Work At Home Business Options

Posts Tagged ‘team leaders’

Many consultants jump into Direct Sales and don’t know anything about it and they don’t take the time out to educate themselves on it and this is a big mistake!  Just like any “job” or any “business” you need to know what you are doing and if you don’t know…well, you need to take the time out and educate yourself on it!

One good source of business education when it comes to Direct Sales is education that is provided to you from your corporate offices. This can be training seminars, company sponsored conferences, online webinars, phone teleseminars, etc. Whatever your company offers in business training it is YOUR job to take it! Many consultants “blow it off” and make “excuses” as to why they don’t participate in company sponsored training. Like I said, that is a big mistake!

Many Direct Sales companies already know what works and doesn’t work in regards to having a DS business and they tailor their training programs around what they know to be a successful system. They want to teach this system to you so that you can have a successful business. So…whatever training that is offered to you by the home office, make sure you take it!

Another good source of business education comes from your immediate and distant upline managers and team leaders. As someone who worked in Direct Sales for over 23 years…I can personally tell you that over the years only about 40-45% of my downline team ever attended my meetings and/or rallies. Many said they were too busy, had kids, too tired, blah blah blah and let me tell you…those who did attend my meetings and those who did attend company sponsored training sessions were more successful than those who did not. Now grant ya…this doesn’t apply to everyone but it does apply to those who have NEVER done Direct Sales before and just jump in with no intentions on getting officially trained!

Now…do you need to attend all of the training opportunities that are offered to you? No…we all have real lives and we all are busy people but you should participate in as many of them that you can so that you are constantly learning new business skills and staying on top of what works in Direct Sales and what doesn’t.

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Often times I see consultants giving customers discounts if they purchase products from them. When I ask them why they are giving them these discounts they tell me that they want the customer’s business so giving them a discount will entice the order from the customer.

Well..that might be true and I say “might” because if you are just blindly giving out discounts to people to just get their order it is REALLY going to take a “bite” out of the amount of money that you earn.

In my honest opinion you should not be placing a slew of advertisements (in-print online or offline) offering customers a big discount if they come buy their products from you because you are in a direct sales business to make MONEY. With most direct sales company you earn 25% to 40% in commission and if you are giving a slew of people 10% to 20% off their purchases with you…well…that adds up and that big chunk of discounts takes a huge bite out of your wallet.

I think if you are going to give discounts out to folks it should be LIMITED…like 10% off their FIRST order from you or 10% off their 10th purchase from you or something along those lines. However, I wouldn’t be placing a slew of ads all over the place allowing every Tom, Dick and Harry to take advantage of that discount.

In addition…it should never be a discount with NO expiration date!!! If you really want discounts to work for you they should have an expiration date of 60 days or less so that it encourages the customer to order sooner than later (later…they could forget).

I do believe in giving discounts but on a very limited basis because in direct sales we are not like big retail stores that can take big cuts into our profit line. So my advice…don’t sell yourself short. If you are going to give customer’s discounts…give it to only a few of them at a time and make sure they have a 60 days or less expiration date.

Your thoughts?

Back in the old days of Direct Sales Marketing leaders used to train their downline consultants to “pressure” folks to get the sale. I am here to tell you that pressuring people to book parties from you or pressuring people to give you the sale is a tactic that you should NOT be practicing! Why you might ask?

Well…to me it is common sense but I will explain why. I am sure that the majority of people in this world have been pressured at one time or another to purchase something and/or to book a party from someone. I want you to remember how you “felt” when that person was pressuring you for the sale or the booking? How did that make you feel? It certainly didn’t make you happy did it? Of course not!

We all get into Direct Sales to make money and that does mean that you need to be talking to people and asking them for the “sale” but…asking them and pressuring them are entirely two different things. If the person tells you they are not interested then you really need to back off and find someone else to talk to about your business and products. If the person says…”not right now” then make a note of that and contact them in a few weeks. (don’t contact them tomorrow!).

Pressuring people to book parties and/or to give you an order is really not the way to go. You can get bookings and orders without pressuring people and “irking” them off. You want to come across as a professional and a gentle/caring person…not as a bully who is asking them to spend their money with you.

So…the next time you are pitching your business to another person just remember that pressuring them is really not the way to go.

When it comes to having a Direct Sales home business I often see party plan consultants making some mistakes in regards to packaging up the customer’s products for delivery or shipping. Today I thought I would share a few tips with my readers.

1. Never package food or beverage products with other “types” of products. In other words, don’t bag together a customer’s edible products with deodorants, perfumes and/or cleaning products. Food items always need to be packaged separately!

