The role of a leader is always evolving, so it makes sense that the traits of a modern-day leader may be different from the leaders of half a century ago.
Of course, some traits have remained pretty consistent throughout the years, such as being a role model and having strong communication skills.
The following are some of the leadership traits that are important now that might not have been in the past.
1. An Ear for Employees
Perhaps one of the most drastic differences between modern-day leaders and leaders from the past is that today’s leaders are interested in what employees want and need.
50 years ago, managers simply had to be charismatic enough to bark orders at their employees to get the job done.
The goal was always to satisfy the company’s owner without paying too much attention to the employees. Leaders weren’t too interested in complaints, concerns, and feedback from their employees. That kind of leader will not work with today’s empowered workforce and may even be counterproductive.
Today’s managers encourage employees to express their points of view and discuss or bring up tough issues.
Leaders in the past would not talk about mistakes, but today’s managers are expected to highlight mistakes along with employees so that everyone can learn from them.
2. Ability to Change
CEOs, managers, and any other type of leader of today cannot be the kind of person who sticks to what works but rather a person who can change at a moment’s notice. The reason today’s authority figures cannot stay stagnant deals with the nature of modern-day business.
The internet has been creating all sorts of changes that affect business almost at lightning speed. A new internet-based concept could cause a chain of events that could break a company that refuses to change with the times.
Take video streaming, which basically has defeated regular DVD rentals and is taking a serious bite out of the entire movie-making business. Leaders in the past were taught not to rock the boat too much because it could disrupt a well-oiled machine, but that kind of leadership could sink companies today.
3. A Reflective Spirit
Another thing that is unique about today’s authority figures is their ability to be reflective. This sense of self-awareness is unique to modern-day leaders, and it helps them improve their leadership skills and work on weaknesses.
This skill also allows modern-day directors to hire employees that will actually complement them by looking for individuals that are strong where they are weak.
Leaders from the past were not too concerned about finding individuals who might help them become better because that kind of collaboration simply did not exist back then.
4. Aware of the People’s Heart
Generation X and Y employees are a different kind of workforce. These individuals know how important they are to companies and use that as leverage to get what they want.
This workforce does not mind jumping from job to job and a workforce that values experience more than pay.
A leader from the past might just alienate today’s employees so much that it might be hard to fill certain positions.
This is the reason contemporary authority figures need to be able to keep employees happy by listening to them and finding ways to create a good corporate culture.
Company culture actually helps keep employees in their positions and helps employees feel more invested in their positions, which increases productivity.
One way modern leaders do this is by rewarding the entire team instead of individual efforts, which makes employees collaborate better rather than compete with each other.
5. A Focus on Diversity
Another trait that is quite important for modern overseers is the ability to connect with all sorts of workers. The new age workforce is filled with all sorts of people as the country continues to become more diverse.
Being sensitive to all the cultural differences is important in order to make individuals feel welcomed and to respect other people’s customs. This is a trait that simply was not too important in the past.
Yesterday’s authority figures barely communicated with their workforce; the only thing that was important was getting the job done.
Leaders back in the day could have been offensive, yet they might have still been valued by their employers.
Well, new age authority figures definitely need to be more sensitive because failing to do so could not only alienate employees but could also put the company at risk of lawsuits.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/leadership.png407613StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2019-09-25 20:00:422019-09-25 14:27:435 Leadership Traits You Didn’t Need 50 Years Ago
Do you have employees? That’s great! All you have to do is cut them a check to pay them, right?
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. That’s what has led the payroll industry to grow to a size of $81.5 billion.
If you’re handling payroll for a business yourself then you need to know what to look out for, so you don’t make any mistakes. Keep reading to learn seven common payroll mistakes that can cause problems for your business.
1. Missing Deadlines
When you deal with payroll, your employee paychecks aren’t the only money that you’ll be paying out. You also have to deal with government taxes.
