Direct Sales Team Vs Distributor - Which is Better For an International Market?

If you're looking to expand your sales to new markets, then there's one big question you must ask: do I build a direct sales presence or use a distributor? Each method has its benefits and drawbacks, but we're going to make a strong case to use one method over the other in almost every instance.

What's the difference between direct sales and distributors?
A direct sales presence means that your company establishes, manages, and pays a sales team of one or more people in the target market.

An outside agent is any entity that will sell your product in exchange for a service fee. One example is a sales rep, who sells your product in exchange for a percentage of the sale. A distributor is similar to a rep, except they would buy product from your company and sell it directly to the end customer.

Is Direct Sales Better?
For most businesses expanding into new markets, especially international markets, hiring a distributor is a better decision-at least until there is enough return from the market to justify building a direct sales presence.

Sure, there is one major advantage to having a direct sales presence-control. Control over the day to day activities of your sales personnel is appealing to most business owners. But this control comes at a heavy price. To start, you'll need to spend the time to hire someone in that market, then train them, then equip them with sales material and management, if not office space and equipment. These costs are prohibitive for most small businesses looking to expand internationally.

And there are even more costs that we have not mentioned yet. Each market has it's own unique laws, cultures and customs that are essential to master if your company wants to establish a successful sales presence. Japan is a classic example of a marketplace with unique legal structures and business customs that, if not followed, guarantee the failure of any sales efforts. It's hard to pin down an exact monetary value to this learning, but ask yourself this: Can you afford to establish, manage, and pay a sales force in a foreign country for at least a year while they learn the routes and generate no revenue?

What about a Distributor? Is a distributor better for new markets?
Distributors are a cost effective means to enter a new marketplace successfully. Here are just a few of the reasons:

• No Overhead: Unlike running your own sales team, a distributor will take care of the hiring, managing, payment, and optimization of its channel. You're just borrowing their distribution, while they handle the maintenance.
• Established Channel with Local Knowledge: A good distributor will already know all the laws and customs of the market you're entering. You do not need to reinvent the wheel-you can use someone who already has local local knowledge.
• Understanding Pricing and Purchasing Power of Market: Along with knowledge of the laws and customs comes knowledge about the most successful ways to price and market your product locally.
• Cost Effective: Since you will not be paying for the above items, distributor relationships are much more within reach of a small business trying to enter a new market.

Using a distributor has some downsides as well, but they can be minimized by building a good relationship with a distributor.

• Not your own people: You will not be able to directly manage every step of the process. While it may make you nervous to lose some control over the sales process, you can manage the risk by building a transparent relationship with your distributor with constant updates and feedback from both ends.
• Distributor has many products to represent: You may not be the distributor's top priority at any given time, and you want to be sure your product is not getting shuffled to the back of the line. Once again, a well-established relationship with constant contact will ensure that your product is getting the attention it describes.
• Not a "turn key" solution: You can not just give the distributor your products and expect success. You'll have to manage the relationship. This takes time, but it's still less costly than trying to install a direct sales team from scratch.

So what do I do next?
If you are not convinced that a distributor would be better for your organization than acquiring a direct sales team, seek help from a consultant who has experience establishing a presence in new markets. A consultant can use his or her experience to analyze your opportunity and recommend the best course of action.

Before you choose a distributor, you need to know ....
Choosing the wrong distributor will set you up for failure. The wrong distributor simply will not generate sales, and you'll have wasted at least a year finding and setting up an unprofitable relationship.

There are certain things to look for in a distributor, and they are different for every market. The best thing to do is to find a professional, one with experience in distributor relationships, and hire that professional to help you search for and identify the right distributor.

7 Top Tips to Car Salesman's Or Saleswoman's Success

Given that car sales account for 19% of total US sales in 2000 (source: US Small Business Administration), a lot of people are buying cars which mean that they are a lot of people selling cars. Additionally, new car sales have dropped from 63.4% in 1989 to 60% in 1999. Selling cars is not easy given that many still have a negative perception of car salesmen or women. Hopefully, these 7 tips may help you to sell more cars.

