Direct Sales Success: Resurrect Your Biz This Spring

I know it sounds like a bad Easter joke (and it probably is), but has your direct sales business been languishing this year?

After a busy holiday season, many consultants often go on hiatus, letting their business suffer in the interim, until the snow melts, the roads dry up, and the grass is green again. If you're one who schleps product from home to car and back, that can be a good reason to slow down. No one likes hauling stuff in the snow, but when business slows down, so does your income.

Few people leave direct sales because of a full calendar. The number one reason I hear is because they can't find bookings, can't close the sales - in short, there's nothing on their calendar!

So as we enter the second quarter of the year, take a moment to examine your goals. With the year 25% of the way behind us, are you 25% of the way towards your goals? For the average consultant (if they even have goals), the answer is not quite. And most of that is due to the fact that they let their business "slip" during the first few months of the year.

Well, now's the time to get crackin' and breathe some life back into your business.

Last week at our Small Biz Super Summit, Lisa Sasevich revealed a great technique to close more business without being salesy or pushy. Lisa is the author of "The Invisible Close" and she gave some great tips about using irresistible offers to encourage your audience to make a decision sooner, rather than later. Just yesterday, Daphne Bousquet shared with us the best strategies to make more money by hosting your own events. Here are just a few ideas you can implement to resurrect your business this spring:

• Make a time-sensitive offer. Most of our companies provide us with a monthly special. That gives your hosts and guests all month to make up their mind. Give them something special for taking action on the day of the show.
• Close the party AT the party. If you hostess coach in advance, you can remind your host that you are closing the show the night of the party. Make sure she has her catalogs, samples, and outside order forms well in advance so that she can get them out and get them back to you the night of her show.
• Host your own event. In your own home, or rent a small conference room. Be your own host. If you're using social media, make it a more informal "tweetup" kind of an event so that more people will come, try your products, etc. Then have a time-sensitive offer for people that book, buy or set up a recruiting appointment with you that night.

Time sensitive offers are just one great strategy to increase sales, bookings and recruit leads. Your company can't possibly offer a new special every day - but you can. It requires a bit of planning and forethought, but if you're running a real business, you need to be planning ahead anyway. 

Breathing life into your business can be as simple as a few tweaks to what you're already doing, or completely revitalizing the art of doing business. Either way, a resurrection will give you the forward momentum you need to have a powerhouse Summer. And as we roll into conference season, it's even more important to be hitting those goals!

You can do it!

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"Time-sensitive offer" is just one of the strategies I taught in my last Direct Sales 101 class, and here's what one of our first graduates had to say:

Well, I promoted to Team Leader, went from $300 in sales in January to $2700 in sales in February and $2000 in sales in March, and have 9 new shows on my calendar.  I want to take the early graduation discount :> 

You are, by far, the best direct sales/life coach I have ever had (and I have had quite a few!).  You have helped me to cut through my fear, my husband is now on board with my "hobby" business (as he called it!) and wants me to go full throttle, and I have been able to do things for my family that I haven't in the past.... I can't wait to see what you have in store for the rest of the year. 

Also, looking forward to the Small Biz Super Summit - what a lineup!

Lara Hall
Independent Passion Parties Consultant
www.LaraBHall.com

Direct Sales 101 will be re-opening soon. Look for more information in upcoming issues of "PartyOn!".

Direct Sales Success: Do You Feel Lucky?

With St. Patty's Day just around the corner, I thought it fitting to talk about being 'lucky' in your direct sales business. In truth, there's relatively little about direct sales that happens because of luck - specifically when it comes to being a leader.

In direct sales, there are all kinds of leaders, but nothing bugs me more than an 'accidental leader'.

These are the people that don't have a clue how they managed to achieve leadership. And leadership doesn't mean a title or a rank. It means anytime the consultant excels and is recognized for setting the pace. They can't tell you what they did to become successful, or share with you the secrets to their success.

It doesn't bother me that they have secrets. What bothers me is that they think they somehow got 'lucky' and success just fell into their lap.

Luck doesn't just happen. Seneca said "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."

Indeed. There's a lot of preparation that goes on while we're waiting for that lucky break. We're putting together host packets, attending training meetings, learning about our products, and sharing that knowledge and enthusiasm with others.

So it always kind of irks me when a leader is asked how they won that prize, or how they achieved a goal and the answer comes back "I really don't know", or my favorite "I just talked to everybody."

The problem is that these accidental leaders are misinterpreting the question. They think people are looking for some ancient Chinese secret to success - when in reality, they were just being consistent in their business.

I know, that's about as sexy as quarterly planning, but hear me out on this. I recently sat down with Nicki Keohohou from the DSWA, and we talked a bit about the qualities of a leader. There's no magic pill here, it's about consistency, quality, and a commitment to excellence that permeates your entire organization.

The correct answer may not be glamorous, but there's nothing wrong with telling the truth:

"I held nine shows and booked three shows from each of those shows. I hostess coached like I was trained, and my shows averaged $550. So I was selling about $5000 a month, which just happened to be more than what everyone else did last month. If there's any luck, it's because no one else had a $5000 month, but you guys could all do what I just did. It's not magic. I don't have a lucky charm or anything like that."

People may not think it's a sexy answer, but there's nothing wrong with sharing the fact that direct sales is a business, and you have to work it like a business if you want to get paid like a business.

If more consultants and leaders were transparent about the work that was involved in being successful, we'd probably have fewer recruits looking for a magic pill. The recruits we DID have, would probably be more productive.


© 2010 Lisa Robbin Young.

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USE THIS ARTICLE FOR FREE IN PRINT OR ONLINE!
Please do not alter it and include the following information (with active links as appropriate):
Lisa Robbin Young is a certified direct sales marketing coach, teaching direct sellers to grow their business like a real business instead of an expensive hobby. Sign up for her free weekly ezine at http://www.homepartysolution.com/

Direct Sales Success: Quarterly Planning Made Easy

No, it's not glamorous, but an hour of your time now could net you some big gains before Summer hits.

It's time to start looking at your Q2 planning.

What? You mean you haven't ever DONE quarterly planning?

I hear you. Most direct sellers live two weeks from bankruptcy - meaning they're booking shows in so close, they haven't really thought much beyond the next 30 days of life in business.

It's time to make a change and get your numbers in order. We're going to lay out two quick ways to do "projections" for your quarterly planning.

First, gather your results from last year. If you're brand new, use your numbers from the first quarter. I realize we're still IN the first quarter, but bear with me here.

Look at what your numbers were for first quarter last year, compare them to first quarter this year. You'll see where you're up, down or about the same. Not sure what numbers to be looking at? Check out my previous post on knowing your averages.

Now look at quarter two from last year (that would be April-June, if you're not sure). Compare Q2 of 2009 to Q1 of 2009. Most direct sellers will see an increase in their numbers because the holiday 'slump' is over, new product catalogs are coming out, and people are more likely to book early spring parties in April and May than they are in February and March. But it's not important if the numbers are higher or lower -what's important is that you KNOW whether they were higher or lower.

This gives you an opportunity to look at your business and see where you can improve, as well as what to reasonably expect for the coming months. We only look at a quarter at a time because - well - life happens. ESPECIALLY as direct sellers that are learning to treat your business with more respect, we have to flex those business owner muscles and get used to looking at the numbers in our business in the first place.

Look at the goals you have for the next three months - show sales, recruits, team promotions, bookings, etc. If you have company incentives coming down the pike, how are you planning to achieve those incentives? What activities do you need to schedule into your business over the next 3 months to make sure you hit those goals?

Now, pull out your planning calendar - your personal one, as well as your business one. You want to look at what's already on the radar for the next three months, events, kid stuff, vacations, holidays, sales meetings, rallies, national conferences, leadership camps, incentive trips. Identify any potential items that could prevent you from holding the number of shows you'd like. Identify big expenses that might require you to do an extra show or two in the coming months to help generate additional income. Identify locations in which you'll find yourself that might make good 'recruiting recon' destinations.

By starting now - and it may take a good hour of your time to do it - you'll have a road map for the next three months of business. You'll easily know what nights you will work - as well as the nights you absolutely can't. You'll also have a good idea about how much income you can count on.

But the BEST part about planning is that if you pinpoint a potential gap (in income, recruiting, shows, etc), you'll have a few months to formulate ideas and ACT on them in order to fill the gap. Otherwise, you could end up staring down a blank calendar at the beginning of May, wondering what you're going to do to pay the bills for the month.

Quarterly planning doesn't sound all that sexy, but once you begin, it almost becomes a game. How many gaps can you fill before the end of the quarter? How much MORE money can you make this quarter? How many days off can you actually ENJOY for a change? Quarterly planning makes it possible to know all the answers to those questions - and then some.


© 2010 Lisa Robbin Young.

