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

Do you find yourself constantly wondering why is it is that some people find it so easy to persuade virtual strangers to do business with them? How is it some people with minimal effort are able to build massive downlines, while you struggle daily to generate interest in your direct sales home party business?

Today I would like to address 5 things that I see daily, that are costing many home party consultants and direct sales business owners profits and home party sales, I call these Deadly Direct Sales & Home Party Recruiting SINS:

Deadly Recruiting SIN #1: Thinking that everyone that has a pulse is your prospect. Coming in at a close second is the advice to tell and ask everyone to join your business! It is true that is not your duty to decide FOR potential prospects whether the business opportunity you are presenting is or isn’t for them. However, it is not mathematically feasible that every single person needs what you have to offer!

Deadly Recruiting SIN #2: You are not selling, you are just sharing. Sales have had a bad reputation – there is still a misconception that sales people are insincere and manipulative (anything for a sale). If you are in it to share your business opportunity, in that case you had better cut your losses and call it a day. The purpose of business, any business is to realize a profit! The only exception to this rule are the much loved Not For Profit Organizations!

Deadly Recruiting SIN #3: Failure to ask questions that reveal your potential home party recruits “hot buttons” or “needs”. Most home party consultants have been trained to conduct dog and pony shows. Lay out all the features and benefits of the company, never pausing to take a breadth and a step back to find out the prospects reasons for doing for not doing business with you!

Home Party Marketing Tip: It is not about why you think she would benefit from working with your company or what qualities she has that would make her a good home party consultant. It is about, WIIFM: What’s In It For Me!

Deadly Recruiting SIN #4: Not asking for the sale. I have been to many an home party & Home Party Plan demonstration. Some were expertly and professionally conducted, others left a lot to be desired! It is always a surprise to me just many people are willing to leave the sale at the table because they fail to ask for the money. If you have been following the Prospecting 101 Video Tutorials that I created for you, you will by now have learned how to remedy this problem!

Direct Selling Success Tip: Ask And You Shall Receive!

Deadly Recruiting SIN #5: Refusal to accept a no for what it is – NO! Is an objection really a request for more information? Or is it an glaring testimony that the proper ground work was not covered? Here is an example that I recently came across, when a prospect says, “I don’t have enough time”, she may really be unaware of how much time a job like this takes. A great response is, “How much time do you think this takes?” This gives you the opportunity to clear up any misconceptions she may have about the business.

Ok, if after the end of your presentation most people are not buying, or saying no; it is safe to assume the following:-

• Genuine lack of interest
• Failure on your part to have conducted the necessary research on home party attendees
• Failure on your part to provide the best-fit solution.

Home Party Sales Tip: Become customer centric. Remember as Mark Sanborn states “The pleasure of the buying experience is as important as the price of the product.”

Get Your Copy TODAY 10 Deadly Home Party Mistakes!

To Your Success,
Party Plan Pat
http://www.partyplanpat.com
Home Party & Direct Sales Marketing Expert

In direct sales leadership mindset is one of the critical factors to success. The right mindset can move you quickly through the ranks toward upper-level leadership. Developing the proper mindset takes work. And most often we as leaders fall short in teh critical area of setting boundaries and expectations.

In previous articles, I’ve talked about the power of setting expectations with your hosts. As a direct sales leader, it is equally important to set expectations with your personal recruits as well as other team members. Failing to set healthy boundaries in your business can often result in being pushed to do too much hand-holding, and is often at the expense of your own personal book of direct sales business.

Here are “the don’ts” – five of my top ten tips for setting clear expectations with your direct sales team:

1. Don’t waffle. As leaders, we want to help our teams be successful. In as much as we need to be firm with expectations when communicating with our hosts, so too must we be firm with the expectations we set with our teams. Adhere to your call-in hours, and when someone tries to violate them, be firm, and clear. Respect their time, and they will learn to respect yours.

2. Don’t coddle. Hand-holding is not doing your consultants any favors. You are actually enabling them, and they will come to you for everything – including the resources they could easily find on their own. Quality leadership means training your team to know where to go to get their questions answered. You should only be the last resort resource and the go-to for new training, tools and advice. Require your team to understand the consultant manual, order entry, presentation basics and how to hold a recruiting interview. While it’s a nice ego boost to be asked to assist on a recruiting call, it’s hardly the best use of your time if you could be holding your own appointments in that time slot.

3. Don’t give up your own book of business. See number two above. If you’re spending all your time working with consultants, when do you have time to work your own book of business? Make your own business a priority and lead by example. A healthy calendar full of appointments that serve your own business is just as important as coaching and training time with your team.

4. Don’t give up your life. The only thing perhaps more important than number three above is to make time for your personal needs and your personal life. Direct Sales is a vehicle to make your dreams come true, but if you’re bogged down in the grunt work of your business, you’ll never have time to live that dream. Delegate the non-essentials to your team or an assistant (see number 5).

5. Don’t do it alone. Whether you have family support, team support or a personal assistant for your business, know your limits, and find qualified help to handle the rest. A true leader focuses on what I call IPA – Important Personal Activies or Income Producing Activities. When you step into a leadership role, it’s silly to try to keep all the plates spinning by yourself. You’ve earned the right to have help. Ask for it!

These five tips are foundational to a healthy set of boundaries as a direct sales leader. Without them, you’ll spend too much time not making money. That’s a sure fire way to go out of business fast.

Lisa Robbin Young offers direct sales coaching and training to direct sales professionals looking to grow their business like a real business instead of an expensive hobby. Sign up for her free weekly ezine at http://www.homepartysolution.com.

If you have a direct sales or MLM business and your downline isn’t what you want it to be, you aren’t alone. Sometimes growing your downline can be harder than selling the actual product itself. You can’t just sit around and wait for leads to fall into your lap though. The way you advertise your business opportunity plays a big role in how many lead you receive. This doesn’t mean you have to have a large advertising budget to grow your downline. There are plenty of free ways to advertise that will let you sit back and watch your downline grow.

1. Start a free blog to promote your business. Successful blogs generate hundreds and even thousands of visitors per day. If you publish content people want to read along with your business information you are gaining access to a lot of people you wouldn’t have been able to reach before. Share your success with your readers. As your blog grows, so will your downline.

2. Use online classified to your advantage. There are numerous free online classified sites online. Write an ad that is upbeat, but don’t give all of your business information away in the ad. The goal is to have people contact you so you can talk them into signing up. The advertising ideas are out there, but writing a catchy ad is key to making them work. For example, you could say something like, “I made $500 last week with my work from home business! No start up costs!” This will grab someone’s interest enough for them to email you and then you sell them your business opportunity.

3. Another good advertising idea is to paste a link to your business opportunity in the signature of your email and any forums that you may frequent. Don’t just put the link though, make sure you link the page to words that will make people want to click on it. Use something catchy and intriguing.

Growing your downline increases your passive income. If you are looking for financial freedom, growing you downline is a must. Using free adverting ideas can help you accomplish your passive income goals quicker than you ever imagined.

Dustin Heath recommends that you visit http://www.HomeBusiness.us to learn how you can start your own home-based business earning multiple streams of income.

When coaching with my direct sales clients, one of the first things that always seems to come up is a discussion about recruiting. Most direct sales professionals understand that if they want to earn a comfortable six-figure income (or more), leadership is a necessary component to build a strong book of business.

A lot goes into being a direct sales leader. Whether you’re a leader of one or one hundred thousand. I’ve written previously about retention strategies, leading by example, and other qualities that a direct sales leader needs in order to successfully navigate being a leader. This series of articles serves as a starting point for more of the mindset issues that leaders face when trying to lead by example.

Only You Can Motivate You Motivation is a curious thing. No one else can motivate you, they can only inspire you to take action. Motivation (the latin root means to move) is about movement and action. No one else can take action for you. You must take action, therefore, you must motivate yourself.

In direct sales, we talk extensively about a person’s “why” – the reason they joined the business, or more to the point, the surface-level reason that they stay in the business. To be frank, a “why” will rarely, if ever, sufficiently motivate a direct sales consultant to keep working when times are tough.

