Sales

Useful Phrases For Doing Business In English

Posted on by blogger

When it comes to English for business youll find there are a number of expressions that you probably wont encounter in casual speech. Here are five expressions that you might hear if you are going to a business meeting or you are in a business situation.

1. Manage expectations

To manage expectations means to ensure that the client has realistic expectations. For example, a company may take an order to deliver a certain amount of products. The client, who does not know how long it takes to manufacture and prepare a product might expect in a week. When you manage their expectations you make sure they know exactly how long it will take and what to expect. In this way, the client is not disappointed, and you are not under increased pressure from an unhappy client.

Example: We need to manage their expectations so they know they will not get delivery of the product before April.

Anyone who has to deal directly with clients will need to know how to manage expectations.

2. At the 11th hour

If you do something, or deliver something at the 11th hour then you are doing it at the last minute. If you had two weeks to write a report but you leave it until the last minute, you are doing it at the 11th hour.

Example: Jane always delivers her reports at the 11th hour. One day she will miss the deadline if she is not careful.

A company might finish a project at the 11th hour, or an individual can finish a task at the 11th hour.

3. The lion’s share

The lions share is the largest share. If you are talking about a competitor and the fact that they have the lions share of the market, then they have most of the business.

Example: Martins have the lions share of the market as they make 80 percent of the sales. We need to increase our efforts to increase our market share.

This is phrase is generally used when referring to companies or organisations.

4. Dot your i’s and cross your t’s
If you are told to dot your is and cross you ts you are being told to make sure you get all the details right. You have to check and recheck your information to make sure that the end result is perfect.

Example: This project could bring in 2 million dollars in sales so make sure you dot your is and cross your ts. We need to make sure everything goes smoothly.

A manager or director will use this expression to ensure employees and other colleagues are careful when preparing the project.

5. Get your foot in the door

To get your foot in the door means to get an introduction to someone or something. You can get your foot in the door of a company by getting an introduction to the director or by selling a small amount of product to a company. If you do well and make a good impression, you can go on to increase your involvement with the client or the company.

Example: Make sure they agree to trial our latest products so that you can get your foot in the door. If they like it we can introduce the rest of our product line to them.

Both individuals and businesses can get their foot in the door.

Controlling The Financial Performance Of Your Business

Posted on by blogger

There are numerous factors which impact on the performance and viability of your business. It is therefore imperative that you monitor and control your financial performance. Debt control and budgeting are two elements of this, and of particular importance is your business cash flow.

Many profitable businesses have gone under due to a lack of attention to their cash flow; they have insufficient cash available to pay their bills. Thus, you must plan and control your cash flow in order to effectively manage your business.

Some strategies that may assist in this include:

* Increasing the speed of cash receipts by good debt control strategies

* Avoiding excessive stock holdings by managing stock levels and obtaining reliable, prompt suppliers

* Planning the purchase of equipment and other capital expenditure for periods when surplus funds exist

* Planning to have sufficient reserves to carry your business through the inevitable periods when unexpected expenses are incurred

* Avoiding excessive investment in plant, equipment and other fixed assets which may leave too little working capital available (particularly in periods of falling prices, declining sales or increasing interest rates)

* Avoiding over borrowing as this may place a strain on working capital, loans still have to be repaid even if revenue is decreasing

* Maintain adequate working capital to fund the growth as increasing sales also means increasing costs, your working capital requirements therefore, need to be continually reviewed

* Delaying outgoings by taking advantage of the credit terms offered by your suppliers and paying when it suits your cash flow

* Reducing outgoings by taking advantage of discounts when appropriate and working capital permits

* And most importantly, regularly comparing your actual cash flows to your budgeted cash flows, analysing the differences, and taking action based on this analysis

Subscribe to the UMACS Business Zone fortnightly newsletter which gives you great tools, tips and ideas on how to manage and grow your business. Subscribe now and receive a FREE e-book “Relationships that Show the Health of Your Business”. www.umacs-business-solutions.com/umacs-business-zone.html

Pharma Medical Representative Jobs Career And Overview

Posted on by blogger

Indian pharmaceutical industry is playing a key role in promoting and sustaining development in the vital field of medicines. With growing Indian Pharma market, demand for specialized pharma sales professionals has increased.

The pharmaceutical-sales is a lucrative career option because it offers excellent salary potential, opportunity for growth, great benefits and the field makes out a bit of glamour also.

Pharmaceutical companies will have their own marketing and sales strategies to introduce the drugs into the market. A drug company employee regularly visits Medical practitioners, hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, health centers and apart from that, they will take care of retail, distributor, and wholesale sales, provides information on the company’s products and maximize the prescribing of products in specific geographic area.

Role of Medical Representative/ Sales professional has become preponderant as with growing Indian Pharma market, with the advent of new product launches increasing demand for the specialized pharma sales professionals and market have turned towards sales professionals with rich experience in a focused sector.

Sales processional is expected to have greater skills and accurate product knowledge to face well informed individual and institutional customer.

The Allopathic formulations market is the largest segment in the India with an estimated 23,000 plus manufacturers, has approximately 70,000 plus brands. There are approximately about 20000 medical representatives in the country promoting products to over 10 lakh doctors. The number of pharmaceutical retailers is estimated to be 5 lakh in near future.

Among the top five therapeutic segments, Gastro-intestinal and cardiac are experiencing both high volume and value growth.

Opthologicals, cardiovascular, anti-diabetics and neurological drugs continue to top the growth list.

