The Skinny On...Direct Sales

I just finished reading "The Skinny On...Direct Sales - your first 100 days" by Jim Randel. It's a quick read, humorous and full of great tips. If people joining your team read this book, I think it would help them manage the ups and downs of navigating a new business. You can buy a copy on Amazon or at www.theskinnyon.com $14.95

Here are the top ten tips for your first 100 days:

1. Write down WHY you want to be in direct sales. Ready your WHY statement every day - maybe a few times a day. By staying focused on YOUR GOALS you strengthen your resolve to deal with the challenge of your first 100 days.

2. Remember that it is not easy to be an entrepreneur. You are building an enterprise that can give you the flexibility and freedom to live your life as you want. Be business-like in the approach to your new career. Be sure you understand all of your company's written materials. Read books on the basics of running your own business. The great new is that you have no boss but you. If you are not happy with your income, look in the mirror and complain to the person you see there.

3. By preparing yourself for the challenge ahead, you buffer yourself against setbacks. By knowing that there will be disappointments in the first 100 days, your mind is ready. When disappoints come, instead of your mind going "OH NO, OH NO," your minds goes "AHA, I have been expecting you... I did not know how you would show up, but I knew your would be here eventually. I will figure out a way to get past you!"

4. Be realistic as to your objectives for the first 100 days. The measures you set for yourself should not be tied to sales, but rather to the relationships you establish and the foundation you build for future success. Here are some objectives you should aspire to in your first 100 days: learning about your products, polishing your sales conversation, creating a spreadsheet for contact and follow-up, making lists of prospects, holding launch parties, and events, spreading the word to friends and family about what you are doing and asking for their assistance, develop "give-away" items that can break the ice with strangers. And so on and so on.

5. Ask for referrals. Even if you do not make one sale in your first 100 days, you can build your future by developing the ability to ask for referrals. Remember all the reasons that referrals work: low-tension selling, low (zero) cost of acquisition of a lead, and higher conversion rates.

6. Tell yourself every day that you must be patient. Far too many people throw in the towel in the first few months of direct sales because their time line is all wrong. Other than people who love and want to support your new enterprise, most people need to be persuaded gradually to try a new product or service. If you rush the tempo, if you forget the four conversation stages, you may be overbearing and appear anxious, thereby losing a good customer.

7. Invest as much of your first 100 days as possible educating yourself. Great salespeople aren't born that way. They develop their sales skills over time. They learn to listen and touch people's emotions with their comments. Read everything you can. Atend seminars. Speak with successful salespeople and ask for guidance. You don't need to reinvent the wheel. Learn from those who have already been successful in direct sales.

8. Join every association, organization and club you can. The larger your network (the people who know you), the more likely you will be successful. Reminder: sales is a numbers game. The more people you touch, the more people buyers you will have.

9. Over perform! The world is full of people who over promise and under perform. Be the opposite...be understated in your promise, and overstated in your performance. In whatever opportunities you have in your first 100 days to show off your customer service and follow-through, do so. Give people a reason to start talking about you! You will be surprised how quickly one person tells another who tells another and so on. The power of over performance cannot be overstated!

10. Commit to treating people honorably and with sensitivity to their situation. There may be some people who would like to buy from you but are not in a financial position to do so. Do not push those people. Do not persuade people to buy your product who will not benefit from using or owning it. Although you may feel pressure to make sales in your first 100 days, do not vary the ethical standards you set for yourself. In the final analysis, you can always make money. But, you can never get back the harm you may do by acting less than 100% honorably.

My wish for you is to enjoy the journey and make friends and business clients for life. Most of all, be consistent, and don't ever quit!