Sales MOMS Network

As a direct selling party plan business coach, I deal daily with people who are trying to get their business off the ground: getting more bookings, higher sales and more recruit leads. One of the most important things you can do for your business is simply to touch it daily. Do something, every day, to move your business forward.

Many people do not realize what business building work is. Cleaning your office or getting organized is not business building work. It’s housework. It’s getting ready to work. Cleaning your office is gong to give you a nicer space to work in. Getting organized is going to free you from searching for the piece of paper you need. But that is not work in the direct sales industry. Working in the direct sales industry means you are doing something to create bookings, increase your sales or developing recruit leads.

Some of the things you could do are:

To get more bookings: using your list of former hostesses and guests that attended parties in the past, develop a special (either one of your creation or one from your company) and call that list of potential hostesses. Make sure you have developed the wording you are going to use to encourage people to book to get the special for free or reduced prices.

To get higher sales: think about the parties you have had this month and analyze the presentations you did. What worked? What did not work? When did you “have them” and when did you “lose them”? Develop ways you can show your highest priced items and wording to encourage people to either buy it or book to get it at a discount or for free.

To get more recruit leads: go through your former hostesses and clients and look to see who has been a hostess more than one time, and guests who have purchased multiple times. Call them and talk to them about your company’s opportunity.

Creating a strong, growing direct sales business is not a matter of luck. It’s an issue of working your business. This is a business. Most people treat it like a hobby and then wonder why they don’t make any money.

The other issue is consistency. When you have a hobby you do it when you have time or when you feel like it. That’s okay when it’s a hobby. That is not an option when you have a business. A business is a job. It needs to be attended to daily. Do something daily, even if it’s just for fifteen minutes, to move your business forward.

Ruth Fuersten is the author of HOW TO BOOK, SELL, AND RECRUIT YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS, and co-author of Direct Selling POWER. Sign up for her free newsletter at http://www.booksellrecruit.com/sq

If you currently own a business, or you plan to start a business, consider what it will take to create the type of success you desire. Success that allows you to literally fulfill a life dream and a life path.

As you hold the vision of where you would like your business to be consider the following – building a business takes clarity, courage, creativity, and consistency.

Clarity – It order to optimize your business opportunities it helps to gain clarity on your purpose. Why are you in the business you are in; what positive impact can your business have on others; and what contribution do you want the products or services you offer to make in the lives of others?

Courage – Even with the utmost clarity there may be occasions where fear will crop up at the most inopportune time; fear that can literally immobilize you. Perhaps you need to make much needed calls to potential clients and you fear rejection. Maybe you need to complete the paperwork to secure financing and you have convinced yourself you will be rejected. Or, you know it is time to roll out a new marketing strategy, but you fear not knowing exactly how to go about it.

It has been said that courage is not the absence of fear. It is the ability to identify the fear and walk through it anyway. A powerful strategy to diminish fear is to get quiet enough to gain a sense of what your true purpose in business is.

Once you gain clarity on your purpose, get a sense of the next right action to take. The action can be to gain a greater understanding of the client’s needs and situation. Perhaps you need to know more about your product or service. Maybe it is simply to pick up the phone and make a call. It is in the willingness to take action the fear will lift.

Creativity – There will be many occasions where intuition will be far more important than reason. When faced with an obstacle you get an intuitive thought or a feeling to try something different. Sadly, many people avoid trusting their intuition and miss incredible opportunity. Some of the most successful people trust their intuition and inner knowing to lead them to step through the door of the unknown into the realm of possibility.

Consistency – Although creativity is incredibly important so is having consistent systems in place. More often than not, success is the result of one tiny action followed by another tiny action. It is in the consistency of our actions on a daily basis; making the call, following up on a regular basis, inputting the names into the database, and having a solid system that allows us to free our minds of unnecessary concern and clutter. When the mind is clear, there is more opportunity to gain clarity, be creative and walk in a place of courage. When all these elements are in place, there is a greater chance for success.

Kathleen Gage is an award winning keynote speaker, best selling author and business advisor specializing in marketing and promotions. Access Gage’s FREE eBook Street Smarts eMarketing Tips Guaranteed to Jump Start Your Internet Presence to Put You Miles Ahead of the Competition at http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/free-ebook.htm

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.

There’s a huge misconception in direct sales being that you think you’re ‘imposing’ on your friends, family or just a customer in general. As long as you feel as though you’re imposing…you are. You need to love your product and feel as though you are offering a service. You’re filling a need.

People are natural-born sellers. We just don’t realize it when we’re not making money from it. Let’s say you go to a movie that you loved and you have a friend that you know would enjoy it too. Wouldn’t you recommend it to him/her?

So why is it that as soon as we go into sales we automatically feel as though we can’t recommend the products we sell. Why is it that we tend to feel guilty because we’re going to make a profit off of it?

If you are one that has a fear of selling, take some time today to figure out the cause of your fear, and take action to fix it!

Kara Kelso & Anita DeFrank, owners of DirectSalesHelpers.com strive to help women succeed in direct sales. For additional help with your direct sales business, visit http://www.directsaleshelpers.com/newsletter.html