Partnering with Your Hostess: Pathway to Recruiting Success, is an entertaining book that provides you with tips and techniques to that will help both your hostess and you to reach your goals. How well you work with your hostess will directly determine how successful you are at making sales and recruiting people into the business. It’s vital that you do all you can to establish a win-win partnership with your hostess. You want to make her feel as if she attained her dreams also.

You’ll find useful resources and a great deal of information in this book. It will assist in creating parties that are fun, informative and (over) loaded with potential.  Simply follow what the book teaches and the techniques will work for you.

Partnering with Your Hostess: Pathway to Recruiting Success is of of those books that you’ll find yourself referring to over and over again. I encourage all direct sales managers to share the book, or at least the techniques that you learn from the book, with your downline. You can use it as a training tool.  Simply suggest to everyone on your team and all new recruits that they get the book to study before hosting their first party on their own. Use it for team meetings, covering one topic at a time. Watch your entire team’s success grow!

Being a direct sales representative is a great way to bring in extra money. If you want to be successful at it, as in any career, you need to understand exactly what you’re doing and you should know the best way to do it. If you host a lot of parties and they are a big part of your direct sales marketing plan, then this is the perfect book to add to your reference library.

Click here to purchase your copy of Partnering with Your Hostess: Pathway to Recruiting Success

When using internet marketing techniques in your direct sales business, you need to be creative and find different ways to run your promotional campaigns. No matter what you do, you’ll never be able to predict the outcome. You might have a very profitable campaign one time and then completely fall flat the next.

Because of the vast popularity of blogging, people everywhere in the world are doing it. This popularity is now being taken advantage of by direct sales business owners as a means to reach out to a specific market and expanding their business. Direct sales reps everywhere are seeing what an efficient and affordable method it is to easily keep in touch with both current and potential customers.

For example, if you are the direct sales rep of a jewelry company, your blog will probably have jewelry tips and industry news related to such. Potential prospects would be those who are primarily interested in buying jewelry, either for themselves or to give as gifts.

Communication with your target market is crucial. You can easily do this and generate even more leads by using a blog. Your visitors are easily and immediately able to post and address their comments, questions and feedback to you, personally.

By taking advantage of the two way communication that commenting allows, it not only adds to your list of leads, but you’re also able to gain valuable feedback of what most of your prospective customers need or want.

Keeping customers happy, gaining their trust and building a strong relationship with them are just some of the things to remember in a direct sales business. A blog can add a personal touch to your marketing arsenal and is an excellent way to keep everyone updated in regards to sales, events and most everything that’s going on with your business.

Most people are a bit competitive by nature, some more than others. Playing a game is a great way to get the party started. It not only helps people become acquainted, but it also adds a bit of playful competition to the festivities.

Games can be just about anything you can think of. It can be a trivia game about your products and company or a little tougher game of skill and strategy.  Games also provide you with the perfect opportunity to find people to donate prizes to.  Depending on how many prizes you want to give away and how much time you have, you can award first, second, and third place prizes.  Another option is to play a couple games and the first place winner of each game gets a prize.  Just try to make sure the same person doesn’t win each time.

Another great way to find people to donate prizes to is to have a drawing.  Each party guest is encouraged to enter the drawing. Now you can award a first, second, and third place prize to the names that you draw.  Of course, if you have more prizes to give away, you can keep drawing and donate prizes as you go.

Having drawings is also a great way to generate leads.  Instead of having people just put their name on a slip of paper, you can actually have them fill out a pre-printed postcard or form.

Information you should consider asking for:

• Name
• Address
• Phone number
• Email address
• If they’re interested in becoming a consultant
• If they’re interested in hosting a party (and earning free gifts)

When you set up your drawing this way, it offers two benefits.  First, it gives you real, live leads to build your business. Second, you now have the opportunity to award the prizes either at the show or after the show at a later date. You can then call people to let them know they’ve won.  Be sure you don’t let this information go to waste.  Use it to your advantage to send out promotional information and announce new products.

Whether you choose to play games or host a drawing, giving prizes away is a wonderful way to introduce new people to your products and add future customers.

With Direct Sales you have the ability to make great money part-time or full-time. You’re your own boss, you have the freedom you need to do things you’ve always wanted to do, and you can get started right away. However, the reality is that not everyone will earn what they dream of overnight.

