How To Turn Around Your Under Performing Sales Team

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Your sales team is at the heart of your business and when they perform well, the business thrives. But when they are not performing so well, your business is in real danger. Unless you can turn things around and get your sales team working again, your business could fall apart completely. In some cases, it might just be that you’re going through a slow period and things will pick up again soon. But if sales figures are low for an extended period and things don’t seem to be turning around on their own, you need to start making some changes. Here’s how you can improve your underperforming sales force.

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | How To Turn Around Your Under Performing Sales Team

Identify The Problem

The first step in fixing your sales team is identifying where the problem lies. For example, you might be getting plenty of qualified leads but your sales team is not closing that many deals, or maybe they are not getting enough leads in the first place. You may also find that certain employees are underperforming compared to their coworkers and you need to focus on those people in particular. The best way to identify the problem is to look at your sales data. If you use  a good salesforce dashboard, you can see all of the data about your sales team and how they are performing. By looking over all of this data, you will be able to identify exactly where the blockages in your sales pipeline are so you can start working towards a solution.

Generate More Qualified Leads

Sometimes, your sales team is struggling because you are generating leads but they are not qualified leads and so they cannot convert many of those customers. If that is the case, you should focus on targeting your marketing efforts more effectively so you get more qualified leads. Using digital marketing is a great way to reach more people and, most importantly, reach the right people. Spend some time thinking about who your target market is and how you can create marketing campaigns that will resonate with them.

Motivate With Targets

A lack of motivation could be the reason that things are slowing down. When people have a goal to reach for, they work a lot harder and sometimes, employers do not give their sales staff big enough targets to hit. People may be motivated initially, but if they are hitting their targets easily and you are not raising the bar, they will start to be complacent. It’s important that you set dynamic goals for your sales team so they always have something to strive for.

Improve Training

If customers are progressing to the final stages and then dropping out, that’s a sign that they are not very good at closing deals. In that case, you may want to consider improving your training. Giving your sales team more tools that they can use and helping them to improve their phone manner will make it a lot easier for them to convert those customers.

If you spend some time rethinking your sales team, you should be able to identify the problem and fix it before your business falls apart.

5 Tips to Improve Productivity in the Workplace

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | 5 Tips to Improve Productivity in the WorkplaceAccording to experts, inefficiency can cost you between 20% to 30% of your business profits. Have you taken a hard look at your current operations? If you haven’t done so, you should get on it as soon as possible.

You may think it’s difficult to improve productivity in the workplace, but that’s far from the truth. It can be as easy as finding ways to motivate your employees and streamlining your operations. Don’t know where to start?

We’ve got you covered. Here are our top 5 tips to increase productivity in the workplace today.

1. Create a Positive Work Environment

As a business owner and leader, it’s vital to create a positive environment where your employees feel comfortable. Aim to motivate them through monthly events such as leadership workshops. You should also consider setting up a breakfast bar and other facilities to make your office space more comfortable.

2. Promote Employee Wellness

Healthy and happy employees make the dream work. You should always promote and prioritize your employees’ wellbeing. You can do this by scheduling wellness clinics at your offices or creating a fitness challenge to motivate employees to take care of themselves.

You should also promote talking about mental health as well. Try to make your employees feel comfortable enough to ask for a day off to prevent any burnouts.

3. Harness the Power of Technology

Believe it or not, using the most advanced technology can help you increase employee productivity. It’s important to take a look at your operations at an organizational and departmental level. Remember every department is a piece of the puzzle.

An example is how many businesses miss the mark when designing their accounting operations. When companies don’t streamline processes such as paystub generation, employees may be spending too much time completing these tasks. If this situation sounds familiar, you should consider a paystub maker such as Paystubs.net.

4. Set Up an Employee Development Program

Academic degrees and experience provide employees the knowledge needed to meet their job requirements. However, the best employers promote employee growth.

Establishing an employee development program or academy can help your employees grow. Focus on providing in-house seminars and courses to improve their skills and efficiency.

5. Empower Your Employees

You can empower employees by delegating tasks and guiding them. Make sure to monitor your employees’ performance to ensure they’re making the right choices. An empowered employee will contribute to your company’s success.

A great way to empower employees is by establishing a mentorship program. Under this program, company leaders will mentor your employees. This empowerment program will help you develop in-house talent for any need that arises in your organization.

Can You Improve Productivity in the Workplace?

As a business owner, you can improve productivity in the workplace. It will come down to implementing the best measures to motivate your employees. The first step is analyzing your operations and pinpointing where there’s room for improvement.

Focus on providing your employees with the best tools and creating a positive work environment. A good practice is asking your employees how you can help them. It may seem difficult to increase employee productivity, but we’re confident our tips will help you take your business to the next level.

Did you find this article interesting? Check out the rest of our site for more insightful articles.

 

Wondering How to Get Your Team Motivated? Here Are 5 Helpful Tips

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |how to get your team motivated|Wondering How to Get Your Team Motivated? Here Are 5 Helpful TipsFor some people, motivation is a difficult thing to possess on the job. As a business owner or manager, there will be many times that you need to get your team motivated.

Getting your team ready and motivated to work together is a skill you can learn and practice along the way.
Keep reading for our five tips on how to get your team motivated.

1. Set Goals and Celebrate Them

One of the best ways to get your team motivated is to set goals and have a way to celebrate them. Have a meeting with your team and see what your big goals should be. You can then come up with a reward for reaching these goals as well whether it is a personal reward or something that they all get at the end of a quarter.

OKRs are a great way to set goals and track them along the way. They can help you to figure out what your objective is as well as the key results. This is an awesome program you can use in many different areas of your business.

2. Lead By Example

As a business owner, all eyes will be on you so make sure you’re leading by example. This means that you should do your best to promote productivity and happiness in the workplace. When your team sees that you’re a motivated and productive boss, then they will be more likely to be motivated as well.

You also need to come into work every day with a smile on your face even if you don’t feel like smiling. No one likes to be around a negative Nancy so try and make aspects of your day good. Even when there are downfalls in business you need to try and put a positive spin on them so your team doesn’t get bogged down by the negatives.

3. Good Communication

Another way to get your team motivated is to communicate with them and see what they need. Good communication comes from both ends so as a business owner you need to make sure that your team knows you’re willing to communicate with them.

Sit down in a small group or one on one and ask your employees what they need to stay productive and do their job well. It could be that they need an extra day off for some self-care, or maybe they feel like they aren’t getting paid enough. Do your best to try and fix any issues that they have.

4. Recognize Your Team

As we mentioned earlier you can’t focus on the negatives so make sure that when someone does something good on the job you recognize them for it. This could mean just saying ‘thank you’ in person to recognizing them for their hard work in a meeting.

One of the best ways to get people motivated is to appreciate them for the work that they’re already doing. When employees know that they’re appreciated for the work they do, then they will want to continue doing as best as they possibly can.

5. Don’t Micromanage

As a business owner, you may be more tempted to micromanage your team but this is the worst way to get them motivated. You have hired each of your employees based on their skills so you should know that they can do the job.
Try to take a backseat when it comes to big projects that your team is completing. If they ask for your help, then you’re more than welcome to assist but try not to butt in when not needed.

How to Get Your Team Motivated

When it comes to figuring out how to get your team motivated there are going to be a lot of trial and error. You will just need to figure out what works best for your team when it is time to get them motivated.
If you’re interested in learning more business strategy, then sign up for our newsletter for more advice.

Mixing Work with Pleasure: 5 Tips to Help You Plan an Awesome Business Party

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Business Party|Mixing Work with Pleasure: 5 Tips to Help You Plan an Awesome Business PartyDid you know happy employees are 20% more productive? Productivity at the workplace is more than just one’s skills and commitment. It also depends on the person’s mood, physical health, and mental state. Therefore, ensuring that your employees enjoy their time working for the company is very crucial in the growth and success of the business.

One great way to increase enjoyment in the workspace is to throw a party and reward your employees for their hard work. Hosting a corporate EOFY function in Sydney gives all the members of your business some time to unwind and reflect on everything that happened throughout the busy year. It’s also important because it shows the employees that you care about them as much as you care for your company.

Inasmuch as the objective remains the same, how and where you plan your End of the Year or EOFY party is very significant. Wondering how to hold a perfect business party for your company? Not to worry! In this guide, we’ll go over corporate event planning tips.

1. Plan the Party and Save the Date

Try and start brainstorming for your business party up to four months beforehand. One mistake that many people make is commencing their plans when it’s too late. This makes them quite desperate and will be forced to accept whatever comes their way in terms of venue, food, and other related resources. However, starting things early enough will give you time to research caterers and different conference centers.

Ask for help from other creative employees to help you plan the party. This way, you can share the planning responsibilities.

Find out from your guests of honor when they are available for the party. Once you know what dates are free, pick one. You can send out save-the-date invitations in advance so people can mark it on their calendar.

