Most direct sellers do it as a side hustle, and they are either working their biz around other work or family commitments. Or both.
Direct sales or party plan business is absolutely ideal as a side hustle because it’s so flexible. It’s one of the reasons I love it so much!
But, because it’s not your main hustle, you don’t have time to waste! So you must ensure you’re investing your time wisely, not just spinning your wheels but moving forward.
This means that how you spend your business time is vital. Have you ever heard of the Pareto Principle? This principle states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the efforts. This means that 80% of your efforts are not doing much for you!
When I first learned about this, I was excited to work out which 20% of my tasks were producing the results because it would mean I could reduce the amount of time I spent on my business while at the same time growing it!
Things to stop doing in your direct sales biz
I stopped investing massive amounts of time studying the products. I decided that if a guest or customer wanted to know more than I could tell them, I learned how to find out. I always got back to them, which became another opportunity to continue that relationship with the customer.
I also stopped investing lots of time in team members who were less active or less engaged. Instead, I used my team to focus on my eager ‘rising stars‘ and get new team members off to a great start.
I focused my activities on getting parties (online or in-home) rather than chasing individual orders. It’s much more time efficient to see a group of people at once and gather a bunch of orders in one go. I used to feel like I was constantly chasing orders.
If you need some ideas on how to get bookings, check this article so you can get off the individual order treadmill too.
I focused more of my time on finding new team members and supporting them in getting their own businesses started. I realized that team growth would significantly impact my long-term income and that the faster I recruited, the faster my business would grow.
I started scheduling my social media posts in advance. I would sit down monthly to plan and schedule content for my business page, customer group, and team group. I found those monthly sessions were super productive, and my content became more thought out and better planned. This change stopped me running around through the week madly, trying to think of something to post on Facebook. I love using Cinchshare for my scheduling, but you can use Facebook too.
I found that once I cut out ‘busy work’ – the tasks I used to do that didn’t add to my bottom line – I could do more to grow my business. For example, I spent hours preparing folders with product information or color-coding my customer files. So now, I focus my time on the 20% of tasks that build my business.
Another key to working smarter, not harder, is consistency. Your business won’t progress if you only work on it randomly. Of course, you don’t have to dedicate much time (I hope that much is clear now), but it does help to be consistent for people to trust you with their business.
Let these tips guide you toward leadership and growing your direct sales team.
I want you to understand a misconception a lot of people have:
Leadership is not a skill with which we’re born. Leadership is a skill you develop. You learn. You grow.
Direct sales is a business where you can step up to leadership, bringing new challenges and opportunities.
If you’re new to leadership, below are five tips to help you grow into the type of leader that a team likes to follow.
Keep in mind that the number 1 complaint from consultants about their leaders is that they only hear from them when the leader wants to know how many sales they have!
I see that behavior all the time, making the team feel used – as if they’re only a number to help the leader get paid. It leads to resentment and negative team culture.
You don’t want to be that kind of leader. So check these tips to help you become a fabulous leader of a fantastic team.
Help your team members to feel successful
When teamies feel they are successful, it will help them build on their success and keep striving for more. Think about recognition. What are you celebrating in your team, and how are you celebrating it?
What you focus on with recognition will increase.
Do you create certificates? Do you hand out trophies? Do you post a brag in your team group on Facebook? Do you call them or go Live to congratulate them with a personal message? The more you do, the better!
If your team members are excited about their achievements, they are more likely to repeat it and strive for more. It will also inspire others in your team to strive for recognition.
Encourage effort
Not everyone in your team will achieve the standard required for public recognition. But a good leader will make everyone on the team feel valued.
Try to find a reason to congratulate as many team members as possible each week for something. A quick text message can make a big difference in helping someone feel acknowledged and valued.
Always be on the lookout for team members who’ve stepped out of their comfort zone to take action. When they do, consider going the extra mile and posting them a personal card in the mail to let them know how proud of them you are.
Even if their actions don’t lead to results this time, they might next time. And in the meantime, you have a loyal team member who feels valued.
Mark significant occasions
I keep a box of cards handy, so I’m ready to send a personal postcard when something noteworthy happens in a team member’s life.
Think of life events such as a new baby, engagement or wedding, passing of a loved one or pet, illness, etc.
It’s essential to show team members that they matter to you and that what happens in their life matters to you.
