The other day my neighbor and I went for a walk and she told me that she was looking for something part-time to do at home. A few years ago, I would be all over her with this kind of opportunity to “share” my business, but I know better these days.

Not because direct sales isn’t a good business to get started in but without knowing anything about what she’s *interested* in, I don’t make any assumptions.

In doing so, I’m not making the decision for her, but using the opportunity to listen. This is a tough one for some networkers to understand because they’re more interested in talking about their opportunity instead of listening.

Seasoned direct sellers are not surprised because they know direct sales isn’t for everyone. But newbies are when people don’t rush to join their business. Remember, only you think you have the best products/business.

It might surprise you that most of the time, people are NOT interested in starting a network marketing/direct sales business. More importantly, they don’t think you have the best products or even business. The more you ramble the more ridiculous you sound to them.

During the walk, I felt like a career therapist in a way, listening to her talk about what she did before she stayed home with her kids, and what her current interests are. I must admit listening intently is still a work in progress for me. Most people think they’re good listeners but really aren’t that good, including me.

I’m not sure if I was of any help to her but I know listening to her, without waiting for an opportunity to tell her about what I do, ended up helping me.

At the end of the conversation, she asked “what do you online anyway?” I mentioned I work online but didn’t offer any specifics. Perhaps that was enough to  intrigue her.

Whether or not she starts a direct sales/network marketing is not the point because people will do what want. The point is, it’s a good feeling to know that you’re able to listen and hear someone else out, without an interior motive to gain something from it.

Maybe it’s not a good recruiting strategy on my part and some of you might even think it’s idiotic NOT to use the opportunity to tell my friend how awesome direct sales/network marketing is. But there’s a way to tell others about what you do without losing friends.

Besides, we don’t need another person to think network marketing is a scammy business. It can be a great business but it starts with the networker.

It’s time to do more listening, whether you get anything from it or not, and stop with the incessant business sales pitch which also includes spamming other people’s Facebook walls and social networks.

What do you think?

’til next time,

Janette Stoll

P.S.  Let’s use our time and build real friendships with others.

Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service wins the game. Tony Alessandra (source: customerservicepoint.com)

I don’t know any direct seller or network marketer that doesn’t think their company has the best products. We get it. Let’s focus on something that’s more important than products and that is your customers and potential customers.

Here’s a recent experience of mine …

I emailed a consultant inquiring about her company product and it took five days, yes five days, for her to respond. Unfortunately for her, it was just easier to head on down to my local store to get what I needed. You see, it’s not about the products, because products are everywhere.

I wasn’t just buying products because truthfully, when it comes to products, there are more places that offer what I need than I could possibly do business with. My goal was to support another direct seller’s business because being in the business, it’s good karma. 

Not to mention, you generally (with the exception of this one), tend to get great service when you work with a direct seller. Most consultants are grateful for the opportunity to send you samples, a catalog, or whatever else you need to earn your business. But five days for a response? Enough said.

But it’s not about the products. It’s the experience you offer your prospects or valued customers, that keeps them loyal.

One of the reasons I love the direct sales business is the personal service you get. I love Target but there’s no one in the beauty area  to answer my questions or send me sample after sample to try.  The “personal service” is your unique selling position.

You need quality products at a reasonable price. You also need to go above and beyond because you’re a small direct seller.

There’s a reason people love Zappos, not because of their ”shoes” selection or thousands of other products they sell. People love Zappos because of their outstanding attention to personal service. I recall mentioning “Zappos” on Twitter and within seconds someone responded to my tweet.

If you don’t deliver outstanding, personal service and in a timely manner, you’re dispensable, as Seth Godin would say. You’re NOT going to be able to compete with millions of other companies that will be happy to take your customer’s business.

Instead of focusing on the products and how scientifically superior your products are, focus on your customers. Be responsive,  put a smile in your email, don’t send out a canned product script, be original, be you.

Your thoughts?

’til next time,

Janette Stoll

P.S. On a positive note, I have several friends that offer excellent service in skin care, beauty, home decor, if you need a referral. I’m not affiliated with their businesses or get anything for it, just pointing out some great ladies in direct sales .

