Quit Hating On Direct Sales

"Stop trying to sell me stuff on Facebook!"
"Direct sales is a pyramid scheme."
"MultiLevelMarketing is annoying."
"I've lost friends because they try to sell me stuff."

There is a lot of hate about direct sales companies. A. Lot. Of. Hate.

All of this negativity has really made an impact on direct sellers, and quite frankly, I'm fed up with it.

A short disclaimer to representatives, especially new reps: DO NOT TRY TO SELL TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY! Offer once, say you are doing this thing, and then never "prospect" them again. Continue to offer catalogs, or share new products through email, but do not push them. They will know where to go to get xyz, and you will prevent damaging the relationship.

Here's why everyone needs to quit hating on direct sales: 

I think you misunderstand how supply chains work.

As much as you think it is easier for you to go to the store and buy something there, the product supply chain at your local Walmart is much more damaging than buying similar products from a friend. It won't kill you to help by spending the same dollars with someone you know rather than buy from a chainstore. The profit from buying from your friend goes to helping them buy groceries, pay for heat or electricity, or clothes for their kids. You know where your money goes when you buy from a drugstore? I'll give you a hint, it's not the cashier.

Working retail is an awful experience. The hourly wages are ridiculously low, employees are frequently kept "part time" so that the company does not have to offer benefits to them at any point (like, you know, health insurance), and retail employees can lose their job any moment - especially true if a customer has a bad day and blames that employee.

Let's compare that to direct sales. Direct sales representatives have control over their businesses. The product goes directly from the manufacturing company to the consumer, directly through the sales representative. Would you buy products from a seller at a market stall? or a farmer's market? or a craft fair? It is NO DIFFERENT than someone manufacturing products themselves and then selling those craft products to you, except the products are manufactured by the company, so there is higher quality control, best packaging, and more options.

Even when you purchase products "directly" using Amazon, the original seller does not earn that much from the sale. Amazon gets a good chunk. So, yes, it's a great marketplace online. But Amazon is simply warehouses holding products, just like retail stores holding products from multiple manufacturers. And what, exactly, do you know about those manufacturers? In a supply chain, the manufacturer and the end consumer are incredibly distanced. A product goes through multiple hands and multiple locations before landing in your shopping cart. And every step of that supply chain, people take a chunk of money from the transfer of those goods. So, the more "middle men" involved, the less of a profit everyone makes. It's just not necessary. It's not even convenient.

I *hate* shopping retail stores. They often act like the customer owes them for existing. Whatever happened to the customer was always right? Because it sure doesn't feel like that anymore. On the contrary, purchasing products from a direct sales representative eliminates that costly supply chain, so the "seller", the rep, earns more profit from you purchasing that product. In addition, you have a person, an individual, that you can always connect with about your product, about your purchase. Sure, you can always take something back to Walmart, but have you ever had to stand in line to return something there? And then not have the receipt? Or maybe have to explain why you don't want that product anymore?

Direct to consumer is how mail order companies used to work. It's how many online retailers work now. And it is how individual direct sales representatives work.

You aren't really sure how much of an impact it makes on individuals.

Selling is hard work. It takes investment, skills, and a healthy dose of confidence. Successful direct selling is not easy. It is ridiculously challenging (and rewarding) hard work. Doing so does not reduce someone's credibility. Selling product is a form of income that has sustained for thousands of years. Trading product prior to that.

Direct sales requires product expertise, consumer buying knowledge, and some serious skills in managing a business. People keep referring to it as "entrepreneurship" for a reason. It takes a lot of effort and knowledge. Working from home requires risk, skill and commitment. Plus, to be successful, you have to be a strong communicator, a positive personality, and a whole slew of other personal qualities. Yet, it's viewed negatively? And direct sales reps have lower credibility? Are you freaking kidding me? Why?!

So, when you say you hate direct sales, and Facebook parties, and people asking if you would like to consider buying the products they sell, you are essentially saying to them that they are not good enough for you. Way to judge. So, in order for them to be better, they need to work retail at Walmart? Where their pay is minimal, there are no benefits, and zero chance of future growth. Instead of supporting a developing business owner, who is honestly working to improve their skills, you would rather they take a crap job that pulls them away from their family on evenings and weekends. Or perhaps because they do not necessarily have a college degree, that's not good enough for you? They need to be better people by getting a college degree? It is this detrimental, negative perspective that makes me really frustrated when people say "I hate direct sales."

So, now that I am sure I have thoroughly offended you, go buy your candles at Walmart, and your Cover Girl makeup at the local drugstore. Ask the cashier when the last time was that they had benefits through their employer. Maybe someone is using direct sales to make enough to pay for college classes? Or by a used car so they can drive to a job? Evaluating someone's why for doing direct sales is mean and rude. So, don't buy product, if you don't want to. That is your choice. But stop judging other people's choices. Please and thank you.

Check Your Social Media Hustle: Would you follow you?

Social media is THE channel where most direct sales representatives should be putting their marketing efforts. Consider your local advertising, purchase the promotional items that make you happy, but social media and the reach of an enormous audience is where you will find your sales success.

Plus, it's mostly free.

BUT (there's always that but)... you really, truly, absolutely need to hustle it. The Social Media Hustle is very real. You can't just BE on social media, you have to live and breathe social media. You have to work social media. And you have to make social media consumers want to engage with you.

Previous resources I have shared about social media content:

• Social Media Network Marketing, Simplified offers a run down of social media tools and Four Key Social Media Network Marketing Activities: Content, Listening, Relationships, Linking.
• In Create and Share Content on Social Media, I reiterate that you have to have to have to create content, and frequently.
• In Selling With Social Media: Creating and Pushing Content, I offer even more resources to get that content train chugging.

Putting this social media train into practice requires planning, scheduling and implementing.

