Karen Phelps Direct Selling Tips

Simple Leadership System Will Get YOU on Track for BIG BONUS CHECKS!

July 17, 2010 By karen Leave a Comment

Listen to several leaders and myself on a special call and you may or may not have had time in your busy schedule to listen in! You’ll hear some POWERFUL INFORMATION ON WHAT DIRECT SELLING LEADERS ARE DOING TO BUILD THEIR TEAMS AND INCREASE THEIR INCOMES!! Make sure you listen to the WHOLE CALL AS EVERYONE SHARES DIFFERENT INFORMATION ON WHAT’S WORKING FOR THEM!

If you were on the call you would have heard:

1. Brenda with Pampered Chef share she LOVES HAVING A STEP-BY-STEP Leadership System to use as well as to teach other leaders on her team! She also shared how her new “Success Training” for new recruits is so good the new recruits are soaring past the seasoned veterans (who are unwilling to participate in the training) and how the new recruits are not only selling BUT ALSO SPONSORING. She has a new director and 7 Senior Consultants since she began implementing what she learned from “The Leadership Blueprint!”
2. Tina with Jewels by Park Lane who earned her first trip ever, a trip for 2 to Aruba! On a recent Direct Selling Doctor Gold Plus coaching call, Tina realized she had been wasting valuable time on the internet and cut down her internet use by 2 hours per day and has been getting many more “income producing” activities done. She began holding monthly meetings and sending out team newsletters and she is now getting more done in less time!
3. Maura with Tastefully Simple has a small team and she realized goal-setting was hard for her. Because she wasn’t doing well on her goals it was hard to work with her team on their goals. Using “The Leadership Blueprint” she began to break down her goals into bite-sized pieces and is now 1/2 way to reaching the team sales goal she set for 2010 so she knows she’ll not only reach it but surpass it by thousands of dollars!
4. Kara from Gold Canyon invested in the system after she lost her leadership title. Devastated and ready for some drastic measures she realized she was constantly putting off things because of her desire for everything to “BE PERFECT” before she began! She needed a step-by-step way of doing things. She now uses the Interview to qualify leads, trains her recruits better and has MORE RECRUITS HITTING THEIR QUICK START LEVELS than ever before! Kara has also regained her title and is close to moving up to the next level!
5. Platinum Direct Selling Doctor member, Rosemary with Beauti-Control who understands the Power of Knowledge and having tools to work the business. She learned to listen to the people on her team and began teaching the “disgruntled consultants” how to book more spas and control their calendar. She is no longer signing up kit-nappers and with a “new attitude” is now FOCUSED on HELPING NEW RECRUITS REACH THEIR INCOME GOALS by challenging them to be ABOVE AVERAGE!
6. Platinum Direct Selling Doctor member, Jessie returned from the Leadership Bootcamp last fall and earned the promotion she had been working on for years in 2 months! Her team sales are up 30% over last year and her income is up 58%! ! Jessie is quick to implement what she learns and immediately began duplicating “the SYSTEM”, introducing ongoing Opportunity Meetings, new meeting formats and an exciting new team recognition program! She averages 30 new team members each month and has been using the system to keep promoting new consultants as fast as she can! SHE IS ON FIRE and the “Leadership Snowball” she has created in her team will be hard to beat!

It was exciting to hear each leader share how she discovered the areas where improvement was needed and used “THE LEADERSHIP BLUEPRINT” to move her past the obstacles and toward success. Each leader invested in the Leadership Bootcamp or the Leadership Blueprint at different points in their careers. Some were new consultants who knew they wanted to develop a strong team from the beginning, while others were leaders who were” stuck” in the business and unable to move past a certain level. All of them arrived with a DESIRE AND DETERMINATION to SUCCEED!

If you would like to hear their stories and what they did to get unstuck I’ll have the replay of the call up for a short time!

You can call (712) 432- 0453 pin 6745228# anytime 24/7 BUT HURRY because it won’t be there long! When you are done listening make sure you go to www.karenphelps.com/leadership.html
Now… if you really are ready to get out of the quicksand that is preventing you from earning $50,000, $100,000 or more in annual income from your direct selling business you should check into “The Leadership Blueprint” that has helped so many other leaders by providing them with an A-Z Leadership system for finding, calling & interviewing prospects, training and coaching new recruits to success, finding future leaders and moving them into leadership and all the ins and outs of holding opportunity meetings, training classes, team meetings and lots more you’ll want to check it out before the price increases by $50 on June 7′th!