You need to make a note of when your federal and state tax deadlines are for payroll. If you want to avoid missing your deadline, then either set reminders or automated payments for your tax obligations.
2. Not Keeping up With New Laws
Laws for payroll don’t stay the same. In fact, they change all the time. If you don’t stay up to date with what’s happening with the current laws, then you’re asking for trouble.
By staying up to date, you can make sure that you’re always following the law. You won’t have to worry about your next audit finding something that you missed.
3. Not Sending Tax Forms
Every penny you pay your team gets reported to the government. Shouldn’t they be the ones who send out your employee’s earnings for the year?
Wrong. That’s up to you to do. Make sure that all your employees receive their 1099 forms by the due date.
4. Bad Records
It’s required by law to keep all your records up to date, accurate, and available for several years. If you don’t, then you can face fines from the government.
This is why it’s necessary to invest in a record-keeping system that will keep things up to date. But keeping records in order isn’t easy. Contact a payroll service to get help getting your data in order.
5. Ignoring Garnishes
It doesn’t feel good to take payment from your team’s checks. But if you get a request from the government, you need to take action immediately.
Any mistake here can lead to a time-consuming process to correct.
6. Miscalculating Overtime
Overtime pay isn’t optional when you have hourly employees. You’re required to pay them for any extra time they work for your company. If you don’t keep accurate records of overtime hours, then you’re going to have problems paying people for their time.
7. Not Keeping Backups
If you’re using cloud software to handle payroll, then you don’t have to worry much about data loss. But if you manage everything locally on your office computers, then you run the risk of losing data.
Make sure to put a backup plan in place to save your data in case this happens. A backup service costs money but will save you time and money in the long run.
Payroll for a Business Isn’t Easy
If cutting a check to your team was all it took to do payroll, then the payroll industry would be doomed. But payroll for a business isn’t that simple. Make sure you avoid the mistakes above so you can prevent costly mistakes.
Are you looking for more business advice? Keep browsing our blog to read through our latest tips.
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Nearly 70 percent of the homes in the United States don’t have a security system in place. Without a home security system, you are giving burglars an invitation to come in and steal whatever they want. Millions of home burglaries occur each year, which is why taking preventative measures to protect your home is important.
Learning about and investing in the latest alarm system technology is crucial. While this security technology will be expensive, it is definitely a great investment. The more you know about how to navigate the world of alarm system technology, the easier it will be for you to find the right elements for your residence.
Here are some of the things you need to know about alarm system technology.
Choosing a Smart Hub is Important
Do you already have a number of smart home devices in place? If so, being able to pair them with your new security system is a good idea. The only way to accomplish this is by investing in a smart hub. In essence, a smart hub acts as the centralized control system for your smart home. With this hub, you can control everything from your lights to your security system with the sound of your voice.
Instead of rushing out and buying the first smart hub you find, take some time to do a bit of research. Making sure the security hub in question is compatible with your devices and security system.
Monitoring is a Must For Modern Security Systems
One of the main goals you should have when having a security system installed is protecting your family and your possessions. If a burglary does occur, you want the authorities to be notified immediately. A security alarm will be useless if it is not being monitored, which is why working with a company like Alarm Grid to get this monitoring is so important.
A security system with monitoring will dial out to the authorities and the security company as soon as the alarm is tripped. This means that the burglars will be caught and brought to justice for robbing your home. The extra money you pay for this monitoring will be worth it considering how helpful it can be in the long run.
Choose a Security System You Can Easily Operate
When trying to find the right security system for your home, be sure to do your homework. Ideally, you want to choose a system that is easy to operate. If a system is hard to operate, the chances of mistakes happening will increase substantially.
Looking at the reviews a particular security system has can be helpful. With this information, you can start to narrow down the selection of systems at your disposal. Failing to do this type of research can lead to problems in the future.
