Follow-Up Success: Slow and Steady Wins The Race

[Editor's note: I am thrilled to bring the customer service know-how of Jen Fitzgerald to Direct Sales Classroom. Jen is the owner of The Client Angel and will be writing a regular "column" on customer service and follow-up in your direct sales business.]

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Whenever you do a home show or meet a potential client for the first time, you need to record their important information (such as e-mail and phone numbers). Once you have that information, then the balancing act begins. There’s a delicate balance you must maintain between consistent follow-up and “pushy-ness”.

On one hand, you want to keep them informed, sending them e-mails about your sales, your products, hostess benefits and your company. The problem is you don’t want to feel like you are bombarding them with e-mails that are pushy or full of sales all the time.

Where’s The Money At In Your Direct Sales Business?

The other day, I shared the news about a new project I’ve been working on for some time now. I’ve recently launched an entirely new division of my business, focused on helping entrepreneurs discover their hero potential and become the hero of their own business. As part of that project launch, I filmed a video to help entrepreneurs understand where the money’s at in their business.

Then, the emails and tweets came out of the woodwork about how I was able to do “all the stuff” I do. Mom, wife, biz owner, coach & mentor, writer, performer, etc. Amid the encouragement and positive vibes people were sending about the new project, there was this underlying question:

“How do you make it all happen?”

Stop Boring Your Customers! 5 Tips To Keep Your Demonstrations Fresh And Effective

As a direct sales coach, one of the questions I see regularly is on the topic of keeping things interesting during a home show or demonstration.

Before I offer my tips, I want to take a moment to offer a warning:

Just because YOU think your demo is boring doesn’t mean your customers do. When a consultant gets used to a routine, it can seem monotonous or tedious to “perform” the same show or demonstration over and over at every event or home party. For you, this is “same stuff, different day”, but for your host or clients, this may be entirely new for them.

In the advertising world, it’s said that when the company is tired of seeing their commercials on TV, that’s when they’ve finally started being effective, because people now recognize them. In that instance, change would be a bad thing, but very often, that’s exactly what the companies do.

The result is often counter to their desired outcome.

Think of it this way: if a musician or an actor has been practicing the same part for months on end, it can get very monotonous for the player. However, the audience will only hear them perform it once. Twice if it’s exceptional. Three or more times if it was recorded AND exceptional.

The audience will rarely get bored. And it would be in poor taste for a performer to show up and decide they were going to do something completely different just to “spice things up” for the show. Imagine the shock and horror if a saxophonist decided that, just for tonight, he was going to play some jazz instead of the Mozart piece everyone else was scheduled to play. Or an actor shows up ready to do Neil Simon, only to find out the director decided to do Shakespeare tonight instead.

Before you get itchy to change things up in your demonstration, make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Your boredom is not necessarily the right reason.

That said, if you find yourself doing the same presentation over and over to the exact same audience, you may find it’s time to change some of the elements of your presentation to keep listeners engaged. Here are some suggestions:

Using Twitter to Build Your Online Business

As a direct sales professional, my first taste of success came when I discovered the power of the internet. In less than 90 days, I built a national team in a party plan company and promoted to leadership for the first time after more than a decade in the industry.

Then came social media. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and YouTube created an entirely new landscape to reach prospects, build business, and grow my organization.

And I was scared out of my mind.

See, I didn’t “get” the concept of social media. I was socially awkward myself. Plus, with all the confusing rules that most companies have about “internet advertising” I couldn’t figure out a way to navigate the social media landscape without pulling out my hair.

First, I went to MySpace, but with so much spam, and “fake accounts” I couldn’t tell who was real and who was scamming me. So I left.

I set up my twitter account and started following people. I didn’t understand why people were talking about what they ate for breakfast. How’s that beneficial to business?

So then I went to facebook, where it seemed like everybody I knew was “hanging out”. But there were so many applications. People were “poking” me, asking me to be in their “mafia war” or help them work on their garden in “farmville”, and it was maddening. Then, I got sucked into one of those games myself, and found i was spending more time playing than I was building relationships.

And I was too scared to do video. In fact, if it weren’t for a contest that Mark Joyner put together, I probably would never had made a video in the first place. In fact, I didn’t even use a video camera in my first video, just a picture, my voice, and some music I wrote. I ended up with an honorable mention in the contest, and a little less fear about doing video.

But I still wasn’t keen on the idea, so back to twitter I went.

This time, I just watched for a bit. Trying to figure out who I really wanted to connect with. I figured that if I was just talking to myself, I wouldn’t be too productive. So I started following people I wanted to learn more from. I watched what they were doing, who they were talking to and what they were saying to generate followers.

It didn’t take long to figure out I was doing some things wrong – and a few things right. That first year, I earned more than $30,000 because of twitter. Plus, I made some great contacts and new friends. REAL friends, which surprised me. And while I still don’t have fifty gazillion followers on twitter, the relationships I have are high-quality, conversational and engaging. I actually know most of the folks I “follow back” on twitter, and that’s a good feeling. Here are some lessons learned that may help you use twitter to grow your own direct sales business.

Online Holiday Shopping Parties

The holiday selling season can be the busiest for direct sales professionals. It can also be difficult to pin down a date with potential hosts. Your hosts may complain that everyone is travelling, or that it’s too difficult to get everyone in the same place at the same time to host a party.

One possible solution: hosting an online holiday shopping party.

Online parties are similar to offline parties, in that there’s a host, a presenting consultant, and guests. Beyond that, though, online parties can be very different – and maybe even a little complicated for a host or even a direct sales consultant to figure out. They can also be an incredibly lucrative source of additional sales from a party, so it is worth your time to learn more about online parties.

Here are a few tips for understanding and using online parties during the holidays: