Do you constantly wish that there were more than 24 hours in a day? Well, you obviously cannot extend day length but you can definitely indulge yourself in some efficient time management. Time is no doubt one of the most precious resources that you can put to use and so here are some apps that will make it much easier to manage your time.
1. Todoist
If you are feeling overwhelmed with all the tasks at your disposal, then Todoist is the app for you. It will remind you which things to do and when, and will make sure that everything that’s on your to-do list gets done in time. This way you will be able to efficiently manage your time and will not have to worry about missing out any of your tasks ever.
2. Rescue Time
If you are seeing that you are not being able to complete your work on time every day, then this app will help you identify the activities which are wasting your time. Rescue time will send your reports every week.
3. Workflow
Workflow is a new app that allows you to automate processes on your device and integrated with a variety of apps. The best thing about this app is that it is highly customizable. Workflow can be integrated with other apps like Facebook to help you be on track with your tasks all day.
The app is only available on iOS unfortunately, and it is individual for each device. That means that if you created workflows on your iPhone, you won’t be able to pull them up on your iPad.
4. MeetFox
Another tool that helps you work more efficiently, especially if your day is packed with customer meetings, is MeetFox. MeetFox helps you get meetings in all automatically without the hassle and also lets you charge for those.
Your sales numbers are low, all your promising leads let you down, and worst of all your boss wants to sit with you and see your pipeline. It’s the 3rd time in a row that you have not met your monthly target and you are now feeling the pressure…
This is your first sales job so you are aware that your experience is limited. Nonetheless, you are working 60 hours a week and still not delivering your quota.
A few tips on to help you sell like a pro:
1. Know what you are selling!
Make sure you take the time to properly learn the ins and outs of what you are trying to offer. Whether it being a product or service, make sure you test it out yourself, ask different team members, and sure you know the details of what you are trying to sell. You are the ambassador of the company, therefore, make sure you can answer questions regarding your service/product.
2. Become a market expert in your field
Use Google alerts to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, new discoveries, updates in your field. Information is power, therefore, the more you are seen as a Thought Leader, the more clients will take you seriously as you are seen as knowledgeable and aware of the market challenges and solutions.
3. Prepare for objection handling
The best sales expert know the competition very well and are able to answer hard questions as to why their product is the best fit. Know your USP’s and be prepared to answer tough questions regarding your pricing, positioning in the market, certain features..etc.
4. Listen to your client’s answers
Let your client speak more than you. Listen to their problems and needs and find a creative solution specifically for them. Listening is key to building relationships!
5. Grow that pipeline!
Always make sure that your pipeline is filled with a healthy amount of leads, qualified leads, opportunities..etc. The most efficient way to is to use software to help you manage your time. There are many different kinds of software out there that could be a real game-changer for you. Make sure to find and choose the ones that fit you most.
6. ‘Always be closing’
Always try to close the deal after trust is established. If you never ask, you may never know how committed the other party is to closing the deal. Try to find creative solutions and that sense of urgency to gain new customers.
Overall, selling like a pro is a truly a numbers game, so what are you waiting for?!??! Happy Selling!
An English nobleman and writer once said that “time is what we want most, but what we use worst”. Everyone can relate to this sentiment, and I certainly face this challenge on a daily basis. It’s seemingly impossible to get everything done on time, while more and more tasks pile up. All this is even truer for companies, both big and small. Time equals money. Thus, the highest priority for companies is to allocate time efficiently and understand how that time is being spent. That’s why some really cool companies have popped up to start helping us out with this age old problem. What they all have in common is this – they know that we all have limited time, and that we value this time. Their goal is to help us use this time in the best and most efficient way possible.
The Replicon website has a great line – “the ability to intelligently use their time is what sets exceptional companies apart”. Replicon found out that 1,000 people equals around 2 million hours. But there’s a catch. You’ll only get those 2 million hours if you utilize the time properly – that’s where they come in. Replicon is obsessed with time with products called TimeBill, TimeCost, and TimeAttend. They take a really professional approach to time management and designed themselves to work for large companies. Replicon helps professional services teams align their entire workflow and smoothen the entire process of running a company.
