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Sponsor Shopping: Communication via Email or Phone
We often hear how wired we are these days and that we’re losing the human interaction element. It’s also not the first time we’ve heard how we should unplug periodically and relate with people more over the telephone or face to face. Those arguments all have merit and few would argue against those statements. Yet even so, many actually prefer to be plugged in. Several team members would rather receive an email or text over a phone call.
When you are shopping to find a direct sales sponsor who is a good fit, I recommend that you find out if the sponsor’s preferred method of communication is telephone or email. It’s not a big secret that I am much easier to get a hold of over email. I already spend a great deal of my day on the phone so odds are favorable you’ll reach my voice mail before you’ll reach me. You’ll get a much quicker response by email.
But what if you prefer telephone? Continue reading
Working Smarter – Pt. 2 Automate the Answers
In continuing with the Working Smarter, Not Harder series, remember that having more people to manage doesn’t have to mean working more hours. In order to survive being the leader of a large organization you need to eliminate, mitigate and delegate duties that are not the best use of your valuable time.
This blog started as a way for me to answer questions before they were asked. While I appreciate the kudos for providing a wealth of information, it’s really here to save me time in answering individual questions on a routine basis.
For example, one FAQ I get is from potential recruits who want to work their direct sales business using Internet Marketing (yet frequently these same people have zero IM knowledge and want me to teach them everything I’ve learned over the decade). It didn’t take me long to figure out I was eating up a large chunk of my time responding to this same question. Thus the post: My Online Direct Sales Business was developed to answer these questions.
Another question that can be time consuming to respond to is How do you make samples? Voila – the answer is right here. Continue reading
Work Smarter, Not Harder – Pt. 1 Ink Stamps
The more your team grows the smarter you need to be with your time management skills. You will have more people to manage but that doesn’t have to mean that you’ll be working more hours. In order to survive being the leader of a large organization you need to eliminate, mitigate and delegate duties that are not the best use of your valuable time.
One of my favorite time savers are Vista Print Free Self Inking Stamps. I have a nice collection of them and am constantly adding more. Just to name a few, I have:
- Some that have just one scent name on them. I stamp the back of my business cards annotating the name of the particular scent sample that is attached.
- One that I stamp the back of my catalogs – contains my website address and a reminder of secure online ordering, no minimums, low and free shipping.
- One that I use mainly for recruiting on the Getting Started brochures – with the web address of my recruiting website, my email and phone number.
Ask for Assistance With Your Direct Sales Business
If you need assistance, ask for assistance.
You read that correctly; that’s the text I saw today on a sign displayed on a retail store shelf: If you need assistance, ask for assistance.
At first I thought, “Well d’uh.” And then I continued to talk to myself, “That’s a stupid sign”. Yet after I had a chance to chew on it a minute I decided that I really liked that sign. In this particular case I surmise the sign was there because the merchandise was way up on some high shelves. Perhaps in the past someone climbed on the shelves to reach the goodies or just left without making a purchase because the treasures were out of reach.
My mind quickly turned to direct sales and recruits; and how this sign applies to us as well. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve heard struggling and former consultants lament that her sponsor never did anything for her or that she never hears from her sponsor. We’ll leave the merits of what a good leader should be doing for her team to another post. For now, I want to focus on the comment that the recruit “never hears from her sponsor.” Continue reading
Creating Time to Work Your Business
So I’m sitting here in Food Avenue Express, the little snack bar inside of Target, waiting for my daughter and her friend to finish shopping. They’re the class reps who have the distinguished honor of purchasing toys for the family their class adopted for Christmas.
What does this have to do with running your own business? It may be a stretch, but hang with me a moment. What’s one challenge independent consultants often state as a reason for their business not taking off? NOT ENOUGH TIME!
Many newer consultants also work a full time job – either at home raising children or outside the home as an employee for someone else. Don’t forget all the other obligations such as being taxi driver for the kiddos, cleaning the house, head chef, banker, homework helper, wife or head of the household. When would you possibly have time to start a home business?
The answer is that you don’t have time – you have to make time. You’ve heard the tired cliché “Where there’s a will, there’s a way?” This is definitely true of making time to start and grow a home business. It’s not too often that people complain that they have too much time, right? So from the start just come to terms with the fact that you likely will not have nearly as much time to devote to your business as you would like. If you accept that from the beginning, then you will not always feel like you’re failing or have that uneasy feeling that there’s never enough time. Continue reading
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