Our experience with a wide variety of US and international clients in 2011 has proven conclusively that the convergence of direct selling sales methodologies is continuing at a rapid pace.   It is almost impossible today to find a “pure” MLM marketing program or a pure one-on-one or a pure party plan.  Almost all companies today find, sometimes to their surprise, that their enterprising sales people are using all of the traditional sales approaches depending on who they are talking to and in what setting.  Then to top it off, they are selling on line also, not just for re-orders on their replicated websites, but for first customer contacts resulting from Facebook, Twitter and Linked in associations.

There is no reason to believe that this trend will not continue and even strengthen in the coming year.  As usual the independent sales force is often out in front of their companies when it comes to employing technology in innovative ways and exploring their own way of doing things. Coping with these trends requires all companies to be ever more nimble when it comes to adapting to the realities of the marketplace. For 2012, change and adaptation move from the periodic and unusual to simply the normal way of doing business.  Be ready for it!

http://www.luceandassociates.com

image credit Creativity103

W. Alan Luce, President, Luce and Associates, LLC, Member DSA Hall of Fame

Few people in the direct sales industry can match the experience, expertise and successes of Alan Luce. With over 25 years in senior management, guiding start-ups and established companies alike, Alan has met virtually every challenge a direct sales executive can face.  Learn more about how Alan can help your company at http://www.luceandassociates.com/Alan-Luce.html.

When working with field leaders, I’m often asked how to sponsor “good” people – ones who aspire to become leaders.  And on occasion, a leader tells me she only talks to people who “prequalify” as a solid prospective consultant. Ouch! I believe, without hesitation, that we can’t tell if someone will be wildly successful. We can have a hunch, for sure. But too many times I’ve worked with new consultants who just needed encouragement and someone who believed in them. What a rush to see them succeed! I would hate to eliminate them from the start. So I always respond by saying, “Sponsor everyone because you never know – you just never know.”

Recently I learned about an informal field test from Shelley Whitmarsh, VP of Sales for SimplyFun. When Shelley was in the field, she and a fellow team leader noticed that Shelley’s team grew proportionately faster so they set out to determine why. Was it personal sponsoring? No – they sponsored about the same number each year. Was it the amount of time they dedicated to building their business? No – that was also roughly the same. Yet when Shelley’s team tripled in size, her friends team doubled.

Here’s what they came up with. When Shelley presented the business opportunity – to everyone – she presented it as just that – a business opportunity. Her friend had a different approach. When she presented the business opportunity – to everyone – she positioned it as a part-time job. That “full-time vs. part-time” mentality worked it’s way through their organization. In Shelley’s team, more aspired to become team leaders, which led to overall team growth. Now, when asked if there is a secret ingredient to sponsoring future leaders, I’ll say, “Sponsor everyone and tell them about the advantages of building a substantial business from the start –because you never know – you just never know.”

.With over 25 years of direct sales experience, Lori develops training packages for start up companies and works with established companies to update sales training and methods.  Lori is an accomplished speaker and specializes in creating presentations tailored to meet each company’s specific needs.

By Alan Luce

An article by me entitled Sales Force Trust in Company Key to Business Sustainability appears in the September issues of Direct Selling News. You can access the full article by going to Direct Selling News, click on the US and then scroll down the Sept 7, 2011 issue until you reach “Working Smart” on the lower right.

The essence of the article is this: The most important asset any direct selling company has is the trust and belief of the volunteer sales force that use and sell its products.  Great products, marketing programs, training materials, compensation plans and technology can all help build that trust, but they cannot replace it or overcome the lack of trust.

Company founders learn the importance of the trust and belief asset in the early days of the business.
They tend to work side by side with the first believer sales people selling the products and recruiting new sellers.  They depend everyday on the fact that their early sellers are only doing the business because they trust that the founder’s intention is to help them succeed and they believe in the quality and benefits
of the products.

Too often as the companies grow and successor management teams take over, the fundamental understanding that the business runs on sales force trust and belief is lost.  The business becomes a matter of statistics and performance metrics, cost control and market share.   The volunteer sales force becomes just another company asset like the warehouse building, the inventory and the IT systems.

When that fundamental understanding about the importance of the sales force trust is lost or simply fades through neglect, the company inevitably enters into a period of decline. Not just sometimes, every time!