PLAN

Create valuable content. Consumers of social media content do not want to keep seeing the same content; they are looking for the newest, freshest, most interesting content. Make sure you know your products very well, you know the needs of the consumers that use your products, and that you actively seek the newest information within your product niche. What does that mean? Consider what products you sell: you should know the benefits of your products, and be able to speak to those benefits easily. You should also know about similar products in the industry, and what is currently awesome. Remember, would you follow you?

Example: If I sell lipstick, I'm going to know my lipsticks inside out and upside down. I'm also going to know about other lipsticks: what is available, what colors were just released, benefits of other brands, where you can purchase those lipsticks and how much they cost. Why do I need to know? Because my customers know. And I need to have the same information my customers have, or more.

Create content in many different forms:

• Photographs (Flat Lay, Behind the Scenes, Organic/Natural/Not Posed, etc.)
• Videos
• Infographics
• Blog Posts
• Tweets
• Quotes
• Conversations about products
• Links to industry news, research and events
• Sharing similar content created by others (Retweets)

Adapt your content to fit each social media channel; you will not want to share identical content on all channels every time. This takes some work, but you have very different audiences on each social media channel, and they expect to see the type of content that is suited for that channel.

SCHEDULE

You need an editorial calendar. Every single week, share the same type of content on specific days, make it consistent and stick to it. Every. Single. Week.

Skincare Sunday, Makeup Monday, Throwback Thursday. You've seen these, right? Get on this hashtag content train. Tag your original content and visually appealing images with known hashtags for more exposure, but do it carefully, thoughtfully and on a consistent editorial schedule.

Followers want to see a reliable amount of quality content, but they do not want to be inundated with too much invaluable content. There's a sweet spot, and this chart actually provides soem posting guidelines about how frequently to post for each channel. When scheduling your content, ask yourself, would you follow you?

Channel	Minimum	Maximum
Facebook	3x per week	10x per week
Twitter	5x per day	none
Pinterest	5x per day	10x per day
Instagram	3x per week	10x per week
Google+	5x per week	10x per week
LinkedIn	2x per week	5x per week
YouTube	1x per week	5x per week

IMPLEMENT

Push content our to social media channels. Push current content first, and make it a focus. But don't be afraid to push related content, similar products, and older content that you want to reintroduce into the feed.

Connect with other people to form relationships, grow your network and hopefully, reach your sales goals through volume. Follow for follow, like for like. Comment, interact, engage with other people, and you will begin to see the same engagement with you.

Action, Action, We Want Action. A-C-T-I-O-N! Use a Call To Action (CTA). In every content post, have a call to action. Join. Click. Shop. Save. Login. Follow. Find out more. Subscribe. Download. Email. Snag this. Get it now. You get the idea: Use an action verb that drives visitor traffic to engage with you. If you were a social media consumer, would you engage with your own call to action? Would you follow you?

Visit my beYOUtiful business blog to read more articles about social media and direct sales!

Strategies for Direct Sales Facebook Parties

Let's have a party! Facebook virtual parties can be just as effective, if not better than home, in person parties. It's easy to get this party started. I'm giving you some great ideas on how to make Facebook parties work for your direct sales, especially if you have been trying Facebook to promote and it's just not working the way you want.

Facebook is fussy. Many representatives in direct sales are finding Facebook advertising challenging or not providing the return expected. Some of this has to do with Facebook's policies and algorithms. Some of this has to do with content that the direct seller chooses to push. Part of the problem is that Facebook's "Events" feature is meant to promote live events, not virtual events. I think that's a design failure on Facebook's part, but that's neither here nor there.

Considerations when creating a Facebook party: Event, Guests, Content, Engagement. EGCE doesn't spell anything cool, sorry. CEEG or GEEC either.

Event

To create a Facebook party, first make sure you have a Facebook business page for your direct sales business. (Creating business events from a personal page can cause problems with Facebook because it may violate their terms of service). From your Facebook business page, Create a new, PUBLIC event. I cannot stress this enough. So many people create social media content that is hidden behind their privacy filter. Make your Facebook Events PUBLIC. Make your Instagram PUBLIC. No one can see your content if it's not.

The Event Photo should be carefully crafted. You want something visually interesting, not busy, and low on text overlays. Guests will see this as a small thumbnail at first, so make sure it represents your event in a visually stimulating way. Also, adhere to the 1920 x 1080 image size in your design.

Make your Event Name powerful and relevant.

The Location should say Virtual, or Online.

Date/Time can be a single date or a time frame. On one hand, a single, short event will create a sense of urgency with guests. On the other hand, a time frame of several days expands guest participation because they can jump in at any time. A single, several hours long event or a 2 or 3 day stretch are the ideals;  anymore than 5 days can get annoying.

Co-hosts is useful if you are partnering up with another representative, or if you have a hostess. Another trick for Co-hosts? Add yourself, and as many friends as are willing to "co-host". What this will do is broaden your invite reach. Keep the invites low-ish though, or it will be id'd as spam.

Ticket URL is meant to purchase real live tickets to a real live event. I'd like to say use the link to your estore here, but I have to admit I have not tested this, and I'm not 100% sure what the policies are. If I discover this information somewhere, I will surely update you!

Description is very important. Copywrite this carefully. Your description should give specific information about what guests will experience, as well as the products or product lines you will be sharing.

I would choose Community > Shopping as the Category. Just making your event goals transparent may increase participation. Do not mislead your guests.

Leave Only hosts can post on the event wall unchecked. You want people to post; conversation is engagement and engagement leads to sales!

Guests

You want as many guests to join your event as possible. Invite all of your friends, ONCE! Don't be a spammer. Have your co-hosts invite their friends, once.

Promote your event outside of Facebook, with the linky back to the Event page.

Send out reminders leading up to the event to encourage more people to jump in.

