A few weeks ago, I was chatting with a lovely sales consultant: “Do you know what my biggest problem is? I have terrible party attendance.”  And before I had a chance to respond, she said, “I just have to get better at host coaching.”  And I agreed.  Host coaching is a very important skill to learn and master.  But it was too much of a pat answer.  There had to be more.  Let’s think about it.

What is the point of host coaching?  What are we trying to accomplish?  The goal is to:

• Build rapport with the host
• Demonstrate how dedicated you are to her party success
• Help her establish a reachable party sales goal
• Teach her who to invite, how to invite and when to invite
• Make recommendations about refreshments
• Discuss delivery details

Oh, and you also talk about outside orders – how to take them, how to calculate the totals, what the current promotions are, when to close her party and more.   And when you do it well, your host will have a fun, well-attended party.  The sales will be high, her rewards, plentiful.

But that seems to be a very large answer to a very specific problem.  How do you get people to the party?  I posed this question to several colleagues and here’s what we have come up with so far.

1. Ask your host how she’s going to invite her friends – what will really entice them to come.  If you feel you have more to offer, ask if you can make a few suggestions.  My concern is that sometimes, in our effort to help, we barrage our host with do’s and don’ts.  So let’s give her a shot first, and then ask for permission to tell her more.
2. Explain that you don’t have party invitations.  You just have reminders.  I love this one.  To me, it really demonstrates the importance of personally inviting – once you’ve explained that e-invites just aren’t effective.
3. When inviting friends, tell them that chocolate will be served.  I think this is my favorite.  It would certainly get my attention.

And then there are the oldies but goodies:

• Suggest that her friends “bring a friend”.
• Offer a small gift for a specific number of guests who place an order.
• Recommend that she tell each friend why she feels they will benefit by attending.
• Suggest that she carry some reminders in her purse so she can invite people on the spot.

I love the idea of looking at, “How to Build Party Attendance”, as a topic unto itself. And wouldn’t it be great if we all put our heads together and came up with a hefty list of suggestions?  So do you want to play?  If so, leave a comment so we can all learn more!

Lori Moser built a personal sales organization of thousands, and now helps direct selling companies put the salesforce training in place they need to succeed.  Lori can help your organization by both creating and delivering training that brings results!  For more information, contact her at lori@luceandassociates.com.

image credit:NatalieMaynor

This week I wrote a post about a bad experience with Domino’s Pizza, and how I felt that they ignored me on Twitter.  My thought is that if you’re going to have a Twitter account, you need to be prepared to service customers there, even if it’s simply to direct people to the appropriate customer service channel.

And I had someone on Twitter question whether I was being fair to Domino’s.  After all, the national brand is represented by independent franchisees.  Shouldn’t we hold the individual franchise responsible for a customer service failure, instead of the whole brand?

And as nice as that would be in a perfect world, I think it’s unrealistic.  Fair or not, consumers do hold national brands accountable for the service they experience from franchisees.  And that affects our direct sales model too.  If a customer or prospect has a bad experience with an individual consultant, they are most likely going to hold your brand responsible for that experience.  They may tell others how terrible your brand is as a result of that experience.  And more and more, they’re going to do that on social networks.

And as a result, social networks hold both the potential for disaster, as well as the potential to identify issues and resolve them before negative word of mouth takes off.  Every company needs to take a long, hard look at their monitoring and customer service functions as they relate to social media.  This is where our customers and prospects will increasingly congregate.  And our response as brands to issues will have a tremendous impact on the public perception of our brand.

Maybe it wasn’t fair for me to expect the corporate Twitter account for Domino’s Pizza to resolve my issue.  (And incidentally, as a result of my post they did open a customer service ticket to resolve my issue.)  It doesn’t change the fact that I DID expect it, and was disappointed when they didn’t come through.  Maybe it’s not fair for a customer to complain about your brand online because of a negative experience with a consultant who was already on the way out.  It doesn’t change the fact that they will complain.

The only thing you can control as a brand is your response.  Begin planning now.  You NEED a monitoring solution in place, you NEED a support path in place to direct issues appropriately, and your customer service department NEEDS to be trained to support web issues.

We can talk about what’s fair until the cows come home.  It doesn’t change what IS.

