Invest Your Time In Hostess Coaching To Ensure Home Party Success

Posted by Chris | Posted on 15-01-2011

Category : Direct Sales Work at Home Business Tips, Home Party Plan Tips

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A Guest Posting by my friend and business partner, Shelly Hill. Shelly has worked in direct sales for years and years and has recruited hundreds of teammates and has held hundreds of parties. Enjoy!

If you are consultant with any of the Direct Sales home businesses, it is very important that you concentrate on coaching your home party hosts on how to have a successful home party. Why you might ask? Studies have shown that party hosts who have been properly coached have higher product sales and party bookings.

If you are not sure how to coach a party host, let me give you a few tips on how to do it.

1. When the individual books and sets the date, it is important that you immediately get a hostess pack to them. This packet of information should include your contact information, guest lists, extra order forms and catalogs for outside bookings, business opportunity information, booking and product specials, and other printed materials that they will need to help guide them through the coaching process.

2. Set up regular coaching telephone calls or emails with them. I recommend starting this process 4 weeks in advance of the home show date and I recommend that you contact them on a weekly basis. You will use these ‘coaching’ sessions to motivate your host about the party, answer any questions that he or she might have, and to inform them of any specials or booking offers. The more you motivate and excite them about the party, the more effort they will put into it to make it a success. A successful home show for the host, means a successful home show for you.

3. As you are conducting your coaching sessions, keep planting the seeds about your booking specials, product specials and home business opportunity. Over the years, I have found that the more I remind them of these specials and opportunities, the better return rate I have gotten out of it. We all lead busy lives, so keeping all of this information front and center in your hosts mind can pay off big time once the party time arrives.

4. If you have never done this type of coaching before, I suggest you talk to your manager or upline for guidance. In most Direct Sales companies, uplines have been properly trained by their respective home companies on how to do hostess coaching and they can pass that knowledge onto you.

When you take the time to properly coach your hosts, they will be excited when their party time finally arrives and this excitement will pay off for you! There will be great attendance, higher product sales and more bookings from the party attendees, and all of this means you and your host will have a successful home show.

Shelly Hill has been successfully working from home in Direct Sales since 1989. Shelly owns the popular Work At Home Business Options web site at Work at Home Business Options where you can pick up free home business tips, Direct Sales articles and free home business resources. You can visit Shelly’s Two Classy Ghostwriting Chic’s web site at Two Classy Ghostwriting Chics to learn how a ghostwriter can help you with your Direct Sales business.

Article Marketing and Your Direct Sales Business – WAHM-Articles BlogTour

Posted by Chris | Posted on 16-12-2010

Category : Article Marketing, Direct Sales Work at Home Business Tips, Ghostwriting for Blogs

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I have been invited by Wahm Articles to participate in a blog tour of several sites through the month of December. We are all going to be talking about article marketing and how it would help you in your business. Since I am in the direct sales business, well, what a better topic for me than that. Enjoy the Tour!
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Article marketing can be a huge help in your direct sales business should you decide to embrace it. I know there are those of you out there asking, “why should I use it when I only sell lipsticks and lotions”?

Here is my why. Article marketing is a powerful tool in driving traffic to your website. The more people you can get to your site, the better the chances of making a connection with folks which leads to making sales, as well as recruiting people. You also have the opportunity to invite people to get on your list which will enable you to direct information to them as well. Another opportunity to make a sale and a connection.

Making connections is huge in any online business. Especially a direct sales business. We do not have the luxury of being a big box retailer. We have to forge our own way in the big, bad world of the web. Using articles that are written and directed at your niche, will bring those people that are interested in you, in what you have to say and ultimately in your products, right to your front door by using a well written article and resource box.

When you are a small fish in a big company and even one of many in your home town, making a difference and using different methods can only bring you more. Remember each resource box out there is an incoming link to your site. The more there are that are quality, the better it is for your site and your rankings. This means more traffic for your site.

So embrace article marketing in your direct sales business. There are hundreds of topics you can write about that you know. Start today and start seeing results sooner than you expect!

Footnote…..
Chris, thanks again for allowing WAHM-Articles to stop and visit your blog. We hope this post will help your readers get started with article marketing. We just came from Amy’s blog, so make sure you Click Here to read how we helped her readers. Also, make sure you click here to visit Corrie’s blog on Tuesday to see how we’re going to help her readers with article marketing.

Person to Person Sales Means More Money in Your Pocket

Posted by Chris | Posted on 19-11-2010

Category : Direct Sales Articles, Direct Sales Work at Home Business Tips

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Person to Person Sales Means More Money in Your Pocket

In the direct sales business, it is so easy to just have a customer call you with an order, especially if she is a regular client of yours. But sometimes we forget that this is a person to person business that we are running and actually seeing your customer face to face can mean more money in your pocket.

In past articles, I have talked about the difference between an order taker and an order maker. Just taking a customer’s order; thank you very much; and hanging up the phone is really cutting into your potential profits.

Become that order maker. Make an appointment with your customer to stop by and get her order. That is a very personal touch and while you are there, you can recommend different products to try. Show her your traveling basket filled with new items that have arrived recently. Have her sample something new; maybe recommend an add on item that ties in with her original order. Tell her about upcoming specials and new products that may interest her. Talk to her about your business.

You know that it is so much easier to tell someone “No” on the phone than it is in person. When you are recommending a product in person, you have become an advisor. You have gone out of your way to offer a special service and that will stand out to your customer. You have increased your professionalism a few notches. Cementing your relationship with your customer will not only add money and profit into your pocket right now, but in the long run, the results will be clear. That customer will be yours for life.