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USE THIS ARTICLE FOR FREE IN PRINT OR ONLINE!
Please do not alter it and include the following information (with active links as appropriate):
Lisa Robbin Young is a certified direct sales marketing coach, teaching direct sellers to grow their business like a real business instead of an expensive hobby. Sign up for her free weekly ezine at http://www.homepartysolution.com/

Direct Sales Success: Incentivizing Hosts

As I coach  my hosts, one of the things I often do is include incentives for the actions I want them to take.

Frankly, if my host and I are a partnership, it's important to me that she keeps up her end of the partnership. My job is to help her have the most successful show possible: happy guests that spend lots of money so she gets tons of free and half priced products.

In my experience, there are a few things that help make a show successful right from the get-go:
1. plenty of guests
2. outside orders
3. bookings before the show

If those things are in place, the show is a success before I even arrive. Plus, it helps me to know I'm already making money on this show before I even head out to do the party.

The best way to encourage your hosts to demonstrate this kind of behavior is to incentivize their actions.
I use a special business card sized "cheat sheet" (that I share with my Direct Sales 101 clients) that outlines exactly how I will reward my host for helping me make the event successful.

But you don't need to be a client to do the same thing. Here's what I recommend:
1. decide what are the most important outcomes from your show (bookings, sales, recruits, etc)
2. decide what actions are required to get those results (calls to make, guests at the show, etc)
3. figure out how much of that burden should fall on your hostess (creating a guest list, making RSVP calls, etc)
4. decide what kind of incentives you can give your hostess for completing those actions.

It can be as simple or as complex as you'd like. My primary focus is always on the guest list. That's my insurance policy for a successful party. The better the guest list the more successful the show, almost across the board. I would offer a small gift to my hostess when her guest list contained 40 or more different names and addresses.

Gifts don't need to be big or fancy, but they should be commensurate with the reward you're getting in return. For example, if I had a host that collected $500 in outisde orders, I might give her a $10-20 gift on top of her host bonus rewards. That's $500 I didn't really have to work for, and that's my way of thanking her for making our partnership successful. On the other hand, if she collected $20 in outside orders, I might offer her a free sample product or an extra draw from my mystery gift grab bag. Think about your gifts as if you were the one receiving them. Would you feel special or truly appreciated? If not, it's probably not a gift worth offering.

When you incentivize your hosts, you train them to perform their duties and "keep up their end" of the business relationship. Set the expectation for success. You are not a slave. You are a partner in a successful business endeavor. Train your hosts so that they know what it takes to have a successful show.

© 2010 Lisa Robbin Young.

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USE THIS ARTICLE FOR FREE IN PRINT OR ONLINE!
Please do not alter it and include the following information (with active links as appropriate):

Lisa Robbin Young is a certified direct sales marketing coach, teaching direct sellers to grow their business like a real business instead of an expensive hobby. Sign up for her free weekly ezine at http://www.homepartysolution.com/

Direct Sales Success: Know Your Averages

In baseball, one of the key metrics used to determine a player's ability is their batting average.

The league leaders have an average around .350, which means for every 10 times at the plate, they hit the ball and get on base 3.5 times. Sixty-five times out of a hundred, they don't make it to first base.

And those are the league leaders!

Pitchers have a comparable measurement - the Earned Run Average (ERA). This statistic measures the number of runs in a game that are "credited" to the pitcher. In essence, these are the runs he gave up as a pitcher. The lower the number, the better the pitcher.

The league leaders fall in the 2.1-3.5 range. That means that even the best pitchers are giving up a few runs each time they take the field.

What about you? In the game (and business) of direct sales, you need to be tracking your own averages. In fact, there are 3 critical averages that you must track if you want to improve your business on a consistent basis - regardless of the economy. They are:

1. Your Show Sales Average (SSA). This metric tells you exactly what you can expect from every show you do. If you know that you're averaging about $350 in sales at each show you do, you can predict with a fair amount of certainty how much income you'll earn in a given month. You'll also be able to strategize ways to improve your show income. If you don't know your SSA, however, you'll always be guessing from one month to the next about how your income will look.

The SSA is an easy number to calculate. Take the total show sales you've had in a given period of time (a year is best) and divide it by the total number of shows you held to get those sales. Don't count individual sales or online income unless they are part of a show you can track. Just sales from shows and the total number of shows. If fifteen shows resulted in $15,000, you have a $1,000 show average. If fifteen shows resulted in $1500, you have a $100 show average. Your results will likely fall somewhere in the middle of hose two extremes. If you don't do shows, calculate your one-on-one's. Same math, different figures.

2. Your Bookings Per Show (BPS). This metric indicates the longevity of your business. If you consistently get 2-3 bookings per show, you have a healthy business that will continue to propagate itself with new parties. If you consistently book 1-2 parties per show, you're going to have a more difficult time keeping your calendar full. When you know this metric, you can start to take a look at the reasons for your booking success (or challenges). Sometimes, it's a matter of changing your verbiage at the party. Sometimes you realize you haven't been giving a booking talk at all. Sometimes, you hit on just the right combination of fun and education that gets people excited to want to book a show with you.

You can calculate your BPS almot as simply as your SSA. Simply add up the total number of bookings you've gotten in the past year (or 6 months), and divide by the number of shows from which they came. You are counting totals, not JUST the shows that held. Be honest with yourself. If you booked 10 shows and only 4 held, that's a different metric. We want to track the total number of bookings from each show.

This does bring up an interesting discovery. If you find you're booking a lot of shows but they aren't holding, chances are good there's a problem with hostess coaching or follow up. Or you're working with flaky people. Both problems can be easily solved with a little coaching. But you can't solve either problem if you don't know your BPS.

3. Your Recruiting Interview Percentage (RIP). This metric tells you how many recruits youll be adding to your team. This metric is a little more complex, because it's actually made up of TWO mathematical equations. First, you need the total number of guests/clients you've worked with in a given period of time. This can be a challenge, so when you first start tracking this metric, begin with the total number of guests at your shows. Over time you'll need to add in all the other people you share recruiting info with, but for now, stick with something a little easier to track. How many recruiting interviews are you scheduling from each show? Divide the number of recruiting appointments by the number of guests. This is your scheduling rate. Save that number for the next step.

Now look at your recruiting appointments. How many of them actually result in a new consultant joining the team? Take the scheduling rate from step one and divide it by this number. Now you have a percentage you can work with. For every hundred people you meet, that's the number of people that will likely join your team on average.

Let's look at an example. If you have 150 guests in a given month, and schedule 10 recruit interviews, you have a 6.6% scheduling rate. Of those 10 interviews, only 3 join the team. That means you have a 2.2% Recruiting Interview Percentage. For every 100 people you meet at shows, etc, 2.2 of them are likely to join your team.

Once you know these numbers, you can begin to see how easy it is to stay motivated. If you knew with a fair amount of certainty that you could turn 2 out of every 100 people into new recruits, you're much more likely to approach those 100 people in the first place. You're also much more inspired to want to IMPROVE that percentage so that you're not working quite as hard from the get-go.

When you keep close tabs on what I call "the BIG 3" in your business, you'll have a more consistent, stable income, with the power and ability to keep it growing, right at your fingertips.

© 2010 Lisa Robbin Young.

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If you're interested in hearing more about the BIG 3, I will be chatting with Carrie Wilkerson on this topic during her Barefoot Bootcamp 2.0 happening this month. Yes, that's my affiliate link, but the videos are free, and very informative. I hope you'll check it out. Plus, if you sign up through my link for the event, you'll also get free access to my OWN Direct Sales Super Summit coming up in March!


USE THIS ARTICLE FOR FREE IN PRINT OR ONLINE!

Please do not alter it and include the following information (with active links as appropriate):
Lisa Robbin Young is a certified direct sales marketing coach, teaching direct sellers to grow their business like a real business instead of an expensive hobby. Sign up for her free weekly ezine at http://www.homepartysolution.com/

Create an Editorial Calendar for Your Direct Sales Business

Magazines and periodicals have a nifty little tool that lays the groundwork for every issue they print. The editorial calendar guides the topical content for each article in a particular issue.

The most logical direct sales equivalent is our monthly host or guest specials - which are usually set up by our companies, and fed to us no more than a month or two in advance.

That's not the most effective way to create a strategic plan for your business year.

The solution is to create your own "editorial calendar" of sorts.

Each month of the year represents at least one new reason to contact your clients. In fact, this is one of the strategies I'm teaching in depth in my new Direct Sales 101 small group coaching program. An editorial calendar is a great guideline for both your newsletter AND your parties/presentations, because:

1. It allows you to have a plan in place for each month of the year at the beginning of the year - regardless of what your company proposes.
2. It puts YOU in control of your business instead of waiting for details from your home office.
3. It gives you the ability to create special connections with your clients by tailoring your offerings to their needs/desires.

