Tapping into Strength During Adversity

Knowing that you can stay strong no matter what’s happening in your life inspires a kind of confidence and a feeling of security that’s hard to find any other way.

In this article, I want to share how I’ve stayed strong and the road I took to arrive at that place.

The 3 biggest challenges I faced in my life

When I was 19, my friend from high school was murdered. As you can imagine, that was a massive shock to me with so many emotions and thoughts to process. Fortunately, her murderer was caught and brought to justice, but I had still lost my friend.

The next major challenge happened when my daughter Sophie was 6. One day, out of the blue, she was diagnosed with Leukemia. It’s common for a diagnosis in children to occur at 50 to 500 Leukemia cells per millilitre of blood, but she had 12,000 and a huge fight ahead. Fortunately, she’s in remission now and doing well. She’s a Karate champion raising money for other kids like her.

Then three years ago, I had a series of strokes and pseudoaneurysms on the brain. I had difficulty doing basic things like communicating and walking, and I was told I would never run or play sports again.

“I refused to accept that fate and stayed strong and worked hard. I can now talk your ear off, I’m running a 20 million dollar global business, and I’m the current Australian National Champion in my division for Karate.”

I don’t want to dwell on the challenges I faced. Instead, I want to share how I stayed strong to get through them. I want to share the strategies you can use to learn from my lessons!

Create a vision for the future

During the most challenging times, I always created a vision for the future. When my friend was murdered, I pictured her getting justice. Later, when Sophie was sick and couldn’t walk, we talked about the day she could walk 10 kilometres, and we created this lovely vision of it. And we ticked off that goal in 2021!

The day I was told I’d never play sports again due to the strokes, I decided I would get my black belt in Karate to show them it was possible. I’m not at black yet, but I’m getting very close!

With firm goals and visions in place, I then lived one day at a time, focusing on small, incremental improvements towards that goal. And I celebrated each small achievement along the way to the larger goal.

Find the Glitter

When Sophie was ill, we kept a ‘glitter journal’. It was a notebook with a glittery cover, and each day we would write in there what the one good thing was in that day. We would each find one bit of glitter for that day to keep us going.

I now keep a gratitude journal. I’ve since learned to be grateful for minor things and look for the good every day. I also add quotes and images in my gratitude journal that inspire me to stay positive.

Ask for help

Asking for help is one of those things that we humans find extremely difficult. Yet, through my challenges, I learned that asking for help is essential when we need it.

Not only did I find that a little bit of help from others made my load that much lighter, but I also noticed that asking people for help was like giving them a gift. So many of my friends wanted to help but didn’t know how. Once I asked, my friends happily cooked dinners, picked up our children from school, visited in hospital and did so many other little things that made a big difference at the time!

Don’t think you’ll be a burden, instead put yourself in their shoes. If one of your friends is going through a tough time, wouldn’t you love to help out?

I hope you’re not experiencing major upheaval in your life right now. But if you are, I hope that these activities help you as much as they helped me. My wish is that they help make your path forward faster and easier!

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Secrets to Balance Your Life and Direct Sales Biz

Title: Secrets to Balance Your Life and Direct Sales Business

Do you need more hours in the day? Are you struggling to juggle work and life?

I’m a wife and dedicated mother of three. My daughter is in remission from cancer. I run a $20 million global direct sales business. I’m an Australian National Champion in Karate, I’m an active ambassador for Red Kite, a childhood cancer charity, and I’m an author.

“I get asked all the time how I juggle everything in my life.”

It sounds like a lot when I list it out like that! And yet I manage to balance work, family, sports, leisure, and service to others.

So let me share how I achieve that in 3 steps.

How do you define balance?

First of all, it’s essential to think about how you define balance in the first place. My whole concept of balance was changed after reading a book by best-selling author Laura Vanderkam. She believes that balance should be viewed across a week or a month, not day-to-day as we’ve been conditioned to think.

