Industrial dispensers
The dispensers are used in industries to dispense different materials like glue, epoxy, soap, oil and water. They are used for various functions in different industries. Epoxy based materials are used in coating and as adhesive in fiber glass materials and carbon fiber. A 2 part epoxy dispenser consists of a dispensing gun, mixer that can either be reusable or disposable, dual cartridge and related accessories like needles and tips. These dispensers are used in a variety of industries such as automobiles and aeronautics.

3m adhesive dispensers
Dispensers, which are used to dispense 3 meters adhesive tapes are called 3m adhesive dispenser. There is a huge range of easy to use adhesive dispensers to meet the needs of customers. These adhesives are used in industries as well as smaller commercial enterprise as binding materials for electrical and metallurgical materials. The dispensers are sold in different models. The simplest model is the gun shaped model, which involves just pressing the trigger to release the tape from the holder. They are light weight and easy to handle. However, the quality has to be ascertained before purchase of adhesive dispenser. The strength of the adhesive and the sturdiness of the holding instrument have to be confirmed.

Dispenser accessories
The main accessories used in dispensers are nozzles, needle tips, syringes and syringe adapters, retainers, static mixers, cartridge and different fittings based on the model of the dispenser. Accessories vary depending on the fluid to be dispensed. The accessories used in dispensers are easily available. However, for better performance of the dispensers, it is recommended to purchase accessories of the same brand. Also, before purchasing a dispenser, check on the warranty period, so that you can save money on replacement of the accessories, if damaged.

1. It has the right people in place
2. It has the right mix of skills
3. Employees display the right attitudes and behaviors, and
4. Employees are developed in the right way.
5. Articulate clearly the organization’s vision, mission and values
6. Employees are clear with the compensation and reward systems

Before ensuring the above strategies are adopted, there are some ground works. The human resource division must identify which of these strategies are so fundamental that there must be clear plans to address them before the organi­zation can achieve on any of its goals. These ground works are likely to include:

-          Workforce planning issues

-          Succession planning

-          Workforce skills plans

-          Employment equity plans

-          Motivation and fair treatment issues

-          Pay levels designed to recruit, retain and motivate people

-          Remuneration system which is seen as fair and giving proper reward for contributions made

-          Dealing of employment issues which impact on staff recruitment, retention, motivation and emotional quotient

-          Consistent performance management framework which is designed to meet the needs of all divisions

-          Career development frameworks which look at development within the organization at equipping employees with “employ-ability” so that they can cope with increasingly frequent changes in employer and employment patterns

-          People-friendly frameworks to ensure that people development issues are addressed systematically (i.e. competence frameworks, self-managed learn­ing, and skill transfer)

In addition, these HR strategies can add value by ensuring that, the organiza­tion takes account of changes internally and externally, which are likely to have a major impact on the organization, such as:

-          Changes in the overall employment market – demographic or remuneration levels

-          Cultural changes which will impact on future employment patterns

-          Changes in the employee relations climate

-          Changes in the legal framework surrounding employment

-          HR and employment practice being developed in other organizations (i.e. flexible work practices, flexible hours)

Most corporate and business leaders assume that sales and marketing are key profit generators. That assumption is absolutely true! As we dig beyond that truth, sales and marketing staffs are human resource to an organization. There­fore, owning an effective human resource management increases the productiv­ity of the sales and marketing divisions.

Effective human resource management also means having the right sales and marketing people at the right time, with the right reward, to meet rapidly growing competition — if not taken care of, could squeeze profit margins. This is a phenomenon that FORTUNE 500 firms could not afford as they are answer­able to hundred and maybe thou­sands of shareholders.

From the above definition, we could comprehend that human resource management should not merely handle recruitment, pay, and discharging, but also should maximize the use of an organization’s human resources in a more strategic level. An important aspect of an organization’s focus towards achieving high levels of competency and competitiveness would depend very much upon their human resource management style and practices that contribute directly towards profitability, quality, and other desirable goals.

Staffing, training, compensation and performance management are basically important tools in owning an effective human resources management that shapes Fortune 500 firms’ responsibility in meeting KRA, KPA and KPI. Meeting these yardsticks simply means meeting shareholders’ wish to reap on their investments, customers whose wants for high quality products are met, employees who
want their jobs in the organization to be interesting with attractive compensation, and lastly, the community who would want the company to contribute the their wellbeing indirectly (i.e. resolving environmental issues).

Common rules and procedures of human resource management are consistently followed by Fortune 500 firms which form basic guidelines on their practices. Teamwork among lower levels of staff and the management should be created and maintained to assist in various angles that would deem necessary in eliminating communication breakdowns and foster better relationship among employees. If we dwell deeper, many Fortune 500 firms adopt a human resource management style that emphasizes on “encouraging” corporate culture — to develop employees talents, create a positive and conducive work environment.

Performance appraisal (PA) is one of the important components in the systemic process of human re­source management, according to Wilbert Buiter, Head of Group Human Resources ING Group. Why? The most ideal way to rate the effectiveness of an employee (of all levels) is his results -which is the key information. The information obtained through performance appraisal pro­vides foundations for recruiting and selecting new recruits, training and development of existing staff, motivating and retain­ing a quality work force by adequately rewarding their performance. Without a reliable performance appraisal system, an effective human resource management system falls apart, because there is no reliable benchmark for the recruitment of new staffs, development of existing staffs and retention of quality workforce.

There are two primary purposes of performance appraisal: evaluative and developmental. The evaluative purpose is intended to inform people of their performance standing. The collected performance data are frequently used to reward high performance and to punish poor performance. The developmental purpose is intended to identify problems in employees performing their objectives and duties. The collected performance data are used to provide necessary skill training as well as professional development.

Those concerned with programmes of ‘staff development’ have identified two main models: a ‘developmental’ (bottom-up and problem-solving) model and a ‘deficit’ (top-down, input-based) model. The former is more concerned with the needs of the person, the latter with the needs of the organization he or she serves. Much the same is true of the train­ing of supervisors. They may be molded to fit the needs of the programme and the agency, or they may be made innovative and free to exercise judgment in the fulfillment of their role of helper of change-agents.

Such training, if it is really to help the change agents, needs to be pragmatic and practical rather than textbook and academic. Supervi­sors exist to serve rather than control and instruct the change-agents. In this capacity, they need to have had some experience of development to be good practitioners rather than good theoreticians. Theory and develop­ment, as in adult education, grows out of practice more than practice out of theory. Supervisors and project officers thus need to be trained practically in development.

And this in turn creates demand for new patterns of training the trainers for development: training is best conducted by those who are themselves experienced in the problems of being supervi­sor and of being a change-agent rather than by experts in the theory of Development.