Did you ever think to yourself, what if there was a resource available to help you increase sales and succeed at direct selling at a faster rate? Now there is.

The Direct Sales Success Package is a 9-Part resource designed to help you live your direct sales dreams. This package is entirely electronic so there is no waiting for delivery. The Direct Sales Success Package will prepare you for any challenge you face and help to guarantee your success.

The 9 parts included in the kit:

• Part I: The “Mind Set” Audio – How to change your thoughts to prepare your mind and yourself, for success
• Part II: “Practical Solutions To Working From Home” Electronic Book – Guidance you need to get started right away, choose your passion and earn money quickly
• Part III: “Pick Your Passion” Direct Sales Hot Sheet – A comprehensive, well-researched report of the best direct sales companies
• Part IV: The $592 Per Month Step-by-Step System Electronic Book – This system takes you every step of the way to your monetary goals.
• Part V: “How To Save Money When Starting” Audio – Expert guidance to get you started on a shoestring
• Part VI: “Organization and Tips for Getting Started” Electronic Audio – This audio will get you organized and ready to go quickly and easily
• Part VII: “Let’s Get This Party Started” Electronic Audio – Fantastic party tips to make all your parties fun, stress-free and profitable
• Part VIII: “Advertising Your Business” Electronic Audio – Money saving tips and tricks to get the most of your advertising dollar and move your business to the top.
• Part IX: “Expert Audios With Gina LaGalbo and Sheila Barnhart” Electronic Audios – Learn the secrets out of these two dynamic leaders in the direct sales field.

You’re sure to build the income you dream of with a package like this. For complete details, visit The Direct Sales Success Package website today.

The good news is you don’t have to have a degree in graphic design or be a marketing expert, and the cost of your website doesn’t have to break the bank to be a powerful selling website. As a matter of fact, many direct sales companies offer pre-made websites or website templates and some even host it for their consultants. This means it’s easier than ever now to set up a direct sales website that actually sells.

Ingredients Of A Selling Website

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and ask yourself, what would you like to see when you visiting someone’s site?

-Product descriptions and reviews. Don’t just list features. When using compelling catalog copy, it describes how you’ll feel, how your life will be improved and how your problems will be solved by using your product. Of course compelling graphics help also – people want to see what the products look like and what they’re getting.

-Proof. Ssocial acceptance and credibility are two of the most powerful buying triggers. Product reviews, testimonials, and case studies or information on your products help provide this type of proof and credibility.

-Easy ordering. There’s nothing worse than deciding you want to buy a product and then having to jump through hoop after hoop to actually make the purchase. Too many clicks and decisions and a potential customer will often decide to just forget it. Make buying easy.

-FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions.) You want answers to all your questions, and then some. Be sure your contact information is readily available. It’s very important to address your prospect’s potential questions, no matter how small or how many. Consumers may have questions about ordering, pricing, returns, hosting a party, becoming a rep themselves and more.

-An easy way to contact you. An email contact form on your website is the simplest way for website visitors to have access to you. You might also consider using an autoresponder. This is an easy way to let people know you’ve received their message and will follow up within a specified amount of time.

Not only do you want to have the right information on your website, but the plan and layout of your web pages can provide a profitable user experience. Do avoid having too much or too little information on your website’s home page.   Also remember that proper spacing, product graphics, and descriptive text can entice visitors to browse around for more information.

Other Things To Consider

-Too many large graphics make a web page slow to load. It’s perfectly okay to use smaller product graphics with a click through to a larger graphic. There you can add more details about each product.  Easily identifiable buttons make more attractive menus than text links.  These can be placed along the side or top of each page.

-Entice visitors to register at the site. Offer a free newsletter, product updates or sales announcements.  Then send your registered users a weekly or bi-weekly email newsletter, with a link to your product website, to remind them about your product and what you have to offer, including any sale or discontinued items.  Seasonal reminders, discounts and coupons will often create repeat customers.

-Provide a secure, safe buying experience and checkout for paying customers. Several consumers are impulse buyers. They want the ability to make a purchase right then. If you’re providing several options to pay (check, credit card, etc.) at a secure site, this reassures customers and protects your website assets as well. There are many companies on the Internet that offer secure shopping carts.

Too often we forget about charity when we think of all the other ways to market our business.  Giving to charity does imply that we’re giving away product for free, but that’s not the real goal of the gesture. The ultimate goal is to bring more exposure to our business by making ourselves known with our prize.

