10 Essentials of Successful Teams
Posted by admin in Team Building on June 2, 2011
By Duncan Brodie
We all know that at some level teams have the potential to deliver much more than any one individual working in splendid isolation. Despite this conceptual understanding, many teams fail to deliver to anything like their true potential.
So what are 10 essentials in successful teams?
1. All Heading In The Same Direction
While a team needs to be crystal clear about where it is heading and what it is trying to achieve, it is even more important to make sure that everyone is heading in the same direction. Unless the team is aligned behind a common purpose or outcome, personal agendas and working in the interests of specific functions will become the priority.
2. High Levels of Trust
People tend to first and foremost look after their own interests. While this is fine to a point, getting a team to perform at its best requires a high level of trust. Delivering on what you promise, supporting each other and treating people fairly all contribute to building trust.
3. A “How Can We?” Attitude
Achieving anything takes effort. Too often individuals and teams focus all of their attention on the problems. Of course the problems need addressing. At the same time, keeping asking, “How can we do this?”, helps keep things moving forward and the focus on solutions.
4. Do What You Do Best
There is likely to be more than one role that you could take on a team. The key is to get everyone doing what they do best. If you get everyone focusing on their area of excellence they are going to really deliver great results.
5. Take Responsibility And Be Accountable
It is sometimes hard to take responsibility and be accountable for what you said you would achieve, especially if it has not worked out quite as planned. At the same time being accountable creates a huge amount of respect.
6. Go For Small Wins
Sometimes the end goal or outcome can seem just too big. It is easy to get disheartened or believe that it is impossible. To overcome this natural feeling, break the end goal or outcome into small attainable wins.
7. Celebrate Successes
We are often fast off the mark to criticise when things don’t go to plan. By celebrating success, we motivate and inspire people to deliver more. And the really good news is that it can be really easy to do.
8. Look Out For Each Other
When people are genuinely interested in each other, they look out for each other. For me this means helping people when they are struggling or facing a challenge.
9. Engage Their Ears More
Too often people are so obsessed with being heard that they always want to speak. The reality is that real success potential is unlocked when people really listen.
10. Keep Things In Perspective
Of course teams and people on teams want to succeed. That is perfectly natural. At the same time, successful teams are able to keep things in perspective.
Sales Tips To Gain Higher Closure Rate in Lead Generation
By Belinda R Summers
The same is true in lead generation. Every sales lead does not appear by a fluke. Sales is the product of a committed, dedicated, risky and effective sales, marketing and management team efforts.
In order to guide you and your company on how to reap the fruits of your endeavor, here are the following sales tips to increase closed sales rate in lead generation.
- #1. Know who your prospects are.
The first of the many rules in lead generation is to understand what class of prospects your company is targeting. It is a must to make sure that you are heading to the right direction. A manufacturing firm producing lingerie cannot cold-call men. A business entity selling chocolates and other sweets cannot be able to convince diabetics.
Knowing who your prospects are is a vital ingredient so that your investments, financial and non-financial, will not be wasted. On the other hand, learning the contents of a customer profile will give your company ideas on how to approach each of them.
- #2. Make advance preparations.
There is a fat chance of success when a company’s sales and marketing team is unprepared. Let it be a continuous practice to make advance preparations before an appointment or meeting. Know one’s products and/or services by heart. Anticipate objections and arguments, then, find the correct and satisfying answers to every opposition. Learn beforehand how your product and/or service can give benefits to every sales prospect.
- #3. Listen attentively.
Aside from honing how to properly deliver a presentation, equally important is your listening capability. Good speakers can keep a conversation going. However, it is on an attentive listening that a sale is closed. Customers do not like a telemarketer, appointment setter or a sales representative who is unable to get their point of view, or who doesn’t understand their side.
- #4. Know your competitors.
It will also give a positive impact when you draw the line between your products/and or services with what your competitors are selling. Sales leads crave to have knowledge if yours is better, more advantageous and cheaper. However, let the comparison and contrast be as friendly as possible. Make no diatribes or gossips about the competitors.
- #5. Do not push for the sale.
Let the sales leads think what they need to do. Do not pressure them to immediately close a sale. It is human nature that they make a careful scrutiny about what you offer because they do not want to make a mistake. Who doesn’t, by the way? If you keep on being aggressive and pushing for the sale, your sales leads might find it. Keep things slowly but surely.
When customers are hesitating, offer a beautiful proposal that will greatly their personal and professional being.
- #6. When interested, ask for the sale.
The general rule has an exception. You can actually ask for the sale if customers show interest. It will be a waste of time to mollycoddle
Slatwall Panels for Retail Shops
By Tracey A Chandler
Slatwall panels are 8 foot by 4 foot panels with a series of horizontal grooves that are used to display merchandise in a retail setting. Various types of inserts slip into the grooves to create different methods of exhibition. The slatwall panels can be stacked vertically, to form a higher wall, or positioned side by side, for a longer horizontal presentation. In addition, they can also be cut to a desired size.
Slatwall panels come in a choice of materials including laminate, melamine and wood veneer, as well as a large selection of colors. There is even a mirrored finish. This gives the retailer plenty of options. The spaced grooves on the slatwall panels are referred to as the on center and represent the amount of spacing between grooves. The width between each on center can vary from three inches or more apart. To create additional diversity and individuality, there are colored inserts that can be positioned into the grooves.
There are many different types of slatwall accessories that slip into the grooves and provide a means to showcase wares. Brackets or face-outs may be metal, plastic or acrylic. Designs include the waterfall, knife, cube, hanger and hang rail. The waterfall bracket, which slopes down and out, is designed for hanging heavy items or several items at once, such as a collection of jackets in an assortment of sizes. It usually has ball stoppers on the top to prevent the hangers from slipping off the rail or hooks on the bottom. The chrome cube holds merchandise on hangers and juts out vertically. This design takes up more floor space but less wall area. The hang rail runs horizontally along the wall and is another method to showcases merchandise on hangers. It takes up less floor space but more wall area.
Another type is the knife bracket, which acts as a support to hold shelves. The shelves may be glass, wood or metal and they simply sit on top of the bracket. This style is ideal for displaying folded clothing, like blue jeans and sweaters, or for purses and shoes. In addition to brackets, there are also hooks or pegs. These are typically used for lightweight items like jewelry, belts or hats, since they cannot support as much weight as the brackets. Both the brackets and hooks come in varying lengths, so the retailer has plenty of options.
Most merchants incorporate a combination of different brackets and hooks throughout the store. Because the slatwall accessories simply pop in and out of the grooves, they can be changed monthly, weekly or every day. This is important, since there is a constant influx of new merchandise coming into the establishment. Also, many merchants frequently rearrange the store to keep the look fresh and interesting or to set up for a big sale. Slatwall panels are used in the majority of retail environments because they provide the opportunity for an infinite array of configurations and methods of organizing goods