When I first started in direct sales, I often felt clueless and overwhelmed. In my naivete, I was saying too much about the products and business opportunity. Does this sound familiar to you? Unbeknownst to me, I was truly puzzled as to why people weren’t interested. Was I not representing the best business opportunity (smile)?

So I’d like to impart my humble wisdom. Whatever business you’re in – listen up my friends – do not sell your products or business opportunity right away to your prospects!

What?! you say. Yep. It’s true because as soon as you start blurting about why your company has the best xyz ingredients and the fastest growing company since Tupperware you’ve lost them. Um … buh bye.

You might impress a newbie but this spiel is so over-done. Let’s talk about what you should be focusing on to achieve prospecting success.

#1 Ask Questions and Listen

Without prospects, your business is on life support. When you’re talking to a prospect put the focus on her 100%. Inexperienced consultants are more likely to talk to their prospect about why they should join rather than talking with them to uncover whether the business is the right match or not.

This means you ask them questions and patiently listen to their answers. In my early days, I was told to tell everyone about my business opportunity because you won’t know unless you ask.

My advice: you should only ask if someone asks you for more info about your business. A true prospect is someone who wants what you have and can afford it.

#2 Selling Doesn’t Work

Women especially hate to be sold to but we love to buy. Knowing that everyone hates to be sold to, why do we sell the products and opportunity? Instead, lead your prospects and let them sell themselves. This also takes the pressure off you from being a salesperson to being an advisor.

#3 Conversation Starters

All direct sales companies offer fantastic training on how to talk to a prospect. Here are some questions I use when talking with a prospect:

Tell me about yourself?
Tell me about your work and what you like about it?
Tell me about why you want to start a business and what you know about direct sales?

There are numerous ways to start a conversation but never start with your business opportunity right away. Get to know your prospect first. It’s amazing what you’ll learn when you ask great questions and patiently listen to her answers.

#4 The Basics

Obviously you want the prospect to join your business but stay neutral so you don’t over sell the opportunity and end up saying too much. Your prospect does not need to know the 10 different ways to earn an income or the compensation plan pays to infinity.

Show your prospect how to earn money right away and the benefits from using the products. Say just enough to help her make a decision and avoid over loading with too much info too soon.

#5 Be Gracious

Not everyone thinks your company is the best so don’t expect it from others. You’re marketing a solution to your prospect’s problems.

Regardless of your prospect’s decision, always be gracious. Don’t be attached to the outcome by pressing or trying to convince them with facts and figures. Stories sell – not facts.

Understand there are many reasons why someone might or might not start a business. Be gracious and you’ll never know what the future holds. Maybe down the road she’ll decide to join your business. But get defensive and make others feel bad about their decision, and it’s the end of that relationship.

Always keep your emotions in check – exit with graciousness – and mean it.

What are your prospecting tips? Share your thoughts.

’til next time,

Janette

P.S. If you find this article helpful, kindly share with your network.

photo credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net

No, this article isn’t about tennis but as an avid tennis fan, there are so many similarities between tennis and direct sales that you can learn from. Specifically, tennis is an individual sport that’s built on talent as well as mental toughness. Similar to direct sales, you’ll need the right training and skill sets to do well but you’ll also need mental toughness to “tough it out” day in and out.

To lead your team, whether that’s one consultant or a dozen, you have to get inside their heads a bit and find out what they want and what’s holding them back.

Sometimes we don’t even know what’s holding us back much less our team members. But team building contributes greatly to your overall direct sales success. So how do you coach and lead your team? How do you inspire others to motivate themselves?

Here are some lessons in tennis that can help you coach your direct sales team.

Tennis players and their coaches have an intimate and paradoxical relationship. A coach helps the players strategize, bounce ideas, and prepare them for practice and play. But also acts as a friend, confidante, and can significantly shape a player’s life.

In direct sales, you have an upline that acts as a coach to some degree. Although the success of whether a team member wants to be coached or not depends on the quality of the relationship.

You can’t successfully coach someone if there’s lack of respect or desire. Likewise, someone’s more likely to be coached if she feels there’s something to be gained.