The Leadership Blueprint not only comes with DVDs, CDs, Binder and Template for all materials it allows you to join us for the next “Mastering Direct Selling Leadership for 6-Figure Income” Webinar Series which begins on June 15′th. Hurry so you’ll have your binder and everything you need before the first class begins!

www.karenphelps.com/leadership.html

Filed Under: Leadership, Sponsoring, Teleseminars Tagged With: direct sales, direct selling, direct selling leader, dreams, recruiting, Sponsoring, success tips, team

Lifestyle Freedom With Your Direct Selling Business

July 3, 2010 By karen Leave a Comment

I loved having my own successful direct selling business for twenty-five years. The parties were fun, my team was awesome and the money was a whole lot better than I would have been earning from my 9 -5 job! I earned 22 trips around the world and more contest prizes than I ever could have imagined when I first began selling in 1978.

Because, direct selling was so good for me I’m often saddened when consultants tell me they aren’t getting what they want from their business. I love the tenacity, ambition, work ethic and creativity displayed by successful direct sellers. It’s Independence Weekend and I thought it would be fitting to share a few of the success tips that helped use my direct selling business to provide financial independence as well as the “lifestyle freedom” that is so important to many of us:

1. Set your goals! I know, you’ve been told this over and over and over again and you are probably sick and tired of hearing it. Truth is, if you don’t set your goals you’ll be halfheartedly working your business and shouldn’t expect much success. It’s been proven over and over again, those who have goals do better and EARN MORE!
2. Work Weekly! If you aren’t working your business on a weekly basis it’s just a hobby. Don’t plan monthly activity plan for weekly activity. Hold parties every week. Make follow up calls every week. Interview prospects every week. The consistency you’ll develop by doing things weekly will dramatically increase your sales and your paycheck.
3. Attend Trainings & Meetings! Only foolish people would attempt to begin their business with no training. Only non-committed consultants would continue in the business without support and continuing their education. If you want to succeed you’ll be where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there. NO EXCUSES…Find a Way!
4. Work harder on yourself than you do on your business. It doesn’t matter how hard you try if your attitude is lousy. Most successful people will tell you they work on their attitude and other success habits on a daily basis. Listen to motivational CDs. Listen to training CDs. Talk positively to yourself. Get away from the quick-sand crowd and start hanging out with winners.
5. Do the RIGHT THINGS, the RIGHT WAY. It’s not how much time you spend in your business it’s whether or not you are doing the right things while you are working. You can be busy doing things that won’t bring in income and in that case, you’ll still be broke. Or you can get smart and start doing things the right way. Got lots of party cancellations? People who mail invites for their hostesses experience less than a 20% cancellation rate. Your recruits lazy? People who have successful recruits know what to do to get them off to the best start. You’ve got to do things the RIGHT WAY!
6. Get healthy NOW! It’s hard to get things done fast when your energy is dragging. If you smoke, STOP! (I know it’s easy to say because I’ve never smoked but the truth is…it’s killing you. If you’re over-weight, LOSE IT! I’ve been a Weight Watchers lifetime member for 20 years and I’ve invested in JJ Virgin’s Fat Loss program last year which helped me take off 18 pounds and get healthier in the process. If you don’t exercise, GET MOVING! Doing the right things for your body won’t guarantee that you won’t get sick but you’ll feel much better all the way around and you will usually have greater energy which is a must when you have your own business. If you are too tired or sick to get it done, it usually won’t get done.
7. Invest in Yourself. People who invest in themselves and their business BELIEVE they will be successful. When I come across a product that I know can help me or my business I get it. Not investing in myself is like telling my subconscious, “who are you fooling, you can’t make money doing this?” I already told you to work harder on yourself than you do on your business so don’t let your negative thoughts influence you when making decisions. If you BELIEVE you will succeed you’ll make decisions with an abundance mentality rather than a lack mentality. I provide some of the best motivational and direct selling tools on the planet. Check them out.

