Direct Selling Archives - Page 3 of 8 - Direct Selling Sales Motivational Trainer Party Plan Part Time Work Extra Income

Direct Selling

26th February 2017 by Leigh Walton Leave a Comment

Caring or controlling, and responsible ‘to’ or responsible ‘for’!

The two ‘C’s’ come into force – as do the two ‘R’s’ – the minute you recruit just one person, and so start to build a team.
Let’s discuss responsibility firstly; you are responsible TO your direct recruits. You are responsible to give them some initial training, to support the launch of their business and to guide and support them throughout their career.
You are not responsible FOR them. For example, if you help them to devise a list of contacts, teach them how to approach those contacts and how to ‘close the sale’ (that’s a whole other blog topic) – yet they don’t take action to gain sales, bookings or recruits – then you are not responsible for their results. You’ve done your job. As the old saying goes, ’you can take a horse to water…’.
You are also responsible to inform your team about upcoming meetings, and to contact them if you can see that they are not achieving their personal/business goals (which often relate to the reason they joined).
I remember a few years back, when one consultant I was working with expected to earn 30% commission on his monthly sales. When his pay-slip arrived he was shocked to see he had been paid £247.50 instead of £330.00. What had happened was that he had earned 25% commission on his personal sales; he had expected to earn 30% but…he had sold £10 short of the £1000 needed to hit the 30% commission level. Ouch!
He was not happy and when he rang his upline to share his disappointment he said, ‘If I go to the supermarket the cashiers usually tip me the wink if there is an offer I that I may have missed. I find that really helpful’.
He carried on, ‘It would help me if you could let me know if I am close to my monthly goal so that I don’t miss out again’
The upline and the consultant agreed that, going forward, around a week before the end of the month, if extra sales were needed to reach a certain level of discount the upline would call the consultant to check that he was aware and had a plan to achieve his goal!
When I discussed ‘team support calls’ with this consultant’s upline, she told me, ‘I’ve never made them because my team are self-employed and I don’t want to push them or put pressure on them…I don’t like pressure myself and I know they are intelligent people; I ***ass-u-me (d) they all tracked their own sales and I don’t want my team to think I’m a control freak’.

As we know, most people in our profession are busy people. They are not infallible though, so they can miss things. Our job as leaders is to CARE enough about our team to ensure we offer support; that also means ‘tipping them the wink’ when we can see something that means they may miss out!
A tactful, caring, leader makes calls such as…’Hey, I just noticed you are a little way off track with your business….how can I help you?’
A controlling leader is more likely to say, ‘You need to….’
Can you guess which type of leader is the most successful?

Best wishes
Leigh

NB A voice call is so much better than a text or email – you can put expression into your voice, so that there is no mis-understanding as to whether you are calling to ‘Care’ or ‘Control’.

***assume (d) is making an ‘ass (out of) u (and me) – as many of you will know.

Direct Selling

12th February 2017 by Leigh Walton Leave a Comment

Closing the sale!
So many of us still say, ’I don’t want to appear pushy’, or, ‘I’m not really a sales person’. I have heard this used so often as a reason for not closing a sale and, frankly, it worries me.
Many social/direct sellers work really hard at their business but…not actually closing a conversation is what I call ’working hard…not smart’.

Read on to find out how simple it is to ’close the sale’ with potential recruits, potential hosts – and even indecisive customers!

1. When you meet with someone who is interested in knowing more about your business opportunity, then it is up to you to close the sale. At the end of a business opportunity meeting (formal presentation, or informal coffee and chat) you need to extract a ’yes’ a ’no’ or a ’maybe’ from your potential recruit. This is simple to do and, although not always the decision you had hoped for, if handled well, any of these three responses can lead to growth of your business.
All you need to say (after explaining how the business works, and the personal benefits to your prospect) is,

’So would you like to join my team?’

If that sounds too scary you could try,

‘On a scale of 1-10 – where 10 means you are ready to join – where are you now?’

Those two simple questions will help you to close the sale!

If you get a ‘yes’ then simply start the process of ordering their kit whilst giving dates for ’new consultant training’ and any upcoming meetings.

If, your prospect says, ’No’, assure them that that’s O.K, but ask who they know that might be looking for an opportunity. Also ask if they will host a product presentation for you in the next couple of weeks (explain that although the opportunity is not for them just now, they may have friends who would be keen to fill your vacancy).

If ’Maybe’ is their response then ask them what else they need to know to come to a firm decision. You may be able to cover their ’concern’ there and then, or it may be that you need to give them twenty-four hours to think about/talk things over with someone. With a ’maybe’ it is really, really, important to agree a follow-up call (date and time within twenty-four hours max) with your prospect. Don’t leave them to call you – they may feel too embarrassed to do so – or they may just forget!

2. When chatting to someone with whom you would like to book a product presentation, you need to ensure you have your diary and some ’host’ information to hand. This makes it easy to then say, ’Let’s get a provisional date in the diary now, and I’ll call you tomorrow just to confirm everything, and to go through a few details to ensure that you have a great experience’. If they are reluctant to book a date there and then, arrange to call them within twenty-four hours. You need to (very nicely) make the point that this is a business for you – and if you don’t go to work you don’t earn!