Copyright Chris Carroll All Rights Reserved
Chris Carroll is a sales professional that has made direct sales her business of choice and enjoys sharing with others. You can sign up for tips on managing and increasing your business at her site DirectSalesTalk. You can also find her at her business site ShopOnYourSeat If you would like to use this article for your newsletters or website, all links must be live and clickable.

Avoiding Last Minute Cancellations in Your Direct Sales Biz

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Posted by Chris | Posted on 18-08-2010

Category : Direct Sales Work at Home Business Tips, Home Party Plan Tips

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Don’t you hate those? Those last minute cancellations. I know I do! You’ve worked so hard with your hostess to get ready for her party. You’ve invested time, money and energy into helping her invite guests, get outside sales and plan her show. All of the sudden, just as your getting ready to head out the door, your hostess calls and says she wants to cancel. It’s not an emergency or anything like that, she just feels like no one is going to come, or doesn’t think her show is going to be a success.

Unfortunately, this scenario plays out a lot when you own a direct sales business. So, what can you do to avoid those last minute cancellations?

Encouragement
Obviously the first thing to do is encourage her to hold the show. Let her know you are on your way over and if no one shows up you can talk about what to do next once you arrive.

If she still insists on canceling, encourage her to book the show for the following week. Let her know you will help her invite friends and encourage sales. Ask her if she’s taken the catalogs to her friends, family and co-workers? If she has not, remind her that a lot of people will buy something, although they may not physically show up to her party. Outside sales are a great way to increase overall show sales. They are also a great way to find potential hostesses and customers.

Offer a Outside Sales Only Show
Another thing you can suggest is that your hostess holds what is known as a “book” party. If she is truly adamant and thinks no one will show up, encourage your hostess to get outside sales only. I’ve had many successful shows from “book” parties. Remind the hostess to get all the contact information from each person who purchases so you can follow up with them.

Plan Ahead & Keep in Contact
The best way to avoid those last minute cancellations is to do the work ahead of time. Keep in contact with your hostess from the time she booked the show up to the day before the show. Send out thank you notes, reminder cards and make phone calls to encourage her and help her to feel confident in her hosting abilities.

Supply the Tools for Success
Remember, most people who hold shows for you do not do this for a living. You’ll need to do a bit of detective work to find out what your hostess’ personality type. If you can figure out the type of person she is, you’ll be able to help her and her show be a huge success. Work with her and give her the tools necessary based on your findings.

For example, if your hostess is shy and reserved, help her by giving her “words” or scripts to use when calling her potential guests. Put the information in her hands to help keep her positive and thriving.

If your hostess is unorganized, but social (those two personality traits usually go hand in hand) help her get organized by giving her ‘save the date’ cards or magnets she can have in front of her at all times. Give her a plan or help her schedule time to make phone calls to friends and family. Give her plenty of brochures to hand out to co-workers and make sure she puts them in her briefcase or by her purse so they go with her to work the next day.

Sometimes in direct sales, we do have to assist some of our hostesses. You have to help them along, every step of the way. Not all hostesses are like this, but a lot more than you might realize are. For me personally, I would say at least half of my hostesses have needed a helping hand of some magnitude along the way. And that is what you are there for.

You can never go wrong by investing a little time and effort in someone to help her flourish. After all, your success depends on her success. In direct sales you won’t be in business long if you are not willing to invest time, energy and some money into the lives of others. You have to help others be a success if you’re going to be a success too!

The Best Sales Tips You Will Find

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Posted by Chris | Posted on 12-06-2010

Category : Direct Sales Work at Home Business Tips

Tags: ,

I saw this article the other day and knew that it would benefit you and your business greatly as well.

The Best Sales Tips You Will Find
This is a list of 10 sales tips that can use in any business in order to get more customers and close the sale faster. There is no business until it has made its first sale, and each sale after that. Therefore, you need to give yourself a big arsenal of sales tools to get yourself to where you want to be. Read on to find out all 10 tips.

1. Build relationships with your customers. You have to have long-term customers in order to grow. If you sell to a person only one time, it is very expensive to find a new customer.

2. Get the customer to accept things from you, like your business cards, brochures, free gifts, even price quotes. This act of accepting gets them into a “YES” mind frame.

3. Make sure that your business card contains a call to action on the back of it. There are way too many useless business cards floating around out there. Make sure you use both sides to create something that the customer won’t throw in the trash as soon as they get home.

4. Learn to shut your mouth and let the customer talk. People that are really talkative can end up talking their own customer out of the sale, because they shared TOO MUCH information about the product.

5. Don’t try and be a clown in order to keep the customer’s attention. Sure, you need to make the customer feel comfortable, but you don’t need to tell a bunch of corny jokes and make the situation even worse.

6. Focus on what the customer wants, not what you want. If the customer wants your most inexpensive product, then sell it to him. Don’t sell anything to anyone that they don’t want.

7. If you don’t believe in what you are selling, you won’t be able to convince your customers that they should believe you either.

8. You have to give before you can get. You need to earn your customer’s business by first offering different things that will benefit them. You might have to lose a little money on the first sale in order to close a large, profitable sale.

9. Don’t patronize your prospect. If you treat your customer like they are stupid, you won’t sell them a thing. Allow them plenty of time to ask questions, but don’t baby them.

10. Develop a killer guarantee. Use your guarantee as a marketing tool to lower the prospect’s skepticism about going through with the purchase.

Joshua Black is the developer of the Underdog Sales Bible. This report gives you 37 different methods for ETHICALLY closing the sale without tricks, gimmicks, or pitches of any kind. You can find out more and download the sales bible at: Closing The Sale.com

Article Source: Ezine Articles/ Expert Joshua Black

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