Allow Professionals to Install Your New Security System
One of the biggest mistakes a homeowner can make is trying to install their own security system. Rather than deal with the problems this can cause, you need to hire experienced professionals to help you out.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/smart-home-2769210_1280.jpg7471280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2019-09-25 17:00:152023-03-14 23:56:00Learn About Alarm System Technology
Every business owner needs a little more time and money on their hands. But both resources can be hard to come by, especially if your everyday tasks are bleeding you dry.
Enters task automation and you can save the day and your sanity. Task automation saves you a lot of time and money, while allowing you to close more sales on autopilot.
Thanks to automation, you can effectively boost productivity, lower costs and offer better customer service online and offline.
With a clever automation strategy, your cash registers keep ringing and you spend less time on mundane and repetitive tasks.
At the end of the day, you end up with more time and money to channel towards business growth. And when you hit your growth goals, automation scales with you making your job easy.
With the preamble, continue reading to learn how you can easily boost sales in your store(s) with task automation.
How to Use Task Automation to Boost Sales
Automation uses software to carry out most of the tasks that were traditionally performed by a team of people.
Nowadays, and thanks to advances in technology, you can automate many tasks including marketing, lead nurturing, sales, daily operations and customer service among others.
In the following section, we cover several areas you can automate in a bid to increase sales while saving tons of time and money.
That out of the way, let us get down to business.
Marketing Automation
Businesses spend a huge amount of money marketing their products and services. Usually, most businesses don’t achieve the desired ROI thanks to poor execution, human error and so on.
Automating your marketing strategy can save you a lot of money and time. If you run a website for your store (and you should), automating your marketing efforts include adding features such as newsletters and social media.
Once a visitor sign ups to your newsletter, you can send them automated emails to convert mere subscribers to ready-to-pay customers. To automate opt-ins on your website, you can use a service such as OptinMonster and Thrive Leads among others.
If you didn’t know, email is a powerful marketing channel for online and offline businesses. You can easily send automated offers to your customers, which can boost both online and instore purchases tremendously.
Most email marketing providers offer you automation with a basic plan. For popular players in the industry, checkout MailChimp, AWeber and Campaign Monitor among others. Once you sign up, you can offer free content on a regular basis to win over customers, a practice known as content dripping.
Further, you can schedule social media posts that feed your social media marketing campaigns on autopilot. You don’t need me to tell you that posting on various social media platforms daily can eat up a lot of your precious time.
To be on the safe side, you can pick a few hours to schedule a month’s (or a year’s) worth of social media posts, and automate everything with a tool such as Hootsuite or BuzzSumo among others.
Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing involves actively participating in the customer’s journey from lead acquisition to purchase and beyond.
Many first timers to your businesses aren’t ready to purchase. However, you can turn the tables in your favor by automating lead nurturing – the process of converting a mere visitor to paying customer.
For starters, you must respond to contact requests immediately. If you delay your responses to customer queries for more than 30 minutes, you are 23X more likely to lose leads left, right and center.
What to do? Automate the contact process. How? Automate email/SMS responses that are sent out as soon as the visitor contacts your business.
As soon as you send out the canned response, automatically assign the lead to a sales rep who then follows up immediately. The prospect appreciates the fast response times, and you smile all the way to the bank.
Additionally, you can incorporate an automatic system that helps you to master phone calls. Such a system allows you to win leads you’d have otherwise lost due to phone tag.
On top of that, follow up with networking connections to generate more leads. However, following up manually can cost you a lot of time. You can automate the whole process, so you can follow up on prospective customers while saving time.
You can automate lead nurturing using a combination of tools such as email marketing, LeadSquared, Zapier and so on.
Sales Automation
Netting that one elusive sale doesn’t end with lead nurturing. Once you or your team has qualified a lead, it’s time to move on to the next phase; closing the deal. But inefficiencies can arise and kill the sale when you’re so close.
Your best bet is to automate the sales pipeline. There are couple of stages involved in closing the sale, and the fewer problems you have in the workflow, the better your bottom line.
