I am always looking for creative ways to interact with my customers either at a home show or by sending out an email to get them excited about something!

Here is an idea I love and a way for your customers to think they are playing a game while you get them to look over your catalog.

At a home show or through an email to all your customers (this will work in either situation) tell them to look through your catalog and count something to give you a total.  Here is an example of what I mean:

• If you sell jewelry, have them count the number of rings, necklaces or bracelets in the catalog.
• If you sell candles, have them count the number of a certain size of candle.
• If you sell makeup, have them count the number of lipsticks you offer.
• Etc.

Have them tell you (if you are at a home show) or email you (provide a deadline for them to have answers back to you) the answer.  Once all the answers are in..take all the correct ones and select a random winner. That winner will get a special discount or gift for winning the game.

How does this help you?  Well….it gets people to search through the catalog and look at your products.  You are not asking them to buy anything but rather making it fun for them to look at your catalog and they can win something in return. On the surface, this may not seem like a way to increase sales. But this isn’t just a short-term strategy.

There’s a psychology at play here. Part of the sales battle is just getting a person to look through the catalog in the first place. Once people get to looking through the catalog, invariably they find things they want to buy. Sometimes that realize their eyes are bigger than their wallet and they opt to host a party.

This is a great way to get clients interacting with you without you having to sell them anything. Plus, it can be a lot of fun for everyone, since no one has to feel like their budget keeps them from participating. Many games have you earning points or tickets and people who have a bigger budget usually have the advantage. A game like this will help

Jen Fitzgerald is the owner of The Client Angel, the proven tool for the Direct Selling community. It is the premier tool for Direct Sellers helping them to build relationships with their customers by providing better follow-up causing their businesses to soar! See a demo at: www.theclientangel.com.

Last time we talked about an overall strategy for tapping into free or low cost resources to connect with your growing team and customers.

Today we will dive in further to the topic of utilizing a website to connect. Like I mentioned before , I recommend Blogger. It’s simple to operate and there is no charge to use it. If your time is limited, I would start with developing a site for your customers.

Here are some considerations:

Client considerations

Who is your ideal client? Sketch out their profile. What age group? What gender? Know the demographics of what Lisa calls your Perfect-Fit Customer. Are they going to find you via a Google search or just word of mouth?

What is your most wanted response? Do you want them to call you, email you, visit another website? Is your site for customers after you have met them in person so you can build your relationship with them?

These two sets of answers should guide your decisions with everything you put on your new site.

You also need to know the online policies of the company you represent. You need to know if you can mention their name or not. If you cannot, that is ok. Just know ahead of time.

Lets use an example. Lets say I’m a distributor of popular kitchen supply products and they won’t allow me to mention their name or list products for sale on my site. No problem. This is what I would do.

First, find your ideal customer. Typically in the direct sales world, you are most relate-able to those like yourself. This isn’t always the case, but I’ve been there. The easiest market is people like yourself.

So my “typical” customer (which might not be my ideal customer) is:

• a mom in their 30′s
• likes to cook sometimes
• has kids in school
• household income ranges between 50,000-150,000 per year
• online (especially Facebook)

My ideal customer for followup is:

• likes to cook & try new things
• household income: 50,000+
• online (especially Facebook)
• likes gadgets
• mom 30-50

The most wanted response is to have them email me back, share on Facebook, or signup for my updates/eNewsletter email list.

With this information, I can focus on the goals for my website.

Goals for the site are to:

• create a relationship (so they’ll like/friend me on Facebook)
• build credibility (so they’ll sign up for my email list)
• build trust (if they trust you and you rave about a new product, they are more likely to believe they will also love the product)

Note: A secondary goal for the website would be to protect your client list if you were to ever break ties with your company. This way, if your company goes out of business (it happens) or you leave, your followers will still listen to you because they have created a relationship with you on your website. Granted, there are those clients that will remain loyal to a product/company (unless it dissolves), but because they’re building a relationship with you, they are more likely to remain loyal to you if you ever need/want to jump ship.