Too often, we feel pressure to be all things to all people all of the time. But we don’t need to feel guilty.

Sometimes we need to work on our careers and work hard for a time. Other times we need to be with our children and play and learn and parent and take the time to do this.

So I realised that it’s okay to get off the old merry-go-round of feeling guilty when I was working because I wanted to be with my children and would feel guilty when I was with them because, in the back of my mind, I thought I should be working!

I made the quote by David Bader my mantra!

I put it in my office and on my fridge to remind me that focus and quality time are essential.

2. Do more things at once

My second tip is to, wherever possible, tick multiple boxes with the way you’re spending time. For example, when I’m at Karate, it’s exercise time, family time, and social time because we’ve made great friends at the dojo.

So perhaps you can exercise or train with a friend while the kids play? Or instead of meeting a friend for a coffee, why not meet up to go for a walk?

If you have made friends in your direct sales team, you can be each other’s accountability buddy and cheerleader and work on your direct sales business while you get social time as well.

Disclaimer: Yes, quality time is essential and I’m not advocating that you should always be looking to do five things at the same time and never feel like you’re truly present in the moment.

But where you can do multiple things at once, don’t discount the opportunity to do so!

3. Start delegating as soon as you can

My third tip is that delegation and outsourcing are vital. I do the tasks in my business that only I can do – where I add the most value. But everything else I either delegate or I pay someone else to do.

People often say they can’t afford that or that they’ll do it when they’re making more money, but I started doing this very early in my business. I used to pay my neighbor’s teenage daughter in free products for her help with basic business tasks and housework.

“The time and energy that freed me to move forward and push on with tasks made a significant difference in my business and income. In addition, as my direct sales business grew, my network of helpers increased.”

Your time and energy are the most critical assets of your business and life. So think carefully about how you use it and what your priorities are.

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How to Improve your focus

It almost feels like the ability to concentrate is a lost art in today’s digital world. Constant interruptions by notifications from our multitude of apps can be catastrophic for our productivity and focus.

A recent study reported that we experience around 60 interruptions in an average 8 hour work day. And a study at London’s Institute of Psychiatry found that constant interruptions can have the same effect as the loss of a night’s sleep.

No wonder so many people feel tired all the time!

But the good news is that focus is a mental muscle, the more you work on building it up, the stronger it gets! If you feel – like so many of us – that you can’t concentrate as much as you used to when you were younger, you can build it back up!

So let’s look at some strategies to improve focus so you can sit down and get some work done in your direct sales business!

Use notifications sparingly

First of all, if you haven’t done so yet, make sure you turn off as many notifications as possible to reduce the number of distractions you experience in your day.

Think of your focus as a spotlight and you want to turn it to the important things and not scatter the light uselessly on every notification your phone throws at you.

You can also think of notifications as the privilege to interrupt you. Who or which apps get to have that privilege?

Retraining your brain

I found it helpful to retrain my brain to focus with this exercise from neuropsychologist Kim Willment. She suggests reading for thirty minutes with a timer set to go off every 5 minutes. When it goes off, ask yourself if your mind has wandered. If it has, just re-focus on what you’re reading and continue to the next alarm. Rinse and repeat.

Doing this exercise helps to retrain your brain to monitor if your mind is wandering and then return to focusing on a single task. This is an huge part of being able to concentrate and focus during your day!

After I’d had a series of strokes 3 years ago, I found this exercise to be a helpful way to retrain my own brain and perhaps it’ll help you too!

Learn to re-focus quickly after an interruption

The next strategy is to improve your mindfulness and to re-focus quickly in the moment. As it turns out, focusing attention on the present moment, and practicing mindfulness actually rewires the brain so that your ability to focus is stronger in everyday life!

There are numerous mindfulness apps you can use, but one quick strategy I use is ‘box breathing’. It’s a great stress reliever and it helps you to recentre yourself very quickly.