This Norwegian company Timely developed a fully automatic time tracking solution. It works by improving timesheet accuracy, increasing project profitability, and optimizing team performance. The tool works on nearly every device under the sun, which is great in a world where everyone is constantly on the move. Time is timely’s biggest obsession (as their name suggests). Timely wants to make the process of time management as intuitive and straightforward as possible. What sets Timely apart is that it wants to make the time management task automatic – and it seems to be doing that extremely well.
This Las Vegas-based company wants to increase your productivity by at least 22% by making sure you’re using your time in the best possible way. They also claim that people already using their tool save an average of $37,000 a year in lost time. If that’s not enough incentive to start managing your time better, then I don’t know what is. There are already 83,000 people using Time Doctor, which is not surprising for such a great tool. It combines time use tracking, powerful reports, and integrations with almost anything. All in all, a great company whose goal is to make you and your business more focused and increase your productivity. Highly recommended!
WebWork Time Tracker takes a simpler approach to time management and employee time tracking. Its offer is straightforward and includes features such as screenshots, activity level monitoring, online reports, activity descriptions, and billable hours. The app is also able to distinguish between time spent on entertainment, social media, and actual work. It is surprising to see how much time you spend on things that aren’t actual work.
If you need a professional, all-in-one, cloud-based project and time management solution, Wrike is your best bet. Wrike has a few goals in mind: to simplify planning, to streamline workflow, to gain visibility, and to enable collaboration. These aren’t just “nice to haves” but crucial elements of a successful company. Wrike doesn’t want you to spread your work across ten different tools and so it helps you organize everything you need in one place. It also combines automation and sophisticated analysis and management technologies to help you run your company. This Silicon Valley company says it best – keep your priorities straight and your goals in sight. That’s what Wrike does best.
This cool company takes a more niche approach to time management by focusing on legal professionals. It also does things differently by making the whole process autonomous. WiseTime captures every minute you work in your private timeline and allocates it to the correct client and case. This means that as a legal professional there won’t be any manual tracking and no thinking about timekeeping. The whole process is seamless and the tool integrates with a variety of billing systems so that you don’t have to change the way you work. It also does a great job of helping you manage teams and in general, makes your life a bit less stressful. What more can you ask for?
SaaS sales is a complicated business. There are tons of factors involved and a relatively high number of steps needed to close a deal. Most SaaS deals require a high level of attention to detail and near-constant follow up with the potential clients. Thankfully, great entrepreneurs have come together to help solve some common problems and make the entire process of SaaS company management just a bit easier. Below, I’ve compiled a list of really cool companies whose sole purpose is to make the lives of SaaS companies easier and more efficient.
These guys have developed something really cool. The Recapped tool acts as a way to manage a SaaS deal from start to finish while collaborating directly with your client. Furthermore, the tool turns a deal into a collaborative experience, keeping both you and the client accountable throughout the process. Its minimalistic design and simple approach make it an awesome tool for improving the way you interact with prospects and ultimately increases your conversion rates.
This one is a little bit different as it focuses on a few stages of the sales process. Reply puts a stronger focus on communicating with your leads and prospects. Mainly reply helps you supercharge your sales team by making the contact with your leads and prospects more consistent as well as more personal. Reply is definitely a kind of all-in-one solution for your company’s sales team.
Solvemate takes the entire process of customer chat support and vastly improves it. For example, it automates the chat support so that most inquiries can be solved without human involvement. By doing so, Solvemate knows when to route the user to a relevant human team member. This helps out SaaS companies by acting as a huge time saver. It’s difficult to balance the need to be a customer-centric company while focusing most of the efforts on acquiring new business and product development. For a lot of startups, no one team member is usually dedicated to answering chat support questions. However, those questions still need to be answered somehow. Each visitor is a potential client, and that’s the problem that Solvemate solves.
Basecamp is describes itself as the gold standard for managing projects, working with clients, coordinating with contractors, and communicating with your team. It centralizes all of your usual work processes into one simple solution. It removes the need to have a separate project management, email, or communication tool. All in all, basecamp solves a lot of problems at once and it’s clear that its main goal is to make the lives of SaaS companies a bit easier.
Above all, Redbooth helps teams manage tasks and communication so projects are completed faster and easier. What’s extra cool about Redbooth is that it uses AI technology to improve task and project management. In a tech world that is becoming increasingly more complicated and harder to manage, a tool like this is consequently much needed. Redbooth’s main focuses are organizing processes, improving communication between team members, and optimizing the visual aspect of project management. It ultimately makes managing a SaaS company a smarter and more efficient process.
