Incognito Journal

One of the worst things you can do in business is start the journey without a clear destination. Case in point: one of my acquaintance’s father is in the insurance industry and was put in charge of a failing district. The previous district manager was more of the “running and gunning” type. He pushed his agents nonstop and told them that the district’s only goal was to become number one in the nation.

Some years ago when I was looking to build a new home, one of my biggest concerns was building next to commercial property. My husband and I fell in love with a new master planned community, but the first phase backed up against an empty field. When I inquired about this and told our home salesperson I did not want a shopping center in my backyard, he assured me the land directly behind our lot was not zoned for commercial property.

Knowing your sales team’s strengths and weaknesses and understanding your business’ best sales performance techniques as well as its shortcomings are vital to becoming a market front runner. But how do you gain unbiased access to this critical data? That’s where mystery shopping comes in.

Mystery shopping is a powerful tool but only if it’s in the right hands. While any company can offer mystery shopping services, not all agencies are created equal. As you begin your budget planning for 2019, think carefully as you consider mystery shopping services.

There are plenty of advanced sales techniques floating around, but what about the basics? You’d be surprised how many salespeople forget the fundamentals and blow the easy ones. Give your sales team a quick refresher on the following essential steps to help perfect their sales approach: 

Facebook is an excellent resource for attracting new business and inspiring existing clients to come back for more, but how can you get the most out of your social media presence? Here are four tips to grow customer acquisition using Facebook:

Meeting or exceeding store-wide sales goals is a good indicator that your team is doing their job. But what about when they fail to meet muster or when they’re not consistently trying to go above and beyond for your customers?

Mystery shopping  is a great way for business owners to gauge the effectiveness of several aspects of their operation all at once, such as store cleanliness, sales team performance, and employee customer service skills.

Sales professionals often squirm when we mention video mystery shopping. Maybe they’ve had a bad experience, or perhaps being on film just seems too “Big Brother-ish.” When introduced properly, however, video mystery shopping can provide significant training and self-awareness value for a sales team.  

Employee performance review: It’s a phrase that even the best employees and managers often dread.

While the whole process is supposed to be a useful assessment of an employee’s strengths and weaknesses, all too often employee evaluations serve as little more than a human resources requirement. Managers may view them as a way to check off boxes rather than gleaning valuable insights from the conversations.