When I notice that my focus has slipped of if I need to get my concentration back after an interruption, I use this technique. US Navy Seals use box breathing and they are certainly able to be calm and focus under extreme circumstances!

So here’s how you do it: Sit upright and inhale slowly while you count to 4 in your head. Then hold your breath for a count of four, exhale through your mouth to a count of four, and then hold your breath for four seconds. Repeat this a few times.

I find picturing the box or square in my mind with each step helps me to focus on the activity. I used this technique as a stress reliever when my daughter was critically ill fighting leukemia, but I also noticed a huge improvement in my concentration and ability to focus so I use it regularly now as a way quickly to recentre and refocus.

I encourage you to try these strategies this week. It’ll be so much easier to get work in your direct sales business done when you are able to concentrate and focus for blocks of time!

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Keep going until you get a yes

Far too many people are afraid of hearing the word “no”.

And I get it. I used to be afraid of rejection too. For the first 2 years in my business I hardly achieved anything. I was afraid to ask and by avoiding the ask I rejected myself in advance. I was saying “No” to myself before anyone else had a chance to.

In this article I share how I got over that fear and build a multimillion dollar direct sales business.

The art of asking

There’s an art…or maybe a science to asking and getting what you want. I found the book “The Aladdin Factor” by Marc Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield very helpful. They recommend asking as if you’re expecting to get a “yes”. You also want to assume that you can get a “yes” in general – don’t just hope. You also need to ask more than once.

I recommend you grab yourself a copy of this book to improve the way you ask!

Persistence does pay off

Persistence has been key to my success. You want to keep asking because they might say “yes” when they’re in a better mood, when their circumstances have changed, when you have a better offer that suits their needs, or when you’ve learned to ask better!

Early on in my business I was too afraid of hearing “no” to follow-up and ask. To help encourage myself to take action, I gamified the process.

I started by rewarding myself with $1 for every follow-up call, regardless of the outcome. My goal was to get myself moving and to overcome my fear of rejection. When I’d made enough calls, I treated myself and my husband to a night out at the movies. As I got better at making the follow-up calls, I moved on from $1 coins and made myself a star chart. I gave myself a gold star every time I made a call!

The reward you choose doesn’t matter, the process of rewarding yourself for taking action gives you a boost of dopamine in the brain, which reinforces the action.

As you’re training your brain to love taking action you will notice it gets easier and easier to follow-up! And of course the more you do it, the better you’ll get at it and you’ll start hearing that ‘yes’ more and more!

Keep a Leads Book to Help your Follow-Up

The statistics that have most inspired me to keep going with follow-ups came from a marketing specialist at Notre Dame University. They found that 94% of all sales people quit after the 4th call. However 60% of all sales were made after the 4th call.

I didn’t want to keep missing out on 60% of potential business because I wasn’t following up enough!

So I started keeping all my follow-up information in a leads book (but you could also use a spreadsheet, I happen to be old school). I allocate 1 page per lead and I keep track of my follow-ups with dates and notes. I try to add personal information so contact from me feels personal and friendly.

I also make sure I vary the method of follow-up. Sometimes it’s a phone call, then a text message, other times I send something in the mail. This keeps me in their thoughts but it doesn’t feel repetitive.

I have some leads that I’d been following up with for five years before they finally joined my direct sales team – persistence paid off eventually!

Don’t be a bulldozer

At this point I want to make sure you understand that I’m not a bulldozer when it comes to follow-up.

I not only vary the means of follow-up so I don’t hound them with phone calls or spam them with texts, but I also always offer them an “opt out”. I literally say something like: “if you’d like to stop hearing from me, just let me know” or something similar.

I don’t want to be pushy or spammy so I’m keeping it light and friendly and respect their boundaries!

How to think of follow-ups

I was told by a mentor long ago to think of follow-up like offering everyone cake at your wedding.

Some people love wedding cake and eagerly say yes … others say no. Maybe they’re on a diet, maybe they’re allergic to gluten, or maybe they just don’t like cake!