Unfortu­nately, this bottom-up approach to training is in many cases a long way off. What usually exists is a top-down model, in which academics tell the supervisors what they should know and these in turn pass it down to the change-agents. The trainers set the format, the timing and the content of the training rather than helping the change-agents to plan their own training.

Training During A Recession

Most training programs in Development (even those which call for participatory methods) seem to be designed to limit initiative, to discourage decision-making by the trainees, and to encourage conformity to an ideal. They set out to create a model extension worker or change-agent, to foster the adoption of approved methods of animation (demon­stration, role play or simulation, etc.); they try to ‘give all the answers’. Rarely do training programs set out to encourage the change-agents to innovate, to solve problems, to identify for themselves resources which can help them.

But the demand for innovative change-agents on a mass scale is bringing about changes in the content and methods of these initial and in-service training programs. These latter training programs may be analyzed in terms of our Development model.

1. They start with the existing state, the intentions and aspirations of the change-agents, with what they want to learn rather than with topics chosen by the supervisors, trainers and agencies.

1. The articulation of these concerns by the change-agents will serve to heighten their awareness as they reflect critically on their role as change-agent, the resources avail­able to them, and their own needs and aspirations.

1. Such programs seek to develop the knowledge, skills and understand­ings necessary for an effective change-agent — not just a limited range of communication skills and extension techniques, but a deeper understanding of the process of changing society, including identi­fying barriers and resources in their environment. They pay atten­tion to attitude formation as well as knowledge change-attitudes that the change-agents hold towards themselves, towards the task, and towards the participant groups.

1. They practice decision-making by the trainees, building confidence in the change-agents to plan their own learning.

1. And they build in programs of active learning (instead of merely listening and watching) during the training programs-activities which will help the trainees to become more effective change-agents.

1. Development of a Need for Change

In order for change to occur, the potential client usually experiences problems that create tension within the system. To trigger the change, the client system must be brought into the state of problem awareness. Once the client is aware of the problem, they can be motivated to desire a change and recognize the need to seek outside help.

2. Zeroing the Problem

This phase of change usually deals with the collection, analysis and interpretation of data about the client system’s problems. The change-agent will work with the client system to clarify problems and make diagnosis. The process of change will depend upon the understanding and acceptance of the diagnosis by the client.

3. Establishing Goals and Intention of Action

The change process usually involves translation of the diagnostic insights into ideas of alternative means of action followed by the direction of change being defined. This phase denotes the program designing stage which includes committing resources and identifying action steps to be taken.

4. Committing to action

This refers to the implementation process in affecting change. Plans are launched into practical and actual situation.

5. Stabilization of Change

This is the phase where change has been accomplished, stabilized and remains a permanent character of the client system. The mechanism involved in the process includes the confirmation of practice or behavior change by other members of the client system, feedback and reinforcement. The planned change may be stabilized when it is supported by the structural changes of the system. At this stage, the roles of change-agents are critical to ensure planned change takes place smoothly.

Institutions are important aspects of structural-functionalism. Important social institutions such as religion, youth club, professional association and providers, etc. can help to promote social change in coping up with these trying times. Since each of these institutions is established based on similar interest, conflict perspective can promote change that appeal to the interest group.

Another aspect that can be identified in a society is the communication process and structure. There is a need to identify key communicators to help the change-agent promote change. Authority and opinion leaders can help extend new ideas to the rest of society. Key communications can be estab­lished at various locations in the society to provide a system of interpersonal communica­tion network.

For the most part, this would fall to the efforts of the human resource department. In fact, the human resource depart­ment would probably need to handle the most important part of the recession coping strategies, but have the human resource department informed the employees that we are in recession or are they in denial. Only when the organi­zation faces reality and informs the employees on what is going on systemati­cally, the employees will know how to adapt to such crisis.

This is because, essentially, what crises force organizations to do is to go back to the basics and try to maintain an intact, dynamic core. This core consists mainly of the organization’s leaders and employees – all united towards accom­plishing their mission and achieving their vision. The panic and worrying induced by uncertain, or worse, poor economic conditions will tend to obscure this simple fact, but human resource departments should strive to realize this, better sooner than later.

Human resource should concur with management and come out with a plan on how they are going to survive this crisis with the help of all the employees. As such human resource could take stock of the crisis and work out a plan. HR departments truly do have their jobs cut out for them in times of crisis, but with a smart and sensible plan, managers can effectively control recession effects on HR performance by changing their roles to Change Agents.

HR Manager As “Change Agents”

Many continuing education programs are designed to help individuals to change. Change is likely to continue to dominate our future lives, institu­tions and society. It is the responsi­bility of continuing educators and educational agencies, as change-agents, to help people understand change as it affects their lives especially during these period of uncertainties.

Change means to alter or modify something and can evolve naturally or deliberately planned. A natural change is automatic and follows the path of history and evolu­tion. That change is not managed, does not have (proper) direction and goal, and does not use valid knowl­edge and available resources. Change that evolves naturally can have either a positive or negative impact on development.

The idea of planned change refers to the deliberate efforts made to alter behavior of an individual, a group or a system. Professional consultant view planned change as a deliberate and collaborative process involving a change-agent and a client system. It is a method that employs social technology and available resources to help solve problems of man and societies.

Houle (1972) describes planned change as a purposeful decision and deliberate effort to improve a system. In making the improvement, he suggests that the help of an outside agent be solicited. Some key elements related to planned change are: conscious effort to alter performance, desirable goal, collaborative effort between the change-agent ( the party who provides professional guidance) and the client system (the party whose behavior is to be changed) and, employ­ment of all available resources.

Planned change may be conceptualized as a conscious and purposive effort (collaborative between the client system and the change-agent) to alter performance or behavior of a client system towards desirable goals by using avail­able resources.

Olsen Twins In Full House

family. They were hired at the age of six months and filming began when they were nine months old.

Everyone loved Michelle Tanner, the wisecracking baby and little girls around the world went berserk over Michelle. With this, the Olsen twins’ parents saw this as an opportunity to promote their little twin girls’ image.

At the age of 7, Mary-Kate and Ashley with their then-manager, co-founded Dualstar Entertainment – a global brand management company with the specific goal of leveraging the popu­larity of these little twin girls.

Mary-Kate and Ashley made several straight-to-video movies as well as TV shows and even licensed their names to furniture and clothing lines for preteens — girls age 5 to 12. As they matured, their fashion sense bloomed. Mary-Kate and Ashley then moved on to start a clothing line in Wal-Mart stores for girls age 4-14 as well together with a beauty line called “Mary-Kate and Ashley: Real fashion for real girls”.

