Finance and Business

Casino Online Game with Slot Machine

When we decide to play online slots game, we deal with what we call slot machine. If we visit wikipedia, we will find slots at wiki means a casino gambling machine with three or more reels which spin when a button is pushed so that we can do some gambling.  There are many game online site that provide you with kind of slots machine. But not all them is good.

To play slots, you click the “coin” icon to specify the value of credits you want to play with. The payout scale for slots is shown at the top of the slot machine. This is the heart-stopping moment that makes slot machines irresistible; this is the adrenalin-pumping experience that makes it impossible for slot machines to go out of fashion.

One that have good rating is this fiend is www.gamblingpub.com. If you aware about quality slots gambling, you must visit online slot games guide to get the most of the game. They are known as best online casinos and gaming site so far.  So hurry up, go to online roulette tips and enjoy slots game online with confident. Roulette is the good type of game in my opinion. It`s developed first time in France and mostly the online game site will provide roulette as one of the service for game lover.

Tags: game

The added importance of extra recognition rewards in the 1990s

Special recognition for extra sales achievements is more important in the 1990s than ever before. There are many reasons for this downsizing is reducing opportunities to promote outstanding people-probably the most powerful and traditional way to provide recognition. In the 1990s, more than ever before, sales managers will need to recognize ambitious people by means of new challenges and enhanced incentive awards in the face of reduce advancement opportunities.

Competition is tougher, and only companies with high sales productivity, low turnover, and the most motivated sales personnel will thrive in future. Great salespeople become a competitive edge when product parity is widespread among competitors. In high-teach businesses, where short product life cycles prevail, the skills of sales reps often maintain a company’s market standing when its products lose their technological edge.

Rep skills really come into in holding customer loyalties while company labs are still working on a “next generation” product. One way to keep morale high is with special forms of recognition, a clear signal from managers of the standard of excellence they wish all employees to emulate.

Teamwork in selling is more critical than it used to be, and because most pay plans recognize individual effort, teamwork excellence is best inspired by group incentives and recognition. Incentives can be flexibly structured to recognize nonrep members of the sales team, such as support personnel and dealer employees.

In an era of more rep and manager stress, special recognition often can be the tie that binds a rep to his or her company and generates a commodity rarer than gold-corporate loyalty.

Tags: rewards, sales

Implementing Incentives

Given that incentive programs motivate and are taking on even more importance in an era of “lean and mean,” the real issues revolve around how to design, schedule, and implement them to good effect. Here are some tips:

