Promotion is defined as the act of furthering the growth or development of something. Under that definition just about every action you take for your business is a promotion. However, the word promotion implies something greater – a concentrated effort to bring awareness to a product, service, or campaign.

As a direct sales professional you can promote a product, an event like recruitment fair, or a promotion your company is offering. Regardless of what you’re promoting there are key ingredients to a successful promotion.

1. Know Your Destination
   What do you want to accomplish with your promotion? What are your goals and objectives? This is the very first essential step to any successful promotion. There is any number of potential goals. They can be monetary, for example $1000 in sales. Your goal might be to attract X number of ezine subscribers. Or you may want 100 people to attend your recruiting fair with the additional goal of recruiting 5% of them.
2. Action Plan
   Outline exactly what you need to do to achieve your goals. For example, if you want to attract 100 people to a recruiting event you might decide to publish an ad in your local newspaper and to email everyone on your email list and ask them to come and bring a friend.
3. Scarcity, Urgency, and Your Call to Action
   When you implement an element of scarcity or urgency your promotion will gather more attention. For example, if you’re promoting a new product you might offer a coupon for the new product. The coupon will have an expiration date. If you’re hosting a recruiting event you might say that it’s limited to the first 100 people. Studies have shown that these tactics produce results.
4. Integration
   When creating your promotion action plan be sure to integrate it into all of your existing marketing tactics. For example, market it in your email messages, on your blog and/or website, on your social networking profile and anywhere else you market your business.
5. Testing and Analytics
   Each promotion is an opportunity to learn. Use this opportunity to learn about what your customers and prospects respond to. Learn about what they want, need and desire and how you can best service them. Test your marketing tactics for results. Which tactics work best? Measure sales, clicks, and visits to your website and examine the data. Each promotion will offer you with an abundance of information to help you improve your business and your next promotion.

Embrace these keys and you’ll enjoy success time and time again.

Image courtesy of SixRevisions on Flickr

Customer loyalty is an essential success ingredient for any business. It’s particularly important for Direct Sales success. Every customer who becomes a regular buyer helps you generate predictable income. It makes it much easier to manage your cash flow. And you know what they say about the cost of a new customer – it costs ten times more to get a new customer than to keep the ones you have.

 
So how do you build customer loyalty? A few offline and online tactics can help you take great care of your customers.

Exceptional Customer Service
Customer service is about more than simply offering contact information or a FAQ page. Customer service is about going out of your way to make sure your customers feel appreciated. It’s about addressing their problems and concerns immediately and with great concern. It’s about taking measures to provide the best products and services possible so there aren’t any customer complaints or concerns. Exceptional customer service makes your customer want to buy from you again.

Consistent, Frequent, Communication (but not too frequent)
Okay, so you probably don’t want to email or connect with your customers every day. However, frequent interactions help keep your company at the front of their mind. When they have a need, they’ll remember to turn to you. You might consider communicating with your customers via a monthly email newsletter, on social networking sites and occasionally by mail.

Personality Marketing
Your personality is one of your strongest assets as an entrepreneur and a Direct Sales consultant. People buy from people they like. Share your personality with your customers and give them your best.

Giveaways, Promotions and Freebies
Who doesn’t like getting something for free? Help your customers become engaged with your company and excited about your products by occasionally offering giveaways, freebies and special promotions or offers. Generate excitement!

Easy To Use Website
Make sure connecting with you and/or making a purchase from your website is as easy as possible. If you’re unsure, ask your existing customers what you can do better. Then follow their guidance.

Get Your Customers Involved!
Contests, quizzes, and questionnaires – ask for your customer’s opinions and get them interacting with you and your company. Interaction breeds community. People gain a sense of belonging. Also when you ask their opinion they feel appreciated and valued – great for customer loyalty!

Create a customer loyalty strategy and integrate it into your overall business plan. Each of the above tactics can be implemented and integrated into your existing customer service, marketing and communication strategies. It’s an extremely valuable step to take. Customer loyalty makes growing your business easier and more enjoyable.

