This is a mighty tall order for many who are new to sales. Actually, it is often a challenge for seasoned people.  But in virtually every sales situation, it is a necessary piece – the sale just won’t happen without it. Why?  Because before you can “close a sale”, you need to know if the person is interested in what you’re offering. You have to ask!

So it’s imperative that you help your sales force feel comfortable about asking for a decision. I’ve taken many a stab at this one throughout the years.  I’ve explained why this step is important. I’ve offered word choices to make it easier.  I’ve tried to minimize the natural fear of being pushy and of hearing the dreaded word, “no”. But then, I happened upon something that consistently brings it home. It speaks to everyone.  And it’s one simple sentence:  “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t ask.” Let me show you in context.

Jane: “Mary, you really seemed to enjoy the party this evening.  How would you feel about hosting your own?”

Mary: “No, Jane. I really don’t want to do that”.

Jane: “That’s fine, Mary.  I just wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t ask.”

Now, there’s a chance that Jane could still turn this into a party, but that’s for another time.  Right now, let’s think about why this sentence works. It all goes back to those basic fears – your sales people don’t want to be pushy and they don’t like to hear “no”.  But this gives them an out – a legitimate reason to ask for a decision. They are just trying to do a good job.  Who could think negatively of that?  Who wouldn’t respect that?

So teach your sales force to ask.  Let them know it’s OK to ask.  Help them feel proud to ask. It will bring them that much closer to success.

image credit Horia Varlan

Lori Moser

Lori Moser built a personal sales organization of thousands, and now helps direct selling companies with the salesforce training 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

Does this sound familiar?

“I did the party, but only a couple people ordered.  The others just started  talking or left.”

Or “No one actually placed an order at the party, so I gave my host another week to collect some orders on her own.”

This can be tough on anyone, but especially discouraging for your new representatives.  Plus, hosts who become order takers will likely think twice before scheduling another party.

So what’s the fix?  It often boils down to setting expectations by telling your host (during host coaching) and the guests (at the party) just what’s going to happen – how the party will flow.

And it’s easy to do – not pushy or presumptuous. Here are some word choices that I’ve found to be quite effective at the party. After introductions, say, “Let me give you an idea of how our party works.  I’m going to just talk a minute or two about why our company is special,take about 15 minutes to show you a few examples from our product lines, and then welcome you to have fun shopping.  So let’s get started…”

After the product demo, you can reiterate by saying, “Well, that’s it!  I welcome you to look through the catalog and take a look at the display.  I’ll be right here to help you choose just what is right for you. “

This is generic, but you get the idea. While this might seem obvious to a seasoned sales person, it doesn’t come naturally to our new people.  But once they understand the rationale and have a few words to say, they’ll be more likely to bring in those orders!

image credit: jb_projects

Lori Moser built a personal sales organization of thousands, and now helps direct selling companies with the salesforce training 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 (at) luceandassociates (dot) com.

There is an abundance of photographers that will claim they can do whatever you need. Photographers at the top of their game tend to specialize. Product photography is one of those specialties. If your company sells products (as opposed to services), it’s vitally important to choose the right photographer to help showcase the features of your products. Here are some things to consider when choosing one.

Product photography requires the unique ability to make something, usually a very simple item, look appealing. It’s more than sophisticated equipment, it’s a trained eye and the talent to make a simple product stand out and appear desirable.

Most forms of product promotion, such as catalogs, magazine advertising, point-of-purchase displays, packaging, and e-commerce websites all start with a photograph. Many elements help create an effective product shot – composition, lighting, camera system, photographic technique, post-processing, and of course, creativity. A professional product photographer successfully combines all of these facets to produce a superior image.

Your quality products deserve the attention of a product photographer that has the experience and skills to ensure that each image sparks something in your customer that moves them closer to a purchase. Conversely, poor or even average photos of your products suggest mediocrity.  They erode the professionalism of your printed collateral or web site. In your customer’s eyes, “excellent images signify excellent products”.

Mark Taulbee

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.com and http://www.taulbeephoto.com.

I’m in the process of doing my holiday shopping. As someone who loves the direct selling industry, I would like to give a lot of that business to direct sellers. Since I simply don’t have time to attend a party for every company I wish to shop with, I am hitting the websites of these companies, and connecting with local consultants.

Now some companies do a good job here. I get to my consultant’s website immediately, can select the items I want, and place my order efficiently. This is great for me, and helps me get this task done. However other websites are brutal. (Sorry, but it’s true.) All I get is the PDF version of the catalog (which is hard to read) so I can’t shop immediately. Some require me to input a lot of information to get matched with a consultant, rather than just giving me a list so I can pick the one I want to work with right now. This is an outdated way of doing business, and it’s going to come back to bite us.