The anti-infective, neurology, cardiovascular and anti-diabetic segments have witnessed a high number of product launches in the recent years.

A medical representative who has a flair for marketing and can show extra-ordinary results has a variety of choices to advance into management roles. They can make a very promising career in pharmaceutical marketing on the basis of his sales performance and ability to manage customers. His sales performance is assessed on the basis of his ability to achieve targets fixed by the company. He can rise to the posts of:

Managing Director
Executive Director
President Sales
VP Sales
National Sales Manager
Zonal Sales Manager
Regional Sales Manager
Area Sales Manager
Medical Representative

The other opportunities for medical reps will include: Pharma Marketing and Consulting Services, Health and Clinical business development and etc. Medical reps are also highly preferred for Brand/Product Management roles. They can rise to the highest positions like Group Product Manager, Marketing Manager, GM Mktg, V.P Mktg, and etc.

Lap Tapping Is An Unusual Style Of Acoustic Guitar Playing

Posted on by blogger

Lap tapping is a unique guitar technique whereby the acoustic guitarist holds the instrument flat on his lap while tapping the guitar body and strings percussively while playing the melody.

A small number of technically gifted acoustic guitarists have helped develop this form of guitar playing over the years. Talented guitarists such as Ben Konstantinovic, Tony Haven and Ben Howard have very individual styles and can be seen in action on You Tube. Perhaps the best known of all is Canadian guitarist Erik Mongrain whose songs like Airtap! has enjoyed widespread coverage and racked up millions of views on You Tube. Erik Mongrain uses a unique two handed flat guitar technique which simultaneously combines percussive tapping of the guitar body and chords.

Another up and coming lap tapping guitarist is singer, songwriter Liam Iliffe from Bournemouth, UK. Liam is only 15 years old but has been playing guitar for over 8 years. Although his two handed technique is similar to Erik Mongrain, a key difference is that he tends to favour simpler melodies in his own songs given he also sings at the same time. Liam uses lap tapping primarily as a way to inject more raw emotion and drama into his acoustic compositions.

In 2012, Liam entered Live and Unsigned the UKs biggest talent competition for unsigned artists. After sailing through the auditions, Liam impressed at the Regional finals in Portsmouth and was voted through to the Southern England area finals in May 2012. He was also selected by the Live and Unsigned judges to showcase his lap tapping guitar playing at the Southampton Music festival that will be held in October 2012.

The Live and Unsigned competition also coincides with the launch of Liams debut Album Slap tapping, now available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and other major online distributors. Alongside his original songs like Our Bridge and Intervention, the album also features his unusual cover versions of Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics and the dubstep classic Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites by Skrillex.

Tapping usually incorporates pull-offs or hammer-ons as well, where the fingers of the right hand and, in the motion of removing that finger, pluck the same string already fretted at the eighth fret by the little finger of his/her left hand. It is an extended technique, executed by using one hand to ‘tap’ the strings against the fingerboard, thus producing legato notes. Tapping may be performed either one-handed or two-handed.

What Do You Mean By Auction

Posted on by blogger

An auction means a public sale of properties or objects that are sold to the highest bidder. There are a whole lot of things that can be put to auction. There are auctions that are held under various categories such as antiques and art, automotive that include vintage cars, motorcycles, accessories, etc. The other popular items include clothing and accessories of film stars and sports stars, scripts of movies, sports goods. The jewellery auctions selling intricately designed precious jewels and gem jewellery are extremely popular.

There are auction houses where you can go and bid for the things of your liking. The auction houses have a calendar holding the sale on a particular theme. You need to submit details such as name, address, telephone number and banking or credit information as is specified by the salesroom where you are going to bid. For more details go to www.mining-auction-gold.com .A unique number, known as the Client Number, is going to be allotted to you. A paddle is a plastic card bearing a number that is registered at the auction. The paddle is raised to bid and the auctioneer calls out the paddle number of the successful bidder at the time of selling each lot. When the gavel falls the auctioneer announces the hammer price. The hammer price is the final bid price, which does not include a buyers premium. The buyers premium is the money that is paid separately by the buyer to the auction house. It is a percentage of the final bid price.

Sothebys and Christies are two very famous auction houses. Samuel Baker founded Sothebys in the year 1744. However, today this premier auction house has branches on the Manhattans York Avenue and New Bond Street, London. The New York office was opened in the year 1955. In the year 1964 Sothebys acquired the Parke-Bernet, which was the largest art auction house of America. This acquisition helped Sothebys gain a sizable presence across America. For more details visit to www.auction-profits.com . James Christie founded Christies in the 18th century. A man having very charming demeanor, James Christies clientele included the British royalty as well. There are auction houses where you can go and bid for the things of your liking. The auction houses have a calendar holding the sale on a particular theme. You need to submit details such as name, address, telephone number and banking or credit information as is specified by the salesroom where you are going to bid. A unique number, known as the Client Number, is going to be allotted to you. A paddle is a plastic card bearing a number that is registered at the auction. The paddle is raised to bid and the auctioneer calls out the paddle number of the successful bidder at the time of selling each lot. When the gavel falls the auctioneer announces the hammer price. The auctions of Christies include some 80 categories. Their sales rooms in America are at the Rockefeller Center, New York and North Camden Drive, Los Angeles.

Auctions these days are not just limited to the auction houses. There are lots of websites that are into the business of auctioning. You can list the products you want to auction and invite bidders. You can specify the time when the bid closes as well as other terms and conditions. You need to specify that shipping and the other supply costs are to be borne by the buyer.