A typical sales pipeline involves four main stages namely:
Identifying the new opportunity harnessed via lead nurturing
First contact when you or your sale representatives contact the prospect
Engagement, where your team finds out the prospect’s needs
Qualification, when the sales representative goes full throttle and closes the deal
To avoid problems, it’s best to automate the sales pipeline, such that the sales team focuses entirely on the hottest leads, without wasting time on trivialities.
With a great sales automation strategy in place, your sales team can move the lead from stage to the next without any hiccups, saving you plenty of time and money.
On top of that, you should also engage with interested leads who are not ready to buy yet. With a little automated persuasion, you can convince such leads to make the leap and become a customer.
Other than that, always welcome your new customers with automated welcome emails/SMS/phone calls. A huge chunk of customers loves welcome emails, and if you do your homework, you can even score repeat business automatically without trying hard on your part.
Daily office operations can take a lot of time. On top of that, many stores don’t carry out next-day tasks, which results in huge losses. The best scenario for all businesses is to boost employee engagement and productivity.
And did you know you can leverage the power of automation to boost employee engagement, productivity and achieve consistent store execution? That’s right, you can automate plenty of instore tasks to save time and money, boost employee morale and promote effective customer service.
You can easily automate tasks such as office communication with a tool such as RetailZipline. Additionally, you can use the same tool to automate sending and receiving of important documents, set up daily task checklists, and foster store participation via surveys.
Other than that, you can automate inventory tracking (you can use Zoho Inventory), job applications, employee onboarding (you can use RetailZipline) and so much more.
Other Areas
You can further automate areas such as:
Events such as instore sales or networking events
Ecommerce including tasks such as recovering abandoned carts, updating credit card numbers, generating repeat business, etc.
Customer service such as making it easier for customers to seek help, gauging client satisfaction, asking for referrals by offering small gifts e.g. coupons, remembering client birthdays, and cleaning your email lists among others
Conclusion
Task automation can save you a lot of headaches, time and money. Provided you know the right strategy and tools to use, you can easily automate your business.
As a store manager, HQ or district leader, it is important to invest in task automation to take your business to the next level.
Have concerns, suggestions, favorite tools or questions? Please share in the comments. Cheers to happy automating.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/store-984393_1280.jpg8541280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2019-09-25 16:00:162021-01-06 20:48:08How to Boost Your Retail Store Sales with Task Automation
The phones your business uses may be a central tenet of your operations, or they may barely even register as an after-thought. However, in every modern business it is an advantage to be able to have a proper conversation over the phone with someone at a distance. And for every business, therefore, it can be worth considering investing in a smarter phone system.
Smart telephone systems can look like an unnecessary upfront cost, but there are several reasons why upgrading your phone systems can represent an absolutely solid investment which will offer savings in the long term for any kind of business. Read on for our guide to the advantages to smarter phone systems.
How can you make your phone system smarter?
Smarter phone systems can reduce your costs and remove several different administrative needs. If you currently have to pay for both landline and mobile office phones, with confusing contracts, it can make sense to move to a service which is hosted on the cloud. While most of us associate “the cloud” exclusively with computing needs, such as file and image storage, the term more generally refers to secure, supported services provided in real time over the internet. The most commonly known effect of any cloud service is to save on server space and ease pressure on I.T. requirements at your office space.
It is possible, however, to have your phone services provided over the cloud as well. This would mean that all your business’ official phones would run on a single contract, and this also avoids the hidden costs of on-premise PBX network. This can be a particular advantage if your business is split across multiple locations, as it avoids the need for either expensive landline options or two different on-premise PBX systems.
How to upgrade your phone system
To upgrade your system, you need only look online. If you choose a cloud phone system by Gamma then you will be able to tailor your package to your company’s needs and size. One advantage here is a system which is compatible with a wide variety of phone handsets and headsets. With an app interface and administrative settings manageable from a mobile, your employees and freelancers have greater flexibility to work from home.