We have to come to terms with the fact that we are living in the “Amazon.com” generation.  People expect immediacy, and they expect ease in their online interactions.  If you make it too hard for me to shop with you, you can be darn sure I won’t.  And then you’ve lost the chance to offer me the opportunity in the future.

We think that by making it hard (or impossible) to order through our websites, we’re making it easier for our consultants to get parties, but I’m sorry to say that this just isn’t so.  Take a look at new direct selling companies.  Do you think ANY of them are preventing people from ordering online?  Of course not! They understand that this is a requirement in order to compete today.  And the consultants they’re trying to attract understand that as well.  More established brands may be getting by with their barriers, but new companies understand that they have to throw the doors wide open if they hope to have a chance.

If you want your company to be relevant in the next 10 years, the old ways of thinking have to be thrown off.  And that means fixing the website.  Online ordering for today’s consumer is a requirement.  And your site MUST be as easy to navigate as Amazon.com or that customer will be on to the next thing.  Choosing to ignore or avoid this change simply deprives our consultants of that business.

The direct sales industry is changing.  We can’t rely on all the old ways of doing business and hope to survive.  This doesn’t mean we should lose our essence of relationship-driven selling and recruiting.  But we must understand that today’s consumer is different from the one of 20 years ago.  If we don’t cater to the consumer, ultimately, we lose our edge.

Will you adapt, or become irrelevant?  The choice is yours.

Your thoughts?

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.

Most direct sales companies are creating Facebook Pages these days.  There are a lot of good reasons to:

• Increased brand exposure
• More direct communication with consultants
• The ability to connect directly with the consumer

And so much more!

But have you ever noticed that some direct sales company pages are SUPER active, with lots of comments and fan engagement, while others are just a steady stream of company posts, with no response whatsoever?  What’s the difference?  Why are some people “Like-ing” and engaging, while others “Like” and then never come back?

There are two things going on here, and the solution is the same for both.

Issue #1: Your posts aren’t engaging people, so they’re not showing up in people’s news feeds.
The default setting for people on Facebook is “Top News.”  This means that the only posts that show up when people log in to Facebook are the ones that other people have commented on or interacted with in some way, or are from a Page that they have recently interacted with.  Since 99.5% of all the interaction that happens with a Facebook Page occurs from the News Feed, if you’re not showing up there you have a problem.

Issue #2: Your posts are all about you.
You already know that people only care about your brand insofar as it solves a problem or meets a need that they have.  So if all you talk about is your latest special or your next opportunity call, it’s a disconnect.  Even though on the surface you might think that the posts about your products and opportunity are why you have the Facebook Page, it’s not true. If you don’t engage people first, they’ll ignore you. 9 out of every 10 posts on your Page should be specifically designed to provide VALUE and promote ENGAGEMENT.

The Solution
So if you’ve suddenly realized that your company Facebook Page is not even showing up for most of your Fans, what should you do?  Here are some suggestions:

1. Begin by creating a list of “Engagement” posts. These are posts that provide tips, ideas, ask questions, or in some other way provide value to your list of “Like-ers.”  You might consider “crowd-sourcing” ideas for your next product (e.g. Would you like a pumpkin or a cranberry-colored one?), run contests where people can win products (just make sure you stay within Facebook’s rules for that, by using a company like WildFire), or share posts that relate to common aggravations or experiences (e.g. Hit “Like” if you’ve ever lit a candle to offset the smell of your kids’ stinky sneakers!  Tell us which scent you used!)
2. Put all of your posts into a monthly editorial calendar. How do they balance?  Sometimes we need to fifty-foot view to see that we’re way too heavy on the promotional end, and way too light on the value and engagement end.
3. Engage back. Do you respond to every single comment and post on your Page?  Do you even know if people HAVE commented?  You should!  In this social arena, one of your biggest tools is, well, social.  So respond to every single comment, even if it’s just a “thanks for sharing your ideas” or clicking the “Like” link on a comment.  It helps people to stay engaged when it’s a 2-way conversation.
4. Show your consultants how to participate. Your ace in the hole, so to speak, is your field of independent consultants.  If you take a look at The Pampered Chef Facebook Page (disclosure: client), and click “The Pampered Chef + Others” at the top, you’ll see a vibrant and engaged community of consultants sharing tips and ideas.  This activity makes Facebook think that the Page is relevant to a lot of people, which means it’s more likely to appear in the Top News feed.  Make sure your consultants know how to use your corporate Facebook Page.  Invite them to share tips they would share at their parties, answer questions, and express their enthusiasm on the posts you put out there.  This will help people checking out your company to see what a great and engaged community that you have, while also helping you engage more of your current fans.