With increased popularity of their association with Wal-Mart, the Olsen twins gained great credibility in the fashion industry. It is intriguing to see the Olsens have personal style. Seeking to establish independent identities for themselves, Mary-Kate has asked the public and the media to refer to them not as “the Olsen twins” but as Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen respectively. That is when the sisters left behind the cutesy, co-ordinate outfits that were part of the drill and developed subtle differ­ences in style while maintaining mirror images of one another.

Mary-Kate initially embraced the slightly bohemian style, moved on to the grudge-inspired side whereas Ashley was always known for a more refined and elegant look. Nowadays, both of them are seen with more polished and classic pieces. However, with their mixture of vintage and new, labels and none, fashion to them has been raised a notch and today, their style have become a form of stunning, glamorous art.

As passionate fashion lovers, Mary-Kate and Ashley went ahead and launched their own couture fashion label “The Row” — a line to reflect their personalities as they become adults. Unlike with their licensed collections, the twins are involved in-depth with the Row’s design process working closely with a designer from start to end. The Row consists of mostly expensive t-shirts, sophisticated blazers, oversized but luscious fur coats that are minimalis­tic. The clothing is sold at high-end retailers such as Barneys, Maxfield, Harvey Nichols, Brown’s and others around the world.

Shortly thereafter, the twins started a new line for The Row, named after their siblings: “Elizabeth & James”. Ashley and Mary-Kate collaborate closely on Elizabeth and James (named after their siblings), a line that combines softness and tough­ness. For example, slouchy boyfriend jackets and shirts with a flirty ruffle. The concept of their designs was taken from a boy and girl relationship which tells the story through the clothing.

Mary-Kate and Ashley will also be adding sunglasses to their high-end luxury label The Row next season. They have signed an agreement with Linda Farrow Eyewear to produce the sunglasses that will be designed by Mary-Kate and Ashley. Their first collection would include 4 different styles — classic metal aviator; oversized square frame; vintage inspired brown rimmed frame and a pair of the 6os inspired round shape. With this first collection, they will be testing the market in order to offer more ranges in the near future. Mary Kate and Ashley are careful about the designs to ensure that each pair will suit more than one common face.

The Olsen twins have since become icons of teens today. To grow up with two of the best creative and fashionable people is the one inspiration of many teens.

Today, that is further made possible with the Olsen twins’ new launch of their affordable brand, Olsenboye.

Olsenboye, which is the Olsen’s ancestral name, suits the young, chic and trendy junior market and their line is exclusively sold at JCPenney (one of America’s leading retailers) stores alongside other affordable ranges.

Olsenboye suits the fun, spirited and edgy teens with casual sportswear and accessories that include denim, bottoms, tops, dresses, skirts, shorts, jackets, handbags and shoes retailing from $2o-$5o. Items can be mixed together to create an assortment of distinctive looks that allow teens to express their styles & personalities fashionably.

The launch of Olsenboye definitely brings sophistication to the juniors depart­ment. While it is targeted at a younger age group, the line still has a broad appeal.

The sisters are already at their forefront of acquiring the market share from the teen customer. Olsenboye is the 4th collection the sisters have come up with. Mary-Kate and Ashley are not only looked at as fashion designers but style icons of their target demographic group. Leveraging on this, the sisters have executed relevant marketing strategies to promote & create awareness of Olsenboye to their key targeted customers effectively.

Dualstar Entertainment Group and JCPenney have come up with innovative initiatives including limited time offer­ings of Olsenboye products on jcp.com and at 5o high-profile JCPenney stores.

The sisters’ dedication to this line is shown by the time, energy and imagination put into guerilla marketing tactics with a customized truck, called the “Olsenboye Treat Truck”, which cruised through the streets of New York City.

At the “Treat Truck, consumers can preview the collection and pick up Olsenboy pins, balloons, bracelets and even cupcakes. To find out more information on the “Treat Trucks”, appearances can be found at Olsenboye.com.

As fashion entrepreneurs, Mary-Kate and Ashley were recently admitted to the Council of Fashion Designers (CFDA). As 2 out of the 31 new designers being admitted this year, Mary-Kate and Ashley were recognized for their luxury collection of The Row and their mid-range contem­porary line, Elizabeth & James.

At 23 years of age, Mary-Kate and Ashley are estimated to be worth some $300 million combined, reports Usmagazine.com. Who knows what Mary-Kate and Ashley might surprise us with next. In the few years to come, they’d want to do something else, apart from fashion and Mary-Kate and Ashley will probably not shy away from that.

And yet, how many companies really have a proper IT policy? Many companies think an information system is a sort of “fire and forget” system — that it can be installed and then left alone to work. Like all systems, however, it will suffer from decay over time. Software becomes obsolete, hardware ages and suffers from wear and tear, and even processes become old and inefficient as new (and more efficient) ways of doing things are discovered. Proper processes need to be in place to ensure that obsolete software is prop­erly disposed of, and hardware stripped and securely disposed.

Staffs also need to be trained and re-trained in the latest processes to ensure that the business retains its competitive edge in the industry. There are few things more dangerous to the health of a company than an improperly managed information systems network. An improperly managed information systems network could leave any and all data vulnerable. If your data is vulnerable, so is your company.

The case of Heartland Payment Systems is an interesting case to study. Heartland Payment Systems is one of the largest credit card proces­sors in the world. The credibility of the company, and the security of millions of credit card numbers in it’s database, was called into question when a key logger was found in their internal network.

T. J. Maxx, a fashion and apparel store was compromised for more than a year. From the middle of 2005 to December 2006, millions of debit and credit card numbers, as well as other personal information such as driver’s license numbers, were stolen from two of it’s stores. This breach cost the company one hundred and eighteen million dollars ($118 million.) A properly monitored (and secured) transaction process would likely have cost them a lot less.

HealthNet, a medical insurer, lost a hard drive containing the medical records of 1.5 million patients.

The University of California, Berkeley left the personal information of 160,000 students and alumni vulner­able when their information systems network was broken into.

Even governments are not spared -The British NHS’ Medical Training Application Service website was wide open for eight hours, allowing anyone on the net to access the personal information of anyone in the database.

All this could have been avoided with a properly implemented IT govern­ance policy.

How Can IT Governance Be Implemented?

There are several sets of best practices (frameworks) that can be used as a guide for implementing a sound IT governance policy.

The most popular ones, as reported by Price Waterhouse Coopers in their report “IT Governance in Practice : Insight from leading CIOs” are COBIT and ITIL.

The same report lists CMMI, Prince II, COSO and ISO 17799 as lesser used frameworks. These frame­works provide a set of key perform­ance indicators and initiatives and act as a guide for implementing a sound It governance policy.

