Tag: Point-of-Sale-Merchandising-firm-Pune

Avoiding the Risks of Bookkeeper Embezzlement

As a business owner, what are you currently receiving on a daily, weekly and monthly basis from your bookkeeper?  Are you in communication about where you stand financially?  Are your bank accounts reconciled and financial reports processed at the end of every month? 

In watching the news and seeing how many bookkeepers embezzle funds each and every day, it is not surprising that most business owners do not even have a clue where they stand financially.  In fact, The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimates that in the U.S. alone, occupational fraud has cost employers $400 billion through larceny of cash, skimming and fraudulent disbursements. 

If you are not receiving timely financials, I hate to inform you that you are at risk for the above scenario.  You may trust your bookkeeper implicitly…in every embezzlement case this was true. 

I recently uncovered embezzlement by a receptionist of a medium-sized firm who was pocketing cash on a daily basis.  Why didn’t the owner or the CPA catch this earlier?  Trust.  The owner stated “I would not in a million years have suspected her.  We had this relationship built over five years.”

As a business owner, you should be reviewing your financials and asking questions, especially in small firms where one person handles everything from managing the office to doing the bookkeeping.  In this situation, we understand the difficulty of maintaining controls as you would in larger organizations. 

OSI Business Services, LLC not only closes your books each and every month, but your CPA/Manager consults with you reviewing your financials, answering your questions and training you in areas you may not be familiar with.  In addition, they carry professional liability (E&O) insurance and employee dishonesty coverage.  Although they have never had concerns of bookkeeper embezzlement due to the fact that their employees do not have access to any client funds, it is a reassurance nonetheless. 

I highly recommend OSI for this very reason.  All of their clients are given a bookkeeper as well as a CPA/Manager and all employees are U.S. based.  They are very much about customer service and will speak with you over the telephone regarding the needs of your business.

If you are interested in knowing more, please send me an email and I will put you directly in touch with the directors.  I cannot say enough about this company.  In fact, take a look at their testimonials from current clients:   http://www.osibusinessservices.com/testimonials.html

When Salespeople Create Objections to More Sales

Stop Getting In Your Own Way When Selling

Stop Creating The Obstacles to More Sales

Objections are a part of selling. Every salesperson can readily admit they’ve come face to face with objections throughout their sales career. Interestingly, salespeople define the word, ‘objection’ a variety of different ways.

In a seminar I delivered last week, I asked the audience what the word, ‘objection’ meant to them. Here’s what I heard in response:

1. It means “No.”

2. It’s an excuse.

3. It’s a smokescreen.

4. It’s a concern.

5. It’s a sign of interest.

6. It means “Get out. I’m not interested.”

While I’m a firm believer of the fourth and fifth definition above, salespeople still continually fall into the trap of creating objections themselves; the very obstacles they are looking to avoid in the first place. After all, if the prospect is not saying flat out “No” (and they’re being honest and upfront), then there’s a concern that you have not addressed and defused in a way that provides them with the confidence and peace of mind to move ahead and buy from you.

Salesopedia just published one or my articles on this very subject entitled, “Stop Creating The Objections that Kill Your Sales”

You can read the article here.

So, in the end, developing a greater sensitivity around the obstacles and objections that you create during your selling process will assist you in eliminating certain roadblocks that shouldn’t be there in the first place.

However, what about the valid concerns that you hear from your customers and prospects? You know, the objections that sound like, “Your price is too high,” “I need to shop around,” “Let me think about it,” “Now’s not the right time,” “It’s not in the budget,” “We’re happy with our current vender, service provider, etc.” and so on. How adept are you in responding and actually defusing these common obstacles to the sale?

Here’s an exercise I would encourage you to do.  List all of the objections you typically hear. Then, write down how you respond to each of them. If you find that your rebuttals are not effective enough to defuse these objections and create new possibilities for a sale, then it’s time to give them an overhaul. Take the time to create a more effective response for each objection you hear.

Remember, salespeople don’t overcome objections, your customers and prospects do. (After all, when was the last time you actually ‘convinced’ someone to do something that they really didn’t want to do?) So, your response to each objection will contain questions to better understand exactly where the prospect stands, rather than a defensive statement that simply creates an adversarial posture between you and the prospect.

Once you’ve developed the appropriate language to handle each objection, take them out for a test drive and gauge your results. Remember, if you don’t define it, you can’t refine it. How else can you determine what works and what doesn’t? Put your shotgun away. Shooting from the hip is a dead strategy. Developing a conscious process for handling each objection gives you the power to continually reinforce best practices that have been proven to work which will ultimately lead to more sales.