If we observe and study the most successful businesses and professionals, there are some factors which are common in them. One of the most striking among them is their ability to create successful business networks. Networking is vital for any business or professional to really succeed, whether it is online or offline.

Internet has become a new arena for people to get connected. Initially, it was just for fun or for other personal reasons. Now it has emerged to be a very powerful business tool. More and more innovations are coming up to increase the level of interaction between people around the world. It has now opened doors for global trading and communication. Online business directories and online local yellow pages is a major business networking tool.

Majority of them allow free business listing. For some, you need to pay a small monthly or yearly payment. When you consider the ROI, this investment will never be a waste. Most of these business directories allow geo-targeted listing. Online local business listings will greatly help local businesses and professionals to get targeted local traffic and prospects.

Some of these online business listings like the one offered by Google, let you post product and service details, pictures and other business related information. There is ample facility for customer and prospect interaction. Your customers can rate your product or service, post reviews and ask questions. You can also respond to their queries through the business directory interface. This networking will further enhance your future sales and build a trust factor among the visitors.

Networking through online business directories should be done as a disciplined, targeted and planned activity. This interaction actually portrays your business image and ethics. In the long run, it should not become a black spot for your business or career. People love businesses that really care for their clients and prospects. Getting emotionally connected with your clientele is a sure way to get repeat sales. And the positive feeling also triggers many ‘word of mouth’ reviews and appraisals.

Even local businesses who are just starting to use online media to promote their products or services can significantly increase their lead generation through these online business listings. These are also good for developing a brand image for your business. All major search engines gives importance to this brand feel while displaying their search results.

Great success has been achieved by many online and offline entrepreneurs using online business directories. Start building interactive business profile pages on all major online business directories and drive highly motivated, ready to buy web traffic to your business.

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The whole point of computerizing a business is to increase profits, save time, and increase efficiency. With a basic understanding of a what a computer can do, you will begin to see the many ways that computerizing can increase the profitability of your business. In the course of this series of articles, I will show you why a good computer system (hardware and software) should earn you at least a 300 percent return on investment annually.

A “Point-of-Sale” (POS) system refers to a computer with specialized software that can act as an electronic cash register, but also maintains and integrates inventory records, sales records, and other data. The beauty of a “Point-of-Sale” system is that all of the information is generated at the sales counter when you ring a sale.

Inventory Records

Computerizing your business means that all inventory updates happen instantly and automatically, and that inventory data can be freely accessed and used. When you sell an item, the on-hand count is reduced. If the customer returns that item, the on-hand count is increased. Using this information, along with past sales history, the computer provides a Reorder Report, which lists merchandise that needs to be reordered. You can then select the items you would like to order, and the computer will prepare a Purchase Order. When the order arrives, the quantities are entered into the computer, and the on-hand counts increase automatically. If any items are backordered, such items remain on order in the system.

Sales Records

A computerized business also means that sales records are immediately stored and organized, and available for evaluation. When you ring up a sale or service, the computer calculates the total cash receipts, credit card sales, sales tax and accounts receivable. At the end of the day, you have a complete list of all transactions and a summary of cash and credit information. The computer is also collecting profit, and commission information. Using this information, the computer provides sales, sales by department or category, profit, margin, markup, accounts receivable, payroll, and commission reports. It also generates account statements and invoices.

Customer Records

Customer records are also maintained in an automated business. The computer stores the transaction information and provides reports that list customer purchase history, merchandise rented, and account charges and payments. You can also print mailing labels and personalized letters. This makes it much less time consuming to send out service reminders, special sale announcements, invoices, account statements, and so on.

Conclusion

This is just a brief overview of what a computer/point-of-sale system is capable of. Such a combination can have a powerful impact on day-to-day business functions. A computer system can simultaneously accomplish tasks such as calculations, record-keeping, organization, and inventory control, in a matter of seconds, where manual record-keeping would require a step-by-step, time consuming approach with much more room for error.

Watch for the next three parts to this series, as I will go into more detail about the benefits of computerizing, including controlling your inventory, policing your profit margins, and more.

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Sales people are crazy busy. New business sales leads appear to be coming at you at either a tsunami force or like the single drips from that leaky kitchen or bathroom sink. Regardless how you manage all these potential selling opportunities will either help you decrease or increase sales.

What salespersons along with the marketing research do know is that many of these opportunities are never fully leveraged. With more non selling expectations being forced onto those who are responsible for selling such as fixing paperwork to actually collecting past due invoices, may help to explain why it is estimated that up to 50% of all new business (according the research) sales leads are left withering on the vine or laying trampled in the dust.

Of course there are technology tools that help to coordinate and manage all those potential relationships. These sales tools are usually considered to be customer relationship management solutions (CRM) software. Just Google CRM and millions of hits will pop up. Sales Training Coaching Tip: Before purchasing a CRM tool or subscribing to a site, invest the time to ensure this is the right solution for you.

Then for those salespersons who are somewhat technology educated they can create their own customer relationship management systems using Excel and database files in their ongoing quest to increase sales. And let us not forget the old IBM (it’s better manually) way of doing follow-up using paper be it index cards to those coveted address books.

Today’s selling professionals have the advantage of technology provided they use it wisely over their counterparts of years gone by. Unfortunately due to the expansion of social media sites, using the Internet to research all those new business sales leads can consume tens to hundreds of minutes. Even if the sales leads have been purchased from a reputable lead generation business, much of this information is incomplete. Again, time, which is money for those crazy busy salespersons, is ticking away.

Then there is the question of what information should be included in completing the specific ideal customer profiles from all those collected business cards to referrals to actually paid new business potential customers (a.k.a. prospects) opportunities. This is what is becoming the real time eater.

Top performing selling people know that attracting attention and building the relationship are the first two steps within the overall sales process. Unless those two steps are executive flawlessly, then step three discovering wants and needs will never materialize. Hence the need for quality and pertinent information about the potential qualified customer is so critical to realizing that ever-present goal to increase sales. This is why managing all of those potential selling opportunities is necessary.

These a just a few suggestions as to what to do with all those new business sales leads whether they came from a lead generation service or collected business cards. Remember, follow-up is necessary and the more you know about that potential customer the greater advantage you have over your competitors thus allowing you to be the Red Jacket in a sea of gray suits.

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