Recently, I was looking for a new camera. I was researching various models when I came across a few websites that listed them at unbelievable prices! Excited but skeptical, I dug down more and discovered these websites were shady, at best. That is, something gave me the impression they weren’t entirely trustworthy. I settled on a site with an established reputation — Amazon.com — and purchased the model I liked for what I thought was a fair price.

I’ve been buying online for a number of years. And, regardless of the current state of the economy, more and more people are buying online, too. According to one estimate, 60% of consumers shop online at least once quarterly.

As most of us are becoming more familiar, and comfortable, with purchasing from websites — as our numbers continue to grow — questionable or outright illegal selling practices are also on the rise. How do we know that the websites we’re buying from are legitimate?

Here are a few things you can check for before you make the decision to buy from any website.

1. Detailed Information

One of the most obvious signs of a website’s sincerity and competence is easy availability of information. Unless you have something to hide, there’s no reason to skimp on such things as detailed product descriptions, delivery information, pricing, and even company information — the company’s history, physical location, and a variety of ways (names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, etc.) of contacting someone at the company.

A somewhat important, but often overlooked, detail is a website’s “whois” domain registration information, on registrar sites like Godaddy or Network Solutions. Most of the shady websites I encountered had their domain owner information masked under private registrations.

Always feel free to email or call the company to get an idea about their business practices or customer service standards. See if you get hold of a “real” person or if you’re just sent to voicemail.

2. Recognized Brand

Most big-name, well-known online retailers like “Amazon.com” or “Buy.com” are safe bets, as are websites recommended by people you know or the ones  you have previously bought from (and didn’t have any complaints about). I say “most” because in rare instances, a third-party crook could be enticing you to visit a make-believe website simply to steal (or “phish”) your information.

Make sure that the address bar of your browser always begins with “http://subdomain.name-of-the-retailer.com”, where “subdomain” is “www”, “store”, or something similar. Avoid shopping from websites that have an IP (internet protocol) address — usually four sets of numbers — following the “http://” in the address bar (e.g., “http://123.456.789.012/”).

3. Encrypted Data – Secure Transaction

When you shop from a website, all information you enter (like your contact and credit card information) are transferred from your computer to their web server. You want this transfer to be encrypted and secure. That’s what the SSL (secured socket layer) certificates do, so that a third-party cannot easily “eavesdrop” on your transaction and steal your personal information.

There are two ways to ensure that a website has SSL certificate installed. First, look for “https://” in the address bar, especially when you’re in the area of the website where you’re asked for sensitive information, like the shopping cart checkout.

Second, look for a padlock icon either on the address bar or towards the bottom right of the webpage. Many sites also use logos of SSL providers. Feel free to click on those logos to verify proper encryption.

4. Clean Record – Assurance is the Key

Other things to look for are the company’s record. Check to see if the company is a member of the local Better Business Bureau. If it is, you can check for any complaints against the company and, if there were, how they handled those situations.

Also look for website reviews online. Keep in mind that sometimes these reviews can be skewed by a small number of dissatisfied customers, or jealous competitors, but look for the reviews themselves to see if they’re consistently good or bad. Consistently poor reviews indicate potential problems or a pattern of misbehavior within the company.

5. Customer Satisfaction Is Our Primary Goal

Safe shopping at Bizmanualz.com

Here at Bizmanualz, we’re mindful of the concerns our customers have about online shopping. We are proud of, and deeply thankful for, the trust thousands of customers have bestowed upon us over the 15-plus years we’ve been in business. We adhere to strict website security standards and take your privacy very seriously. Shoppers recognize this and, as a result, customers from around the world visit our website, view our samples,and buy our products.

We’d love to hear from you about your online shopping experiences, both negative and positive. Also, if you have any questions or comments about our own online security standards, please feel free to call us at 314-863-5079, contact us online, or leave a comment.

Thank you, and happy holidays!

If you want to grow your revenues, it’s important to know whether your company is driven by sales or marketing efforts. Sales driven companies grow by adding more sales people, while marketing driven companies grow by adding more marketing programs.  How do you know which one — sales or marketing — drives your company?

Try adding more salespeople (resellers or distributors), assign them a sales quota, and let them loose in a territory and see if your sales grow.  If you start getting more sales, you know your company is driven by sales.  If your sales fail to grow, try adding marketing activities. For example:

• Expand your website;
• Increase your public relations efforts;
• Add a company blog or a periodic newsletter;
• Expand your advertising or pay-per-click (PPC) program on the internet;
• Add more keyword focused pages to your internet marketing;
• Experiment with direct mail or email marketing;
• Attend (more) trade shows or events;
• Host your own conference for your customers and leads; and/or
• Add new products or enter new markets.