Content

Have a purpose when you create a virtual Facebook party. Are you trying to:

• Introduce a new product or product line?
• Create a community?
• Answer questions about your opportunity?
• Promote a specific campaign?
• Acquire new leads and customers?

Make sure you focus your content on that purpose. Answer questions about other products and services, if they come up, but make sure you have a niche focus for your party. Focus on one product, or a newly released product, or successes customers have had. Even make it a problem solving event, if multiple customers have had questions about something.

Engagement

Your shares are critical. Share content that is related to the focus of your Facebook party, and work to create guest engagement. If people are posting on the wall, asking questions, making comments, participating or responding, those crickets mean no sales for you.

Hold Party Games to Make Guests Feel Like Individuals

OK, so there is this social media concept called "gamification". Essentially, humans want to enjoy their experience, so when interaction is turned into a game, they tend to engage more. I'm not going to go into this in too much detail (yet) because I haven't learned enough about it, but the same idea holds true in educational settings. (If you have kids, ask them if they have ever played Kahoot! in school and see their reaction.) Get kids involved by making learning fun. Get adults involved by making social media fun. Have party games about your products and about your customers. Make the games personal and relevant to individuals. Make guests feel special. Bring them in, and make it about them.

Take a look at my list of Facebook Games!

Offer Promotions Coupled with a Call To Action

When people shop, they want products that will work for them, but they also want to feel like they are getting something special. Offer as many promotions and discounts as you can. Give them exclusivity. Encourage action based on losing the opportunity to a discount. "20% discount on x product, available only from 6pm to 7pm today!" or "Free shipping coupon code expires Tuesday. Order now."

Provide Explicit Product Images, Information and Instructions on How To Order

Sounds crazy, right? Sell more product and get more customers by saying, explicitly, THIS is my product, THIS is what it does for you, and THIS is how you can get it. Don' make potential customers hunt for how to buy, or work to get the products you are promoting. Engagement that leads to sales will decline if it's too hard for them. Make it super simple to spend money on what you are selling.

Want to promote more and get more sales? Go create a Facebook event, and engage your guests with great content!

Selling With Social Media: Creating and Pushing Content

I've already started to talk about social media, here: Social Media Network Marketing, Simplified What we want to get out of social media, as direct sellers, are network connections that will help us grow our business, and customers who are interested in our products. Those network relationships should be long term, or at least longer than a single sale. Obviously, social media connections will come and go, but you want to focus on developing long term relationships, trust and credibility on social media.

Of the four key social media networking marketing activities, this blog will focus on the first: creating and sharing content. In my first social media blog post, I mention spending 10+ hours a week creating content, and that you begin to see engagement after about 6 hours a week of work. Spend as much time as you can creating original, quality content.

Since this is a two step process (1. Creating Content, 2. Pushing Content) you will see details on how to accomplish both parts of the process. In addition, you will find a summary of the top marketing Social Media Channels, the best time of day to share and the frequency of sharing.

Creating Content

The quickest, cheapest and easiest path to creating content is to create a blog. A blog will keep all of your content in one place, it is technologically one of the least challenging, and it offers one of the highest values. Another benefit of a blog is that you begin to build your personal brand. (See my blog post about personal branding, here: Personal Branding Yourself For Direct Sales)

Here is the challenge with creating content, such as a blog. You need a few content creation tools.

Social Media Accounts. Yes, you share your content on social media accounts, but you also acquire content from those same accounts. Spend some time setting up social media accounts, and begin following people. (I am currently on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and YouTube.) It is highly recommended that you use your own name for all of your social media accounts, in order to develop a strong personal brand. Follow the people you are interested in. If you want to focus on nails, follow ALL the nail artists and nail art people you are inspired by. See what they are talking about, read their blogs, view their images, and see who they follow. As you begin to follow people, you will begin to experience follow for follows. Be careful about this: if you spend too much time following, and not start to provide content for your followers, they will begin to fall off over time. As you develop followers, make sure you begin to give them content, too.

A Spiral Notebook. I am a professional writer. Yet, I surprisingly do not always go straight to my laptop to write - I pull out my old school spiral notebook. Physically writing does a few things for your brain that computers are not able to do. (There is a while bunch of brain science research on this.) With your spiral notebook, begin to collect ideas. Write down things you want to blog about, things you want to research, and ideas you have for content. If we are still talking nails, maybe your list would look like this: tools used to create nail art, my favorite spring nail artists, how to make suchandsuch nail art step by step. Start with your passion, and you will quickly have a list of things to write about! I also use my spiral notebook to outline or draft my content, but not everyone likes to do it that way.

Technology. The tools I recommend are: a computer/laptop with a full size keyboard and mouse (makes the content management process much easier if you have access to this tool), a smartphone, a Google account. That's it! I use my Google account for email, Google docs, sheets and slides, and Blogger (though some people prefer WordPress).

Images. Finding images can be tough, but people are visual and images are a necessity. Be careful about using other people's images, as there are copyright issues. I have had the most success with either taking photographs myself (of products, of myself, of things I like) or creating images by layering text on top of backgrounds. Images up the ante on your content - it attracts people to your textual content with visual enticement. Images help people to connect to your content, and if there is a product involved, seeing the actual product encourages people to purchase.

Pushing Content

PUSH your content. Once you have created your content, you need to get that content in front of people. Share the link to your blogs on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, everywhere you have social media accounts.

"Sharing quality content across your social channels is one of the most important things you can do to engage your audience and attract new followers." 
Source: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-editorial-calendar/

Editorial Schedule. The biggest tool you should be using is something called an "Editorial Schedule". What content will you be posting on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday? An editorial schedule will include your blog posts, and it will also include all of the content *around* your blog post. Share key products related to that post, industry news, inspirational images, trends, summaries from other people's blogs, headlines from related magazines, images you curate, Pins that are in the same category. Try to share the minimum recommended below for each channel. (It's not easy, I know BUT the closer you are to that goal, the closer you are to building your social media presence to where you want it.)