With the Internet becoming more and more of an everyday convenience for most people, and with more and more interest in running an online business, turning to the Internet to market a direct sales business naturally follows. Marketing online can be very effective, but sometimes direct sellers become so engrossed in Internet networking tools that product sales takes a back seat.

Social media marketing can be particularly tricky. It works if worked right. And it’s fun. But if you aren’t careful, it can consume a lot of time – time that could be spent direct selling for immediate profit.

As Lisa Young says in Twitter Tips For Direct Sellers, “…social media and online marketing does not replace your home party business.” Marketing and selling is a balancing act. Use online social media to build relationships that can lead to business, and continue to sell use the proven, basic direct sales methods like home parties and face-to-face sales.

I have another free gift for you as a token of my appreciation for being a loyal reader. Thank you for making the time to read iRepNetwork’s blog, Business Opportunity Connection.

Melissa Ingold, the Internet Marketing Sweetie is one of my favorite mentors. She always produces high quality, effective business guides and this one is no exception. And her newly released, The Top 10 Words that Say Buy and Why They Work is another great guide.

Melissa lists the top keywords that “make us want to purchase” and explains why they work. If you incorporate these words into your promotions it’s likely that your sales will increase.

Grab your completely free copy of The Top 10 Words that Say Buy and Why They Work. You don’t even have to supply your email address to download it. It’s my gift to you, courtesy of Melissa, to thank you for reading the Business Opportunity Connection.

Click this link to get your free copy.
To view and print this guide you will need a PDF reader. If you don’t have one, you can get Adobe Reader for free here.

Are you new to our blog or did you miss our other gifts? Find them all here.

Thanks again for sticking with us and as always, we welcome your feedback. You can offer your opinions and make requests and suggestions by leaving a blog post comment or by contacting us.

Enjoy!

To view and print this report you will need a PDF reader. If you don’t have one, you can get Adobe Reader for free here.

Note: Every effort has been made to accurately represent this product and its potential. Each individual’s success depends on his or her background, dedication, desire and motivation. As with any business endeavor, there is an inherent risk of loss of capital and there is no guarantee that you will earn any money.

For many direct sales consultants, selling at craft shows is a great supplement or alternative to home parties. Success starts with choosing the right craft show and in her article below, Chris Carroll offers tips to help you choose.

Why Use Craft Shows in Your Direct Sales Business? Part 1
by Chris Carroll

The greatest thing about home businesses and the direct sales type of business is the flexibility in how you can market your products. We are not relegated to one type of selling so therefore the opportunities are endless! Brick and mortars stores are somewhat limited as they wait for the customers to find them. We on the other hand, go and find ours.

One of my favorite ways to increase customers, hostesses, business partners and newsletter signups is through craft shows and expos. Looking at the venue of the show, it becomes apparent that this IS your target market ~ Female; usually with extra disposable income And looking for unique products. All of these attributes fit our business perfectly.

Choosing the right venue will be important to your success. Make sure the show is in your market area. Traveling 50 miles to do a show looking for customers may not be a good idea if you have to deliver products after the show. Think about parties as well. If your hostess is an hour away and then her guests are a no show Or maybe you get 5 bookings, Are you willing to keep driving to that area to service those customers? Set yourself a radius of how far you are willing to travel.

Another thing to check out when choosing the right show to do is the amount of the booth. Figure out how much you have to sell to re coop your expenses. If you are doing a one day show for $150 and you sell $2 – $5 items, you are going to have to move a heck of a lot of items to break even.

Make sure that you are selling product that goes along with the theme of the show before writing that check for the entry fees. Specialty shows like scrapbooking or quilt shows may not be the best return for you if you are selling makeup. Several years ago I did a Home and Garden type of show and while my product line fit in wonderfully; there was a cosmetic company there. She was not moving a heck of a lot of product and did not do very well at all. I am actually surprised the promoters allowed her in. So make sure you are not wasting your time with the wrong show.

Check to see how long the show has been in existence. What type of turn out do they get? Sometimes doing a newly formed show is a good risk if it is a local show. Traveling great lengths to go to a new venue may not be something I would recommend. Also check on how they advertise the show. Very important in that you can have a huge amount of vendors attending, but if the event is not publicized well, you will not so well.