You can also try increasing your overall sales and marketing effectiveness by introducing more control over your sales and marketing cycle. If you’re unable to grow your sales by either adding sales people or expanding your marketing activities, it’s time for a strategic review. There are only two ways to grow your revenue — sales activities or marketing programs.

When neither of these works, it’s time to change your strategy.  Your business strategy is what drives marketing, and marketing is what drives your sales.

Sales and Marketing strategies and plans are critical for any business. Why leave them to chance?  The Bizmanualz Sales & Marketing Policies and Procedures manual contains procedures for developing strategy, adding sales people, and creating marketing activities. These prewritten and fully editable sales and marketing procedures can help you quickly and effectively take control of your sales and marketing processes to achieve consistent results.

What drives your organization? Sales? Marketing?

This week, I responded to an e-mail from a Bizmanualz reader who asked the simple question: How do we get to best practices faster? They wanted to know how best to use our products and services to address feedback from their sales department — that their processes are too long and, therefore, hamper sales. Bizmanualz will engage to whatever extent suits a customer’s need and budget. There are three options to choose from:

1. Buy whatever of our published products that you think you need or that we might recommend;
2. Start with our introductory process optimization services (outlined below); or
3. Buy the CEO series and contact me to buy two days of training to help you get started on your own.

Get coaching and personal service with our process review (option #2). Current pricing is shown in our shopping cart. Contact me for this service:

Review your current process. What are you doing now, and what do you want to improve? Here, we clarify your current work process so that we can measure improvement.

Compare your current process to Bizmanualz best-practice processes. No need to re-create processes when we already have them. We will update your processes to our best practices, saving you the trouble and expense of doing it yourself. Streamlined process maps are simple to understand and easy to implement.

Define the goals of your improvement and provide a roadmap for implementing change. Some example improvement goals:

1. Simplify the process so that they will be used by employees;
2. Increase the number of sales leads from the level identified in the current state; and/or
3. Increase the number of leads converting to sales or other desirable actions, such as signing up for a newsletter, obtaining a sample product, or requesting contact.

When you employ Bizmanualz to lead your improvement project, we customize a process for you from our extensive library of best-practice processes. Best practices are included. This saves you time and money on research and development. Our approach is to identify incremental improvements that involve and can be sustained by your current staff. Improvements are realistic, achievable, and sustainable so they’re achieved consistently and benefits add up fast.

Process Implementation Phase

I’ve described the process review engagement where the scope and pace of improvement is set.  Implementing the improvements is the next phase.

In the follow-on process implementation phase, Bizmanualz processes are delivered in all the formats — with the checklists and forms — that your people will use to follow through and practice the improvement. For the do-it-yourself-er, most of the process map formats and examples discussed here are described in a recent Bizmanualz article and commentary series, starting with “What is a Process Map?“.

A Bizmanualz quality consultant, with supporting quality engineers, writers, and communications professionals, will customize maps, job aids, and other tools for your project.  Read about the types of process maps and other tools we deliver on our site. The do-it-yourself-er can also read about project management tools and use them to manage their own project.

Anyone can comb through our manuals-product web site and select individual policies, procedures, and forms manuals or they can choose collections such as the CEO Company Policies and Procedures set.  Most CEO Series customers will benefit from a day or two of training and review, where we’ll introduce your employees to the books and tools in the CEO series and show them how to get started.

Contact me, Dan Davison, for more information about training to use the CEO series product.  Do you have comments? How can we help? Please write to me directly, or leave your comments below.

Thank you.

You’re invited to join the Group on LinkedIn. Joining will allow you to find and contact other Bizmanualz Policies Procedures members on LinkedIn. The goals of this group are to help members:

• Reach other members of the Bizmanualz Policies Procedures Group;
• Start or participate in discussions on policies, processes, and procedures (for instance, you could ask members, “What’s your company’s policy on…?”);
• Accelerate careers/business through referrals from Bizmanualz Policies Procedures Group members; and
• Know more than a name – view rich professional profiles from fellow Bizmanualz Policies Procedures Group members.

Here’s the link to join: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/86367/4EC1947970BF

Hope to see you in the group soon.

— The Bizmanualz Policies Procedures Group Leader

You have decided you need policies and procedures, but which business policies and procedures do you need?  Assess the business impact of each of your core business processes to generating revenue or introducing risk and then rank the results.  Core business processes that greatly impact your revenue or risk are where you want to start.

The Bizmanualz CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals are designed with your core business processes in mind.  The nine business procedures manuals in the series provide your entire company with examples of the primary procedures used in writing your company procedure manuals.  How do the nine procedure manuals address the core business processes?

1. Customer Strategy & Relationships (Marketing) is a good place to start.  Most businesses talk about the customer being the most important part of any business.  Well, if your customer is so critical, have you mapped out a clear customer strategy and customer relationship process?  Do you have customer strategy procedures for developing awareness and education of your business in the marketplace?  The Bizmanualz Sales and Marketing Policies and Procedures Manual provides sample policies and procedures to help you set marketing strategy, marketing tactics, and marketing planning to cover the first part of your marketing sales funnel — awareness and education.

2. Employee Development & Satisfaction is essential to your business because your employees are the ones that talk to and develop your customers.  The Bizmanualz Human Resources Procedures Manual provides example procedures for hiring, administration (e.g., personnel records, compliance), compensation, and — the most important part – developing your employees.

The HR manual also includes a sample Employee Handbook and an HR Manager’s manual to provide a complete discussion of human resources.  Keeping employees and facilities safe is the focus of the Bizmanualz Security Procedures Manual, which includes coverage of guard force management, employee conduct, emergency operations, protection, and safety.

3. Quality, Process Improvement & Change Management is driven by competition, your desire to excel at what you do and make your customers happy.  The Bizmanualz ISO 9001 QMS Procedures Manual provides a sample quality manual, the six quality procedures required by ISO 9001, and additional supporting procedures to provide a foundation for your process improvement and change management initiatives.

4. Financial Analysis, Reporting, & Capital Management is critical to fast growth companies.  Cash is the lifeblood of your company and a fast growth company consumes cash quickly.  The Bizmanualz Financial Procedures Manual has example procedures for financial administration, raising capital, managing capital, financial statement reporting, and the internal controls necessary in a fast growth company.  A controllers manual is included to provide the direction and organization for controlling your company cash.

5. Management Responsibility addresses all of your core business processes and is integral to every area of your company.  Every manual in the “CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals” covers the management of that departmental area.  Each manual provides a departmental (functional) manager’s manual that describes the departmental organization structure, major responsibilities, departmental guidelines, ethics, policies, and – of course – the primary business processes for that department.  The Bizmanualz Business Procedures Manual provides a simple, fast, and easy way to provide immediate oversight for all of your operations.

6. Customer Acquisition (Sales) is about engaging the customer and closing the sale.  The Bizmanualz Sales and Marketing Procedure Manual contains procedures for the entire sales funnel, sales process, sales administration and sales management common to organizations that have to oversee a sales force.  The Bizmanualz Accounting Procedures Manual contains procedures for controlling cash and the revenue cycle, which is a parallel and supporting activity to the sales process.

7. Product Development must obtain requirements from sales and develop products that satisfy the customer.  Therefore, product development procedures are found in both the Bizmanualz Sales and Marketing Procedure Manual and the Bizmanualz ISO 9001 QMS Procedures Manual, which contains procedures for customer requirements, as well as the design and development of new products.

8. Product/Service Delivery The Bizmanualz Accounting Procedures Manual contains procedures for shipping, receiving, and inventory control.  But since delivery is part of ISO and quality, the Bizmanualz ISO 9001 QMS Procedures Manual also provides coverage of this critical customer facing area.

9. Accounting Management is about accounting transaction management, as opposed to finance which is focused more on raising, managing, and using cash effectively.  The Bizmanualz Accounting Procedures Manual focus is on controlling operating cash receipts, cash disbursements, inventory and assets, the revenue cycle, and general accounting administration.

10. Technology Management is about all of the technology in your company.  The Bizmanualz Computer, Network and IT Procedures Manual contains procedures for IT administration, IT asset management, IT training, technical support, IT security, IT disaster recovery, and software development.  More in-depth continuity planning coverage is provided with the Bizmanualz Disaster Recovery Procedures Manual.