Donations to to local and charitable events can be of several varieties. There are:

• Auctions
• Fundraisers (fashion shows, dinners, recitals)
• Local sporting events
• School functions
• Conferences
• Community events (carnivals, parades, fairs)
• Team sports (Little League, soccer, cheerleading, football)

Almost all donations are made with the stipulation that the business doing the donating gets a mention for the product.  This can be in a program, on paraphernalia at the event, or a voiced mention at the event.  Online mentions can include a link or post on a blog or website, mention in a newsletter, on Twitter, etc. In any case, people find out that you exist and then want to take a look more closely at what you’re offering.

Charitable donations are also an effective way to website traffic.  Most events create a logo specifically for the event.  Ask for permission to use the logo and add it to your website under a heading like, “Supporter of this or that.” Also, a company that gives is looked on favorably by visitors as one that makes a contribution to their local or online community.  That one thing can increase sales.

Whatever product you donate, make sure it’s appropriate for the type of event you’re supporting. For example, a fashion show may need jewelry donated for models to wear in the amateur fashion show.  A local Little League team may be in need of new jerseys.  If you’re into kids’ apparel or screenprinting, go ahead and donate the uniforms.

With the first instance, the sponsors of the fashion show may hold an auction for the jewelry after the show to raise more money.  Here’s your chance to shine. You can design additional packaging for the jewelry, like keepsake boxes, with your contact info and business name on an address label attached to the box.  Now whoever wins the jewelry will also be exposed to your products and have your contact information.

It’s the same with the uniforms.  Your name would be stenciled on the back as one of the sponsors of the team or on their hats or something of that nature.  Besides your name, add your website address.  This is where having a separate website aside from the site that the company provides is helpful.  Your domain (.com) name will be unique, memorable and easy to find on the Internet.

If you happen to be asked to donate products for a raffle, don’t include just the products but also give some self-labeled items.  If you sell candy for your business, put some candy in a mug with your business name and website url on it.  If you sell home décor, package a pillow for the raffle with a pillow cover bearing your business website name and address.

Prize donations out of the goodness of your heart pays off in bigger ways than just all those good feelings.  You’ll get your name out there and people will be able to try your products, which will increase business and traffic to your website at the same time.

It’s up to us to decide how much product we wish to keep in stock.  Most direct sales businesses don’t require that you keep any inventory. Products can be shipped pretty quickly so, to the business, it’s usually not necessary.  Keeping inventory can sometimes result in having too many products on hand or even getting stuck with products that don’t sell.

Promotional products are a great way to gain interest from people and who may buy from you.  Buy a variety of products, perhaps something from each category of product that you sell.  You can use these gifts at home parties as:

• Door prizes
• Hostess gifts
• Game prizes
• Booking gifts
• Incentives

None of the items need to be expensive but they should be something that a customer would like to have.  Use more than one product at a time and create baskets. These can be given away as a bonus gift with a show booking or with at least a fifty dollar purchase.

When you give away promotional items, don’t forget to include your business card.  An effective business will include several ways to get in touch with you:  your telephone number, address, and website address.  You want people to keep using your products and see you as a resource for getting them.

Free gifts are also one option for building your list of contacts.  Have everyone at the open house or home party enter a drawing to win a product prize, like a raffle.  They’ll enter their names and contact information (ideally name, address, phone and email at the very least) on a small slip of paper that clearly states that by entering the drawing, they’re giving you permission to add them to your mailing list for future notices and special discounts.

Building exposure is the whole point to giving away your products. Some more ideas for product giveaways are:  charity auctions, school events, public events, online contests, and trade shows.  For the small price of your products you’re getting your name and your business out there among people who may become customers at some point, which is exactly the strategy we’re going for.

Not all giveaways have to be only products that you are selling.  Many businesses will use a similar item and pair them with products, if the products compliment each other. You can also personalize keychains, hats, visors, magnets, calendars, mugs, pencils, pens, and lanyards with your company name, website and contact number. Now every person who gets a free gift is promoting your business for you and there’s no need to even pay them.

Giving away your products is one of the best ways to market your business and products to a wider audience when direct selling.  Always target your product choices closest to the type of customers you want to attract.  Be sure to add other items that are useful and includes your contact information for a bit more free advertising.

Photo by sunshinecity