Letting Ego Get In The Way

Education and collaboration are still some of the best ways of avoiding pitfalls. A serious entrepreneur has to put their ego aside and consider either one in order to decrease the likelihood of “rookie mistakes.” It can come in different forms, such as meeting with peers regularly to discuss business or having subject matter advisers that augment the entrepreneur’s know-how. – Kamyar Shah, World Consulting Group

Originally published at https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/11/26/15-common-pitfalls-to-avoid-as-a-new-business-owner-or-entrepreneur/#600d810653fe

The Ultimate Guide to Sales Follow-Up Emails

In today’s digital world, when social media, mobile apps, and company websites are the top priorities of every marketer, email marketing seems irrelevant, right? Actually, it is not! Email marketing is still a very powerful advertising tool marketers have in their sleeves.

Data from a 2017 study from Radicati shows that there are over 3.7 billion people who use email globally and that number continues to rise steadily. So, regardless of the industry or the size, every business can still take advantage of the power of emails because they are still one of the most popular forms of communication worldwide.

However, there is a huge problem and that is: sticking out in this busy crowd. Data shows that there are over 269 billion emails that are sent and received each day which can create a real challenge when it comes to open rates.

Like with any other marketing strategy, sales follow-ups can be effective only as long as your target audience engages with it. So, if no one is opening yours, your marketing efforts will be in vain.

Luckily, there is also some good news: there are a few simple techniques that can help you improve your open rate and increase your email marketing campaign’s potential for driving sales and revenue.

Write a Captivating Subject Line

The real trick about open rates lays in having a captivating and engaging subject line. It shouldn’t be a surprise since the subject line is the first thing that a user sees about your email. They don’t even have to open it to read the subject line. And, like with any kind of written content, it is all about choosing the right title to increase your chances for your content to be read.

Data from Convince and Convert shows that 35% of email users open the emails they receive based on the subject lines. Obviously, this means that if you succeed to create captivating and engaging subject lines for your campaign, your open rates increase by 35%.

Moreover, there is one more trick you should know and that is the fact that you should use more than one or two words in the subject line of an email. Data from Hubspot shows that longer subject lines increase the chances for the email to get opened by the user. What does a longer subject line mean? It means a subject line that has at least five words. However, make sure that the five words you choose create an eye-catchy and captivating subject line.

Be Consistent With Your Sales Follow-up Emails

So, you have just started your email campaign and already send hundreds of them but see no results. Naturally, you may start thinking that you have done something wrong with your content or strategy. Yet, it isn’t quite yet the moment to panic because data from Inside Sales shows that 50% of sales start to happen after the 5^th follow-up email sent to your target audience.

As with any type of content publishing, consistency is the key to results. And, this is also the case for your email campaign. Most marketers tend to give up after sending just one or two emails without seeing any results or reply. However, it is advisable to be consistent with your sales follow-ups in order to see results.

Personalize Your Emails

In today’s marketing landscape, personalization seems to be the king when it comes to attracting and engaging customers. And, there is a very simple explanation for why personalization does wonder. In today’s busy marketplace, consumers are bombarded with hundreds of ads and even emails from all businesses. So, naturally, they have become tired of being just a recipient that businesses only want profit from.

Martha Bell, marketing specialist at GrabMyEssay explains “ Today’s inboxes are cluttered with emails from businesses trying to sell us something, meaning that recipients are more likely to avoid any email that looks promotional. So, for successful sales follow-ups, that will increase conversions and build trustful relationships, businesses need to write content that truly engages the readers with a bit of humor and friendliness.”

The email marketing company Aweber wanted to test how personalization works in increasing open rates. So, it has conducted several tests with both emails that included subject lines and those that did not include the first names of the recipients. Naturally, those that included the first name of the recipient received a 4.97% higher open rate.

So, if you want to increase your chances for your emails to be read by your audience, make sure you know who you address to. After all, you want to engage a person, not a robot, so give the recipient the attention they deserve.

Be Friendly and Provide Relevant Content

While an engaging subject line is essential to increase the open rates, the body of your email is also crucial to truly attract the readers. And, there is no better way to say this but to encourage you to make sure you write emails in a way that will make the reader feel that they are reading something from one of their friends. When you write like you are writing for someone you personally know, it is more likely for the reader to feel important and to engage with your business.

However, it is also essential to make sure that your emails are well written, relevant to the reader engaging. One good trick would be to start your email with a verb that will play the role of an action word. Only one word can have the power to energize the reader and capture their interest leading to inspiring them to action.

Also, you must ensure that your emails are providing relevant information in a captivating and engaging way. For comprehensive and engaging content for your sales follow-ups, you can use tools such as Grammarly, WritingJudge, and HemingwayApp.

Moreover, keep in mind that a good sales follow-up email isn’t long and gets to the point pretty quick before the reader starts to get bored.

Use Call-to-Action Words

As with any other type of marketing strategy, you must never forget about your goals. What do you want to achieve with your sales follow-ups? Well, as long as you have your goals clearly defined, make sure you write emails that direct the readers towards what you want to achieve.

Any sales email is absolutely useless without a clear call-to-action word or sentence that will make the reader take the next step you want them to in their buyer’s journey. Keep in mind that effective call-to-actions are short and direct.

Keep Track of Your Results

All type of marketing efforts needs to be monitored and analyzed no matter if you are running a social media or an email marketing campaign. Why? Because depending on the results you learn how to improve your strategy.

When it comes to a sales follow-ups strategy, even if you don’t get replies, you can still use tracking and analytics software to determine which emails drove the highest reply rates, how many emails were necessary to get the desired results, and what open rate did your messages had.

Conclusion

To conclude, effective sales follow-up emails are those that contain a captivating subject line, relevant and engaging content, and get to the point pretty quick before losing the attention of the reader. Also, it is highly important to constantly measure your results and improve the response rate to your follow-ups.

Diana Nadim is a writer and editor who has a Master’s degree in Marketing. She combines her passion for writing with her interest in research and creates thought-provoking content in various fields. Diana also runs her own 3to5Marketing blog. What inspires her the most in her writing is traveling and meeting new people. Follow her on Twitter.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Sales Follow-Up Emails appeared first on Management Study HQ.

Total Quality Management – Meaning and Important Concepts

What is Total Quality Management?

Total quality management entails all managerial processes that are designed for a customer-focused organization that captures all staff in consistent improvement. It takes the use of processes, data, and productive communications to incorporate the quality discipline into the culture and activities of the organization.

We can divide Total Quality management into four categories:

1. Plan
2. Do
3. Check
4. Act

Concepts of Total Quality Management

1. Operations Improvement

A significant concept of total quality management is the improvement in the general operations of the company.

These processes are responsible for the majority of the quality of work and productivity of employees. This concept states that work processes should be identified, through individuals or teams, to check for deviations.

Then solutions can be proffered to the deviations to r=prevent such from happening in the future.

2. Human Resources

The concept of human resources development is one of the fantastic concepts of total quality management.

Organizations that leverage total quality management principles are dedicated to employee growth and development. These principles demand that management believes that well-trained staff can do the given to them properly.

Additionally, human resource development entails providing the training needed in a quality improvement work environment as well as in-depth education to help employees meet up with industry standards.

3. Total Quality Management leadership

Also, another concept of Total Quality Management is about managing tasks and responsibilities for Total Quality Management leadership.

Managers are in charge of leading the transformation of an organization to key in with the culture of quality.

They must take up the responsibility for consistent quality improvements and be intentional about the growth of others under them.

Hence, the goal of management will be to make sure that everyone does an excellent job and act as a go-to man for total quality in the organization.

Principles of Overall Quality Management

Here are the 8 principles of total quality management:

1. Customer-Centered:

The clients mainly decide the degree of quality. No matter what an organization does to boost quality improvement, developing employees, incorporating quality into the design process, or elevating computers or software, the client ultimately decides whether all the efforts were worth it.

2. Total Employee Involvement:

All employees take part in the efforts that are directed towards achieving organizational goals.

Total employee commitment can only be achieved when fear has been removed from the workplace. Also, it can be possible when employees have been developed excellently well to meet industry trends and provided all the necessary tools to be effective.

High productivity always comes with all these in the workplace.

3. Process-Centered:

An important aspect of total quality management is an emphasis on process thinking.

A process is a series of procedures that entails input from suppliers (internal or external) and transforms them into outputs that are delivered to the final customers.

The steps needed to carry out these processes are specified, and performance is tracked continuously to check deviations and take corrective measures where necessary.