Are you ready?

image credit: sdminor81

Jennifer Fong

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.

This month many direct sales companies are having leadership conferences.  And as soon as those events are complete, most of those companies will begin planning their national conferences in earnest.   But before you begin that process, you need to give serious consideration to the basic commitments that will frame almost every decision you make regarding your national conference, what I call “The Big 3.”

And The Big 3 are (drum roll please)… theme, budget and schedule!  I call them The Big 3 because they are your starting point.  You really can’t make much progress on any aspect of your national conference until you have total and complete commitment to each of these 3 factors.  That means thinking about them, then rethinking them and rethinking again.  

What’s that you say?  You already have those decisions made? Whether you do or not, now is the time to examine each of those elements one last time, before it becomes inconvenient, expensive or impossible to make changes you might wish you had thought of in time.

Let’s begin with your theme.  As I’ve mentioned before, your theme is not for your attendees, it’s for you.  A good theme makes your job easier.  So give your theme a “test drive” today. 

Ask yourself how you’ll relate your most important messages to your theme.  Think about your new product introductions, your incentive trip announcement, your keynote talk or your training breakouts. Does your theme work?  Does it make it easier to get into an out of those presentations?  Does it help you convey your message? If not, don’t be afraid to tweak your theme, or change it completely (assuming you don’t have a serious investment already made in print, video or other support materials).  Believe me, your attendees will never notice, and even if they do, they won’t care.  Themes aren’t what pull attendees to an event.

Next, take a look at your schedule. Are you starting late enough on Day #1 to allow most attendees to arrive that day, thereby avoiding a hotel room night? Are you ending early enough on your last day to let those same attendees get home that night? If you can answer “yes” to both of these questions, you have a highly promotable benefit that you should be leveraging to build attendance.  But if the answer is “no,” now is the time to correct that mistake if you can.

And finally, let’s talk about your budget. You’re probably well-aware of the bottom line figure that you know you need to hit. What you may not be ready for are the most likely causes of unexpected budget overruns in your event, which in my experience are:

Hotel & convention center fees: Usually called attrition fees, these are assessed for falling short of contracted room blocks or meal guarantees.  Make sure you know what clauses and key dates in your contract(s) allow you revise your guarantees.   Remember, we could be talking about thousands of dollars here.  It will pay to have an experienced meeting planner/hotel negotiator on your side. 

Labor overtime: This can vary widely by the individual rules governing your venue.  What doesn’t vary is the importance of understanding what labor you’ll need to hire to handle your incoming shipments, set up your stage, and rehearse & run your show.   Once the overtime starts, the dollars start adding up fast.  Having close and consistent contact with your venue and a/v or production company is the best way to avoid surprises.

The Big 3- your schedule, your budget and your theme– are the factors that set the course for your event.  Now is the time to make sure they’re working for you, not against you!

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.

Have you ever said this?  If your company is in the start-up phase, of course you have. If you have a few years under your “direct sales belt”, of course you have.  If your company has been a household name for generations, of course you have. As a sales trainer, I’ve heard those exact words time and time again.

Sponsoring is the lifeline of our business – not only for growth, but just to maintain the norm. So how do you expedite the process? By focusing your time, energy, training and incentives on those who are most likely to get the job done.

Your brand new consultants are great candidates because they can sponsor on enthusiasm alone. Make sure they understand that it’s not unusual to sponsor right off the bat. It’s a “no experience needed” type of skill.

Next, emphasize the financial and personal rewards of becoming a team leader. When you find those who want to be a leader, they will find their team …by sponsoring.

While you’ll want to promote sponsoring across the board, pay particular attention to your new consultants and prospective leaders and your numbers will grow.

image credit storebukkebruse

Lori Moser

Lori Moser built a personal sales organization of thousands, and now helps direct selling companies put the salesforce training in place they need to succeed.  Lori can help your organization by both creating and delivering training that brings results!  For more information, contact her at lori@luceandassociates.com

Starting the new year is the time to start fresh: new goals, new growth, and new people.  Anything is possible.  So how does that happen?  Start NOW – get the momentum going!

Bookings are easier when people are chatting and laughing in the company of friends.  Recruiting is easier when people watch how much fun you’re having (and notice how much you’re selling!).  So get people together NOW.

