Direct Sales

This is the resource you've been waiting for. Tailored specifically to those in "party plan" direct selling businesses, Social Media for Direct Selling Representatives is the first volume in a series of books to help you accelerate your business using social media marketing as a vibrant part of your overall marketing plan. Based on 18 years' experience in the field and working with companies, this book was written by someone with the technical expertise to know what works, and the industry knowledge to explain it in a way that makes sense.

The Power of Direct Selling. Direct selling is not an industry per se nor is it merely a go-to-market business model and channel to reach consumers. It is bigger than any of this - direct selling is people. The ability for people with entrepreneurial spirit to build a successful business, whether it be from the ground up or by representing a company's product, is at the heart of direct selling and it is people who made (and continue to make) direct selling the successful marketplace that it is today. The direct selling marketplace is comprised of mission-driven and socially responsible companies offering a wide variety of product and services, and the list of direct selling companies is abundant with entrepreneurs who built their businesses by utilizing an independent salesforce channel to market and sell their products or services directly to consumers. Possibly one of the most prominent of these entrepreneurs is Mary Kay Ash, a legend as a glass-ceiling breaker and a woman who built a very successful business with a go-to-market strategy of direct selling. Unlike Mary Kay Ash, however, not all aspiring business owners are willing/able to invest their savings and time on a start-up business. These micro-entrepreneurs desire to have the economic and social benefits of managing their own businesses but do not want the startup costs and demands associated with traditional business planning. As such, becoming a direct selling distributor offers a low-risk, low-cost pathway to micro-entrepreneurship. The traditional barriers to small business ownership are removed when a micro-entrepreneur builds a direct selling business that is backed by established brands. These established brands, several of which are featured in this book, offer the micro-entrepreneurs quality products, business training, and technological resources to achieve a self-determined metric of success. Framed within the context of entrepreneurship and an historical overview of the long-term sustainability of this business model, this book is intended for practitioners who want to read about the breadth and depth of direct selling. Importantly, this book provides considerable depth in terms of three particular issues associated with direct selling: Compensation, Ethics & compliance, and Global reach. For scholars, this book is built on a strong foundation of valid and reliable research endeavors. The authors have published research on direct selling in high quality, reputable and peer-reviewed academic and practitioner journals. Thus, this book can add foundationally to the research efforts of academics who are conducting research in a wide variety of topics (such as sales, women empowerment, business strategy, ethics, distribution models, gig economy, and global entry - to name a few), as well as to members of the press who want reliable and valid content upon which to build their stories. The book's content is also particularly informative for policymakers at the local, state, national, and international levels. For students, reading this book will offer a variety of insights, particularly related to the intricacies of channel selection and design. Direct Selling: A Global and Social Business Model is a collective project from eight academics and practitioners who have dedicated much of their careers to understanding direct selling as both a go-to-market strategy and a channel of distribution and to capturing the people who are the foundation of direct selling. The pages of this book bring together a wealth of research and knowledge that can inform a broad spectrum of constituents about the economic and social benefits of direct selling, while also providing detail and clarity on key issues related to direct selling as a sustainable business model.

Become a direct sales success story with this insider guide to making it big Direct Selling For Dummies is the perfect resource for anyone involved or interested in direct sales. Written by a 35-year veteran of this booming industry, this useful guide teaches you everything you need to know to achieve and maintain lasting success. You'll learn the insider tips that only the pros know, and how to structure your business, your time, and your customer relationships to optimize sales and achieve your goals. Compare party plans, multi-level marketing, and hybrid models to see where your talents fit best, and discover the most effective ways to promote your products and get people interested. You'll leverage social media as one of the most powerful tools in modern sales, and gain new ideas for recruiting, booking, and time management. With clear guidance and a fun, friendly style, this book gives you the strategies you need to be a direct sales success. The direct sales industry is going strong, with more participants now than any time in the past, yet with less face-to-face engagement. Businesses are operating online, people are shopping online, and more people are recruiting through platforms like social media. If you hope to be a direct sales success, now is the time to get up to speed on what that means today. This book shows you everything you need to know, and gives you the tools you need to put your ideas into action. Choose the right direct sales model Secure bookings and manage your time Recruit and drive interest in the product and company Harness the power of social media to make sales Direct sales can be your ticket to independence. Stop punching the clock and become your own boss — and watch your income grow. With Direct Selling For Dummies, you'll have the skills and information you need to be a success.

Become a direct sales success story with this insider guide to making it big Direct Selling For Dummies is the perfect resource for anyone involved or interested in direct sales. Written by a 35-year veteran of this booming industry, this useful guide teaches you everything you need to know to achieve and maintain lasting success. You'll learn the insider tips that only the pros know, and how to structure your business, your time, and your customer relationships to optimize sales and achieve your goals. Compare party plans, multi-level marketing, and hybrid models to see where your talents fit best, and discover the most effective ways to promote your products and get people interested. You'll leverage social media as one of the most powerful tools in modern sales, and gain new ideas for recruiting, booking, and time management. With clear guidance and a fun, friendly style, this book gives you the strategies you need to be a direct sales success. The direct sales industry is going strong, with more participants now than any time in the past, yet with less face-to-face engagement. Businesses are operating online, people are shopping online, and more people are recruiting through platforms like social media. If you hope to be a direct sales success, now is the time to get up to speed on what that means today. This book shows you everything you need to know, and gives you the tools you need to put your ideas into action. Choose the right direct sales model Secure bookings and manage your time Recruit and drive interest in the product and company Harness the power of social media to make sales Direct sales can be your ticket to independence. Stop punching the clock and become your own boss — and watch your income grow. With Direct Selling For Dummies, you'll have the skills and information you need to be a success.