Not sure where to start? Here are a few sample ideas for a monthly newsletter, based on holidays. Remember that most people will place orders in the month BEFORE the holiday, so plan ahead with your offerings:

January: Love, Valentine's Day, Showing Your Love
February: Luck of the Irish, St. Patty's Day, Go Green
March: Spring, Easter, April Showers (showers of money for great recruiting, or baby/bridal showers)
April: Mother's Day
May: Father's Day
June: Independence Day (U.S.)
July: End of Summer
August: Back to School
September: Halloween
October: Being Grateful
November: Christmas
December: New Year, New You, New Products

These samples don't begin to cover topics that are product or service-specific to your company. You are truly only limited by your imagination. Have a bi-weekly or weekly newsletter? Sprinkle in a few more topics that are related to each month, or to a specific product that your company may be featuring.

An editorial calendar doesn't chain you to sticking to these topics, but it does give you a safety net that will keep your business growing throughout the year - even when you're not sure yet what your home office has planned. You won't be scrambling, trying to figure out what to do. You'll have a confident plan of action that will move your business forward throughout the year.

Billion-dollar business woman Anne McKevitt said something to me that hit home: "Never leave anything to chance." By taking the reins of your promotional and publication schedule, you're not leaving your direct sales success to chance.

© 2010 Lisa Robbin Young.

USE THIS ARTICLE FOR FREE IN PRINT OR ONLINE!
Please do not alter it and include the following information (with active links as appropriate):
Lisa Robbin Young is a certified direct sales marketing coach, teaching direct sellers to grow their business like a real business instead of an expensive hobby. Sign up for her free weekly ezine at http://www.homepartysolution.com/

Longer is Much More Gratifying: Business Relationships That Work

I subscribe to far too many mailing lists.

My assistant creates filters in my gmail account so that I can sort the wheat from the chaff on a regular basis, but even I recognize I'm still on far too many lists. Some lists I'm not even sure how I got there - or they only send me an email once every blue moon, so I forget to unsubscribe before I hit the delete button.

Today, I got an email from one such list. But I shan't be unsubscribing just yet.

One little sentence saved him from the dung heap.

Normally, I don't like ezines that force me to click through to read the article. But his title was compelling, revealing the business trend we witnessed in 2009 - how 7 figure companies were fast dwindling into 5 figure companies due to a failue to adapt to change.

The one little sentence that caught my eye (despite the problems with formatting on the page)?

"It takes us longer to convert a lead into a customer but it is much more gratifying in the end."

Hello! Welcome to the world of marketing your business!

Gone are the days of sticking a business card in your prospect's face and expecting them to buy a couple hundred dollars worth of your product. In fact, Bob suggests that going after bigger ticket clients is actually a better strategy because they understand the value of your product, and are less likely to shop based solely on price.

The reality of that, however, is that people who shop based on value take a little more time to assess, resolve and decide to make the purchase.

I'll have a guest that attends 3 or 4 parties before they ever purchase a thing. I'm on the verge of writing this person off as uninterested just as they are whipping out their checkbook to pay for a $300+ order.

I wish I was joking, but I'm not.

See, the flip side to our "instant gratification" world is that there are still people that believe in taking their time, doing things the right way, and NOT rushing into anything. In our rush to service the next in line, we sometimes forget what serving our clients is really all about: finding their needs, and helping them make decisions that will improve their lives.

And sometimes it takes more than four point two seconds to determine if the value of your offering really is better than the other guy. Sometimes value is determined by how much time you actually SPEND WITH the client.

This isn't just a direct sales application. This is a life application. Our best friends are usually the ones we've known the longest - or it at least "feeeeels like we've known them foreeeeeeeever". Longer relationships are much more gratifying.

That's the dilemma of social media. So many direct sellers have jumped on the SM bandwagon thinking it's the road to fast riches. NO. Just like eveything else bout direct sales, it's not get rich quick. It's get rich by building relationships - on a national platform instead of a local one.

So if someone sold you that bill of goods, my apologies. The strength in any relationship - business or otherwise - lies in the number of genuine, valueable connections you have with that person. Sometimes you can take shortcuts, but you can't short circuit the entire process.

© 2009 Lisa Robbin Young.

USE THIS ARTICLE FOR FREE IN PRINT OR ONLINE!
Please do not alter it and include the following information (with active links as appropriate):

Lisa Robbin Young is a certified direct sales marketing coach, teaching direct sellers to grow their business like a real business instead of an expensive hobby. Sign up for her free weekly ezine at http://www.homepartysolution.com

Direct Sales Passion: Are You Faking It?

'Tis the season when most companies begin their Leader Retreat events.

These are the rallies and propaganda fests where the company leaders can celebrate their accomplishments, learn best practices and get a glimpse of some of the new products for the new year - and maybe even bring some home with them.

But you know what? Even if you're not 'qualified' to attend, you may still be one of those consultants that's out-performing your leader. All it takes is a little passion.

That's what happened to me.

A few years back, I qualified to attend the leadership getaway that my then-company hosted for their leaders. I had been encouraged by my upline leader to strive to attend, reach all the goals laid before me, and work like heck to walk across the stage at Leader Retreat.

I'm not one to do 20 parties a month, so I figured I'd shoot for the goal of $5000 in sales during the first 6 months of the year, which were usually the toughest months of the year in our company.

I think I ended the period with about $7800 in sales, doing about 8 or 9 shows during that time. There were several people on our team that also achieved that $5000 goal, but because they weren't leaders, they couldn't go to Leader Retreat.

One consultant had over $15,000 in sales and missed qualifying as a leader by one recruit.

It was disappointing to me that other people who out performed me were not able to attend the event and celebrate their success. Imagine my surprise when my own leader didn't even walk across the stage with me.

Talk about "faking it"! Here she was pushing (and I DO mean pushing) all of her team to achieve these goals, get qualified for on stage recognition, and all the while she was barely doing the minimums to keep her title. She did, however, earn a nice chunk of bonus compensation for all the work we did to help her keep her title.

One of the nice things abotu Direct Sales is the compensation leaders can earn for helping their teams achieve levels of success. I have no problem with that. However, there's a problem when a leader is doing "just the minimums" and encouraging her teams to go for the gusto.

There's no congruency. She got paid despite the fact that several of her personal recruits out-performed her and eventually promoted above her. Consultants began to talk, and in less than a year, many of her recruits had lost faith in her, stopped attending her meetings, gave up, or left the company completely.

When people find out you're faking it, it's just too much of a let down.

Why was it that our team was able to achieve a goal that our own leader did not?

Passion.

First, we believed in our leader. She was a little on the pushy side, but we believed that she had our best interests at heart. Once we learned she was faking it - putting on a good show to bump up her tea numbers, but doing the minimums herself - we weren't as keen to be workhorses for her next big award.

Second, we caught the vision of an idea that was greater than our circumstance. We wanted the recognition that we thought would come from achieving something remarkable. It set us on fire. We became passionate - about our goal, our product, and about getting the message out to as many people as we could. Those of us that achieved those goals went on to bigger things within the company.

Our leader? Not so much. She was content to talk a good game, but when it came to playing the game, she was riding the bench. Ultimately, that leader left the company for what she thought were greener pastures. But her problems followed her. She was looking for other people to do the work for her. Instead of leading by example, she was ligthing the fire under her recruits, and sitting back to watch how far they would take her.

That was the final realization for me that not every leader knows more than I do when it comes to growing my business and defining my success.

In direct sales, like in life, faking it only works for so long - either your recruits pass you, or they give up on you and look to other leaders in the company to give them solid direction and advice. That's what happened to my leader. Imagine how much more successful she could have been if she'd been practicing what she was preaching!

It's one thing to be passionate about something and actively share it with your team and the world. It's something else to just "talk a good game" and not work your business with enthusiasm. People talk, and it's only a matter of time before you're found out.

If you've been in the business for a while, and feeling like the passion is fading, here are a few tips to help you re-kindle the romance with your direct sales biz:

1. Remember what it was like when you were brand new. It was a time of discovery. What are ways you can tap into that sense of awe and discovery in your business? Try a new product, find a creative use for an old product. Talk with someone you DON'T know at the home office.

2. Share your favorites. You have a list of products you love (if you don't, why are you in this business in the first place?). Think of other people that would love them for the same reasons and invite them to experience the product - no strings - in a complimentary session. Woo your customers back (maybe a few that you haven't talked with in a while) with a free sampling, or a thank-you event that doesn't end with a sales pitch.

Alternatively, if it's appropriate, make a donation to a local shelter - anonymously - of your favorite products. The gratitude will be overwhelming.

3. Bring in the kids. If it's appropriate for your product, invite the kids in and shoot a video of THEM doing a presentation with your products. talk about FUN! You'll not only get a good laugh, you'll get to see how your KIDS view the way you do business.

These are just a few ideas you can use to bring back some of the fun and excitement to your business. Seeing the way you build your business through your new consultant's eyes can often refresh a leader that's gotten a little complacent or jaded in their business.

A little passion (that's genuine) goes a long way. Eventually, if you're faking it, you'll be found out.

© 2009 Lisa Robbin Young.

USE THIS ARTICLE FOR FREE IN PRINT OR ONLINE!
Please do not alter it and include the following information (with active links as appropriate):

Lisa Robbin Young is a certified direct sales marketing coach, teaching direct sellers to grow their business like a real business instead of an expensive hobby. Sign up for her free weekly ezine at http://www.homepartysolution.com

Direct Sales Success: From Strategy to Plan

Planning for direct sales success can be as simple as turning on a light switch, or as challenging as digging ditches. It all depends on your outlook.