Lead by example!  Your team members will take their cue from you.  If you get busy right away, your team will too.  The momentum of your entire organization begins with your activity. NOW!!!

Below are a few momentum starters:

1. Contact your previous hosts to a hostess appreciation party and ask them to bring a friend
2. Contact your best customers to host a party as early in January as possible
3. Hold an open house (in your home, community center, office, etc.)
4. Have a party with your team with each team member inviting their hosts and presenting their favorite product and why it’s their favorite

2011 Momentum – Success Starts With You NOW.

Chris Clark

Chris Clark is consistently dedicated to the success of our business.  No project is too big or small for her to tackle and she completes each with professionalism, timeliness, and enthusiasm.    We always enjoy working with Chris.  - 

Marcia Negro, President-Essential Bodywear

luceandassociates.com

image credit: manoj8555

Your top sales people work very hard to achieve success in your company. They deserve outstanding recognition that shows that you value their efforts. With a little bit of attention to detail, you can make your people feel like a million bucks.

1. Make a Plan – Rehearse the Plan. A quick rehearsal and a few helping hands can make all the difference. In your rehearsal, establish who will be welcoming achievers to the stage and who will be placing them in their spots. Don’t let people come to either side of the stage. This causes confusion and usually looks sloppy. People appreciate being shown where to go so they don’t look goofy trying to find their way. Have a system so everyone on stage and those helping from back stage know exactly what to do and when to do it.
2. Make it a BIG deal! Do everything possible to set apart your recognition from the look and feel of you general session. The lighting should be more dramatic and the decorations need to be scaled up – making for a special evening and great photos. Even the voice of the presenter should take on a more regal tone. Make sure your music also reflects the importance of the occasion. Choose your music ahead of time. Don’t rely on the sound guy to pick what he thinks might work.
3. Feature your Stars. Have escorts (if possible) walk your winners to their spot on stage. Place them in order from #10 – #1 and have everyone slightly angled towards #1. This leads everyone’s eyes towards the top achiever. If they are holding a gift or award, make sure they all hold it the same way. We’re setting up the photo for use in a printed publication or on-line newsletter. This way the names can be quickly associated in order with the winners in the photo. Finally, take 20-30 seconds for these top award earners to stand in the spotlight, receive their applause and have their photo taken.

The time you spend on the details of your on-stage recognition makes a huge difference to the award winners and to those in the audience. The more special you make it, the more motivated others are to work hard to be on stage next year. Make sure the photos are available to the winners so the recognition lives on with family and friends via social media or traditional methods.

Mark Taulbee is a professional event photographer and commercial product photographer with over 25 years experience in the direct selling industry. Learn more about Mark and how he can help your company with photography at http://www.luceandassociates.com/Mark-Taulbee.html. To view some of his work visit http://www.proshotsevent.comand http://www.taulbeephoto.com.

I was having a conversation with a colleague during the DSA Be Connected conference in Las Vegas last week about blogging.  He told me that he still hadn’t seen any reason why his direct sales company should have a blog.  Since I believe that a blog can provide a lot of benefits for a direct sales company, today’s post will give you some of the reasons I think companies should consider one.

By the way, if your company IS considering a blog, I refer you to the wise words shared by Lisa Kuftinec from USANA, during the blogging session at the conference.  Paraphrasing Yoda, she said, “Blog or don’t blog….there is no try.”  It’s good advice.  Either you’re going to commit to blogging, and be prepared to provide fresh content regularly, or it’s not worth the effort of setting it up at all.  And the best way you can ensure that the blog happens is to put someone in charge within your organization.

So that said, what are some of the benefits that a blog can bring to your direct sales company?