This freedom for employees to work from home while retaining access to their work phone and documents allows for a clearer relationship between management and home workers. This can allow for a greater level of telecommuting from your staff. In turn, this can have positive effects on your business’ carbon footprint and lead to increased productivity in cases where the reduction in commuting time has a positive effect on the mental and physical health of your employees.
The flexibility to increase telecommuting offers up whole new realms of possibility for reducing spending and reducing the amount of office space you need. When this is combined with the savings possible from being free of the costs of landline or on-premise PBX systems, choosing smarter phone systems is clearly the way forward.
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5 Leadership Traits You Didn’t Need 50 Years Ago
/in Management & Leadership/by StrategyDrivenOf course, some traits have remained pretty consistent throughout the years, such as being a role model and having strong communication skills.
The following are some of the leadership traits that are important now that might not have been in the past.
1. An Ear for Employees
Perhaps one of the most drastic differences between modern-day leaders and leaders from the past is that today’s leaders are interested in what employees want and need.
50 years ago, managers simply had to be charismatic enough to bark orders at their employees to get the job done.
The goal was always to satisfy the company’s owner without paying too much attention to the employees. Leaders weren’t too interested in complaints, concerns, and feedback from their employees. That kind of leader will not work with today’s empowered workforce and may even be counterproductive.
Today’s managers encourage employees to express their points of view and discuss or bring up tough issues.
Leaders in the past would not talk about mistakes, but today’s managers are expected to highlight mistakes along with employees so that everyone can learn from them.
2. Ability to Change
CEOs, managers, and any other type of leader of today cannot be the kind of person who sticks to what works but rather a person who can change at a moment’s notice. The reason today’s authority figures cannot stay stagnant deals with the nature of modern-day business.
The internet has been creating all sorts of changes that affect business almost at lightning speed. A new internet-based concept could cause a chain of events that could break a company that refuses to change with the times.
Take video streaming, which basically has defeated regular DVD rentals and is taking a serious bite out of the entire movie-making business. Leaders in the past were taught not to rock the boat too much because it could disrupt a well-oiled machine, but that kind of leadership could sink companies today.
3. A Reflective Spirit
Another thing that is unique about today’s authority figures is their ability to be reflective. This sense of self-awareness is unique to modern-day leaders, and it helps them improve their leadership skills and work on weaknesses.
This skill also allows modern-day directors to hire employees that will actually complement them by looking for individuals that are strong where they are weak.
Leaders from the past were not too concerned about finding individuals who might help them become better because that kind of collaboration simply did not exist back then.
Generation X and Y employees are a different kind of workforce. These individuals know how important they are to companies and use that as leverage to get what they want.
This workforce does not mind jumping from job to job and a workforce that values experience more than pay.
A leader from the past might just alienate today’s employees so much that it might be hard to fill certain positions.
This is the reason contemporary authority figures need to be able to keep employees happy by listening to them and finding ways to create a good corporate culture.
Company culture actually helps keep employees in their positions and helps employees feel more invested in their positions, which increases productivity.
One way modern leaders do this is by rewarding the entire team instead of individual efforts, which makes employees collaborate better rather than compete with each other.
5. A Focus on Diversity
Another trait that is quite important for modern overseers is the ability to connect with all sorts of workers. The new age workforce is filled with all sorts of people as the country continues to become more diverse.
Being sensitive to all the cultural differences is important in order to make individuals feel welcomed and to respect other people’s customs. This is a trait that simply was not too important in the past.
Yesterday’s authority figures barely communicated with their workforce; the only thing that was important was getting the job done.
Leaders back in the day could have been offensive, yet they might have still been valued by their employers.
Well, new age authority figures definitely need to be more sensitive because failing to do so could not only alienate employees but could also put the company at risk of lawsuits.
7 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Doing Payroll for a Business
/in Managing Your Finances/by StrategyDrivenUnfortunately, it’s not that easy. That’s what has led the payroll industry to grow to a size of $81.5 billion.