4. Integrated System:

Although an organization may have several prominent functionalities fused into structured departments, it is the horizontal steps connecting these functions that are the centerpiece of Total Quantity Management.

5. Strategic and Systematic Approach:

An essential aspect of management is the strategic and systematic way of achieving an organization’s vision, mission, and goals. These steps, called strategic planning or strategic management, entails the formulation of a strategic plan that incorporates quality as a primary component.

6. Continual Improvement

A significant aspect of Total Quality Management is an improvement in how the company achieves its goals.

Continual improvement boosts an organization to be both analytical and creative in identifying ways to become more competitive and more productive at meeting stakeholder expectations.

7. Fact-based decision making:

To understand how effective an organization is, getting data on performance measurements are required.

Total Quality Measurement requires that an organization consistently collect and examine data to improve the decision-making process, achieve teamwork, and allow forecasting based on past history.

8. Communications:

During the period of organizational change, and also daily operations, effective communications plays a vital role in maintaining morale and in motivating all employees at all departments. Communications entail strategies, processes, timeliness, and accuracy.

Importance of Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management has far-reaching impacts on the organization’s goal achievements and success.

1. Quality Products and Services

Total quality management is crucial because it ensures quality products and services. The quality of a product can be measured by its performance, durability, and dependability.

Because of this, an organization tends to stand out from its numerous competitors.

Total quality management makes sure all the required changes in the system are made, and these changes, in turn, leads to quality products and services that meet and exceed customer expectation and satisfaction.

2. Customer Satisfaction

Also, total quality management is vital for customer satisfaction. When a firm meets customer expectations, it will lead to customer loyalty and retention.

Furthermore, satisfied and loyal customers give positive reviews on the organization service delivery and bring in more customers.

Customers can only come back to patronize more if they are happy with what they get. Through this, total quality management ensures that good feedbacks are obtained from customers and carefully analyzed.

3. Increased Profits

Also, total quality management ensures additional revenues and improved profitability for the organization.

Consequently, employees also get their remuneration as at when due, and this will boost their morale to work.

The stress of training for new staff will also be reduced because employees are motivated to work effectively to keep their beloved job.

Total quality management help to reduce the organization’s running cost and improve profitability. It also promotes teamwork and togetherness among staff in the workplace as they strive to achieve organizational goals.

4. Well-Defined Cultural Values

Organizations that practice Total Quality Management develop essential values that make the workplace the right place to be.

The Total Quality Management knowledge spreads across all facets of an organization, from idea formulation to product development.

Conclusion

The importance of total quality management spread across all aspects of an organization.

When total quality management principles and concepts are used devotedly in any organization, profitability will increase while errors and wastes will be minimized to the barest.

Additionally, customer feedback, satisfaction, and loyalty will be easily achieved.

Furthermore, there will be an improvement in areas of teamwork as staff will come together to help achieve organizational goals and objectives.

The post Total Quality Management – Meaning and Important Concepts appeared first on Management Study HQ.

Capacity Planning

Capacity Planning refers to the arrangement in which organizations or teams match employees together with the needs of a project. Capacity is the optimum level of work that can be done within an established period. Usually, it is measured in the quantity of work that is carried out by employees. Also, planning equates to the scheduling work hours against a specified amount of work.

An example of this is when a firm has 20 employees that work for like 20 hours a week, then the firm has 400 weekly working capacity. Without putting overtime in the equation, it means the firm can take care of a maximum of 400 hours in a week.

Concept of Capacity Planning

• Design Capacity

It means the optimum level of output that can be gotten within a specified period.

• Effective Capacity

It means the optimum level of output, given the changes in product mix, equipment maintenance, programming and operating issues, labor problems, etc. It usually is less than the total design capacity.

• Actual Output

It is the level of output that is achieved actually. It cannot be more than the sufficient capacity because of breakdowns in the machine, labor absenteeism, the inconsistent supply of raw materials, abnormal delay in supply of equipment, power outage, etc.

Procedure For Capacity Planning

1. Assessment Of Present Capacity

The capacity of a department can be measured in their output or inputs. Output measure is allowed in case of manufacturing firms such as automobile plant (number of vehicles), iron and steel plant (tons of steel), brewery (barrels of beer), cannery (tons of processed foods), Power Company, (megawatts of electricity), and a lot more.

Also, service industry such as hospitals (number of beds), airports (number of planes), cinemas (number of seats), restaurants (number of tables and chairs), university (number of students), warehouse (spaces), and a lot more, can be used to measure capacity in terms of inputs.

2. Estimating Future Capacity Needs

Short term capacity requirements can be estimated by forecasting product demand at different stages of the product life cycle. It is more challenging to anticipate long-term capacity requirements due to the uncertainties of market and technology.

Capacity forecast helps to determine the gap between the existing capacity and estimated capacity so that necessary adjustments may be made. For example, a company that engages in the manufacturing of two products may find that one product has low demand in summer (e.g., coffee or tea) while another product has low demand in winter (e.g., cold drink).

3. Identifying Alternative ways of Modifying Capacity

In a situation where the present capacity is not enough to meet the estimated demand capacity, an expansion will be needed to meet up with the shortage. This way, more shifts or overtime will be needed to improve the capacity. In the same vein, the expansion will offer to scale and help in meeting the demand forecast, but it needs extra investment and a danger of falling short of expectations in future demand.

When the present capacity more than the one forecasted, there is a need to cut down on excess capacity. Building new products, selling present facilities, laying off workers, or getting more jobs from other companies are all ways to stay on top of this.

4. Evaluation of Alternatives

Different alternatives for capacity improvement or reduction are calculated from economic, technical, and other standpoints. The reactions of staff and locals should be considered during the evaluation to get the correct analysis. Some main evaluation techniques include cost-benefit analysis, queuing theory, decision theory, and others.

5. Choice of Suitable Course of Action

After carrying out the cost-benefit analysis of different alternatives to increase or reduce the capacity, the best alternative is now closed.

Importance of Capacity Planning

 Capacity planning is essential because of the following:

1. It Ensures Availability:

Before you put pen on that paper to seal the next contract, are you sure you have the team readily available to work on it? Capacity planning explains what you need to do and how to carry out your projects. For example, you need people that can take care of the tasks or decide if you need extra hands to help you take over the projects. Capacity planning helps you determine all these and ensure you do not disappoint your clients.

2. Manage Your Skills

Capacity planning is also crucial in measuring the skill inventory of your team. A skill inventory is a piece of information about who can carry out a specific task and the skills they possess. This is especially important in a technical setting like a programming or software company. For example, you can list out each team member’s core competency, such as:

• Mobile app development
• Website development
• Cloud computing
• Cybersecurity

When you have a task for someone, you can quickly determine if they meet up with what is needed. Whether you want to create a mobile app, or a beautiful and functioning website, you already know your go0to man and this will make work easier and straightforward. Also, you can easily update the skill inventory when a worker adds new skills or expertise.

3. It Helps to Identify Easily Any Skill Gap

A typical example of this is a situation where your firm has just won a big contract and it involves an extensive level of work with varying skills you might not have in your company.

A great thing about capacity planning is that it allows you to identify any problem early. You don’t need to begin the project before you know that you need to get people that can help you with it.  When you plan effectively, you can see who fits in and what they have to offer to the cause.

When you can identify the skill gap, you have the opportunity to prepare your team in advance for future opportunities that may arise from that kind of gig. For example, if you don’t have a mobile app developer in your team this year for a mobile app development gig, capacity planning can help you prepare for this in subsequent time.

 Conclusion

Ultimately, capacity planning is a secret weapon that can help you bridge the challenges of getting the right people to allocate the job efficiently. When you have the ideal people with the right skills working with you to get results, it will improve the profitability of your company and boost your chance of success. It will also lead to development on the part of your staff as everyone will try to improve on their skill inventory in order to remain relevant in the workplace.

The post Concept of Capacity Planning; Procedure and Importance of Capacity Planning appeared first on Management Study HQ.