I’ve learned that strategies for growing a successful direct selling business are not unique to certain individuals or companies. Success is determined by the use of predictable, repeatable, simple actions but not just any actions – the right actions. The driving force behind your success is YOU! Are you ready for the challenge?

Filed Under: Getting to know Karen, Motivation, Sales Tagged With: direct selling, dreams, goal setting, success tips, winner

No Excuses Part 2 – Is it a Legitimate Objection or an Excuse?

June 24, 2010 By karen Leave a Comment

Last week I went over how to STOP making excuses yourself and this week I thought I’d switch it around and share some insight as to why our prospects give us excuses. Are you like millions of direct sellers who have a long list of people who have indicated they want to do business with you BUT they have not taken any action yet? Worse yet, every time you try to have a conversation with you they either avoid you like the plague or THEY GIVE YOU AN EXCUSE!

An excuse is merely a polite way of telling you they don’t want to do business with you. Yikes, I can’t believe I say that but it’s TRUE! It could be they are not ready to do business with you YET, or it may mean they don’t want to do business with you ever.

If you joined me for the Monthly Booking Bonanza Teleseminar in June then you heard me talk about a new program I invested in this past Spring that I am absolutely loving. It is by Ari Galper,”Unlock the Game” and the concept is about creating trust between you and your prospects. It doesn’t matter what you are selling the principles are the same. People will do business with people they know, like and trust.

One of the reasons your prospects could be giving you and excuse is they don’t trust that what you say is really going to happen If this is a factor you need to working on building trust in the relationship. An easy way to build trust is to make the prospect feel comfortable and you can do this as easily as asking, “Would you be open to…?” and then insert whatever you want. Example: “Would you be open to getting together for a cup of coffee and I’ll share a few ways having your own business could be an advantage for you?” OR “Would you be open to exploring the possibility of having a (company name) party to earn some free products for yourself?” You can easily see these examples are about creating a relationship with the prospect before deciding which way to go. ( Make sure you join me for next month’s booking teleseminar where you get the rest of the script as well as some more to help you fill your calendar with bookings!)

Another reason your prospect may give you an excuse is they aren’t sure they need what you are offering. In our never-ending pursuit of getting a booking, making a sale and getting a recruit we often overlook the fact that maybe it’s NOT RIGHT for them! Instead of going into pursuit mode you can ask more questions to get to the bottom of it. Asking questions like, “does it make sense to?” or “I understand you love our products and I know you want a lot of them, but on a scale of 1 -10 how interested are you in booking a party to get some for free?”

When you are overcoming excuses most of us have been trained to use the “feel, felt, found method” of overcoming objections and that can work but it often doesn’t help us to know if it’s a legitimate objection or just an excuse. Much like an onion you need to ask questions until you get to the real issue. Saying things like, “are you open to hearing more?”, “does it make sense to set a date?”, or “where do you think we should go from here?” will help your prospects feel more comfortable with the process and will help you uncover the truth behind their excuse.

So, if you are open to trying some new language and you feel comfortable with asking more questions in order to get better answers you just might discover your prospects more willing to answer you honestly. You’ve got nothing to lose by trying!

Let Karen show you how to get what you want from your direct selling business and life go to www.karenphelps.com/promo.html for specials or to www.karenphelps.com/shop.html

Want to know how you can bring Karen in to motivate and inspire your audience call our office (248) 625-4897or contact support@karenphelps.com.

Filed Under: Bookings, Sales, Sponsoring Tagged With: direct sales, direct selling, direct selling leader, dreams, getting bookings, getting recruits, goal setting, recruiting, Sponsoring, success tips

NO Excuses!

June 9, 2010 By karen 2 Comments

“When confronted with a problem you have one of two choices to make. You can find an excuse for the problem or find a way to solve it. Ultimately the choice is yours.” ~
Karen Phelps

Last week I mentioned that having a direct selling business is a lot like having a garden. You must tend to your customers, hostesses and team just like you would the flowers in your garden. It’s not always easy but in the end your garden and your business look just the way you want them!

