog engaging.

Write with your heart, not your fingers.

Author’s Bio: Tracy Vides is a content creator and marketer, who loves to blog about subjects as diverse as fashion, technology, and finance. She’s always raring to have a discussion on startups and entrepreneurship. Say “Hi” to her on Twitter @TracyVides. You can also find her on G+ at gplus.to/TracyVides.

I Meant To Do That! How To Turn A Mistake Into Success

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By Jon Norwood

I’ve started four businesses and successfully sold three. The common factor in all of them is that I made at least one serious error right out of the gate. When you’re faced with a fixed and immovable object, caused by either a mistake or due to matters outside of your control, if you cannot change it stop fighting it. But simply embracing it is not enough however. Adapt your plan and make this obstacle part of your intentional offering.

Military strategists, as well as every mother of little children, have learned how to roll with the punches. Adapt to the environment and its challenges. If you want to guarantee your failure, approach your business (and life in general) with a stiff neck and refuse to be flexible. If you don’t believe me, just picture all those poor suckers that collapse while standing at attention with their knees locked!

Real World Example

A businessman opened a “ropes” course for corporations. After he founded the company, spent the revenue building the course and marketing the opening of his new venture, he was informed that he could not sell alcohol. He didn’t think it would be a major problem, but as the months went on, he discovered just the opposite.

The corporations discovered that they had a hard time getting “buy in” from their employees and volunteers that were asked to spend an entire day that far out in the country, and not be able to have a happy hour after the event. In fact, the promise of a happy hour was a major selling point for his competition!

After 2 years of struggling, he was considering closing the doors. Then he had the idea that he could embrace the problem. In other words, he could look for organizations that would choose him over his competition BECAUSE he CHOSE to not serve alcohol.

Religious and conservative organizations found this marketing enticing. To his surprise, many organizations began to choose his course because they would no longer be vulnerable to law suits due to alcohol abuse and driving under the influence! His limitation became a powerful selling point.

Embrace your limitations and find a way to position them as strengths.

Bad location? Say it was on purpose and adjust your offering.
Spent a ton of money on a typewriter when everyone else is buying a computer? Learn to research for the next time. Say you love the quality and send out letters from that typewriter with marketing about your dedication to quality!

There is always an angle! You just have to stop freaking out to see it. It’s not a matter of being misleading in any way, it’s a choice of looking at the situation from a positive mindset and marketing from that perspective.

Author’s Bio: Jon Norwood writes about business and technology at http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tech-talk/. He is also the author of internet providers by zip code. You can find him on Twitter as @mobileinformers.

Guidelines for WordPress Security

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By Charles Mburugu

With the increase of hacking incidences, security has become a major concern for most website owners. Fortunately, there are several precautions one can take to lower the risk of attack. Here are some tips which will help enhance the security of your WordPress site.

1. Avoid free themes

WordPress offers numerous free themes that you can choose from. However, using such themes is generally not advisable since many have been found to contain malicious code which would make your site vulnerable to all kinds of attacks. If you must use a free theme, make sure you select one which has been developed by a well-established company. This also applies to WordPress plugins.

2. Choose a secure host

Web hosting plays a major role when it comes to security matters. Therefore, when selecting a web host, don’t make the mistake of settling for the cheapest option available. Instead, take time to do your research and identify a provider that is well known for secure hosting. Though it might cost you a little extra, you won’t have to worry about your website’s security.

3. Update regularly

In an effort to enhance security, WordPress releases regular updates which are aimed at dealing with potential or real threats. Therefore, it is very important to keep your site updated with the latest WordPress version. Failing to do so will leave your site vulnerable to hackers who target outdated WordPress versions. Always be on the look-out for ‘Update now’ messages on your dashboard. Plug-ins and themes should also be updated immediately a new version is released.

4. Use a strong password

Using a weak and predictable password such as ‘123abc’, ‘wordpress’ or ‘password’ will make your WordPress site more vulnerable to attack. Therefore, you need to find a more complex password, but one which is easy to remember. Combine symbols, numbers and letters to make it harder to crack. However, avoid using the same password across different accounts.

5. Don’t use the default ‘admin’ username

Many people have ‘admin’ as the default username on their WordPress sites. Having such a username, combined with a weak password, will expose your site to all kinds of security risks. It is therefore very important to alter your username to something which is more unique. In addition, you need to ensure that the username is hidden from author archive URL.

6. Limit login attempts

Hackers and bots try to access your site by making repeated login attempts using different variations of usernames and passwords. WordPress offers great plugins which can help you limit the number of login attempts on your site. In addition, you can choose how long the specific IP address will be locked out before they can make another attempt.