1. determine early on how much of the recognition and incentive you want to go for team results as opposed to individual results. If your pay plans are already individualized, you may wish your incentive plans to recognize more of a team effort. For instance, the Boston Celtics basketball team does not pay its players individual incentives based on their personal scoring or other performance statistics (as many other teams do). The Celtics have never had the highest-scoring player in the league, but they’ve won more team championships than anyone else has. They have opted to recognize team effort instead of personal effort. At a $17 million overnight express delivery company in Kearney, new jersey, the sales manager lost the ability to get sales reps to work together and help each other as a team when the company got carried away with an overemphasis on individual bonus incentives. When a manager asked a rep to help a colleague, the attitude was “forget it, I’m trying to make my bonus”. One sound alternative is to provide for individual recognition with status award programs (such as a “circle of excellence” for top sales rep, who can earn a plaque or ring) and a travel-trip incentive for team sales result, including all key team-support people.
2. Always opt for first-class awards/incentives and present them with “public” fanfare so everyone in the company is aware of them. If a quality effort is demanded to win an award, the design and selection of the prize should show the same high attention to “quality”.
3. If a travel award is chosen, award winners should out-number management or hosts on such trips;otherwise the travel award winner may question for whom the trip was really arranged. Trip participation by nonreps should have a direct or obvious justification.
4. If a merchandise incentive plan is chosen, offer a cash alternative as a trade-in. It is too difficult to choose merchandise with universal appeal and utility for all the possible winners. Reps may already have color televisions, VCRs, Microwaves, barbeques, or other usual prize. And an unusual prize may not have any value or use to the winner. Reps close to retirement may not value or use to the winner. Reps close to retirement may not value a brand new sail-board. Nondrinking reps may place no value on an award of vintage wines. Because merchandise award are often not as motivating as travel or status awards are, use them sparingly. Often overlooked awards that have universal appeal include investment instruments such as stock and bonds.
5. Set goals for incentives that challenge participants but are within their reach. Any incentive program that doesn’t fit this “fairness” test will fail. Lack of fairness is usually the single biggest complaint reps voice when discussing incentive plan design flaws. Never design a plan that favors top producers only.
6. Promote the incentive plan to ensure reps are totally familiar with the goals, rules, and ongoing results. A steady stream of reminders will bring optimum awareness and motivation. Send information on the program to reps’ home residences, not through the internal company mail. In this way, the rep’s family can be informed and involved, providing even more rep motivation.
7. Wherever possible, build “intermediate steps or awards” into any plan. This avoids an all-or-nothing scenario in which some outstanding intermediate performers never earn any recognition because final results fall off somewhat of the entire group misses the target.
8. Publicize ongoing results as the program progresses. This creates an atmosphere of steady, healthy competition. It also ensure that the program has chosen goals that can be measured and evaluated easily.
9. Always critique a program when it’s over. Use a formal method of polling reps and hosts about the program details, especially for travel award where feedback about accommodations, services, the chosen location, and activities can help prevent any future problems sometimes encountered on such trips.
10. Always make sure that the budget for the program includes a portion of money to pay the tax owed by the winners on their award. There is nothing more demotivating than winning a big prize or a trip for outstanding sales performance, only to return home and face a big tax bill from the authorities. A motivator can turn into a demotivator very quickly
11. Be careful about assuming that cash awards motivate to the equivalent extent of ather possible awards. Perceptual problems accrue to selecting cash as a motivator, because many experience managers believe it takes more cash than the identical cost of different awards to get the same results payoff. Sales reps psychologically think of cash as income almost regardless of how the cash award is dressed up as recognition.
12. Never expect the incentive plan to do the whole job of the sales manager, directing efforts of reps. Motivating reps is always a combination of compensation and solid infield coaching.

Tags: incentives

Sales Incentive

Many companies use cash and noncash incentives to motivate sales reps. They use short-term inducements for a varieties of reasons. Special cash incentives usually are paid to push a specific product or land new accounts during a compressed time period. These incentives may be used to induce reps to shift product mix emphasis, to combat competition, overcome seasonal sales slumps, boost the sales of the most profitable lines, or ensure a new product gets a short-term boost in sales attention.

New products usually take reps considerably more time to sell than do proven ones. Short-term cash inducements provide the rep with positive reasons to take the time to win over customers to the new product. Cash incentives are becoming less popular. They are often less motivating than expensive merchandise award, a trip, or are cognition symbol such as a ring, plaque, trophy, or desk set.

The rep can show off merchandise awards or share the experience of a trip prize with other, if it was wan by the entire sales team. Reps remember the energy and work that went into the noncash recognition long after the cash award is spent (often to pay bills).if merchandise awards involve choosing from among a selection of prizes, the reps can put their own personal value on the prize, since it may represent something they would simply use the cash to reduce a debt, save for their children’s education, buy a new appliance, or purchase useful, but not “once-in-a-lifetime,” items.

Trip prizes have “fantasy value” as motivators. They keep the rep thinking about and identifying with the trip’s  benefits as her or she pursues extra sales performance. Where sustained performance is desired by the sales manager, a trip prize motivates far more than do merchandise or cash award. Trip prize, combined with recognition awards that are publicly presented with fanfare to the out standing achievers during the trip, are very motivating.

Tags: sales, sales activity

The Complexity of Measuring Sales Result

If a company has a mix of selling approaches, the question of who should get sales get credit for result is often complicated. For instance, it a sales force is specialized according to account size and territory, an account developed in a territory by one rep becomes another rep’s account if it grows very large. If the selling company also has a telesales crew that handles supply orders for all customers, the large customer could have been developed by one rep, assigned to another, and its supply orders could be taken by a third rep.