My husband thinks 'plan' is a four-letter word. So I have to come up with "action items" instead of a plan. It's the only way to get anything done around my house.

But before I lay out my "honey-do" list, I have to envision my desired outcome. Then, I need to understand the important pillars of getting the job done.

The same hold true in your direct sales business.

Once you've laid a vision for your direct sales business, identified the goals and created a strategy around what the key areas of accomplishment are, we then get to "the brass tacks" of bringing that vision to life - creating the plan.

Once you've laid out you annual objectives, you've got to break that down into meaningful, manageable "chunks". For example, if your goal is to add 12 new personal recruits to your team, that breaks down to approximately 1 recruit each month.

But this kind of thinking is not likely to be accurate.

Consultants are trained to average their numbers out over the course of the year, which is a detriment. In reality, the bulk of our sales - the bulk of our business, really - comes during the last quarter of the year.

Now that doesn't mean to sit on your laurels until October. Far from it.

What it means is that you should plan appropriately and project reasonably for the year.

For example, if you look at your sales history and 50% of your sales happens from October to December, don't expect that you'll have an even time of things from January to June.

Forecast higher numbers in the fall and lower numbers in the winter.

This does two things:

1. It paints a realistic picture for your business
2. It shows you where your real opportunities lie

So if you've NEVER added a single recruit in February, you can choose to focus on that objective, or to play to your strengths instead.

This is how your business truly becomes your own.

If in March, you know there's a big bridal event that you're planning for, lay the groundwork NOW and know what your desired outcomes are. They may look something like this:

1. collect contact info for 300 leads
2. connect with 30 brides (preferably at the show)
3. book 10 parties/events from the bridal show
4. schedule 2 recruit interviews
5. sign one recruit

If there is a commandment in direct sales it should be "Thou shalt know thy numbers." You can't plan a realistic business year without knowing your numbers. How many interviews must you hold (on average) before you sign a recruit? How many people do you need to talk to before you can schedule an interview? How many leads do you need to make 30 contacts?

If you know these numbers, you can look at last year's data to break it all down. Here's a hypothetical example:

2009 Results:
Jan - 2 shows, 16 people, 1 recruit interview (did not sign)
Feb - 8 shows, 80 people, 3 recruit interviews (1 signed)
Mar - 10 shows, 85 people, 5 recruit interviews (2 signed)
Apr - 7 shows, 80 people, 4 recruit interviews (1 signed)
May - 16 shows, 150 people, 10 recruit interviews (3 signed)
Jun - 7 shows, 81 people, 5 recruit interviews (3 signed)
Jul - 4 shows, 55 people, 3 recruit interviews (2 signed)
Aug - 4 shows, 42 people, 1 recruit interview (1 signed)
Sep - 6 shows, 55 people, 2 recruit interviews (0 signed)
Oct - 11 shows, 140 people, 12 recruit interviews (5 signed)
nov - 16 shows, 225 people, 20 recruit interviews (10 signed)
Dec - 8 shows, 150 people, 10 recruit interviews (3 signed)

2009 - 99 shows, 1159 people, 76 recruiting interviews, 31 signed

These numbers reveal that for every 3 shows you hold, about 1 person will sign up. It also tells you that only aout 6% of your customers and guests will hold an interview with you, but that once you DO get them to schedule an interview, you will sign up about 40% of them.

It also shows you that June, July and January are your slowest months. this tells you that you can either take a vacation (if you're certain you'll not do any business during those months), or plan some new ideas for those months to boost business.

It also shows you that you're bringing a lot of team members on in the fall. How can you prepare yourself to have an eqally spectacular spring, and still be ready to bring on so many new recruits during the busy season?

Armed with your own numbers, you can plan a course for your entire year - without waiting to see what your home office will do in terms of incentives, prizes, bonuses or rewards.

You can also find the holes in your armor and fix them. If January is always slow, is it because you're so bogged down in December that you can't get things moving? If so, now you have ammunition to create a strategy to prevent this kind of problem at the end of this year.

You don't need a coach to tell you all of this. You can crunch these numbers on your own. But crunch them one way or another so that you can have a powerfully productive 2010!

© 2009 Lisa Robbin Young.

USE THIS ARTICLE FOR FREE IN PRINT OR ONLINE!
Please do not alter it and include the following information (with active links as appropriate):

Lisa Robbin Young is a certified direct sales marketing coach, teaching direct sellers to grow their business like a real business instead of an expensive hobby. Sign up for her free weekly ezine at http://www.homepartysolution.com

Direct Sales Success: Lessons from 'The Wrong CEO's"

Merry Christmas! Just had to get that in before the article:

On twitter the other day, someone tweeted a post about "celebrating the wrong CEO's". The article, from the Harvard Business Review, talks about the metrics we SHOULD be using when we celebrate the accomplishments of CEO's.

Too often, the media darling of the minute is someone that has made a big success, turnaround, or otherwise made a 'big splash' in the short term.

Instead, the article asserts we should be looking at the integrity of the long-term record of these CEO's - how thay have performed overall - before we start handing out awards and patting them on the back.

I found an immediate correlation to Direct Sales leadership and had to shake my head.

All too often, companies bestow big prizes, gifts and awards on the "top" recruiter, sales leader, etc, and yet, the next year, that same leader is nowhere to be seen in the company hierarchy, let alone in the top rankings of the company. We laud and honor these big achievers, and don't think about the message that's being sent to our teams.

For years, I've used a combination of recogniton to help celebrate the right people, and still encourage leaders (and consultants) to strive to achieve more. Including longevity, consistency and what I like to call "repeat offenders" in the recognition encourages everyone to do their part to grow your organization - AND their own personal business.

I've only seen a handful of Direct Sales/Home Party companies that actually include this kind of recognition at the corporate level, and to me it seems like a no-brainer.

As a business builder, you want people who are in it for the long-haul, yet companies usually offer a 3-month incentive for consultants to stay on board. The industry statistics show that most consultants drop off after abotu 3 months. Belinda Ellsworth is noted for reminding people that at all times "a third are coming, a third are going, and a third are staying". Then what are we doing to encourage retention beyond those first 3 months?

While I didn't have the biggest team in my company, I had a solid team with average longevity of over 2 years, and an attrition rate under 20%. That means for every 10 people I signed up, less than 2 quit and most of them stayed longer than 2 years.

I don't usually talk about those numbers, mostly because I didn't think it was a big deal. But this year, I've realized it's a HUGE deal. There are hundreds, if not tens of thousands of leaders in this industry that are pluggin along, actively working thier business, being consistent, but that will probably not ever be in the top 10 or 20 of their companies. They'll never walk across the stage and win the awards that other leaders will, when THEY are the unsung heroines of most Direct Sales companies. These folks are working their businesses consistently - and isn't that what we want in our business?

I watched this happen first hand in one of my former companies. Sitting at one of my first ever National Conferences, I watched my own leader and her upline teach a class about recruiting - because my leader was the top recruiter for the company that year. What wasn't made public was that she earned that title because she promoted to Director because she transferred half her team from her former company to ours. By the time the next national confernce rolled around, she wasn't even an active consultant anymore, let alone a leader!

And yet, at that conference, we were led to believe she had the golden ticket to promoting to director in less than a year. Well, I don't know about you, but that feels kind of dishonest to me. Our company never remarked about it, and there was never an asterisk placed by her name in the "record books", and yet, we were all talking in hshed tones about how "she didn't really earn that title fairly".

She earned it fairly, she just shouldn't have been the one teaching strategies that she herself didn't use to attain that title. And everyone in the room knew it.

As a consultant, you need to be watching your leaders - even if your leader is MIA. Watch other leaders that are "doing things right" with a track record of longevity. find out what works for them and find ways to incorporate those strategies and tools into your business.

As a leader, you need to be honest with your teams. If you rightfully earned a title, stop fretting about competition, and help them learn how you did it. A rising tide - particularly in direct sales - raises all ships. Plus, they'll be ready to share with you when they are having successes of their own.

As company owners, we need to be looking for ways to recognize our ranks that will inspire others and not put the brass ring out of reach for the workhorses of our company. It's not hard to recognize people who consistently submit shows, regardless of the show size. Or to recognize people who consistenly add one new recruit every month. Leaders should be giving recognition for the daily actions (making the calls, holding the shows), but it's the company responsibility to encourage retention in meaningful ways beyond the almighty dollar.

In fact, the potential cash bonus is usually much less an incentive than the marketing potential of a professionally written press release or feature in the monthly magazine that helps build their crediblity in a way that directly connects them back to your brand in a positive way. It also shows potential recruits that you don't need to be the tops in the division, just consistent - something that is more attainable for more people.

