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4 Tips to Increase Sales While Working Remote

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Remote working doesn’t have to slow down your sales process. 

During this unprecedented time, remote work has become the norm for everyone around the world. For many, that adjustment has been a challenge and that’s especially true for people working in sales. 

For many sales representatives, in-person meetings and dropping by client offices is part of their daily process. That’s why full-time remote work has turned their worlds upside down. 

Luckily, with the ability to send cold emails to prospective clients, keep face-to-face interaction through video conferencing, and keeping communication methods open — your sales don’t have to suffer. 

In this article, we’ll take a look at 4 tips to keep you at the top of your game all while working from your home office. 

Here’s a quick look at the tips we’ll cover: 

  • Using email to reach new and existing customers
  • The importance of creating a new schedule
  • How to keep face-to-face interactions with video technology
  • Keeping communication as a top priority

Email marketing will be your best friend when working remotely. It allows you to check-in with your current customers, but also offers a great option to reach new prospects. 

1) Leverage Emails to Reach New and Existing Customers

When working in a sales role, not being able to stop by a client’s office or have face-to-face meetings can make your job very challenging. 

If this is how you’ve always operated, moving to a fully remote working environment has probably sent you wondering how to keep hitting your sales quotas. The good news is that reaching out to your current and new customers about your products and services doesn’t have to stop. 

While it might look a little different than it did before, you can still be successful in meeting your monthly goal. 

One of the best ways to do this remotely is through email. Whether that is checking in and reaching out to your current customers or sending cold emails to new customers — every communication point matters. 

Here are a few simple ways you can use email to keep in contact with new and existing customers: 

  • Send a quick message to a customer you haven’t talked to in a while to check-in
  • Reach out to a prospective customer who might be interested in the products or service your company offers
  • Use email to share company updates and news to keep customers informed
  • Provide customers with quotes and pricing on the services that can help them improve their daily activities

Email is a simple and effective way to reach your customers when working remotely. If you’re not already using email as one of your customer communication methods, you’ll want to get started! 

You’ll need to create a new schedule to fix your new business needs. Whether that means scheduling calls at a time when your house is quiet or setting aside time for emails — a new process will be needed. 

2) Create a Schedule and Stick to it

Working in an office helps to add a little structure to your life. When you switch from going to the corporate office every day to going to your home office, things feel different. That’s why creating a new schedule and sticking to it is important. 

Set yourself up for success by planning your days out and forcing yourself to stick to that schedule. Maybe on Mondays, you spend time researching new clients and catching up on your emails. Then later in the week to dedicate time to drafting cold emails or making calls to reach out to those new customers. 

If you don’t have a clear process in place, you’ll quickly find yourself falling behind or getting distracted with all the things you need to do around the house. 

Provide yourself with some discipline and stick to the job at hand. You’ll feel much more productive and your monthly sales numbers will reflect the hard work you’ve put in. 

Face-to-face communication is still an option even when working remotely! Utilize video conferencing capabilities to continue to build relationships with your customers. 

3) Utilize Technology to Keep Face-to-Face Meetings

Face-to-face communication doesn’t have to be lost due to remote work. In fact, with the technology available today you can schedule meetings with your clients right from your home office. 

Virtual meetings have quickly become the norm for most companies, and it’s a great way to get in front of your current and prospective clients. While email and phone calls allow you to connect with customers, they lose a sense of personalization. 

Video conferencing technology allows you to bring that personalization back with face-to-face conversations. Simply set up a time, send them a link, and then meet with them to improve trust and communication. A big part of sales is building relationships and that can be hard without these types of interactions.

A few video conferencing tools you can use are: 

  • Zoom
  • Skype
  • Google Meet
  • ClickMeeting

No matter what platform you or your company choose to use, video chatting will help you continue to build those important relationships. Just keep in mind how well your home internet connection works to ensure you’re not constantly breaking up!

The most important thing when moving to remote work is to keep communication a priority. Don’t get stuck in your own little world and forget about the needs of your clients. 

4) Keep Communication as a Priority 

Last but definitely not least, you need to make communication a top priority. Forgetting to check-in with your customers or waiting too long between outreach leaves time for your tech-savvy competitors to swoop in.