Go Back To The Basics

What has worked for me and many of my clients is a simple mental review of “why.” Why did you start doing it? In business, as in life, any project that was started had an initial goal. That goal was motivating enough to start that project—recalling the reason is usually enough of a motivation to keep going. The main advantage of this approach is in its simplicity and efficiency. – Kamyar Shah, World Consulting Group

Originally published at https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/12/06/finding-inspiration-in-the-day-to-day-15-ways-to-set-yourself-up-for-success/#1cd9048a2581

Don’t Try To Take Shortcuts

The notion that there is a shortcut to being perceived as a leader is not realistic for most people and situations. There are some temporary and short-lived efforts that can elevate some exceptional young people into the spotlight, however, it is unlikely for it to be permanent or widely noticed. Even the thought of there being a shortcut should be considered a maturity issue. – Kamyar Shah, World Consulting Group

Originally published at https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/12/11/15-proactive-strategies-that-establish-entry-level-professionals-as-leaders/#1cdeac51114a

Revisit Your Data

Nothing lets you see your progression or regression toward your goals better than data. Be it qualitative or quantitative, data should be your first stop. Now the interpretation of that data is the next step. Unbiased evaluation will add an additional layer of certainty. Combine those two and there is really little room for “feelings” or “doubts.” The data will lay down the road map to success. – Kamyar Shah, World Consulting Group

Originally published at https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/12/11/14-ways-to-balance-your-long-term-goals-with-day-to-day-business-tasks/#66e126ac11b2

Be Honest About Your Career Goals

Looking for a new job is not something that needs or should be hidden. That is where the honesty part will help the pivot. If need be, inform your management of your career development goals. There is a real possibility that they may even help. This also means that you need to illustrate that it is not impacting your duties, to which you are morally obliged. – Kamyar Shah, World Consulting Group

Originally published at https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/12/12/job-hunting-15-ways-to-keep-up-with-your-current-job-while-you-look/#7a53f7392d14

Managing Online Marketing

Marketing in itself is hard; it gets even harder when you’re marketing online businesses. On the internet, content is considered king, and it’s the backbone of almost everything on the internet. You want to market your business/brand via videos you need content. The same applies to infographics, blog posts, articles, email marketing, etc.

How Do You Manage The Expectations Of Your Stakeholders?

As an online marketing manager, you are tasked with developing strategies for various platforms such as websites, social media, and email. When done right, online marketing can reduce the cost of customer acquisition and increase revenue by bringing in more customers. When done wrong, digital marketing can negatively impact your business.

So, how do you do it right?

1. Social Media Marketing Strategies

Social media is viewed as a cost-effective strategy to reach a larger audience. More than half of the US population has at least one social media account.  Social media presence is expected to continue increasing in other parts of the world. Therefore, if you want to reach a bigger audience, the easiest way is by social media marketing.

Start by analyzing your social media presence. Which platforms are you active, which profiles have the most interaction, and how do you compare to your competition? The next step involves learning more about your customers. Understand your typical customer and try to learn more about the customer. Narrow down their demographics for easy marketing.

Where are your customers located? What’s the average age of your customers? What problem does your business solve? Which social media platform does your typical customer use? What’s the median income of your typical customer? While all this is helpful, ensure that you don’t violate data privacy laws, especially when trying to learn more about your customers.

Create a mission statement that will guide your future actions. Identify success metrics which you will use to gauge whether a marketing campaign was successful or not. Remember, social media marketing success is more than just likes, retweets, and follows.

Marketers look at metrics such as shares, conversion rate, bounce rate, reach, etc. While aggressive marketing might get users to your site, content keeps them coming back. Every time you share content on social media, users begin by scrutinizing the title. Is it well-written and captivating? If yes, they proceed to open the link and read your content. If the content is not interesting, engaging, or doesn’t provide meaningful solutions, the user will most likely close the page and continue scrolling.

However, if your content is engaging, provides answers to queries, and recommends solutions, you’re more likely to make a sale. And your social media content doesn’t have to be a blog post. It can be an image, video, interview, eBook, or infographic.

Analyze your strategies and learn from them. Analyze your content and compare the metrics. Which strategy was more effective? Which content had better engagement? Use what you’ve learned from your analyses to tweak and optimize your content.

2. Email Marketing

The continued growth of social media marketing seems to have edged out email marketing. However, none of these social media platforms is as effective as emails when it comes to online marketing. Unlike social media, email is more personal and direct.

Email marketing is a delicate process that begins with choosing your preferred tools. Such tools include email marketing tools and marketing automation tools. The next step requires you to identify your target market. Who is your ideal customer? Or, who does the product or service target? To understand your audience, create a profile to help narrow down on age, income, location, etc.

Now that you know your target market, formulate strategies that you can use to attract them to your site. Attracting to your site or social media pages is the easy part, convincing them to join your email list now that’s the hard part. You can accomplish this by enticing them using personalized content such as e-books, templates, etc. Others use pop-ups to encourage users to sign up additional content and notifications.

3. SEO Marketing

SEO marketing is more than just generating keywords and creating content for these keywords. It’s about understanding your audience by identifying demand, benchmarking your competition, optimizing content, and gauging the impact of your strategies.

Track how your content performs on search engines. Learn about linking strategies and how they influence rankings. Constantly analyze your metrics, especially from organic search. Look at the bounce rate, conversion rate, clicks, impressions, etc. Track your keywords and compare their performance to those of competitors. Use the information from all this analysis to optimize and improve your content.

Conclusion

Any business that wants to thrive in this internet age has to embrace online marketing. Almost everyone turns to the internet for solutions, reviews, products, and services. Therefore, embrace online marketing and becomes a leader in your niche.

The post Managing Online Marketing. How Do You Manage The Expectations Of Your Stakeholders? appeared first on Management Study HQ.

What is Agile Project Management?

The new modern concept, “Agile Project Management,” which is concerned with delivering high-quality results on projects, is rapidly becoming more significant as it continues to gain relevance as the preferred approach in project management today.

This concept conceptualizes a more modern and flexible approach to project management. It allows you to splinter large projects down into a series of smaller tasks that are more manageable. A technique like this makes it more convenient to monitor and tackle the project bit-by-bit over short iterations or sprints until you achieve the ultimate goal of that entire project.

Every business needs to ensure that its projects are completed and delivered on time and budget. Failure to achieve this may not only result in a breakdown of the core values of that business but will also impact its morale and productivity. It is concerns like this and more that make project management vital. Integrating agile project management tools can help give you more clear visibility about the current state of your project.

They can also help you identify which areas of your project need more work or corrections. Also, they can help you refine your project by helping you determine which tools you should incorporate to get the job done. Furthermore, project management tools can tell you how much time your project will need to see completion.

Best Agile Project Management Tools

This list contains a lineup of the most in-demand Agile Project Development tools for all kinds of projects and business types. There is also additional information about the highlights of each tool to help you decide on which ones best suit your needs.

• com
• Nifty
• SpiraTeam
• ServiceNow
• Gravity
• Atlassian Jira
• Active Collab
• VersionOne
• Icescrum
• SprintGround
• Wrike
• Agilo for Scrum
• SpiraTeam
• Taiga
• VSTS
• Pivotal Tracker

(1) Monday.com

Monday is one of the most demanded Agile Project Management tools. This software is strategically designed with essential features like Calendar, planning, reporting, time tracking, etc. that easily make it an excellent choice for any business type or size. Also, it has a colorful user interface that makes it warm and appealing.

Best Features:

• You can easily monitor project progress through Charts, Kanban, or Timeline.
• There are extra functionalities that allow you to create user stories, plan sprints, or assign team members to projects.
• It has well-revised features that are excellent for reporting.

Pros:

• This tool provides excellent support for integration with third-party apps.
• It has apt project collaboration features.

Cons:

• The price is quite high.

Price:

• A free trial.
• Basic Plan: $25 per 5 users per month.
• Standard Plan: $39 per 5 users per month.
• Pro Plan: $59 per 5 users per month.
• Enterprise Plan: You will need to get a quote.

(2) Nifty:

This tool offers a project management workspace that helps you to plan and execute your projects with advanced features like integrated tasks, milestones, and so on. These advanced tools are also helpful in automating your visual progress reporting. Nifty does an excellent job when it comes to integrating multiple devices to envelop the entirety of your project cycle. The program makes it easy to access your project from the big-picture perspective and the daily grinds that involve tasks, collaborations, files, and so on. 

Best Features:

• There is an Overview option that provides you with a birds-eye view of the progress of multiple projects at once.
• There is a Team Chat widget that allows members of a project to communicate while working on the project.
• Nifty supports Kanban-style tasks in project management. You can also connect your tasks with milestones.
• Nifty allows you to create documents directly within any project.

Pros:

• Beautiful and intuitive user interface.
• There is ease of use and easy transitioning throughout.
• Excellent support team.

Cons:

• Short trial period.

Price:

• Basic Plan: Free.
• Standard Plan: $8/user per month.
• Premium Plan: $12/user per month.
• Enterprise Plan: Custom Pricing.

(3) Atlassian Jira:

This is one of the best devices for agile project management. It features tools that make it ideal for most offices, especially IT professionals and institutional designers. This tool is excellent for any project that requires working in a shared environment.