Business Process Policies Procedures

The Bizmanualz CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals collection is the best overall deal — you save 45% when you buy the set, compared with purchasing all nine manuals individually.  The series covers all of the core business processes in one simple bundle.  It includes manuals for:

• Financial Policies and Procedures
• Accounting Policies and Procedures
• Computer & IT Policies and Procedures
• Human Resources Policies and Procedures
• Sales & Marketing Policies and Procedures
• ISO 9001 Quality Policies and Procedures
• Security & Disaster Policies and Procedures
• Business Policies and Procedures Sampler

Every critical area of your company is now covered with the Bizmanualz CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals set.  Coverage is now easily at hand for Accounting, Administration, Customer Service, Disaster Management, Engineering, Environmental Management, Finance & Credit, Information Technology, Manufacturing, Personnel, Sales & Marketing, Security Operations, Shipping, Purchasing, Inventory, and ISO 9001 conformance.

Recently, the Bizmanualz sales team used a “swim lane” map to agree on the use and timing of its new sales tools.  Before that, though, we collected all of our sales presentations, product descriptions, proposals, and contracts and used them to update our sales implementation binder.  We not only created this physical “home” for the information but we duplicated it on our network.  This binder was designed to help us standardize how we talk about our services.

Even with the sales tools collected and standardized in this way, we were getting more variance than we were willing to accept in terms of the length of the sales process, final configuration of the service, and the customer’s expectations.

Looking for root causes, we determined that the sales tools we had created were being deployed at different stages in the sales process by different people.  Though we had information on when was the best time to use each tool — for example, we knew it was counterproductive to send a written proposal before confirming a shared understanding with the prospective customer, and we’d developed one-page illustrations and short slide decks to help with that – the issue of correct timing had not been adequately communicated to everyone.

Bizmanualz’ sales team worked together on this swim lane map to arrive at a consensus on when to deploy proposals and other sales tools (click graphic to enlarge).

Timing is Everything

We had not clarified when to use each tool, so in practice our sales process had not been fully implemented.  Getting the sales team in on creation of a swim lane map helped us hash out the best timing and implementation of each tool. We agreed that implementation would be based on customer behaviors that we could observe and document.

Our swim lane map shows us establishing a shared understanding with the customer using a visual presentation, and also gaining acceptance to configuration and price. Only then do we propose terms and conditions.  Has a shared understanding been established? What have we observed that confirms our perception? Have we received a written correspondence? Yes: issue proposal.

By mapping it out, we could visualize the implications of using the wrong tool at the wrong time. We could see that offering a formal proposal too early could throw us into a loop of confusion, delays, and revisions. By confirming expectations one step at a time, we could literally see on the map that we would be driving up customer satisfaction, one of the key metrics we use to run the company.

I got a piece of spam today from “The Warrior Sales Academy”.  Two things immediately popped into my head.  One, they’re trivializing the unpleasant but sometimes necessary things soldiers do.  (You want to be a “warrior”?  Really?)

Two, we’re not in the Dark Ages.  Conciliation is preferable to confrontation.  Collaboration trumps the “pillage and plunder” mindset.  Selling is first and foremost about establishing – then building – healthy relationships.   What value do you give them in return for the money they give you?  Are you offering greater value than your competitors?  Are you always looking to improve?

Look at the quality management system process model, as depicted in ISO 9001:2008 (figure 1).  See where the customer is?

Here, the customer is the alpha and omega of the quality management system.  Organizations that implement quality management systems ensure customer satisfaction — they meet the customer’s requirements, and then some.

Contrast the ISO process model with the warrior process model (Figure 2):

Do you really expect to get – and keep – customers when you go after them like barbarians on Rome?  Look at what clause 1.1(b) of ISO 9001 says:

“This (standard) specifies requirements for a quality management system where an organization…aims to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for continual improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.”

Seems pretty simple but as the saying goes, “If it was that simple, everyone would be doing it.”

So, what are you?  A warrior, or a builder?  If you’re not having any luck as a warrior, it’s probably time to take the ISO 9001 approach.

Seen hanging on an office wall:

Rule 1: Customer is always right.
Rule 2: If you think the customer is wrong, refer to rule 1.

In essence, this is not that different from what McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc said – “if you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.”

Some might argue that not all customers have high integrity and they will take advantage of your customer-centric attitudes. That may be true in rare instances, but if you have a product that the customer needs or wants, and if you have a business culture that focuses on maximizing customer satisfaction, the benefits far surpass the any small disadvantages.

I moved into a new house this past weekend. To help me move, I chose a local mover who was referred by one of my wife’s colleague. The mover came over to my previous dwelling, looked at what we had and gave us an estimate – a very competitive estimate. It seemed like he said “we’ll make you happy” after every sentence.

