Work at Home Moms Articles – WAHM Articles

Sales presentations can be daunting, and nothing is worse than an audience who is completely losing interest. If you can’t keep your audience motivated during your presentation you lose your chance to deliver a great impression about your company and what you do. In order to keep your audience on their toes, you have to make sure they remain involved in the presentation throughout, and the best way to do this is to ask them questions along the way.

Successful direct sales strategies every time- ask questions, don’t invite them

Many people have offered sales presentations in the past and tried the classic approach to audience interaction- asking members of the audience if they have any questions themselves. However, this type of approach too often results in awkward dead air and takes the confidence out of even the most expertly prepared messages. Turn the tables and ask the audience questions you’ve prepared instead, and you will be surprised to find audience participation and attention increase simply because you are asking for their input.

Direct Sales strategies that work- make your audience feel important

When you offer a sales presentation, your audience wants to know that they hold value in your eyes. After all, they are the ones taking time out of their day to listen to your ‘pitch’, so you need to make sure you prepare questions ahead of time that will require thought on their part for excellent (and useful) feedback. What you’re doing when you ask pertinent questions of your audience is passing on the message that you need their input and value their participation. When people feel needed and important, they are more likely to listen to your presentation eagerly and value what you represent more as well.

Your audience is a very valuable key to your success with a sales presentation. It doesn’t matter how expertly designed your sales presentation is, how detailed and to the point you are, if your audience can’t be bothered by what you are putting in front of them. You have to give your audience reason to pay attention, and asking them questions is a fabulous way to keep them perked up to your message the entire time you present. Not only will you get invaluable feedback your company can benefit from, but you will gain the respect of the people you present to by asking for their input all along.

Your presentation is your best direct sales and marketing strategy so make sure that it is the best it can be and you will surely reach your goals.

Deb Bixler provides direct sales training for consultants on how to increase cash flow at home by putting systems into place that create a consistent cash flow.

Direct sales business depends largely on your ability to get new clients. In my day to day conversation with those who are in the industry, I meet people who have 5 exceptional skills but struggle to make ends meet. The culprit is the inability to find new clients due to fear of rejection. Since fear of rejection is an internal struggle, the best approach to overcome it is also internal.

3 Mindset Tweeks To Overcome Rejections

Ask Yourself: What Is The Worse That Can Happen?

If someone you invited to your home party presentation turns you down, what is the worse that can happen? For one, you lost a client. You might also feel rejected by your potential client, especially if she is a close friend of yours.

But if you really think about it, you’ve got nothing to lose but everything to gain. Instead of feeling blue, give yourself a pat on the back. Be proud of yourself for doing your friend a favor. You invited her to check out a great product or a service. Be proud as well for having the courage to share it with others despite your fear.

Tell Yourself: You Don’t Need To Hit All The Pitches

Even the most successful direct sales marketers get turned down from time to time. It is normal. It is a fact of life. They call it the law of averages.

Not all the seeds that you plant will grow into a full grown tree. Even the best baseball players hit only one out of four balls thrown by the pitcher. The best NBA player makes only 50% of his basketball shots. Here is a great acronym to inspire you: “SWSWSW”. Some will, some won’t, so what….

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Whenever you bring up the word success to a room full of entrepreneurs and business people,you will always get a wide variety of definitions.

While there is no hard and fast way to define home business success, the business world does tend to allow for criteria that result in more substance.

Measuring success in your personal life is much different than the success you will find in business. Your personal feeling of success is no one else’s concern. But the way you define success in your business life affects your employees, suppliers, customers and your family.

Set Goals

Can you define home business success by using numbers? Yes, you absolutely can. A business is created to generate revenue by providing a product or service. As a responsible business owner, you can track your own success by comparing your actual numbers to the ones that you put in the projection part of your business plan. You can gauge success by how often you achieve your goals and by the changes you make when the goals are missed.

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Technology is a great way to promote your upcoming business meetings. You should learn the basics when it comes to using technological resources to promote your business meetings so you can have a great outcome every time as well as the feedback you need from your team.