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Google loves fresh content.  A blog, housed on the same server as your website, gives your site Google juice.  (By the way, when you allow your consultants to blog, and require them to include a link to your website on their sites, those incoming links are another great shot of Google juice for your site.)
• Official Corporate Response. When things go wrong (which they will, at some point), you need a place where your side of the story can be presented, and where you can be part of the conversation.  The blog is a great vehicle to do that, and can also be a resource that reporters will use when writing about your company.
• A Great Source of Sharable Content for the Field. If your salesforce is going to use social media effectively, it needs to provide content that is valuable.  And while some of them may be good at coming up with fresh content regularly, they won’t all be.  When you provide great content that your salesforce can easily share, you provide one more tool to help your salesforce market their businesses effectively.  They can also spend more time on selling and recruiting, and less time trying to think up new content to share.
• Lead Generation. Sometimes people may have an interest in your company, but are not ready to commit to connecting with a consultant.  Capitalize on that moment of attention by giving them something to sign up for on your blog.  It might be a newsletter.  Or it may just be the RSS feed for your blog.  Either way, they’re hearing from you regularly, which makes it a lot more likely they’ll convert in the future.
• A Friendly “Face” for the Company. In 2010 we’ve seen companies in many industries benefit greatly by getting more social.  As direct selling companies, we can’t ignore this trend.  People want to connect socially with their favorite brands, and a blog provides a great way for you to share some of the fun of your company.  Plus, you can auto-import all your blog content into your Facebook Page, which means fresh content there, too.  Once people like you because they’ve interacted with you, they’re a lot more likely to consider your products and/or opportunity in the future.  A blog can be a great tool to get that done.

We’ve seen companies in our industry take many successful approaches with their blogs.  Companies like USANA speak directly to their distributors.  Companies like Creative Memories are more consumer-focused.  Regardless of the approach, more and more people are expecting to hear from their companies, and don’t feel that a static website is enough.  You can meet that need through a well-planned blog.  Be sure to have a strategy first!  But once you do, a blog can be a valuable part of your overall marketing strategy.

Your thoughts?

image credit: ShashiBellamkonda

Jennifer Fong

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.

I read a post this week about services that allow small businesses to create their own mobile apps.  You can read it here: HOW TO: Build an App for Your Small Business.

This has a number of implications for direct sellers.  On the one hand, I think it’s really exciting that mobile app development is becoming a lot more accessible to even small direct sales companies.  This can help to level the playing field a bit. But on the other hand, does this open up mobile app development to our consultant base?  What would they DO with their own mobile app?  Would it be beneficial for the brand or not?  Do we now need to start considering policy that takes into account the fact that the sales force can pretty much point and click their way to their own mobile app?

I haven’t tested any of the services in this article yet. (If you have, I would love to read about it in the comments!)  But I think it opens up a lot of conversations that we should have next week at the DSA Be Connected conference in Las Vegas.  Will you be there?  If so, please say hello to me and the entire Luce & Associates team.  We’d love to meet you!

And be sure you’re subscribed to this blog.  We’ll be posting updates from the conference.

Jennifer Fong

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.

This post originally appeared on Jennifer Fong’s Direct Sales and Social Media blog.

Recently I’ve been doing some research on mobile options for our industry.  Some of the companies in our industry have done some really interesting things.  For example, Close to My Heart has an iPhone application that goes along with its Studio J digital scrapbooking product that allows people that use the software to show off their creations on their phones.  Both Amway (their app here) and Herbalife (their app here) have apps that allow iPhone users to enroll new consultants, shop, view/show videos (product, opportunity, training…), view backend data like volume and contacts, and so much more.  Very cool stuff.  Lia Sophia (their iPhone app…they also have one for Android) and Mary Kay (iPhone and Blackberry) both have mobile catalogs.

Amway's Mobile App

But mobile applications such as these present challenges for direct selling companies, and in particular smaller ones.  First, these applications are expensive to develop.  A custom application can cost tens of thousands of dollars.  And that’s for one platform.  If, after reviewing your site’s analytics, you discover traffic from multiple smartphones (iPhone, Android, RIM – Blackberry) you might need to build more than one.

And then you need to support it!  It’s not like you can build it and walk away.  That takes a budget too.  Is your company up for that challenge, and will it bring enough ROI to make it worth it?

Another option for companies is Mobile Websites.  These are sites that are optimized for mobile web browsers.  If you are reading this post right now on a smartphone through your web browser (not email) you’ll discover that the site looks different.  That’s because I use a plugin on my website that automatically detects when someone visits the site using a mobile browser, and serves up the content in a different way. (The plugin is called WPtouch, for those who are interested.)  Which works for a WordPress-based blog, but doesn’t work with your backend consultant data or your corporate website.