I use a tool called Hootsuite to schedule my content shares throughout the week. I know other people prefer to use Buffer.

One more time, for people in the back: THE MORE ORIGINAL, QUALITY CONTENT YOU CREATE AND PUSH, THE MORE ENGAGEMENT YOU WILL SEE.

Social Media Channels

Channel	Content	Times	Minimum	Maximum
Facebook	I like this new makeup.	between 1pm and 3pm	3x per week	10x per week
Twitter	I'm wearing #makeup	noon, 5pm-6pm	5x per day	none
Pinterest	Here's an infographic of makeup.	2pm-4pm and 8pm-11pm	5x per day	10x per day
Instagram	Here's a filtered photo of me wearing makeup.	1pm-4pm	3x per week	10x per week
Google+	I can't find any makeup here.	9am-11am	5x per week	10x per week
LinkedIn	My skills include wearing makeup.	7am-9am and 5pm-6pm	2x per week	5x per week
YouTube	Here I am showing how to apply makeup.	2pm-4pm	1x per week	5x per week

(Content ideas modified from The Cyber Advocate's "donut" example.)

How do I know it's working? Measuring your social media efforts can be done in a few ways. Many social media channels, blog tools, offer some kind of analytics that show you how many people have viewed that content. When you shorten your links back to your estore, use bitly, which will also track how many times people click on that link. To measure your personal brand and social media health, use a tool called Klout, which gives you  a score based on your social media presence strength. Finally, the key indicator whether your social media content is working is customer engagement: are people communicating with you? are there sales happening on your estore? If you are not seeing that, focus on creating and sharing MORE content. I read somewhere that you will not start to see customers until you have at least 1,000 blog posts! It will take time. Be patient.

6 Stepping Stones for a Successful Side Hustle

A side hustle is a small business you run on the side, or a part time entrepreneur gig. Everyone should have a side hustle that follows a passion. < if you love beauty, then a beYOUtiful business is perfect for you! > To make that side hustle really work for you, you have to get into the hustle mindset and set up a smart operation.

Play

Your side hustle should include your personal passions. Be sure you enjoy what you are doing. Make the side hustle a game. Create challenges for yourself, and compete with yourself to reach those challenges. Make this a gaming mindset - Today, I will network with 5 new people. Or, This week, I will make $500 in sales. Participate in incentive challenges. Have fun! This idea of gamification of the side hustle makes this work feel more like play and passion and less like, well, work. Goals become much more fun and achievable when goal setting, goal working and goal tracking is set up like a game. Customer loyalty cards (spend $100, receive $10 in product) carry this idea to your customer base. Runners always try to beat their last run time or distance. Imagine your side hustle as a series of marathons where you earn a “medal” for completing a specific marathon “goal”. If you enjoy playing games on your smartphone, consider the Proof! app which turns your side hustle into an app game. Find fun ways to self motivate and hold yourself accountable in order to reach your daily/weekly/monthly/yearly goals!

Flexibility

Sharp business people need to be able to adapt quickly. Be prepared for obstacles and have a plan ahead of time on how to navigate those obstacles. Work on building a toolkit that you can pull from when the moment arises that you need it. For example, if you are selling a product, make a list of objections ahead of time and then write your counter argument to each objection. In this way, you are prepared to respond immediately to the objection. Know your policies (or the policies of your mother company, if you have chosen a direct sales side hustle). Know your products and be ready to explain the benefits of your key product lines. Provide choices to customers. When you tell a customer that there is only one option, they will choose the “No” option. If you offer three different “Yes” options, they will likely choose one of those. Actively listen when customers speak, and seek solutions for their concerns. Present them with options they can use to solve a problem they are having; don’t lead with your needs, follow what they say with solutions for them. Be willing to try multiple paths. It is a good possibility that you will find success on one solid path at some point, and you can devote most of your efforts to that one path. Be flexible and open to the possibility that are multiple paths to a goal.

Resourcefulness

Be resourceful with spending. The less money you spend in your side hustle, the more profit you will see. True, you have to spend money to make money, but before spending look for alternatives, shop for discounts, ask around for help. Being resourceful and seeking low cost or no cost resources keeps your expenses low, and your profit high. Be resourceful when dealing with challenges. Finding creative ways to problem solve will prevent you from wasting time and money. If you encounter a problem, make a list of possible solutions. Which one is the least painful to implement? Be resourceful with situations. Instead of striking up a conversation with one person at the store, find a way to have contact with everyone you walk past, even if it means just making eye contact and smiling. Resourcefulness is optimizing every decision you make. As a part time venture, your side hustle means you probably have limited time, so use that time very thoughtfully.

Perseverance

A hustle means daily work. Every single day. For years. As many hours every day as you are able to commit. A few social media posts a week or a handful of knocks on doors a week will not make your business successful. In order to find success with your side hustle, you need to put your offer in front of as many people as possible. Put in the hard work, and do it daily. Take advantage of and leverage “down time”. Many will argue that it is perseverance that makes success happen. It is that “go getter”, “don’t quit” attitude. Go into your side hustle with a positive attitude. Think you will succeed and you will. There are always two outcomes to difficult situations: 1. you persevere and make it happen, or 2. you give up. Every time you persevere and work through a problem, you become stronger, more confident, more empowered. You learn from mistakes, you apply that learning to future situations and you improve. Perseverance requires daily discipline and developing habits. Use powerful side hustle habits like not sleeping in or staying up late, avoid distractions, take care of your body, mind and spirit, dedicating a specific chunk of time every day to your tasks. Always be working your side hustle.