This week I thought I’d share few thoughts as to why people make excuses. I decided to make this a 2-part article with the first week focusing on how to overcome making excuses and next week focusing on how to overcome excuses others give you! You’ll want to read both parts so watch for next week’s newsletter!

You know, I’m not much different from you in many ways. I have fantastic family, I’m working from home, I have my plate more than full and sometimes I don’t get out of my office until 10:00 at night. Other times, (like last weekend) I just blow everything off and have fun, which I’m entitled to do once in awhile.

There is one thing I try never to do though and that is to “give excuses” as to why something isn’t done, hasn’t been started, or isn’t important enough to show up. I try my best to hold myself accountable in everything I do! For example, I volunteer through the Waterford Rotary Club, where I’ll take over as Club President June 30′th. No one is busier than I am and yet I show up at fund-raisers and events, mentor a high-school student and attend the weekly meetings every Tuesday unless I’m traveling. I made a commitment to the club when I joined and there is no reason to go back on my word or begin giving excuses as to why I can’t be where I’m supposed to be when I’m supposed to be there.

I’ve made a commitment to myself to complete 2 books this year so every morning I am up by 7 a.m. (many days by 6 a.m.) and in my office writing. If I don’t discipline myself then down the road when the projects aren’t finished I’ll be looking for excuses as to why they aren’t done! I’m no different than anyone else, of course it’s NEVER MY FAULT! Hey we begin placing the blame on outside sources at a very early age, remember the broken case that wasn’t your fault? How about the homework that the dog ate? How about the time you struck out because you weren’t ready when the pitcher through the ball? I’ll bet you can go back and think of hundreds of times when you made an excuse BUT you are a grown-up now and it’s time to shape up!

In my many observations of people through the years I have discovered the most successful people DON’T MAKE EXCUSES! It is always easier to blame someone or something else for your lack of follow-through or commitment. It’s easier to blame the economy for lackluster sales than it is to “LEARN HOW TO PROSPER IN ANY ECONOMY.” I’m constantly amazed that 2 people living in the same town working for the same sales company can have totally different results. One will struggle getting people to book and hold parties while another will go on to set a company record for high sales. The big difference is the successful consultant will have a GREAT ATTITUDE and WON’T MAKE EXCUSES! The other consultant will have a lousy attitude and is constantly looking for excuses.

So in case I struck a nerve with you, I want you to really START PAYING ATTENTION to what you do on a daily basis and how many times per day you make an excuse. In fact I’m going to challenge you to keep a list and write them down. The only way you can correct something is to make a conscious change to do so! Then, there’s a great teleseminar this week on how to fill your calendar with bookings that will be held at 2 different times (sorry, no replay) so if you need bookings I’d find a way to be on the call! There’s another great leadership call where you can listen to leaders share what’s working to build their teams and increase their income, you should probably find time to listen to that call too! The number for the replay is (712) 432-0453 Pin 6745228#.
You see, I’m trying to help you by providing F*R*E*E resources for you BUT YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP! No Exuses, right?
Here’s to YOU and YOUR SUCCESS!
Want to check out what’s on special?

WHAT ABOUT YOU??? DO YOU MAKE EXCUSES? PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS POST!

Filed Under: Motivation Tagged With: direct sales, direct selling, dreams, goal setting, success tips, winner

Meeting & Training Success Action Steps

May 25, 2010 By karen 1 Comment

I just returned home from a 4-day training event I attended in Las Vegas and my brain was on overload with all the information I learned in these jam-packed sessions! Has this ever happened to you? Have you attended an event and you listen, take notes and then come home on overload and put the notes away and never get around to making any changes in your life or business? Well, I have to confess that as good as I am at taking control, I often find myself out-of-control after seminars and training because I didn’t take the time to immediately create my action plan with a FEW STEPS I COULD TAKE IMMEDIATELY!

This training was quite an investment on my part so I knew I wanted to get everything I could out of it PLUS MORE! So can I share five secrets on what I did during and after the event to get results?

1. I wrote my notes in the meeting binder so they would be in one place for review instead of writing on my own legal pad and then wondering where I put it! Actually had quite a few fill-in-the-blank handouts so it just made sense instead of re-writing everything which I am often inclined to do!