If you’re developing a mobile website, you need to keep in mind that Flash doesn’t work in most mobile browsers.  Here’s a website that lists more things to keep in mind when developing for mobile browsers: How to Design and Build a Mobile Website And here’s a list of tools you can use to test how your website appears on various mobile devices: 10 Excellent Tools for Testing Your Site on Mobile Devices (hat tip to Dave Sabol and Deirdre Reid for this info.)

When deciding which path to take, it’s important to take a look at your site analytics, to determine how many people are currently accessing your site via a mobile device, and which phones are being used.  For example, if you take a look at my mobile site analytics, you’ll see this:

Based on this, I can see that from over 7,000 visitors, only 96 (less than 2%) visited using a smartphone.  (Although this doesn’t give me data for the thousands of people that have subscribed via email…they could also be reading the email version of my posts via a smartphone.) Given that my audience has a large number of corporate readers, I’m not surprised that the number one type of operating system is Blackberry. Interestingly though, people who read the site on mobile devices spend less than half the time that people who visit my regular website do, although iPad readers stick around the longest.  I suspect this is because when you read this site from your computer, you see “related posts” (via another plugin) that might cause you to stay longer.  (I think I need to go buy an iPad now to figure out why this is.  I think my husband will see this as a justifiable expense, don’t you?  It’s RESEARCH!)  Based on these numbers, I would probably not pay to develop a mobile site right now.  (The plugin I use is free.)  What do your analytics tell you?  (Google tells you all this, by the way, for free.)

Companies in our industry need to start taking a serious look at how they’re going to tackle the mobile issue.  Before long, consumers are going to expect to be able to order from a consultant website using a mobile-friendly website.  Are you prepared to support them?  Not to mention the fact that our very mobile sales force can derive significant benefits from being able to access training, opportunity videos, and more while on the go.  Here’s a post I wrote a few weeks ago with some ways the field can benefit from mobile opportunities: Field Support Tools On the Go

So are you ready for mobile?  What are you doing to prepare?  What questions do you have?  Would love to read your thoughts on this topic in the comments below!

p.s. One more hat tip to Dino Baskovic and his team over at Amway for providing the iPhone app image that appears in this post, on a weekend no less!

Jennifer Fong

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.

Last week I wrote about the 3 little words—“Did you know”– that can help improve your customer service.  I’d like to conclude this series by sharing the one word that can make just as big, if not a bigger difference. 

Drum roll please!  And that one word is… LISTEN!

As customers, we want to know someone is listening.  The easiest way a Customer Service Rep can do that is by summarizing the customer’s inquiry, something like this:

CUSTOMER SERVICE REP:  “Let me make sure I have this right.  You say your order, number _____, was short one item, item number _____.  Is that right?”

This lets the customer know they’re really being heard and the Customer Service Rep understands the situation correctly. Once that is established, the exchange should be successfully resolved with something like:

CUSTOMER SERVICE REP:  “I see that item was shipped separately on November 1 and is scheduled for delivery today, so that should solve our problem.  Does it?”

This approach is especially effective If the customer inquiry is made on a phone call rather than email.  Summarizing the customer’s inquiry allows the Customer Service Rep to take control of the call and get the information needed to resolve the situation in an efficient manner.

The use of questions (even if the answer is apparent) and repetition is key.  The Customer Service Rep should say things like:

• May I ask you a question?
• Let me make sure I understand…
• Okay, so what I’m hearing is…
• Do I have that right?

But what if the inquiry does come via email?  In that case, include a summary in the first line of the email response.  This confirms to the customer the Customer Service Rep understands the inquiry.  It also eliminates the customers’ frustration when they don’t think their inquiries were understood.

We all want to know we’ve been heard – customers and Customer Service Reps.   Listening… and letting your customers know they’re being listened to… is the way to do it!

Chris Clark is the real deal.  Whether you’re a veteran or a rookie in direct-selling, she can help you take customer service to the next level.  And she’s one of those rare consultants who won’t try to shoe-horn your contact center into some cookie-cutter that garners more applause on the lecture circuit than “on the floor”. You can count on Chris to listen and ask lots of questions before she offers any advice.  And when she does offer advice, it’s based on an appreciation for what you have that’s a competitive advantage-and how you can kick it up to notches unknown! – John Cronce, Director Jockey Person to Person

luceandassociates.com/chris