Focus

We all know that small distractions lead to lost productivity. Don’t waste time on time wasters. Checking Facebook, sleeping late, watching tv shows, gossiping - are all serious time sucks. Don’t get pulled into the black hole of non-productive distractions. Managing time well is a critical piece to success. Effective time management incorporates scheduling, organization, list making, prioritizing, and leveraging “found time”. Maintain a calendar for all of your activities. Block out chunks of time for non-side hustle related activities and commit specific times to your side hustle. Then plan that time carefully. Organize sales materials, customer contacts, products, financials - all of it! Great organization saves time and contributes to more sales and better customer service. List making gives you huge advantages. Make lists of sales ideas, people to contact, content to create, skills to learn, training videos to watch, etc. Prioritize your actions to make the most efficient use of your time. What actions will give you the highest return for the least amount of work? That’s a good starting point. Using your lists, separate the wheat from the chafe. Pursue the actions that will give you the most benefit, and avoid doing meaningless, “busy work” tasks. Huge hint here: The more face time with people, the better! Connecting with your network should always be a top priority. Finally, take advantage of random found moments. Use those small bursts of found time to complete some of the smaller, lower priority tasks.

Relationships

Building relationships is the number one secret formula for success in business. Find people to network with, not sell to. Find women who need beauty solutions. Find customers wanting innovative products. People want to feel like people, not potential customers. Long term success depends on being friendly, likeable, trustworthy and helpful - consistently and reliably. Developing a social network that brings a financial return to your side hustle takes time and tact. You can’t push people to buy, they spend money on products they want when they are ready. Creating and nourishing those relationships takes patience and deliberate effort. It is critical that you genuinely care about your network, that you offer real value with your product/service, and that you persuade rather than push people into transactions. Only an authentic network will lead you to a sustainable side hustle.

Direct Selling Business Skills

Communication

Networking marketing, or direct selling, is completely dependent on communication. Interpersonal communication is how we network, how we create and build crucial relationships, and how we sell. Developing strong communication skills is the very first business skill a new direct sales representative should focus on. Communication skills encompass interpersonal (in person) and written communication, including online.

Time management

How you work your business is completely up to you; that could be some time, part time, full time or over time. However much time you devote to your beauty business, you will need to develop time management skills in order to maximize your efforts in the most efficient way possible. The best time management is like an epic to do list. It is critical to have a plan and a schedule and to manage the calendar carefully.

Organization

As a direct selling representative, tight organization skills will lead to more success. Customers, the order process, products, finances, events… all of the pieces of direct selling has to be effectively organized. My Avon organization includes a combination of physical organization systems, binders, and online files.

Innovation and Problem solving

Direct sellers will encounter problems. A customer’s favorite product will be discontinued; perhaps they will react to something new, or maybe a product was broken during shipment. Being innovative and working to solve problems in the most creative way will contribute to success. Problem solving is best approached with problem processing: what is the problem, what are the possible outcomes, what are some options for solutions, putting the solution into action and then following up to ensure the problem was, in fact, solved.

Customer engagement

Direct sellers have to develop impeccable customer service skills because we are directly serving our customers. We create those connections, guide customers through product choices and then support them after the sale. Customer engagement uses a complex set of skills that combine to ensure that the customer is satisfied. These offshoot skills include verbal communication, listening skills, situational analysis, the ability to control emotions and be professional, knowledge of policies and procedures, an understanding of psychology, and always being willing to improve the relationship.

Technology literacy

Technology is one my personal expertise areas. However, I know that technology is not the easiest thing for everyone. With everything moving to an online world, it is critical that to stay current direct selling representatives have to be able to navigate social media, the cloud and other technology pieces. I use a variety of technology tools to create content for social media, to manage and organize my business, and to work towards greater success as an Avon representative. Fortunately, most of the tools I use are free, but not all are easy to use.

Soft skills

Soft skills are the most challenging business skills to acquire, but if you know how to approach the challenge of developing soft skills, they will develop and strengthen over time. Soft skills have to do with how someone handles a relationship emotionally. It is the ethics, etiquette, social skill, leadership, flexibility, empathy, individual motivation, self confidence and work ethic that you bring to your business. This is the idea of being a “people person” and also of being a “positive person”. Thankfully, soft skills don’t have to just exist or come naturally, they can be learned. I feel the best ways to develop these introspective skills is through activities like journaling, habitual daily practice and time. By the way, your soft skills are also very much brand YOU because soft skills are often tied to your personality, your attitudes and how you portray yourself to others.

Personal Branding Yourself For Direct Sales

Personal branding is the idea the YOU are the brand. Brand You. You are not just a direct sales consultant, you are a... makeup expert, jewelry lover, home decor fanatic. Focus on your passion. For example, choose one category from the Avon product offerings (makeup, jewelry, Avon Living home goods) and focus on creating a presence around that category niche. Your passion for that focus will show, and it will become part of who you are as a personal brand.

Use a blog to build your personal brand

If you have a blog or a social media presence, you should spend your efforts promoting, creating content and curating other information about your niche. A blog is one of THE best ways to showcase your personal brand. How does this work? Well, take home decor as an example. Go through the products for home decor. (Avon Living is THE place to go if you love home goods!) Start writing blog posts about those products, about that lifestyle, about home decoration, about entertaining, etc. Pin the products, but Pin MORE than those products. Pin current trends in the home decorating industry. Share home decor ideas through magazines and home decorating websites. Curate home decor photos. Create lists of easy ways to decorate (plugging in a few Avon Living products, of course). You are building your personal brand not by only promoting your Avon Living products, but also by creating a niche expertise and establishing long term trust as a source of valueable information. People WANT to know what the Top 5 Spring Decorating Trends are. They WANT to know how It's Easy To Entertain for Afternoon Tea. (Include the Bright and Cheery Tea Kettle photo and link to your estore). They NEED the super helpful information in your Floral Pillows For a Fast Spring Refresh (Include the Watercolor Fleurs and Bird Pillow Covers photo and link). THIS is the type of information people want, and the more of this you create, the more customers you will see. The more of YOU that you put into it, the more personal it becomes, and therefore more desirable.