It’s important to note that “desirable behavior” is mentioned here. Data management concerns itself with “encouraging desirable behavior”. In the case of data management, this means “desirable behavior of data”. What happens when data leaves a server? How do we track and monitor the flow of the data, where it goes, and where it stops? These questions need to be answered. Answering these questions is what makes for proper data management. The people and processes that are put into place to analyze the flow of data, and to alert the correct people should anything seem out of the ordinary, this is what makes data management invaluable to the average business.

Good data management also means proper measures to secure the data as it is stored, and as it flows. Encryption algorithms should be reviewed periodically, and updated if neces­sary. New, more efficient or cost-effective ways to store data should also be considered. New technology, while being more efficient and convenient, also exposes a company to new challenges that need to be met. The transition from a wired to a wireless network, for instance, will greatly increase efficiency and convenience, but will also expose the data to anyone capable of intercept­ing the transmission.

When we talk about data manage­ment, we should also talk about asset management. IT asset management concerns itself with the hardware and software assets of a company. It ensures that software is up-to-date, properly configured and all licenses are verified. It also deals with procurement, installation and upgrading of said software. As far as hardware is concerned, the phasing-out, upgrading, and proper disposal of hardware assets come under it is purview.

As far as proper asset management is concerned, there should be processes for tracking, changing and proper disposal of hard­ware and software assets. Old and obsolete hardware should be cleaned of all business information before being disposed. Also, a tracking process (who deals with the disposal? how do we ensure that the data is scrubbed clean before the hardware is disposed?) should be put into place and monitored regularly. Data on some magnetic storage media (such as hard disk drives) can be recovered even if all the files have been “deleted”.

Because of this, simply delet­ing the files before disposal leaves potentially sensitive company information vulnerable to anyone (or any company) skilled enough to recover the data. And that’s not the only possible vulnerability. Anyone with a small USB Flash Drive (“thumbdrive”) could easily copy out the data before deleting it. The flash drive is small enough to be hidden in a pocket. All this makes the case for a proper IT asset management policy where control.

Monitoring and feedback systems are implemented to ensure the proper functioning of a company’s data management policies. When people talk about data manage­ment or security, very often they only talk about the security of the data. Rarely do they consider the fact that the data is only as secure as the weak­est link, and the weakest link could be the person handling the data. While it’s a good idea (security-wise) to require a person to change his (or her) password periodically, it also increases the risk that said person might be so worried about not remembering the latest password (since it changes so often) that he (or she) writes it down somewhere. The same goes for “strong” passwords -­these passwords may be more secure, but they are also harder to remember, thus increasing the risk that the user will write it down some­where. For environments that are highly secure, other authentication methods might be considered, such as retina, palm or thumb scanners.

Even if the passwords are properly managed, the recipient of the data might store it in a flash drive, or portable hard disk drive, and then leave the drive on a table or misplace it. He might give it away to a caller pretending to be, for instance, the CEO of the company. He might just steal it and sell it to a rival company. All these risks need to be mitigated.

As can be seen from the above men­tioned examples, it’s not enough to just manage the data and hardware and software, one must also manage the people that handle the data and hardware and software. Another aspect of people management is the management of change. When hard­ware, systems and software change, management must be capable of handling employee resistance to change. This can be overcome by implementing a proper training program, with key performance initiatives and strong management presence and support.

IT governance is all about proper management of risks, proper oversight, control and management of data, IT assets and the people that receive or handle them.

The company sold consulting services. That morning I’d met with some of their less successful reps. Most of them knew exactly why they weren’t selling. “Our prices are just too high,” they assured me repeatedly. I’d heard it before. As we all know, price is often the single biggest obstacle for acquiring new business. It’s also the number one excuse of unsuccessful marketing and salespeople.

Now, I was riding with Helen Daniels, secretary to the boss and the person who’d handled new business inquiries before the pros had been hired: handled them, I’d been told, with great success. I wanted to see just how she’d done it.

We were meeting with the VP of Opera­tions of a good size uniform company. Sure enough when the issue of price came up, the VP acted exactly as the reps had predicted, using almost the exact same words they’d used.

That’s Making the Skeleton Dance. The name comes from a quote from George Bernard Shaw, who said, “If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you might as well make it dance. Helen took the potential negative of price and bragged about it so hard she not only made that skeleton dance, she made it polka. Twenty-five minutes later we walked out of there with a signed contract.

Great business people don’t hide potential negatives and they certain don’t try to mealy-mouth around them. Smart businesspeople use potential negatives as selling points even bragging points.

This is best way I know to build instant trust and to sell more of your services quicker and easier-and to feel good about making that sale. If you can brag about a poten­tial negative you’ve made peace with it. Often the secret to making peace with it is to find a way you can honestly brag about it.

Save the Reality Checklist below for the next time you’re confronted with a negative you’re tempted to bury or to try to ignore. You just might find that instead of a negative you’ve got a selling point – even a bragging point.

Your Reality Checklist

1. What are the negatives you need to present or wish you could avoid presenting to others?
2. Understand the potential downside of those negatives to everyone involved.
3. Understand the potential positives that surround those negatives: for you, your business, and most especially to those you’ll be present­ing the negatives to.
4. Isolate the What’s in It for Them for each of the “Thems” you need to reach. Take care of the “What’s In it for Them”, and the what’s in it for you and your business will take care of itself.
5. Marshall your best possible case, then imagine yourself presenting that case to the biggest Doubting Thomas you’re likely to encounter.

Are you, yourself, really sold? If not, don’t expect that you’ll be able to sell anyone else. If you’re not sold, what would it take—what can you do—to make the case more saleable? If it can reasonably be done, do it. If it can’t be done, deal with the reality, explaining to your potential client why it is the reality, frankly and honestly.

Never forget that truth is the ultimate sales tool.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a new and growing method in ERP software delivery and maintenance. SaaS is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by an ERP service provider and made available to customers over the Internet. It is very similar to leasing a car rather than buying it.

However, the SaaS ERP software can’t handle majority of your unique business processes and If you are considering the use of a SaaS ERP application then you should also consider whether your company wants to rely on off-the-shelf ERP software that used by hundred other companies. Otherwise you need a customized ERP system and you should look for other ERP software that can be customized. Again, if you would like to drive a customized car then you should buy a car and tune it to your taste.

Thanks to faster and more reliable internet services the SaaS market is growing very fast and companies around the world are benefiting from applications delivered as a service specifically CRM and HR.

In contrast to the one-time licensing model commonly used for on-premise ERP software, the price of SaaS ERP applications is on a per-user basis, with customers being charged a subscription fee to use the application.

Fee structures vary from application to application; some service providers charge a flat rate for unlimited access to some or all of the application’s features, while others charge varying rates that are based on usage. However, companies save on other costs such as hardware, software, and maintenance. In addition, software updates and patches is managed by service provider which means easier administration.

