If you are in the business of selling products, you most likely will carry some sort of inventory. Inventory management it crucial to cost savings and running an efficient business. One of the worst things that can happen is continually wasting inventory, it is just cash out the door.
Inventory can be one of the biggest expenses for a company. The goal is to use up 100% of inventory.
For small business owners every dollar must count. Large companies can afford large marketing budgets. There are many methods you can use to stretch that small budget.
When using any marketing method it is important to try to engage customers and track your marketing efforts. Digital marketing including social media marketing are among the low cost effective methods that a small business can use.
Cold calling can be stressful and you can receive lots of rejection. It can feel defeating and unproductive. With enough practice, it can be an effective marketing strategy. Many sales people fear cold calling this can only mean that if you do it and well you can reap greater rewards. A phone call is a much richer medium than an email or mail that is easy to delete or toss in the trash. Most people are too polite to just hang up and if you use the right words, you just might get their attention.
Good customer service makes the difference between growing your customer base or not. You cannot afford to lose customers from a bad experience. What can you do to ensure excellent customer service?
Know your customers
Develop a strong relationship with customers. Ask for feedback and show you are listening. Keep an open dialogue.
Teams are when a group of people come together to with the same goal. Teams go through five stages of development Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning. Team conflict is most likely to occur in the storming phase when team members are competing for power and relationships have not yet developed.
An example of Hard Power is the carrot and stick philosophy also known as Reward and Coercive power. Reward Power is when the leader has power to give or take away rewards. Coercive Power is when the leader has power to punish. I believe that a Theory X leader would be much more likely to use hard power as it is aligned with their belief that people do not like work and need to be motivated. I see this working only followers who respond well to rewards. It can also lead to followers who do not think for themselves and do not develop.
Retailing is an old business model that goes back a few thousand years. Only in the last hundred years has there been some drastic changes. Customers today have more choice than ever before. They can buy from small to giant retailers. They can buy local or buy from the other side of the planet via ecommerce. The growth of giant retailers, shopping malls and technological advances have put a lot of pressure on the small retailer.
For the last few years, online shopping has taken off but with smart devices, local presence has become important. Google search ranks results of local higher and it is based on the location of the user. In fact, many websites and applications are asking the user to reveal their location to give a better experience.