Create an image

Let's talk about image a little bit. Brands have logos. Brands are not logos. Your brand should be your beautiful face. And your name. (Not Avon's logo.) You are your brand. If you want to design a "logo" make it your name.

Back to that Avon brand question... selling Avon is what you DO, it is not you. You DO other things, too. (Whatever that might be.. family, dogs, sports, cooking, etc.) So when you brand yourself, you have a title with Avon, you can use the Avon banner on your headshot photo, but you are not the Avon brand, and you can't use the Avon logo for yourself. When you develop your brand presence, you want to share who you are, not only that you sell Avon. People buy from people. It sounds crazy, but instead of saying, "Hi my name is Sarah, and I would like to share the Avon brochure with you." try saying, "Hi my name is Sarah Smith, and I want to help women feel beautiful."

It is important to keep your personal brand consistent. So, if you have a blog, a Facebook page, Twitter, Pinterest... keep those all looking and feeling the same. They should all have your name, your photo as your profile picture, and the same image look and fonts used for images. While you are at it, consider reserving your social media account with your name for all social media tools, even if you don't setup your profiles on those accounts yet. KnowEm? is a super useful tool.

It's official - your brand is you, your presence, and your personality.  (Online and offline). So now what? What exactly are we supposed to do with that?

How to Create Your Personal Brand

Start with the story.

• Your personal story and your personal values. Master your own story first because when you do, you can more easily empower others.
• Why you joined Avon and started your own beYOUtiful business. You have to feel confident with your own reasons before you can persuade others. Make it real and engaging.
• What your "mission" is. Your personal mission. What do you want to accomplish with your beYOUtiful business?
• The Avon story (make sure to leave this one for last - nail who you are first, then you will be better prepared to share the Avon story.

Begin with engagement.

• Share your story on social media. Any and every social media you feel comfortable with. However, make sure if you have a social media, you work it. If you never Tweet, shut down your Twitter for now.
• Talk to everyone about who you are and what you do. In person, online, everywhere!
• Get your target market to engage; ask them to share what their favorite nail color is, or what they wear for sunscreen.

Develop an image

• Get a good headshot photo and use that everywhere. If you have a friend that loves to take photographs, enlist their help! Otherwise, work with a local photographer to get yourself a couple of professional looking headshots. Try to update them seasonally, if you can.
• Pick a visual "look". The color scheme, the images, the personality of your look should be consistent everywhere you have a presence.
• Choose 2 to 3 colors to always use in the content you create. There is a psychology to color, too...
• Select 1 or 2 fonts to use consistently, including 1 font to always always use for your name. Avoid frequently used and outdated fonts like Comic Sans, but don't go so fancy that the letters can't be read easily.

Create content

• Think like a journalist. Create an editorial schedule.
• Write blog posts. The more the better.
• Try to create content in a doable quantity, but to gain a following your content also needs to be quality. (Hint, pure promotion is NOT good quality.)
• Not sure where to start? Set a goal of one blog post per week. If you find you can do more - awesomesauce! Try to avoid doing less (52 blogs a year is not that many). Also, when a post has more than 1,500 words, it gets more social media engagement.
• Expand your content into ebooks, infographics, videos, etc.

Curate content

• Think like a museum director. Share relevant, pretty content with frequent rotation.
• Share content created by other people, and share product information from other companies. I know this sounds counter intuitive, but curating industry knowledge actually creates more credibility for you and customers trust you more.
• Some marketing speak: "Position Avon as a thought leader." What this means: In your curated content, make Avon an expert, and showcase Avon products as the best choice.

Promote content

• Think like a marketing executive. Have a plan and a "look".
• This is where most new reps focus all of their attention. Promotion should be about 1/3 of your total content. Any more than that and your content will be flooded with sales type stuff and people will be turned off.

Dos and Don'ts

What to do

Be real. You are you and nobody else is you. Be authentic. (But not TOO authentic - refer to drama llama)
Be online. Even offline customers will look you up online. make sure your online presence reflects your offline business.
Be valuable. Write a mission statement.

What NOT to do

Be a drama llama. Do not share personal details, like your dog's poop or your recent breakup. Don't ever talk about politics or religion. Customers don't care and it will turn them off forever.
Be everything. You need to create a niche and focus on one thing. If you try to be everything to everyone, you will be spread too thin and you won't be able to focus your efforts.

3 key words to make personal branding amazing:

Real Earnings with Direct Selling

Direct selling is a real business opportunity with real earnings.

Get Your Negative Out

But here's the truth. If you start poking around about reviews for direct selling and reviews for Avon, you are going to find negativity. There are millions of naysayers out there. Some of their arguments are valid, some are just lies. The honest truth is that you will find negative things said about direct selling, for ALL direct sales companies. There is even an entire website dedicated to hating on Mary Kay. (I refuse to link to it). The bottom line is that there is a lot of information on the internet, there is a lot of inaccurate information on the internet and there is a lot of hate on the internet. I have taken most of that with a grain of salt. I am also a skilled researcher, and I devote my energy to tracking down valid and valuable research about beauty and business before I share that on my website. Business, ALL business, is what you make it. It doesn't matter if you are in a corporate office, selling makeup or making fries. There are business opportunities, but you have to want to do the work. Sales IS hustle.

