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Posts Tagged ‘cost effective business procedure’
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
How Does a Peer Group Work?
Okay, you’ve made the decision to get involved with a Peer Group. Now what?
Well, It’s not as simple as drawing five names out of a hat. You want to know the Peers you will be meeting with and be sure you’re choosing the cream of the crop.
Let’s use the example of sales. You’ve been in sales for several years and you’ve certainly picked up a few tricks of what works and what doesn’t. Imagine having some one- on-one time with a fellow sales rep that has 20 more years experience than you. Betcha they’ve got a few stories to tell.
Often, at conventions or seminars or any gathering involving competing representatives, there’s a slight hesitation to “share” your trade secrets for fear that the competition will step in and horn in on your established territory. With a peer group, individuals are selected based partly on their location as to not be a threat to others in the field so everyone can speak freely without the fear of ‘poaching’.
Complacency is often times a regular presence with anyone who has been doing the same thing for a long period of time. Getting stuck in a rut and going through the day to day motions becomes second nature. As long as productivity and sales aren’t going down, not to worry, right?
Wrong.
Complacency is okay if you’re only striving for mediocre. For anyone with goals and aspirations to continually succeed and make advancements in their field, complacency is suicide. When selecting members of your Peer Group, you need to develop an eye for recognizing individuals stuck in the rut of complacency. One person with an attitude like that will poison the whole group.
Sharing experiences and client feedback is the general environment created within a Peer Group. From that environment, new ideas are born. From those new ideas, advancements are made. It’s a beautiful cycle.
Do you have an hour of your week that you can commit to being part of an active, successful Peer Group?
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.