If you’re handling payroll for a business yourself then you need to know what to look out for, so you don’t make any mistakes. Keep reading to learn seven common payroll mistakes that can cause problems for your business.
1. Missing Deadlines
When you deal with payroll, your employee paychecks aren’t the only money that you’ll be paying out. You also have to deal with government taxes.
You need to make a note of when your federal and state tax deadlines are for payroll. If you want to avoid missing your deadline, then either set reminders or automated payments for your tax obligations.
2. Not Keeping up With New Laws
Laws for payroll don’t stay the same. In fact, they change all the time. If you don’t stay up to date with what’s happening with the current laws, then you’re asking for trouble.
By staying up to date, you can make sure that you’re always following the law. You won’t have to worry about your next audit finding something that you missed.
3. Not Sending Tax Forms
Every penny you pay your team gets reported to the government. Shouldn’t they be the ones who send out your employee’s earnings for the year?
Wrong. That’s up to you to do. Make sure that all your employees receive their 1099 forms by the due date.
4. Bad Records
It’s required by law to keep all your records up to date, accurate, and available for several years. If you don’t, then you can face fines from the government.
This is why it’s necessary to invest in a record-keeping system that will keep things up to date. But keeping records in order isn’t easy. Contact a payroll service to get help getting your data in order.
5. Ignoring Garnishes
It doesn’t feel good to take payment from your team’s checks. But if you get a request from the government, you need to take action immediately.
Any mistake here can lead to a time-consuming process to correct.
6. Miscalculating Overtime
Overtime pay isn’t optional when you have hourly employees. You’re required to pay them for any extra time they work for your company. If you don’t keep accurate records of overtime hours, then you’re going to have problems paying people for their time.
7. Not Keeping Backups
If you’re using cloud software to handle payroll, then you don’t have to worry much about data loss. But if you manage everything locally on your office computers, then you run the risk of losing data.
Make sure to put a backup plan in place to save your data in case this happens. A backup service costs money but will save you time and money in the long run.
Payroll for a Business Isn’t Easy
If cutting a check to your team was all it took to do payroll, then the payroll industry would be doomed. But payroll for a business isn’t that simple. Make sure you avoid the mistakes above so you can prevent costly mistakes.
Are you looking for more business advice? Keep browsing our blog to read through our latest tips.
Learn About Alarm System Technology
/in Risk Management/by StrategyDrivenLearning about and investing in the latest alarm system technology is crucial. While this security technology will be expensive, it is definitely a great investment. The more you know about how to navigate the world of alarm system technology, the easier it will be for you to find the right elements for your residence.
Here are some of the things you need to know about alarm system technology.
Choosing a Smart Hub is Important
Do you already have a number of smart home devices in place? If so, being able to pair them with your new security system is a good idea. The only way to accomplish this is by investing in a smart hub. In essence, a smart hub acts as the centralized control system for your smart home. With this hub, you can control everything from your lights to your security system with the sound of your voice.
Instead of rushing out and buying the first smart hub you find, take some time to do a bit of research. Making sure the security hub in question is compatible with your devices and security system.
Monitoring is a Must For Modern Security Systems
One of the main goals you should have when having a security system installed is protecting your family and your possessions. If a burglary does occur, you want the authorities to be notified immediately. A security alarm will be useless if it is not being monitored, which is why working with a company like Alarm Grid to get this monitoring is so important.
A security system with monitoring will dial out to the authorities and the security company as soon as the alarm is tripped. This means that the burglars will be caught and brought to justice for robbing your home. The extra money you pay for this monitoring will be worth it considering how helpful it can be in the long run.
Choose a Security System You Can Easily Operate
When trying to find the right security system for your home, be sure to do your homework. Ideally, you want to choose a system that is easy to operate. If a system is hard to operate, the chances of mistakes happening will increase substantially.