Any sales team that respects itself (and that calls itself a true salesforce) needs to have a way to manage the clients it speaks to. It’s not enough to just call and email clients, hoping for the best, and playing it by ear. A huge part of any sales person’s job is to manage clients so that they’re aware of what happened, what needs to happen, and what the next steps will be. Companies underestimate how many potential clients are lost due to simple misplacings and disorganized sales practices. Simple Excel spreadsheets just don’t cut it anymore, nowadays we’re lucky to have a ton of fantastic Customer Relationship Management software designed to make sales teams’ jobs easier and more efficient. Below, I’ve compiled a short list of 4 companies who take the CRM business very seriously, and do a great job at it!
Salesboom defines itself as the launching pad, command center, and rocket ship to blast your business into the next world. While very imaginative, Salesboom really does do a great job in creating a seamless CRM experience. Salesboom is robust, professional, and seems to be integrated with almost everything (Skype, Facebook, Google, Twilio, Slack, and many more). The software is also fully customizable and can be tailored to fit your current or future business processes. Since it’s so customizable, this CRM is perfect for pretty much any user – just choose what you need most and work with that.
What makes Apptivo special is that it puts its focus on both their clients (you) as well as the clients you’ll hopefully acquire. Their testimonials mention their fantastic customer support – a thing that is super important when using complicated professional software. Apptivo also seems to have an endless list of features and a solid system that makes the entire software scalable. A good CRM should work for small businesses starting out as well as for larger and more successful ones (hopefully the small businesses become successful). That is exactly what Apptivo does right and that is why people love it. One more thing – Apptivo has a great app which makes it all the better for managing clients when you’re away from your computer.
What makes Yetiforce stand out? Flexibility and innovativeness. That’s how Yetiforce describes itself and it seems that they’re pretty spot on. First off, Yetiforce is open source which already puts it in a group of its own. It takes a community approach to improve the tool and wants you – the client – to take part in that process. There’s no better way to know what your clients want than to ask them, and that’s what Yetiforce does. It’s a reassuring feeling that Yetiforce puts such a strong focus on their clients because it means that their CRM will strengthen the relationships with your clients. The CRM’s UI is great, it’s easy to use, and everything is simple to install and manage. The best part? It’s free!
SuiteCRM is a fully customizable enterprise ready and feature-rich CRM solution. It takes a similar approach to Yetiforce by being open source and also has the benefit of being extremely customizable. SuiteCRM is highly professional with a specific gearing towards enterprise businesses. It offers great technology independence and flexibility, minus the headache of license fees. SuiteCRM’s community is huge, and that’s not an exaggeration. It has a total of 4 million users with 107K community members. It also works in 69 languages and 2,074 translators involved with making this a great CRM tool. SuitCRM’s entire strategy is to “listen to the people” by letting them take part in developing the tool itself. All-in-all, a fantastic open source CRM tool.
Meetings are a crucial element of any company or business that takes itself seriously. It makes people interact directly and generate ideas more quickly. Moreover, many complicated ideas are better expressed verbally, and physical cues and body language makes the whole process more natural and understandable. Here’s the deal, meetings are great and a necessary fact of business life, but they also require some planning which can get very annoying very fast. Behind every meeting is someone who plans it. This person, as hardworking as they may be, can often find the task annoying and complicated. Many proudly proclaim that they hate meetings and are always finding way to delegate them to someone else. I’ve outlined 7 things that pretty much everyone hates about planning their meetings. Let’s jump right in to it!
1. The back and forth needed to plan a meeting
“Are you available at this time?” “When is the best time” “Are you free on Monday?”. Anyone who’s dealt with meeting planning is familiar with these awful questions. As a meeting planner, you’ll often find yourself sitting and making call after call, sending email after email just to find a time that works for everyone. Even though for small companies these might not be an issue, the moment you grow beyond 10 people (and let’s be honest, most businesses are far larger than that) finding the right time for everyone becomes an impossible feat. At some point, in the midst of intense scheduling and planning, you might start asking yourself whether it’s worth it at all! But don’t worry, it gets better (or worse).
