Archive for May, 2010

Direct Sales Is Changing — Why You Should Get Involved

Direct Sales used to mean trying to talk your friends and relatives into joining the business. There were all kinds of tricks and strategies you were supposed to use to get prospects to come to your home for a meeting, spend time with you on the phone, or read your faxes and mailed sales letters.

Pretty soon a lot of the people you knew would start avoiding you. They weren’t interested in the business and didn’t like being pressured to join.

Not only that, but you had to purchase all the marketing materials from the Direct Sales company. The cost of brochures, mailers, slick sales letters, envelopes, stamps, and endless long distance phone calls really added up.

And remember the piles of product you had to store in your garage? How many people reading this still have an unused box of supplements that’s been sitting in the basement for years?

If that’s your view of Direct Sales, you should take a fresh look. The industry is changing very rapidly and for the better. Gone are the days of having to lick stamps and spending your evenings on the phone or holding home meetings.

These days highly sophisticated online marketing systems pull in thousands of warm leads almost automatically. Search engine advertising is used to send very large numbers of targeted prospects to professionally designed web sites. These sites fire up the prospects and send the most promising and enthusiastic to a top-notch sales team. The team talks with each prospect, separating the genuine leaders from those who are merely looking. Then only the best new customers are sent to you ready to buy.

Sound easy? You bet it is. Your web site can be completely automated right along with your hands-off marketing system. I know people, including myself, who spend as little as 7 minutes a week attending to their Direct Sales business. All we do is check our stats to see how much money we’re making, the rest — from advertising, to selling, to product delivery — is ALL done AUTOMATICALLY.

But I haven’t mentioned the most exciting aspect of today’s Direct Sales. Commissions are now MUCH higher than they were with 20 bottles of potions and lotions. Today, when I make a single sale, I receive 1,100 to 3,000 per order!

The key to these huge commissions is the superb automatic marketing and selling system. When you’ve got this kind of high powered selling capability, there is no point in wasting it on low-cost pills. Instead, Direct Sales is very easily selling expensive products and services that earn a much larger commission.

I learned a long time ago that the key to making big money in business is to find a way to increase your prices. The guy who makes a lot of 1,000 sales is going to be earning a much better income than the guy who is making the same number of 20 sales.

Today’s high-powered marketing and high-value products make Direct Sales the best and easiest way to earn a very good part-time or full-time income from home. Do yourself a big favor and get involved!

You are a busy business professional, who spends a lot of time in your car and you just cant seem to record directions, take notes or do the important things that you never seem to have enough time to do. There are digital voices recorders that are push-button controlled, and can be adapted to your cruise control on your car which can solve this problem nicely. The multi-segment recording chip can handle appointments, telephone numbers and directions, and comes complete with a stable suction cup mount that holds it steady.

Turning your recorder into a digital voice recorder for the telephone can be done as easily and as simply as connecting a direct connect telephone record device to a recorder you already own. This device will adapt to either single or multiple line phones and is compatible with all modular type telephones.

Then there is a new sixty-four hour digital recorder that can record not only the telephone, but voices so that those all important notes to yourself need never be lost again. This particular device comes with an automatic telephone recording control that tapes all of your telephone conversations automatically for an amazing thirty-eight hours, and only turns on when there is actually a voice on the line.

If you are looking for a radical new gadget to secretly record your conversations, there are digital voice recorders that look like a pair of sun glasses, and are capable of recording up to eighteen hours of vocal conversations. This device is also great for playing back music for up to eight hours for your listening pleasure.

Decision To Transition Lead Follow Or Get Out Of The Way

Every Direct Selling Company that has reached the pinnacle of success in todays competitive market began its business by offering unique products or services that served a recognized need. But quality product alone didnt sustain a multi million pound growth pattern. By necessity the company provided a solid marketing concepts and a compensation plan which offered the serious minded distributor a significant financial opportunity. In addition it was critical to provide the part timer and consumer distributor an easy way to stay involved at their own specific levels of interest. Add to this a competent management team and motivated professional sales leaders, and you have a text book formula for success. However, my continued research into this ever evolving industry has made me aware of a paradigm shift in progress in direct selling methods, compensation plans, communication and support.

The direct selling industry is changing and changing rapidly. In years past, the direct sales single level compensation structure ruled. According to Neil Offen, president of the Direct Selling Association in an article in Network Marketing Magazine, single level direct selling companies accounted for 75% of the organizations membership in 1990 with 25% being Multilevel. Now, 77.3% of DSA members are structured as MLM verifying a new age of marketing has arrived commanding the long awaited accompanying respect. Even the established pioneers of MLM are feeling the pressure as these new age MLM companies demonstrate growth unparalleled by previous standards.

But, look what has happened for the MLM distributor today. Enhanced telephone services, the personal computer (PC) and the Internet have created an environment for the tremendous increase we have seen in the Multilevel Marketing home based business success.

Today, the telephone has become the most important tool in sponsoring. Self initiated three way and six way conference calling is now available from most local phone service carriers eliminating geographic restrictions. The Internet solves the instant support information need and is the vehicle for quick enrollment. Payment for distributor kits and product is easily handled over the phone or Internet by credit or debit cards making same day shipping of goods possible. Add next day delivery services, andwe can literally complete a sponsoring transaction having the new recruit in business in 24 hours.