As a leader, you must identify the “what” of your team. Once you’ve ascertained a consultant’s “why”, you need to dig deeper. It means sometimes hitting an emotional hot spot, and could even result in a few tears. If you’re a leader working from a place of compassion, that’s perfectly fine. The objective is to discover “what” really motivates them to stay engaged in the business. Here’s what I mean: A consultant may tell you that they joined the business because they want to be able to pay for their children’s college education. That’s a great “why”, but there’s a deeper reason here. Perhaps, upon further investigation, you discover that paying for their children’s college education is important to them because they weren’t able to go to school themselves, and they see a college education as a symbol of freedom from financial bondage and hope for a better life for their children. So their “what” is really freedom from financial bondage and hope for a better life for their children.

It takes time and you must build relationships with your team in order to dig this deep. It’s rare that a person will be able to bridge this kind of emotional gap on a first encounter, although it’s possible. You must demonstrate compassion and be a trusted source before someone will share their “what” with you. That’s logical, though, because it’s hard to share what sometimes may hurt.

And who’s the best consultant on your team with which to practice this new skill? You.

Get clear on your “what” before you ever approach your team. Knowing what motivates you makes it easier to share and connect with your team – especially when times are tough. It’s up to you to take the necessary actions to move your business forward. If you’re leading by example, you’ll need to know what really motivates you before you can ever inspire your team to get motivated themselves.

Lisa Robbin Young offers direct sales coaching and training to direct sales professionals looking to grow their business like a real business instead of an expensive hobby. Sign up for her free weekly ezine at http://www.homepartysolution.com.

To offer equal time to my Father this month as I did my mother last month, I sat to think about the things I learned from my Dad that I have applied to both my direct sales business and my coaching business. Dad wasn’t a highly educated man – he never finished high school – but he was smart. He served in World War II, in Hawaii as a mechanic, and could fix just about anything. This guy took a Chevy Blazer, chopped off the back end, and built himself a tow truck because he always wanted to own one. He saw obstacles as opportunity, and like my mom, was as stubborn as the day is long.

Here are a few of the lessons Dad schooled me on that I now apply to my own business:

1. “Don’t tell everything you know, Kid.” Dad rarely called us by our names. He was 56 when I was born, so I think it just kept him from being confused. When he used this Dad-ism on me, it was usually because I was getting excited about something I felt I just had to share. What he meant was to hit the highlights, and save the details for people who are really interested – like when you’re trying to book a party or give your recruiting talk. Hit the highlights, don’t tell everything you know to the uninitiated. Save the details for the people who are really interested.

2. “Take care of your own self first, Kid.” This was Dad’s comprehensive way of telling us to mind our own business. Usually, this happened when I was busy trying to parent someone or something else. Stray animals, inattentive siblings. I thought I knew better sometimes. Dad’s advice was to take care of my own business first, THEN I could worry about helping my brother or sister or the stray cat on the street. My modern-day equivalent is to put my own oxygen mask on first. Self-care has become an integral part of my daily routine. This also applies to my business. I need to focus on my business needs before I look to the needs of my direct sales team or their extended team members.

3. “Don’t take no crap from anybody, Kid.” Pretty self-explanatory, I think. In my business, I’ve translated this into not chasing after clients, or begging for bookings in my direct sales business. I lay out my expectations when host coaching, and I stick to my guns. If someone’s waffling on their guest list, I call their bluff. I’d rather be up-front and know what to expect in my business, than stand around scratching my head wondering why my host has cancelled again.

4. Be proud of who you are and what you’ve accomplished. This one is hard for most of us – especially mompreneurs. We face so much guilt on a regular basis, that it becomes challenging to recognize the good work we do every day. Even if our efforts don’t always produce the results we desire, the fact that we’re giving it our all is truly commendable. I had to wait until my Father was in the hospital dying to finally hear him tell me he was proud of me. It was worth the wait, but not something I’d recommend to others. Don’t wait for someone else to tell you how great you are and what a great job you’re doing. See it in yourself – and celebrate it now!

Building a strong direct sales business takes courage and faith. Dad was a strong, positive old coot that didn’t take “no” for an answer. This Father’s Day, when you’re remembering your Dad, remember the lessons that you can apply to growing your business as well.

Copyright 2010, Lisa Robbin Young.

Lisa Robbin Young offers direct sales coaching and training to direct sales professionals looking to grow their business like a real business instead of an expensive hobby. Sign up for her free weekly ezine at http://www.homepartysolution.com.