Blogs for business meeting planning create awesome feedback

Several free blogging websites allow you to set up your upcoming meetings with details and comment sections regarding what will be covered. What makes a blog so great is the ability to have your entire team sign up for alerts to updates, and a comment page that allows them to post feedback that they forgot to mention when the meeting was in discussion. A blog is a great way to manage the content of a meeting itself as well as promote upcoming meetings as they are posted.

Twitter and Facebook boost your business meeting planning strategy

With caution, meaning make sure your Facebook and Twitter accounts are for business only, these types of media outlets are great for keeping your team in the loop. Since these updates coincide with media outlets your team is likely already using, you can quickly reach your entire team for meeting updates and planning schedules without feeling like you’ve left anyone out.

Facebook groups for your team will give them a private forum to discuss and meet online. This provides great value in connecting long distance team members. Having online meetings and discussions will enhance the live meetings.

Old-fashioned technology is still tops

Finally, phone, email and text messaging still work great for keeping your team informed of all the meetings you have coming up. These avenues are particularly great if you aren’t hip on advancing technology (which you should be to help your business succeed). In using these types of technologies, you can safely alert your team to any business meetings you have planned without venturing too far out of your comfort zone.

Technology is wonderful for keeping business meeting planning in check

From a simple blog that you can set up in minutes to allow your team to offer great feedback to a simple email that you can send to everyone at once, technology and media outlets allow you to quickly keep your staff updated and informed of any meetings you have coming up in the future.

Since keeping your team updated on any meetings you have scheduled is important to helping your business thrive, now is a great time to start using technology to your advantage.

When using a wide variety of technological resources you are sure to find one that will match the direct sales team training needs for every consultant’s personality.

If you work at home on your own Internet business, then you already know that offline marketing is just as important to your company’s success as online advertising. When you can get people talking about your company offline, then that will help to increase your online traffic.

The successful business owners know that they are always marketing. But it is not always easy to approach people about your business. Here are three good tips that will help you be more successful at talking to people offline about your work at home business.

Script Your Elevator Speech

When it comes to face-to-face marketing, there is no more powerful tool than the elevator speech. Experienced marketing experts are very familiar with the concept, but it is an art that is sometimes lost on the Internet generation.

An elevator speech is a two-sentence description of your company that you offer to people who you meet for the first time and know nothing about your company. The term comes from the notion that you need to come up with a way of describing your company in the time it takes an elevator to go from one floor to the next. If you have a strong elevator speech, then you have a great way of introducing your company to someone new.

Market Parties In Casual Conversation

The people who are exceptionally talented at promoting their company are the ones who can fit a discussion of their company into casual conversation. For example, if someone asks you what you did over the weekend, you can tell them about the highlights of your most recent sales adventure. Since they asked the question, then they cannot be disappointed with the answer. If you structure your answers properly, you can use it as an opportunity to try and add that person to your customer base or recruit her as a part-time sales associate.

Marketing By Sending A Message

If you walked around your town and tried to find someone who may be interested in talking about your home-based business, then you may wind up being pretty disappointed. But if you walked around your town wearing a t-shirt that said “Go Ahead and Ask Me How I Can Save You Money,” then you may find that people are pretty receptive to that idea.

One of the most common misconceptions small business owners have is that no one is interested in talking to them about their business. The truth is that people do not like to be approached with a sales pitch. But if you give them an invitation to talk to you about your business, then you would be surprised at how many people take you up on it.

Your online business needs offline marketing to survive. There are a lot of ways to get offline exposure for your company, but most of them cost money. If you want an inexpensive way to gain exposure for your organization, then you need to develop effective methods for talking to people about your business offline.

Deb Bixler is the host of the popular direct sales training radio show, CashFlowShow – Direct Sales Radio.

Entrepreneurship isn’t easy for anyone. With so many people involved in similar services or products, differentiating your business from your competition is key to great sales.

Learn some great tips to find out how you can differentiate your business from everyone else’s so you can really stand out from the crowd and boost your sales.