The bride doesn’t take it personally, she just offers it to the next person. I like to think of everyone I follow up as wedding guests – I have something wonderful to offer them and it may or may not be for them.

My job is to find the ones who do want it and not get discouraged if someone doesn’t like cake.

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Tools for Direct Sellers

There are so many great tools and online services available that it’s hard to know which ones to invest your time (and sometimes) money in.

This list represents all my favorite tools that I use in my direct sales business all the time. Many of them are free, which is even better!

Canva

It’s important to use images on your social media that are unique and not already used by thousands of other consultants. The Facebook algorithm likes unique images and videos more than reposts.

Canva is a free tool that you can use to create images, animated gifs and just about anything that needs designing. They’ve got beautiful templates, graphics and photos that you can use to quickly and easily make those perfect images to go with your posts.

There is an upgrade you can subscribe to but you won’t need to for your direct sales biz. The free version is already so awesome it’ll do you just fine!

You can find Canva here.

QR Code Generators

You can use QR codes in a number of different ways to support your direct sales biz. You can use it at events to direct people to your ordering page, you can link to an awesome recruiting video from your company, you could link to a Google Form and collect entries for a raffle or lucky door prize, or perhaps you can link to a joining special. For more ideas check this article.

Here are three free QR code generators to get you started:

QR Code Generator (standard QR code generator)
Flowcode (never expires)
QR Code Monkey (different colors & designs)

Jigsaw Puzzles

I love using jigsaw puzzles as an online game in either a Facebook party, a recruiting event or in my customer group. I tend to use an image related to recruiting, sometimes a company recruiting poster or a picture of the starter kit.

Make sure you choose a photo that doesn’t have too much empty space (too frustrating to solve) or too much text (hard to solve, hard to read).

You can find more information on how to use jigsaw puzzles in this article.

Here are some free jigsaw generators:

Cinchshare

I absolutely love Cinchshare! They are a fabulous social media scheduling service specifically for direct sellers. It’s not a free service but it’s very affordable and worth every cent!

The best thing is that you can save your Facebook parties and reschedule them again and again. It’s so easy to save all your previous posts (images and text), change them up as needed and schedule them in a new party. I also use it to schedule things in my team groups and customer group and on my Instagram. I can’t live without Cinchshare in my biz!

They also run regular training on direct sales topics that’s super useful! (In fact, I’ve run training for them a while back which was so much fun). Even if you don’t subscribe, I recommend checking out their blog for all the useful freebies and tips.

You can find Cinchshare here

Positive Prime

Positive Prime is a visionboard on steroids. It’s the best service to keep you motivated, positive and engaged. This is what I use to keep me fueled to achieve my business and personal goals.

Positive Prime offers different sessions to train your brain, and create powerful, self-fulfilling prophesies around your goals.

You can get started for free but I highly recommend you upgrade to a paid plan as soon as you can because you can then significantly amplify the effect of each session by personalizing it to you with images and personal statements for your specific goals.

Not feeling confident recruiting? There’s a session to help you develop more confidence. Need to be more positive in your outlook? Yep, there’s a session for that too! Motivation low? Hop over to Positive Prime for 3 minutes and you’ll be brimming with motivation.

You can find Positive Prime here.

Mailchimp

Starting a mailing list is a good idea so you don’t just rely on social media. Remember that you don’t own Facebook or Instagram. With an email list, you own the list – regardless of which service you use.

I love Mailchimp, it’s what I use for my own newsletters, and they have a free service available to get you started. You can create newsletters, forms, landing pages and more without needing to know how to code!

Create yourself a fun, interesting and useful monthly newsletter and encourage people to sign-up at parties and events. Hey, you can even use a QR Code to link to the sign-up page for your newsletter! Then offer everybody who signs up a chocolate and before you know it you have decent mailing list!