This is a topic I harp on about once a year, but only because I'm so strong a proponent. I know people who tirelessly do everything their leader tells them to, and still get beat out month after month for those top slots. What a great way to recognize them for doing what we really want them to do - build a strong solid business that's designed to last a lifetime.

#shine Wrap-up Finale: What I learned in Vegas

So you've seen my take on the good, bad and ugly at Ali Brown's Shine event. And if you missed it, check my previous posts.

Today, I wanted to boil it all down to what I actually learned and what my "take aways" were from this event.

I was fortunate in that I was able to spend a couple extra days in Vegas processing, filtering, connecting, and getting more clarity on how to apply everything I gleaned before, during and after Shine.

The biggest take away is that you really do get what you take. Everyone went in with so many varied opinions and ideas - some positive, some negative. But ultimately, each person makes an assessment as to whether or not they'd do it all over again. I definitely would go back because so much good came out of this event for me.

But I was looking for the good in the first place. It didn't come in all the ways I expected, or hoped, but there was a TON of value I never would have gotten had I not gone to Vegas.

For example, one of my core values is experiences. I love participating in and creating experiences where people can connect, share, grow and support one another. Love it, love it, LOVE IT. That's been the missing link in my business and my life, and I didn't figure that out until I was in the room watching a half dressed guy spinning heavy metal objects during the opening of the event. It wasn't the spinning guy that thrilled me (really. not my type), but the oohing and aaahing and "illegal" photography that the audience was doing that interested me. You could tell that people were raising their energy, getting excited, and wanting to find something exciting in this event.

It was all about the experience. And while I won't say I'm a seminar junkie, it does explain why I love direct sales so much - creating experiences for clients to really enjoy themselves and feel good about their own lives.

There Are A LOT Of People Looking For Clarity
Most of the women and men I met at Shine were looking or clarity, direction and the "How-to's" to grow their business idea. They are smart, hard working people, trying to "figure it out" - many trying to balance their heart with their head. The answers, most of the time, are already within us - or within arm's reach. And it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg to get the answers you need. You just need to know where to look.

I like reinventing myself
A couple of weeks prior to shine, I was at a mastermind retreat where I realized that one of the biggest thrills in my life is helping people get that "Ah-HA!" moment of clarity in their life. I've worked with theater owners, authors, actors, direct sellers, designers, small biz owners, and even heads of multi-million dollar companies. Sometimes it's the teeny weeny little idea that gets overlooked that puts everything into perspective.

So I created these "limited edition" business cards positioning myself as an idea coach and professional brainstormer - helping people get clarity or create new ideas to make their business profitable. It felt like being home.

I wasn't pigeon-holed into a niche, I could communicate effortlessly with all kinds of entrepreneurs - including a rocket scientist whilst in the airport - and offer substantive help that got peoples wheels turning.

I Like That! So we've created RentLisasBrain.com where I'll be doing more of that brainstorming and focus work.

People-Watching Pays
From the waitstaff to the sales reps on the main floor of the Venetian, to the other participants in the event, there was a lot to learn just by watching others. The way they carried themselves, what they said, what they DIDN'T say - there was free education all around just by keeping your eyes open.

Never Leave Anything To Chance
Anne McKevitt said this in an off-hand kind of way during her branding presentation, but it stuck with me. And as the event went on, I looked for places where Ali's team worked hard to leave nothing to chance. While we kind of had to work at applying a lot of the hidden lessons from Shine, this one idea gave me some new directions in my own life and business.

Everything Works. You Just Have To Be Tenacious.
Really. It doesn't matter what business model you choose, or how you set everything up. Every strategy that's being taught will work if you apply enough tenacity to it. Granted, some will work better than others, and not everything will be a perfect fit for you, but people wouldn't espouse it if it didn't work.

Which Means, It's Really About Resonance.
So while everything WILL work, finding the thing that resonates most with you is where you'll be most content. Then, even if it's not the most effective idea for others, you'll be happy and productive.

Bluntly, in the Internet Marketing realm, there are experts that tell you the best way to squeeze every dollar out of a prospect is with upsells, downsells, cross sells, and probably diagonal sells if they could figure that out. But most of us don't resonate with that, and "settle" for a happy medium - a balance of content and pitch that makes us feel we're providing value, developing relationships and getting compensated appropriately.

My action plan is to re-design my business around the way I would want to be treated as a customer - and as a human being. It costs more and means harder work, and it's worth it, because I'm proud of the end result, my true fans appreciate me, and they know what effort goes into producing a quality product. It also means more hands-on, personal interaction with me, because that's where I think people get the best results. And since I'm all about results, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Binders Suck
That was probably the second biggest disappointment of Day One. This gorgeous binder was at my seat waiting for me and inside was nothing but lined note paper and a "resource" section that was filled with Ali's products on discount. It felt like such a waste, even after we were given about 20 pages to plug into it.

I've never found a program where "the binder" met my expectations. It always felt like an overpriced way to share the powerpoint slides. So you'll very likely never see me doing any kind of binder.

Now I know from a sales perspective that when you put it in a binder, it's easier for the customer to lose pieces, which prevents refunds. But if I'm truly focused on helping my clients succeed, why do I want them to lose anything? More importantly, if they want to return it, I want to make that as easy as pie - especially in light of the new FTC rulings. I ONLY want to work with people that WANT to work with me and WANT to get results.

If I Build It (And It Rocks) They WILL Come
Out of one side of their mouth, experts tell you that there are industry "standards" about drop off rates, subscriber open rates, and conversion rates. They tell us to expect that kind of stuff. Then out of the other side of their mouth they talk about attracting perfect clients, abundance and the fact that there is only cooperation, not competition.

So if I subscribe to the abundance, attraction notion, it stands to reason that I can have an amazing business filled with people that love my style, my approach, my outlook and my content. The only thing really standing in my way is what I call the "Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome". We keep spinning our wheels when we know something's amiss, because we're told that it worked for someone else, so it should work for us - instead of trusting our instincts and doing what we know resonates more perfectly in our own world.

I've learned that trusting my gut and expecting - nay demanding - more for myself and my clients makes me a hero to my ideal clients. It's harder work, but it's better rewarded. The half-ass approach of doing the minimum brings people to you that want more than the minimum for minimum prices.

One of my lists has about 1700 people on it. Each subscriber on that list is worth over $100 to me (and growing). I learned at Shine that's an incredible value! And I cherish that, because it means that I'm doing all the right things to keep that list responsive and lucrative.

One of the concepts that Napoleon Hill talks about in Think and Grow Rich is doing more than you're paid for. Going above and beyond is expected anymore. Shirking will just cause you to end up with the dregs.

And just like the Field of Dreams, all the players didn't take the field in the beginning. But some of the players told other players, and eventually they DID show up.

Modeling Will Only Take You So Far - Then You've Got to Innovate
Learning from others is a great place to start when you're stuck, or have no idea how to begin. But there comes a point in time when you must break out of the ruts the other wagons have laid down and forge a path of your own. Otherwise, you're just a pale reflection of those that have gone before you.

I think of some of the greatest musicians of all time - they were all inspired by other great musicians. If all they ever did was model their heroes, everyone would be playing Purple Haze exactly the same way.

But when Hendrix played the National Anthem everyone stood up and took notice. Some people liked it, others were in shock, everyone said it was an innovative approach to an "old standard".

So I'm taking time to learn outside my own field and tap into the expertise of others that have nothing to do with my business - some of them long since dead. Newton, Asimov, Picasso, daVinci all are great sources of inspiration to cross- pollinate your brain and get you thinking outside the incestuous relationships within your industry.

Women Overcome
When put to the test, women are amazingly resilient, enduring creatures that put up with a lot of stuff. We're also deceptive, sneaky, tricky and cunning. We can use our powers for good or evil and when we choose good, the effect is exponential, trickling down through societies, permeating cultures, and changing the world.

Aside from the speakers, I met some incredibly remarkable women - some I was already following, and some new faces as well. Each of them has a wonderful gift to share and I'm confident they WILL share it because they are overcomers. Keri's ability to connect quickly makes it clear she's perfectly suited to social media coaching - despite what Anne might say. Jill's gift for writing is clearly evident in her manner of speaking. Cutressa's enthusiasm lights up her space and the lives of everyone around her - I think everyone knew Cutressa by the end of the event. MonSun, my Faerie Godmother, Sabine, and even Nicole (a client I met up with) all left a lasting imprint about who they are, what they want to accomplish in the world, and how they're taking action on getting it done. And they will, because they overcome. Not to neglect the dozens of other women at this event that I met - each was remarkable. And I know each will overcome. It's in their DNA, so to speak.

I Don't Need Permission. I Need Connections.
Kind of self explanatory. I realized that I can be anyone I believe I am - without waiting for confirmation, validation or recognition from some external source, be it a person, mastermind group, coach or other entity living or dead.

There's no "acting as if". I already AM, therefore, it's not acting.

I met a woman who dubbed herself My Faerie Godmother, and she told me things about me I've never shared publicly - and I couldn't explain it away. She told me about my mom, my kid, my husband and all the things I've been trying to live up to - or live down. The buck stops here. Now.