Talk less and listen more
As a leader, we have to stop trying to fix everything. Realize that your team members often already have the answer! Our job is to coach them and help them find it. (Check this article on coaching.)
It can be hard to stop ourselves from telling our team members what to do. Remember that if you let them choose their action steps, they’re far more likely to take that action!
Be a cheerleader
Be the best cheerleader you can be! When I think of cheerleaders, I think of someone happy, positive, energetic, and smiling. That’s your job!
Always be positive. Acknowledging concerns is okay, but you must continually re-focus on the positives and the next step.
Sometimes you’ll have to remind a team member of their exceptional qualities or how far they’ve come already. Sometimes you’ll need to remind them of how excellent your company is.
Focus on gratitude, focus on what’s in your control, and enjoy the process.
Want to learn all my secrets to growing a direct sales team? This book has everything I have learned from the industry in the last 20 years. I’ve tried and tested many methods to arrive at my winning formula!
Do you want to know the secret to amplifying the success of your direct sales business?
One of the critical pillars I’ve used to build a $20 million global direct sales business and boost my happiness is positive reach-outs.
Positive reach-outs use kindness to foster stronger relationships and build social capital.
Building your social capital means developing meaningful relationships with your customers, hosts, and teamies, and it doesn’t just help your business. It makes you happier in the process.
How cool is that?
Professor Christopher Peterson was one of the giants in positive psychology, and his pioneering work showed that happiness comes from social relationships and kindness to others.
Michelle Gielan, the best-selling author of Broadcasting Happiness, says that social capital is your greatest asset. Social capital is the value you receive from having relationships with other people. The great thing about social capital is that it doesn’t lose weight through use. It grows instead.
In my positive reach-outs, I use a lot of praise. Positive Psychologist Shawn Achor reminds us that praise is a virtuous cycle and a renewable resource: “…the more you give, the more you enhance your supply. When done right, praise primes the brain for higher performance, which means that the more we praise, the more success we create. And the more successes there are, the more there is to praise.”
How I reach out to my team and customers in a positive way
There are many ways to reach out and build your social capital. I do various things, from sending emails and private messages to phone calls and in-person catch-ups. I also always have a supply of unique occasion cards for birthdays, births, engagements, etc., ready to go, so it’s easy to put one in the post to someone.
I started doing this 15 years ago and never stopped because I realized the powerful positive impact of sending an engagement card to a customer who called to thank me. She told me she only received three cards – one from her mother, one from her future mother-in-law, and one from me – which meant so much to her. She is still a loyal customer and has referred many people to me.
“The more you help others and spread positivity, the brighter you will all shine.”
On another occasion, I visited a team member’s house and saw an encouraging letter I had sent her framed and placed where she would see it every day. As a result, she is now one of the top performers in my entire organization!
Another lovely way to build social capital is to buy random gifts, which could be as simple as taking muffins into a meeting or training session for no particular reason. The more you connect with people in your network and your direct sales team, the stronger your relationships will become. The more you help others and spread positivity, the brighter you will all shine.
Are you ready to build social capital in your direct sales business?
A fabulous way to start these reach-outs is with a power lead, another concept coined by Michelle Gielan. A power lead is a cheerful, optimistic, or inspiring start to communications. Gielan found that how you choose to start a conversation influences the behavior of others.
Start with a ‘power lead’
Starting with positivity sets a tone. It primes you and others for positivity and pushes everyone into the high-performance zone. It could be as simple as starting the conversation. “It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?” or when someone asks you,” How are you this morning?”
Instead of talking about how you didn’t get enough sleep, you could say that you had a lovely breakfast (if, indeed, you did have a lovely breakfast).
It’s not about making things up to say something positive. Instead, it focuses on authenticity to set that positive tone.
I want to encourage you to spend at least 15 minutes a day focusing on positive reach-outs with your customers, team, or hosts. You will find that it will boost your happiness and positivity while at the same time building your social capital and strengthening relationships – and this will move your direct sales business forward in the long run.
Want to keep track of your positive reach-outs?
Unlock the full potential of your sales strategy with GenieChat
The all-in-one CRM solution designed to make your life easier and your profits higher.
The cutting-edge platform simplifies customer relationship management with personal reminders, ensuring you never miss an opportunity to connect.
Did you know that 50% of sales happen after the fifth touch? GenieChat helps you effortlessly nurture those crucial relationships, maximizing your follow-up average to convert more leads into loyal customers.
