Success in Direct Sales – Part 5

Written by Annette Yen

In this final installment on our series of posts on finding success in Direct Sales by being persistent and working consistently, I wanted to talk briefly about something most women (and people in general) dread – some even more than public speaking.

And that thing is – picking up the phone to make business calls. Studies have shown that making phone calls ranks up on the fear scale with death for some people. Now that’s a pretty powerful statement.

First things first – the telephone cannot hurt you. Really it can’t. Short of picking the thing up and whacking yourself on the head with it to get a good sized bump there is very little damage that the phone can do. So befriend your telephone now if you want to be successful in direct sales.

One of the “selling points” about direct sales it that it involved face to face or at least voice to voice contact with your customers. Yes, a lot can be done via email and the internet but honestly, everyone is being bombarded with email, web pages and information that is typed. Set yourself apart as someone special by using the phone along with some fun handwritten notes to help build trust with your client base and have them loyal to you for life.

Want to make it easy? Combine a handwritten note with phone calling to take the pressure of the fear factor. How? Simply send a postcard or greeting card first and in your handwritten note telling your customer that you’ll be calling next week just to follow up and say hi! That commits you to it and lets her know ahead of time that you are not calling to pressure her. Keep it light – you are building trust – and if you work with your clientele this way consistently you’ll make the sales very naturally. Use the Sandy or 3×5 system along with phone calling and you’ve got a fabulous follow-up machine that will help you manage your business easily.

Need some ideas on what to say? Try this: “Hi Holly, it’s Jane. Do you have a quick minute? I just wanted to follow up on the postcard I sent last week about our specials. Did you get it? Great. Did you have any questions or can I help you with anything?”

Let the conversation flow naturally from there. If you’ve taken good notes on your customers you can ask about her family and other things too. Feel free to let her know about anything else business wise or something like “I know you mentioned you might be interested in having a party before the holidays. Should we try to set a date now or shall I call you next month when it’s a little closer?”

It’s not difficult, you are not hard selling and you are setting yourself apart from the average direct sales consultant who is just sending out a generic email to everyone on her list. Does it take a little extra time? You bet. Is it worth it? Absolutely!

Tags: Direct Sales, direct sales cold calling, Direct Sales Marketing, party plan training