I'm "smarter than the average bear" and don't have to apologize for who I am. There are throngs of people that actually enjoy the part of me I've allowed to really shine through. That means regardless of my shape, size, texture or hair color (and yes it will stay blonde for many months to come), I'm me and that's groovy. I don't need your approval, program, group or seal of authenticity to be me.

What I do need is to continue to connect with people that expand my thinking like that. People that have viewpoints, clarity, confusion, directions, aspirations and energies that are different from my own. It's part of what drives me and helps me thrive.

Good Things Come To He Who Waiteth If He Worketh Like Heck While He Waiteth
This was actually a little plaque that hung over my Grandma's kitchen sink. There is a process to achieving success - an incubation period - and skipping steps only slows you down. Do things right the first time so you don't have to go back and do them again, and quit trying to get ahead of yourself. Life's not a race, it's a cruise. The buffet's pretty tasty and the view is spectacular fro all sides once you leave port.

So many of us are trying to hurry up and get rich/famous/successful, and we forget there's a process to this stuff. Wolfgang Puck was quoted in INC magazine as saying that slow and steady growth is the best way to ensure longevity in the marketplace. He's watched dozens of restaurants come and go that grew three times as fast as he has - and he's the one still standing.

I've been reading a lot of stories about entrepreneurs from the turn of the last century - some you've never even heard of for that very reason. They wanted to grow too fast, and ruined themselves. On the other hand, the prudent, judicious and successful entrepreneurs that are still known to this day, took their time to carefully grow their businesses in ways that would be sustainable. Don't trade a lot of money later for a little money right now.

I Like Being a Blonde
Several followers asked about the choice to go blonde, suggested I go back, and commiserated with me on the grey hair that lurks beneath the surface. The fact of the matter is I enjoy being blonde WAY more than I enjoyed having brown/grey hair, and it will likely stay that way for a long while. I can't say blondes have more fun, but I can say that I'm easier to spot in the crowd, and it's doing for me what I set out to do when I changed the color in the first place. Purple would probably have been just as effective, but I figured that was a little less professional.

I Like Rocking The Boat
Not to be cantankerous, but I like pointing out the stuff that doesn't work. I'm not trying to be a Negative Nelly here - it's not about being negative for negativity's sake. I think there's great value in sharing what works and what doesn't so that people can improve themselves. Not everyone will agree, I'm sure, and that's fine. They're not part of my tribe. Usually when I point out a faux pas, I'm quick to offer a solution if I can find one. That's how my brain is wired. Find a problem, find some solutions, fix it and move on. I'm not going to apologize for that anymore, I'm just going to rock it out!


So that's the gist. There's more, and I'll be sharing stuff as I go along and wriggle out of the new cocoon, but you get the idea of where I'm headed here. Your comments, thoughts and witty remarks are welcome feedback!

Duplicating Failure: The dark truth about 'modeling' and "duplication"

"Do or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

I posted a rant on Marie Forleo's blog a few days back. In it, I made mention of the idea that we're in an industry where we're being told by the gurus to 'model' them. Model other successful people and we'll see the same results.

Yeah.

Take a look around right now, and a lot of those people that are telling you to model them are suffering. And they're LYING about it.

Well, not lying, just withholding all the truth and only sharing what makes them look good. There's another blog post coming about lying later.

It's not just a guru problem. Direct Sales leadership also oozes with it's own brand of less-than-honest attitude.

I remember the day I sat in a regional meeting for the top income earner in the company. I was hoping, as most were, to walk away with some great ideas to help move my business forward. I wanted to learn, like the dozens of women in that room, her secrets to success - that had her raking in nearly a half a million dollars a year in less than 4 years' time.

She stood up there telling everyone to go to vistaprint, get 500 "free" business cards and pass them out to everyone we meet - and do it every month to create new leads for our business.

I could have puked. I almost got up and left. But I stayed, and watched the reaction in the room.

Many of the newbies were frantically taking notes and talking about what a great idea this was.

They were duplicating a lie.

She NEVER built her business this way. And if she tried to do it - especially in this day and age - she'd be run out of town on a rail - or everyone would run screaming for the hills when they saw her approaching.

It was absolutely dishonest and a disservice to the women in that room that were looking for real help from her.

She offered a "duplicatable" failure instead of telling the truth: Direct sales takes effort - you need to practice your demo, even when you have no shows on your calendar. You need to learn your products and how they benefit your customers. You need to be "out there" growing your market beyond your family and friends - or building a website, creating a system that handles SOME of it for you (notice, I said SOME, not all). You need to establish yourself as an expert that your customers look up to - that know like and trust you.

Instead, we continue to hear the "duplication" mantra bellowed from even the direct sales companies themselves.

When a guru, a trusted source of information, tells you to 'model them and learn from their success' they darn well better be providing information that works.

And that's the sticky wicket.

A lot of people "fudge the numbers" to make it LOOK like they're successful.

Ask the leader that took home a $400,000 commission check just how much she actually PROFITED in a year.

After training materials, travel costs, phone bills, samples, catalogs, and other "tax deductible" overhead for training her team and running her business, you might be surprised to find that she's only PROFITING by a small margin.

Now it's still not bad to be profiting $100,000 a year, but if 75% of your income is going back into your business, you're not being entirely honest when you boast about your $400,000 bonus check.

It happens in so many industries that it makes my stomach turn.

One such guru recently reported that nearly 80% of his launches each year were not successful.

80%?! Now maybe a successful launch to him means that it makes millions of dollars. To me, successful means it did what I set out for it to do. If I wanted to increase my list, it increased my list. If I wanted to make some money, it made some money.

Most small business owners can't afford to duplicate something that fails 80% of the time! And even if you could afford to, WHY WOULD YOU!?!?

I have a "formula" that I'm sure is not very original:
How much to I need to charge to break even if only 2 or 3 people register?

It's not glamorous, but it works. The only time I've ever had a "failure" is when I ignored that formula and 'modeled' someone else. Mind you, I like to do more than just break even (and most often do). This formula, however, ensures that I don't go broke chasing ideas that could prove unprofitable.

Sometimes, if it ain't broke you really DON'T need to fix it.

What does this have to do with Yoda? Here's part two:
Duplication CAN work if you're actually following a working system fully.

I recently got an email from a client who said that they had "tried" my system and failed.

Upon further investigation, they revealed that they had "tried" everything and nothing worked. So I offered to triage their efforts. The discovery:

hmmm.. less than 100 twitter followers - so that twitter thing doesn't work, eh?

A TOTAL of three blog posts - all from 5 months ago - so that "blog thing" didn't work either?

Two articles on ezinearticles.com - article marketing is a waste, too?

This is why I'm so insistent on people finding an area of expertise that they are passionate about. Onceyou do, you'll never stop writing, blogging, speaking, thinking, sharing, teachign about it, because it juices you, you WANT to do it. In fact you find it difficult to NOT do it.

When I started, I didn't do everything (and in truth, my website is in process of a much-needed and long-awaited makeover). I started with a few articles and a website. I grew that website by creating more articles, repurposed that content and continued to grow - THEN I added a blog, social media, etc.

Do one thing. Focus on making it great (not good, great). THEN grow and scale the system as you move forward.

When you take on something new, commit to give it focused attention for a specific amount of time. Keep your head down and keep working until the allotted time is up - then assess the situation.

It's the reason so many info marketing products end up sitting on a shelf collecting dust - either unopened, or incomplete.

"Well, I read chapter 1 and I didn't get it, so I just put it away for later."

"Well, I worked on it for a little while, but it was hard."

"Well, I never got around to opening it there was just so much there that it looked liek it was going to take forever to get through it all - I just don't have the time to work on something like that."

I'm probably a rare bird. Every info product I've ever purchased, I've consumed. If I plunk down my hard-earned cash, I want to see results. But I have a strategy for staying unemotional.

Here's my evaluation/decision strategy for all those great looking courses, events, products and training opps that come my way each year:

1. Does this have the potential to help me leapfrog toward my goal this year?
2. How much time is required to implement?
3. Do I have the time to give?
4. What's the investment?
5. What's my expected return on investment?

These are 5 of my 10 considerations for investing in a program. Info marketers are GREAT at creating copy to get you emotional about your purchases. You HAVE to take the emotion out of the equation if you want to keep your sanity and your money.

So consider take the whole "modeling" idea with a grain of salt. No doubt there are many methods that will work for you that haven't even been tried yet - or that WON'T work for someone else, but will work for you. That sounds weird, but I've seen it done.

Ultimately, the truth of the matter is that everyone is unique. While concepts can be applied to many situations (which often makes modeling effective), even the Law of Gravity can be repealed in certain 'zero g' environments.

Why Blogging May NOT Be For You

When developing your online marketing stratey, ivariably, the questions of blogging come up.

"Should I or shouldn't I?"
"How often?"
"Is it profitable?"
"How do I monetize it?"
"Should I have more than one?"

And these are just a handful of questions I've been asked in the past.

