Afton Village – AV Management Company – Sales & Leasing


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Behind every winning sales team there is a great sales manager!

The sales strength of a company lies within the just one person; the sales manager.  Whereby some might be pronounced to state that the results of the sales department are the collective results of a team, I strongly believe that it is the sales manager who contributes 80% of the success of the sales team, whilst the remaining 20% can be attributed to the individual flairs and collective spirits. The sales manager is the key element within that department and thus has tremendous impact on the sales and productivity.

Do you believe that a bad or unproductive sales manager can have a negative effect on your company’s sales?  We all know the answer to that question.  With the same line of reasoning, a good and effective sales manager will leave a positive impact on sales!

For us to understand the impact a sales manager has on a company’s sales we have to understand the role of the sales manager and how this has a bearing on sales.  The central role of the sales manager means that the individual holding that post can leave an impression in areas like;

·        Staff moral – demotivation at the place of work resulting in poor performance, also possibly resulting in staff turnover,

·        High staff turnover – increasing the company’s costs of training, decreasing sales as new staff cannot reach high levels of sales, apart from the loss of company assets being in the sales experiences lost,

·        Bad recruitment – roping inside the company people with the wrong sales skills or with little sales skills will have a bad effect on sales and the sales team,

·        Teamwork – breaking the team spirit with the sales staff is detrimental as teamwork generates problem solving ideas, leads and a positive work environment,

·        Lack of product knowledge and belief – how can a person sell something he does not know and believe in?  Sales staff must be trained on a product and it is  the sales manager must first sell to them the fact that the product they are going to sell is the best on the market,

·        No direction – every team needs a captain who can give direction.  Sales staff cannot go out selling without direction,

·        Control – no controls are just as bad as too much controls.  If the sales manager does not achieve the right balancing act here this can result in serious staff demotivation that can have a negative impact on sales,

·        Desk syndrome – managers have a tendency to get infected by the desk syndrome, surrounded by paper work leaving them little or no time to leave the office and meet clients and customers.  No other disease can be so fatal for a sales manager than this,

·        Communication – sales people are communicative people and thus feel the need to have an effective communication channels within the department and also within the company.  Sales people can then get disheartened when sales managers do not serve as a  two-way bridge between the sales team and the company keeping them informed on all developments and serving as a feedback channel,

·        Resistance to new ideas – new ideas that can generate sales will probably come from those people that have greatest interaction with the clients and consumers.  The sales manager must be able to adopt new ideas coming from anywhere to achieve results.

These are some of the areas where a sales manager can have a negative impact within the sales team.  Similarly, if these areas are well managed the effect would be positive.  So what is the morale of the story?  Sales managers are not successful sales professinals who are then given a promotion.  Like any other management position the sales manager needs to be a professional in his area of competence.  This is more important than in other ares because the sales manager is the only manager in your organisation responsible for income – all other managers represent costs!  Mentor him or her well!

 

Afton Village – AV Management Company – Residential Sales


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Hiring Super Sales People and Sales Managers

Hiring successful sales people and sales managers requires a scientific process, not a resume and interview ritual.  You’ve probably been fooled many times from a great impression at the interview, and then the person didn’t cut it.  S/he either quit, got fired or worse yet, s/he is still with you under producing.  Well these mistakes can be avoided, along with all the lost customers and associated expenses for training, salary, etc., by using my recruiting process.

 

The Science of Sales Person Selection

 

There are certain elements present and/or absent and/or mixed in proportions that determine selling and sales management success.  (See the White Paper described at the end of this article).  So in order to hire super sales people companies must:  Measure the amounts of each element; determine what mixes and what doesn’t; decide what can be changed or improved in the time allotted to change it; analyze findings; Interview candidates that tested positive and make your selection. 

 

This science is 96% accurate for selecting successful sales people for any industry.  That’s better than 9 super sales people for every 10 you choose.  Selling success means the person is an over-achiever and/or a top producer on your selling team.    Think of all the sales people you’ve hired and determine how many of them stayed with you and turned out to be top producers.

 

Selling Success Is Not a Personality Score

 

These elements are not to be confused with personality traits that are described and measured using a variety of personality tests – Meyers Briggs, DISC, etc.  These tests (although valuable for certain things) describe behavioral traits, but do not indicate (1) if a person can sell, (2) if a person wants to sell, (3) if a person has the skills to sell, and (4) if a person can sell for your company.  Now if you’re a CEO or sales manager in-need of someone to fill a selling void or generate needed sales, you’d like to know your selection has 1, 2, 3 and 4 and can hit the road running.

 

The Selling Success Elements

 

There are 4 critical strengths required for selling success – desire, commitment, outlook and accountability.  Commitment and desire are mandatory.  Outlook can be changed and accountability is manageable.