After you’ve made the decision to use SaaS in your organization, the next step is to assess how the deployment will affect your existing IT assets, and by taking steps to ensure that the transition can be handled smoothly.

Similar to buying on-premise ERP software, a due diligence is required to ensure the security, continuity of service and compliance with local accounting standards. Some areas to address in your due-diligence checklist include:

A) DATA-SECURITY STANDARDS.

Subscribing to a SaaS ERP application means storing your business data (accounting, customer or supplier information), outside the controlled local network. Moving critical business data “outside the walls” introduces a risk of data loss or possible exposure of sensitive information. Assess your data-security needs, and ensure that the provider has measures in place to meet the standards you set.

B) SERVICE-LEVEL AGREEMENT (SLA) GUARANTEES.

The subscription contract between you and the SaaS provider should guarantee the level of software performance, availability, and security that the SaaS vendor will provide, and also include the compensation it will provide in the event that it fails to meet these guarantees. You need to make sure that the guarantees they make are sufficient to meet your needs, and that they provide a sufficient level of mitigation in even the worst-case scenario.

C) DATA MIGRATION STRATEGIES.

At some point, you might want to migrate away from a SaaS application to another ERP solution, so it’s important that you are able to take your data out of the SaaS application and transfer it to another one.

D) IN-HOUSE INTEGRATION REQUIREMENTS.

Ensure that migrat­ing to SaaS applications will meet any functional and data-integration require­ments your organization has in place.

E) REPORTING SERVICES.

Since your data is kept somewhere outside your company, therefore accurate and useful reporting is very important. Ask what reporting services the service provider offers, and whether they are compatible with your business-intelligence requirements. Also, you should ask if there is any additional fees for customized report and how easy and flexible is the report generation.

In conclusion, I believe that the future of ERP application is not going to be purely on-premise or on-demand. Every industry has some unique business requirements that should be address in one of these platforms.

Understanding money no longer means understanding the currency itself, since actual physical money is now less than one tenth of all currency. ‘Money’ is now credit cards, travellers’ cheques, shares and electronic funds transfers, all of which require proficient knowledge of today’s complex financial world.

Debt is a scary place to be. Everyday our mailboxes are flooded with advertisements, catalogues, and “pre-approved” credit card offers hoping to deplete our savings and draw us deeper into debt. It can

be emotionally as well as financially threatening, putting a strain on families and relationships which in turn can potentially increase the chain of financial difficulties.

Permanently resolving your debt situation involves three things: gaining an awareness of the different types of debt, understanding the psychology and circumstances that led to your current situation, and devising an effective debt reduction, savings, and wealth acquisition plan.

A) DON’T IGNORE IT

The worst thing you can do if you have debts is to bury your head in the sand and pretend they don’t exist. Admit to yourself that you have commitments beyond your control and face up to your problems. Throwing away your bank statements without opening them and ignoring letters from companies you owe money to, will only get you further into trouble.

B) BUDGET

The best way to start reducing debt is to set up a budget to know exactly where your money is going. You’ll need to add up your income and subtract your expenses, then set up a plan. Your budget will dictate how much you can devote to paying down your balances each month.

C) TAKE CONTROL

Don’t be tempted to borrow any more, even off family and friends. If possible get a part time or evening job. Spring clean your home and sell unwanted clothes, CDs, books, electrical goods and pretty much anything you don’t want at a car boot sale, garage sale or online auction website such as ebay.

D) SWITCH YOUR MORTGAGE

The mortgage is probably your biggest expense each month, so it’s important to ensure you have the best possible deal. Just because you have got into financial difficulties doesn’t mean that you aren’t eligible to switch to a cheaper mortgage to reduce your monthly outgoings. If you have equity in your home you could also re-mortgage to increase your borrowing and use the extra money to pay off your credit cards, store cards or overdraft.

E) HANDLE YOUR BILLS

Assess your ability to pay bills as you develop your get-out-of-debt plan. Pay all your utility bills by direct debit. It’s much easier to manage as you won’t have to worry about sending cheques on time and many providers offer discounts for direct debit payments saving you money. You can get further discounts by opting for paperless billing. Save yourself a pretty penny by reviewing your car insurance, phone and broadband suppliers.

F) MANAGE YOUR CREDIT CARDS

Switch to a cheaper credit card and you could take advantage of one of the many 0% interest balance transfer offers to provide a breathing space. Cut up any spare credit cards to avoid temptation and write or call the companies to cancel your account.

G) SHOP AROUND THE BANKS

The rise in the number of internet banks means there is far more choice, so it makes sense to switch and take advantage of offers such as fee-free banking and lower overdraft rates. If you have savings, shop around for a high interest account.

H) WATCH YOUR DAILY SPENDING

Cutting back on non-essentials can make an instant difference. Planning meals, using a shopping list and doing a weekly food shop will save you a fortune. Buy supermarket own brand products, take a packed lunch to work and eat at home whenever possible. Avoid buying take away coffees, fast food, magazines, CD’s and sweets and you’ll be amazed at how much you can save.

I) VISIT A DEBT MANAGEMENT COMPANY

If you can’t afford to make repayments for all your debts, don’t worry! – It’s not the end of the world. Get in touch with a reputable debt management agency, explain your situation and let them handle all the stress by setting you up with a personalize debt management plan.

Turning all your debts into one single monthly payment making your finances much easier to manage. A debt management company can also speak to your creditors in order to negotiate reduced payments and request that the interest and charges are stopped or reduced. This means your monthly payments go towards clearing your actual debt.

Venture into the world and allow reality to support your efforts now. Move forward and cut frustration and time by opening up to new possibilities to uncover the requisite resources and information.

People love to contribute to dreams; you just have to tell them how. Success develops when you inspire others to walk into your vision and provide the insight required to achieve what may seem impossible.

How to inspire people to help you realize your goals:

A) Specific Requests

If you don’t specifically ask for what you want, no one will ever know how to assist you. To motivate people, always respect their time and acknowledge their busy lives. In addition, when you respect a person’s time, they become more willing to collaborate in the future.

Clarify your objectives, so they don’t have to think too much about how they can lend a hand. Stay focused with silent reminders that the objective is to discover how to accomplish the task.

Create purposeful conversations around a specific task to accomplish right now.

Choose the most pressing issue and ask support for only that specific need. As you take action, you’ll decipher the next action to complete. This provides clarity and specific support for your efforts from the person you asked backing from.

B) Ask To Deepen Your Knowledge

It’s okay to ask for clarification about the task at hand. Demonstrate your appreciation for others’ knowledge and experience by being pushy; then listen to what they share. If you don’t receive accurate information, simply further explore the ideas presented. Thank the person for their help and implement what you believe is the next right step.