Part of being a great party plan professional and network marketer is being well rounded. You want to be good at booking parties, good at boosting sales, and great at recruiting. You’ll notice that recruiting is on the end of that list. This is usually the progression that distributors take in building their business but the number one thing I hear when speaking to team leaders is that they wished they had started recruiting earlier. When starting a new venture like doing home parties or network marketing most people get nervous about signing someone on under them when they are so new themselves. The truth is though, you don’t have to be an expert to be a good team leader! This is something we all learn eventually but how can you get your new recruits over this barrier? Or how do you get your current team leaders to want to start their own team? Well the answers aren’t as difficult as you’d think! Here are four ways to turn your team into team leaders.

1. Make Recruiting a Part of Your Interview Process: Most of the time when we are talking about the business opportunity we focus on number of parties and commissions on sales. Are you incorporating the fantastic recruiting benefits that your company offers? If not then you are wasting a resource that is there for the taking. Many companies have incentives to get new distributors to recruit. Studies have shown and it stands to reason that when you have recruit, even just one, you stay with the company longer and try harder to build your business. Make sure you are asking in your recruiting interviews if your prospect has someone they think would like to sign on with them. Not only will they feel more accountable having someone sign on under them, but they will get the recruiting bug and start to build a team of their own.

2. Lead by Example: Most people don’t sign up as network marketers or home party professionals because of the money. While the money is great, most people sign on to have fun. The people at your party see you having so much fun that they want to do the same thing. It is no different when being a team leader. Show your team how much fun it is being a leader! If you’re like most team leaders then working with your team may be the funnest part of your job! Make sure they know that. When you’re having fun and setting an example of how easy it is to lead then they will feel more confident that they can do it as well.

3. Be Replicable: Your team doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel when leading their own recruits. Make it easy for them by bottling everything you do and making it easy to duplicate. For instance if you are having the same conversations with new recruits every time you sign on someone new turn these conversations into articles you write and send to new recruits. You can create an autoresponder that sends out your “steps to success” series of articles to get your recruit off on the right track. Another thing that I do personally is open up my weekly phone trainings to everyone in my downline, this way my new team leaders don’t have to create content right off the bat but can invite their team to listen in. When my leaders are ready to do their own trainings I share my notes with them so they already have something to start with. By being consistent and creating these systems you can easily pass these on to recruiters on your team and make it easy for them as well. If you’re successful and everything you’re doing is replicable then your team can be just as successful as you.

4. Make a Special Place on your Team for Leadership: If you’re already doing trainings for your team, or writing newsletters create the trainings in the same format you’re already doing but gear it toward leaders. This doesn’t even have to be extra work, you could just reserve one newsletter a month, or one training every so often for team leaders only (or those that want to be team leaders). By making it special you’re making it desirable. When you sign someone new on ask them if they would like to be a part of your “insert cool name for your leadership group here” which is reserved for people that are serious about the business and want to become leaders. When they say yes not only are you providing them the information they need to become leaders but you’re putting the idea in their head that they already should be recruiting and they’re making a conscious decision to do so even before they’ve started!

There you have it. Four ways to turn your already rocking team into a team of amazing team leaders! The key to remember is that as a leader you don’t have to have all of the answers. This is where the mantra “for yourself not by yourself” comes in for home party professionals and network marketers. You always have your upline and other distributors to ask questions of if you don’t have the answer. Don’t let lack of experience keep you from recruiting or your team from recruiting!

The last thing I will leave you with which could really be a number 5 to this list is don’t forget to set recruiting goals with your team! So often we focus on bookings and sales, don’t forget to set goals with your team about how many distributors they would like to sign on, keep it always forefront in their mind and pretty soon you’re going to see your downline grow and branch out with new teams.

Holly Chantal, M.Ed, is a Certified Book Yourself Solid Coach who helps direct sales professionals streamline their businesses and book themselves solid with ideal customers, hostesses, and prospects. She is currently working in the direct sales industry and enjoys sharing her experience as she helps other professionals achieve their dreams. Receive a Hostess Coaching Audio Training when you sign up for her ezine at: http://www.hollychantal.com.

We’ve all experienced the excitement and sense of accomplishment when you sign on a new recruit with your direct sales company. They may be someone that you just met at your last home party, or maybe someone that you have been following up with for months and were just waiting for them to save up enough money to buy their starter kit and join you in the business.