 

There are 5 weaknesses that everyone has.  The amounts and combination of these weaknesses will determine the overall effectiveness of the person.  That is; if someone is really flush with desire, commitment, outlook and accountability, but is encumbered with some or all of the weaknesses, his or her selling effectiveness will diminish proportionally.  The weaknesses relate to money sensitivity, need for approval, self image, personal buying traits, and emotional involvement.

 

Next are selling skills and a selling process that are more comprehensive than showing-up, presenting and expecting a purchase.  These include, getting to the right people, effective interviewing, fitting solutions to defined problems better than alternatives, securing commitment, managing accounts, prospecting, networking, territory development, and so on.

 

All of these strengths, weaknesses and skills can be measured either (1) in an interview by someone savvy questioning and listening for the elements – not many people are competent at doing this, or (2) from a test that gathers information, compiles it, gauges it and validates it regarding these strengths, weaknesses and skills.

 

Selling for Your Company

 

Obviously the person has to be able to sell, but whether or not someone can sell for your company will center on elements defining your type of sale – simple vs. complex; big ticket vs. small; titles the person has to connect to; highly competitive vs. specialty, etc.

 

Finally your type of management must be compared to the style that the person works best with – micro vs. macro management; coaching vs. left alone to survive; tolerant vs. nothing but results.  There are more, and all need to be compared – candidate to company.

 

What to Do to Assure Success

 

Although measuring the elements sounds like a lot of work, the task can be relatively simple.  Devise a test that measures these elements or use proven, existing ones.  Now if you get caught up in the cost of testing, just ask yourself what a failed sales person costs?  And if you get caught-up in the predictability, look to the longevity and satisfied users.

 

Unfortunately, measuring the elements is not all that’s required.  You will need to have a recruiting step.  That is, writing an ad that draws the right type of person and searching the various companies, websites, and other venues where your right person will be hanging around. 

 

This leads us to determining what the right person should look like.  What experiences, salary levels, and successes s/he should have.  Finally, your interviewing process must be set-up to see if chemistries match and to explore red flags indicated by the elements test.

 

This is the recruiting process and now I invite you to learn more about it.

Afton Village AV Management Company – Sales & Leasing Office


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Accounting Outsourcing-takes your Company to a New Height

To earn profit is the motto of any business. Before starting any new business, all big and small organization plans about their various departments. In any business organization, we find branches like human resource, technical branch, public relation, administrative department and last but not the least the accountant department. The accounts department is a very important section. To calculate the profit and loss of any business requires a lot of brainwork. If a single penny is calculated wrongly, then a company has to suffer a huge loss. Accuracy is the trademark of accountancy. Therefore, it is very necessary that a company hires an efficient accountant who could look after all their dealings regarding account in a proper way. Today, accounting outsourcing is getting much prominence. And companies are finding it more effective than hiring any individuals from the accounts background.

Accounting section is the heart and soul of any organization. The work involves lots of patience and dedication. Accounting is a huge task and involves many things like maintaining balance sheets, making profit and loss statements. It also includes things like maintaining journal sheets, keeping a track of the ledger books, having a thorough check on the bank reconciliation statements and many more things. An accountant should be very accurate in his dealings. His minute wrong may prove to be a big blunder. Companies are finding offshore outsourcing accounting very effective. It is capable to give them an error free work as well as analyzing their status in the market.

An accountant is an important organ of an organization. He needs to work on accounting, bookkeeping and financial outsourcing needs. There are many private firms that offer accounting outsourcing

facility at a much cheaper price. You need to hire the best professional for your organization for keeping all your accounts correctly. An expert accountant not only takes care of your finance but he will also give you a clear picture as where does your company stand in the present competitive market. Internet is the easiest way to get information about the various private firms that provide accounting outsourcing. India excels in the field of accounting outsourcing. United States, United Kingdom any many other countries are taking the accounting outsourcing services from India. Accounting outsourcing from India is very cheaper and job quality is excellent.

There are several advantages of accounting outsourcing. They are-(1) An offshore accounting outsourcing is reliable and competent and simplify the work.(2) The accounting outsourcing relieves the company from the tedious job of accounting bookkeeping and (3) Accounting outsourcing saves office space and related expenditure.

Accounting outsourcing is cost effective. The owners can rely upon this new trend of accounting outsourcing. They can now feel that their company is in the safe hand. Accounting outsourcing is flourishing day by day. And companies are taking full advantage of it. Accounting outsourcing is a fast growing business. Internet will help you to know about the various firms that provide accounting outsourcing. Accounting is a tough job and basically owners do not have much idea regarding it. They rely on their account departments for that or they opt for accounting outsourcing.

Do you have a Chase checking account?


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Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi speaks to Bill Black, a former federal regulator and a professor of economics and law about how US banks are allegedly using accounting procedures to cover up their losses.

