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Direct SalesFor even more help with your Direct Sales Business please stop by our sister site DirectSalesHelpers.com Making the Sale When the Customer Won't Buy Ever had a party online or offline, and had guests say "I love that item, but I can't afford it right now", or "It's so hard to decide, I want all of this!". This is a perfect time to sell all those items to your customer without them having to pay a dime. The Truth About Contests Often times you'll see the tip "run a contest to get more sales!", and general tips on how to do it, but there's some facts you should know before holding your own. Free Isn't Always Good - Why You Need Your Own Website Often time I've browsed sites and seen the same thing - general rep websites or free hosted sites. Pop ups irritate me from the free sites as does the blatant ads getting in the way of the text, and if you have seen one rep site you literally have seen them all. Boring, unoriginal, and unprofessional. Are You In the Right Business? Often times we see of people struggling with their online businesses, and while normally it's marketing related problems, the real problem may be you are in the wrong business. Will Your Business Survive Summer Break? Summer is approaching and soon the children will be out of school. Is your schedule ready? Some of you may know from past years, when the kids are out for the summer your "quiet time" during school hours is no more. Here are some tips to keep the school age children busy while you keep up with your business Why YOU Need a Marketing Plan Being in direct sales can often give the feeling "I don't have to do much, just sell". It's true, you don't have to ship orders or create websites, or even design catalogs (even though we recommend it sometimes). Your job as the rep is to direct customers to products, that's it. The fact is, to 'sell' the product is the hardest part. 4 Tips to More Online Party Sales I know most of us have held our own online party, been to one, or at least read about them. Many of the materials online are general, and the average online party (for individuals) has around 5-10 guests at the most. Maybe more, maybe less, depending on several factors. But really for those that do not belong to party groups, and are holding their first party the attendance is going to be very low. Online Parties with a Twist We know once you have a room full of guests at your online party, getting them to play games is the easy part. While hunting for answers to your game, a guest has the chance to see some products they simply cannot do without, thus making you sales! Holiday Promotion Tips Are you ready for Mother's Day? Yes I realize it's still a week or two away, but if you haven't started your Mother's Day promotions yet it might already be too late. I know of one company that has completely sold out of their big Easter product 3 weeks prior to Easter (yes completely sold out!). So if you haven't done so already, work up some Mother's Day promotions and start contacting your previous customers and lists. Overcoming the Fear of Selling For many of you the Fear of Selling is a huge challenge and obstacle for you from day to day. The first thing you need to do is find out exactly what it is you're afraid of. Are you afraid of success? Believe it or not there this is an actual fear of some folks. Are you afraid of failure or rejection? Do you fear being perceived as being pushy? Do you (secretly of course) fear that your product may not meet the expectations of your customer? You can't come up with a solution if you don't know what the problem is. Avoid Losing Sales This Summer - 6 Easy Steps It's a fact - the online world dies down in the summer time. Kids are out of school, families are on vacation, there's fairs to attend to, and many are just spending too much time outside to be online. For those that market mostly online, the summer months could be eating your profit. The good news is, it's easy to take your product to where your market is - offline. Stepping Outside the WAHM Zone Often times on message boards you'll see several reps from the same company, making it difficult for all reps to gain enough sales. We've also seen issues where some reps dominate certain boards or even go so far as to steal potential customers and recruits. While there is no real easy answer to this problem, there are certain things you can do to gain your fair share of sales. The Forgotten Advertising Tip I'm sure while you have seen many tips on advertising, many that talk about testing and tracking your ads, I'm sure that this one important tip is rarely mentioned: Running more than one ad at a time isn't the greatest idea. Direct Sales Reps CAN Write Articles - Here's How! We all know that article writing is a great way to promote our businesses AND helps establish us as an expert in our fields. But, just because we know how important it is to our business doesn’t necessarily make us able to do it. It’s often said, “I’m not a writer, I can’t write articles.” Or “I can’t write an article about my own products without it sounding like an ad.” Do either of these sound familiar? 6 Time Management Tips for Moms Many of you have expressed the challenge of not having enough time to accomplish all your needed tasks and not being organized. Having good organization and management skills is absolutely imperative to your business. Being well organized can greatly affect your successfulness. Applying a few of the following tips will help you become more organized and make better use of your time. Reaching Goals in Direct Sales From surveys and experience, we've noticed many setting excellent goals for their business. We've also noticed that while the goals being set are good, the results aren't. Around 90% of those in Direct Sales do SET goals, but never reach them. Tips for Keeping a Team Motivated Companies often have incentives for reps, but sometimes that isn't enough. To keep your team motivated, you could do a number of things. Make Your Home Party a Success Home parties can be a lot of fun and a great way to earn extra money. Following a simple guideline can help you have a successful home party that runs smoothly and everyone enjoys. The following guideline will give you a basic idea of how to do this and can easily be adjusted to fit your own tastes. 5 Tips to Prepare Your Home Party Hostess One of the most important things to remember to have a successful home party is to make sure your Hostess is prepared. Well preparedness of your hostess is essential in having your home party run smoothly. The following tips will help your next home party be a success. Craft Fairs, Bazaars & Flea Markets…Oh, My! Many names are associated with events such as these. Craft Fairs, Bazaars, Flea Markets and Swap Meets are a few names you can find. Whatever the name…they all mean the same thing. They allow you to meet new and interesting people (hopefully customers), spend quality time with your family and more of course most importantly make some extra cash. But, before you debut your first table at one of these events, getting yourself prepared is the first step. The following is a guideline you can follow to help make sure you're ready. Contest Sponsoring ~ The "why's" and "how's" If you belong to the right groups, you see requests for contest sponsors on a regular basis. So why should you just give away your products? What is in it for you? Exposure for your business at a low cost is one benefit. Whoever you are donating to, should give you credit for your donation, along with your business and web address. This is perfect for "showing off" what you offer on your website. Promotional Freebies What's a promotional freebie? A promotional freebie is something you can give to your customers, visitors or subscribers. Giving away "freebies" is an excellent marketing tool. Who doesn't love freebies? Having something to offer your visitors or ezine/newsletter subscribers for free can be very helpful. Often giving away freebies will increase your website/ezine numbers. Marketing With Online Parties Online Parties are quickly becoming the fun and exciting alternative to the traditional "In Home Parties". Below I've listed articles and resources for you to find out how to have a party, what to do at a party and of course where to have you're party. You can join a party as a guest or host a party...no matter which you decide you can be sure to have a great time! How Direct Sales Reps Can Use Blogging One of the tools that a smart direct sales representative use to attract new business is a blog. A blog keeps customers and potential customers informed about products, events and services that relate to your business, new releases, contests, specials and it always keeps your name front and center. It shows readers that you are a good source of information that they can count on. Sign up here for our newsletter to recieve tips you can use in your business! |