Magic 2 USA

its the increase in organization complexity and runaway expectations in market growth, a re-organization of the field force can deliver significant results in a short time. Is there ever a right time for such a re-org and why should one do it at all? While there are several reasons mandating such a decision, let us examine a scenario where historical performance can assist in fine tuning the go-to-market model.

Say, your organization expects you to grow your business by an enormous percentage over the last year. By sheer dint of hard work aided by some charismatic leadership and a fair bit of luck, there could a possibility of landing a great year. However, a bit of additional homework can also help. Ask yourself a few questions:

a) What were the numbers of transactions executed in the last year?

b) How many of those could be considered outliers – both at the top and at the bottom.

c) What would be an average deal size without considering the outliers?

d) What was the average volume of deals executed by each sales rep?

e) How many sales reps have met their quota over the last 3 years? Is there a room for a growth in quota?

f) Was the number of transactions per rep influenced in any way by the limitations of process complexity? If yes, could a simplification result in a positive change?

g) What has been the trailing 3-years y-o-y growth in deal size, deal volumes and Outlier size and volumes? Is there a predictable pattern that could be used as a sustained learning?

Armed with the above perspective, draw up a reasonable estimate of how much the sales team is currently equipped to deliver and temper this with your judgmental estimate of macro economic growth factors.

A common question I get in emails is this one: “I already work in the energy industry. What will the ERP (Energy Risk Professional) designation do for me to advance my career?”

This is an obvious question often heard from energy marketers, energy commodity traders, engineers, and energy risk managers. The ERP designation is not widely known yet, but this may change soon. While the ERP (short for “Energy Risk Professional”) is relatively new, it stands on solid footing endorsed by GARP (the Global Association of Risk Professionals) and API (the American Petroleum Institute). There are approximately 500 ERP charterholders so far (as of 2010), and their number is expected to grow very quickly. The pass rate on the ERP exam has been about 35% in 2010, so this is definitely not a designation that you simply buy by enrolling for the exam. The ERP designation can be gained by passing one exam, held in May and November each year, but this may be amended in the future, just as has been the case lately with the FRM designation (short for Financial Risk Manager, also by GARP), which now spans over two exams. The time to gain the ERP designation is still relatively short with manageable effort, for the time being.

Having passed the ERP exam in the first go, I can say that the material is not too difficult. You should, however, take your exam preparation seriously: Start at least six months before the exam with the required reading material, and finish reading and summarizing the material at least two months prior to the exam, so you have ample time to review all the study materials and take practice exams.

In today’s world of business, many small business owners have taken a hit due to the downward value of the dollar. Because of this many business owners want to know what it is that they can do improve their sales and profits tenfold. The bottom line is that if you want to remain profitable in your business, you have to think outside of the box.

When you think outside of the box, you allow yourself to be different than your competitors. Thinking outside of the box is something that can take a failing business and turn it into a success virtually within a matter of weeks. If you want to be like most of the business owners in your city by copying each other’s ad, and producing advertising campaigns that doesn’t make sense… you should know that it this is an ineffective way of earning more money in your business.

In today’s article, I want to share with you some of techniques that you can use to boost your sales and profits starting right away. Here’s one example of a marketing technique that can take your business from struggling, to seeing results and making within a matter of days. Here’s the first marketing technique that you can use:

1) Flyers

Flyers are unconventional by nature. If you want to see an immediate response from your marketing efforts, then flyers are the way to go. You could create a flyer and put them under people’s windshield wiper that makes a customer want to go and redeem your flyer for almost no cost.

The trick to marketing with flyers is that you have to present them on the right day, at exactly the right time. So if I owned a local GNC nutritional store and a fitness gym was just 1 minute away, I would create flyers about some of the fitness and sport related products of your store.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Implementing a solid SEO plan for your company’s website is a great way to succeed in the world of online business. Back linking plays an important role in where Google will place your site in organic results. In addition to Google, SEO also helps to improve the visibility of your website on other search engines like Yahoo, Bing etc.

With the help of various link-building techniques, we can ensure Google that a website is really very popular and a lot of traffic is coming to it. That is the core of search engine optimization: it’s essentially peer-reviewed endorsements. If you’re in the shoe business, and Nike is linking to your website, Google will naturally assume that you’re a serious player in the shoe business. Likewise, if dozens of less shoe-focused websites link to your shoe site, Google will place you higher in their organic search results.

In SEO, various strategies are used which help to grow business by converting website website traffic to paying customers. Both on-page SEO and off-page SEO management is necessary to increase organic website traffic. On-page SEO indicators can include meta descriptions, meta tags, headers, on-site copy, and more. Off-site indicators are things like back links to your site. Back links can come from forums, other websites, social media, article posting, and more.

Keywords play a vital role in any SEO campaign’s success. Keyword management is paramount. Search engines will reward you for choosing the right keywords for your website. Link building means more than just increased web traffic, however. Combining link building and keyword management is the key. Seek out stable results. Fleeting success does not count in the SEO game. Get on top – and stay on top. Once your website establishes SEO dominance, increased traffic is sure to follow.

There is a maxim in the business world, “Network or not work.” A growing number of professional networking efforts are a manifestation of putting this maxim to practice. One of the major keys to networking is communication. The importance of communication can never be denied in any walk of life, particularly when it comes to dealing with business. One of the most effective communication tools in the corporate world is a business card! Are you heading to a local or regional “TweetUp” or perhaps a LinkedIn get together where you’ll be able to meet potential clients, partners, and customers? If so, you need to ensure that your business cards are up to date with accurate information and are visually appealing to the people that you meet. Whether you are using it to expand your professional network or for establishing new working relationships, a business card says a lot about you and your business before you verbally introduce yourself.

Just as planning is necessary for every step in growing your business, planning for what type of business card you want to design is critical as well. To begin with, you should have an idea of a background you want, which type of font style you like, and how you want your information displayed on the card. Do you have a company logo or do you want to have a picture of yourself or your business on your card? If so, you have the option of uploading your logo or photo and placing wherever you wish on your card while you’re using the Card Editor to create it. Don’t forget about the back of your business card! Use it to print a message, a coupon, or directions to your business. Don’t be afraid to get creative with the backside of your business card. This is valuable advertising space for your company – take advantage of it and use it. Printing on the back of your card can be vital in disseminating company information at networking events big and small.