This article is part of an ongoing series by Dick Wilson, titled “Awards Night." View the rest of the series HERE. Over the past several weeks, we’ve explored many awards night “before” considerations—what needs to happen in the weeks and days leading up to your event. Now it’s time to look at what you can do on the night itself to make the evening run as smoothly as possible. Here is my “Top 10 List” of awards night do’s and don’ts: Scripts – Have scripts, or something close … [Read more...]
The Real Benefit of Social Media
I finally experienced the real, most fundamental benefit of social media for direct sales companies. It’s not prospecting. It’s not retention. It’s not recruiting. It’s brand awareness, in its simplest form. Brand Awareness in Action A while back, while scrolling through Facebook updates, I noticed one of my high school friends touting their love for a certain direct sales company. A day later, another high school friend posted a similar message for the same company. … [Read more...]
How To Become a FedEx & UPS Power User
Small parcel shipping has become an integral part of today’s business environment. UPS and FedEx dominate the parcel shipping industry with a combined market share of over 90 percent. This commanding position allows the carriers to dictate pricing and contract rules. Despite the carriers wielding so much control over its users, well-informed Power Users of UPS and FedEx can still maximize their savings potential. Although there are many similarities in UPS and FedEx contracts and pricing … [Read more...]
What’s Your Hell or High Water Statement?
Let me blunt. Your problem isn’t ideas. It’s not social media or your website. It’s not even customers. Your problem is commitment. Your problem is you confuse business with busy-ness. You think success is measured by the size of your to-do list. You think the best option is lots of options. And you’re confused when it comes to commitment. Don’t worry; you’re not alone. This isn’t just a “business thing.” It’s a human thing. People logically know that focus and commitment are effective, but … [Read more...]
A Fast Start Program for the Fast Start Program
It’s pretty standard for a party-plan company to have some sort of Fast Start program. While the names and details vary, the intent is the same. Helping new consultants experience success by rewarding them for incremental achievements during their first few months of business. These programs are carefully crafted to help new consultants quickly reach the first level of leadership, which has proven to be a solid indicator of future success. The strategy for achieving Fast Start challenges is … [Read more...]
Planning a Convention Agenda That Leads to Maximum Momentum
Regardless of your job title, any corporate member of a direct selling company needs to master event planning. All direct sales businesses really run because of our events, so we are all involved. In this training, Brett Duncan and Dick Wilson from Strategic Choice Partners walk you through the ins and outs of planning your next direct sales convention or event effectively. Get Instant Access to this webinar and many others. Create your free account now! Both Brett and Dick share their … [Read more...]
How to Create an Event Schedule in Excel
If you are in charge of organizing your company’s events, understanding the ins and outs of Excel is a must, especially when it comes to creating the event schedule. In this training, Dick Wilson walks you through how to create an Excel spreadsheet for your conference agenda that updates the event times automatically. Get Instant Access to this webinar and many others. Create your free account now! Starting off, Dick shows you how to layout your Excel spreadsheet. Here are the column … [Read more...]
What is Your Onliness Statement?
If you haven’t read Marty Neumier’s book ZAG, the best advice I can give you is to leave this page and immediately go find one of Neumier’s books. Both ZAG and The Brand Gap represent milestone moments in my own understanding of how marketing works best. In ZAG, Neumier suggests creating an “onliness statement” for your product or company. Here’s how it works: Our brand is the only _______ that _______. That’s it. Fill in the blanks however you see fit. For example: We are the … [Read more...]
15 Valuable Lessons from Playing RISK
On a recent vacation, I found myself playing a lot of RISK, the game. The beauty of RISK is that it forces you to make choices, or you can’t succeed. Here are 15 vital lessons from playing Risk that I think we could all learn from. Focus your efforts. Have a plan, and stick to it. Be flexible enough to react to new opportunities. New opportunities will pop up. If it’s better than your plan, consider changing (quickly). If you’re not sure, ignore it, and stay the course. Don’t … [Read more...]
The 9 Overlooked Benefits of an Attractive Customer Program
Plenty of experts have reported on and provided suggestions about how to respond to new regulatory requirements and best practices that have popped up in direct selling over the past two years. One of those best practices is the creation of a strong and distinct customer program, in which a customer would be allowed and encouraged to purchase products and, in most cases, receive a discount without having to become a distributor and have the ability to earn income. My thinking on this is… why … [Read more...]
Why SEO Matters for Direct Sales Companies
At the corporate office, one question you have to be constantly asking yourself is, “How can we help our individual reps in ways that they can’t help themselves?” Answers to this question typically hover in the more logistical area of the business. Shipping product. Mailing checks. Creating products. These are all things that a sizeable corporate entity, not an individual sales rep, should focus on streamlining. It ultimately helps facilitate evangelism, which is what we’re all … [Read more...]
Direct Sales Marketing: Unusually the Same
Marketing for a direct sales company is a funny thing. Countless are the stories of companies within our fair industry who have welcomed an executive of the highest marketing pedigree with vast experience outside of direct sales, only to escort them out in short order, noting, most often, their lack of experience within direct sales. The very promises that allured us to them in the beginning (e.g. establishing a brand, updating our packaging, increasing awareness, incorporating true market … [Read more...]
7 Tools & Techniques that Crush Communication Confusion
Learn a proven and complete methodology for gathering and prioritizing your company's message every month, how to account for every communication touchpoint, and how to plan, document and track every communication effort. Get Instant Access to this webinar and many others. Create your free account now! Before you start your communication planning process, you need to ask yourself one very important question. Who? That's right. The question is simply, “Who?” – “Who are you marketing … [Read more...]
The One Word to Get You Through Strategic Gridlock
We strategic thinkers so easily get our hopes up sometimes. Haven’t you been in those sessions before where you just know you can drive the group to truly sell out to your key objectives? Committing together to make it all happen? Things are going well, you’ve got your tight list of objectives and goals, and it feels like some real barriers have been knocked down. And It Goes Downhill... Then someone points out that there’s one small initiative that hasn’t been addressed in the … [Read more...]
Navigating the E-Commerce Implementation Process
This article is part of an ongoing series by Doug Finnie, titled “In Search of the Perfect E-Commerce Solution Series.” View the rest of the series HERE. Continuing with the fourth part of a five-part series on, “In Search of the Perfect Software Solution,” where we have been discussing the different phases of searching for and implementing software solutions. The fourth part will cover the software implementation phase. So far, we have done our homework, identified software requirements … [Read more...]
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