by Kara Kelso

I know most of us have held our own online party, been to one, or at least read about them. Many of the materials online are general, and the average online party (for individuals) has around 5-10 guests at the most. Maybe more, maybe less, depending on several factors. But really for those that do not belong to party groups, and are holding their first party the attendance is going to be very low.

After some thought, I realized the way we are holding these parties is wrong. In a previous article we talked about stepping out of the wahm zone, and searching for your specific customers. When looking for guests for your online party, it should be no different. Instead of mass submitting party invites to wahm groups, let's take a step back and see what should be done FIRST.

1. BUILD a newsletter

Before you have your next party or even start to plan it, set up a newsletter. This is something you should have already for your business, no matter if it's an informational newsletter or one that lists your specials - you NEED a list of potential customers. If you haven't started to build one, start now! I could go into detail as to HOW, but newsletters are an entirely different subject of their own.

by Kara Kelso

We know once you have a room full of guests at your online party, getting them to play games is the easy part. While hunting for answers to your game, a guest has the chance to see some products they simply cannot do without, thus making you sales!

We also know from experience that getting the visitors to the party in the first place is like pulling teeth. We have given some ideas to increase your party and really being able to talk with your future customers in a chat room is the best. However, for those that you'll never see in the chat room here is a way to increase some party-like sales without having to hold an actual party.

After you build your list of potential customers (and if you don't have one - stop right here and do that FIRST. YOUR list of potential customers is your most valuable asset in business!), play a game with them via email. Announce on a Monday or even Friday (and you can test which days get the best responses) the start of a contest by email. Focus on a specific type of products like you would at your party, and set up some type of questions that can be emailed to you. Be sure to cover some good points about your products in a casual way (you know your subscribers want to get down to the contest part of this, so don't overload them with ads!). You can set this up in any way you wish really, just as long as it's something interactive you can do with them.

by Kara Kelso

Ever had a party online or offline, and had guests say "I love that item, but I can't afford it right now", or "It's so hard to decide, I want all of this!". This is a perfect time to sell all those items to your customer without them having to pay a dime.

If you aren't using this idea already, make sure to put it into action immediately. Have a gift registry form ready to point those customers to should they want extra items they simply can not buy right now.

What they do is fill out their information, special dates (Birthdays, Anniversary, etc), and the products they want. Then, they fill out names and contact information of relatives and friends they know they will be receiving gifts from. You contact the relatives, stating where you received their information and what's on the wish list you hold. Ask them if they would like a reminder before the special date, and which item they will be purchasing.

by Kara Kelso

Often times we see people struggling with their online businesses, and while normally it's marketing related problems, the real problem may be you are in the wrong business.

There are thousands of articles on how to promote your business, and other related materials, but very little on how to choose your business. The normal response to a request for information on starting a business is glowing recommendations from current reps and how fabulous their opportunities is. The problem is, while they may be in the perfect business for them it may not be the perfect business for you. Thus causing problems later on.

You may have been given advice before you started on how to choose your business. You may have heard "go with your passion, you need to love the products!". Some may not have heard this at all, but joined your business because of the compensation plan. While both of these points are important, they aren't the only thing you should look at when joining a company.

Some may want to promote only online, but the company prevents this. Some companies deal mostly online while you want to take your business offline. Being in this situation can hold you back, and there are just too many options for direct sales companies to settle on one that restricts you.

by Kara Kelso

Being in direct sales can often give the feeling "I don't have to do much, just sell". It's true, you don't have to ship orders or create websites, or even design catalogs (even though we recommend it sometimes). Your job as the rep is to direct customers to products, that's it. The fact is, to 'sell' the product is the hardest part.

Because "just selling" is more complicated than it seems, it's important to you to have a marketing plan. First of course you will need to set goals, so you know where you want to be by a set time. The next part is deciding on how to get there.

A marketing plan should include the following:

- What types of marketing ideas you plan to use

This would be ideas such as purchasing ads, hosting parties online and offline, networking, having your own newsletter, etc.

- Why you want to use these forms of marketing

Of course our main objective is to gain more sales, right? Dig a little deeper on these different forms of marketing to really see WHY you are going to use these forms. You may want to host an offline party to not only make sales, but to book more shows. You want a newsletter to keep customers informed of new products and specials, to convince them to buy.

by Kara Kelso

As most of us know recruiting in direct sales plays a very large role. Don’t make them search or ask for the information they want … hand it to them on a silver platter.

The first thing I do is make FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) and answers easily attainable. By doing this you’re killing three birds with one stone.

First of all your potential recruit may be “shy” and not want to ask certain questions for the fear of being a “pain” or they may think their questions are “dumb”. (My answer to this is that the only “dumb questions” are the ones that go un-answered because they were never asked.)

Another “bird killed” is … Doing this saves you time. How many times have you been asked the same questions, over and over again? Starting to feel like a broken record? Start a list of these questions and answer each one.