How should sales result be measured for compensation purpose when quotas are being set and measured against volumes? Determining credit in sales territories can bi difficult when national distributions take product from a supplier into a centralized warehouse and redistribute them to multiple locations. Several sales reps, from the supplying vendor and the distributor, may each deserve credit for some portion of the centralized orders brought into the distribution center. There are no hard-and-fast rules to follow to resolve this issue for measurement except to say:
1.    get a good controller/accountant to help make assigned sales-credit calculation as unbiased and as reasonable as possible. Some calculation will never wholly dependent on, or tied to, income rewards. Reps are also motivated by other incentives, such as advancement in the company, praise, meaningful two-way performance appraisals, and constructive coaching.
2.    choose sales measurement for compensation plan calculations that are available on a timely basis. Late sales reporting that holds up compensation check will make for a frustrated sales force.
3.    select measurement that require as few complicated adjustments or calculations as possible. Reps should be able to quickly figure out their pay from “back of the envelope” arithmetic. If the rep needs software and a personal computer to calculate the performance-based portion of a pay plan, confusion and cynicism will result. Reps have to be able to keep score by understanding how their sales result directly translate into rewards. If they don’t understand the scoring system, they will not see the connection between their result and their compensation.
4.    sell the pay plan formula to the sales force. If its got holes in it, they’ll find them. If its fair, they’ll react well to it. Plans that are somewhat imperfect in design but 100% accepted as fair and credible by reps are far superior to complex, “perfectly” engineered plans that nobody in the sales force really understands or accepts.

Tags: sales, sales complexity, sales measurement

The Pressures on Sales Managers

Sales managers, as coaches, also face new, different pressure in the 1990’s. They must upgrade their own training just as aggressively as reps must, which can put lots of pressure on their own families as they take course or are trained away from home.
In an era of downsizing, many companies have thinned the ranks of sales managers, thus widening the manager’s span of control. A manager will have perhaps 33% to 50% more reps to supervise. For instance, a manager might go form having eight to 12 reps reporting to him/her. That means 33% to 50% more expense accounts to sign, more salaries to review, more performance appraisals to give, and more rep training and incentive compensation plans to administer.

It pulls the manager into more territories, often boosting his or her own travel time-and this increases stress as the typical frustrations of living on the road escalate (from late planes, to problem rental cars, headquarter communication hassles, and so forth). Because the manager with more reps to supervise tends to spend less time coaching each rep, there is pressure to do the highest-quality job communicating face-to-face in field coaching sessions. Quality supervision replace closeness of supervision. The manager’s own superiors are probably also putting pressure on him/her to boost productivity.
The sales manager is caught in this tug-of-war between senior management’s goal for maximum output from the field, with autonomy and shared decision making. Successful sales coaches must always balance the need to care about their sales reps as people with business pressures to control them, because they are costly resources.

A sales manager perceived as caring only about business result and carrying out abandoned. They wonder how the manager will function if the business hits rough water. Will the manager help them grow and develop? Should they bet their future on such a leader? This is how reps think when the sales manager works too hard for compliance and control at the expense of maximum output.

Should the sales manager be perceived by superiors as too people-oriented, they become anxious that he/she is too soft on subordinate reps and not focused enough on ensuring that orders flow in and shipments flow out.

More than ever, the sales manager of today has to learn to be both bottom-line committed and a fine coach and employee partner. Learning this takes courage and skill, and few sales manager gets much help or sympathy from above. They could echo the words of Tommy Lasorda, the Los Angels Dodgers manager, who said “ I found out that it’s not good to talk about my trouble. Eighty percent of the people who hear them don’t care and the other 20% are glad you’re having them”.

Tags: manager, sales, sales manager

10 Easy Ways To Organize Your Business Finances

10 Easy Ways To Organize Your Business Finances

Whether you are a new entrepreneur or a more experienced business owner, taking control of your finances can feel like a part-time job. Some simple tips can help you streamline your time, organize your finances and reduce the stress of business money matters.