To stay competitive in today’s remote world, you’ll want to have a communication plan in place. Reach out to customers on a frequent basis, even if it’s just to say hi and see how their family is. This will help keep you top of mind and keep the relationships you built previously alive. 

You never know when your customers will be in need of your product or service. So the more present you are, the better chance you have at reaching them right when they needed to hear from you. 

Keep Your Sales Trending Upwards While Working Remote

Just because you can’t stop by your client’s office or meet at a local coffee shop doesn’t mean your sales have to suffer. With the help of modern technology and a new plan, you can continue to see your sales numbers trend upwards — even while working outside of the office.

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Protecting Your Retail Stores Finances

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You have worked hard to build your retail store into a profitable business. Providing your customers with safe and secure credit is what keeps them coming back, but how can you protect your finances? Here are a few steps your retail store can take to protect itself from financial loss.

Make sure your data is well protected

The world of retail is changing. It’s gone from floor to web, and now it’s in the air. Technology is advancing faster than anyone can keep up with. How we buy and sell goods has changed, but the basic rules have stayed the same: you need security. 

Investing in cybersecurity for your business is a big part of protecting your retail store finances. Data breaches are reported in the news every day. Be prepared to defend your assets by ensuring your data is well protected from threats, viruses and hackers. 

By safeguarding your finances with Internet security systems that aren’t easily hacked into, you’ll be able to focus on the rest of your business.

Invest in the proper type of insurance 

Business insurance helps protect your business finances by providing you with protection when you need it. Public liability insurance can protect your business finances against a variety of risks from property damage to customer injuries and legal claims. This will also stop you from going bankrupt if someone makes a claim against your business.

Protecting your retail store finances can provide peace of mind for you and your business. Whether you’re a new or existing business owner, learn about how the right retail business insurance can help protect your business finances and assets.

Control your expenses

Understanding how to control your expenses is crucial for any retail business, big or small.

Reducing the amount of expense in your retail business is a good first step to protecting your money. Know what you are paying for, how much, and if you’re getting value for it.

Make it a point to keep an eye on your budgets, but you also want surety that you’re aware of every penny that flows in or out of your business. With timely, easy-to-read reports and data-driven insights from book-keeping apps, you can be certain that every transaction counts toward your bottom line.

Separate personal finance from business finance

Business owners are highly motivated to grow their business. From hiring additional staff to purchasing expensive equipment, you’d like to have funds available when you need them. However, a lot of companies do not separate their personal finances from the finance of their business. Everyone knows that mixing your personal and business finances in a single bank account is not a good idea, so always separate them.

If you are like many small business owners, your personal finances and business finances are mixed. If the two are intertwined, then business decisions can have a direct impact on your personal financial situation and vice versa. 

Explore additional sources of funding

Protecting your retail store finances is one of the biggest challenges faced by small businesses. Growing insurance costs, cash flow shortages and general overheads often get in the way of long-term financial planning. For many, a bank overdraft is used to balance books and stave off insolvency, but you could be risking much more than just your overdraft interest rates. 

Furthermore, as a business owner, you are personally liable for all company debts – which could leave your personal credit rating negatively impacted if the unexpected happens, and your retail store can face financial challenges that could threaten the success of your business over time. It’s important to explore funding options and solutions to help protect your profits in the long-term. 

No matter how much you invest in your retail store, your ability to protect yourself and your store’s finances should be the most valuable investment you make. Protecting your retail investment is important, and hopefully, this short article has provided somewhere to start from.

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A Great Start: How to Plan a Successful Business

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While there is no denying that starting a business in any industry is considered a milestone and an achievement to be proud of, the prospect of trying to keep the business afloat during the first one or two years is another story entirely. It can be challenging enough trying to keep your business afloat by gathering clients and clout within the community, but preventing a new company from being overshadowed by industry giants requires passion and careful planning.

When you consider that the slightest mistake could lead to potentially devastating consequences for a new business, it is almost ironic that one of the most challenging phases of business management is typically helmed by inexperienced business owners.

Fortunately, you do not have to go in blind. Here are a few ways you can plan ahead for a successful business.