Overall, craft shows are an awesome tool for your business if they are researched and handled properly. Building your business in unique ways is the key to the longevity with your business.

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.

By Jimmy D. Brown, InfoProfitShare.com

What if there was a magic bottle that you could rub and a traffic genie would pop out to beckon to your every internet marketing command?

After the initial shock wore off, you’d be quite happy to have it in your possession, right?

Well, in a manner of speaking, such a genie exists. She exists in the form of an “affiliate manager”.

An “affiliate manager” is someone who oversees the operations of an affiliate program in exchange for compensation.

And, out of all the traffic “tools” on the market, the affiliate manager is the one that you should be using daily in your business if you own your own product.

Why?

The bottom line is: more traffic, which results in more revenue for you.

But, specifically, there are 3 reasons why you need an affiliate manager…

1. Recruiting. Your affiliate manager can recruit new affiliates into your program for you. Instead of you spending time trying to find (and then convince!) affiliates to join your program, your “affman” can do this for you while you focus on other things.
2. Rewarding. Everyone knows that simply getting people to join your affiliate program is not enough. It takes a lot of effort to get passive affiliates to become (and stay!) active. An affiliate manager is responsible for motivating your team to remain involved in your promotions.
3. Running. Beyond getting affiliates into your program and making sure they stay active, your affiliate manager can “run” as much of your operations as you want her to. Here are just a few things my affiliate manager (props to Nicole!) does…

   * Creates training materials
   * Write follow-up mailings
   * Communicates with affiliates
   * Answer affiliate support questions
   * Monitors contests and incentive programs
   * Posts to our blog
   * Clerical stuff (creates rebrandable files, etc.)
   * Circulates content (article directories, etc.)

   I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

Perhaps the best part of hiring an affiliate manager is the fact that it doesn’t have to cost you a penny in out of pocket expenses. That is, you can setup your agreement to be performance-based: you pay the affiliate manager a percentage of the overall revenue generated through her efforts … the more revenue she brings in through the affiliate program, the more she earns.

Now, the question is –

** Where do I find an affiliate manager? **

There are actually quite a few ways to find quality (emphasis needs to be on “QUALITY!”) affiliate managers for your program. Let me share just one…

One of the easiest ways to find an affiliate manager is to visit your favorite affiliate marketing (or internet marketing) forum and post a request asking for recommendations or responses for your needs.

You can do this in two ways –

1. Post a PUBLIC Request.

That is, you post a message for everyone to see, with brief details on the position you have available and that you are seeking recommendations or interest to explore further.

2. Post a PRIVATE Request.

The other option is to identify those participants at the forum who appear to have experience and/or knowledge in affiliate marketing who might be good affiliate manager material. Then, you would simply contact them privately to see if there is interest in discussing your needs.

Running your own affiliate program is a tremendous traffic generation tool, but it has a lot of parts. There are many different activities that are involved in successfully running an affiliate program, and hiring an affiliate manager to oversee your operations is a great way to free up your time to work on creating additional products and other “creative” work.

A good affiliate manager can bring in affiliates, train and motivate them, and run your operations for you. Her efforts bring in the traffic; your efforts turn the traffic into orders.

It’s the closest thing to a traffic genie in a bottle that you’ll find. Rubbing is optional. Using this strategy isn’t.

———–
Jimmy D. Brown is the author of Sales Army Secrets, full of meaty details on ways to find affiliate managers, how to structure your agreement with them and tasks to have them handle. Details here.

Image courtesy of Search Engine People Blog.

This question has been on my mind quite a bit lately. How much online success is possible if you aren’t one of the movers and shakers? Can someone who isn’t usually among the first marketers to promote a new product or service or who isn’t using the latest tool make it in the fast paced online world?

Admittedly, I don’t have the answer, but I do have some thoughts. Please comment and let me know what you think.