1. First and Foremost YOU need to think of yourself as a business. Car sales people work for an auto dealership, but most work on a salary and commission basis. When your compensation is commission based, this means you have more control of your destiny and should view yourself as a business instead of just a sales person.
2. Adopt a Planning Attitude. If you do not have a plan, then you are on some else's plan - usually the successful car saleswoman or salesman. As a practicing performance improvement consultant or coach for the last 10 years, I have observed that most people plan less for their own lives than they do for a simple visit to the grocery store.
3. Learn how to prospect. There exists a fundamental belief that the auto dealership is responsible for bringing traffic through the door because the dealership owners have all those "big bucks" for media advertising. Given that 80% of all new sales comes from referrals, would it not make more sense to prospect individually rather than simply on outside resources to control your destination? Those media efforts usually bring in suspicions, not prospects. Use your time wisely by focusing on prospects those who have a need, dollars and are a decision-maker. Do not rely only on the auto dealer to send out letters. Take the time to write some handwritten notes.
4. Improve your sales skills to make more money. Today's buyers are far more savvy than years ago. Learn how to cultivate and develop long term relationships. Consider a proven buying / selling sales process where marketing and selling skills are united to deliver to the desired results of another sold car. New car sales to used car sales are far more relationship based selling than years ago when car sales was a commodity sale.
5. Establish your sales goals using your great planning attitude. If you are a car salesman or car saleswoman and have 300 customers and the industry average sales cycle is 3 years, then every year you should be selling 100 cars. Focus your efforts of those who will be buying a car this year, but remember to continue to touch those who will potentially be buying another car in 2 or 3 years. HINT: Use the WAYSMARTcriteria for goal setting.
6. Identify the attitudes or beliefs that are obstacles to your success. Working with those in the auto industry, I have heard countless reasons why sales can not be made. However, when these reviews are reviewed, they are usually unfounded reasons based upon existing attitudes and beliefs. For example, "corporate has ruined the car industry by posting prices on the Internet. Everyone knows everything about the car." My response is "if price was a real objection, then everyone would be driving a Yugo or a Chevette. HINT: When you change how you look at things, the things you look at will change.
7. Make managing yourself priority number one. You must learn how to maximize your time especially in the area of ​​time management, ongoing professional development such as through business coaching training and personal life balance. The auto industry is truly a 24/7 business given that cars are with us each and every day of our lives. However, it is important not to lose sight of your personal life including family, friends, physical health, etc.

Yes, you can be an incredible car salesperson who can increase sales through these 7 simple car salesman tips. Just remember, sales regardless of industry is all about knowing your numbers and then multiplying your activity to secure those desired results.

What Will Make Your Money Stick

I love traveling, but I also super love coming home! Especially to a place I have created that I love and where I feel great! I have been enjoying getting back into my regular self-care routine, working out and drinking green smoothies! No matter how hard I try to eat well, workout and moderate while I travel, I still come home feeling a little off. Managing expectations and realizing I will; A) drink more wine then usual, B) see more people than usual which is fun but does take extra energy, and C) not workout quite as much. Which is ALL okay. Let's cut ourselves an extra break this week in ALL areas of life. Here is a pic of Roxy the day after we got back :-) Walking her and being on the beach are two of my most favorite things to do. I hope you have a great weekend doing what you love too.

If you are having trouble getting your money to "stick", meaning it's not such an issue bringing it in, but more making it stay, then you will like this week's article! Read on to learn how to make it stick.

So what's preventing your money from sticking? Well, deep down you still have a block to creating the ultimate success level you desire for yourself. You do not believe you are worthy enough at a deep core level. Want to know a little secret? Most people do not feel good enough. It's the ego. That part of our mind telling us we're not good enough, smart enough, successful enough, etc. That when we hit X level we'll finally have made it and can feel good enough, only to find out we still do not feel good enough when we hit that amount. If we're in that place of never enough, we will never BE enough, then never creating enough. Many people create "just enough" regardless of the level they reach. We need to become aware of that thinking at the core and start moving it to a new and empowered thought system.