Make an Investment

Direct selling companies all require an investment. Usually that investment is very small ($100 or less). When you join Avon, the cost to become a representative is $15, and you receive an official Avon starter kit. However, I still say that you should invest a full $100. Why? On what? Here's why: Yes, the starter kit is $15 (you get your own estore website at no cost --- MOST direct selling companies charge their reps for the personalized website), and that includes brochures, what's new, a workbook, samples, and full sized product. That will give you what you need to launch your beauty business. I recommend spending a little more to get business cards for yourself. Town and Country is an Avon Advantage Partner and they frequently have a discount on business cards: 250 free and you pay only $5.95 in shipping and handling. I would also go to a local office supply store and pick out a physical planner and calendar. The better organized you are with time and contacts, the more sales you will have! These typically cost around $20. The remainder of that $100 (around $60 left), you will hold onto. This can be invested in different things, depending on how you want to direct your beauty business. You could: buy samples, full size products to demo, bags to deliver product to your customers, branded signage to have tables at events, a domain name and hosting to run your own branded website*, a dedicated phone for your business, towards a laptop to help you sell online, office supplies to stay organized - whatever will help you run your business best! Yes, Avon's startup fee is $15, but a full $100 is an investment in your business that will contribute to your success!


* Avon does not allow personal websites for the purpose of selling product; your branded website has to be your personal brand and cannot have "Avon" in it.

Focus on Sales

Avon and long time reps will have all sorts of tips and suggestions for you when you start. Buy tons of brochures! Make a huge list of your warm market! Talk to 3 people every day! Use products yourself! Great. If you can start with that much.

I have my own tips for new representatives, and those tips probably conflict with everything you see from Avon and other reps.

Sell you. Look, sales are not about selling product, sales is about selling you. YOU are the product. Seriously. And human nature is to trust the human product before spending money on it. I know that sounds weird, but that's human nature. There have been studies and studies in marketing and advertising about the human element in buying. In order to run a sales business with long term success, ethics and JOY, you need to sell yourself, and NOT your products. My first year selling Avon I focused on - my warm market and products. I didn't earn much. My second year, I am focusing on - you guessed it! - selling ME. Direct selling is network marketing, and network marketing is primarily about building relationships. I don't tell everyone I talk to in person that I sell Avon. I don't even talk about Avon. Crazy, right?! The complete OPPOSITE of what everyone says to do. What I do is develop relationships and work on building trust. The crazy thing is that people are now coming to me. "Hey, I heard you sell Avon. Can I buy from you?"

Grow slow. My tips focus on growing sales at a realistic pace. Creating the network takes time. Like, more than a few weeks. It takes years. During this building time, you may not see a lot of sales every campaign. This is where many reps give up, because they do not see the immediate results. Instant gratification does not a business make. Most "brick and mortar" business take 5 years to see a profit. This may also be true for direct sales businesses. Growth is exponential. I see many successful Avon earners who did not get to their high profit margins for years. If they had given up their first year or so in, they would never have seen the profit they do now! Relish in slow growth, but be realistic about it. Actively work on sales and developing your network. Celebrate pockets of success (right before the holidays and in the spring are typically peak buying times).

Don't buy. Unless you can afford to invest more, do not go over that initial amount you have reserved for supplies and demo products. Spend as little as possible on brochures. Buy only as many brochures as you know you can schedule to distribute. If your warm market is 5 women, only buy 10 brochures and then force yourself to get rid of those other 5 brochures. Do not buy too many brochures if you can't develop that large of a market yet. Don't buy a bunch of supplies, like samples, sales tools or bags. Buy ONE pack of the literature bags. I know they are only .80 but buy them one pack at a time. Only buy sample deals from the What's New if you really love the product and can actively market it to your network. Avoid loading up on samples and bags until you have a use for them. If you do want to start building up samples, start with skincare.  Until you begin having campaign orders of $50 or more, do not invest in any of those extras. The bare minimum I suggest your very first order should be, if you do not yet have any customer sales: 10 brochures ($6.49), literature bags ($0.80), and one recurring future brochure, item 030347, ($0.30). IF the only thing you buy during a campaign is brochures, call the order in and Avon will not charge you the OSF (One Simple Fee). You want to be earning based on sales YOU make, not on product you buy.

Learn product. You can't sell what you don't know. You should spend a good chunk of time learning about the products that Avon sells. They are incredible products and many have a long history. These products contribute to having loyal customers, so do your reading and learn about them. Start with the brochure. READ every single page in the brochure, then expand into the online inventory and delve deep. Learn about the product in depth on the estore, and take advantage of product trainings through Avon University.

Challenge yourself. Sales can be achieved, but it does take hustle. Hustle is making sales related connections, with a sense of urgency, but with tact. In order to be successful at making sales, you need to set challenges for yourself. Small goals, at first, will develop into larger goals. "I will give my brochure to 5 people this campaign." "I will ask 2 people to reorder." "I will make $200 in sales this campaign." This is not a competition with other people; this is about finding the right pace for you, and meeting your personal financial goals.

Finding Those Real Earnings

It's time to show you the money! What are the earnings possibilities with direct selling? While there are different earnings charts for every company, the earnings you make depend totally on you. Your earnings are tied directly to the sales volume you make happen. Your compensation is based on your performance.

If you have a $50 order, your earnings are $10. If you have a $300 order, your earnings are $105. If you have a $1000 order, your earnings are $450. Personal sales are completed by you, so you manage your earnings.

Any sales you complete through your estore earns you 20% of that sale, and Avon delivers the order directly to your customer! Once you earn over $25, Avon will send you your earnings. You can receive this profit through direct deposit, or on a prepaid Visa card.

See How It's Done

There is an elite group of women who have worked hard to turn lipstick into life. These women are some of the top earners for Avon, and they are successful because they HUSTLE.

Top earning representatives with Avon truly know how to hustle. Yet, every single woman does it differently. That is the beauty of this beYOUtiful business: this flexibility allows you to earn in the way that is best for you!