You can find Mailchimp here

Do you have any tools to add to the list? What service or website do you use all the time in your direct sales biz?

Using Samples to Boost Your Direct Sales Biz

Title: Make the most of samples in you direct sales biz

If you sell a consumable product in your direct sales business, sampling is a fantastic way to grow your direct sales business.

According to GCI Magazine, the objective of sampling is to enhance your customers’ experience and increase loyalty. Providing product samples allows your customers to try different products and create an opportunity for customer care calls to gain feedback and stay in touch.

Pyschologists have shown that people who receive free samples are more likely to buy the products and become loyal customers. Giving out samples helps you to:

Raise awareness: 60% of customers were not aware of a product before receiving a sample.
Increase purchase intent: 92% of people say they will buy a product if they like it after receiving a sample.

How to Maximize the Sample Opportunity as a Direct Seller

Whenever you give a sample, always ask permission to follow-up with the customer in a few days to find out how they found the product. Make sure you jot down their details and book a follow-up call when you give them the sample. At the very least, give them your details and ask them to provide feedback.

Sampling is a great opportunity for follow-up contact, so don’t squander it! (If you find following-up difficult, check out this article for some tips)

Avoid offering a sample too early in the conversation. You want to make sure they don’t already have the intention to purchase the product you want to encourage them to try. Making a sale on the spot is always the first preference.

Try to offer a sample that complements the other products they have where possible, they might just love the entire range!

Sampling also works well when an entirely new product or range is released. Remember that figure above? 92% Of people say they’ll buy a product if they liked the sample!

What to say when giving a sample

If you find it hard to find the words to secure that follow-up, here are some ideas to get you started:

Let’s chat briefly in a few days so you can give me feedback on this product.
Let’s book in a follow-up consultation to see how you’re going with this neproduct….is an evening or weekend better for you?
The sample I’ll leave you with today compliments your purchase wonderfully. I’ll touch base in a few days to see how you’re finding using the these together and to see if you have any questions.
I’d like to give you a super quick call in a few days about the product. It’s brand new so I’m so curious to know what you think of it!

Top Sampling Tips

How to make the most of sampling in your direct sales biz

If your direct sales company doesn’t offer samples, it’s easy to create your own. Jump online and do a quick search for sample pots or sample sachets. There are a lot of affordable options out there.

If you want to fancy it up, you can even order your own stickers and labels to make it look professional. Remember to put your contact details on them!

Keep a log of who you’ve given samples to. It’ll help you when it comes to follow-up too!

Always keep some samples with you so you can make new connections and create new leads when an opportunity arises.

6 Steps to Becoming an Organized Direct Seller

I used to think I was just not an organized person.

I was working with different notebooks and planners, lots of post-it notes and separate printables. But I thought – like lots of people – that was just how I was…

Turns out I was wrong in the best way possible!

After going through Positive Psychology certification courses, I’ve learned that your brain is actually really changeable. You can change the things that many of us think are set in stone and ‘just part of our personality’!

That means you can become organized. You can learn to love using a planner. You can learn to focus on the things that grow your biz!

The 6 steps in this article are backed by science and are proven to work. You’ll also find two Power Up Tips that will help you to keep moving forward in your business.

Step 1: Set Intentions

Set intentions each month.

Think about what you intend to accomplish through your actions this month. Studies have found that setting intentions has a significant impact on the likelihood of you following through on your goals!

Step 2: Create a Plan

Setting goals and then thinking through the steps you need to take to accomplish the goal, will help you to be organized and feel on top of your business.

Goal setting has been quite well researched and has been found to improve the chances of you actually accomplishing your goals. Writing goals down is essential!

But more than just setting goals, you want to think your way through the actions you need to take to get to that goal so you can be effective and avoid procrastination.

Step 3: Set Rewards

Rewarding yourself for accomplishing small steps along the way to a larger goal has been found to be more effective than rewards at the end of a project or only after achieving a major goal.

