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In a Newly-Virtual World, Are Ride Alongs Still Important?

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article | In a Newly-Virtual World, Are Ride Alongs Still Important?All managers and leaders recognize that one of their most critical tasks is to develop the skills and competencies of their people. They agree, too, that one of the very best ways to properly understand the level of skill and competency of their workforce is to observe them in real-time, real life, operational situations: cue the ride-along.

For those not familiar with the ride-along, or for those who underestimate their usefulness, imagine a professional football coach telling the club owner that, rather than watch the game unfold from the sideline, he’d much rather read all about it the following day in the sports pages. How long do you imagine that particular coach would last? In fact, all modern coaches not only watch the game from the sidelines, they also manage and attend the training sessions, the strategy sessions, help construct the playbooks, recruit the staff and players, etc: the same too of business leaders and senior managers, of course.

The best sales leaders recognize that spending time ‘in the field’ visiting customers with their team is a critical part of their job. The best customer service leaders are also extremely used to the desk-accompaniment listening to real-time, live calls with clients and prospects, and then spending time reviewing and coaching the particular operative. These ride-along scenarios have been standard operating procedure for most developmental companies for years. But, in these times of social-distancing, has dealing with COVID-19 and the almost world-wide mandatory working from home instruction, temporarily put ride alongs on-ice as it has so many other normal work behaviors? Not a bit.

Whichever sector, business, or business-cycle, managers and leaders should develop their people now more than ever.

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that lots of companies are thriving, actually booming, in the current climate: food distribution, medical supplies, cleaning-product manufacturers, video-conferencing, and a host of many others. These companies now, more than ever, need to capitalize on their upward growth-curve to ensure that the growth is well-managed and the organization does not come apart at the seams as the company struggles to keep pace with the growing demands put upon it.  Managers and leaders should schedule more time than ever to ensure that quality-spills are minimized and that individuals are up to the increased task. Leaders are obliged to ensure that all opportunities are well managed, and that customers remain satisfied. How to do this? Highly structured and regular ‘virtual’ ride-alongs, of course.

Some companies are at a relatively steady-state of revenue – although still grappling with new methods of operating, processes, and people-management policies. Ride-alongs should be Standard Operating Procedure, and managers should ensure that. Just because the ride-along may now have to be supported by video-conferencing and other technological platforms, their usefulness is just as valid as ever. In fact, social distancing, and working from home practices now afford the manager even more opportunity to spend time with their people ‘in the field’ since the usual travel-time to and from the meeting is effectively removed. What a tremendous opportunity to spend more time increasing skills even more in this, our new normal.

For those businesses that are scrambling to pivot, or even survive, the next few weeks and months will be most telling. This is a critical time for many businesses ensuring that their supply-chain is as stable as possible, their customers are as well-communicated with as possible, and their sales and customer-service skills are as honed as possible. If there are fewer opportunities than ever before for these businesses, the importance of each opportunity increases proportionately, of course. This means that highly structured and regular role-plays, pre-call plans, and post-call reviews should now be mandatory.

Whatever business you are in, managers these days should be spending most of their time  supporting their people in the field with customers, prospects, suppliers, and staff with incredibly structured and organized ride alongs. Virtual is the new normal: and virtual ride alongs are the new way to ensure that businesses are as well managed as possible during the global pandemic.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Antonio GarridoAntonio Garrido is a charismatic and experienced trainer, speaker, and consultant. He runs a Sandler Training Center in Miami, FL. The author of THE 21ST CENTURY RIDE-ALONG: How Sales Leaders Can Develop Their Teams In Real-Time Sales Calls, Antonio works with highly-motivated entrepreneurs, business leaders, and companies who are ready to work smarter and commit their time, money, and energy to attract new clients, sell more, and generate more profits.

For more information, please visit https://www.Sandler.com/resources/sandler-books/21st-century-ride-along/.

5 Simple Methods for Boosting Employee Productivity

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Employee Productivity|5 Simple Methods for Boosting Employee ProductivityWithout hyperbole, employee productivity is arguably the biggest factor that determines if a business is successful or not. When those productivity levels are labored, this negatively affects every aspect of the company.

Yet when everything runs smoothly, where employees are completing their tasks on time and in an effective manner, the entire business will thrive. Although, as the saying goes, it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch. If a single staff member fails to do their job as expected, it will be felt at all levels of the company.

Due to this, it’s imperative to maximize the effort of every worker. However, how do you reach this point? How can you turn an average performer into a productive powerhouse?

This article is here to help answer those questions. Below are five easy methods you can implement for boosting employee productivity.

Be clear with goals and instructions

When you are setting tasks for your employees to complete, you need to do so in an effective and careful way. If you feed them instructions which are muddled or complicated, this is only going to compromise their productivity.

Worse, it might even lead to them doing the task wrong.