The more that people engage with your posts, the more likely it will be that your posts will show up in the Top News home page of your Fans.  And if you’d like more Engagement ideas, check out this post I wrote over on my Direct Sales and Social Media blog: Building Your Facebook Page Engagement Strategy

How do you engage the people who “Like” your Facebook Page?  Would love to read your thoughts in the comments below!

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.

The viral nature of the internet can be a wonderful thing.  Messages about your company can spread far and wide, resulting in new consultants and higher sales.  But that viral effect can be a double-edged sword.  Because if someone has a bad experience with your company, or one of its consultants, that can have a devastating effect on your company’s reputation, and its ability to recruit.

We saw this very thing happen to United Airlines when they broke a musician’s $3,500 Taylor guitar, and then refused to pay for it.  Google “United Breaks Guitars” and you’ll see a remarkable string of posts that have preserved this rocky patch in United’s history forever.  If United had had a strategy in place to deal with such situations before they became viral sensations, they would have been much better off (and you can bet they do now!)

This past year we saw a member of our own industry, Arbonne International, manage this quite well.  When the company went through a debt restructuring, it could have been very easy for negative information to fly, causing many of its distributors to flock to other companies.  But the company took a pro-active approach, creating a company blog as part of a larger communication strategy that kept distributors informed, and helped the company weather the storm.  Now this is but a far-distant memory that the company has been able to put behind them.

Does your direct sales company have a plan for when disaster strikes?  We all know that the information that the salesforce sees and consumes is essential when it comes to managing crisis.  What should you have in place ahead of time to be prepared?  Here are some tips:

• Create an escalation procedures document. Make a list of “worst that could happen” scenarios, and who is authorized to make a public statement.  This will save you hours of meetings trying to decide who should take care of the situation, while it spirals out of control, and makes it very easy for the person who spots the issue to quickly route it to the correct person, no matter what the hour.
• Create a “24 hour statement” for each issue you identify. This is a standard response that can be made in response to each of the scenarios you identified, so the company looks responsive while you’re crafting a more specific company response.
• Have “community ambassadors” within your corporate structure. These are folks who work with influencers in the online communities most important to you.  When a crisis arises, chances are these influencers will reach out to the person they know and trust in your organization, for your side of the story.  This means these influencers are a lot more likely to provide a balanced view of the situation.
• Create a culture that admits when you’re wrong. Transparency and authenticity are DEMANDED in social media communities, particularly when things go wrong.  Be sure the employees in your organization are able to admit it when you’re wrong, and empowered to fix it.
• Have a place for your official corporate response. This is typically a corporate blog.  If the issue is big enough and mainstream media picks it up, they’ll have a place they can go that provides the official corporate response.

By planning before crisis hits, you can more effectively manage online crises before they go viral.  And if you handle them well, you might even get some positive feedback from the online community.  It all starts with a plan!

image credit: Jim Linwood

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 planning 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.

image credit: jurvetson

If you or your company is hiring a photographer to take pictures at your events, make sure you’re getting your money’s worth. Documentation, recognition and training photos are fine but there is so much more that the right pictures can do for you.

Here are some things to consider to maximize the impact of your event photography:

1. Hire a high-energy photographer that understands the direct selling culture. A photographer that knows what to expect and runs to capture it gets pictures that touch the emotions. The more you recognize your sales force with exciting pictures, the more they want to stay with your company and work even harder to be successful.
2. Ask your photographer to make the pictures available to your sales force. Some consultants put memory books together and show their teammates back home why they need to be at the next convention. Those pictures can also be used as a recruiting tool to show all the fun, comradery, and recognition that your company provides.  And what could be better than getting tons of free advertising via Facebook when consultants show the world all the great things that happened at convention.
3. The photographer you hire needs to understand the importance of relationships in direct selling and encourage teams to get together for group pictures – large and small.

Event photography has the potential to excite, inspire and motivate. Make sure your photographer is helping you achieve those goals with your people.

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.com and http://www.taulbeephoto.com.

Direct selling companies are in an interesting position right now.  Many executives who don’t know much about social media are looking to hire people who do, to guide them.  The challenge is finding people who also understand our industry and its specific nature. Just because a program or site someone saw is cool, doesn’t mean it’s going to work for direct selling.

It all comes down to understanding your business objectives before diving into social media.  By establishing a clear goal up front, every new program and site can be weighed against it, to decide if it’s a fit.  For example, let’s say that a social media advisor is in love with a virtual reality site he thought was cool when he worked at his last tech-savvy company.  This, he says, will be the shining star in the company’s social media strategy.

A quick look at the company’s business objective though, reveals that the goal is to increase consultant productivity.  Even though the site may be cool, it’s neither a) a place the company wants its sales force to be spending time (we want them selling and recruiting!) nor b) a tool that will in itself provide any tools to consultants to increase their productivity.  Sure, the site might help with brand recognition, but that has not been identified as the goal for the company’s social media strategy.