Design considerations

Continuing on with our example, I would use a header, fonts and colors that appeal to my audience. I would not choose a “black grunge” look for a cooking website targeted to 30-50 year old women. I would select something that gives you the feel of cooking… think daytime cooking show colors. Find some sites that you are attracted to and model their color schemes.

Make your most wanted response very dominant at the top or top right of your screen. If you want folks to sign up for your mailing list first and foremost, then make sure your opt-in box is prominently displayed near the top of the page. Don’t bury it half way down a side bar. People may never get that far.

Use Blogger’s “gadget” to hold the code for your MailChimp eNewsletter signup box as well as links to your Facebook business page (be sure to create a business page and link to that, not your personal Facebook page).

After your site is designed, consider hosting it on a custom domain (your own website address). It only costs about $10 per year and you can do it right from Blogger. Something like www.ElianCooks.com would work for our example, if it’s available.

Then, with your new URL in hand, go over to Google Apps and get a matching email address like elian@eliancooks.com. Then I’d go over to Facebook and set up my Facebook page and title it something like Elian Cooks. Then claim your custom Facebook URL as soon as possible (for example, facebook.com/eliancooks)

Next, go to MailChimp and set up an “RSS Campaign.” This is where after you post it will automatically go out to your list (or a segment of your list).You can select if you want the message to go out daily, weekly or monthly (after you’ve posted). I’d select daily unless you post on your website more than once a week. Pretty up your template and add some sort of monthly or quarterly promotion. Be sure to add yourself as a subscriber so you can see what your followers are seeing.

Using my example, here are somethings you can post to be top of mind to your customers:

• recipes
• tips on how to use a certain product
• party tips (displaying with your products or using products to make the party food)
• gift giving ideas around the holidays
• time saving tips
• focus on an ingredient and share different ways to use and/or maximize (ie a whole chicken)
• resources for local food (ie farmer’s markets and stores)

Be sure to not copy from other websites as it will violate copyright laws.

Don’t like to write?

If you dislike or don’t want to take the time to write your own posts, here are a few ideas on what you can do.

• use video blogs (vblogs)
• outsource your content (you only need 200-400 words per post)
• buy private label rights content
• line up guest bloggers (either one time or ongoing)

Need more help? Be sure to check out my training room and resources at www.elianevans.com.

Elian Evans is a social media marketing specialist for small business, groups and organizations (for and non-profit). She provides consulting (and some services) with regards to websites, Facebook, Twitter, QR codes, mobile and traditional marketing. Learn more at www.ElianEvans.com.

You just have to keep your eyes open.

This is what I’ve coined the “Sales Cycle” – and it’s where you can find customers at any point in your business. Some people you are just meeting, others, you have been doing business with for a long time, while others still have known you, but never done business with you.

It works kind of like a wheel. You are at the hub, and each “spoke” represents a public-facing point in your business where you could potentially meet new customers. The right half of the image is where most people think of meeting new clients (Meet, Lead, Client), but customers are also found on the left half of the Cycle.

But like Thomas Edison once said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work“. The left side of the Cycle takes a little more work, but produces far better customers as a result.

We dig in deep on this concept in Direct Sales 104, and as part of the updated, expanded Direct Sales 101, I’ll be sharing specific examples of each. For now, let’s give you an overview of what each spoke represents in your business. That just may give you all the fuel you need to make fast progress at attracting new customers to your direct sales business.

1. Meet People – this is something you do every day of your life. You’re online or off, you’re connecting with strangers, and adding them to your circle. Some of these people will pretty much stay strangers in your life – you may never encounter them again. Many of them, however, have the potential of becoming…

2. Leads – these are the folks that have at least a remote interest in who you are and what you’re doing. Over time, if they have a need, and know you, like you, and trust you to their satisfaction, they’ll cross a threshold into…

3. Clients – people that pay you money for what you do! Too often, we think these people are the only people that exist. While it’s true that you’ll spend less money to keep current clients than you will to attract new ones, that is only helpful if you actually have clients in the first place – and enough of them to keep you in business. For most of direct sales professionals, with a re-order rate of 1.1 (meaning for every eleven people that buy from you, ONE of them will make a repeat purchase – and only once), this group won’t be helpful on their own, unless you move them into…