What's in your bank account directly reflects how you feel about yourself. Now, the amount you decide on is subjective. You get to decide what you want. Please do not pay any attention to people in this industry saying you have to be at X amount to be successful, or have X amount in the bank. It's up to you how much money you would like to earn and have in your bank account. It all comes down to what feels good and exciting for you. Be mindful of comparisons to others. This is about YOUR best life and no one else's. If you are not where you want to BE though, there is something else going on at a core level.

I also do not think most people are wired to ask for more than they need. There is some kind of guilty going on deep down. Like they will be a bad person if they ask for more. So they are in a perpetual slump of always having "just enough". Just enough to cover their current expenses and nothing more for things like traveling, saving and reaching their BIG lifestyle dreams. Oddly, as their business grows, so do their expenses, and even though they have more money, they still stay in "just enough" mode.

Here are some things to consider in order to break this pattern.

1. Know your numbers! You can not get to where you want to go, if you do not take a good look at where you are. Most business owners shy away from this and it's a huge disadvantage to their growth. What you track grows (because it's in the forefront of your awareness and focus). If you can look at it without judgment, you can use it just as a gauge as to how things are going. If you take it personally, which most people do mean it triggers poor feelings about themselves, then you definitely will not want to look at it. Because it does not feel good. How can you become empowered with where you are? In Rhonda Byrne's book the Power, she talks about having gratitude for paying your bills and what they have enabled you to do. Saying thank-you to your utility bills and even credit cards! What have opportunities have they allowed you?

2. Know you are not a bad person. Maybe you've made some poor choices, but look instead at what you have learned and how you can do things differently moving forward. You are in control. This becomes empowering.

3. Pay yourself first! So many people do not do this! They make sure everything and everyone else is covered first! This relates directly back to self-worth. Respect yourself enough to pay yourself first. If you do not take of you, who will? I recommend starting off with 10% of every dollar coming in off the top (gross).

4. Put this money aside in some type of savings that actually earns you money on your investment, and only touch it for appreciating assets. In other words, do not spend it on depreciating assets like things like cars and household emergencies. Another savings account can be set up for those types of expenses if you like. A client of mine calls this type of savings her Freedom Fund, and I just love that! It is helping her create freedom and has made saving a very empowered process as a result. I learned recently about a great investment platform, and I am going to introduce it very soon via webinar training so that you too can see if this is the right strategy for you. Stay tuned!

5. Have fun and watch it grow!

Quick Ways to Make Your Kid's Birthdays Happy and Special Like Never Before

When your child asks you when his birthday will come, you should know he is growing. The childhood is one of the most memorable days in one's life where there is no tension and no stress. Celebrating your kid's birthday becomes the prime priority when you get to plan everything from invitations to the decorations. The most important part would be ordering the kid's favourite cake from the renowned baker in the town. All these arrangements are done with the only hope that the child will feel elated and remember his birthday for the whole of the year. Here are some more ideas to make birthdays of your children special.

Thematic party

While a child grows, his aspirations grow too. He wishes to meet some utopian characters and live in a fantasy land as they are highly influenced by these concepts from story books. Hence party planners' advice parents to go for thematic party to make the child extra happy. Right from clothes to customized cakes till return gifts, every aspect of the party if themed well and executed becomes a huge success.

Cartoon man

Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Ben 10 etc. are some cartoon characters that breathe life into children. Parents who can pay rent for people to can dress up like Mickey or Donald and entertain the kids, love to do that. For two to three hours these cartoon men will be around with children sing and dance with them in unison.

Magic show

Children love to live in the magic world of genies and fairies. So to make the party sound more extravagant, you can invite expert magicians who are specialized in children tricks. You can create a smoky atmosphere using dry ice and introduce the magician as soccer from the sky and create hues and cries of happiness from the kids.

Custom bakes

It is nothing wrong if you make your child's favourite cake in your kitchen and add minimalistic decoration to that sweet and yummy piece. But as kids attend different parties where they see personalised birthday cakes, their wish might just be different. Hence consult an expert baker and get the cake model that your child wishes for as his birthday present.

Field trips

While some parents plan a quiet birthday at their home or a nearby community house, some think of field trips where they go to a picnic place or a children park where they cut the cake and play games. Such plans work well if you invite the other children's caretaker as well for managing safety all the way till return back to home.