The most important job of every CEO of a direct selling company is to recognize the importance of the sales force trust and belief in the Company and its actions and intentions and then make preserving and strengthening that trust and belief your first and foremost duty every day.

Hmmm, I never thought this would be a high priority topic – or even a blog topic at all.  But a recent incident made it come front and center. I was working on a training project out of town, and realized that I needed a car. Since I was already at the office, the company arranged for a car to be picked up at a nearby hotel. How convenient.  My colleague and I headed over and found a very small rental counter tucked in a corner of the lobby.  The representative looked over the paperwork and said she just happened to have a 2-seat convertible sports car for only $19.00 a day more.  We didn’t mean to offend, but we chuckled at the thought of pulling up to the office in a bright red corvette, hair flying in the wind. “No thanks,” we said.  “The car that was ordered would be just fine.”

The representative asked how much luggage we had because our car would only accommodate a few pieces.  A larger one would only be $14.00 a day more. “No thanks”, we said. “The car our company ordered would be just fine.” “GPS?” she asked. “Only 13.00 a day more.”  We declined and asked if she would kindly give us car that was ordered. “Sure thing”, she said.  And I would imagine you want insurance, right”? Only $6.00 a day more.” We held firm and said we were a bit behind schedule. “Let’s just finish up then, she said.  But I highly recommend prepaying for gas.”

At this point, I was finding it hard not to laugh, so I started writing a talk in my head about the danger of excessive upselling. In the background, I heard that something would only cost $2.00 a day more. Then I found out just how far my friend could be pushed when she screamed “NO. JUST GIVE ME THE CAR!” The representative said she had the perfect one for us, but I think I detected a smirk.

Did you know that a top rental car agency still has at least one car with hand crank windows and manual door locks?   I sent a picture to my kids so they could see what it was like in the good old days. “Yes, she got her laugh, but I was ahead of the game because I walked away with the framework for a talk, inspiration for this blog and some wonderful nostalgic memories.  Yes, we do want our sales force to upsell. But let’s make sure they don’t go overboard!

Lori Moser

With over 25 years of direct sales experience, Lori develops training packages for start up companies and works with established companies to update sales training and methods. Lori is an accomplished speaker and  specializes in creating presentations tailored to meet each company’s specific needs.

No, that’s not a typo in the headline. If your company is like most, you just held your annual event in August or July.  The memories are still fresh, but won’t be for much longer.  Which means now is the time to actively collect the quotes, impressions and testimonials from your 2011 attendees that will help you sell next year’s event. Here’s how:

ASK– Reach out to attendees via whatever channels you can… email, Facebook, newsletters, conference calls and whatever else will effectively reach those who attended. Tell them the truth—you want to hear, in their own words, what they liked best about this year’s event.

HELP THEM RESPOND—Remind them of key announcements, guest speakers, training topics. Then ask them to write down what they liked and why.  How they’ve put what they learned to use since returning home.  And what kinds of positive results they’ve observed.

GO FOR SPECIFICS— Comments like “Best conference ever!” or “I had fun” are nice… and totally useless promotionally.  Ask for focused comments about specific topics or events.  Examples:

“After seeing Mary Smith train on recruiting, I had got a new attitude.  I also got 2 new recruits in my first month following conference.”

“I made at least 6 new friends at the first evening reception, and learned some great sales tips at the same time. You can’t do that on a webinar!”

“Hearing Leslie Stone’s testimonial moved me to tears.  I was not only moved, I was motivated to action.  I’ll promote out to Leader next month.”

Ask attendees to reply back via email by a specific date within the next couple of weeks. I suggest you also ask responders to include subject lines that will help you organize the responses, such as “2011 Conference Feedback-Training”.

Building attendance at conferences is likely to remain a challenge for many companies in 2012 and beyond.  The most powerful tools you have to accomplish that goal are positive and enthusiastic comments from this year’s attendees.  Get ‘em while they’re hot!

Writer/Events Producer Dick Wilson has been managing budget events, schedules and themes– plus all the other elements of direct sales conventions, for over 20 years. Learn more how Dick can help you at http://luceandassociates.com/02_About-Dick.php

Today I’d like to continue our crash course in schedule creation by 1) suggesting some important general approaches, 2) exploring the anatomy of a good schedule, and finally 3) giving you step-by-step instructions on how to create a schedule with “self-correcting” times.