2. Choose a Theme

To make your party fun and exciting, consider picking a unique theme. Yes, you’re obviously celebrating a successful year, but without a definitive theme, everything will be dull and boring. Therefore, make sure you have something to base your celebrations on. You can decorate the venue according to the theme you choose.

You can host a costume party or throw a breakfast event. Throw a luau party in the middle of winter to boost office morale. If you know your employees like trivia or bingo, you could host a game night. Of course, it would be wise to do something in which most of your employees will be interested to participate. You can gather this information either by going through every member’s hobby or conducting a survey.

Once you have this information, be sure to pick something that won’t be too expensive for you and your business. If you need help and have the budget available, call an interior decorator.

3. Pick a Venue

What space you choose will depend on the number of attendees and who you’re celebrating.
If you only have a small gathering, you could throw the party at a worker’s home or the office.
For a fancier gala, book a local hall.

4. Food and Drink

If you’re serving food at the event, you’ll want to hire a caterer.
Find out from your employees what kind of food they prefer. You should also find out if anyone is a vegan or if they have any allergies. You want there to be food choices for everyone to enjoy.

With your planning team, talk about if you’ll offer alcoholic drinks at your event. Find out if there are any local liquor laws for a business party. Your company could get in trouble if someone gets hurt because they misused alcohol.

If you decide to offer alcohol, hire a responsible bartender.

They will help watch guests and make sure minors don’t drink. Some caterers even provide this service with their food.

5. Hire Entertainment

You can hire entertainment for a large-scale event.
Choose from a comedian, singer, or a master of ceremonies. Make sure you approve the material beforehand.
Check out these corporate event ideas for more inspiration.

Now You Know How to Plan a Business Party

We hope this guide on planning a business party was helpful. Make sure you plan ahead of time and work with another employee.

Don’t forget to bookmark our site. This way, you won’t miss out on any of our resources.

How Much do Software Developers Make in 2019?

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article | How Much do Software Developers Make in 2019?
 
Software developers have always been in high demand, but in 2019 the appetite for developers has just increased as new innovations and applications emerge. With this high demand comes a corresponding rise in salary expectations.

So how much can a software developer expect to make in 2019?

It’s not a simple answer. Not all software development jobs are alike; some are more specialized than others, which is reflected in their pay. But there are so many different types of software development specializations these days that it’s a challenge to keep track of them all and how much they pay.

That’s why we’ve put together a handy table below, with the most common types of software developer roles as of 2019 and what they earn.

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article | How Much do Software Developers Make in 2019?

*All figures based on Ziprecruiter estimates

Notice how in the above chart that the more specialized roles are able to receive a much higher average salary than the more general roles as they get more experience. The outlier seems to be blockchain developers, who receive disproportionately higher starting salaries due to both their rarity, the difficulty of the subject matter, and the current hype surrounding blockchain development.

AI and machine learning developers have similarly high salary prospects. The starting salaries mentioned in the chart are misleading. Actually, only a small percentage of jobs pay at this low range. Salary ranges begin to spike at $78,500 – $91,000 for AI developers (19% of jobs) and $70,500 – $100,499 for machine learning developers (17% of jobs).

The starting salary of cyber security engineers is also misleading. 30% of surveyed cyber security engineer jobs actually begin at the $83,000 to $108,499 range. This reflects cyber security’s vital role in an increasingly digital world, especially in large-scale enterprises with massive amounts of data.

Video game developer salaries in 2019 are also higher than in more general developer roles, however, there is a culture of overwork inherent in the industry which is a definite trade-off for anyone seeking a position in that field.

Note that engineering roles have slight but significant job differences from your standard developer: engineers don’t just code. Software engineers help develop processes and apply engineering principles to solve client needs, which means understanding the big picture and taking a strategic approach. It requires an additional skill set beyond mere programming and is reflected in the salary. The right software engineer will help ensure your development projects don’t fail, which attributes to their high demand and salary requirements.

So there you have it. We hope this chart will be helpful in either choosing a career in software development or switching to a different specialization in mid-career.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Shane ZilinskasShane Zilinskas is the Founder and CEO of Los Angeles software development agency ClearSummit, and the Co-Founder and CTO of TuneRegistry, a music rights SaaS platform. He also provides consulting services to startups and enterprise companies. Prior to working in the agency space, Shane built news media backends and part of the FAA’s air traffic control system. He has a B.S. in Computer Engineering from UVA. He has a passion for efficiency and combining the best tech and design to solve complex problems.

Twitter: @clearsummitapps