3. When you have spent a while with a customer going through several products that they are interested in, yet they can’t decide which to buy, you clearly need to help them. Ask open-ended questions, such as ’Which products do you feel would be most beneficial to you right now?’ Note, I say products…not product. It’s not for us to decide how many products someone wants, or how much money our customers want to spend. If they place an order for say, two or three products, don’t be tempted to say, ‘Great, that’s a total of £xxx’. Ask, ‘Is there anything else you want to add to your order/I can help you with?’ When your customer tells you, ‘That’s all’, thank them for their order and mention that you will most likely give them a call in a week or so to see how they are getting on with their purchases. This ‘customer care call’ often leads to another order – or a referral – in addition to building customer relations, so is well worth making.

So, in a nutshell, closing the sale is professional and essential with everyone you do business with. It’s not pushy at all. It provides clarity to those you are communicating with – and helps you to develop your business through working smart!
Best wishes,
Leigh

Direct/Social Selling

13th January 2017 by Leigh Walton Leave a Comment

Why Recruit?

Recruiting; it’s a funny old word really. Being a student of English, I thought I would look up the etymology of the word and found:

Recruit – dates back to 1600’s and means ‘to strengthen or re-inforce’

This is spot on in our profession. When you recruit others, and build a team, you automatically strengthen your own business don’t you?
When you think about it, working solo can be tough in any business situation – for a couple of reasons:

1. Sometimes you need to talk to someone other than your ‘up-line’; it may be that you were long-distance recruited so don’t have anyone to meet up with for a coffee and a (business related) chat.
2. If you are off sick and can’t work you benefit in two ways:
a. You can call a team member to cover your bookings for you.
b. If you have team members who are working you can still be earning – because you are their Upline/Leader/Trainer/Supporter/Manager so get paid over-rides (just like a Manager/Supervisor/Upline in any traditional business would)!

So, for you, it makes perfect sense to recruit. You could say ‘It’s a no brainer’ but…let me remind you of why we absolutely HAVE to recruit. Or at least why we MUST get into the habit of offering our opportunity to others.

1. If you enjoy your Social Selling business then there are most certainly others out there who would do so too. They just don’t know about it. That’s why it is up to YOU to SHARE it.
2. It is totally selfish NOT to share. If I had a huge, scrummy cake, or a selection of tasty cheeses, or a nice bottle of your favourite alcohol (or fragrance for tee-totallers) and I offered a taste of it to all of your friends – but not to you (possibly because I ‘know’ you won’t be interested) how would you feel?
3. It is not ‘our’ opportunity. It is ‘an’ opportunity; one that others are entitled to try out for themselves.

Yes, I know it can be scary.
Yes, I know how it feels to be ‘rejected’ when you get a ‘No’.
But…after thirty odd years I also know how elated I still am when I generate a lead or find a recruit.

N.B. I don’t recruit personally anymore, because I work with several different Social Selling networks; it would compromise my business it I were to be selling/recruiting personally. However, I do pass leads that I generate to those of you that I work with through my consultancy.

Rev up your recruiting this January and do message me with any questions on this blog!
Best wishes
Leigh

Direct Selling

27th November 2016 by Leigh Walton Leave a Comment

Time to step away – a blog post not for the faint hearted!!!

As social sellers (and the clue is in the word social) we are often the type of people that make friends easily – so when we build a team, and make good friends with someone in our downline, it is hard to ‘let go’.
Take this situation: I was coaching a Social Seller just a few days back who was telling me that some of their team members are not as active as they said they would be.
I asked, ‘Why?’, followed by ‘How active would you expect them to be?’, and then ‘What is the reason for their low activity in such a great month for sales (November)?’
The coachee replied that they had recently met with one team member who appeared to leave the meeting motivated – and with an action plan to achieve some of their short- term goals. Yet, a few weeks later, that same person had achieved practically none of the goals – so clearly the action has not taken place.
The coachee didn’t have a concrete answer as to why; although they did mention that the team-member was facing some personal challenges (and appears to have been doing so for a while). I explained that lots of people face personal challenges but they still go to work. I also said that unless we know the ‘real’ reason for team-members going ‘off-track’ we simply cannot help them. We have to have open and honest conversations in our business so that we can support and help our teams – and so that we know when to let them go.
Through a carefully worded email (or phone call) you need find out the ‘real’ reason (not an excuse) behind a team members lack of activity. I suspect that this particular team member has simply ‘gone off the boil’; if so, the Team Leader needs to ‘step away’.
This does two things:
1. It allow the inactive team member to decide whether they want to stay in the business, to actively develop their business, or to call it a day. Yes, social sellers do sometimes have a shelf-life!! Let them go with a ‘Thank You for all you have done’ and you may get them back one day (or get a referral from them when they realise they can leave – without any guilty feelings of ‘letting you [their upline and friend] down)
2. It frees up your time to find another Team Member. Time spent ‘persuading’ ‘coercing’ or ‘doing it for them’ with those that have lost their enthusiasm for the business, is time wasted.

Please Note: I am not saying every team member who hits a ‘downer’ is not worth spending a little time on – I am saying if someone has two or three meetings or support calls, after which they are still ‘plodding’, then you need to step away. After all, you can take a horse to water but you cannot make it drink – and as someone once told me, ‘It is easier to give birth than to resurrect the dead’. That’s pretty direct but our business is ‘Direct Selling’ after all!
Best wishes
Leigh

« Previous Page