Knowledge is power

While it is common knowledge to gather as much information as you can about your industry, many startup owners end up focusing on the immediate needs of their business. Keeping in touch with the latest trends in your industry ensures that you have a wealth of knowledge to consider when you start making big decisions for your business.

It also helps to keep in touch with industry trends, as it allows you a glimpse at what your competitors might be into. For contracting businesses, it might be techniques such as using a precast retaining wall, and for restaurants, it might be a new superfood making waves as an ingredient in common recipes.

Focus on the loyalty of employees

For any business out there that makes use of employees, they are the lifeblood of a company. For startups, how your employees perform dictates whether or not your business falls flat. Fortunately, one of the tried and tested ways to bring out the potential of your staff would be through the use of employee incentives. It is all right to start small if you do not have the budget to go for an all-out incentive plan – the crucial part is your staff understands that you are looking out for them.

The moment your employees start thinking that you have no intention of providing an incentive, they will likely only give the bare minimum to keep your business going.

Look into reasonable coverage options

While it might not seem like an immediate issue, coverage is undoubtedly one of the most crucial aspects of building a business. The right type of coverage means you can focus on building your company without having to worry about legal issues potentially making your goals impossible to achieve. It would be a good idea to look into a business owner’s policy (BOP), as it typically combines coverage types your business needs while simultaneously being cheaper than the sum of its parts.

There is no denying that running a business and keeping it afloat amid a competitive industry is a substantial challenge. That said, the tips above can help you maintain a foothold and forge ahead in your chosen industry.

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4 Ways To Encourage Health And Well Being In The Office

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Your workforce is your most important commodity. It, therefore, pays to take good care of them.

Yet the latest statistics show that poor health and wellbeing measures in the workplace is the prime cause of absenteeism. As a result, enterprises suffer diminished productivity and turnover, and high medical, legal and insurance costs.

The World Economic Forum says work-related stress is a pandemic and costs the global economy £255 billion a year. Moreover, stress is the largest single predictor of absenteeism and poor workplace performance.

Promoting health and well-being in the workplace essentially revolves around four pillars; eating healthy food and drinking more water, managing stress levels, promoting mental health and getting sufficient sleep.

Offer Nutritional Snacks and Meals

Chocolate and sugary snacks may be more appealing but they are not good for the health of your staff or the productivity of your business. Sugary foods may provide an initial spike in energy, but quickly crash. This leads to fatigue and a deterioration in cognitive function.

The best healthy snacks contain protein, fibre and carbs such as nuts, banana cake and popcorn. Homemade energy bites and smoothies go down a treat as well!

Encourage Movement

According to the American Heart Association, sitting is the new smoking. Sedentary jobs increase the risk of heart disease and other cardiovascular-related illnesses.

Encoring employees to move around the office has been identified as a potential solution. Today’s agile office designs encourage employees to work in specified zones and take the stairs instead of using the lift.

Agile office designs also incorporate break out areas which encourage people to take the regulated 20-minute break every hour and refresh their brainpower.

Promote Exercise

It’s likely that all your employees know that exercise is good for them but few of them actually engage in physical activity. Motivation is the key issue – so why not poke your workforce with an exercise stick.

For example, you could organise weekly sports events, or encourage a work team to enter in local sports events such as 5-a-side soccer. Perhaps you can strike an arrangement with a local gym or yoga class, or install bike racks to encourage people to cycle to work.

You could also encourage your staff to download the Sweatcoin app which rewards people for walking. The app counts your number of steps and converts them into a digital currency directly on to your smartphone. You can then exchange the sweatcoins for merchandise and earn massive discounts.

Invest in Mental Health Strategies 

Now it has come to light that mental health issues impact work performance, more companies are investing in strategies that place health and wellbeing of their staff at the centre of their workplace strategy.

Human-centric approaches include offering childcare benefits and e-coaching services that help staff manage stress. Virtual support systems for employees working from home also help people feel less isolated and part of a team.

Experts also advise employers to remove the pressure of targets. Stress can drive people towards drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism. In doing so, their workplace performance suffers.

If you notice signs of workplace stress in your employees, you should seriously consider installing strategies that foster health and wellbeing. Companies that neglect their workforce will notice a drop in performance and a rise in absentee-related costs.

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