7. Use security plugins

WordPress offers a wide range of plugins which can help enhance the security of your site. Some of the most popular include Bulletproof Security, Better WP Security, Wordfence, Sucuri Scanner and Website Defender. Most of these plugins are free and can easily be downloaded and installed on a site.

8. Backup frequently

Backing up frequently is something that should not be overlooked. Even when you have taken all the above security measures, your site might still fall victim to a malicious attack. If your content is backed up properly, it will be easy to recover your files and restore your site. There are several WordPress plugins which can help you schedule frequent automatic backups.

Author’s Bio: Charles Mburugu is a HubSpot-certified content writer/marketer for B2B, B2C and SaaS companies. He has worked with brands such as GetResponse, Neil Patel, Shopify, 99 Designs, Oberlo, Salesforce and Condor. Check out his portfolio and connect on LinkedIn.

Make Your Work Area Your Own

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By Chris Long

There are times when staying focused and being productive can be difficult, especially for people who work by themselves. If your office is in your house or even in a lonely cubicle, and interaction with other human beings is mostly through phone calls, texts and emails, you should make your work space as inviting as possible. When you wake up in the morning, you should look forward to spending most of the day at your desk, rather than dreaming up excuses not to roll up your sleeves, dig in and get to work.

office environment

Use Your Imagination

There are some simple and inexpensive things you can do to make your work space a more inviting place to do your job.

  • Maybe your desk is facing in the wrong direction. Most people would rather look out a window than stare at a wall. You can move your furniture around so you’ll have a better view, though you might be limited by the location of your electrical outlets and your phone and cable connections.
  • Invest some money in a solid, comfortable chair. You might need an extra chair if clients or co-workers ever visit your office.
  • Bookcases come in a variety of sizes. They are useful for storing books, of course, but you also can use some of the shelves for framed photos or for items that otherwise would be cluttering your desk.
  • The color of your walls can make a difference. Paint them a bright hue, or make your work space even more interesting by painting one wall a dark color and the other three a lighter shade.
  • Use your imagination when it comes to finding a place to store your office supplies. You can put paper clips in old coffee jars, pencils and pens in decorative glasses and bills and letters on small shelves on the wall behind you. Flea markets are a great place to find unusual items that will work well.
  • Surround yourself with stuff that makes you feel good, whether it’s photos of your family or of a vacation you especially enjoyed or a trash can emblazoned with the midnight green logo of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Low-Maintenance Plants

One or more plants can make a big difference in your office. They help clear the air by soaking up pollutants, and they also give off oxygen. The following plants are all low-maintenance options that can make your office a better and more interesting place to work.

  • Aloe;
  • Chrysanthemum;
  • Golden pothos;
  • Red-edged dracaena;
  • Spider plant;
  • Weeping fig

Give the Walls Some Pizazz

You’re probably spending at least 40 hours a week in your office, so you should do something to make the walls a little less boring. You have some options in addition to simply painting them.

  • Make a fake window – You can enlarge a photo you love and frame it with lightweight window molding. Then, when you’re not busy, you can pretend you’re gazing at the Pacific Ocean, the Rocky Mountains or the coast of Maine.
  • Lighting makes a difference – If you are currently bringing light to your office with harsh fluorescent lighting, a small table lamp with a natural-light bulb will help.
  • Decorate your walls – In addition to photos and other artwork, you can decorate dull walls with wallpaper ñ or with craft paper and colorful fabric attached to the walls with Velcro.
  • Don’t forget the floor – An area rug can help define your work space, especially if your office area doesn’t take up an entire room. If you are working from home, your office might be part of the dining room or a corner of your bedroom. An attractive chair mat will work as well.
  • Define your space – Room dividers can be useful if your office is taking up only part of a room in your house. They are generally between 5-and-a-half and 7 feet tall, and they come in a wide range of styles, from simple bamboo slats to those imprinted with photos depicting the life of Elvis Presley or the antics of popular comic book heroes.
  • Your office should be inviting, for you and for others – If you have guests in your office, make them feel welcome with an espresso machine or a dish of mints or chocolate. If you never have visitors, the coffee and candy will give you a good reason to hang out in your office.

Whether your work space is at home or in an office building, you should look forward to spending time there. It should be a fun, cheerful place that brings you comfort rather than stress. Most of all, it should reflect your personality and the unique way you do your job.

Author’s Bio: Chris Long has been helping homeowners on DIY projects since 2000. He is an “on-the-floor” sales associate at a Home Depot in the Chicago suburbs. Chris is also a regular contributor to Home Depot’s Home Decorators.com website, where his range of interests includes providing tips on home office design, floor coverings and furniture for the home.