Best Features:

• Adjustable Scrum Boards that can be customized to fit into your team’s workflow. They provide easy viewing of the entire work in a sprint. Backlogs will automatically move to the newsprint.
• Flexible Kanban boards.
• It has real-time agile reporting features including sprint report, epic report, a cumulative flow diagram, release burndown, burnout chart, velocity chart, etc. that show the real-time image of the sprint.
• It has custom filters with the aid of JIRA Query Language (JQL).
• Developer tool integrations.
• Customization workflows.
• Easy to use real-time mobile apps that ensure an uninterrupted flow of work.
• Over 1000 add-ons.
• Multiple APIs.

Pros:

• You can customize the entire tool, depending on your project’s needs.
• There are several out of the box features that offer long-term benefits to your projects.
• The product currently enjoys a lot of patronage from both big and small companies worldwide that give it a large and active community.
• This tool is helpful for start-up businesses as it is cheap for small teams.

Cons:

• You may experience difficulty setting it up and learning how to use all its tools.
• The too many features might make it difficult for some teams to use.
• Most of the core features are only available as paid add-ons.

Price:

• Cloud Plan: $10 per month (for up to 10 users for small teams).
• $75 per month (for up to 15 users for growing teams).
• Self-hosted Plan: $10 as a one-time payment (for 10 users on the server).
• $12,000 per year (for 500 users on the data center).

(4) Agilo for Scrum:

This tool has apt features that make it an excellent choice for teams that require active and efficient communication throughout the time of project execution.

Best Features:

• This tool can offer a quality real-time workflow for various kinds of agile projects.
• You can efficiently organize product backlogs with apt features like prioritization, user stories, and higher-level themes.
• This tool also offers a comprehensive overview of ongoing processes.
• There is support for sprint planning 1 & 2.
• This tool offers the exclusive ability to estimate your sprint.
• The software is highly retrospective.
• Access to real-time scrum board.
• This tool also offers the ability to approve completed stories with just one-click.

Pros:

• This tool is ideal for distributed teams.
• The product is well priced.
• The tool offers an excellent communication system.

Cons:

• There is no mobile app.
• The tool cannot host more than one project at a time.

Price:

• € 10 per month for single teams.
• € 20 per month for multiple teams.

Conclusion

Just like using sites like Online Writers Rating to compare the best writing services, you can also use other comparison websites to find the best Agile Project Management tool because this is demanded and more popular project management resort these days, there are several Agile Project Management options out there. Some of them are very good, whereas a more significant percentage is a complete waste of time and resources. However, given the long list of options that we have suggested, this post will certainly guide you towards making the right choices that will meet the specific needs of your business.

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What is Survey Method?

A Survey is referred to as a research method that is used for sourcing data from a pre-defined group of respondents to get information and perceptions on different topics of interest. Surveys can be used for several things and can be done in different ways depending on the methodology selected, and what it is being used for.

The data is generally gotten through the use of standard procedures whose aim is to ensure that each respondent can provide the answers to the questions asked in an unbiased way so as not to influence the results of the research.

A survey entails asking people for information with a questionnaire that can be distributed on paper, although with the arrival of modern tools and technologies, it is more common to share them using digital media and tools like social networks, email, QR codes, Google forms or website links.

Types of Survey

We have different kinds of surveys you can use to source for information. Usually, the types of surveys are broadly grouped into two: according to instrumentation and the period involved. Questionnaire and interview are the types of the survey according to instrumentation and cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys according to the period involved.

(1) Questionnaires

Usually, a questionnaire is a paper-and-pencil tool that is distributed to the respondents. The common questions found in questionnaires are closed-ended questions, which are followed by options to choose from. Also, we have open-ended questionnaires that need to be filled with their answers.

Questionnaires have enjoyed continuous growth over the years. Today, questionnaires are used in several survey methods, according to how they are administered. These methods include the self-administered, the group-administered, and the household drop-off.

Among these three, the self-administered survey method is mostly used by researchers in recent times. The self-administered questionnaires are popular, like the mail survey method. However, since the response rates of mail have reduced, questionnaires are now usually distributed online in the way of web surveys.

The questionnaire method is proper for market or customer research, but it limits the researcher’s understanding of the answers and requires a big budget for long questionnaires.

(2) Interviews

Between the two widely used types of surveys, interviews are a little bit personal and inquisitive. Questionnaires do not offer the freedom to ask follow-up questions to understand the answers of the respondents, but interviews do.

An interview involves two persons – the researcher as the interviewer who asks the questions, and the respondent as the interviewee who answers the questions. Also, different survey methods use interviews. Examples are personal or face-to-face interviews, phone interviews, and recently, online interview.

The interview method is excellent because it allows you to ask questions about answers you don’t understand though it tends to take a lot of time and effort in getting the responder’s details or contacts.

 According to the Span of Time Involved

The period required to wrap up a survey brings us to the two types of surveys, which are cross-sectional and longitudinal.

(1) Cross-Sectional Surveys

When you want to collect information from the respondents at once, you make use of the cross-sectional type of survey. Cross-sectional surveys normally use questionnaires to ask about a unique topic at one point in time. For example, a researcher in the US carried out a cross-sectional survey asking teenagers’ opinions on cigarette smoking in May 2018.

Sometimes, cross-sectional surveys are used to highlight the relationship between two variables, like in a comparative study. An example of this is distributing a cross-sectional study about the relationship between depression and cigarette smoking among teenagers in May 2018.

(2) Longitudinal Surveys

When the researcher tries to get information for a period of time, he is carrying out a longitudinal survey. The objective of longitudinal surveys is to get data and evaluate the changes in the data gathered. Longitudinal surveys are utilized in cohort, panel, and trend studies.

Advantage of Surveys

(1) High Representativeness

Surveys offer a higher level of getting great results. Because of the number of people that respond to the survey, the data being sourced has a better explanation of the relative features of the general population involved in the research. When compared with options of gathering data and information, surveys almost always paint the right picture.

(2) Low Costs

Surveys don’t gulp too much as you only need to pay to produce the questionnaires. If you need a lot of people to respond, you can add a little incentive that won’t affect your finances, and it can be as low as $1.  But then, other data gathering methods like focus groups and personal interviews, need researchers to pay more if they want to get the right info.

(3) Convenient Data Gathering

Surveys can be distributed to the respondents in different ways. The questionnaires can simply be distributed through e-mail or fax or the Internet. Presently, the online survey method has been the most used way of gathering data from target responders. Apart from the convenience of data gathering, researchers can get data from people all over the world in a fast and efficient way.

(4) Concise Results

The questions in the survey should go through careful examination and due process and should provide the same definitions to all the respondents who are to answer the questionnaires. Hence, there is an exceptional precision in terms of evaluating the data gathered.

Disadvantages of Survey Method

(1) Rigid Design

The survey and method that was used by the researcher from the start cannot be altered all through the process of data gathering. Although this rigidness can be seen as a weakness of the survey method, it can be a strength when you think about how precise and fair the process is

(2) Not Suitable for Controversial Topics

Questions that relate to controversies may not be precisely answered by the respondents because of the difficulty in remembering and understanding the information offered to them. The truth behind these controversies may not be revealed accurately, like when you use other methods like interviews and face to face methods.

(3) A possible Mistake of Questions

Questions in surveys are always checked before being distributed to the respondents. Hence, the researcher is forced to structure questions that can be understood by anyone. However, these easy and general questions may not be okay for all responders as envisaged.

Conclusion

Survey is an essential tool to get information and data from people, and it is necessary always to remember that when you ask survey questions based on previous events and experience, you will need to depend and trust on the memory of the respondents. This is an “assumed” variable in any survey that seeks to know how to understand the respondent’s answers and generate accurate results.

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Trait Theory of Leadership

Introduction to trait Theory of Leadership

The trait theory of leadership is an early assumption that posits that leaders are born, and because of this belief, those that have the perfect qualities and traits are better suited to be good leaders. This theory often refers to behavioral characteristics that are normal in leaders.

Trait theory of leadership is one of the foremost and early academic theories of leadership that tries to provide answers to the question of “why some people make good leaders and while other don’t?” furthermore, the trait theory dates back to the early nineteenth century, when a man named Thomas Carlyle used his understanding to identify the talents, skills, and attributes of men who rose to power.

The trait theory of leadership is based on the attributes of several leaders that are successful and not successful – and are used to anticipate leadership effectiveness. The ensuing characteristics are then compared to those of likely leaders to evaluate their chances of success or failure. Once discovered, the theory believes that these natural leaders can then be developed to become great and exceptional leaders.