Looking at the reviews a particular security system has can be helpful. With this information, you can start to narrow down the selection of systems at your disposal. Failing to do this type of research can lead to problems in the future.
Allow Professionals to Install Your New Security System
One of the biggest mistakes a homeowner can make is trying to install their own security system. Rather than deal with the problems this can cause, you need to hire experienced professionals to help you out.
How to Boost Your Retail Store Sales with Task Automation
/in Managing Your Business/by StrategyDrivenEnters task automation and you can save the day and your sanity. Task automation saves you a lot of time and money, while allowing you to close more sales on autopilot.
Thanks to automation, you can effectively boost productivity, lower costs and offer better customer service online and offline.
With a clever automation strategy, your cash registers keep ringing and you spend less time on mundane and repetitive tasks.
At the end of the day, you end up with more time and money to channel towards business growth. And when you hit your growth goals, automation scales with you making your job easy.
With the preamble, continue reading to learn how you can easily boost sales in your store(s) with task automation.
How to Use Task Automation to Boost Sales
Automation uses software to carry out most of the tasks that were traditionally performed by a team of people.
Nowadays, and thanks to advances in technology, you can automate many tasks including marketing, lead nurturing, sales, daily operations and customer service among others.
In the following section, we cover several areas you can automate in a bid to increase sales while saving tons of time and money.
That out of the way, let us get down to business.
Marketing Automation
Businesses spend a huge amount of money marketing their products and services. Usually, most businesses don’t achieve the desired ROI thanks to poor execution, human error and so on.
Automating your marketing strategy can save you a lot of money and time. If you run a website for your store (and you should), automating your marketing efforts include adding features such as newsletters and social media.
Once a visitor sign ups to your newsletter, you can send them automated emails to convert mere subscribers to ready-to-pay customers. To automate opt-ins on your website, you can use a service such as OptinMonster and Thrive Leads among others.
If you didn’t know, email is a powerful marketing channel for online and offline businesses. You can easily send automated offers to your customers, which can boost both online and instore purchases tremendously.
Most email marketing providers offer you automation with a basic plan. For popular players in the industry, checkout MailChimp, AWeber and Campaign Monitor among others. Once you sign up, you can offer free content on a regular basis to win over customers, a practice known as content dripping.
Further, you can schedule social media posts that feed your social media marketing campaigns on autopilot. You don’t need me to tell you that posting on various social media platforms daily can eat up a lot of your precious time.
To be on the safe side, you can pick a few hours to schedule a month’s (or a year’s) worth of social media posts, and automate everything with a tool such as Hootsuite or BuzzSumo among others.
Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing involves actively participating in the customer’s journey from lead acquisition to purchase and beyond.
Many first timers to your businesses aren’t ready to purchase. However, you can turn the tables in your favor by automating lead nurturing – the process of converting a mere visitor to paying customer.
For starters, you must respond to contact requests immediately. If you delay your responses to customer queries for more than 30 minutes, you are 23X more likely to lose leads left, right and center.
What to do? Automate the contact process. How? Automate email/SMS responses that are sent out as soon as the visitor contacts your business.
As soon as you send out the canned response, automatically assign the lead to a sales rep who then follows up immediately. The prospect appreciates the fast response times, and you smile all the way to the bank.
Additionally, you can incorporate an automatic system that helps you to master phone calls. Such a system allows you to win leads you’d have otherwise lost due to phone tag.
On top of that, follow up with networking connections to generate more leads. However, following up manually can cost you a lot of time. You can automate the whole process, so you can follow up on prospective customers while saving time.
You can automate lead nurturing using a combination of tools such as email marketing, LeadSquared, Zapier and so on.
Sales Automation
Netting that one elusive sale doesn’t end with lead nurturing. Once you or your team has qualified a lead, it’s time to move on to the next phase; closing the deal. But inefficiencies can arise and kill the sale when you’re so close.