Like everything else, I think the answer depends in part on your market. If you sell technology you better be up-to-date with the latest gadgets and gizmos every day. You probably aren’t going to be highly successful if you don’t know what an iPad is or if “Droid” brings to mind a movie robot. When most customers are in the market for a computer, T.V. or cell phone, they want the latest technology. If you can’t keep up with that demand, your customers will likely shop elsewhere.

But I know of a text-based website that sells fountain pens where you email the owner to reserve a pen, and then you send a check by snail mail. The company is well-known and highly recommended by pen aficionados. While I’m not an expert, I’d venture a guess that fountain pen technology doesn’t change very rapidly and there’s probably a viable market for older versions. So someone who sells pens can afford to take a little time to stock and market the latest pen.

In party plan companies, even through your company may update products regularly, the primary sales method really hasn’t changed that much. A home sales party today is based on many of the same techniques of the original Tupperware parties of the 1950s. Sure, companies have added online ordering, social networking, and other new marketing techniques and tools, but you can still be successful yourself, and train a profitable team, using the sales party as your primary marketing technique.

Another “old-fashioned” technique I think party plan consultants can use to a huge advantage is great customer service. With big box stores, self-checkout at the supermarket, online shopping, ATMs and telephone customer service, many people crave the personalized, individual attention they can get from a direct sales consultant. A great deal of success can be built from knowing your customer’s name and needs.

Are you a mover and shaker or are you succeeding at a slower pace? How important is it to be up-to-date on the latest tools and marketing methods? What other factors contribute to your point of view? Please leave your comments and questions.

I’m probably not a mover and shaker, but rather I tend to use and teach more of the “tried and true” methods of marketing and sales. But I also try to provide my audience with trusted resources for new tools or methods that I may not be up to speed on yet.

It’s always been my opinion that the sales part of direct sales is more important to success than team building. A team of hundreds is meaningless if no one is selling anything. It’s sales that results in income. Jeanette Fisher explains further in her article below. Direct sales – do it your way – recruit or not you can be successful.

You Can Succeed in Direct Selling Without Recruiting

By Jeanette Joy Fisher

One of the most enduring myths about the direct selling industry is that the key to success is being able to recruit hundreds of people to your team. However, that has never been true and it never will be.

Small and Strong Sales Team

Of course there is no doubt that finding and mentoring a team of strong and enthusiastic people can be a component of elevating your level of success. However, recruiting is not absolutely necessary to make a good living in direct sales. You will naturally attract people who like you and your products who will gravitate toward you. If you train a small motivated team well, you will generate more sales than if you try to work with too many uninterested people.

Statistics from Sales

Historically, the statistics back up that statement. In fact, a 1999 survey by National Sales force reported that 34% of all American direct sellers make no money at all from the sales efforts of others. Every cent of their income was derived solely from selling their companies products themselves.

The fact is that a sizeable majority of MLM people first became involved in the direct marketing business because they initially used the products themselves. After using those products for awhile, they were impressed enough with the quality of those products to prompt them to take a larger role in the company.

The key to success is to promote a product you love and believe in. Your enthusiasm will inspire your customers and sales team. Your sales team will see your high sales from your concentrated efforts and want to follow your example.

Public Growth Regarding Direct Sells

Every year, the direct selling industry continues to grow in the United States. A recent study showed that one out of every two American adults purchased a service or product from a direct sales representative last year. That figure represents more than 150 million American residents. To service that huge market, there are some 15.2 million people involved in direct sales in the United States alone.

So, if you are not the sort of person who feels comfortable recruiting other people to join your marketing team, you can take comfort in knowing you’re not alone. Recruiting is not for everyone. That is one of the beautiful things about direct marketing. Even if you have no desire to recruit other people to your cause, you can succeed through your own sales efforts.

Free “8 Easy Steps to Online Selling.” Learn how to sell your products online and create an Internet presence for your business. http://SimpleStepSolutions.com. Reduce your learning curve for free and make money faster.

Copyright 2010 Jeanette Fisher

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeanette_Joy_Fisher
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For some direct sales consultants January and February can be very slow months. Your customers may be anticipating an upcoming tax bill, or perhaps they’re still recovering from holiday overspending. Or perhaps your marketing efforts took a back seat in December and the results are catching up with you now. Whatever the reason for it, Laurie Ayers has some great tips to help you out of a rut.