He meant every letter of what he said. He and his crew indeed made us very happy. They took very good care of our stuff, placed the furniture exactly where they belonged and stacked the boxes such that the lighter ones were always on top. They were thoroughly professional, yet took the time to share some jokes and stories with us.

I am sure lots of movers do the same things my mover did. That’s not the point. From the day we first talked about moving, my mover made it clear, not by his words but by his actions that we were all that mattered to him that day. It’s no surprise then, that he was very enthusiastically referred to us by my wife’s colleague. And, when I have to refer a mover to someone, I have a name clearly etched on my mind. As the advertising mastermind Bill Bernbach put it, “word of mouth is the best medium of all.”

Taking care of your customer, listening to them and acting on their best interest pays off. After all, the primary goal of any business is to provide goods or services to its customers. So why not treat such an important component with utmost priority?

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

An interesting change took place at Microsoft Live Search over the weekend. It turned into Bing! After MSN Search and Live comes what Microsoft calls a “decision engine.” With a new name, a new look, and some new thinking, the software giant is clearly trying to play catch-up with Google.

At a first glance, Bing looks pretty nice. The start page has a clean and welcoming interface, although Live Search had a similar look and feel as well. Search types (images, videos, news etc.) are on the left side as opposed to the conventional top. With the addition of Shopping and Travel options, Bing is apparently hoping to score more relevancy points with its users.

Once you enter a search term or phrase, the result page is pretty clean and inviting too. Once again, the left side is reserved for related search and search history. The links for search types, however, now move to the top.

I like the search history because it leaves a trial so I can trace when I am shooting search phrases like crazy.  Enter a term like “digital cameras” and the refinement options (yes, on the left side) are pretty nice too.

As a user, I am thrilled that there are no ads cluttering my result pages. But, as an AdCenter advertiser, I am not very pleased that my ads are not showing for my target keywords. I would think that this is temporary and ads will soon start showing up.

No matter how appealing the interface, ultimately, it’s the results that matter. For years, MSN Search and, later, Live, have been plagued by lack of relevant search results. It remains to be seen how Bing serves up search results. Early indications, based on my own sample phrases, were mixed. In some aspects, the results seem to give me what I was looking for, while at other times, they were not much different than a Live search result.

Google commands almost 65% of the search market share. At only 8%, Microsoft has a lot of catching up to do. With their muscle power, they have the capability to make big strides, but if history provides any lesson, it will not be easy. Already I am hearing comments about the Bing homepage not being friendly to color blind people, and the image search being slow. But these could be launch related hiccups.

So Microsoft cannot say “bingo!” yet. In their announcement, Microsoft says that it started over. This demonstrates a desire to seriously compete in the search marketplace (as if we didn’t know that). As for me, I am very happy with Google for now. But it doesn”t mean that I can’t use another search engine if the results are to my liking. After all, competition is the key to innovation and if two giants are competing something good might come out.

“AdWord’s real-time targeting and reporting provide advertisers with the most nimble and efficient way to reach customers during these tight times,” according to Google. In a recent announcement on its AdWords site, Google lists six tactics that will help advertisers be more relevant to their customers.

Relevancy is always important no matter how good or bad the times are. As more and more people get into online advertising (and Google is by far the most dominant player), the bids have gone up and, at times, ROIs have trended downwards. So advertisers have to be smarter to get the maximum bang for their bucks.

Here are the six tactical tips from Google:

1. Focus your adds on low prices and savings.
   In tough economic times the consumers focus on prices, deals and savings. So, if you have saving events or promotions going on, by all means, talk about them in your ad text.
2. Use value-related keywords.
   Deal-conscious customers are looking for discounts and bargains. Adding discount-related words like coupon, discount or saving can boost your ads’ performance.
3. Make sure your ad groups are targeted and relevant.
   Incorporating the ad group’s keywords in the ad text and headlines tend to make the ads perform better. Look for such opportunities in your campaigns.
4. Don’t waste money on irrelevant clicks.
   Wrong keywords not only attract people not interested in your products, they also drain your ad budget. Using negative keywords can help filter out unrelated traffic.
5. Make it easy for customers to buy.
   Choose your landing pages wisely. Send visitors directly to the product or the promotion page.
6. Focus your money on your high-performers.
   Work on what is working. Tools like Google Conversion Tracking help you better understand which ads or keywords are actually producing the desired results for you.

At the end of the day, online advertising is a dynamic field. Things are constantly in flux. As an advertiser, you have to be mindful of these changes, whether they be competitive pressures, consumer preferences or other internal or external factors. And make changes where required.