When you give yourself a reward, you are training your brain to repeat the steps you did to achieve success again. Rewards impact your brain chemistry!

Rewards don’t have to be expensive, it can be giving yourself a few hours to do whatever you like, a bubble bath with a glass of wine, a walk in nature, a favorite food. The important thing is that it makes you feel special and rewarded for what you did.

Step 4: Break it Down

On your weekly planner you want to set 3 priorities for each day. These are the 3 things that you want to achieve that day and they relate to your goal and the action steps that you’ve defined.

By setting 3 priorities you don’t have to worry about an endless to-do list that you’ll never finish. Instead you can be proud of yourself because you’ve done three things that day to move your business forward.

The 3 priorities could be three phone calls you want to make to follow-up, it could be booking in to a vendor event or market, locations for posters that advertise your business or planning your social media content for the week… They are simply 3 achievable actions that keep you moving forward towards your goals and your action steps without feeling overwhelmed.

You will be using Pareto’s principle of focusing on the 20% of activities that bring 80% of the results and avoiding busy work.

*Set priorities and keep track of all areas of your business over a week.*

Step 5: Keeping all the Plates Spinning

You need a continued focus on all aspects of your business: bookings, customer care, host coaching, social media, your team, etc. This can be overwhelming and it’s easy to drop a plate…I’ve certainly done that before!

Use either a to-do list with space for each aspect of your business (download a printable here) or make space in your planner to track each area.

At the end of the week, highlight the things you didn’t get done and then move them to the priorities in the next week. That way you can prevent that plate from falling!

Step 6: Reflection

Looking back on your month will help you to plan your next month. But this last step comes with a big warning: this is not a step to skip or a space to beat yourself up!

Many people don’t like to do reflection if they haven’t had a productive month. It’s in those cases that reflection is essential!

You might have had a month full of unexpected events that got in the way of running your business – life happens. Perhaps your goals were too ambitious or they didn’t excite you. Perhaps you got caught in a procrastination trap… it’s tempting then to skip the reflection.

But it’s actually really therapeutic to put all of that on the page and then leave it there without beating up on yourself! It’s then helpful in planning out your next month.

Power Up Tip #1: Gratitude

Studies have found that practicing 5 minutes of gratitude a day provides an equivalent increase in happiness as doubling your income!

And even better news: journaling gratitude just once a week has significant benefits.

Make time each week to think about what went well and what you are grateful for. A positive attitude and an optimistic mind are scientifically proven competitive advantages in business!

Power Up Tip #2: Positive Reach Outs

You’re in the relationship business so you want to build your ‘social capital’ – it’s your greatest asset!

A positive reach out is a message, text, phone call or postcard with encouragement, a compliment or praise. I personally also love to send cards for major life events (graduations, engagement, birth, etc.) to connect with my team and regular hosts because we get very few things in the mail these days!

If you’d like to track your positive reach outs, you can find a printable here.

If you’re in Australia, I have created a direct sales planner that uses this system. It has everything you need for the 6 steps in one pretty package!

How happy mail can grow your direct sales biz

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever been given in business (and also in life really) is that people might not remember what you say but they’ll remember how you make them feel.

I’ve always kept this philosophy in mind as I’ve built my multi-million dollar direct sales empire.

One of the most powerful ways I’ve applied this philosophy to my biz is what I call ‘happy mail’. The intention is to make people feel happy, valued and recognized.

Originally all the happy mail I sent was via the post. It’s so rare to get anything but bills via the post these days so receiving something fun in the letterbox is a delightful surprise and can really lift someone’s day.

I used to love receiving handwritten postcards or letters in the mail when I was growing up and now it’s such a rarity that it’s become a powerful gesture.

Snail mail or messages?

However as my business grew and became global, that personal touch wasn’t as scalable as I’d have liked. I still send 30 to 50 bits of mail per month but now I’ve extended the concept to include virtual as well.

