Back to Blog

Cut the Costs of Finding and Managing Leads

Every organisation with a sales force keeps an eye on the leads it generates - how many does each salesperson get and how many are converted into customers. But as most companies now appreciate, the costs of generating and converting leads need to be carefully managed or they can become a real drain on profitability. The basic tasks of lead management are to lower the costs of lead acquisition while at the same time increasing the rate of conversion into customers. To do this it’s best if you ...

Play it Safe with your Home-Based Employees

An increasing number of employees work exclusively or part-time from their home – but home is where most accidents happen. Employers still retain some duty of care responsibility for their home-based employees so it becomes an essential part of any at-home work agreement to factor in a safe workspace that minimises the chances of accident and compensation claims. In general, while the expectation is that an employee should be exposed to no more risk than they would be in the office or workshop...

Evaluating New Business Ideas

People who are self-employed generally like to stay that way. If they sell a business they quickly start another one, and successful owners seem to have a ‘knack’ for coming up with good ideas for new businesses. This ability is based largely on their experience and on a set of values or standards that should be applied to every business idea before going ahead with it. This system of evaluating business ideas applies to both products and services; we use the term ‘product’ to mean both....

Five Oversights That Can Kill Your Business

Business owners usually have long term visions for their enterprise, but most business failures happen quickly, before the owner is able to change course or implement strategies that will correct the situation.  The fatal gap between planning and performance is often the result of one of the following set of factors, although two or more of these can occur simultaneously and accelerate the organisation’s demise. Take a close look at your own business and be sure none of these are taking s...

Selling Services – It’s About Relationships

Because service businesses can’t talk about products on shelves, they often make the mistake of talking about themselves with messages like ‘the best car service in town’ or ‘speedy appliance repairs’.  These may sound good to the owner of the business, but they leave out the most important person of all – the customer. Most services operate through relationships In general, services are more complex to price, to deliver and to evaluate than products. Defining the quality of ser...