2. Took my “yearly notebook” where I have all my notes for the year as well as goals and list of things to do each week with me to the event. At the end of each day I reviewed my notes and created a list of things that I had to do “this week” and checked to see what needed to go on the list. In other words, anything that was a “must do right away item.”

3. Kept my meeting binder and notebook with me in my carry-on traveling home and re-read ALL MY NOTES from the training! This is very important because we do not retain past 48 hours 95% of the information we hear! During the review process I discovered a few more items that needed to be added to my must do this week list.

4. Numbered my “must do list” from this weekend in order of importance and made sure there were less than 7 things on the list which gives me a much better chance of ACTUALLY GETTING IT DONE!

5. Started doing the things on your list the very next day! DON’T WAIT! The longer you wait the less likely you are to implement what you learned. I’ve discovered over the years the fastest way to success is to implement what you learned immediately into your business. Don’t wait to do it perfectly just get it done!

Filed Under: Getting to know Karen, Motivation Tagged With: direct sales, direct selling, success tips, winner

Direct Sellers Can Avoid Stalking Their Recruits

May 24, 2010 By karen Leave a Comment

Can you identify yourself in this short video?

Filed Under: Leadership, Sponsoring Tagged With: direct sales, direct selling, getting recruits, team

Direct Sales – Secrets to Summer Scheduling Replay

May 21, 2010 By karen Leave a Comment

“I need to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I had been feeling sluggish in my bookings and after I jumped on your webinar, got the rush and enthusiasm back that I needed and was missing. We just did a mini phone-a-thon tonight at our team meeting here in Michigan. I booked 9 parties using your idea’s!” Julie Van Houten, Slumber Parties

Don’t miss the Secrets to Summer Scheduling Replay where I share how to:

Control your calendar all summer long
Use theme parties to encourage bookings
Make your offer so irresistable no one can refuse
My “secret weapon” for getting at least 12 parties every month all summer long! (well actually I shared not one, not two not three but FOUR secret weapons I used to keep my calendar filled with 3 -4 parties per week!)(you’ll even see some cool pictures of some great ideas for the summer!
Plus lots more…

It’s 90 minutes jam-packed with idea after idea and lots of motivation to propel you into action! So you can share this email with your team (you’d be crazy not to) but everyone must register to listen to the replay. And if you already registered for the live call but didn’t get a chance to join us…don’t worry, a special email is on the way with the replay information!

You can watch or listen as many times as you want 24/7 from now until May 31, 2010! After that it’s back in the vault for another year! So, if you didn’t register because you couldn’t make it for one of the Webinars on Monday there is nothing stopping you now!

“Thank you so very much Karen, I sincerely appreciate it! I use your advice. The Open Date card works and I use your advice from a prior call and ask them what day of the week works best Tuesdays or Friday, Saturday? I book, as you’ve told me, the first available dates in the beginning of a month so when I hold those shows, I can book later in the same month to get a full calendar of shows.” Annette Locke, Premier Designs

Register for the Replay Now

Filed Under: Bookings Tagged With: direct sales, direct selling, getting bookings, goal setting

Direct Sales – Use the Law of Averages to Increase Your Income

May 21, 2010 By karen Leave a Comment

How many prospects do you need to talk to before you get one booking?
How many people do you need in attendance to have a $1000 party?
How many parties do you average per week? Per month?
What’s your average party and how can you increase that amount?
How many bookings do you average per party? How can you increase this?
How many prospects do you need to interview before you get a recruit?
How many recruits do you need to sign before you get one new leader?
How many new leaders do you need before you get one great leader?

Many salespeople do no fully understand the importance of finding out their averages in order to improve in certain areas of their business. Tracking yourself in your business can help you find areas that you need to improve and then work on ways to improve your stats. Simple little techniques can have dramatic increases in your business, often with no increase in time or effort. As Jim Rohn says, “When you are new you make up in numbers what you lack in skill.” Once you discover what you need to do you can work to improve each skill to increase your productivity. Here are some simple ways to track yourself that won’t take much time or effort but can go a long way to making you more money!