Remembering my philosophy that my most important job in my business is to make people feel good, I’ve decided that ‘happy mail’ can also be virtual. But I do make sure that the messages are personal, genuine and heartfelt. I send the messages via email, WhatsApp or Messenger every week. The messages are always unexpected and very feel-good in content.

They are well received and and a powerful way to help my direct sales business be successful.

These days the majority of my happy mail is to my team, but I still make sure I acknowledge and brighten the day of my loyal personal customers too. Because that’s how you build a loyal customer base in the first place!

To make the process easier on me and keep track of things, I created a tracker. I set a daily goal for post and messages to send and the tracker helps me to keep this as a business habit and helps me to reach a variety of people with my sparks of joy. I keep 2 trackers, one for my team and one for my customers. Download an example below.

I also keep a box of postcards stocked and ready to be use. If I notice that a customer or team member has a special event (often on social media), I am ready to acknowledge the occasion. I always have engagement, wedding, graduation, sympathy, new baby and congratulations cards available.

I have one particularly loyal customer who will never forget that I was one of only 3 people who sent her an engagement card. I also have a very appreciative team member who won’t forget that I was the only person who sent her a sympathy card when her beloved horse died.

Always keep in mind that we’re in the relationship business. Acknowledging big happenings in people’s lives is an important way to strengthen your connections. And it makes you feel good too!

When you’re thinking about happy mail for your team, keep in mind that it doesn’t always have to be about recognition of top achievers. Also look for people who’ve put in enormous effort or who have stepped out of their comfort zone. Perhaps acknowledge and thank people for contributing to your events or people who are positive and helpful on your team pages.

The opportunity to make a positive difference and have an impact on someone are plentiful when you approach your business with a grateful, happy heart.

Let me know in the comments what you send out as ‘happy mail’!

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Why parties are vital to direct sales success

Title: Why parties are vital for your direct sales success

Ok, so I know this is somewhat controversial, but I’m a true believer that events of some sort are vital to your success in direct sales.

Parties are by far the easiest and fastest way to grow your business.

I don’t think it matters if the event is in-person or online, the important part is gathering a group of people together to have an experience with you.

Why parties matter so much to direct sales success

At a party, you have more exposure to more people who can be encouraged to book a party, to join your business and join your customer group. (Read more on how to do that here) Parties are far more time-efficient than trying to sell to individuals one by one. It’s the best way to make more money faster.

By focusing on parties you avoid ‘buyer fatigue’. There’s only a certain amount you can sell to a customer group. Even with a large and highly engaged group you will hit a limit. Customers in a group are also more likely to wait for the next sale or other great offer, it’s hard to sell in between offers!

By filling your diary with parties and events, you are less reliant on social media algorithms that you cannot control. If you solely rely on Facebook groups (and I know many direct sellers do), you can never be sure from day to day that your business is safe. Remember that you don’t ‘own’ or control that piece of online real estate, you have no say in what happens to it!

You can increase the value of each customer to your business by offering parties or events with different themes. This helps to keep interest in booking with you high, which means you’ll get repeat bookings. You’ll find that you build lasting relationships with many of your hosts and customers. Read more on setting themes and get some ideas here.

At a party you can focus on different ranges of your product and you’ll be in a position to offer better education on them. This means that guests are more likely to buy and you’ll notice it increases loyalty and repeat orders from you.

If you want to see the benefits for yourself, set yourself a goal of booking 2 parties into your diary this month. Then aim to get more bookings from those parties and keep the momentum going!

Here are some more articles to help you make the most from your parties and events:

Learn tried and tested tips for direct sales recruiting!

Using QR Codes in Your Direct Sales Biz

How to use QR codes in your direct sales biz

QR codes. I’m sure you’ve seen the weird pixelated squares around before.

Here in Australia we use them all the time to ‘check in’ when we go to a café or museum to help with Covid-19 contact tracing.