C) Freely Contribute Ideas And Opinion from Others

Recognize that it’s not important what others think of you or your task; it only matters what information they provide to you. Be mindful of any reaction by others, but do not judge them or defend your position. During busy times, you don’t need others to like you but merely to provide useful ideas and strategies to propel you forward.

D) Intuition To Go-Ahead

Success remains a continual learning process, so always seek discovery, not answers. Find the nuggets of truth during conversations to reach new breakthroughs. Listen and follow your intuition as you take action. This atonement relieves fear and anxiety associated with constant worry about finding the right answer before proceeding.

E) Remove Obsession Over “What If”

Worries about negative outcomes stress your mind and diminish your capacity to trust your instincts. Unforeseen circumstances occur. You only have control over your actions, not the ultimate results.

Allow the outcomes you achieve to enhance your imagination and motivate you to advance into the world of unknown possibilities.

Attracting others to help you accomplish specific tasks equates to learning a new skill: Practice makes perfect. Stay focused on the situation and be alert to the sounds of your intuition. Empower others without losing focus, and get the results you want!

I accept that they would have more experience in this field, but your company is ‘your baby’ and most probably was formed from ‘gut instinct’. I say use that `gut instinct’ and have a shot at naming your own company yourself. It’s FREE, and all it will cost you is a bit of time.

3 Easy Steps to naming a company.

STEP 1 :

This is a really important step if you intend to expand your company in the future. Try to look at your business and its future potential. If you are planning to expand your product range/service to include different products/services than you started with, or are not sure at this stage, then please consider the following example: Imagine you are promoting a hairdressers and that it is the only service you intended to promote, then you could quite happily choose a name that reflects that one service.

However, say you decided later on to add more ‘beauty’ treatments such as nails, massage, tanning etc to compliment your coiffure business, you would then need to find a company name that is more generic, for example ‘hair and beauty’ as opposed to just ‘hair’. Do you see where I’m coming from? In its simplest form, by adding `beauty’, you are basically leaving the door open to add a number of products, and that one word covers all possible additions to your business.

STEP 2:

Do some simple research on the keyword that your business represents. It maybe something like ‘Hairdressers’ or `electrician’. On the internet, go to Google and type in ‘Keyword Selector Tool’. Click on the link and you will find a page that asks you for your ‘Keyword’ or ‘keyword phrase’. In this box, you want to put your business keyword e.g. ‘Hairdresser’. When you click ‘Search’ this will bring up a list of related keywords that will be related to your business.

This is a great way to find words that you may never have thought of. That’s not the only great thing though; all of these words are what people like you and I are searching for every day of the week. It can’t get much better than that can it?. You not only get some great ideas for naming a company, but you can rest assured that it will be a name that people are actively searching for every day.

STEP 3:

Once you have done your research, write down three or four ideas that ring your bell. At this point you will no doubt have a favorite, but try and stay objective. Give the list to your friends and family and anyone who will help. Get them to put their top three choices in order of favoritism.

Gather the results together and treat it as a ‘poll’. If the answer is crystal clear, then go with it. If there is some doubt, then use those instincts!

Finally you need to go and check that you are the only person with that company name. If so, get it registered as soon as possible. Another good idea is to buy a domain of the same name if possible. Even if you have no plans to promote a website just yet, it only costs a few dollars per year to renew it. Then if and when the time comes, you are ready to go.

MASTER is an acronym for:

M:eet People (preparation, prospecting, positioning)

A:sk Questions (probing/interviewing/ needs analysis/investigating)

S:ell Benefits (presentation and persuasion)

T:ackle Objections (objection handling and negotiation)

E:ncourage to Buy (closing)

R:elationship Building (follow-up and service)

There are two things to MASTER in S:elling benefits – design and delivery. Design is the structure of the presentation. Delivery is the skill to persuade the buyer to buy.

Here’s the design structure of a presentation:

Opening: how to start the presentation.

Agenda: what you want to present.

Client Needs Check: alignment between seller and buyer.

Body of Presentation: the content you want delivered.

Summary: simplifying your entire presentation.

Q&A: handling questions buyers may have.

Closing: asking for commitment.

Here are the delivery skills of a presentation:

Power: how to influence the buyers.

Rapport: connecting with different people.

Questioning: getting feedback or answering buyers.

Listening/observing:  understanding what is going on.

Positioning: differentiating your ideas, products and services.

Checking: getting understanding throughout the presentation.

Objections: eliminating resistance or concerns.

Because it takes 3 days to cover all the above, I’ll give you examples on how to open your presentation so you don’t sound like your competitors. By the way, with little differentiation in your products and services, the ‘big’ differentiation needs to come from the seller’s value in the selling process. And it’s the little things that will make a big difference – like the opener.

I’m going to share 5 secrets from my sales ninja training. Rather than begin your sales presentation with the typical company profile, you can begin by:

A) Role-playing

You can create a scenario where the buyer is facing a certain problem. You can either role-play it yourself or get a partner. For example, let’s say you sell phone systems that record messages, you do something like “can I speak to John please?”, the call is transferred, you then make the waiting tone “toot toot X 5 times”, then the receptionist picks up the call again, and you repeat the process. So you act out the problem buyers’ face rather than just tell it to them. See how it spices up your presentation?

B) Word-plays

Words can be used to get attention. It can be done through words that rhyme or quotes from famous people. For me it will be: “Mind-blowing, Practical, Very unconventional! These are what participants say in the recent sales ninja training.” If you sell some kind of operation systems improvement software, you can quote “Organizations fail not because of people, but because of systems – said by the father of quality management Edwards Deming.”

C) Questions

Starting with a question engages your buyer to listen to you. You can start with… What if…? If you could… Imagine… Have you ever…? Do you want…? For example… “What if… you and your engineers could rely on equipment that would last minimum 3 years without any breakdowns? What if… you could easily maintain this equipment without worrying it will cost you a bomb? What if… you could install it in less than four hours?”

D) Props

Most people love props because they are tangible and visual. Make sure the props have significant meaning to your presentation and not merely for entertainment. Remember the old days of unbreakable glass? The seller hits his glass with a hammer then passes the hammer to the buyer and say… you try. That’s great use of props.

E) Stories

Once a upon a time… Everyone loves stories. It puts the audience in a world of sensory impressions and lowers the resistance of the logical mind because stories speak to the emotion mind. Great leaders, politicians, religious gurus and sales people are great story tellers. You can use generic stories or specially designed stories. You must master storytelling skills.

MASTER S:elling Benefits and you will hypnotize your buyers to buy from you.

If we are not careful, we may tend to grow attitudinal towards those who “make our job harder”, who may not have the same natural fit as our last favorite employee, or who may require basic training, whereas the last trainee ‘got it’. These predispositions can sabotage our ability to create an attractive workplace for employees.