1. Begin today tracking how many parties you hold each week, each month and each year. During coaching with consultants and leaders most are amazed to discover the difference in the amount of parties they believe they have held and the amount they have actually held. For example, during one call the person I was coaching said she held about 8 – 10 parties each month. I asked her to get her company stats and lets go over them. She went back for 8 months and discovered she actually held an average of 4 -5 parties per month and the most parties she had ever held in a month was 7. After the initial shock she said to me, “I feel like I’m working all the time.” Come to find out she was spending lots of time on things that did nothing to put money in her bank account. A few changes in the way she did things at her parties and she was soon reaching the 8 – 10 parties per month goal she had set for herself.

2. Create a tracking system for your parties on excel or a spreadsheet where you list the number of invitations sent, how many guests attended, how many guests purchased, total sales, how many people booked, how many leads you interviewed for the business opportunity. (These are many of the questions I teach leaders to ask their new recruits in the Blueprint for Mastering Direct Selling Leadership for 6-Figure Income Virtual Bootcamp.) www.karenphelps.com/leadership.html
Using a tracking system for your parties helps you discover areas where you are strong and areas you need to improve in your business. If you have a low party average you need to discover WHY? Is it because there aren’t many people at your parties or is it because a lot of people leave without purchasing? If you are having low attendance and you are not mailing invitations for your hostesses you may want to begin to mail them for 30 days to see if your attendance increases. If you hold party after party with no bookings sooner or later you will be out of business. YOU MUST GET AT LEAST ONE BOOKING FROM EVERY PARTY…NO EXCUSES! So, if you aren’t replacing every booking what do you need to do in order to leave every party with one to three bookings? ( Should try the booking game which is part of the It’s a Party Out There Program www.karenphelps.com/shop.html or www.karenphelps.com/promo.html)

3. Track your Leads. How many people do you need to hand recruiting brochures to get one person to sit down and talk to you about the business. How many people do you need to interview in order to get one signed recruit.Wow, this is an interesting area because a lot of direct sellers misinterpret signing someone up with interviewing someone about the business opportunity. When someone tells me they sign everyone they talk to my initial response is, “you are not talking to enough people.” The late Jim Rohn said even the best recruiters signed an average of 3 – 4 out of every 10 people which is a 30 – 40% close ratio. As I teach in the new Leadership Virtual Bootcamp RECRUITING IS NOT AN ACTIVITY! Prospecting, phone calls and interviews are the activities you do to get a signed recruit. The “signed recruit” is the result of the activities you have done previously. Those are the activities you need to track, leads, follow-up phone calls and interviews. Begin tracking those elements and work to improve in each one and watch your number of new recruits increase as you begin to work on areas where you discover you need to improve. For example, maybe you get a lot of leads at your parties but you don’t actually get many of them to meet with you to talk about the business. You may have to work on your follow-up skills to improve your average.

4. How many recruits do you need on your team to get one leader? Ahhh…many leaders don’t think about this when they are trying to build a direct selling empire. If you promote one leader for every 10 recruits and you want 10 new leaders you know you will need to bring 100 recruits into your team. If you promote one leader for every 20 recruits you’ll need to have 200 recruits to get 10 leaders. Now, if you haven’t been tracking this all along you can go back and get an approximate figure by dividing the number of leaders you have into the number of people in your organization. If you have 500 on your team (yes, for this stat you will need to count active and inactive recruits) and you have 5 leaders then you can pretty much figure that you need to have 100 recruits per leader. BUT, you can improve your average by doing the RIGHT THINGS! You can train your new recruits to begin sponsoring immediately. You can hold a Future Leader Luncheon EVERY month to increase the awareness of the leadership opportunity with your company. When you begin to work RIGHT you will notice you don’t have to WORK HARD to get better results!

So, hopefully I’ve given you some food for thought. I know with today’s technology many direct selling consultants and leaders have access to up-to-the-minute stats with their company which can be a blessing as well as a curse. You have to break everything down as small as you can in order to discover what needs to be improved to increase your averages. Even if your company is keeping track of things for you there are probably many places where you could keep better statistics on yourself and your team AND with little tweaks and changes notice BIG RESULTS! And since I just returned from Vegas, “I’m betting” you can make success in your business happen!!!