2. Never place a customer’s order in plastic grocery bags or retail store bags that you had lying around your house. Let me tell you why. A few years ago I ordered some cosmetics and bath & body products from a local Avon rep. and she delivered them to me in a grocery bag. After she left and I opened the bag I smelled rotten meat/food and I was really upset about it. You should ALWAYS put your customer’s order in a company bag/package or in a plain “clean” bag that has never been used.

3. If you are shipping products to a customer you always want to make sure you enclose enough packaging materials to keep the products safe during transit. In addition…you always want to make sure you send the package with tracking or delivery confirmation so that if it gets lost…you can find it or file a claim to get reimbursed for loss or damage. Furthermore…you always want to make sure you include enough postage on the package. Why? I once ordered some mascara online from a consultant and she placed it into a bubble mailer and slapped 2 stamps on it. When it arrived to me my Postman requested that I pay him (the post office) .53 cents because the sender did not include enough postage.

4. You should always INSPECT a customer’s product(s) before packaging them for delivery or shipment. Don’t just assume that the product is okay without looking inside the packaging material to check it out. Of course if that packaging material and sealed you don’t want to unseal it…but if it’s packaging material that you can “peek” into…then you should!

Although for most of us these are common sense type of tips it is a good reminder to those who are just starting out in Direct Sales to learn this stuff. Do you have any tips related to this topic to share with my readers? If so, leave them in a comment below!

 Are you frustrated with how your Direct Sales business is going? Have you hit a dry spell? If so, you are not alone!

 Every consultant who has ever worked in Direct Sales will tell you that they have experienced a “dry spell” or a “slow period” at one time or another. What is important right now is that you come up with a plan to put your direct sales business back onto the map.

The first thing that you want to do is take a day or two off to just re-group and get your mind clear. After you take that one or two days off, it is time to sit down and draft up a new marketing plan.

When you are drafting up that new plan it needs to include some new advertising and marketing ideas that you have never tried before and add those ideas to ones that have worked for you in the past. If you are not sure where to begin with that marketing plan…I suggest you speak to your upline manager or team leader for ideas and help.

Once you get your plan in order you need to start hammering that plan hard and do so each and every day until it gets you the results that you want. Along the way if something on that marketing plan isn’t working, drop it and add a new idea.

Going through a dry spell is really not a big deal since we have all been through it at one time or another…what is important is that you re-group and get busy working the business in a new manner. Giving up or just going with the “dry spell” flow doesn’t work…sitting around and complaining about not having bookings and sales…well, that doesn’t work either!

So get off your butt, draft up an advertising and marketing plan and get busy with it!

Shelly

I have been working from home in Direct Sales since 1989 and I have a lot of personal experience in managing a large Direct Sales downline team. Today I thought I would share my opinions with all of you regarding FREE start-up kits vs. Paid start-up kits when it comes to joining a Direct Sales home business.

Yes folks…this is my personal opinion but I do draw my opinion from being in the business for over 20+ years.

I was with one particular company for 8 1/2 years and during that time we had a few times that the company offered free or heavily discounted (almost free) business start-up kits. Over those years…that same company would also offer regular priced start-up kits.

During the FREE start-up kit/enrollment periods we all would get a lot of new recruits/consultants joining our teams and I really mean…a lot! During one of these big recruting pushes, I actually brought in 34 new team members (myself) in one month. Within 3 months only 3 of those 34 team members actually stayed with the business and wanted to work it as a business. The other 31 told me after 3 months…that they only joined to get in on the free deal or they only joined to purchase products for themselves at a discount. Well, that might be acceptable to some of you…that is not acceptable to me.

I wasted a lot of time and effort trying to train, educate, motivate and communicate with 31 people who had NO desire and NO interest in working it as a business. It would of been nice for those 31 people to tell me upfront that it was their intentions to not do anything with the business so that I could of solely focused my time on those who did.

In my personal experience…when recruits joined my team and had to INVEST some money in their kits they at least TRIED to earn back what they spent on their kits and most tried to work it as a business to turn a profit. When there is MONEY involved people are more apt to work hard to get that investment back.

So…I am not a BIG FAN of no-investment start-up kits because I believe there is NO motivation behind folks trying to work the business to earn their money back. With that said, there will be a handful of people who join direct sales companies when there are FREE promotion periods who will stick in it and work it hard like a business…most will not.

Again…this is my personal opinion and from personal experience. What do you think about this topic?

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