I enjoy blogs and blogging. But blogging may not be for you.

Uh-oh, another rejection of online marketing strategies?

Naaahh... Just a reality check for people that suffer from shiny object syndrome.

In all seriousness, I think blogs are an important component in your online marketing arsenal - but only if you are ready for it.

Blogging takes time - believe it or not, blogging is one of the most mind-taxing social media strategies. There are ways to minimize the time investment, and we'll talk about that in my 12-week challenge program, but even so, there's a time committment involved to write/edit/review posts and respond to comments.

While I'm a big fan of blogs and encourage people to start with a blog instead of a website, there are times when this just doesn't make sense.

Blogging takes consistency - people that are following your blog will be looking for your posts on a regular basis. If you're unable to post consistently, people stop following your blog.

That doesn't mean you have to post every day - and you can win back some of your readership if you get back on the posting wagon. It means that whatever you choose to do, you need to be consistent about it. More frequent posters will have more frequent readers - and the faster you can build rapport with our readership, the sooner you can build the bridge from online acquaintance to business partnership - which is the whole point of doing this in the first place, right?

Well, not exactly, but I'll share about that in another post.

Blogging takes quality content - this is a non-negotiable. Regardless of the frequency or even the topic, there's got to be quality information in every post you make. You can post once a month with killer content and people will look forward to that post all month long. But if all you're posting is "my company's the best thing since sliced bread", you'll turn off readers faster than "The Clapper".

And no, it doesn't need to be perfect content - grammatically excellent, without a single spelling error - but you should strive for perfection.

When you see an error (or someone points it out to you), correct it. We all know nobody's perfect. It takes a level of integrity to acknowledge our mistakes, correct them and beome a better person in the process.

Blogging needs an "end game" - blogging for bloggin's sake isn't a bad thing - and it's done frequently. Blogging for business, however, needs to have a desired end result. It could be a call to action at teh end of the post, a newsletter opt-in on the blog itself, or links within the post copy. There's got to be a reason for all this blogging - and the more transparent you are, the less it looks like you have something to hide.

So when you're contemplating adding blogging to your online marketing strategy, consider the issues above. Not sure your'e ready for a full-blown blog? Try a micro-blogging platform like Twitter. It's a great place to get your feet wet in the meantime.

The Standing Ovation That ALMOST Never Shoulda Happened

I'm big into motivation and self-improvement. Anyone who knows me knows that kaizen - the Japanese word for continuous, incremental improvement - is something I employ fully in my life.

I'm always looking for ways to make my life better. I like to think I also try to find ways to make the lives of people around me better, too.

But sometimes life just sucks. Not for very long - but hey! Everyone has "those days" or "those moments" in their life.

I think I was having some of those moments this week.

And today, thanks to several someones that NEVER met me before, I have this incredible story to share.

Tom Ziglar, yeah, the son of internationally acclaimed speaker Zig Ziglar is on twitter (@tomziglar).

When I saw that Zig was coming to town, I tried to finagle a personal meet & greet through Tom on twitter. He was gracious, and said that it wasn't possible for a meet & greet, but how would I like 4 free VIP tickets to the event?

Um, well, only if you twist my arm a bit.

So the tickets arrived. I took my 12 year old son, and a couple that have been family friends for years - they really wanted to see Dr. Robert Schuller and Zig share their wit and wisdom, so I was able to invite them along on the good graces of a guy who's never met me before.

It was truly an event not to be missed. From a marketing perspective there was MUCH to learn about how to make a nearly free event pay for itself a thousand times over - even after giving away a flat screen TV, a Disney Vacation (which my son nearly won in an on-stage dance-off) and $10,000 cash.

But not in this article. This article is about what happened when an arena of nearly 5,000 people became MY personal fan club for a whole 30 seconds.

Sometime after lunch, one of the speakers, Bob, pulls out a $5 bill and says to one end of the arena, "This $5 bill is on sale for $1 for the next 10 seconds."

Before he can finish the countdown, the guy that won the Disney trip whips out a $1 bill ans swaps him for the $5, much to my kid's chagrin.

He then turns to face another side of the "in-the-round" arena and pull sout a $20 bill. This time, it's on sale for $10, but only for 10 seconds.

I think it was snapped up in 4.

He then turns to our side of the arena, and pulls out a crisp $100 bill. He says, "I know what you're thinking... and I'm not stupid!" He then pockets the $100 bill and proceeds to share his motivational story.

And as we're approaching the middle of his talk he says "who here really needs to be cheered up today?" And, Godly enough (as my friend would say), he picks my hand out of a crowd of people all within spitting distance of the stage. Yes, Tom, we had GREAT seats, to boot.

So he calls me up on the stage. And he invites the entire arena of some nearly 5,000 people to get up on their feet and give me a standing O. "The kind of loud, thunderous applause that makes people outside wonder 'who's the famous person in there they're clapping for?"

And he counted to three.

And what happened next was truly breathtaking.

I froze for about 7 seconds. All I could do was count in my head. Slowly I'm turning, seeing all these people - my kid, my friends, and THUSANDS of other people that don't know me from Joe, on their feet, yelling, screaming, stamping, hooting, hollering, and cheering for me.

Yeah, I started crying. But only a little.

It was a copletely unexpected, very NEEDED moment in my life. One of those defining moments when you know, you're going to look back and say "this changed me, shaped me, made me who I am today."

I was having a poopy week. And yes, it was only Tuesday.

But I try not to compain much, keep my chin up, and keep doin the work I believe God put me here to do. And I do my best to be consistent, because the only alternative is to be less than who I am. I'm not perfect, and don't pretend to be.

But in that moment, when thousands of people were screaming my name, cheering for me, and making me feel like a million bucks, two things happened.

I'll tell you about the other in a minute, but the first thing that happened, was the thought that everyone should be able to feel like this at least once in their life. The fear, the gratitude and the overwhelming sense of being loved, accepted and appreciated for who I was - warts and all - by a room of nearly complete and total strangers was one of the most transformative experiences I could ever have. I'll probably be sharng this story with the great grandkids in my days of senility and "old timer's" when I keep recounting the same stories over and over.

And I wish I could have given every one a small piece of the feeling I'm still carrying with me right now.

But then, Bob came back up on the stage. He put his arm around me, reached into his pocket and pulled out that $100 bill, handed it to me and told me thank-you.

Thanked me for taking his money? Um, sure, no problem, just doing my job, sir!

I cried a little more, gave him a huge hug, which I think knocked his lapel mic, and I went back to my seat, amid continued applause and the people in my section giving me kudos. Yeah, the money was a nice surprise, but I would have gladly given it back to him for another 30 seconds of applause like that.

And as the afternoon continued - and on our way back to the car, people were calling out to me, offering hugs, asking me if I would buy dinner, and just generally acknowledging me. Not because I'm a business coach, or a singer, or a speaker or anything out of the ordinary. But because I was me - and grateful.

Now I could stop there, and it would be a pretty good story - might even jerk a few tears out of you like it does me writing it.

But what you don't know, is that for nearly 30 years, it has been one of the top 10 line items on my bucket list - before there was such a name - to appear in an arena of thousands and recieve a standing ovation from the entire crowd.

So some guy I never met that never really knew me (Tom) gave me a gift that may have seemed insignificant to him as part of his father's legacy to help people get what they want. And as the ripples went out, some other guy I've never met before not only gave me $100 cash, but helped me achieve one of my life-long ambitions -right in front of my kid - not because he wanted a story to tell - I'm sure he does this at EVERY one of thse seminars - but because he wanted to genuinely help someone.

And in return, I got one of the greatest blessings of all. I benefitted from the huge generosity of others. And it didn't cost me a dime - nor did it cost anyone in that crowd any more than it would if they'd just stayed seated.

But if I had listened to my kid, who was whining about listening to "old folks" for three more hours, and gone home early, all the blessings would have been lost - at least for me and mine.

Someone else might have been fortunate enough to appreciate that applause and take that $100 bill home with them, and the blessings might have been theirs.

But I try not to compain much, keep my chin up, and keep doing the work I believe God put me here to do. And I do my best to be consistent, because the only alternative is to be less than who I am. I'm not perfect, and don't pretend to be.

So we stayed the course, received the blessing, and can now pass it on to others.
And of course, my son wants to be blessed with a new pair of shoes.

And just now as I sit writing this, I wonder if this is what Jesus might have felt feeding the multitude. I'm not trying to get preachy here, but it dawns on me now that the Bible says something about 5000 not including the women and children that were fed that day. I hardly think of myself in any God-like fashion. I do wonder, though if that is why Jesus was so compelled to serve us. When a throng of people embraces you as I was embraced today - as a total and complete stranger - you develop a compassion that extends to each and every one of them. You must be defective if you walk away without being changed and wanting to do for those that embraced you.

Doing good and being good doesn't require perfection, just consistency. In business and life you need to develop a compassion for your audience that is genuine. Helping others not just because it's good PR, but because it's the right thing to do.

THAT'S when the REAL blessings come.