Types of Trait Theory of Leadership

(1) Allport’s Trait Theory

Gordon Allport propounds this theory. According to him, the attribute of an individual can be evaluated through a difference between the common traits and personal temperament. The common characteristics are used to liken the people on the grounds of six options like religious, social, economic, political, aesthetic, and theoretical. Apart from the common traits, there are personal temperaments which are unique and are grouped as follows:

• Cardinal Traits:

The cardinal characteristics are strong, and few people have personality dominated by one trait like Mother Teresa’s altruism.

• Central Traits:

These traits are the overall features possessed by a lot of people in varying degrees like loyalty, friendliness, honesty, kindness, etc.

• Secondary Trait:

The secondary traits show why sometimes, a person behaves differently from how he acts normally like a happy person getting angry when people tease them.

(2) Cattell’s Trait Theory

Raymond Cattell propounds this trait theory. According to him, the sample of a tremendous value of variables should be evaluated to have an ideal understanding of the individual personality. He collected the life data (daily behaviors), experimental data (normalizing experiments by evaluating actions), questionnaire data (feedbacks gathered from a study of an individual’s behavior), and use the factor analysis to identify the behaviors that are related to one another.

When using this method, he highlighted 16 important personality factors:

• Abstractedness – Imaginative Vs Practical
• Passion – Extrovert Vs. gentle
• Alertness – Suspicious Vs. Honest
• Stress – Rough Vs. Relaxed
• Understanding – bothered Vs Confident
• Emotional Intelligence – Calm Vs anxious
• Liveliness – Spontaneous Vs withdrawn
• Authority – Forceful Vs Submissive
• Social confidence – free Vs Shy
• Perfection – Discipled Vs Undisciplined
• Confidentiality – Secretive Vs Open
• Sensitivity – Mild Vs Hard
• Autonomous – Independent Vs Dependent
• Rule-Consciousness – Conforming Vs Non-Conforming
• Reasoning – Abstract Vs Real
• Receptive to Change – Dynamic Vs Rigid

The trait theory is based on the assumption that the traits are normal to a lot of people, and they change in absolute amounts. Also, the features remain unchangeable for a period and thus can be evaluated through the behavioral indices.

How to Use the Trait Theory of Leadership:

Step 1:

Identify the usual traits of good leadership above and start identifying where you think your strengths and weaknesses lie.

Step 2:

Take the Trait Theory of Leadership Survey, personally.

Step 3:

Share this survey with five more people in your team and anyone you think is a leader, and get them to give their honest evaluation on why they believe you will make a leader.

Step 4:

Submit all these findings and evaluate where the difference between how you view yourself and how others view you lies.

Step 5:

Talk about these findings with the group and agree on where you can improve yourself.

Step 6:

Make a simple action plan of fewer than seven items to improve and boost your skills.

Benefits of Trait Theory Leadership

(1) It lends support to the belief that leaders are born

It supports the widely shared idea that some people are specially born to be leaders because they possess incredible skills. People need to view leaders as gifted and amazing people, and the trait theory of leadership meets this need.

(2) It is effective as a lot of research has validated the foundation and basis of the theory

It is an excellent way to measure the leadership trait of a person and determine if they will make a good leader. It also offers extensive knowledge and understanding of the leadership element in the leadership selection process.

(3) Helps to identify leaders with reasonable emotional control

The trait theory of leadership helps to identify leaders that are calm, disciplined, and serene in the face of adversity, pressure, or stress. All these emotional controls and intelligence elements are necessary for becoming a leader, and the theory helps a lot identifying them.

(4) It helps breed courageous leaders

The Trait theory helps a lot to identify and build leaders that have a strong and brave mind that will be able to face challenges and help the group achieve their set objectives. There is a way they will be identified with the cattels’ trait theory of leadership.

Conclusion

The traits approach leads to a lot of questions: whether leaders are born or self-made; and whether leadership is an art or science. However, these are not definite. Leadership may be an art; it still needs the application of incredible skills, expertise, and techniques. Even if there are specific qualities that make one an effective leader, such innate abilities would need continuous learning and development.

A person doesn’t come to life with self-confidence. Self-confidence is nurtured, honesty and integrity are personal choices, motivation to lead and succeed comes from inside the individual, and the knowledge and expertise of business can be learned. Though cognitive ability has to do with the genes, it still needs to be nurtured for it to come out well. None of these elements can be gotten easily overnight.

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How to Write an Engaging Job Description?

“A job description is like a sales pitch for a company. Jobs descriptions should be descriptive enough to fully inform the potential job candidate, and catchy enough to attract their attention”. You need to treat a job description as a sales plan, with its separate marketing strategy.

Job descriptions are obsolete. Well, according to Forbes, at least.

Their article touches upon the opinion that job descriptions don’t have any value. The author of the article offers to ‘view job candidates like investors’ and completely rethink the way companies approach potential employees.

On top of that, since the employment market is so competitive, approaching high-profile, experienced candidates with the job description are no longer effective. Top-talent candidates have a very specific screening process, and job descriptions (which are often just bland overviews), don’t have any value for them.

We would agree with the above-mentioned statements, if not for one thing – you cannot throw all job descriptions under the bus if they are written poorly.

So, let’s take a look at how you should approach job descriptions to make them both eye-catching and informative.

(1) Start with an Outline

The outline is the foundation for informative writing. Before you start with your job description, devote time to developing its structure.

After studying over a hundred job descriptions, we found the following structures to be the most common:

The components in both structures are the same but can be placed differently up to your preference.

However, the placement of these components may affect the readability of the job description. Meighan White, a content analyst, and HR manager at Supreme Dissertations, says that “… the choice between these two structures depends on a type of the job applicant that you want to target.”

Thus, the first description will be more descriptive and will be a good fit for those candidates, who want to learn more about the company and their new potential place right away. The second structure is more straight-forward, with all the job details and requirements placed upfront.

You may choose any of these two structures. However, placing the application process at the end is a must. Job applicants should know, where to send their job applications, resumes, and who to contact to negotiate the contract. More on that in the next section of the article.

(2) Don’t Be Shy On Details

Now, let’s start writing your job description step-by-step. In our guide, we will use the second type of structure, mentioned above.

• Job Title

Take a look at the following examples of job titles:

A good job title is always straightforward. Good job titles shouldn’t include:

• The purpose of the job – This will fit more into the job description section.

• Job details – A job title shouldn’t contain any job details to avoid confusion. Here’s an example of a job title that looks taken out of context.

• Buzzwords – On the examples above you can see the words superstar and multi-talented present in the job title. Glassdoor reports that such buzzwords have been overused in the past 5 years, however, they carry no value. A job title should be perceived literally, not to mention that such words can be discouraging.

The job title is a component of the job description that requires the least details. Some job titles include job IDs and location to help applicants search for this job position on the company’s website:

Details on job ID don’t have to be in the job title, as this information fits more in the section that describes the application process.

As for the location, this information appears automatically in the preview to the job description, so there’s no need to duplicate it in the job title.

• Job Summary

Now, let’s talk about the details. The more details you include in your job summary, the more well-informed your potential job applicants will be.

Let’s analyze, how a job summary should be written, using the following example:

• Start with addressing applicants directly – This will allow a higher level of engagement and personalization.

• Briefly describe job duties and place them in relation to the strategy of your company and your corporate values. This will allow potential job applicants to understand, whether their attitude and job skills are in line with your corporate culture.

• Fruits of the labor – End with how the results of their work will positively impact the company’s strategy and how their skills can contribute to the company’s success.

You can also break down all the information into bullet points to improve readability.

The job summary also includes responsibilities that job candidates are expected to take on. For more engagement, break them into meaningful chunks and put them in the form of a bullet list:

A comprehensive list of job responsibilities should be:

• Detailed but concise – Don’t leave out any responsibilities that a particular job position should cover, otherwise you create an unpleasant surprise for a person who will occupy this position.

• With highlighted day-to-day activities – This will help job candidates understand the work environment and what their typical workday will look like.

• Described in relation to the organization – Point out how these responsibilities will fit into the strategy of the organization and which end result is expected.

In the example above you can see all three points applied: a short bullet list describes the full scope of responsibilities, including daily activities, in relation to the organization.

Note: don’t use the pronouns he or she in job descriptions. It is important to remove all gender biases throughout the job description. Try addressing job candidates directly and use them if it’s necessary.

• Job Requirements

This component of a job description doesn’t require any extra information except straightforward details on what education and experience job candidates should have to occupy this position.