1. Keep Your Bills in One Place

When the mail comes, make sure it goes in one place. Misplaced bills can be the cause of unwanted late fees and can damage your credit rating. Whether it’s a drawer, a box, or a file, be consistent. Size is also important. If you get a lot of mail, use an area that won’t get filled up too quickly.

2. Pay Your Bills on Schedule

Bill paying can be simplified if it’s done at scheduled times during the month. Depending on how many bills you receive, you can establish set times each month when none of your bills will be late. If you’re paying bills as you receive them, chances are you’re spending too much time in front of the checkbook. Although bills may state “Payable Upon Receipt”, there’s always a grace period. Call the creditor to find out when they need to receive payment before the bill is considered late.

3. Read Your Credit Card Statements

Most people take advantage of low interest credit card offers but never read their statements when paying the bill. Credit cards are notorious for using low interest as bait for new customers then switching to higher rates after a few months. Make a habit of looking at your statement carefully to see what interest rate you are paying each month and if any transaction fees have been applied. If the rate increases or a transaction fee appears on your statement, a simple call to the credit card company can oftentimes be beneficial in resolving the matter. If not, try to switch your money to a more favorable rate.

4. Take Advantage of Automatic Payments

Most banks offer a way to automatically deduct money from your account to pay creditors. In addition, the creditors usually offer a lower interest rate when you sign up for this payment option because they get their money faster and on-time. Consider it as one fewer check to write, envelope to lick and stamp to buy. Just make sure you record the deduction when the automatic payment is scheduled or you run the risk of bouncing other checks.

5. Computerize Your Checkbook

Using a software program is a handy way to organize your finances. Whether it’s Quicken(r), Microsoft Money(r) or another package, these easy-to-use programs make bill paying and bank reconciliation a cinch. Computer checks can be ordered almost anywhere and fit right into most printers. Once the checks are printed, all of the information is automatically recorded in your electronic checkbook. Furthermore, many banks have direct downloads into these software packages so when money is deposited or withdrawn, the transaction is entered immediately onto your computer. And, when it comes time to do taxes, it couldn’t be easier.

6. Get Overdraft Protection

Most banks have a service where, if you run the risk of bouncing a check, the money will come from another source. For a nominal fee, the bank will link your checking account to either a savings, money market, or credit card so the embarrassment of bouncing a check will be avoided. Call or visit your bank to learn about this convenient feature.

7. Cancel Unused Accounts

Whether it’s a credit card or bank account, write a letter requesting that the account is formally closed. Not only will this improve your credit score, it is a useful way to avoid money from being scattered all over the place. Don’t let department stores and credit card companies lure you into opening new accounts by offering favorable interest rates and purchase discounts. It’s easy for credit to get out of hand by taking advantage of every credit offer that comes your way.

8. Consolidate Your Accounts

If you have several credit card accounts with outstanding balances, try to consolidate them into one. Be careful and check the balance transfer interest rates and one-time fees. Also, make a list of all your open Money Markets, Savings, CDs, IRAs, Mutual Funds, and other accounts to see if any consolidation can be done. Keeping your money in fewer places eliminates all of the guesswork involved and reduces errors.

9. Establish Automatic Savings

Create a link from your checking account into a savings account that will not be touched. This can usually be done through the banks and automatic amounts will be transferred over each month. Most people will not put money into a savings account on a regular basis. They may wait until a large tax refund check arrives or some other event to actually deposit money into savings, retirement or other accounts. If you establish an automatic savings deposit every month, your accounts will begin accumulating money faster than you think.

10. Clean up Your Files

Make sure your paid bills are organized in a filing cabinet. Keep individual files for paid bills. Go through your files at the end of each year and throw out bills and receipts no longer needed for auditing purposes. Contact your local IRS office to see how long records need to be kept for audits. Usually federal tax return audits can be done three years back but cancelled checks may need to be kept for seven. Consult the Internet for auditing and records-keeping procedures for your state or region.