GENERAL APPROACHES- Probably the most important overall concept, for direct sellers at least, is to keep your audience’s time and money in mind. For your schedule that means:
1. Favoring weekend meetings over weekdays (minimizing days off from work & away from home).
2. Starting your event late in the day. This enables most attendees to travel to your meeting on the day it begins, thereby saving a hotel room night.
3. Ending your event early on its final day so most attendees can return home on that same day, also saving a hotel room night.

You also need to keep your own budget in mind by making sure your schedule doesn’t unnecessarily drive you into crew overtime. Beware of late nights, early mornings and long breaks that stretch your days later than they need to go. Sometimes overtime is unavoidable (especially on weekends), but often it’s the result of simply not paying attention. Early on, ask your audio/visual company how and when they start charging for overtime. Even if you can’t avoid the overtime entirely, at least you won’t encounter any expensive surprises when the bills come in.

A few more general ideas: 1) always include both page numbers and line numbers in your schedule 2) have one and only one “keeper of the schedule” All revisions are made by this person, and all updated schedule updates come from this person. 3) I said this in my first schedule blog, but it bears repeating- keep your schedule brief & simple. Don’t make it substitute as a work projects list, a script book, a shipping manifest or anything else.

ANATOMY OF A SCHEDULE- Use a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel or Apple’s Numbers to build your schedule. Your “keeper of the schedule” should be at least an intermediate user of the program. These are the row & column headings that work best for me:

Let’s quickly take a look at each element…

Line Numbers- Add your own; your spreadsheet’s row numbers will probably be too small to read. In Excel, you only need to type the first 3 line numbers, and then copy down to fill the remaining cells.
Start time- Specify AM or PM. Don’t bother with end times; they’re obvious.
Length- Don’t make readers do the math; include the duration of each presentation.
Script Numbers- The first number refers to the day, the second number refers to the order within that day. So the first script on the first day is #1-1. The second script on the first day is #1-2, and so on. These make it easy to refer to scripts, the titles of which can sometimes get long and clunky. Also, as you save scripts to your hard drive, they’ll automatically arrange themselves in show order.
Contact & Writer- The contact is the person who supplies the information to the writer who creates the script. These columns are useful in the weeks leading up to your event, but can go away once you’re on site.
MC- You might also want to include whoever else is onstage in this column.
Presentation- Keep script titles short & simple. When naming scripts, be aware of titles that could refer to more than one presentation. For instance, “First Afternoon Closing Remarks” is a better title than “Afternoon Closing Remarks” which could refer to any of your afternoon sessions.
Notes- Let this column be your catch-all column for all other pertinent information- awards, special considerations, etc.

CREATING A SCHEDULE WITH “SELF-CORRECTING” TIMES- This is why you use a spreadsheet rather than a word processing program. When you change one time on your schedule, all the other times change correspondingly. It would be too complicated to write out these instructions here, so I’ve created a 5 minute online screencast that shows you how to do it. Make sure your speakers are on, then click on this link, or paste it into your browser: http://www.screencast.com/t/eURUSege

Writer/Events Producer Dick Wilson has been managing budget events, schedules and themes– plus all the other elements of direct sales conventions– for over 20 years. Learn more how Dick can help you at http://luceandassociates.com/02_About-Dick.php

Back in January I wrote about your “The Big 3,” the trio of basic commitments that are the starting points for virtually all of your conference planning.  The Big 3 are your theme, budget and schedule.  And of those 3, your schedule is the one component that will require the most ongoing time and attention.

Event schedules will be updated and revised constantly, circulated widely and universally depended on as projects move forward and your event unfolds.  Since this is the time of year when most direct sales companies are planning their national conventions in earnest, I’d like to delve a little more deeply into the process of creating and maintaining a good workable schedule. It’s not as easy as you might think!

For starters, I’d like to focus on 3 general practices pertaining to schedule creation.  In subsequent blogs we’ll get more detailed about the actual physical process of putting together a schedule.  Note–by “schedule” I’m referring to the internal document that will be used by people involved in putting on the event, not the general outline attendees might receive.

My first recommendation is be very critical of what makes it into your schedule.  The biggest mistake I see most often is trying to make a schedule do too much.  A good schedule should be a very narrowly focused list of activities, presentations and timings. What it shouldn’t be is an all-encompassing document that answers all possible questions and lists every possible event, regardless of their importance. Keep the contents of your schedule simple, focused and limited.