7 Steps to Get Out of the Direct Sales Rut

by Laurie Ayers

Business not flowing as well as you would like? Did you have a great holiday rush and now your direct sales business appears to have come to a screeching halt? Here are seven steps you can take to get out of the rut.

1. Direct mailings with your company catalog. Pick a market or two, such as assisted living facilities; nail salons or real estate agencies to name a few. Mail no more than ten catalogs to each market; there’s no sense waiting catalogs and postage without testing the waters first. Be sure to include a sample and/or special offer. Increase chances of having your catalog opened and read by placing a relevant sticker on the front. Highlight what’s in it for them if they open it.
2. Develop a Valentines Day marketing campaign and get it out to the masses NOW. February 14th will be here before you know it. Men will be particularly grateful for gift giving made simple. Think where you can find a group of men – barber shops, auto sales, auto repair, gyms, pro-shops, etc.
3. Create a special offer for Groundhogs Day, February 2. There’s one people don’t see everyday.
4. Call all of your customers, leave voice mail if necessary and merely say, ‘I’m putting in an order and wondered if you were ready for more …”
5. Hire a business coach or join a Mastermind group. Find the right one and your investment will pay off ten-fold.
6. Commit to asking for referrals from three people each day. Not covert dropping of cards and catalogs but actually speaking to strangers. Go into the gas station to pay, instead of using pay at the pump. Hand the cashier a catalog and a sample and say, “If you know of anyone who likes (candles, jewelry, makeup, etc.) could you please pass this along?”
7. Hold an open house. Who cares if you’ve been in the business two years or nine months or anywhere in between? Call it a mid-winter shindig. Pick a theme – Superbowl, Chocolate Martini, After Holidays Rest and Relaxation or Chick Flick Movie Night.

Sometimes there’s no secret to getting out of a rut other than to go back to basics. Remember when you first started your business. You were excited; you were pumped and you definitely were not in a rut. Shake it up a bit; think outside of the bowl. Remember if you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’re going to keep getting what you’ve been getting!

About the Author: Laurie Ayers is a WAHM from Michigan. She started her first home business in 1988. As a single parent, Laurie has supported her family by working at home as an Independent Consultant and Star Director with Scentsy Wickless Candles. She enjoys helping others start a candle business. You can find Laurie at http://www.thrivingcandlebusiness.com/ and http://www.Scentsy.com/LA

For some direct sales consultants it becomes difficult to maintain a steady schedule of sales parties. Direct sales business coach, Lisa Young shares some of the secrets to staying booked.

In Direct Sales – 5 Secrets to Fill Your Calendar Without Overcoming Objections
By Lisa Young

With the grim economic outlook, some direct sales consultants are pulling out their hair trying to secure bookings and keep their calendar full. Some of the most experienced consultants are scrambling, buckling down, and “getting back to basics” in an effort to fortify their fading calendar.

But the savvy direct sales and home party consultants are still holding a consistent book of shows, with calendars that are full and steady. As a business coach, I work with consultants with many different companies, and the successful consultants are revealing their dirty little secrets to massive success – even during the economic slump we’re facing today. At first blush, these “secrets” are common sense ideas that will make you roll your eyes into the back of your head. Before you get dizzy, however, ask yourself how well you are implementing these secrets.