While many parents decorate the house and call their kid's friends home for a quick house party, there are few who prefer to celebrate the child's birthday at exotic locations. Howsoever be the preparations, your ultimate goal is to make their children happy and merry for the entire day with a wholehearted wish that their child remains healthy safe and secured forever!

An Inspiring History of a Small Business

In 1980, a husband and wife, purchased their first home in Arizona. The husband was managing a vacuum cleaner store, and the wife was a cashier at a grocery store. The husbands only day off was Sunday, and the wife was off 2 different days of the week, so, they never had much time together. They had no children, but the wife was breeding Afghan Hound dogs.

The husband was watching TV one peaceful Sunday afternoon, and all of a sudden the TV sparked, smoked, sputtered, and lit on fire. He jumped off the sofa, opened the front door, unplugged the TV, picked it up and thread it in the front yard.

Even with both the husband and wife working, they did not have enough money to buy a new TV. The new house had eaten up all of their extra money, and there were a lot of new expenses in owning a new home.

The husband was talking to a friend of his about his financial problems. His friend stated that his father used to own a vacuum business, and said, "Why do not we go to the Flea Market in Phoenix on weekends and sell vacuum cleaners, bags, belts, and parts." I told him that it sounded like a good idea, but my only day off was on Sunday. We agreed that he would work Saturday, and we would both work on Sunday.

The only other problem was that this person had no money for inventory, so his friend said that he would put up the money for some inventory to get their business started. They both agreed that they would put all the profit into buying more inventory, and vacuum cleaners that they would both rebuild and sell.

They followed through with their plans, and their new business was a success. They were selling huge amounts of bags, belts, and parts, as well as buying old vacuums, fixing them up, and reselling them. All of the profit they made went back into the business, and they started doing more and more business. It was all very exciting, but the only problem was that one of the partners was now working 7 days a week, and still did not have enough money to buy a new color TV.

After about 2 months, the one partner mentioned that he would like to get a little money from the business to buy a new color TV. He was kind of surprised when his friend said, "No Way". He tried to talk his friend into it, but his friend was totally against the idea of ​​taking any money out of the business. His partner said that he would rather just buy him out of the business that they started, and have the business all to himself. They agreed, and the one partner was paid about $ 800.00, for his share of the business.

Finally the one partner was able to go out and by a new color TV. Then, he thought of what he could do with the other $ 400. Well, right or wrong, he called the vacuum parts distributor that they were both buying from and ordered $ 400.00 worth of bags and supplies, and the following Sunday, he went to the Flea Market, and started his own business. His friend ran into him and kind of smiled and said, "Oh well, I guess we did not talk about you doing your own thing out here." The other partner said that all he wanted was some money to get a new color TV, and that he was the one who wanted to split up the partnership. They both laughed and remained good friends and competitors that helped each other for many years.

The one partner continued to buy more and more supplies, and soon had a huge display of parts, bags, belts, and new and used vacuum cleaners. He was so busy that most of the time, he had no way of going to get lunch, or a coke, or anything. After a couple of months of suffering alone, he needed help so badly that he asked his wife to quit her job which she did, so that she could help out with their new business.

During the next several years they continued to grow, and soon they had a 30 foot trailer and 4 employees helping them at the Flea Market, and at their home, where they were repairing and rebuilding vacuums during the week. They got to know all of their neighbors at the Flea Market, including the ones who sold futons behind their stand.

After a few more years they became friends with their futon friends, and they decided to rent a store together. It was their first actual store, and they split the store space and rent. I all seemed to be going well for both of them, but one morning, after a couple of months, the vacuum people went to open their store, and all of their futon friends things were gone. All of their futons, desks, computer, everything was gone. They had vanished in the night. All that was left was a note explaining that they were not making it, and that they felt bad, but they had to abandon ship and move to Seattle. This was quite a surprise to the vacuum people, who were left with all of the expenses of the store, but luckily their business was able to handle the bills.

The first day that the futon people were gone, they had 2 or 3 people come into their store and ask them where are all of the futons were? They could have told them that the futons were gone, and that all there were now were vacuums. Instead, they asked the potential customer what size they wanted and what color, and they knew enough about futons, and where to get them, that they were able to make a couple of sales without any futons in the store at all.