But QR Codes can be used in lots of different ways for different purposes. And as direct sellers we can also use them for our business.

What is a QR code?

A QR code in our brand colors. Scan it to see what it does.

QR stands for Quick Response. When your phone scans the code, it will ‘read’ the embedded data, which is often a website or contact details.

The QR code was invented way back in 1994 but usage has been steadily increasing with surge in usage fueled by the pandemic.

Why do you want a QR code?

There are few really good reasons to grab yourself a free QR code. And not the least important is that it starts conversations!

Another reason is that you make it super easy for people to take some action. It’s more fun and a lot easier than typing in a web address or searching for a specific Facebook group.

A QR code also makes you look professional and tech savvy.

Ideas on how to use QR Codes in your direct sales biz.

Take people directly to your customer group on Facebook (or wherever you host a customer group). Print the code on a flyer and show it at parties or demonstrations as part of your display. During checkout I like to offer people a chocolate if they scan the code and join my group. Many people will take that offer!

You can also post the digital copy in your online parties and stimulate action by using party points for people who join your customer group.

Link to your ordering page. You can use a QR code to take people directly to your ordering page. This is especially handy for markets or vendor events when you’re not allowed to sell products but still like to encourage people to buy from you.

If you have a blog or page with all your party themes, you can use a QR code to display all the information about the kind of parties you offer when talking to people about booking a party.

When you’re running a raffle or contest, you can collect entries via Google forms (for example). The QR code can be used to direct people straight to the entry form or a survey that you’ve created.

If you need to do a lot of user education about your products, you could use QR codes to take people directly to a video that shows more in-depth information. This works especially well when talking to people at events and you quickly want them to see the video.

If you have a newsletter, you can use the QR code to direct people straight to the sign-up page.

If you’re doing an online party and want to do a bit of treasure hunting, create a QR code linking to some recruiting information (for example). Then use an online jigsaw puzzle generator to scramble the QR code. Post the puzzle in your party. Guests would have to solve the puzzle, then scan the code and can then tell you where they landed for a prize.

How do I get a QR code?

You can grab a free QR code from a number of places on the internet. I like these generators:

Social Media QR Code with frame. Scan to see how it works.

QR Code Generator Pro – I like them because you can put all your social media in one QR code and add your ordering website or blog. They also have a lot of other options such as cute frames and color options. You need to create a free account to use this service.

QR Creator – This is a the quickest way to get a code. You don’t need to register and all you do is add your info and a code is generated immediately. Just hit download and you’re in business!

Where to use your QR code

Before you have anything printed and spend money, have a think about where you want to send people to when they scan the code. You can link the QR code to your customer group, to your ordering page or booking page, to your social media or even a survey.

And there’s nothing to stop you from having a few different QR codes for different purposes!

Here are some ideas for displaying your QR code:

Business Cards
If you use business cards for your direct sales business, pop a QR code on there! Next time you order a new batch, add the code as well.

Stickers
Get stickers made with your QR code. You can put the stickers on your business cards, your ordering forms, on your catalogs, on your delivery bags, etc. Stickers will give you a lot of options for displaying your code and are therefore quite cost effective.

How to use QR Codes in your direct sales business

Handouts & Posters
If you put up posters to advertise your direct sales biz, put your QR code on that. For example, I like to put up posters to advertise my business opportunity. I have a QR code on that poster that leads to my website with all the information and links to signing up!

Another idea is when you are at a vendor event or market and you use a flyer (with your party themes and booking info or with information on the business opportunity), have a QR code on the flyer too that links to a relevant website or social media.

Product Care / Product Use Instructions
Send people a thank you card or include a card in your delivery with a QR code that links to instructions on how to use your product or how to best care for the product. If you want to make this trick even more powerful, link to a video of you explaining the use or care of the product!

I’m sure there are many more creative ways to use QR codes in a direct sales business, but this article should give you a good start. We’d love to hear how you are using QR codes, so leave a comment below.