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Posts Tagged ‘business budget’
Conferencing Headset Product Information and Review
First up is Plantronics CS50 Wireless Office Headset. While other brands are out there and have some great products, Plantronics is an industry leader in office headsets and can be quite costly. If you don’t have to watch a budget, for $260 you get a noise canceling microphone, an eight hour talk time, and a hands free range up to 300 ft. It also has an optional handset lifter which allows remote answering/disconnection capability. The only two cons to this headset are that it doesn’t have a mute feature and it doesn’t work with cordless phones.
Next is the AT&T TL7610 DECT 6.0 Digital Cordless Headset. The Pros of this headset are the noise reduction microphone, the 500 ft range, it works with both corded and cordless phones, and it comes with a mute feature. A big pro to this headset is its very versatile style. It can be worn 3 different ways (over the ear, over the head and behind the neck). With all these features and more this headset covers it all, for less than $150.
For those of you watching your budget, and who isn’t now a days? We have found two different models that are in a friendlier price range.
A good headset under $100 is The Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth Headset. This headset goes for about $88, is Bluetooth and features noise canceling and WindSmart technology. It comes with up to six hours of talk time, a pivoting microphone, and a mute button.
For under $50, you can get the Plantronics S6239816 or the Plantronics MX500i 3-in-1 VoIP Headset. Many headsets under $50 don’t work with corded phones and they aren‘t wireless, but they do feature a mute button, volume control, voice activation, and a wind shield feature.
The bottom line is what features do you need? And how much can you afford to pay?
Happy Shopping!!
photo credit: William Hook
Peer Group Defined
In many of our previous posts we’ve mentioned Peer Groups. In our next series of posts, we are going to take apart the actuality of what a peer group is and how it can be a beneficial asset to anyone that wants to grow their business, expand their knowledge or simply socialize with folks of a like mind.
According to Wikipedia, a peer group is a social group consisting of people who are equal in such respects as age, education or social class. Peer groups are an informal primary group of people who share a similar or equal status and who are usually of roughly the same age, tended to travel around and interact within the social aggregate. Members of a particular peer group often have similar interests and backgrounds, bonded by the premise of sameness. However, some peer groups are very diverse, crossing social divides such as socioeconomic status, level of education, race, creed, culture, or religion.
Taking the general concept of what a Peer Group is, we are going to explain the different features to look for when applying the principals of a Peer Group to a business setting.
You want to create a small group, between 4 to 7 participants, with a similar connection whether it be sales, customer service, or any other aspect of your field. The group is brought together in a non competitive environment to share ideas, experience and lessons learned the hard way. The group then takes what they’ve learned from their peers and applies the newfound knowledge to their own ventures.
It’s like a mini convention of the best and the brightest with a front row seat for everyone.
We have some proven results showing the power of a well developed Peer Group. Here are some numbers generated from groups we have worked with:
• $106,000 in new revenues in the first year, on small ticket orders with an average sale of only $95! (Companies whose items cost more can expect a far larger increase in revenues)—that means approximately 1116 new, unpredicted sales!
• Discounting one low performer who sold right around the baseline, the other five reps who went directly into the No Nonsense Conference program sold at 170% of baseline expectations. The two experienced reps in the team sold at 133% and 123% of previous performance; one of them achieved an astonishing 486% of baseline!
• Distributor retention rate for one group reached 88%, compared to 10% before the program was instituted.
If you’re looking for a way to get some amazing results and high productivity out of your team members or even for yourself, a peer group is the best move you can make to get on the right path.
photo credit: Antarctica Bound
Leading More Effective Conference Calls
Most people are more excited to get annual flu shots than attending their weekly conference calls. Are you one of those people? Do you feel that going outside and watching pedestrians walk the streets is a better use of your time?
Most likely, if you are a virtual employee, then you have conference calls marked in your calendar all month long. How do you make the most out of your time?
Let’s start with the basics. How long is too long for a conference call? If you find yourself thinking about what you’re going to have for dinner—your conference call is TOO long. Keep it on point and exciting. Make your audience/peer group a part of the call, so they stay involved. It always keeps everyone on their toes if they think they will be called upon at any given time.
Our time is one of our most valuable resources as employers and employees, so why would anyone want to waste valuable time in a dead end conference call?
If you are one of those people leading conference calls, save us all from wasting our valuable time and consider the following:
• Do you really need to have a conference call? We have all been involved in conference calls where we feel it could have been two people involved in a phone call and the rest of us could have been doing other things. Or, maybe a simple, one paragraph email would have covered the topic of the day. Use your judgment on the necessity.
• How long does your conference call need to be? Just because a nice, round number looks good on a calendar doesn’t necessarily mean it is good for a conference call. If you only need 18 minutes to get your point across, then 18 minutes is what your call should be. You don’t need to use up the whole half hour or hour slot just because it looks good.
• Did you send out an agenda prior to the call? An agenda will keep everyone on schedule, including you. Keep it simple. List a couple of KEY points you will be touching on. People will be more relaxed and have questions ready if they know what to expect. This will help increase your interaction factor amongst the callers.
• Did you allow your group to socialize for way too long? Although it is good for team morale to socialize at the beginning of a meeting, make sure you can reel them back in to the topic before too much time passes. A good meeting can get out of hand pretty easily if everyone is all wound up from the horseplay in the beginning.
• Did you follow your call up with an outline of what went on in the meeting? This will keep everyone involved in the meeting on their toes and also advice them of any deadlines and/or expectations.
There is no such thing as a perfect ANYTHING and this relates to conferences too, whether they are virtual or in person. Just remember that longer is not always better. Change things up a bit to fit the need and you will be well on your way to a more effective conference call.