1. Create a schedule and stick to it. Top direct sales consultants will tell you that they work when they want to, and fill their work calendar around their life calendar. This is a critical component for any successful consultant. You need to know WHEN you want to (and are able) to work. Mark it down and do your work when you’re working. By scheduling and utilizing time that is set aside to work, you’ll be a million miles ahead of the consultant that prays for bookings to fill the empty white space on her calendar. When you know your next two or three available work dates at a moment’s notice, people take you and your business more seriously. And if you don’t have a show planned on a day you have scheduled to work? Work anyway! Practice your demo, download a teleclass, read up on product knowledge or network. Do SOMETHING to grow your business.
2. Desperation stinks. Customers and clients can smell desperation a mile away. When you need shows, and start doing “Crazy Eddie” antics to get them, people stop taking you seriously. You don’t see Bill Gates jumping up and down on begging people to buy Windows. Neither should you. This is where most consultants develop their fear of “being too pushy”. You should ALWAYS present the opportunity to join, host, or buy, but once a client says no, and you’ve answered her questions, leave it alone. I can’t count the number of recruits I’ve signed at a later date because I was patient and didn’t sit on their doorstep waiting for them to join my opportunity. Attraction marketing (aka gravitational marketing) helps you create an identity, establish yourself as an expert in your field and draws interested, like-minded people into your circle of influence. They naturally gravitate to you and, ultimately, choose to do business with you – no desperation required.
3. Touch your business daily. While you can bet that Donald Trump isn’t sitting in the office every day making deals, he is touching his business in SOME way every day. Be it a public appearance, speaking engagement, television episode, or contract closing, he’s busy being an entrepreneur and making sure that his delegates are tending to business in his absence. Likewise, you as a consultant need to be making contact with your business on a daily basis. Your store is essentially “closed” any day you’re not working. Working doesn’t mean doing parties. It means preparing hostess packets, making coaching calls, holding recruiting interviews, doing customer care and follow up. You don’t have to work all day everyday, but you should make a point of doing SOMETHING connected to your business that propels you and your company forward. By the way, YOU are the CEO of your own company as an independent Direct Sales consultant. Legitimate networking, travel and mastermind groups all count as toughing your business. Organizing your desk, socializing on the phone, cleaning your stapler and vacuuming the floor do NOT count.
4. Keep in touch. Regardless of the method, hostesses, customers and recruits want (and need) to hear from us. A Hostesses number one complaint is that their consultant didn’t make enough contact with them. Most coaching programs recommend ten different times to contact a hostess before, during and after a party. Customers should be contacted at least once every two months – and preferred customers at least monthly. Attraction marketing pros use ezines, conference calls, and newsletters to keep in touch, automatically and en masse, with a personal feel. These lead generating, rapport building tools are only part of the arsenal that propel the big money earners to the top of their company rankings.
5. Be “REAL” and talk to everyone. This is not exactly the same as the old-school 3-foot rule, where you would talk to anyone that would listen about your “amazing, ground floor opportunity.” Rather, this is an invitation to release inhibitions and strike up conversations with anyone and everyone about anything and everything. Be friendly. People like and gravitate toward friendly. Opening channels of communication help you to discover common interests, and open doors to natural conversations about booking, sales, and recruiting. When you are likable, and easy to talk with, people enjoy your presentations more. Enjoyable presentations lead to more bookings, more sales and more recruits – without having to beg for “just one more host” at any party.

As direct sales consultants around the globe are waking up to the power of the Internet, and the potential of automating contact with their prospects, more leaders are growing into powerful, marketing savvy machines. These attraction marketing whiz-bangs are raking in recruits, selling up a storm, and breaking booking records – without ever having to overcome a single objection, because people are seeking THEM out for their expertise and professionalism. They have become the hunted, instead of the hunter. Begin implementing these five secrets today and watch your business soar. Who knows? Maybe YOU’LL be the next top achiever at your company’s National Conference.

Tired of trading hours for money, Lisa Young gave up her 8 to 5 for a direct sales career that now spans over 10 years. Lisa’s blog, Real Life Marketing, reveals the realities of what it takes to be successful in the eyes of your customer, using real-life examples you can learn from today. You can visit Real Life Marketing at http://lisamrobbin.blogspot.com

Unlike other industry writers, who left direct sales to pursue speaking careers, Lisa is still in the trenches, running her direct sales business and leading her teams to success. Her book, Home Party Solution is a step-by-step method to harness the Internet to boost bookings, sales and recruits. Read the first chapter free and subscribe to the monthly business boosting e-zine, “PartyOn!” at http://www.homepartysolution.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Young
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For more home party tips, visit Direct Sales Assistant.