In a labour market with limited natural resources, they can pin our frustrations on those who haven’t got our background in the industry or organization. Individuals whose goals ultimately lead them through the organization rather than make a home there may also receive our passive aggressive frustrations through behaviors and attitudes.

The secret with high turnover is this: we may be more responsible for high turnover than we’d care to admit. When we let ourselves get set in ideas that pre-determine how good an employee is going to be, in a mindset that judges an employee’s level of commitment against our own level of commitment, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment.

That disappointment can eventually work its way back to our employees in the form of judgments, un-supportive attitudes, pre-emptive non-listening, and the like. Unrealistic expectations undermine a potentially beneficial employer-employee relationship with inappropriate feedback and demands. Like it or not, the employee needs to participate in determining his or her level of commitment, support and training needed in order to best contribute to the organization.

The big picture is not ideal employees and effortless management. The big picture is the successful functioning of the organization.

Often, the extent of the problem is below the radar. Passive aggressive behavior on the part of a manager is ‘in payment for‘ a lower level of commitment to the job, or due to the perception on the part of the manager that the new hire or trainee is not trying. The trainee may not be as ideally suited for the tasks and perspectives that make doing those tasks efficient and up to the manager’s standards. These passive aggressive perceptions and their consequent behaviors are not uncommon, especially with managers who have invested a high level of commitment, have a great deal of skill in the jobs they are training, and have taken pride in their work.

Misconceptions about the employee, however, can create a stressful atmosphere, with less patience than is optimal for training the people that are available to fill those positions. In a world of dwindling naturally talented people filling those positions, we owe it to ourselves and our organizations to get these stressful, tension inducing attitudes out of the way get to know our staff and how we may support them, their goals and interests on their journey through our tasks and roles.

Remember, employees are employees. No matter how good they may be. So set your expectations and therefore attitude accordingly.

A)      Availability of required skill set in the local geography to the build the right R&D.

B)      High costs of hiring people with desired expertise. Additional costs in benefits administration and in general taking a longer term liability while the business has yet to prove itself.

C)      Additional funds requirement to scale up infrastructure to match with the team expansion.

D)      Founder management getting swamped with operational issues due to increased team size while they need to focus more on technology, raising funds and new customer acquisition.

What are the options available to a start-up to get out of this tough spot and manage growth without having to invest significant money? Outsourcing to an offshore location is a viable option since there are geographies, like India/China, where talented manpower is available at a relatively lower cost.

Outsourcing sounds simple but may not be easy to execute. Standard outsourcing models present their own challenges to the start-up. Let’s take a look at the options available:

A) TIME AND MATERIAL BASED CONTRACT

The offshore company provides you with a team for fixed duration and charges on a MM basis. While this model is good for established companies outsourcing peripheral developments, for a start-up the issues faced are:

a) Your intellectual property is being shared with engineers who will not stay with you over extended period. Once the T&M contract is done, there is no assurance that the same team will be available to you for extended work.

b) The offshore partner will possibly rotate engineers between various customers depending on their business needs. The engineers carry your residual IP with them when moving to next project, which could be with one of your competitors.

c)  Offshore partners typically have high attrition rate. You can loose critical resources midway in the project.

d) As a start-up, your objective is to build a strong development team which stays with you for an extended period of time, continuously enhancing the IPR created. This objective is not met by T&M contracts

B) FIXED PRICE CONTRACT

You define a statement of work (SoW) and the offshore partner executes the same with a lump sum price. Again the model works for established companies which can carve out a clear, unambiguous SoW and then invite bids from several partners. It fails for start-ups for the following reason:

a)      Start-ups have to work in a reactive mode in early years. A critical requirement from that first customer must have higher priority than the long term roadmap. Hence, it is kind of impossible for you to carve out a SoW in concrete and use the same for awarding fixed price contract.

b)       Just like T&M projects above, you are taking a very high risk by exposing your intellectual property to employees of offshore partner. Remember that your IPR is possibly your only differentiation in the early years as start-up.

c)       Creating a SoW is not a trivial job. Drafting one takes quite some time and it has to be fairly complete so that there are no gaping holes when deliverables arrive. A start-up management has to spend lot of effort in making SoW. This is really not-so-productive work for a founder of a start-up as it is neither leading to new customer acquisition nor raising of additional funds, the two most critical activities required to make a start-up sustain early years.

d)      More often than desired, the deliverable from a fixed price contract do not match the expectation of the customers. There are always some gaps and mostly because of differences in understanding and even minor change in specifications. You as a start-up cannot afford this to happen as for you time to market is most critical.

So what are your options? You do want to outsource but which is the best business model to adopt. Lately a new model has evolved the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model. The BOT model is really cut out for start-ups more than established players. Here is how it works:

a)       Offshore partner BUILDs a 100% dedicated team of qualified engineers as per the start-up requirement. Note that the team is not selected from an existing pool of resources but typically “hired fresh” for the start-up work. Every candidate is pre-screened by start-up management. Team size is typically 4-8 people but could be more.

b)      The offshore partner operates this team for a designated, pre-agreed upon period. Basically the offshore partner will provide complete infrastructure, admin, HR, payroll and other benefits to the team while they get working directions from the founders at the start-up end. So basically you get a 100% dedicated “virtual” team managed FOR you at an offshore location.

c)       The offshore partner will TRANSFER the team to start-ups own offshore entity as and when latter secures funding to expand. The offshore partner actually facilitates setting up direct operation for its customer (govt. clearance etc.) and then moves the entire development team to this new outfit.

The BOT model clearly meets the “outsourcing pre-requisites” for a start-up. Just to summarize:

-          Your intellectual property stays with you all the time. It is shared only with employees who are on your payroll, indirectly first and directly at a later point of time.

-           You have a fully functional offshore team but do not take any long term liability. You do not spend capex in building infrastructure etc.

-          No need to spend precious time on creating SoW or detailed specs. Since the offshore team is functionally reporting to you, you can decide upon priorities as per your business needs.

-          As a founder, you save precious time by not getting bogged down by admin, HR or payroll issues. Your offshore partner is taking care of all that. You just focus on proving your business model and being successful.

If you still decide to make a change, we’ve identified some of the important questions you should consider as you begin the process. It’s also important to remember that advertising strategies vary significantly from financial sites such as Forbes and Business Weekly to retailers such as Gap, Amazon, and Macy’s. Determining the strategy and evaluating the questions below, may create more effective advertising for you

HOW BADLY DO YOU REALLY WANT TO MAKE A CHANGE?

Changing agencies often results in a significant waste of your most valuable resources: time, money and the ability to focus on the right issues.