Unleash the power of the Magic Message Generator, featuring integrated, unlimited AI-generated replies, answers, and invites that take the guesswork out of communication. But that’s not all—GenieChat’s unlimited duplication and team-sharing capabilities allow you to impart super-seller powers to your team. Share content, scripts, videos, and more with just a click. Say goodbye to missed opportunities and hello to seamless, effective selling with GenieChat.
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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Enrol today to begin taking action and achieving your goals!
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.
Ready to prime your brain for productivity and success?
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 productivity and focus.
A recent study reported that we experience around 60 interruptions in an average 8-hour workday. And a study at London’s Institute of Psychiatry found that constant interruptions can have the same effect as losing 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; 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 your 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 a huge part of concentrating and focusing during your day!
After I’d had a series of strokes 3 years ago, I found this exercise helpful to retrain my 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 at the moment. As it turns out, focusing attention on the present moment and practicing mindfulness rewires the brain so that your ability to focus is stronger in everyday life!
You can use numerous mindfulness apps, but one quick strategy I use is ‘box breathing’. It’s a great stress reliever and helps you to develop yourself quickly.
When I notice that my focus has slipped off, if I need to get my concentration back after an interruption, I use this technique. US Navy Seals use box breathing and can certainly be calm and focused 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 to quickly recentre and refocus.
I encourage you to try these strategies this week. It’ll be easier to get work in your direct sales business done when you can concentrate and focus for blocks at a time!
Want a Winning Mindset?
Get the tools you need for the success of your direct sales with Mindset Mastery.
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 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:
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.
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.
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.
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!
I used to think I was just not an organized person.
I worked with different notebooks and planners, many 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 changeable. You can change what many think is 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 for your month
Set intentions each month.
Think about what you intend to accomplish through your actions this month. Studies have found that setting intentions significantly impacts 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 well-researched and has been found to improve your chances of 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 achieve that goal to be effective and avoid procrastination.
Step 3: Set Rewards
Rewarding yourself for accomplishing small steps along the way to a larger goal is more effective than rewards at the end of a project or only after achieving a major goal.
When you reward yourself, you train 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, or 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 you want to achieve that day, and they relate to your goal and the action steps 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: booking into 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 toward your goals and action steps without feeling overwhelmed.
You will use 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 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 for 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 therapeutic to put all that on the page and then leave it 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 daily 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 also love sending cards for major life events (graduations, engagements, 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.
Unlock the full potential of your sales strategy with GenieChat
The all-in-one CRM solution designed to make your life easier and your profits higher.
The cutting-edge platform simplifies customer relationship management with personal reminders, ensuring you never miss an opportunity to connect.
Did you know that 50% of sales happen after the fifth touch? GenieChat helps you effortlessly nurture those crucial relationships, maximizing your follow-up average to convert more leads into loyal customers.
Unleash the power of the Magic Message Generator, featuring integrated, unlimited AI-generated replies, answers, and invites that take the guesswork out of communication. But that’s not all—GenieChat’s unlimited duplication and team-sharing capabilities allow you to impart super-seller powers to your team. Share content, scripts, videos, and more with just a click. Say goodbye to missed opportunities and hello to seamless, effective selling with GenieChat.
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever been given in business (and life) 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 lift someone’s day.
I used to love receiving handwritten postcards or letters in the mail growing up, and now it’s 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.
Remembering my philosophy that the most important job in my business is to make people feel good, I’ve decided that ‘happy mail’ can also be virtual. But I ensure the messages are personal, genuine, and heartfelt. I send messages via email, WhatsApp or Messenger every week. The messages are always unexpected and very feel-good in content.
They are well-received and a powerful way to help my direct sales business be successful.
These days, most of my happy mail is to my team, but I still make sure I acknowledge and brighten the day of my loyal personal customers. Because that’s how you build a loyal customer base in the first place!
To make the process easier for me and to keep track of things, I created a tracker. I set a daily goal for posts 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 used. 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 who sent her an engagement card. I also have a very appreciative team member who won’t forget 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 important to strengthen your connections. And it makes you feel good too!
When you’re thinking about happy mail for your team, remember that it doesn’t always have to be about recognizing top achievers. Also, look for people who’ve put in an enormous effort or 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 is plentiful when you approach your business with a grateful, happy heart.
Let me know what you send out in the comments as ‘happy mail’!
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:
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