Your best bet is to automate the sales pipeline. There are couple of stages involved in closing the sale, and the fewer problems you have in the workflow, the better your bottom line.
A typical sales pipeline involves four main stages namely:
To avoid problems, it’s best to automate the sales pipeline, such that the sales team focuses entirely on the hottest leads, without wasting time on trivialities.
With a great sales automation strategy in place, your sales team can move the lead from stage to the next without any hiccups, saving you plenty of time and money.
On top of that, you should also engage with interested leads who are not ready to buy yet. With a little automated persuasion, you can convince such leads to make the leap and become a customer.
Other than that, always welcome your new customers with automated welcome emails/SMS/phone calls. A huge chunk of customers loves welcome emails, and if you do your homework, you can even score repeat business automatically without trying hard on your part.
For sales automation tools, we recommend EngageBay sales CRM, Pardot, Hubspot Sales, and Keap (formerly InfusionSoft) among others.
Office Operations
Daily office operations can take a lot of time. On top of that, many stores don’t carry out next-day tasks, which results in huge losses. The best scenario for all businesses is to boost employee engagement and productivity.
And did you know you can leverage the power of automation to boost employee engagement, productivity and achieve consistent store execution? That’s right, you can automate plenty of instore tasks to save time and money, boost employee morale and promote effective customer service.
You can easily automate tasks such as office communication with a tool such as RetailZipline. Additionally, you can use the same tool to automate sending and receiving of important documents, set up daily task checklists, and foster store participation via surveys.
Other than that, you can automate inventory tracking (you can use Zoho Inventory), job applications, employee onboarding (you can use RetailZipline) and so much more.
Other Areas
You can further automate areas such as:
Conclusion
Task automation can save you a lot of headaches, time and money. Provided you know the right strategy and tools to use, you can easily automate your business.
As a store manager, HQ or district leader, it is important to invest in task automation to take your business to the next level.
Have concerns, suggestions, favorite tools or questions? Please share in the comments. Cheers to happy automating.
How a smarter phone system equates to safer spending for any business
/in Managing Your Business/by StrategyDrivenSmart telephone systems can look like an unnecessary upfront cost, but there are several reasons why upgrading your phone systems can represent an absolutely solid investment which will offer savings in the long term for any kind of business. Read on for our guide to the advantages to smarter phone systems.
How can you make your phone system smarter?
Smarter phone systems can reduce your costs and remove several different administrative needs. If you currently have to pay for both landline and mobile office phones, with confusing contracts, it can make sense to move to a service which is hosted on the cloud. While most of us associate “the cloud” exclusively with computing needs, such as file and image storage, the term more generally refers to secure, supported services provided in real time over the internet. The most commonly known effect of any cloud service is to save on server space and ease pressure on I.T. requirements at your office space.
It is possible, however, to have your phone services provided over the cloud as well. This would mean that all your business’ official phones would run on a single contract, and this also avoids the hidden costs of on-premise PBX network. This can be a particular advantage if your business is split across multiple locations, as it avoids the need for either expensive landline options or two different on-premise PBX systems.
How to upgrade your phone system
To upgrade your system, you need only look online. If you choose a cloud phone system by Gamma then you will be able to tailor your package to your company’s needs and size. One advantage here is a system which is compatible with a wide variety of phone handsets and headsets. With an app interface and administrative settings manageable from a mobile, your employees and freelancers have greater flexibility to work from home.
This freedom for employees to work from home while retaining access to their work phone and documents allows for a clearer relationship between management and home workers. This can allow for a greater level of telecommuting from your staff. In turn, this can have positive effects on your business’ carbon footprint and lead to increased productivity in cases where the reduction in commuting time has a positive effect on the mental and physical health of your employees.
The flexibility to increase telecommuting offers up whole new realms of possibility for reducing spending and reducing the amount of office space you need. When this is combined with the savings possible from being free of the costs of landline or on-premise PBX systems, choosing smarter phone systems is clearly the way forward.