As a result, provide them with clear instructions and goals to target. The less time they spend confused and asking for assistance, the more efficient they will be.

Streamline work with automation

Automation is a gift which your business should cherish. Rather than your employees spending precious time on completing monotonous tasks, this can be completed automatically with technology. This then gives them additional time to focus on more important tasks.

Automation can be utilized in various different ways. For instance, software specialists PaperSave can assist with streamlining invoice management and data entry.

Give them a break

It might sound counterproductive on the surface, but allowing employees to take regular breaks from their work is recommended. It gives them a chance to recharge and have a mental break from their work.

Based on research, 52 minutes of solid work before a 17-minute break is an ideal balance for productivity. While you don’t have to be quite that specific with your timing, it demonstrates why allowing employees to regularly rest pays off.

Measure their work

If you fail to measure the work of your employees, you won’t be able to gain an accurate picture of their productivity. Are they meeting deadlines? Are they following directions? Is the work of a high quality? The answers to these questions might slip away if you don’t measure their productivity.

Thankfully, the task is made easy due to the number of effective software tools available for monitoring employee productivity.

Reward success

When employees complete their job to a successful standard, don’t let them feel their hard work was overlooked. Acknowledge the work they did and supply them with a healthy dose of praise. Even just a few kind words will help boost their morale.

However, you could always take it a step further and provide the employee with a reward. This could be everything from the afternoon off to a free meal at a local restaurant.

How To Attract Your Target Customer

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Target Customer|How To Attract Your Target CustomerUltimately, the key to success in all industries is identifying your target customer and then taking steps to attract this group to your business. The target customer is the group of people that will benefit from the products and/or services that you use, and identifying this group will enable you to make key business decisions; but how can you go about attracting this group? This can be challenging, particularly in competitive industries, but there are a few highly effective strategies that will help your business to succeed, allow you to develop a positive reputation with this group, and compete with the top brands in your industry.

Determine The Target Customer And Their Needs

First, you need to make sure that you have a clear definition of your target customer. You then need to identify what the wants, needs, and priorities for this group are, which will then help you when it comes to marketing and promoting your brand. A few key questions to ask, which will help with this are as follows:

  • What problems does your company solve?
  • Which specific customers will benefit the most?
  • What is the age, gender, location, income, lifestyle, and attitude of this group?

It is then helpful to create a profile for your target market, so that you can picture this individual and keep them in mind whenever you make any kind of strategic decision.

Analyze The Competition

Your direct competitors will have the same target customer as you do, so it is a good idea to carefully analyze the competition in order to see what you can learn, and to take advantage of any gaps in the market. In addition to looking at what the most successful brands are doing well, do not forget to look at what the struggling brands are doing wrong—this can be just as insightful, and will help you to avoid making the same mistakes.

Create Engaging Content

In today’s internet-driven age, a brand needs to create content in addition to providing a high-quality product and/or service, as this is how you promote your brand, demonstrate your expertise, and engage with your target customer. The content must be of value to your target customer, stand out from the crowd, and use a variety of media. If you are in the health and fitness industry, for example, then you have a lot of good options, such as:

  • Workout videos
  • Nutritional infographics
  • “How-to” guides for specific exercises
  • Interviews with key figures
  • Live Q&A sessions on social media

Use Influencer Marketing

Following on from this, social media is a key platform for engaging your target customer, and one of the most effective strategies for this is using influencer marketing. This involves an influential figure in your industry promoting your products and/or services to their followers (your target customer), which is a highly effective way of reaching a much larger group and improving your brand reputation. The key to success with using this increasingly popular form of marketing is finding the right agency—you can do this by searching online, for example, by looking for the best influencer marketing agency in Los Angeles.

Host Events

It is vital that you take steps to engage your target customer online, but you must not overlook the value of also doing this offline, as this can be an excellent way of building real-life connections with this group. The best way to do this is by hosting events, which will help to create a sense of community with your target customer, while also portraying your brand is an authoritative figure in the industry. Using the above health and fitness example, you could host fitness classes, lectures, live screenings of sports, and anything else that will bring your target customers to your business.

Surveys

Another smart step to take is to send out surveys to your target customer. This will help you to identify areas in which you could improve your brand in order to appeal directly to this group—as the saying goes, “the customer is always right.”

Improve Customer Service

No matter who your target customer is, you will need to make sure that you provide them with excellent customer service in order to retain customers and build a positive reputation. Keep in mind that people have different preferences when it comes to customer service, so you should have a range of options, including:

  • Phone
  • Email
  • Social media
  • Live chat

Understanding exactly who your target customer is—and knowing how to reach this group—will be critical to success. Follow the above steps, and you should soon start to attract more people to your business, improve your reputation, and compete with the larger brands in your industry.