2. The hassle of coordinating all the meetings participants
This might sound similar to the previous point, but it’s not exactly the same. Every meeting has a purpose, and everyone meeting attendee has a role to fill. You, as the almighty meeting planner, need to make sure that everyone shows up with the right documents, facts, and information to make this meeting worthwhile. You’ll often find that people take meetings as a time to relax and kick-back from daily work. This means your friendly coworkers show up unprepared and empty handed. Bigger companies are more complicated, and divisions might not be 100% coordinated at any given moment. You’re (difficult) job is to make sure that everyone is on the same page. This ties in nicely with my next point.
3. Actually sitting down and planning how the meeting is structured
You probably saw this coming. Talking is nice, but actually sitting down with yourself and planning the meeting is definitely easier said than done. In many ways, you need to plan the time you’ll plan your meeting. This means taking time out of your busy day and really thinking about how to make this meeting work. You can use one of the thousands of software, calendars, and to do lists or even a good old pen and paper. Either way, you have to make sure that the planning really takes place. Many people make the mistake of thinking that meetings don’t require planning and that you’ll just wing it. Lots of people also confuse lack of planning with being ‘dynamic’. While the word ‘dynamic’ is definitely a cool one it’s a poor strategy for planning a quality meeting. Next point talks about what happens when you’re too dynamic.
4. Making sure that the meeting isn’t too long
This is one of the most difficult ones. You know how it is, you start talking, someone says a joke, another says a story, before you know what’s happening people are talking about their summer plans and Jeff’s trip to Thailand (you only heard his story 20 times). Hopefully, you really get along with your coworkers, which is fantastic. The issue is that this can lead to a huge waste of time and the meeting going over time. When you plan a meeting, you budget specific time in the day. Just like any other budget, you have to make sure that you’re adhering it. People might take it the wrong way at first thinking that you’re trying to end the party but stay strong and persistent. It’ll make your life easier.
5. Making sure that the meetings starts and ends as planned
As I mentioned before, each meeting should have a clear purpose. This means that it should start in one way and end in another. Meetings run the risk of ending without all issues being addressed and having no clear conclusion. A meeting should start with clarifying its purpose and should end with actionable tasks and goals. A meeting that fizzles out or ends with Jeff’s stories from Thailand, is in many ways a failed meeting. As a result, you’re going to need to end the meeting on a strong note so that everyone understands why they sat in the meeting in the first place and what comes next.
6. Not having everyone agree to the planning of your meeting
This is a tough one. You’re not going to be planning every meeting on your own. Multiple people can be involved and often from different departments. If not everyone agrees, and with each person trying to pull more focus to his department’s needs, thing can get heated and fast. This can lead to quite a few issues and happens more often than it should. Meetings often involve setting budgets and allocating resources, which can naturally lead to a competitive atmosphere when there are multiple departments involved. Arguments surrounding the meeting can drastically increase the time dedicated to planning the meeting, which leads me to my next point.
7. Spending more time planning than actually meeting
This is probably the most hated of all. When coordinating a large number of employees making sure that everyone comes prepared, and that the time works for everyone, you can find yourself planning the meeting longer than having the meeting itself. While this may be necessary in some cases, most meetings shouldn’t be so complicated. This can lead to a huge amount of stress as it takes your attention away from your day-to-day work. Unless your title is Senior Meeting Planning Executive, you shouldn’t be burning precious hours on planning meetings.
The path to self-employment brings with it many advantages and above all a lot of freedom. But especially at the beginning of this journey, it can as well bring pitfalls. Positioning yourself in a contemporary and innovative way and still building strong relationships with your clients is a challenge. Nowadays, the demand for a solid online presence is increasing. The right tools are always there – even though sometimes it’s not that easy.
1. Online presence
Especially at the beginning one of the most burning topics is building a solid client pool and getting customer attention. Many therapists still rely on well-tried methods to gain public presence. Especially in the field of psychological counseling, there are still many fears of contact with online performances and offers. Especially online platforms for psychologists can bring a lot of potential, as Instahelp or Talkspace proves. The platform enables psychologists to offer their consultations online and gives them the chance to reach out to their clients at any time. The inhibition threshold of availing psychological help through an online portal is significantly smaller than actually arranging a face to face meeting.