It’s critically important to ensure that companies start with business objectives, and not the “oooh! shiny” tools that try to sway our attention.  Focus is key.  The latest and greatest is not always the best solution for your particular needs.  Your best bet is to focus on tools that have the greatest concentration of your target market.  And then focus on ways to increase productivity by using those tools.  This is what will bring success with social media.

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 planning 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.

image credit: jurvetson

Working for yourself is hard… much, much harder than working for someone else at a job. When we work for someone else as an employee, they tell us what days and hours to work, they define our job and what constitutes success at that job, and they worry about whether there is enough money to pay the bills.  Employees, even senior managers, go to work and do the job that has been defined for them.  Sure there are big, high stress, complicated jobs that many employees do. But at least most of the scheduling, tasks and limits of authority have been defined for them by someone else.

When we are our own boss running our own business we not only have to accomplish the tasks that will bring us financial rewards, we also have to create a work schedule, define the tasks to be done, create a strategy and business plan and take out the trash.  There is no “boss” to help us prioritize our time and work on the “big picture”.  No, the self employed must do it all.  And that is the downfall of many who try to build their own businesses.  This inability to effectively manage ourselves is the single biggest reason that direct sales leaders fail.  In fact, it may be the primary reason why many self employed people are unable to be successful.

Think about it:   If you are unable to create and maintain a productive work schedule each week without the benefit of someone prodding and reminding you to do the work, how can you teach others to do so?  If you are unable to effectively prioritize your tasks into “must do” tasks versus “nice to do” tasks then you will not get the truly important business building things accomplished. You will waste time doing things that don’t really count.

So often over my career when counseling a leader who built a good downline and business and was now watching it fall into decline I have heard:  “I’m just so busy doing my newsletter and recognition and planning my team holiday party that I just don’t have time to do my personal business anymore!”

This is a classic example of not managing one’s self well.  She built her business by doing the fundamental business activities well: strong and consistent personal sales, effective recruiting activities, teaching new sellers to be successful and coaching the most willing and promising to become leaders themselves.   These are the “must do” tasks.  Newsletters, recognition and team celebrations are important, but should never be given priority over the must-do tasks that are fundamental to success.  My advice to leaders is this situation is always “Go back to doing the things that made you successful and hire some part time help to do the important “nice to do” things.  When you concentrate on doing the important stuff, your volunteer sales team members will do the same.  After all, they too want to build their own business and most are not sure how to do that.  So, they look to you and copy what you do.

If you run your own business, now may be good time to review how well you are managing yourself.  Are you concentrating on the “must do” tasks or have you been sliding into spending time on the “nice to do” things?  Are you focusing your most productive hours of the day on your income producing activities?  Do you work consistently at your business on a daily, weekly, monthly schedule?  In other words, take stock:  Are you managing yourself well?

Alan Luce

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.

Does your direct selling company have a blog?  Does it need one?

There are lots of good reasons to consider having a corporate blog.  It’s a great way to provide your company’s official response to anything, for PR purposes.  You can use it to provide valuable content that your consultants can easily pass on to their social networks.  Your blog content can auto-populate onto your company Facebook Page, providing more value to your Facebook fans.  It can provide real SEO value.  Some direct sales companies are even using it to provide training to the salesforce!

Yes, there are many things a blog can do for your company.  But it does require a commitment.  Starting a blog and then never updating it won’t bring your company any benefits.  If you want a blog to work for your company, here are some suggestions:

1. Decide how the blog fits into your larger social media strategy. What is the purpose of the blog?  Is it to provide resources for consultants?  Give insight into the inner-workings of the organization?  Provide training?  Whatever it is, be very clear on why you have it, what you want to communicate, and who your audience is.
2. Assign it to someone. It has to be someone’s job to ensure that the blog is regularly updated.  If you expect that people with other jobs will “remember” when it’s their turn to add a post, it most likely will not happen.  Someone has to have both ownership of the blog, as well as authority to ensure that the posts get turned in on time, so you have consistent fresh content.
3. Create an editorial calendar. One of the best ways to ensure that the blog is working as part of the overall business is to create an editorial calendar.  Plan at least 3 months out, and decide how the posts can work with the goals of the organization.  Are you launching a new catalog?  Think about posts that will support the theme or new products.  Is there a philanthropic initiative that the company is running one month?  Think about what you can write on the blog to highlight that program.  Your blog should work with the other initiatives the company is working on to be an effective resource.

By taking some time to plan before setting up a company blog, you can ensure fresh, consistent content that will provide your company with SEO benefits, your consultants with resources that are easy to share, and the public with information that helps them come to know, like, and trust your company.

Does your company have a blog?  What do you do to make sure it is relevant and consistent?  What benefits does it bring to your organization?  Would love to read your thoughts in the comments below!

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.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.