How is your product/service unique in your direct sales business?

This is the first question you should ask yourself, and the best way to find out how your approach stands out among your competition is to visit the competition yourself. You’ll never know how you differ from other businesses that follow your niche unless you check them out. Visit websites, gather business cards, and visit meetings your competitors have and compare their strategy to yours. You may find yourself wanting to start a website, blog, or vamp up your sales pitch so you can beat out the other businesses that are directly competitive with yours.

Is your direct sales business really unique?

It’s all about personality to make your business stand out. If you rely solely on uplines and booklets provided to you to help boost your sales, you are doing your direct sales business a great disservice. Throw your bubbly go-getter personality into the mix to really make your customer service appeal stand out. It doesn’t matter how stand-alone your product is, if you can’t back up your business with stellar customer service, you may find your sales falling flat. Put yourself out there with personal phone call follow-ups, emails, and even personally written letters to make your customers know how much you appreciate them.

Presentation really is everything

Imagine your products all lined up next to a competitor who has the same or similar products as you do.

How can you differentiate your display from theirs? Color schemes, advertising, and even basic placement can make a huge wow factor for you even if you have the same business as someone else. Try visiting a craft or vendor fair and see how similar vendors strive to make their service or product unique, and follow suit.

You want your business to stand out, and the best way to do that is to know what your competition is doing, throw your personality into the mix, and not rely upon the sales tools you already have to create profit.

Even small change makes a huge difference in the world of direct sales. Take advantage of direct sales training to fine tune your business style and presentation to set yourself apart.

Deb Bixler provides direct sales training for consultants on how to increase cash flow at home by putting systems into place that create a consistent cash flow.

There is no doubt about it – we are living through a recession. Unemployment is high and the economy continues to sputter along. Though home party sales remain strong, the industry is not immune to the effects of the recession. However, there are some essential tips for sales consultants who want to stay one step ahead of the struggling economy and keep their home party plan business going strong throughout the year.

The Top Five Strategies for Maintaining a Year Round Business

1. Marketing. Yes, you have to market. You have to market throughout the year. Marketing is the cornerstone of any business, and it is especially vital in the home party business. You are often referred to as a sales consultant or a direct seller – you must sell to stay in business. Sell yourself, your products, and your business. Use the telephone, attend trade fairs, have hostess training meetings, sell bookings at your parties, and make use of networking and referrals. Keep your marketing simple, fresh, unique, and interesting. Once you stop selling, your business will stop making money.

2. Determine Quantitatively What Type of Marketing Works Best. You need to keep records of what type of sales approach was the most effective. Your marketing plan should always be evolving and adapting to a changing environment. If you find something that works, stick with it, but continue to explore other avenues. If you attempt a marketing strategy that falls flat, dispense with it and move on to something new. To determine what works and what doesn’t, you will need numbers. Having a reliable and efficient record keeping system is essential to the financial health of your business.

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There are thousands of games and exercises for a team leader to use in sales team training. Most of these games provide exercises that improve team bonding or problem solving. Team leaders need to make the games fun, dynamic and interesting in order for them to be effective. If the games are boring and dull, sales people may tune out in the middle and not reap the full rewards from the games. No one wants sales team training that is boring and ineffective.

One of the best ways to make your team meetings fun is to play games that work both sides of the brain. The human brain is a paired organ; it consists of two separate halves. These halves, called cerebral hemispheres, control two different types of thinking. It is known that the right hemisphere is connected to left hand movements and the left hemisphere of the brain is connected to right hand movements. The right side of the brain is connected with intuitive, creative and holistic thinking, while the left brain is more analytical, rational and logical. Our world is often packed full with left brain activities such as writing, typing and paperwork. Since the majority of the population is right-handed, much of the business world is stuck doing left-brain work with right-hand movements. This means that many of us have a lopsided brain. As an enlightened team leader, you can help balance the brains of your team members.