A few of these top earners - the "famous Avon ladies":

• Lisa Wilber has been selling Avon since 1981. Her leadership checks for 2015 were over $250,000.  
  
• Emily Seagren started in 2008 and has focused on selling online. Her 2015 team sales were over $550,000.   
  
• Molly Stone Bibb started in 2004. 
• Lisa Monoson since 2000. Her team of 400+ sells over 1 million each year.
• Theresa Paul started in 1994. She has 600+ on her team. 
• Milagros Garcia joined in 2001. Her checks total over $100,000 a year.

I joined in 2014.

Every single one of these women has been successful with selling Avon because of their hustle. Every single one loves selling Avon. And every single one earns real income by selling Avon products and training others how to sell Avon products.

What I love the most about these women? They are all friends on Facebook, they are accessible to all Avon representatives, and they are willing to help new reps grow their business because they care about successful beauty businesses. This handful of inspirational Avon ladies really make it worth choosing this company for your direct selling business. They are amaze!

I want you to have real earnings, too! Join in!

What is Direct Selling, Exactly?

Direct selling is the business model where products are developed and tested then distributed to customers through direct channels such as independent sales representatives. There are no "middle men" - no large scale distributors, no retail stores.

Avon Products, Inc. products go directly to the customer, either shipped directly when ordered online, or personally via one of Avon's Independent Sales Representatives.

Sales Channels

Direct sellers make sales face to face or online. Personal face to face  can be made through a representatives existing social networks (friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, groups, businesses) or by prospecting in their geographic area. Online sales can be made through networks online, which expands a representative's prospecting base considerably. Many representatives choose to sell products using both face to face and online channels.

SLM versus MLM

Single level marketing (SLM) direct selling is where a representative buys product from a direct selling company and sells the product directly to customers, gaining a profit on the sale. Multi level marketing (MLM) direct selling is where a representative participates in SLM and also participates in leadership of new representatives, generally with a commission or an incentive.

Avon's 2014 revenue was $8.9 billion.

Why Direct Selling Appeals to Home Entrepreneurs

• Direct selling is a good choice for:
• Stay at home moms
• People with full time employment who want to supplement their income
• Individuals on disability or are retired and may have limited mobility
• Retired veterans

Why? Because direct selling has flexibility - you are not confined to specific work hours, driving to a specific location or required to have specific resume skills. It is this flexible alternative to traditional employment options that is probably the most appealing.

In direct selling, there is unlimited opportunity. Direct sales representatives do not have to worry about the product supply chain. In traditional entrepreneurship, the new business has to focus on developing a product or service and identifying the market for that product or service. Product development and manufacturing takes significant time and financial resources. Even a simple at home craft business would have to invest $5000 to $10000 to launch. Direct selling companies typically have a $100 or less investment to launch.

Avon's products include a large, diverse catalog of makeup, skincare, fragrance, bath & body, jewelry, fashion and home, with products for women, men, kids and millenials.

Advantages of Direct Selling

The advantages of a direct selling business model for a sales representative:

• Create your own work schedule and hours of effort.
• Ability to enter entrepreneurship with little formal training or education
• Empowering, especially for women, by creating transferable social and business skills
• Low start up costs, low risk to maintain, easy to grow, plus profits are tied directly to effort
• Product catalog available with no development and manufacturing investment

The advantages of a direct selling business model for a customer:

• Individual human representatives to guide product choices and answer questions
• Innovative product choices not always available in retail stores
• Convenience and reliability of service (home delivery by representatives or online shipping)

Freedom of Entrepreneurship

Starting a direct selling business opportunity does not require diplomas, certificates or college degrees. However, direct selling often develops those marketable skills!

• Communication
• Time management
• Organization
• Innovation and problem solving
• Customer service
• Technology literacy
• Soft skills (creativity, process management, work ethic & social skills)

There are over 18 million people in direct selling. The average cost to start is $100. The risk of loss is incredibly low if you decide to quit. Reasons people are direct selling reps - long term supplemental income, products at a discount, independent entrepreneur flexibility. (DSA 2015 Growth and Outlook survey and 2014 National Salesforce Study).

Join In with your own beYOUtiful business!

Beauty Welcomes Everyone.

AVON really is one of the best direct sales companies out there. Why? History... Brand... Products... Representative Support... and, OPPORTUNITY! When you build your own beauty business, you can choose what business paths to take. With AVON, your success is rewarded, and you are recognized for your hard work!

8 Reasons to Start Your Own Beauty Business

Low Investment

You can start your own beauty business for $15, and you are never required to purchase inventory.

Flexible Hours
Create your beauty estore, talk with new customers and manage sales on your own schedule from the comfort of your own home.

Direct Sales
Avon offers a gorgeous catalog of quality products that can be sold through network marketing strategies.

Powerful Brand
The Avon brand has a rich, successful history, and products can be marketed online through beautiful photography and excellent copy.

Online Marketing
Leverage the internet through marketing and social media to expand and grow your beauty business.

Tools, Training and Support
Avon offers a huge variety of sales tools, business and product training and selling support to help your beauty business soar!

Rewards and Recognition
As you grow your beauty business, Avon provides amazing levels of recognition and rewards to inspire you.

Supplement Your Income
Even if you have a full time career, you can easily supplement your income and create an additional income stream.

Direct Selling Is A Real Income Stream

This is from Wall Street Journal, and explains why direct selling is becoming more popular as well as things to look out for when choosing a direct sales company.

• Avon has reliable products that have been loved by consumers for many decades.
• Avon is an established company; in fact the first direct sales beauty company in the US!
• Avon has a low upfront investment of $15 and you no not have to buy inventory.
• Avon allows success through product sales in person or online, not just through recruiting.