How to Improve Your Website’s SE Ranking

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |SE Ranking|How to Improve Your Website’s SE RankingOnline shopping and businesses are thriving. Everyone is at home and needs items and services that they can buy online. Unfortunately, so too are your competitors. Trying to capture your customer base’s attention is fiercer than ever, with companies trying to offset their in-store income entirely online. To beat them, you need to diversify and focus on efforts that will help your business get to the top – the top of Google, the top of social feeds, and the top of their interest.

Hire an SEO Agency

First things first, if you want to improve where your website is located on a Google search, you will need to hire an SEO agency. There is a lot that needs to be done before you can start building your backlink profile, and all of it will help improve your SE ranking.

Audit Your Website

One of the first things that will need to be done is to improve your on-site SEO, which typically starts with an audit that looks for:

  • Lost or Broken Pages
  • Missing Pages
  • Content
  • Site Speed
  • Site Security
  • User Friendliness
  • Website visitor analytics (for this task, you can use website visitor tracking software)

Keyword Research

Keyword research is then conducted on your behalf to make sure that you know what your customers are searching for and what words they are using. You can then update your content and invest in better PPC campaigns.

Update Content

SEO optimized content is well-written, intended to entice your customers with punchy language and a compelling message. It is also designed to appeal to search algorithms that search through your site. On top of content updates, a new schema will be created to make it easier for these algorithms to understand your site and parse through it faster.

Offsite Link Building

Once on-site is optimized, it will be time to move offsite. White hat link building today looks like guest posts, where quality content in your niche will be added to other blogs and websites in your industry. It helps improve your organic reach and your SE ranking.

What You Can Do to Further Your SEO Campaign

SEO agencies can help improve the searchability and user appeal of your website, social media, and backlink profile. While they are working hard there, you will want to invest in:

PPC Marketing

PPC marketing will help you see results immediately, and you already have everything ready to go with your SEO efforts:

  1. A great site
  2. Keyword research

It is essential to know which keywords to invest in, however. Keywords can usually be organized based on buyer steps. At the very beginning of the buying process, customers are still researching what they want and are looking for. These keywords are often valued, and typically more expensive. If your goal is to gain a level of authority, then they are worthwhile to pay for, but if you want to boost sales, then paying for niche keywords or specific keywords should be your focus. As a bonus, these keywords are often cheaper.

Social Media Marketing

Finally, there is social media. You can pay for social media ads, but if you want to grow your business and customer loyalty, you will want to focus on good old engagement with the hope that users organically share and talk about your business on their own channels. This takes time, so start now and don’t cut corners – you need to be a real person when interacting with your customers.

Five Management Tips for Manufacturing Companies

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Management Tips|Five Management Tips for Manufacturing CompaniesWhen we speak of manufacturing, we’re often reminded of the factory floor itself, with its workers and automated machines working in harmony to mass-produce equipment and consumer goods for a global marketplace. We rarely think of the managers who make these things happen – and that will be the focus of this article. Managers are able to adapt their factories and production lines to build effectiveness and efficiency – and this is where the five tips below come in, showing you where and how to manage your production facility for the biggest gains in 2020.

Staff

As a manager, your first responsibility is towards your staff. Without staff who are motivated and happy, it’s difficult to run a business. It’s difficult to get them to work the extra hours you may need them to work, and it’s even harder to have them put their all into their work each day. As such, man-managing your staff, with regular meetings, appraisals, and pay rises will help get the most out of your human resources each week of the year.

Processes

You should also, as a manager, be taking a close look at the processes through which your business is working. For instance, your overall production process – from raw inputs to your outputs – is one overarching process, with several smaller processes within it. To really understand these various processes, you should audit your entire production cycle in order to get to grips with where you might, as a manager, be able to intervene and improve upon some of the processes that are central to your work.

Equipment

Astute managers should always be on the lookout for the newest and most reliable equipment to bring into their manufacturing facility. Without the best equipment, you’re unlikely to run at the highest-possible capacity in your facility, with gaps in production when certain elements fail or break. Be sure to use the most advanced in the load cell developer field, and the most impressive sensors and switches, in order for your production crew to continue producing through the weeks and months ahead.

Health and Safety

All facilities – whether offices or factories – require you to be responsible for health and safety. Laws in your locality will stipulate this, by showing you a number of responsibilities that you have towards your staff. While you may not be liable, should your staff suffer injury at work, your company surely will be – and this is something you want to avoid at all costs, as damaging litigation from a former employee will be an unwelcome distraction from your day-to-day operations.

Operational Planning

Finally, managers will hold regular meetings with senior figures across the company in order to divine where, in the future, the company ought to move. For instance, monitoring the market for signs of fluctuation and change can be important for your business – it means you can anticipate demand ahead of time, and put plans in place to ride out dips in demand, or to make the most of the peaks.

Managing in the manufacturing industry is a tricky task – and that’s why this article gathers together five top tips to help you make the most of your managerial role, boosting your company’s performance at the same time.