Ever wonder why the majority of direct sales consultants fail in their business opportunity? The main reason is not sponsoring enough prospects to join the opportunity or customers to buy the products. The old school method of hard selling and ambushing your prospects don’t work. More importantly, most direct sales consultants fail because they don’t have the entrepreneur mindset and lack of marketing skills.

If you want to sponsor more prospects which is the lifeblood of any direct sales business opportunity, here are 3 key areas that every direct sales consultant needs to focus on: mindset, marketing and mastery.

Mindset

Having the mindset of an entrepreneur is not the same as having belief in your products or business opportunity. Plenty of people have beliefs yet they’re unsuccessful.

A mindset of a true entrepreneur understands opportunities. They understand there are risks in starting a business. They understand there are costs to starting and maintaining a business. And they assess the risks with the opportunity and move forward.

This kind of mindset doesn’t happen overnight. Entrepreneurs invest in themselves by reading books, attending educational seminars, and network with like-minded entrepreneurs to increase their knowledge base. They’re constantly nourishing the right mindset.

Because the more knowledge you have, the more value you bring to your business, and the more you have to offer. See if any of these 10 tips to a remarkable and smarter direct sales business resonate with you?

We’re all in the business of selling. But hard sales don’t work with today’s savvy web customers. Customers have abundance of choices and most are perfectly content with the products they’re already using

There are two kinds of prospects- those that are ready to make a change and those that are gathering information. Your message has to appeal to those that are ready to join your business opportunity and those that are still researching.

The first message is filled with emotional words that trigger them to take action. The latter is about dripping and inviting your prospects to get more info from you i.e. opting in to your email list. 

If you want to understand your prospects, start with you, because you are a prospect yourself. Before you can craft your message- you need to understand your target audience.

Unfortunately, this is where most direct sales consultants fail because they assume everyone’s interested in their products and opportunity. It’s not their fault- that’s the way old school marketing is taught. We’re taught to sell and sponsor with weak marketing strategies.

Mastery

Every business is about marketing. As Seth Godin says- today’s marketplace has turned everyone into a marketer. Products don’t sell themselves- you do. You’re in the business of selling and sponsoring but to compete in today’s prolific internet presence- the old school marketing ain’t cuttin’ it J .

You’ve got to master the skills of marketing. Doesn’t mean you have to be the next guru but you have to know a lot about marketing!

There’s a whole psychology behind marketing i.e. what motivates your prospects and how they make decisions. Here’s a great article on the psychology of buyers- The Hidden Motivators that Make People Buy Stuff.

For example, a persuasive message is one that speaks to your prospects i.e. they’ve got a problem and you’re providing a solution. If you want your prospect to buy from you or join your business, they have to feel like there’s something to be gained from their association with you, and not the other way around.

Your top direct sales competition is really good with marketing so you need to be too if you want to be in the game with them. Learn everything you can about sales, marketing, and internet marketing in particular because that’s where businesses are being done.

Start with Internet Marketing Resources for tips on copywriting, SEO, and other free internet marketing.

Here are 5 books I highly recommend:

Trust Agents- Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

How We Decide- Jonah Lehrer

The Contrarian Effect- Michael Port

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion- Robert B. Cialdini

All of Seth Godin’s books J

Most people will take the easy way out. Taking the time to understand what your prospects want, learning how to market to them effectively, and constantly re-investing in yourself sounds like a lot of work doesn’t it? But if you want to succeed in direct sales, you need to fully embrace the entrepreneur mindset.

It’s a cliché but it’s true- when you know what gets you excited, what you really want to do, you can’t wait to learn one more new skill, read one more book on marketing, or investing in education. I hate to say this but loving your company products and opportunity is not enough. Having belief alone is not enough. You need to adapt the right mindset and learn to be a great marketer.

‘til next time,

p.s. Share your thoughts or leave me a question in the Comment section. Feel free to share with your friends, Retweet, Facebook, whatever J . Have an awesome weekend my friends!

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