In my opinion, the only things that should make it into a general schedule are actual presentations, activities and events that lots of people need to be aware of.  For example, “Opening Presentation” is a pretty important occurrence; everyone needs to know when that’s going to happen.  Events like “Flower Committee Meets” or “Announce program will begin in 10 minutes” are really of interest to a very few people, and don’t deserve to be separate line items on your general schedule.

My second recommendation is to create your schedule in a spreadsheet program like Excel, not a word processing program like Word.  That’s because Excel can calculate time.  So as event timings or sequences change, updating
your schedule is quick and easy. Change one timing and all other timings change automatically! I’ll talk about how this is done in an upcoming post.

My third recommendation is to designate one person and one person only to be the official “keeper of the schedule.” Pursuant to recommendation #2 above, your “keeper” should be at least an intermediate level Excel user.  Just as important, he/she should be the only person who changes the schedule and circulates revisions, preferably in a non-editable (.pdf) format. If the schedule is editable and available on a common drive for anyone to change, you will almost certainly encounter problems with version control.

Everyone involved in an event- company staff, vendors, production people, hotel and audio visual people—will live by your schedule.  How you create your schedule can have a big impact on how smoothly the planning & production process goes!

Writer/Events Producer Dick Wilson has been managing budget events, schedules and themes– plus all the other elements of direct sales conventions– for over 20 years. Learn more how Dick can help you at http://luceandassociates.com/Dick-Wilson.html.

Lots of direct sales companies have Twitter accounts today. The problem is, few companies seem to know what to do with them. Without a clear understanding of WHY the company has the account (besides, everyone else has one so we should too) companies are broadcasting a stream of ads, without anything to show for it.

If your company is trying to figure out the best way to use Twitter, the first thing you have to ask is “Who do we want to talk to?” And in order to answer that question, you need to understand how Twitter fits into your larger marketing plan, of which social media is a part. Are you trying to find new recruits? Increase brand recognition? Increase sales? Each of these marketing goals may have a different audience. So first figure out who you want to talk to, and then you can figure out if that audience is on Twitter.

If your goal is to reach a consumer audience, frequent tweets about the features and benefits of your product line is the wrong way to go. First, no one on Twitter likes a steady stream of ads, and they’ll simply ignore you. But also, a consumer audience is often easier to find on tools such as Facebook.

Does that mean you should abandon Twitter? No. But it does mean you need a different strategy.

Instead of engaging consumers directly on Twitter, you may be better off engaging the folks that INFLUENCE your consumers. This is often popular bloggers. They often do spend time on Twitter. However a steady stream of ads won’t work with them either. Instead, you need to talk to them. Find out what’s important to them. Retweet their content, and share content they’ll find valuable. You have to actually spend time on Twitter talking to people if you want it to work for you. Simply sending out a tweet a day with information about your product or opportunity won’t do a thing for you. It takes community management to be successful.

Twitter, along with other social networks, has particular types of users. Depending on your goals, you have to engage in a certain way. It takes a skilled community manager with the time to invest in building relationships for your brand, if you want your social networking engagement to bring measurable results for your brand.

Does your company use Twitter? How’s it working for you? Who are you trying to reach? Would love to read your thoughts in the comments below.

Jennifer Fong helps direct sales companies leverage the power of social media marketing to increase sales and recruiting, and manage online brand perception.  She provides strategic social media consulting to companies, as well as conference speaking and training. To learn more about how Jennifer can help your company, visit http://luceandassociates.com/Jennifer-Fong.html.  You can also check out her direct sales and social media blog at http://www.jenfongspeaks.com, and her Facebook Page at http://facebook.com/jenfongspeaks.

In my last blog we explored the reasons for considering an outside a/v company vs. an in-house supplier.  Now it’s time to deal with the RFP (Request for Proposal) document itself.

 BEGIN WITH A BRIEF OVERVIEW

I like to begin with a very brief overview of the event, its “who, what, where & when.”  Be specific as to dates, location and attendance.  Here’s a typical overview:

• Typical Home Parties, the direct sales division of Typical International, is having its 2011 “Believe It” National Convention at the Mammoth Hotel, in Mammoth, New Jersey, July 22-24, 2011. The event will be held in the Bodacious Ballroom, which has approximately 12,500 square feet of space.  The program will consist of equal parts promotional announcements, recognition and training for a largely female audience of approximately 500. Seating will be at rounds. 