These tips will take you step-by-step through the direct sales journey, providing a solid approach to build a thriving business. Learn how to set your business up for success; make a splash as you launch, market, and promote your products; serve your customers; and grow your leadership team. Direct sales leader Becky Launder gives you her best tips, which she uses daily to grow her direct sales business. In this easy, short read, you will gain: - A clear formula to step into your direct sales business with ease - Actionable tips for you to stand out from the rest - A road map for building your business and team with confidence

Here is the first book to examine direct selling--the distribution of consumer products and services through personal, face-to-face sales away from fixed business locations. Direct selling has long been a major marketing channel for companies around the world. In the U.S. alone, by the start of the present decade, direct selling accounted for $12 billion in sales volume produced by almost five million independent direct salespeople. In this fundamental resource, leading authorities who have spent years studying direct selling channels provide in-depth insights, analyses, and research findings on such key topics as customer response patterns, sales motivation, personal selling methods, minority participation, multinational direct selling, and directions for future research in direct selling. This marketing channel continues to thrive and grow and Direct Selling Channels prepares readers for the challenges of the twenty-first century by providing the latest and most in-depth thought, analysis, and research on direct selling that is not available from any other source. The breadth and depth of coverage of direct selling found in this volume will help readers gain knowledge, insight, and practical wisdom about an area of marketing where superficial, stereotypical myths have so often been passed off as truth. The material presented is directly relevant to both long-range strategic planning and day-to-day management issues so it can be put to immediate use for managing direct selling channels more effectively. Direct Selling Channels represents the state-of-the-art thought and research in this area. Reader’s understanding of direct selling channels will be enriched by chapters that explore: the salient issues facing direct selling today research findings on consumers’attitudes toward direct selling methods the reasons why people become direct salespeople innovative concepts such as trust-based relationship selling the relationship between sex-role self concept and sales performance how to identify international markets for new products sold through direct selling channels

There are over 5,000,000 people working in direct sales in North America. Each night of the week approximately 150,000 home sales demonstrations are given across the United States! Contrary to popular belief, a career in direct sales, whether as a representative for an established company or as the owner of your own business, can be an exciting and lucrative occupation for anyone who possesses the right business skills and sales techniques. By studying and employing the practices outlined in this book, the new recruit to direct sales can bypass the inherent frustrations that come with the undertaking. Lack of experience, low self-esteem, fear of failure, and lack of sales skills are all barriers that can obstruct the road to success in direct consumer marketing. For the more seasoned representative, these secrets to successful selling will become part of your established repertoire, adding to your hard-earned knowledge of the direct sales field with some new and enlightening ideas and practices. Included is a success potential quiz and analysis, followed by chapters on prospecting for clients, sure-fire techniques for booking, suggestions for confirming demonstrations and keeping them booked, coaching your hosts or hostesses for higher profits, the basics of a successful sales presentation, client service, how to increase confidence, the power of goal-setting, and time management. Included within the chapters are sample conversations and examples of how to use the techniques offered to their highest potential by using them along with your company's encouragement to achieve a superior, more rewarding direct sales career.

We believe that direct sales is more than any one platform, or any one modality. It's a network of platforms and strategies that form a foundation for your author business. When you try to define direct sales across any one axis, you lessen its impact. We didn't want to do that. We wanted to show you the full scope of what is possible with direct sales, which ended up being a lot of words. The book became so long that we actually split it into two books. When we looked at what we've already written, and what we have planned, we realized this really is the definitive guide to direct sales for authors. Direct Sales Mastery for Authors Volume 2 This volume dives deep into the StoryUrge Messaging Framework, which helps authors create strong marketing messaging that actually helps them sell a book. This goes far beyond a blurb or some ad copy. (Though it can be used to make those pieces better too!) The book then shows you how to apply the StoryUrge Messaging Framework across all five areas of direct sales: Website Landing Pages, Website Storefronts, Crowdfunding Launches, Subscriptions and Memberships, and Live Events and Signings. There are three major pieces of the StoryUrge Messaging Framework: Excitement - Why people should be excited about your project. This can include telling them about the tropes, characters, relationships, settings, special features, special offers, and more. Objections - Why people are holding back from your project. This includes general objections to your genre or niche, but can also include specific objections to you or your books. With direct sales, it is particularly important to include objections to the platform, method of sale, or business model as readers may not be as familiar with it as they are at retailers. (For example, we always advise our students to talk to their readers about why Kickstarter is not “begging for money” or similar to GoFundMe.) Psychological Triggers - Why people buy. Russell and I have extensive experience in marketing and sales and have collected these over the years. We have shared our secrets to creating exciting offers and messaging in one chapter of Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter—Chapter 6—but we are greatly expanding on that in the second volume of Direct Sales Mastery for Authors to help answer all the awesome questions we’ve gotten on this topic in the last few years. Our psychological triggers section offers nearly 50 different buttons to push to bring people into your work across six categories: The X-Factors - These help you position yourself or your characters in a leadership position or several steps ahead of your readers Connection Deepeners - These help you position yourself or your characters as a peer to your readers (making you or your characters relatable and sympathetic) The Button-Pushers - These encourage action at a subconscious level Pleasure and Pain Inducers - These evoke visceral and resonant emotion in your readers Core Wounders and Healers - These take the audience on a transformational journey with you (for memoir), with themselves (for nonfiction), or with your characters (for fiction) Emotional Fantasies and Nightmares - These allow the audience to explore a different life in safety We teach how to use these triggers in the book itself (yes, even for fiction!), in the offer you are trying to sell, and in the marketing messaging you use to sell the offer. When all of this is in alignment, sales happen more easily!