Filed Under: Bookings, Sales, Sponsoring Tagged With: direct sales, direct selling, dreams, getting bookings, goal setting, recruiting, Sponsoring

Develop Your Persuasion and Selling Skills to Increase Sales & Bookings

April 20, 2010 By karen Leave a Comment

How would you like to have an abundance of people saying YES to you and your offers? Would it be worthwhile for you if you could have more people say YES to booking a party? What would happen if more guests purchased at every party? It’s not as hard to get people to say YES as you might think and actually you probably already know several ways to do so BUT you may not be implementing what you know or you might be missing one element that makes your presentation less effective.

I’ve been avidly studying and practicing persuasion and sales techniques for thirty years. I have sales programs and books from Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, Dan Kennedy, and numerous others and I have to confess even though what I hear or read is often a repetition there are also some BIG AH-HA moments when I read something or hear something and I think to myself, WOW, where has this idea been all my life! Now, you may be thinking to yourself, I know everything I need to know but when you really understand ALL OF LIFE IS A SALES TRANSACTION you might want to study to get things right. That’s right, whether you are trying to get your spouse to take out the garbage, or encouraging your kids to do their homework, or selling a tangible product for commission YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO INFLUENCE SOMEONE TO ACCEPT YOUR IDEA which is nothing less than a SALES TRANSACTION! So are there some simple things you can do to get a better response? Absolutely! Here’s a few suggestions!

1. Clear Up Confusion in your prospects mind. When people are confused they seldom act and yet there are many times sales professionals have done this to a potential customer and then wonder why they didn’t get the sale, booking or signed agreement! On a recent call with a Gold Plus member we discovered that she is skeptical at first, doesn’t like deadlines and wants convenience and some type of guarantee before she makes a decision to invest in a product. This is valuable information for someone who is trying to sell her something to know and it will be difficult to close this person if you haven’t addressed these concerns. Before attempting to close someone like this you need to make sure she trusts you and the product and that you’ll do everything you can to simplify the process while at the same time reminding her that although she is free to make her decision at any time there are a few additional benefits if she acts soon. Most sales people DON’T ASK ENOUGH QUESTIONS to get to the RIGHT CLOSING QUESTION for each individual. It’s a process that can be developed over time.

2. Use Social Proof in your presentation. Even though we like to think it doesn’t matter to us what our neighbors are doing the truth is…it does! The phrase, keeping up with the Joneses hasn’t gone by the wayside and people buy what others buy. Ever noticed what happens at Christmas when all the kids want the same toy and parents are frantically searching for it to no avail??? You can implement social proof in a couple ways. First, you can browse through current magazines and find things that are similar to what your company carries and talk about them or show them at your parties. It validates your company’s knowledge of what’s current and happening now. Second, make sure to say things like, “this is one of our most popular items and our customers are raving about the compliments the have received on this item.” Do you know anyone that doesn’t like to get compliments??? They’ll do anything and purchase anything to get a compliment!

3. Smile . Several studies have been done on the importance of smiling and customer satisfaction and the more authentic your smile the more likely someone is to take action and BE Satisfied with their decision! I’m constantly telling consultants to “lighten up” at their parties. Have fun, smile and people will look for ways to stay connected to you like booking a party or becoming a consultant. No one likes to be around someone who is GRUMPY and frowning all the time but most people will go out of their way to be with someone who is HAPPY and smiling. Who knows, the smile you force yourself to put on today could easily come to your face tomorrow after the additional sales and bookings at tonight’s party. Smile…all the way to the bank!

These are just a few of the many factors you can include when making any type of presentation. There are hundreds more effective strategies for getting people to say YES to your offer. I’ll be sharing lots more strategies on the next Direct Selling Doctor monthly teleseminar on Monday, April 26′th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Direct Selling Doctor members can join me on the live call and/or listen to the replay on the website. If you aren’t a member yet check it out at www.directsellingdoctor.com

Filed Under: Sales Tagged With: direct selling, getting bookings, goal setting, increase party sales, winner

Why doesn’t my Direct Selling Team Work?

April 7, 2010 By karen Leave a Comment

Watch this short video.

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: direct sales, direct selling, recruiting, Sponsoring, team