Let’s take a look at the following example:

In this description, the employer took a creative approach to describe job responsibilities:

• addressing the candidate directly – Some employers have a habit of addressing candidates in a rather elusive manner, like ‘our ideal candidate’ or ‘we expect our candidate to be’, which sounds discriminatory and creates unnecessary pressure. By addressing the candidates directly, you speak to all of them in an equal manner.

• Outlining the key qualities right away – It is the right move to define the kind of personality the employer is looking for before listing other requirements. You are searching for a person that is right for your team, and candidates want to know right away, whether they are a good fit for your organization.

• Job isn’t just about working – In the description above, the employer not only lists the responsibilities but also points them out as something that the ideal job candidate should enjoy doing.

On the part of the employer, whose job description we described above, it was a smart move to break down the requirements into two sections, the first one – for personal qualities, and the second one – for skills and experience.

Note: just as with job responsibilities, list all the requirements in the job description. Job candidates should find out about your requirements at a job interview, that’s disrespectful towards their time and personal space.

• Company Description and Benefits

To help potential job candidates prepare for a job interview, you can list company details in the job description.

Here, the employer briefly describes:

• Benefits that candidates will have access to – this includes social benefits, education opportunities, working hours.

• Information on promotions – the information, important to all job candidates since they expect the opportunity for professional growth.

• Brief description of the company – projects, products, and corporate policy.

Note: put information about salary and financial benefits in the separate section. This is the main mistake that the employer, described above, made in the company description. Here’s why.

• Salary and Financial Benefits

There’s always a heated debate around the question, whether a job description should include payment information. Why are employers excluding salary information from job descriptions?

• for negotiating advantage
• to exclude unfit candidates

The truth is that the phrases ‘competitive salary’ or ‘competitive remuneration’ carry no value for job applicants. Excluding pay information from the job description can give a company a negotiating advantage, however, it doesn’t guarantee that it will help them reach the desired result – hiring experienced candidates.

So, the best way for both parties is to include the information on salary and financial benefits. The company will be able to attract top-talent candidates, and job applicants won’t waste their time if they are not interested.

Moreover, people have certain salary expectations, when applying for a job. Putting all financial information in a separate section isn’t just about convenience, it’s about respect.

• Application Process

This brief part concludes your job description.

If you place your job ad on one of the websites, all job applicants can apply by pressing a button.

However, if any issues may occur, you can leave additional contact information for the interested candidates to use. You should also leave a link to your company’s website and other useful resources to learn about your company. This information will also be useful for them in the recruitment process.

Remember: your job description is like a sales pitch. The more informative and detailed it is, the faster you’ll ‘sell’ it.

(3) Finishing Touches

Like any other promotional content, a job description undergoes the stages of editing and proofreading.

Don’t rush with posting your job description, take your time. If you want your job description to work, it should be well-structured and informative.

It is also important to mention that no grammatical or spelling mistakes are allowed. You don’t want to harm the first impression that a job description gives of your company.

Get High-Quality Candidates with Engaging Job Descriptions

Some professionals may consider job descriptions obsolete. However, they are still the main strategy to approach potential job candidates. You just need to do them right.

Follow our guide to create a comprehensive, detailed, and informative job description that targets your ideal candidates. Such a step-by-step approach will help you select the best candidates for your company to continue thriving.

Author bio:

Melanie Sovann is from the greater LA area and is a seasoned writer and blogger, passionate about a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from technology to sociology. She is currently a senior writer and editor at Trust My Paper and a content marketing specialist at WowGrade and loves every second of it.

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10 WAYS TO GENERATE SALES LEADS IF YOU DON’T HAVE MARKETING SUPPORT

No matter how brilliant, unique and revolutionary your product or service rendered is, you have to be a great seller to succeed. You’re not alone in the pursuit of leads as generating leads has been singled out as a top challenge for 61 percent of marketers.

Needless to say, marketing is essential to generating quality leads – with high return rates – for sales. However, not every business has the time or resources to get marketing support. Yet, they have to make sales.

If you have a business that is still relatively new or owns a small-scale business enterprise that is still unable to fund marketing campaigns or put together a marketing team; you have to look elsewhere to generate leads. This is because without generating consistently new leads, your business becomes a sinking ship.

It is necessary that you channel your energy and resources into generating leads that draw prospects into your sales funnel and consequently increase your customer base.

Before taking a look at how to generate these leads without help from marketing, let’s take a look at what sales leads really are.

What is a Sales Lead?

A sales lead can be an individual, group of individuals or company who you hope to win over as a customer for your service or product in the nearest future. Most often than not, businesses gain access to sales leads through advertising, mailings, trade shows, third parties, and other marketing channels.

Tools to Generate Sales Leads

Having discussed what a sales lead is, it is essential to know what attracts a sales lead entails. In theory, generating sales leads without the support of a marketing team is an uphill task. However, they can be done without one. This article focuses on other tools you can use to generate leads.

(1) Use Social Media to Your Advantage

There is a bunch of social media platforms that can be used to drive sales these days; chief among them is LinkedIn. A number of salespeople use this professional platform but might not be using it effectively for generating top-of-the-funnel activity.

It is any salesperson’s dream to be able to connect to prospective customers using high-value methods yet with minimal effort and social media is an excellent way to do this.

The following are a number of recommendations to make your LinkedIn profile look professional and hence generate sales leads for your brand.

• Ensure you use a clear, current and professional picture that reflects in every way your professional demeanor as your profile picture.
• Try to establish connections with a large number on your network. This is because the more connections you have on your network, the wider your coverage and the people who see your products and services. You need not be best friends with whoever you make connections with.
• Request for recommendations from your current clients which should be written to showcase the quality of your work. In addition, it shows that your clients can vouch for your professionalism, value, and effectiveness.
• You reach a larger number of targets if you can broaden your professional brand to social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook for business and Snapchat.

(2) Referrals From Customers, Partners, and Employees

You could also set up a referral program where past and present employees, customers and partners can refer sales leads to your business. This is a very essential and influential factor in generating sales leads. Most often than not, people are unwilling to try out a new product except they have seen it being put into use by their friends and loved ones.

For the most part, the best way to prove your company’s professionalism is to let your happy customers speak of it to others. Contact your customers to thank them for patronizing you and ask them to share their experiences with friends and colleagues. Also, ask them if there are any areas they think you need to improve.

Strike a good relationship with your clients and ask them for ways you could reach out to their other contacts who might be interested in your products or services.

(3) Networking Events

As much as our world has gone digital, face-to-face interactions still work a great deal in generating leads. Hence, you can take advantage of them in generating sales leads.

Make it a point of duty to attend networking events so as to expand your business reach. Bring along business cards, offer to connect with social media and grant interviews with live audiences who want to make inquiries about your products.

(4) Blog

You should find some spare time to write short blog articles targeted at your ideal customer. These blogs should focus on the problems or challenges your potential customers are faced with and how your products can help them.

Thereafter, share the link through your social media accounts or email list of prospects.

(5) Personal Network

This is an often overlooked yet valuable option. It is valuable because it is fairly easy to get started since your personal network already has a certain level of trust in you.

Let potential useful acquaintances and colleagues know what services you render and what kind of business you run in general.

(6) Revisit Closed/Lost Opportunities

You might have had contact with some businesses or brands which expressed their interest in your service sometime in the past but are yet to patronize you. These brands already know a lot about your offers and are generally worth more effort and qualified than new warm leads.

To maintain communication with them, send them relevant blog posts, and personalized emails so that they have you in mind whenever the right time comes.

(7) Implement an Email Sequence

There is a huge probability that your prospects receive tons of emails daily. It is therefore essential that you get creative if you want to get their attention. A proven way of doing so is coming up with an email sequence. Here’s a template you can follow:

• Outline the pain points
• Explain a value message
• Name a big client
• Qualify your message
• Include product description in your mail
• Reach out to the prospect one more time.

(8) Develop Your Website

The need to develop a website for your brand cannot be overemphasized. If you do not own a user-friendly, interesting and fully functional website, you might lose out on potential profit and a large audience. Last year, a huge $500billion was estimated to have been spent online by US residents.

Grab the attention of your site’s visitors using clear pictures and an interactive interface.

(9) SEO

Search Engine Optimization is a great way to generate organic traffic rather than invest in massive advertisement campaigns. All your webpages are analyzed by complex algorithms that rank your website on google search results based on a host of criteria.

Focus on the quality of your content and regularly update it to make your website naturally rank higher.

(10) Guest Posting

To increase your reach, post information and material on other websites with a large number of active users, providing links back to your website. It is an easy and proven way of generating more traffic on your website and consequently more sales leads.