DIY Accounting Limited Company Accounting Software

DIY Accounting produce Accounting Software for UK limited liability companies which consists of teamplates on excel spreadsheets, suitable for any small limited company aimed at automating monthly profit and loss account and a set of final company accounts with balance sheet ready for publication.

As the whole small business accounting software for a limited liability company is written on excel spreadsheets all bookkeeping transactions are visible. The excel spreadsheets have 12 monthly sheets in each work book. Prime data entry excel spreadsheets being provided for sales, purchases, cash, bank, savings account and credit card account. Financial transactions such as sales or expenses are then simply listed on the appropriate months? sheet. And changes or errors can easily be rectified by simply deleting errorsa or entering new information. This simple listing process is a huge advantage to non accountants as no previous bookkeeping or accountancy software knowledge is required.

Bank spreadsheets can be entered by listing the items that appear on the bank statement and include a box to enter the statement balance each month. The formulae within the excel spreadsheet then automatically checks that the entries made agree with the statement balance producing effective bank reconciliation. A good feature that ensures entries are recorded accurately in the companies accounts.

The simple bookkeeping entries that have been made to the sales,purchases and the bank statement is automatically transferred to the financial accounting file. In this file is a trial balance which actually automates all the double entry accounting transactions. No entries are required removing the need for users to have accounting experience. The Trial Balance is purely an accounting solution, visible and contains an audit check to again ensure the company accounts are accurate with no entries are required. The lack of entries in the area of accounting makes the product an ideal package for companies requiring a small business accounting software package.

Within the financial accounting software file is an automated monthly profit and loss account to enable limited companies to track their financial performance and very important, the package also produces a balanced profit and loss account and Balance Sheet in the correct format for submission of the final accounts. This set of final accounts automatically gathering the financial information from the basic entries made and includes the statutory notes required for a set of company accounts being published.

The package is equally suitablke for both vat and non vat registered business with vat returns produced at the touch of a button each quarter. To produce a vat return clients simply go to the vat file and select the quarter end date from a drop down menu and the figures for the vat return are automatically generated. The vat calculations can be disabled by non vat registered small businesses by simply changing the standard vat rate from 17.5 to zero making the accounting software suitable for both vat registered and non vat registered businesses.

The fixed asset schedule is preset with the capital allowance tax rates to automatically calculate capital allowances when fixed assets are entered. Depreciation is also automatically calculated with preset percentages that can be changed as required.

The limited company corporation tax liability is also calculated automatically in such a way that all the calculations; additions and deductions are both automated and visible. Capital allowances on both existing and new assets being shown on the corporation tax calculation.

Accountancy Knowledge Required

The limited liability company accounting software is based upon single entry of transactions requiring no accounting or bookkeeping knowledge. All the accounting knowledge required to perform the double entry of transactions which is a required feature to produce a balance sheet has been automated. The company accounts package has a feature so that the previous years? figures may be entered and lists of opening debtors and creditors recorded. A minimal level of accounting knowledge is required to correctly list the closing debtors and creditors and check the totals of those lists agrees with the automated balances shown on the company accounts balance sheet

Very Low Priced

At £15 the accounting software can save many businesses exempt from a full audit the need to employ an accountant potentially saving hundreds of pounds in professional fees. Hundreds of small limited companies with up to 20 employees also purchase the DIY Accounting Payroll Software which is sold separately from £14.99 and fully integrates into the Financial Accounting Software.

Other Features

The product has a stock control feature to monitor any stock losses. The limited company accounting software contains a wages interface that fully integrates the DIY Accounting Payroll Software when those files are saved into the same folder as the accounting software files. Being written on excel spreadsheets all transactions are visible and capable of being changed by for example overwriting any errors as opposed to a database system that requires new transactions to be entered to reverse previous entries. The sales and purchase spreadsheets include columns for entering CIS tax deductions and payments and the certificate numbers. The CIS tax being then automatically entered on the self assessment tax return. As the small business accounting software is written on excel spreadsheets then it is essential that users have a version of excel from 1998 onwards installed to use the program. The accounting software also works fine with an Open Source spreadsheet package.

Conclusion: to Buy or not to Buy

Exceptionally good value, very easy to use and produces exactly what every small limited company requires in a small business accounting software package, automated accounts requiring no bookkeeping skills and no previous financial accountancy software experience with the valuable end product of a fully automated final set of accounts for the limited liability company.

Gleim Financial Accounting Made Easy is an introductory course that: Improves understanding of the double entry system, ie, the basic bookkeeping process. Teaches you how to prepare and use financial statements using interactive examples. Study Unit 3, The Basic and Expanded Accounting Equations, explains: 1.The basic accounting equation: Assets equal Liabilities plus Equity 2.Assets, 3.Liabilities, 4.Equity, 5.The expanded accounting equation: Assets plus Expenses equal Liabilities plus Equity plus Revenue 6.Revenues, and 7.Expenses.