I usually end the paragraph with a link to the room diagram of the space, which most hotels and convention centers are likely to have on their websites.  It’s also helpful to include a link to your own company’s website.  Other than that, you don’t need to go into detail about your company.

SCHEDULE

Next, I’m likely to include a brief schedule that shows what will be going on and when.  Don’t bother with a detailed presentation by presentation schedule.  Instead, offer a “glance-able” calendar-type schedule, something like this:

STATE YOUR NEEDS

Don’t try to get technical, just describe what you need equipment to do from your perspective. If you can be more specific, that’s great.  Definitely include basic dimensions, such as the approximate size of your stage and the number and size of your projection screens.  Here are some examples:

• Lighting package & crew:
  • Stage will often be full of people for recognition, so we need enough general stage lighting to fully illuminate the stage. Most other presentations will simply be an MC speaking from the lectern. No spotlights needed, just general stage lighting.
  • Appropriate crew for install, show, and strike.  
• Sound package & crew:
  • Sound system to fill room.  Music is a big part of our meeting, so we need speakers with good bass qualities.
  • One lectern microphone plus 2 wireless hand-helds or lavalieres. 
  • Onstage and backstage audio monitors.  
  • Audio mixing board with 6-8 inputs, including one dedicated to laptop for music playback.  We will supply laptop and operator.
  • Appropriate crew for install, show, and strike.  
• Projection package & crew:
  • Two off-the-stage side screens, 10 ½ x 14’ or possibly 9 x 12. 
  • Projection equipment for Mac supported visuals (Keynote with embedded videos).   Client will provide laptops and operator
  • Appropriate crew for install, show, and strike.  
• Staging:
  •  Hotel risers to create stage area approximately 40’ wide, 20’ deep, and 24” -32” high (depending on height of hotel risers). 
  • Pipe and drape to cover back of stage, and create wings and close in area between screens and upstage drape.
  • One lectern at stage right or stage left.  
  • Appropriate crew for install, show, and strike.  

Most important, tell them what total a/v your budget is, labor, gear, everything.  In short, what do you have to spend?  A/V companies are accustomed to working with all ranges of needs, but they have to have that dollar figure to give you an informed bid.  And often, they can be pretty flexible when it comes to gear, even if your budget falls short of what that gear might actually cost. 

INCLUDE PHOTOS & DIAGRAMS

If you have stage photos or room/stage diagrams from past events, include them.  Wide stage shots showing the entire stage and screen area are best.  These will go a long way in helping the a/v company understand how best to fill your needs.

Are you looking for a way to spice up your national convention and create a more immersive experience for you attendees?  Incorporating digital scenery into your next meeting could be the ticket!  Imagine the ability to completely change the look of your stage with a push of a button.  Or how about a fabulous awards recognition look with glamorous flashing lights that cover the stage!  You can also quickly recreate a location, like a coffee shop or a luxurious resort setting for a skit – all on the same stage with little to no fuss.

All of this is possible with careful integration of video projection into your set design.  A flat surface becomes anything you can imagine, and if you have purpose built shapes and objects to project video on, the look is even more striking.  If you have been to a major concert lately, you no doubt have seen LED video walls in action.  While costs of LED video tiles are still very high, the cost of projectors is dropping rapidly enabling use on a wider scale.  At the same time, low cost multi display output devices have made huge advances in how video is output to the screens.  I have seen amazing demonstrations of wall to wall digital scenery run from a laptop!

While the use of digital scenery is definitely on the rise, not that many hotel AV support companies are savvy with it.  In fact, it’s very common to bring in an outside source to support the digital scenery alone.  The ideal deployment would be an integration with the lighting designer who on a larger show would actually control the video scenery from the lighting console.  The design possibilities are endless.

If I had to choose between numerous moving light fixtures or an effective digital scenery backdrop, I would pick the backdrop.  It really is a show changer.  Just make sure you have a visual designer who knows how to leverage and integrate your graphics across all the displays.  If reading this peaks your interest in this technology, please give us a call.  We would love to help you take your convention to the next level!

A seasoned video producer/director,  graphic designer, recording engineer,  animator, Michael is self-described computer geek who loves getting involved in every aspect of his clients’ projects.  Serving clients all over the world, he creates the types of business communications that people love to experience.