Seriously considering the possibility of a new agency is:

TIME CONSUMING
Done right, reviewing and selecting a new agency can take months. Done wrong, however long it takes, will have been a wasted effort.

You, or somebody in your company, should be prepared to:

-          screen at least a dozen agencies,
-          develop a preliminary list of prospects,
-          prepare and conduct orientation meetings with each,
-          arrange for a visit to your company and with your colleagues,
-          attend their presentations,
-          deal with the press.

And that’s just the beginning. After the new agency’s selected and the contract’s signed, you’ll need time to bring them up to speed so they can develop new advertising.

EXPENSIVE
The cost of conducting a review will affect everything from your travel and entertainment budget to your miscellaneous expenses. You’ll also need to produce the new agency’s work, another significant expense. One caveat: Your new advertising had better be good; you’ll have paid for it at least twice.

DISTRACTING
Selecting an agency is near­ly a full-time job, and you have one of those already. In addition, a proper review will require other key executives in your com­pany to make time available for briefings, interviews, and presentations, not to mention making or reviewing the final selection.

THE WRONG PROBLEM, THE WRONG SOLUTION.
Too often the decision to conduct an agency review results from factors having little or nothing to do with the company’s advertising, or the state of its agency relationship. Advertising’s visibility and skyrocketing costs invite decisions based on ego rather than fact, and subjectivity rather than careful analysis. If selected and hired for the wrong reasons, a new agency and its advertising can easily do more harm than good to your market position.

THE SEARCH
If you still believe that changing agencies is the right decision, here are some questions to consider as you begin your search.

WHAT WENT WRONG WITH YOUR LAST AGENCY LAST RELATIONSHIP?

Learn from experience. In all probability, both you and your current agency contributed to the situation you’ve decided to change. What could you have done differently and better? What mistakes were made that, with hindsight, can be avoided in the future? If you’re not including your present agency in the review, consider asking them to evaluate you as a client. You’ll likely never get a more honest assessment from anyone who knows you as well.

WHAT ARE YOUR NEEDS?

Ask any agency “What can you do for me?” and the answer is sure to be “Whatever you want.” As it turns out, with current technology and the abundance of freelance talent, this can actually be true. But agency flexibility comes at a price, suggesting you determine your company’s real needs before you begin discussions with agencies.

Do you want your agency to handle media planning ? Placement ? Provide you with market intelligence, or rely on what you give them? Work with your sales force, distributors, or dealers? Provide services worldwide, nationally, locally? Just do advertising, or take on promotional materials, collateral and PR? How about direct marketing and your web site?

WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS?

Once into the relationship how will you determine whether it’s successful? An agency can work toward almost any objective, from increasing average monthly sales to winning creative awards. If you don’t let your agency know how you intend to measure success, the chancesare only air they’ll guess correctly. What you need your agency to do will obviously help determine your criteria. Be objective, set goals that are ambitious but possible, and make sure your prospective agencies understand them.

HOW WILL YOU EVALUATE THE AGENCY’S WORK?
This may well be dif­ferent from how you’ll measure success. You and your agency may put brilliant advertis­ing into the marketplace only to see sales not respond for reasons you couldn’t foresee or control. Blaming the agency in this instance is unfair, and likely to put you back in the business of looking for another one.

And there’s evaluating the relationship itself. The time, money and effort spent hir­ing a new agency argues for keeping the re­lation in good health for as long as possible. Beyond whatever measurable goals you set for the advertising and its performance, how will you continue to believe your new agency was the right choice?

WHAT ABOUT MONEY?
BUDGET Share with prospective agencies your marketing and advertising budgets, including how they are set and whether they are flexible.

COMPENSATION
How do you expect to compensate your new agency for their work? Making your thoughts or requirements known at the beginning of the review process can save you much grief at the end of it. What compensation, if any, will you provide to agencies involved in the last rounds of the selection process?

All the work an agency puts into pitching your business belongs to you, if the agency is compensated by you. While no agency reasonably expects all its ‘, Itch expenses to be covered, simple fairness suggests you at least make a dent, especially if you’re asking for “spec work” – advertising created expressly for you.

Just as travelers rely upon the star rating system to choose a hotel or a local guide to choose a restaurant, buyers of any variety of products and services want to spend their money with winners — and they do.

In fact, a research study by Hendricks & Singhal of the University of Western Ontario and Georgia Institute of Technology, revealed more than 600 quality corporate award winners had 37% more sales growth and 44% higher stock price return than their peers.

Here are a few more benefits to justify your investment of time and effort in award competitions:

A) Get to “YES” faster.

Help unknown, unproven, or emerging companies better compete for and win new business. Award wins make choosing a company less risky for buyers and potential employees.

B) Demonstrate ethics through credible endorsements.

If a prospect is evenly divided between quality companies, the company with the most stellar ethics as demonstrated by a Better Business Bureau award may have an advantage. As reports of corporate ethics violations become more commonplace, consumers are seeking out companies with track records of integrity. An award recognizing a business’ demonstrated ability to navigate the market without compromising integrity can help separate it from competitors.

C) Support marketing claims.

Winning gives advertising copywriters more to talk about so cash registers can ring. It is an external endorsement that rings more truth than your claims alone.

D) Pack a powerful punch through publicity.

Favorable local, trade, or national publicity and word-of-mouth referrals often result from contest wins, filling the lead generation pipeline.

E) Tip new business to your favor.

Just like Avis — the rental car company with a reputation for trying harder to beat Hertz out of the number one position award winners may be perceived as working with greater diligence to demonstrate their value.

F) Compel judges to become your customers.

Judges often visit award candidate’s businesses because they like what they read in award applications and want to experience the company’s services and products for him/herself.

If you are convinced that award wins can pay off for your business and your brand, follow these tips when putting pen to paper:

A) Prioritize

Choose legitimate and prestigious contests that reinforce your company’s core values, strategic initiatives, and marketing claims.

B)      Do The Application Justice
Assign the task of creating award worthy entries to someone who has the passion, storytelling ability, and time to do the job right. Last minute efforts rarely deliver a winning result.

C) Prove Your Points

Call out winning ways in easy-to-read bullets. Share anecdotes, customer and employee testimonials, and press coverage to prove why your company is award-worthy. Steer clear of hyperbole and “blah, blah, blah” commentary that will take up space and bore the judges.

D) Meet And Address All Award Criteria

Only then will you have a fighting chance to earn a place in the winner’s circle. And be sure to submit entries on deadline.

E)      Presentation Count

When given the choice to make a hard copy presentation or send a fax, go with the hard copy every time. A fuzzy fax won’t catapult your story to the top of the stack when compared with other applications with better overall presentation quality.

F) Go Into WIN

If you can’t weigh in with a stellar effort, sit out the competition and save your time and money until you can.