As a leader in your direct sales business, how do you coach your team to success? It’s not easy and personally, I find nurturing a team is one of the most challenging aspects of this business because people are complex. Each team member is special, unique, and comes with a host of baggage. Uncovering what’s in the baggage is tricky.

Great coaches lead people to the answers that they often already know. They have the ability to make you see things that you didn’t see before. They know what to say, how to say it, and when to say it that can have the greatest impact.

Imagine your team member having a lack luster quarter: zilch in sales and recruiting. What you say in this critical moment can have an impact moving forward. It’s tricky because it depends on the personality of each team member.

If someone is highly sensitive- an honest feedback can backfire and can change the scope of the relationship entirely. If someone’s open-minded a constructive feedback is a great time to learn and grow. Finding a highly motivated team member that’s coachable and open-minded is the holy grail of direct sales.

Being a successful coach requires not only knowledge in your craft but intuitiveness and highly personable skills. Since direct sales is a relationship business, one that mirrors tennis a great deal: requiring skill sets and mental toughness, it would make sense for you to take a keen interest in understanding your team member. You can teach drills and skills but you can’t always teach mental toughness.

Dig deeper, go beyond their sales and recruiting numbers, and get inside their heads. Get to know what motivates them - what makes them tick - what’s holding them back.

Like a great tennis coach, it’s not always about the technical stuff but maybe, if you want to coach your team to success, it’s more about the personable stuff.

What do you think? Do you find motivating your team challenging?

˜til next time,

Janette

p.s. As always, kindly share if you find this article helpful. For additional tips be sure to subscribe to my email and get my FREE ebook.

photo credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net

The truth about network marketing is the business model is simple but the business can be difficult to build from the ground up especially for a new distributor who isn’t told the truth on what it takes to succeed in network marketing.

Instead of telling your new recruit how easy network marketing is how about preparing your recruit on what it really takes to succeed?

The reality is starting any business can be a daunting undertaking. But in network marketing, the attrition stats are outright scary.

Knowing the attrition rate is over 97% or whatever it is, why would any rational person sign up right? It’s because we buy into what’s possible and the dream of being in the top 3%.

Heck, if so and so did it, why not me? That’s definitely the right thinking. But the problem is that most aren’t disciplined enough to develop the right entrepreneur mindset and learn the skills to succeed. Skills such as marketing, personal, and business development are mandatory as an entrepreneur.

Let’s consider some tips for preparing your new recruit:

Ownership

Encourage your new recruit to take 100% ownership and responsibility. Don’t get bogged down with babysitting your new recruit. Point them to the back office training and materials. The more invested your recruit is in her business, the more ownership she’ll feel towards her business.

In a new job, you’re expected to do the work and not doing the work, will get you fired. Showing up in your business is the first step.

Expectations

Set clear expectations in terms of what they can realistically earn based on their efforts. You really get what you put into your business. If your recruit wants to earn $5000 a month and puts in 10 hours a week, that’s not likely to happen.

Training

You don’t need to spend a lot of money but do set the tone from the beginning that some things aren’t free and investing in personal growth and business development training are crucial to one’s success.

Trainings such as setting up a blog requires web hosting and an autoresponder to start a subscriber list. Encourage your recruit to start a personal development library of books. The day you stop learning is the day you put a cap on your earning.

Practice

In tennis, top players train with relentless efforts everyday to prepare themselves for each match. The off court work sets the foundation for their on court games.

Likewise, in network marketing, you put in the daily work to maximize your income. You practice daily to earn the most from your commission checks.

Short term memory

In tennis, it’s about short term memory. Focus on your successes and forget the losses. You are as good as your last result. As an avid tennis fan, I live by those words “short term memory” as a way to shake off disappointing results. Learn from the setbacks and always look to improve.

Resiliency

Resiliency will get you over the speed bumps in your business. Network marketing is a professional business just like other businesses. It’s NOT easy, it takes a lot of work and dedication to succeed, and it takes someone willing to invest in themselves and their business on a continual basis to achieve success.

Given the right business opportunity, anyone with this mindset is likely to achieve success.

What say you? How honest are you with your new recruits on what it really takes to succeed? Share your thoughts.

’til next time,

Janette

P.S. As always, kindly share by retweeting and share with your pals.

photo credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net