4. Delivery – this is where the client relationship is fortified. Typically, it begins at the time of product delivery, which is why I call this spoke delivery. But it could just as easily begin as soon as you take the order – before they’ve received anything more than your good will and gratitude.  How you deliver to the client is far more important than what you deliver or when. All of them are necessary, but it’s the how that often determines repeat business. When it’s done right, it’s a…

5. Bonus – this is where the client relationship is intensified. When you go out of your way to surprise and delight your clients with occasional bonuses, they are oft wont to talk you up, referring to you favorably with their friends and colleagues. Positive referrals beget more business, more customers, and the opportunity to build deeper, richer client relationships. This ultimately gives you the opportunity to…

6. Reciprocate (giving back) – call it charity, tithing, or donating your time or money, the name doesn’t matter. Reciprocity is when you give of your blessings to bless others. You might think it strange to include this as part of the Sales Cycle, since it can often be such an intangible thing to measure. However, my experience, and that of my clients has proven time and again that some of the best business (and positive public exposure) comes from giving back to the community – and often it’s better to give of your time than your money, so there’s very little cost involved to make it happen. People talk about you when you’re going out of your way to make a positive impact in the world. Your direct sales business can be a vehicle for great things, if you remember to include giving back in your Sales Cycle. The best part? Getting involved and giving back often puts you in a position to…

7. Meet People – oh! here we are at the top of the Cycle again. See how that works?

You could easily find yourself on different spokes of the Sales Cycle at the same time with different people. Unlike a “funnel” where you’re trying to “push” clients through it to your desired end result, this Sales Cycle gives you an at-a-glance approach to dealing with each person uniquely. You can see quickly where they fall in the Cycle, and what your best approach is to working with them.

Over time, the Sales Cycle becomes a powerful tool to help you track the opportunities in your business, by making it clear where to focus your business development. Not generating enough leads? Take a look at what you’re doing to meet the right people for your business. Surprising and delighting your customers, but not seeing referrals? How are you handling delivery? If you keep an eye on each of the spokes of the Sales Cycle, your business will continue to roll along nicely.

Visit the Direct Sales Classroom Store to take advantage of the special offer on Direct Sales JUMP Start. The sale ends October 31, and after that, the product will never be available again in any format.

If you’re curious to see what I’m up to that’s causing all these changes, take a look at the Business Action Hero blog for more details on the 90 day Webadventure challenge.

I just had to tell you all about my encounter with a good friend of mine and how it is so relate-able to building relationships with your customers.

My friend has a condo that she rents out. She is thinking of selling it and buying another home in Florida, as “snowbirds” often do.

She was telling me about her Realtor, who sells residential as well as commercial real estate. Each year, he sends out calendars with his family’s picture  on it. He also sends her a card or e-mail every few months to ask how she is doing.

When she was talking to him, he told her it was not a good time to sell her condo because she would not get as much out of it as she would want. She mentioned that the commission on her condo was probably peanuts compared to what he would earn for selling a commercial building.

His comment to her was that “it was not about the money…it was about the friendships”.

He gets it! This Realto does what you need to do: become your customer’s friend. Stop selling just to sell and focus instead on building those relationships. That’s when the sales will consistently roll in!

When I asked her who she would use if she ever sold any of her property, of course she emphatically said “HIM! And I recommend him to everyone I know!”

That is what we want in a customer. That is what your customer wants from you.

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About The Author

Jen Fitzgerald is the owner of The Client Angel, the proven tool for the Direct Selling community.

The Client Angel is an online customer relationship management tool designed to work with your company’s website to catapult your business to greater heights. Give yourself the organization you deserve. Stop worrying, and start succeeding with the “gentle reminders” you need to effectively follow-up and build relationships with your customers – for a lifetime. Visit Jen’s website for a free demo of The Client Angel today.