2. Rent a practice room – work flexibly
The day to day working life of self-employed has changed a lot throughout the past few years. Flexible and unattached work is gaining more and more appeal – both from clients and therapist side. Fixed practices with classic opening hours are increasingly outdated and make room for flexible workspaces that are tailored to the needs of our time. The online platform Inner Peace allows therapists and psychologists to book flexible rooms with just a few clicks. All available rooms are ideal for coaching, psychotherapy and counseling sessions.
3. Time management made easy.
With all the advantages that innovative and independent work may bring with it, it sometimes seems difficult to keep track of all upcoming appointments. MeetFox is a tool that can be used to digitize and streamline the entire customer interaction process. From appointments to video conversations and automatic invoicing. Experts spend up to seven hours a week purely on appointment and set-off – precious time that can definitely be better spent.
Scheduling an appointment does not need to be a complicated process. Instead, you need an appointment scheduling process that offers a customized experience as per your business requirements. A customized appointment scheduling can make a huge difference to the way your business performs, along with providing a seamless experience for your customers.
Quick Connections
Efficient appointment scheduling is the key to build a professional connection with your customers. In fact, effective appointment scheduling is a must for organizations and businesses that need to build quick and hassle-free connections with their clients.
Grow Your Business
The best thing about automated appointment scheduling is the fact that it helps you run a smarter business. It not only saves you valuable time but also offers a personalized experience for your clients. Moreover, 24/7 automated appointment scheduling benefits you with an increased response rate, irrespective of your limited business hours.
Effortless
Using Email tags for appointment scheduling can be frustrating. But, automated appointment scheduling means more meetings with minimum effort. With the help of automated appointment scheduling, you can schedule your meetings in a simple and effortless way.
Why stick to conventional ways when you have something like an automated appointment scheduling software to share an incredible experience with your customers and earn ensured success for your business. Automated scheduling is the best way to fix meetings without the back and forth emailing, along with enabling your clientele to book your services in a quick and uncomplicated way.
Video calls are becoming an increasingly regular part of daily life. We use it to call our grandma, friends, and maintain our long-distance relationships. Almost everyone has had at least one experience of an interview taking place over a video call. It’s a great way to connect people across distances and time zones while keeping the visual aspect of normal human conversation. Nowadays, businesses are making increasingly heavy use of video calls. They use it for their interview process, coordinating with remote employees, and facing clients in sales. While not for everyone, many businesses can benefit from having some form or another of video calling. Here’s why!
1. Improve the efficiency of your business
One of the first and most obvious improvements of video calling is the increased efficiency. When you’re traveling less from client to client, you’re saving yourself time, and as we all know, time equals money. This means you are able to fit a larger number of clients into one 24-hour day versus having to meet each and every one of them. Moreover, you unknowingly spent a lot of time on planning your forms of transport, understanding how to get there, and moving things around to make room for the meeting. It goes without saying that the money saved on train tickets, gas, or flights can quickly accumulate. While many business deals require a face-to-face meeting at some point, video calls are usually enough for the initial stages.
2. Make your business more location-independent
The modern economy is extremely global and spans across all time zones. This means that location is no longer the main player in a company’s success. While distance is often solved with flights, this is becoming less and less necessary. Companies and businesses are more open to conducting business online and through video calls. This also means that when a company relocates it doesn’t risk losing its existing clients. Your business can maintain its relationships with loyal clients while also finding new business in that same area.
A company, for example, that sits in Los Angeles but finds most of its business in New York has an almost equal footing as locally based companies. Moreover, regions of the world that were once considered too far for business, such as South East Asia and the Middle East are now equally viable options. If you don’t offer online video calls you are basically saying that you are stuck in the past and closed for business. Not a good look.
3. Improve the non-verbal side of your business
While the use of email has been around for a while, it’s only recently that video calling has become a regular part of business. Emails are a fantastic tool and revolutionized the way we communicate and do business internationally. What changed? Emails always had a clear downside that could only be overcome by actual face-to-face meetings – the human element. So much of our communication happens through our facial expressions and body language.
With emails this is completely lost, which can oftentimes lead to miscommunication and lost business. Video calls solve this problem by incorporating visual human conversation into the mix. Seeing someone in a video call results in better outcomes than emails and even regular phone calls. As a business owner, you’re able to better counterargue any criticism, answer questions more sharply, and better understand the needs of your clients. Additionally, video calling (versus emails) gives your business an actual face, makes it more personal, more relatable, and ultimately, more successful.