It’s always an exciting time when someone decides to join your team, you can make new friends, earn awards, and increase your revenue. The only let down is when your new recruit quits even though you can see what great potential they have. It is important in this situation to not take your new recruit’s decision to leave direct sales personally. I’ve seen too many great team leaders get jaded and lose their love of recruiting because of those times when their recruits leave before they can even get started. While this can be a very frustrating part of direct sales and leading a team, I am going to explain a few of the warning signs to be aware of in your new recruit’s journey so that you can be prepared to help and hopefully avoid this dilemma.

1. Your new recruit starts to complain about not being able to book any parties. This is very common and I know you’ve heard it before, you may even have felt this way when you started your own direct sales business. A lot of people sign on in the height of excitement with dollar signs in their eyes and not a thought in their mind about how much work building their business is going to require. When thinking about the time commitment, most people only think about the time it takes to do a party and how many they want to do a week. They don’t take into consideration the time it takes for follow up calls and preparations. So the best way you can prepare your new recruit is to make a schedule with them right from the beginning with the times they are going to commit to building their business other than doing parties. Set them up for success by helping them create good habits from the beginning because we all know that when you put in the work calling prospects and following up with customers, the party bookings will come rolling in.

2. Your new recruit starts to miss team meetings, or never attends them to begin with. Most recruits will sign on for the financial freedom, and ability to work from home that direct sales provides, but in the end they stay because of the people they meet. Your recruit is much more likely to stick with her business if she immediately gets involved and meets other people doing the same thing. Your team meetings are crucial to getting a new recruit on track, and the over all retention of your team. In order to increase attendance at your team meetings it is important that you keep them consistent. In the Book Yourself Solid System we talk about your “always have something to invite people to offer” this is a consistent event that you hold for a few reasons, and your team meetings are no different. When you are consistent you are setting an example for your team, you’re making it easy to remember and therefore attend, and we know that when you create a habit or routine it makes a task easier to accomplish. You will also begin to establish a team culture with your meetings which can go a long way in increasing your satisfaction with your business as well as keep your team motivated and working as a cohesive group.

3. You new recruit starts to complain that they aren’t making any money. Many times even if your recruit is doing great at booking parties, you might still find that they are struggling in other aspects of your business. Sometimes team leaders take their own success for granted and assume that if your recruit is booking parties that they are automatically going to be making money. If you hear this from your recruit it is time to take action! There are many reasons why your recruit might not be making as much of a profit as they should be and if they are putting in the work to book parties you don’t want to lose them because of something that can easily be solved with a little coaching. Find out if their sales are low, or if they are just reinvesting too much money in their business. Many times new distributors get so excited about their new business that they end up spending a lot of money on marketing materials and knick knacks for their business. With some coaching you can help work through these issues with your new team member. You can give them techniques for increasing sales, go through their demo with them and look for things like a low average product price, or that they aren’t emphasizing the benefits of the larger ticket items. You can also help them create a budget for what they can reinvest into their business, or give them cheaper or free solutions for what they are trying to achieve.

4. Your new recruit stops returning your calls. Unfortunately this is the last and sometimes the final sign that you will see before your new recruit bails and there may not be a lot you can do. Chances are they have shown at least one of the first three signs listed here and you can try to save them. If your new recruit stops reaching out to you or even returning your communication my recommendation is to treat this situation much the same as you would with a hostess. Leave 3 phone messages a few days apart letting them know that you’d love to talk to them and that you’re always there to help if they need anything, as well as an email detailing the same information. Then check in once a month after that with a friendly message to see how they are doing.

The most important thing you want to keep in mind when you are working with a recruit and you see these signs is that their actions are not your responsibility. You can offer all of the support in the world, but unless your recruit takes initiative and works their business they aren’t going to be successful and that is not your fault! Be the best team leader you can be and set an example by building your business and the success of your team will follow.

Holly Chantal, M.Ed, is a Certified Book Yourself Solid Coach who helps direct sales professionals streamline their businesses and book themselves solid with ideal customers, hostesses, and prospects. She is currently working in the direct sales industry and enjoys sharing her experience as she helps other professionals achieve their dreams. Receive a Hostess Coaching Audio Training when you sign up for her ezine at: http://www.hollychantal.com