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Surviving an Outdoor Vendor Event

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Ah, the good old summertime.   It sure is nice to be outside, especially after a long, cold winter. With so many festivals, state fairs and vendor events, one doesn’t need to look terribly hard to find a place to set up your wares to sell or display your direct selling products.

However, working an outdoor event in the heat presents some interesting challenges if you sell a product that could melt or discolor – such as candles. Below are a handful of tips to help you survive the doldrums of summer and still work your business in the warm open air.

  1. Make sure you have a system, such as coolers and zip lock bags, to keep the wax (or other product that could also get soft) from melting. Without the ziplock bags the labels will get soggy as the ice melts.
  2. If you have access to a generator or other power source, bring a fan, it’ll help keep you cool and customers will love it and want to stick around your booth longer.
  3. Bring plenty of water for you and any helpers. Don’t underestimate how dehydrated you can get working in the sun all day.

    4. [Read more…] about Surviving an Outdoor Vendor Event

Is Your Direct Sales Business Seasonal?

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When something is said to be seasonal we generally think of it as pertaining to one of the four natural divisions of the year, spring, summer, fall, and winter. When I ask if your direct sales business is seasonal, I’m sure a handful of consultants would agree that they have a fall business – meaning October and November are extremely busy for them due to the rich gift giving season. But then not much going on during the other three seasons.

In order to have a successful, thriving direct sales business you really need to have a business that operates in all four seasons: spring, summer, fall AND winter; not spring, summer, fall OR winter.   To illustrate this concept, consider what regular tasks need to be accomplished during each season.

Spring: A time of new growth, and also lots of weeds and possibly spring cleaning of remaining fall leaves. If you don’t keep up with this task regularly the weeds will choke out all non-weed plants and if you don’t pick up the remaining leaves it could kill new grass that is trying to grow. You can’t just work it periodically.

Summer: Weeding and mowing the lawn are regular occurrences. If you have a swimming pool, you’ll need to test the water, add chemicals and skim regularly. You can’t just work it periodically. [Read more…] about Is Your Direct Sales Business Seasonal?

Responsible Posting

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Forums, Facebook pages, tweets and emails – just a few ways to communicate to your customers and team members. Can you even imagine what it must have been like when the Pony Express, the west’s most direct means of east-west communication before the telegraph, was the only method of communication?

One of the challenges with instant communication methods is that it is far too easy to just post something without truly having an opportunity to think it through first. It’s also out there for all to read as soon as it is posted. For this reason it is imperative that if you choose to participate in online public communication, you post responsibly.  Likewise, while reading such posts, keep in mind that just because it is now published does not necessarily mean it is accurate or factual.

The example post below will help illustrate the importance of word choice:

“Double check your xxx, it is calculating wrong.”

That would be fine, and a courtesy to others to give their own information a second glance, if we knew for certain that information was entirely accurate.

What else was wrong with the above post?

  1. At that moment, the team member’s information appeared to be inaccurate, yet it was posted that it is wrong.
  2. There was a corporate memo put out explaining why it would be different or why the information could fluctuate. This may have merely been a case misunderstanding or oversight on the part of the consultant who stated it was wrong.

    3. [Read more…] about Responsible Posting

Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

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Need Mother’s Day Gift Ideas?

Mother’s Day is only a few weeks away.   Many direct selling companies offer products that any mother would be thrilled to receive as a gift. Whether you sell candles, lotions, hand bags, kitchenware, chocolate, spices or jewelry, I’m sure you sell something mom would love.

Let’s face it; most men don’t excel at gift giving. No hate mail please, I will acknowledge that some men do well in this area. Though, a majority of guys would appreciate a painless gift giving process. If you’ve ever seen men lined up in the card aisle on Saturday night prior to Mom’s Day – you know what I mean.  Hallmark greetings are usually pretty picked over by that point and their goal is to just get something – anything and get out. They can’t show up empty handed and let wife or mom down.

Here’s how you can help these gentlemen.

To really pull it off at this late date, you should already have some on-hand inventory. It may be pushing it a bit if you have to place an order for some products to receive in time for Mom to receive it for her special day. Time is of the essence. Look at what inventory items you have on your shelf that would make a great gift for mom. Then package it up pretty. Wrap it in clear cello so that the purchaser can see what is in it, but so that it is also ready to give as is. Ideally you should have a variety of price ranges – maybe something around $10, something for $20 and something in the $40 range.

Take some photos of your beautifully wrapped gifts, and then print out some one page flyers highlighting your offerings, clearly showing the prices of each. Next put your Mother’s Day gift baskets in your car and go to locations that typically have a lot of men working. Auto repair shops – which include mechanics, body repair men, quick oil change, muffler shops and the like – are good places to start.   Construction sites and in some cases, factories are other suggestions.

If you’re not comfortable just walking into places of business, just pretend you are. Take a deep breath, hold your head high and walk into the front desk with all the confidence in the world because you are there to HELP them and make their life EASIER.   Be aware that you do have to be careful about No Soliciting policies, but it doesn’t hurt to go in and ask. The worst case is they will say “No thank you”. [Read more…] about Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

Don’t Let the Turkeys Get You Down

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Direct Sales is a fabulous business with so many excellent benefits, features and reasons to be involved.   Meeting some super people is another positive aspect of having your own direct selling business. Though as the cliche says – you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain.

Like any other business, direct sales is not exempt from attracting a few humdingers. We’ve all encountered team members, prospects, corporate staffers, customers and consultants from other teams who we would not invite to our Christmas party. For suggestions on dealing with challenging people who come into your path, see this article about how you don’t have to like your co-workers.

People never cease to amaze me. Yesterday I received a notice that someone left a comment on one of my business YouTubes. Great, comments are generally a good thing. To my surprise, it was a fellow consultant, not someone within my team, who decided to spam my video with a link to her own website. What? Who does that? Of course I had the ‘delete comment’ button at my control, but I just can’t even imagine what would possess someone to do that; nonetheless these folks do exist. [Read more…] about Don’t Let the Turkeys Get You Down