This was the beginning of a kind of a strange combination that was not planned at all, but it worked, and they had many customers who bought both a vacuum cleaner and a futon. Sometimes the futon part of our business was so busy that they had less and less time for the vacuum part of the business, so they ended up selling it to one of their competitors. This futon business has continued to grow year after year, but was never planned.

That is a story of how 2 people started a business on the side, which developed into a full time business, and then completely chaged to a different business altar. It shows how in business you must be able to adapt, and to go with the flow, in order to survive.

Resume for Chief Auditor

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Cloud Telephony - How To Use Online Cloud For Communication Purposes

Most business owners must be familiar with the term cloud telephony. It's a fast growing sector under the cloud computing market. The term basically involves an individual or an organization which can access multiple computing resources and is connected to an online network. However, it's interesting to note that the online resources we're talking about here refer to computers that are beyond your office premises and are located somewhere in the online cloud or on internet.The main idea is to access software, facilitate data storage and resource sharing without investing in installing, configuring or managing undesired additional resources.

Thus, you do not have to deal with time-consuming, tedious and boring telephonic features. You've got quick access to advanced features. You can play audio and video files, transfer calls to multiple locations and call a quick conference! There are numerous advantages of cloud telephony over traditional voice call system. Earlier, technical knowledge of business people was restricted to IVR, PBX and use of MDF or main distribution frame. By making use of cloud telephone system, you can play a greeting message, dial an extension number or record your conversation! All these enhanced voice calling features are integrated with technically advanced computer applications to create a superior system!

Prominent Benefits Of Cloud Telephony

1) You can route inbound voice calls. It means your customers just have to dial a single phone number if they wish to make queries and a prerecorded message is displayed to them (or thanks to virtual call applications) or their call call is transferred to your agents sitting on remote locations, within a couple of seconds.

2) You've a customization option for calling your customers and routing their calls by analyzing call data.

3) You can interlink your telephone system with online customer database that is you simply have to maintain an online phone directory with numbers and customer names fed in them and your system will automatically call your customers. Moreover, you can reschedule the calls that have not been answered.

4) Advanced call software provide you the facility of running polls, contests or survey results for your customers. The database software will record telephonic conversation. The answers given by your customers will be matched against the results of stored in your database and a lucky winner will have to be selected by the software.With so many advanced features associated with cloud telephony no wonder why multiple people opt for it. An office phone service is an integral part of your company which plays an important role in determining the success of your business.

Ways Young People Can Win With Money

Learning about money while you are still young is an awesome idea. Let me give you a few ideas that young people can use to really win in their financial lives.

Being realistic is key. And winning with money is realistic! This means you should use common sense, investigate investments, the markets, and the opportunities you are interested in. Read the fine print. If you were to take on debt, ask yourself if it would be worth it, or if the debt would be like an anchor. Again, be realistic. Look at the real consequences of the actions you could take. Good actions should be turned into habits.

Consider entrepreneurship. Write down business ideas. Learn the skills you need to succeed. See if your business idea is feasible by testing your product or service. If it is, type up a business plan, and get to work. Make the phone calls and do the web searches necessary to find the information you need.

Join a club or society for young entrepreneurs. Earn a business degree. The more you can learn about business, the better off you are. Being around and networking with other goal oriented, ambitious entrepreneurial types is a boon to your success. Being around the total risk averse and the complacent is not a boon to success.

Work hard at your job and / or at your business. Make a good name for yourself. If a job does not work out, do not trash your goal of being rich. Just keep plugging away and learn from your mistakes. Sales or customer service would be a good starting point if your first job is not running your own business.

While (and if) you live with your parents, sock away as much money as you can. W. Clement Stone once said, "If you can not save money, the seeds of greatness are not in you."

Learn about investments, by taking an investments class at your high school or college (taking a few more classes is better). Economics is good thing to study too. Finance and economics are tough courses but are very worthwhile. Read extracurricular books and read about your interests.

Winning with money is not always easy. Self discipline, sacrifice, frugality, hard work, managing risk, reading books, and holding on to your long term vision are essential to your success.