Just a few years ago, only a few people knew what the Internet was. Many companies are finding that they can use the Internet to extend their sales and marketing reach, to improve the quality of their customer service and even to conduct multimedia conversations with their distributors. For the price of a local phone call and a few hundred pounds spent on-line, you can send bulk e-mail over the Internet to your potential as well as existing customers and distributors. The same message sent by conventional mail, including printing and postage would cost a great deal more. In short, the Internet is quick, cost-effective and easily accessible all over the world 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In the same way the internet has altered communication and traditional business thinking forever, Multilevel Marketing has infected the direct selling world with such a powerful energy that even the oldest and most conservative direct selling companies are taking notice. Unlike the Internets effect on business, which seemed to come at us like an unexpected tidal wave, MLM is a known methodology traced back over 50 years. Although considered a fringe concept by the established direct selling community, MLM flourished spreading its tentacles and silently implanting itself creating a growing army of mostly part time independent contractors. Soon MLM accounted for billions of pounds of product sales. While many direct selling company executives ignored the MLM revolution regarding it as a distant cousin not to be taken seriously, companies like Nu Skin, HerbalLife, A.L. Williams, Malaluca and Excel Telecommunications powered their way to sales growth unparalleled by any previous traditional or direct selling standard.

As a direct selling corporate executive hoping to build a strong and geometrically growing organization to help your distributors meet their financial goals, understanding the compensation plans of the growing number of MLM companies could become a full time job in itself. Stair Step – Unilevel – Matrix – Binary – Australian … its enough to drive even the most experienced corporate executives mad. Ive debated theory for hours on how the compensation plan is like a piece of art with every twist and turn, every level and qualifier, every bonus pool or discount incentive carrying a specific action and positive reaction from the distributor base. New Age compensation plans are no longer pure MLM, but can be better catagorized as hybrid systems which attempt to be all things to all people. A little more discount here – another level in depth there, infinity bonuses, compression, roll-up, pass-through bonuses — We need an MLM dictionary just to decipher the written explanations of the plans.

If you are considering the Decision to Transition your present compensation structure to an MLM model, please take note!

Radical change may be necessary but dont jump on the first fad compensation plan that rings your chimes. Your corporate and product mission along with distributor culture must be considered. Adopting a plan that maintains your long established principles while incorporating current trends should be your goal.

Todays plans must address the following:

1. Cost of new distributor entry sales kit should be modest making it easy to get started.

2. Early payout of initial commissions and bonuses paid weekly or bi-weekly is becoming the norm.

3. A good plan provides bonuses balanced between the beginning MLMer who is just trying it on for size, the committed part time business builder who is building an organization through multiple levels, and the totally committed leader who can benefit from bonuses from sales generated by a significant downline community.

4. Distributor monthly maintenance qualifications to receive downline organization bonuses should be reasonable and achievable for the consistent part timer as well as the dedicated and committed full time participant.

5. Program should incorporate Auto-Ship ordering programs with a bonus volume relationship to monthly distributor qualifications.

6. Plan should mandate distributor minimum personal retail sales while rewarding for building an organization in depth.

7. A Plus plan. This means that there are no sponsor disincentives created by lost or reduced centers of profit as the downline advances that might encourage leaders to suppress downline advancement. All earned bonus levels are in addition to those previously earned, never in place of them.

8. Distributor ranks and titles should be permanent once received, but distributor bonuses should be Paid-as the position for which they actually qualify during the pay period.

9. Compression of levels or generations should occur to properly reward performers through maximum depth of income stream.

10. The plan should be Capitalistic in its design to reward the business builders who contribute regularly to the company growth. Beware of plans that are socialistic in design dividing available profits among many and encouraging a something for nothing philosophy.

If you are a traditional direct sales company considering transitioning to MLM or an established MLM just trying to play catch up in the evolving marketplace, a competitive compensation plan tied to todays technology is only part of the equation for maintaining and growing your market position. You will be competing for your distributors time, not just their product sales or consumption loyalty. Show them how to leverage their time while geometrically growing their income and you will put your company in the winners circle.

Of course, technology and a hot compensation plan cannot replace person-to-person communications. People still do business with people, and the more you embrace technology, the harder you should work at building personal relationships with your distributors. Make yourself accessible at every opportunity by arranging occasions that will bring you together with them face-to-face. However, keep in mind that the world of sales and marketing is changing rapidly. Some companies are recognizing these opportunities and rushing reinvent themselves. Others are watching intently and will soon follow, if only out of the need to stay competitive. As we have heard it said many times in business, Lead Follow or Get Out of the Way!

Deal is an agreement that is reached after negotiation. Agreement is a mutual commitment between two or more people. A deal is a type of contract that two parties agree to follow. Deals are very prevalent in business areas, thus we are constantly hearing terms like business deals, financial deals and more.

While making a deal with another company or person, there are a few things that you should remember. When you are negotiating with another company, take charge of the situation. It is important to be in control of the deal initially to ensure a smooth flow of positive activity. You may sometimes face unavoidable situations when the opposite party cut a deal that leaves you exposed. It is not always possible to shield yourself. Leaving those unavoidable instances, try to be in control of the entire situation when you are dealing with another person or company.

While you are dealing with another company, it is best to collect the money sooner than later. Deposits, advances, and front-loaded payment schedules are ways of judging the reliability of the other company. Cash is always safer than checks in deals, and a certified check is safer than a personal one. While dealing with money matters, do not move beyond your budget. Take help from third-party financing, only after the deal is officially made.

In a deal, you should communicate clearly and specifically about your expectations, leaving no ground for misunderstandings. Have a condition attached to your deal. In a deal, make the key items subject to your approval. The best way of dealing with deals is to self inspect everything. Talk to the tenant and the franchisee to know how things are working.

In a deal, try to be the boss. Create a situation in the deal where the other party will report to you by giving you `various reports on the various stages of the deal. There are very few companies that are self sufficient. Making deals with various companies not only increases the trust between the two, but also ensure a rise for both of them.