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Often times on message boards you’ll see several reps from the same company, making it difficult for all reps to gain enough sales. We’ve also seen issues where some reps dominate certain boards or even go so far as to steal potential customers and recruits. While there is no real easy answer to this problem, there are certain things you can do to gain your fair share of sales.

But wait, if there are at least 2 or 3 other reps from the same company on all the top wahm message boards you visit, how are you going to gain all the sales possible?

Very easily – visiting at least ONE message board that isn’t related to the wahm community. Believe it or not, there ARE message boards our there that don’t have anything to do with business! We aren’t saying you shouldn’t be a member of a wahm community, because this is important to your growth as a business woman and DOES have major benefits to you. However, advertising to others in business is not going to create the most sales for you. What will create more sales is being an active member of a community that’s filled with your potential customers without a competitor in sight.

Finding other communities outside the wahm community isn’t as difficult as you think. There are many, many other kinds of groups, message boards, and websites that could be of interest to you and your future customer. Take a minute to do some non-business surfing on the web and see what you come up with.

About the Authors: Kara Kelso & Anita DeFrank are two busy wahms, and the owners of Direct Sales Helpers. For free direct sales tips, visit: http://www.DirectSalesHelpers.com/newsletter.html  Article Source: WAHM Articles

Building Your Team and Team Building

For those of us in a Direct Sales type business, a natural way to grow your income and business is through building a team. A lot of companies preach that this is the Only way to make real money. That may be true, but only the people that are already successful in their business and are prepared will be successful at building a team.

Building a team is hard work. Yes, it may be joyful and fun, but it is work! You must work at it all of the time. Talking to people and being excited about your business is the best way to start, grow and maintain your team.

Some reps are successful at newspaper ads; some at planting seeds at parties; some at chatting with people, but any way that you handle the function of recruiting still means a maintenance of the team by continuing to recruit each day.

Talking and actually interviewing the prospect is an awesome way to find out their goals and dreams. Why do they want to join this business? What sparked their desire to join today? Have they used the product before? How are they going to sell the product and to whom? What are they going to use the extra money for? By having this type of information, you can tailor their training and follow up to their personal situation.

People come and go and that is a natural occurrence. Some find the business not to their liking. Some people’s expectations are large and they may not make money right away. Some just get tired and leave. Whatever the reason, it happens.

But as you add to your team, they will need your continued support and training. You must continually build your team with people and then build your team with knowledge.

Train your team to be just like you. Show them how to duplicate yourself. Are you great in sales? Share all of your tips with them. Are you awesome are growing your team? Show them what you do. Teach them what makes You awesome and they too will become that way. Show them how you explode your business and they will do it as well. Make yourself duplicatable and they too will show their team the same. Now you are growing!

The more you build your team with knowledge, the more you build your team’s moral and keep the excitement in place. If we could all stay as excited as we were when we first joined our company, think how awesome your team would be today. So spark their interest and get them excited again about the business. Use their goals and dreams!! Remind them why they got into this business. Be excited when you talk to them. Let them know that you Love your job!

Never forget that people are in the business for a multitude of reasons. Some only want personal sales. Some want part time work to pay a few bills and very few are full timers. Watch how you spend your valuable time. 80% of your time should be spent on the top 20% of your producers. Don’t neglect any one, but realize that you want your time best spent where you are going to get a return. If someone is only in the business for personal sales, don’t spend days with them showing them how to recruit. The chances of that are slim. Instead, show them how to grow their customer base and save the other stuff for those that want the information on recruiting. Spend your time wisely.

Keep tabs on all of your reps, because things do change and some day they will be asking for your help with a different portion of the job. Use the information you gathered when you interviewed them to identify their goals and inspire them. As they grow their business, you too will be successful and efficient in your own business and your business will have come full circle.
You inspire them and they inspire you!

Congratulations! You are awesome and successful!

**********Copyright 2004-2006 by Chris Carroll. All Rights Reserved. Chris is a work at home mom that has been in sales for 20+ years. She has a BS in Business Management and is the host of DirectSalesTalk.com as well as her business she enjoys with her son at www.JoyWithSoy.com

Not a Partier in a Party Plan Business? Develop Your Business Anyway!

As you know the party plan and Direct Sales business are going through the roof as more and more people are trying to earn a living and becoming a mom to their kids.

While the party plan business is an awesome place to “work”, not all of us are partiers! When I did a party plan business, I had a heck of a time booking because my DH worked nights and I chose to have no babysitter for my child. So that left me doing parties on Friday night, Saturday afternoons and evenings. While that worked for a while, I also burned out from having no family time to speak of.

So, what’s a non partier in a party plan business to do? Well, luckily, Lots!

Change your Strategy and Focus!

~Change your focus to Book Shows. You can have several going at one time. You are not locked into 2-3 parties a week.
~ Utilize online parties. You can pick the time, date and never leave home!
~ Fundraising is huge! If your company offers it, use it.
~ Book individual appointments with customers to show products and specials.
~ Specialty sales and special priced groupings once a month using Flyers and newsletters.
~ Product of the Month sales.
~ Email campaigns through autoresponders.
~ Utilize helpers to pass out books and take orders for you. Give them a free item or a discount on their order for helping you.
~ Take small orders and create a “party” once every 2 weeks or so. Don’t make it a requirement for your customers to order only through a party situation. Take orders anytime!
~ Gift registry and Wish lists for housewarmings, engagement, sweet 16, new jobs, special holidays.
~ Open houses and vendor/craft shows in town.
~ Join the Chamber of Commerce and networking groups.

These are but some ideas to strengthen your party plan business. Try them all and use the ones that work best for you!

***********Copyright 2004-2006 by Chris Carroll. Chris is a work at home mom that has been in sales for 20+ years. She has a BS in Business Management and is the host of DirectSalesTalk.com as well as her business she enjoys with her son at www.joywithsoy.com.