4. Make your business more Millennial-friendly
Millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. labor force. That means it’s important to consider their habits and business style. Millennials are extremely comfortable with technology and oftentimes prefer video calls over physical meetings. They find that it saves time, removes the need to commute long distances, and tends to keep the meetings more on point. Millennials are also a pretty fast-paced generation and are typically pretty good at identifying when something is a waste of time. That means video calls are not just a “nice to thing to have” but a necessity in order to remain competitive in an economy increasingly comprising of Millennials. A business without any video calling offering will find itself ultimately losing business. Time to get with the times!
5. Increase the flexibility of your business
People nowadays live very dynamic lifestyles, often moving around, traveling, and working multiple jobs. This means that people can no longer depend entirely on their location. Things such as working remotely, having a home office, or being on business travel all fit in nicely with video calls. Being away from the office no longer has the same meaning. With video calls, you can now be anywhere and talk with anyone – along with the human touch. This has a huge impact on how well we can run our business and how flexible we can be. A business isn’t limited to its physical location and can change its target region almost immediately. No need to start looking for office space and sign rental agreements!
Digital assistants are becoming increasingly popular with many businesses incorporating them into their daily operations. These digital assistants make our lives easier and streamline many processes that are otherwise a real waste of time. Thing is, it seems that everyday a new digital assistant is developed; be it physical or online. The problem is that a lot of them seem to have some important things while completely forgetting others. If a digital assistant is not properly developed, and doesn’t include certain elements, it’s not so much an assistant as a hassle.
These digital friends have one goal and one goal only – to make our lives easier. If that is not achieved than both the developers of these assistants, and the businesses using them, are wasting precious time. But don’t fret! Below I’ve made a short list of the must-haves of a digital assistant. This should help you decide whether a digital assistant is right for you and whether it’s worth paying for it. Alright, let’s jump right to it.
1. The Digital Assistant should have a user-friendly interface
Okay, this one seems obvious at first, but trust me, it really isn’t. There are a ton of great digital assistants out there that help you achieve different tasks. Problem is, a lot of them just look pretty darn ugly. I know, they say that what matters is on the inside and not to judge a book by its cover. But an ugly digital assistant and clunky user interface will ultimately deem the assistant useless. A digital assistant is supposed to (surprise) assist. When users find themselves confused by the tool, they are ultimately angrier than when they started. Not good news. At every step of the way, the digital assistant should be simple, nicely designed, and fun to use. A good digital assistant is something you’ll be using on a daily basis. Thus, you want to make sure you enjoy it.
2. Should have compatibility with other Digital Assistants
This one is a bit tricky. The market of digital assistants is competitive, but not everyone is competing with the same people. One of the things that makes digital assistants stand out is whether they are compatible with anything else. This can means being compatible with calendars, music apps, scheduling apps, video conferencing tools, and any number of productivity services. You never want a digital assistant to be a ‘closed box’ that can never be accessed or changed.
Our digital world is insanely interconnected. Having a tool that is living in its own world isn’t a great idea. It’s also why one of the first thing you see when visiting a digital assistant’s site is “compatible with” or “can be used with”. It makes perfect sense, you want a digital assistant to seamlessly connect to what you’re already using and improve your process. What you don’t want is to start reshaping your working life around a new digital assistant – then it’s no longer an assistant but a hassle.
3. The Digital Assistant should – well – actually assist.
I can already hear you shouting, “this is obvious!”, but once again – it isn’t obvious enough apparently. In a world where everyone and his mother are developing new apps, tools, and services, much of them are just pretty darn useless. An assistant needs to, first and foremost, solve a problem. Moreover, it should definitely never create a new problem. A digital assistant should fill a gap in the way you manage your business – it should solve a small problem to make a big difference. That’s why a more complicated, heavy, and expensive digital assistant doesn’t necessarily mean a better one. Oftentimes, a simple, light, and easy-to-use tool (that can often be cheap), will be much more effective in solving your problems.
If you measure the time to learn how to use you digital assistant in weeks rather than hours – then it’s not an assistant. A CEO’s assistant is not another C-level executive that argues during meetings, it’s someone that complements the CEO and helps make life easier. This is exactly what a digital assistant should – nothing more and nothing less.