In summary, lead generation is not easy and has been a source of headache to many marketers for many years coming, yet, it is much needed for any business’s survival. Some companies survive on marketing strategies put together by marketing and sales teams. However, for start-ups and small enterprises, this is not an option.

The listed tools are useful ways to generate leads without creating a hole in your pocket.

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What is the Path-Goal Theory?

The Path-Goal model is a theory based on explaining a leader’s style or behavior that is best suited to the employee and workplace to achieve a common goal. The path-goal theory can best be referred to as a set of processes in which leaders choose specific behaviors that are good for the employees’ needs and their working environment so that they may work together to achieve their daily targets.

Origin of the Path-Goal Theory

The Path-Goal theory came about because of the works of Martin G. Evans (1970). It is best described as a series of thought processes through which superiors choose some sets of behaviors that are best for their employee’s needs and working environment.

The theory posits that leaders will have to take part in several kinds of leadership behavior depending on the forces and the demands of a particular incidence. It is the leader’s responsibility to help employees in achieving goals and to provide the guide and support needed to make sure that their personal goals are related to the organizations.

In this theory, it is assumed that a leader supports his employees and help bridge their shortcomings. The task-oriented components of the Path-Goal Theory correspond with situational leadership. In this Path-Goal Theory of Leadership, productive leaders offer their employees clear steps for them to follow in order to achieve their goals.

Also, these kinds of support help reduce the chances of failure and pitfalls. The Path-Goal Theory provides routes for leaders to motivate and support their employees in achieving all their objectives with rewards and adequate compensation.

Kind of Leadership Styles in the Path-Goal Theory

The ideal leadership style depends on the situation of things in the workplace and the kind of employees.  The selected leadership style is only suitable when it is accepted by the employees and inspires and satisfies them to pursue more. It is the leader’s responsibility to train, teach, and remunerate his employees in the right way. The Path-Goal Theory identifies four leadership styles:

1. Directive Leadership

In this style of leadership, the leader understands precisely what needs to be done, how tasks must be carried out, and how to meet the deadlines. All these imply that he provides the framework for his employees on how to go about all the activities successfully. Therefore, this management style is more suited for very inexperienced employees who need guidance and to be checked on regularly.

For example, as a tech company, if you want your employees to take care of building a website for a client, you can delegate tasks accordingly. You will direct the programmer to write the codes, the product designer to take care of the UI/UX, and a content writer to draft converting copy for the new site.

2. Supportive Leadership

In this kind of leadership style, the leader pays a sizeable chunk of attention to what the employees need to function well in their job roles. His attitude is defined by friendliness and empathy. It means he respectably addresses his staff and supports them where it is required in order to make goal achievement easy for them. This kind of management style is beneficial in situations in which the employee has a (personal) challenge, does not believe in himself strongly, or has low morale.

An example of this is delegating projects to employees and helping them achieve it directly. E.g., telling them to write an about us page for a new website and listing all the topics you want to be covered by them. Through this, you have done a part of the job, and you are monitoring them again to do a good job.

3. Achievement-Oriented Leadership

In this leadership style, the leader sets ambitious goals. He expects the highest form of achievement from his employees and believes in their capability to get him that. He coerces them to show excellent work achievements and consistent improvement and has full confidence in their ability to deliver beyond his expectations. Employees who love working solo and have fantastic problem-solving skills will thrive in this kind of management style.

An example of this is when you set actionable goals for your employees. Imagine telling them to increase sales to a hundred percent within the first quarter of a new year, now that is challenging and it will spur them individually to do more with your backing.

4. Participative leadership

In this leadership style, the leader thinks it is very crucial to collaborate with his employees and take their ideas on board during the decision making period. Also, this implies that he is open to discussions and suggestions on how organizational goals can be achieved. The leader will adopt this leadership style, especially when employees are deeply involved and have amazing expertise and skillsets.

An example of this is when the firm has a project that entails a high level of participation in its execution. Everyone needs to be present and contribute their quota to the success of the project. Mr. A may be identifying faults, while Mr. B is putting measures in place to fix it. It is a collaborative effort and one of the hallmarks of participative leadership in the Path-Goal Theory.

How to Use the Path-Goal Theory Effectively?

If you have a good grasp of what your employees needs, then you can flow with any style the situation demands.

Usually, an achievement-oriented leadership style is effective when staff does not have enough to do and get bored at the workplace. It is a way to keep them more engaged and productive for the purpose of everyone involved. However, Directive leadership allows the employees to function well when tasked with unclear job descriptions and specifications.

Also, participative leadership is ideal in situations where the staff is making the wrong decisions. The leader can take corrective measures and guide them towards the right path.  In the same vein, supportive leadership is beneficial when the team is relatively young and inexperienced in the workplace. This will make them more confident and suitable for future projects.

Conclusion

Path-Goal theory posits that leaders are dynamic and that they can adjust their style as situations demand. The theory suggests two eventual possibilities, like environment and employee traits that regulate the leader behavior-outcome relationship.

Furthermore, the environment is beyond the control of the follower-task relationship, authority system, and workgroup. Environmental factors decide the kind of leadership style that is needed if the employee potentials are to be maximized.

Also, the follower’s features are the mode of control, experience, and perceived capability. However, the personal capability of employees influences how the leadership style will be. Productive leaders highlight the path to help their employees achieve goals and make the job easier by eliminating challenged that may face on the road.

Consequently, research has shown that employee performance and satisfaction will improve positively if the leader remunerates well for any issues detected in either the employee’s work or work environment.

The post Path-Goal Leadership Theory, Leadership Styles in the Path-Goal Theory & It’s Importance appeared first on Management Study HQ.

What is Environmental Scanning?

Environmental scanning is an examination of all external factors to determine the ones that have an effect on a business. Usually, the main objective of environmental scanning is to identify and consult factors outside the business environment. Though most times, these factors are beyond the organization’s control, it is essential to consider them during the decision-making process of the organization.

One known way of environmental scanning is the renowned SWOT analysis. S stands for strength, W stands for weakness, O stands for opportunity while T stands for threat. The strength and opportunities are factors that can be controlled by the organization inwardly, while the weaknesses and threats come from the uncontrolled factors outside the organization.

When firms are directing their resources and manpower towards an environmental scan, they want the feedbacks to be as deep as possible. Most environmental scans entail a thorough check on the economic, technological, social, demographic, and legal factors to make an informed decision.

Example of Environmental Scanning

Microsoft has been able to work crucially to use its research and development to adapt to the changing trends in the software and mobile devices development. Initially, the software giant has a deep root in making software for desktops and mobile PCS until they started making mobile devices like phones and pads to compete well globally and expand their reach.

To achieve their goal of breaking into the leaders of firms making mobile devices, they have partnered with other suppliers of materials. They are continuing their research to leverage their strength, which lies in their ability to create software that will come in handy in their new venture.

Not many software firms have the foresight to diversify and move to more important things happening in their environment.

Scope of Environmental Planning

Environmental scanning is a crucial aspect of the business process as it is the task of any serious organization to keep a close tab on things that can affect the chances of the organizations in satisfying the consumers and making profits.

The staff of the organization source for the prominent internal and external threats which negatively affect the organization.  Big firms have employees that are specially trained and dedicated towards research purposes that continuously learn about market trends, changes and provide information to the senior management, which will aid them in meeting up with industry trends.

Having adequate knowledge about the trends in business and market changes will help management make informed and productive decisions that will help the company profitably.

Components of Environmental Scanning

The environment of a business organization can be split into two types, which are the external environment and the internal environment. There are different dimensions to both the internal and external environments.

1. Internal Environmental

Internal environmental components are the ones that lie within the organization, and changes in these components affect the general performance of the organization. There are different internal environmental like human resources, capital resources, technological resources, and a lot more like objectives, Organizational structure, Value system, corporate structure, and labor union, etc.

These components play a crucial role in building the future of an organization; therefore, it is essential to examine these components as a part of environmental scanning thoroughly.

2. External Environmental Components:

External components are the components that are outside the walls of the business organization. Although these components are outside the organization, they still affect the activities of the organization. This external environment can be divided into two categories, like the microenvironmental components and macro environmental components.

Micro environment components are competitors, suppliers, industry, organization, consumers, and market, etc.

Macro environmental components are made up of things like demography, environment, and economic, political, cultural, and technological factors.