I'm still thinking about those shoes...

Direct Sales Success: The 3 Month Irony

I was talking with a woman who owned a direct selling company and she shared with me a staggering statistic:

"You can expect the MOST from your consultants within the first three months of business."

I almost fell out of my chair. My experience has been quite the opposite in the industry, and to hear this from someone that lived on the corporate side of the fence was actually kind of shocking.

As a consultant, I've heard similar themes from my upline: "you really want to encourage your consultant to hit all her goals in her first three months of business, because then she'll feel more successful."

But when you put it that way, it sounds more like you're doing her a favor, rather than saving your own business.

Anyone that follows me knows that my team is consistent and we all know our expectations - and our limits. When training recruits, I encourage them to focus on the long term relationship. I remind them they're building a business - and I tell them that very few startups ever make a profit in their first two years! That means as a new consultant, they are shortening the profit curve GREATLY, because they are usually turning a profit after their first or second show.

And my turnover rate is incredibly low, compared to industry norms. In the four years I was with my last company, I had 7 consultants that went inactive and didn't return to the business. More than half of them had serious life issues that prevented them from continuing on - and all of them went on to be loyal customers after the fact.

Do you know your turnover rate? As a true leader, you need to be looking at the statistics of your business on a regular basis. Turnover rate is a KEY indicator of how well your organization is doing on the whole, and how your team responds to your leadership style.

But that's another article for another day. What concerns me today is the irony of the first 3 months of business.

One of my mentors explains that we all go through 4 stages of learning. The first is Unconscious Ignorance. It means we don't know what we don't know. This is essentially where we start before we become consultants.

Then we transition into Conscious Ignorance - where we know that there are things we don't know. That's essentially the first 3 months of business for a new consultant. They're learning the comp plan, the products, how to do the demos, and their heads are usually swimming.

So what do we do? We tell them that "an idiot on fire is worth more than brains on ice." Then we promptly send them ot the door, kit in hand, to start signing up other "idiots".

No wonder they leave after 3 months.

If you're running a real business - and expect a real return on your investment, there's a timeline you need for training. Companies are getting better about this. They don't just shove a manual into the hands of a new recruit and send them on their way. Now there are online classes, webinars, teleclasses and even local weekly trainings to not only instruct consultants, but also connect the consultants and keep them "plugged in" to the pulse of the business.

That's a great start.

But what if we looked at changing the way we incentivize consultants in the first place? What if we offered longevity recognition or consistency recognition for more than the first 3 months?

Do you think we'd have a few more people sticking around and being productive?

I also think it's imperative that we as leaders share these kinds of statistics with our teams for a number of reasons: first, because as business builders, we need to be clear with our teams about the reality of direct sales. Not everyone will stick around, and we need to be consistently attracting new business. Stop trying to snow your prosects and new recruits and lay it plain in front of them so they can truly make an educated decision.

This goes back to the "stop recruiting everyone with a pulse" idea I've talked about before.


When you train your team to realize that the first three months are critical because that's when most consultants do the most work, you'll have one of two scenarios:

1. Leaders will push new recuits to do more in the first 3 months, causing burnout and dissatisfaction - so they'll leave.
2. Leaders will push new recruits to do more in the first 3 months, causing the recruits to feel more successful - so that they stay.

Either way, someone is doing the pushing, and someone else is being pushed. Sounds like a lot more work than it needs to be.

Instead, why not lay the facts out and encourage your team to recruit people that are already expecting a long-term commitment? Sort out the "quick bucks" from the "slow and steadies". They might not hit all their 3 month objectives, but if they're consisently adding to your bottom line every month, isn't that better for the health of your team?

I know, I'm going against the grain here, but let me illustrate with a story:

I was in training as a financial advisor. We were "recruited" to the company with a pitch about how great it is to own your own business, and that the company gave us "free leads" to work to grow our business. We were promised a training period where we'd be paid to study, learn all we could and start developing a client base.

We were NOT told that after our training was complete we'd be subjected to 10-12 hour work days, cold calling leads from 2 years ago, and that we had 12 weeks to start making money off our clients or we'd be booted from the company.

Kinda puts things into perspective, don't it?

Needless to say, about 70% of the trainees I started with were long gone before the 12th week. A handful managed to find other employment, but most went on to different careers entirely.

This was a case of "Carrot and Stick" without the carrot.

What if, instead, we were given the facts, up front, about the job we were expected to perform. Would there have been fewer applicants? Absolutely. But would the applicants have a better level of expectation? Absolutely.

The added bonus is that the company would have spen fewer dollars training recruits in the first place. That money could have then been used to extend the 12 weeks to 15 or more. Or better yet, it could have been used to reward the advisors for consistency in their business - for doing the income producing activities consistently even if they weren't always bringing in money.

Encourage the behaviours you want to see repeated. Consistency and repetition are the keys to success in direct sales.

Direct Sales IS a REAL Business

2-for-1 today: Personal Branding tip and Direct Sales wisdom:


I got a call at my home today from an owner of a direct sales company.

It's not every day I get calls like this, and it's even RARER that they call me at home.

But I had to share this.

This guy was very polite and expressed that he had been following some of my blog posts and was excited to see someone who understands that direct sales is a real business.

FINALLY! Someone that gets it.

I nearly jumped out of my skin with delight - because his company does so many things RIGHT for their consultants and customers. And here he was talking to me about helping his consultants achieve more and be better prepared for doing the business of direct sales.

If only the rest of the world would take notes...

So many of us in direct sales join a business opportunity not because we're going to mke a million dollars - although some do - but because we're looking for "something more".

Maybe it's a little more money.
Maybe it's a litle more time freedom.
Maybe it's a little more "me time" or time out of the house.

There are probably as many reasons as there are consultants in the world. But somewhere along the way, a good portion of us find ourselves in the position of growing a real business - with an organization that looks to us for support, training, expertise - and we're sitting there scratching our heads trying to figure out how we got there.

How many times have you heard a new leader say "I don't know what I did, I just got lucky, I guess."?

Baloney. There may bave been some luck - good timing, or great connections - involved, but in reality, that leader started to LEAD in some way. They set an example for their team to follow. If they don't they don't stay leaders for long.

And I've talked about that phenomenon before. There are people that promote by default. They just happen to have enough people on their team, and hit the goals to achieve leadership and there they are. But they rarely last.

Real leaders develop systems, stay in contact, and connect with their clients and team. They build real businesses with income forecasts, budgets and other "unglamorous" things that are required to be successful in business. Some of them even have assistants.

In fact, my new STAR Power program isn't about the "three r's of direct sales" - Booking, Selling, and Recruiting.
(I know they don't all start with 'R', work with me here!) It's a leadership program designed for established leaders (or very determined aspiring leaders) that want to grow their business like a real business. We're covering advanced business topics - like advertising, social media, and outsourcing/automation. We're also talking about the more mundane, but necessary topics like target marketing, business plans, and cash flow projections.

These are the core compenents of running a REAL business. You have to have the basics mastered before you can become competent in the advanced strategies. There are hundreds of coaches that train on the 3R's - and they do it very well.

But I haven't seen anyone yet that's willing to take these leaders by the hand and train them on the power (and responsibility) of running a business.

I hear more consultants than I care to count complain that their home office isn't responsive to their needs to help them grow their business. But how many of them are taking the time to realize that, like it or not, Direct Sales is a REAL Business - and owners are not running a non-profit organiation. They are here to turn a profit.

If we treated our personal direct sales business like a real business, perhaps we'd be taken more seriously at the home office.

Harsh words, I know. But I calls 'em as I sees 'em.

It means that instead of recruiting 75 new people this year, and having 50 of them drop out, perhaps you should focus on giving your best to 25 strong candidates - and only lose 5. Focus on quality AND quantity, instead of one or the other.

That also means some of the onus falls back to the home office to provide real business training for leaders. It means they have to stop dumbing down everything so that "anyone can do this". We all know that direct sales is simple, but it ain't easy. Raise the bar and expect more from your business builders. Reward consistency, not just high achievers. I've seen too many instances where today's high achievers are tomorrow's burnouts - or worse, they leave the company altogether. Create incentives that recognize month-to-month performance, because that's how REAL businesses are built.

And this owner that called me - he totally gets it. He also knows, as I do, that transitions like that take time, may requie a culture shift, and don't always come easy.

But with an aging population of direct sellers, we need to be demonstrating to these younger recruits that we're serious about growing real businesses with lasting income. They're savvy - and embrace technology. With all the information at our fingertips, it's easier than ever to know what's genuine and what's a 'snow job' whe we're touting the glories of our companies.

And remember this key: people join YOU, not your opportunity. They have to know you, like you and trust you well enough to believe you're not going to steer them wrong. Otherwise, they could easily sign up with another rep or another company altogether. We need to be promoting ourselves as much as (if not more than) we promote our company, products, or opportunity. With the flood of information, and transparency - it's also harder to know who to trust. When you establish yourself as an expert, people are more easily drawn to trust you.

It worked with this company owner. It will work for you.