Tags: business, business finance, finance

Redesigning measurements and reward to fit the sales force the 1990s

If there is one area that taxes both the creative and analytical abilities of sales managers, it is designing a performance measurement reward system that stays current with changing market objective and shifting sales force specialization. When one considers the different kinds of reps an organization employs, it is reasonable to conclude that compensation plans based on a “one size fits all” philosophy are bound do fail.
A single compensation plan fails to recognize key differences between a national account rep, a telesales rep, and a territory rep. Each rep probably emphasize different product mixes to suit customers, and each sells to accounts with different buying cycles. Measuring result against one sales quota formula would therefore be folly.
Measurement systems that aren’t given a fresh look inevitably lose relevance over time, because companies may shift emphasis from selling individual products to total customer solutions. Alternately, they may utilize more team efforts where shared sales credits are the only fair way to reflect the sales efforts of the many reps working together.

Individualize your pay plans
With compensation and incentive plans requiring continuous updating, and measurement systems becoming more complex with specialization, are there any general maxims sales managers should follow when designing their rep measurement-reward systems? There are some broad design principles that make sense for the volatile 1990s.
With high market instability marked by wide differences in regional growth rates, industry business cycles, and distribution channel shifts, it makes sense not to put too much of any rep pay plan into a fixed pay plan such as salary. A blended approach that combines some salary (in recognition of rep tasks without immediate or direct sales growth consequences) with some variable pay provide the best compromise between short-term sales objectives and long-term goals for account development and sustained relationship building with customers.

Straight commission plans make it difficult for reps to focus on anything but next mount’s sales quota. Long-term growth in new products or new account development almost always suffers because such activities have reproach in the company’s accounting system. This is often unrealistic when the sales are to national distributors shared between several reps, and especially when such distributors ship to their other branches from a central purchasing center.
The supplying company’s sales are reported in accounting reports in one region, when they may ultimately take place in several territories where the distributor operates. To alleviate measurement problems, sales are often pooled. But these system can be problematic when reps are paid 100% on commission. Arguments frequently ensue between reps about who get what credit for the distributor’s total purchase.
Providing more than 65% of 70% of a rep’s pay in salary leaves a company vulnerable if total market potentials or regional potentials between reps shift. The company will be caught with fixed expenses despite a variable part of compensation, make for high ongoing costs. For every dollar in salary, the company incurs another 15 to 25 cents in benefit costs (pensions, life insurance, health care). Putting more pay into a variable part of the plan makes reps realize they must re-earn their money every year.
The watchword in pay plan design should be flexibility. By paying a rep a portion of his or her total income in salary, a manager retains the control to guide reps in fulfilling all the sales basics required for total account service, including account retention. The “plus” portion of planned income that is variable can be customized to specific performance goals. For some reps it can be fine-tuned to pay for finding new accounts, while with others it can be adjusted to pay for upgrading business existing customers
The “extra compensation” can be paid differently, depending on a rep’s territory or sales tenure. So, if the rep’s growth prospects in a territory are poorer than those of other reps, the plus part of the compensation package can reflect lower growth expectations of the manager.
From a sales manager’s perspective, the concept of blended plans is simple to communicate to reps. The rep quickly learns that his or her base rewards day-in, day-out total selling function, including duty a trade shows, keeping an eye on competitors, or making multiple calls over time to crack key accounts. The rep knows that the additional variable compensation is a customized, personalized  issue that reflects his or her skills, workload, assigned region/account and experience level.
Such system ring fair and comprehensible to reps. Should a company want to shift to a more variable pay scheme, it should boost the percentage of the total planned income that will be paid over and above the salary for sales target attainment. For instance, it could move from 30% extra compensation to 35% to 40%. If the company wishes to have the plan even more closely linked to profit result, it could pay compensation for performance based on total gross margins generated by the rep’s results.
Another variation involves paying reps a portion of bonus compensation based on a mix of objectives up to some target sales quata. Once a rep moves beyond this quota, another piece of his or her income could be paid based on gross margins for volumes beyond the targets set. Paying extra compensation form incremental margins ensures that the scheme is self-liquidating. If sales managers do not wish reps to know gross margins, they can structures the payout based on the reps ability to secure orders as closely as possible to “list prices”. This encourages reps to sell without discounting prices and often accomplishes what payouts based on margins do, since premium prices are frequently a proxy for gross margin targets.

Tags: measurement, performance, sales manager