Importance of Environmental Scanning

1. It Helps to Identify The Strengths of the Organization

The strength of the business implies the ability of the firm to have an advantage over its competitors. The analysis of the internal business environment helps to highlight the power of the firm. After identifying the strength, the firm must strive to build on or maximize its advantage by making improvements in its immediate plans, strategies, and resources.

2. It Helps to Identify the Organization’s Weaknesses

Recognizing the weakness of an organization means unearthing the limitations of the firm. Assessing the internal environment helps to highlight not only the strength but also the limitations of the firm. A firm may be firm in specific areas but may be weak in others. For continuous growth and expansion, the weakness should be highlighted and corrected as soon as possible.

3. It helps to Identify Opportunities:

Environmental scanning helps to identify and understand the opportunities in the market. The firm should take every necessary step to take advantage of the opportunity that comes.

4. It Helps to Identify Threats:

Business is open to threats from competitors and several factors. Environmental scanning helps them to discover a threat from the external environment. When risks are detected early, it is good as it helps to eliminate them without much stress.

5. Environmental Scanning Helps Organizations to Optimize Resources

An ideal environmental scanning helps to make use of an organization’s human, natural, and capital resources. Proper environmental scanning helps to limit wastage and optimize all other available resources.

6. It Ensures Survival and Growth:

Systematic scanning of the business environment helps the firm to optimize its strength, reduce its weakness, take advantage of the opportunity, and diffuse threats. This helps the firm to survive and grow in the eternal competitive business world.

7. It helps to Plan a Long-Term Business Strategy:

Every business organization has short term and long-term objectives. The accurate environmental scanning of environmental factors helps the business organization to make plans and policies that will help in achieving organizational goals.

Without planning an excellent environmental scanning, the firm cannot map out a winning strategy for sustained business success.

8. Environmental Scanning Helps in Making Productive Decision-Making:

Decision-making is a process of choosing the best alternative among several available alternatives. An environmental assessment is an essential tool in making the right decisions in the business world. The success of any organization depends mainly on the decision making capability of senior management. Thus, environmental scanning is highly crucial in shaping the company’s business decisions.

Conclusion

Environmental scanning provides a business with many advantages irrespective of their industry or market environment. This is why companies need to dedicate their resources towards understanding their environment. They need to identify their strengths and weaknesses, bank on opportunities in the environment, and get rid of any potential threats that may affect the business negatively.

Consequently, to grow and succeed in the ever-changing business and dynamic environment, all serious organizations must take adequate measures in understanding their environment to make informed and productive business decisions.

The post What is Environmental Scanning? Scope, Components & Importance of Environmental Scanning appeared first on Management Study HQ.

SWOT Analysis of Starbucks

If you have an interest in the Starbucks SWOT analysis, you are in the right place. Based in the United States of America, Starbucks runs one of the biggest coffeehouses the world over. And despite the product it sells, the company keeps raking in billions of dollars annually. Starbucks is a brand that’s not afraid of penetrating any market. And currently, the company has over 30,000 retail locations across the globe.

The company started with serving cold and hot coffee to customers but now has other complementary products. These include items such as coffee machines, well-packaged coffee beans, and mugs, including other related gift items. Let’s look at Starbucks SWOT analysis.

The Strengths of Starbucks

When it comes to profit, Starbucks has been making impressive profits. So it is evident that the coffeehouse is doing something remarkable and different from its competitors. Starbucks has also carved out a niche for itself. It’s as one of the highly sought after coffeehouses across the globe.

So what are the strengths Starbuck possesses that bring them loads of profit year after year?

• Ability to Identify Opportunities and Reinvest

Any company that’s growth-centered will always think of reinvesting. The focus will be to use part of the profits generated from the business to expand. Starbucks falls into this category. The company makes huge profits and puts it back into the business to grow bigger. The company does have a clear growth strategy, which shows in the number of branches they have built thus far. Plus, the company’s branches keep increasing now and then, and across the globe.

• High-Quality Product and Standard

Starbucks has competitors. But the company has managed to increase its customer base, branches, and profit because of the quality of the products it offers. The company also charges its customers a bit higher than other competitors.

Its coffee brands and other complementary products are consistent across all its branches concerning quality. So even if its products cost a bit higher, customers are always willing to pay a premium to get them.

• Employee Rating

Employees are usually the strength and backbone of any company. Their commitment will affect any company massively. Well, Starbucks hasn’t been poor concerning how they treat their employees. In addition to its conducive work environment, Starbucks handles its thousands of employees well.

• Value of the Company

Compared to its competitors, Starbucks does have a higher capital base. The company has a net worth of $30 billion, which is quite massive, considering the industry they are operating in.

• Volume and Size

The size and volume of the product are also strengths that Starbucks possesses. Because of its size and capacity, Starbucks can make their coffee brands more affordable to the middle class. They can also provide for a range of consumers and still make an enormous profit. Unfortunately, their competitors may not be able to match them in this regard.

Weaknesses of Starbucks

Starbucks is a company that others may wish to be like. When you consider their financial capacity and growth rate, all you will see is a company positioned for nothing but the top. However, like every other successful company out there, Starbucks has its share of weaknesses. Let’s take a closer look at them.

• No Unique Products

Starbuck doesn’t have a product they can call their own. They offer products that other coffee shops also provide. Among their range of products are pumpkin spice lattes, cookies (big chocolate chips), among others. Most of the coffeehouses around town whose resources are nowhere near Starbucks sell these items. The only significant reason most people choose to buy from Starbucks is because of the name and possibility that one is splashing the cash on a quality product.

• Not Diversified Well Enough

Starbucks cannot meet the needs of consumers looking to drink and bite at the same time. And as a consequence, consumers would instead visit Burger King or McDonald’s, which are companies that can provide both services. Consumers who have tight schedules might be looking to drink and bite to save time, making Starbucks’ competitors a more favorable destination.

Opportunities of Starbucks

• One great opportunity Starbucks has is in the area of building brand reputation. They have diverse ways they can become more and more socially responsible, and also tie their business strategies to socially responsible actions. These steps can help to address most of the threats the company is facing and help enhance brand reputation.

• Starbucks can take full control over things that affects their business massively, such as raw material pricing. Supply disruptions are one significant factor affecting its business, which the company can address by extending its supplier network. This will also offer the company better options, particularly on things like raw materials such as coffee beans.

• Starbucks has a lucrative opportunity to increase the number of branches it operates across the globe, including its profit. The company can penetrate markets where consumers with tighter schedules are more interested in having their coffee and breakfast together.

Threats of Starbucks

• Some factors still threaten Starbucks’ profitability. These include the cost of coffee beans and dairy products. These two items can have a massive impact on the company’s profitability as they regularly fluctuate.

• The company also faces high competition, not only from international but local coffeehouses, including specialty stores. Some consumers prefer to patronize these local stores and are not moved by big brands or their names.

• The company’s profitability can also face huge threats when there’s an economic downturn. Consumers will no longer have the financial power to purchase coffee. And even if some of them manage to buy, they might not acquire the same quantity they use to buy when there was no economic downturn. Again, some of the consumers may also prefer buying from local stores, given their price point.

This SWOT analysis for Starbucks is what is obtainable out there. Looking at the report, you will find that the company faces numerous threats, but there are solutions to the problems or threats it is experiencing. So that’s it about Starbucks’ financial report.

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Willingness To Sacrifice

Entrepreneurship by nature requires sacrifices both in your personal and business life: be it sacrificing personal time to learn a new skill to help the business or the willingness to terminate a friend that was not a fit for said business. Hence, if there is little to no willingness to be flexible enough to sacrifice, starting a business should not be an option. – Kamyar Shah, World Consulting Group

Originally published at https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/12/23/13-essential-skills-and-traits-of-successful-business-owners/#6528c24eaca3

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Implement Reading Time

I have had the pleasure to work with many entrepreneurs over my career. The single factor that all the successful ones had in common was their reading habits. It goes something along the lines of there being a time block set aside to catch up on readings. Short of a disaster that has to be dealt with, that time is nonnegotiable and will stay off-limits for any other activity. – Kamyar Shah, World Consulting Group

Originally published at https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/12/30/15-daily-habits-of-great-leaders/#512ebced42ca

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Choose Your Language Carefully

A promotion to a managerial role will inherently alter the dynamics between peers. However, the language used to express that can provide context and help; it is easy to contextually explain that the relationship is evolving. That approach can be extremely helpful for all parties to “buy-in” to the new dynamics and even become an active actor in helping achieve goals that benefit all. – Kamyar Shah, World Consulting Group

Originally published at https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/01/06/promoted-to-management-15-ways-to-navigate-workplace-relationship-changes/#40c32ec947f2

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