One of the best ways to get your sales team to start using their right brain is to get them to use their non-dominant hand for simple tasks. Have them write, comb their hair, throw a soft object or catch something with their other hand. Games can be created for non-dominant hands. Break your sales staff into teams and have a writing relay race or relay race that involves throwing a Nerf ball. Any type of relay race that involves the non-dominant hand will help work the right brain.

Another fun team-building exercise is to have a day where everyone is expected to use their other hand. Basketball or baseball coaches often do this to give their teams a fun practice, and you can use this in your sales meetings or for a portion of the workday. It is fun and may provide for some helpful right brain stimulation.

It is also engaging fun to stimulate memory and sequential thinking by playing games. Crossword puzzle races are a great way to stimulate thinking. Break your staff into teams and give each team the same crossword puzzle and see which team finishes first. Team Scrabble and Team Concentration are two other great games that build chemistry and stimulate left brain thinking.

There are hundreds of brain games that can be adapted to sales team training. Use games that work each side of the brain and you will be helping your sales staff improve all types of thinking. Using a greater percentage of their brains will definitely help them become better salespeople.

Deb Bixler provides direct sales training for consultants on how to increase cash flow at home by putting systems into place that create a consistent cash flow.

There is no doubt about it – we are living through a recession. Unemployment is high and the economy continues to sputter along. Though home party sales remain strong, the industry is not immune to the effects of the recession. However, there are some essential tips for sales consultants who want to stay one step ahead of the struggling economy and keep their home party plan business going strong throughout the year.

Direct Sales Conultants Should Blog

When you mention to some direct sales consultants that they should start a blog, they cringe in horror at the thought of writing. No one who wants to promote a business should be afraid of blogging. Embrace it and it will love you back! Blogging is a great marketing and promotional tool; it should be an integral part of your direct sales business marketing plan.

Though blogging may seem difficult at first, once you give it a chance, you realize how easy it really is. Blogging is just an expression of who you are and what your business entails. You have probably spent many hours talking about your business; blogging is just turning those conversations or presentations into words on a page.

How To Pick Your Blog Topic

* Teach others about your products.
* Teach others about the direct sales business.
* Write about your successes and failures in the business.
* Write about how you started out.
* Describe what goes on at a sales party.
* Discuss the details of giving a presentation.

Blogging is usually very simple and straightforward writing. If you can add some humor or interesting stories, that will make your blog much more enjoyable to the readers. If you think of blogs as merely one-way conversations written down, it will be easier to write one.

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A team is only as strong as their weakest link, so when it comes to team business coaching, your job is to ensure that everyone is on track and motivated to do the tasks at hand. Find out how you can motivate your sales team with coaching calls, and keep them happy and moving forward in your venture.

Many team leaders forget that their teams need a boost every now and then, particularly when you have new people. You need to set aside time and energy to contact each and every person on your team once a week so you can make sure that they are on track and headed toward team goals, and also to make sure that your team feels included, motivated, and cared about. Even members of your team that have been around for years could use a boost every now and then. As the leader of your team, these coaching calls can mean the difference between a vital member staying on board or falling away to some other company. It is your job to make sure that your team knows they are cared for and watched over.

Team business coaching comes in many forms: a monthly meeting, a personal phone call, or one-on-one delegation if you have members who are confused or lacking skill. Any time you reach out and touch your team member’s concerns in a personal way, you build a bond with your team that cannot be done by sales alone. You need to keep your team strong by checking in on them and giving them that pat on the back and simple encouragement that they deserve. You may not think it’s a big deal, but for those who feel like they are out of the loop or who have fallen through the cracks, it can make a real difference when you choose to reach out.

When you coach with team business coaching calls, you are letting your members know that you care about them both on the team level and on the personal level as well. A little bit of motivation goes a very long way in keeping people eager to please their team and make their team a success.

After all, when your team knows you care about them and respect them, your team will likely pay you back with hard work, dedication, loyalty and sales.

Recruiting direct sales consultants takes a continuous focus and decision. Deb Bixler provides direct sales training for consultants on how to increase cash flow at home by putting systems into place that create a consistent cash flow.