Benefits Of A Work At Home Opportunity

Where else can you work at home cleaning your own house and make money at the same time? Working at home, either on the internet or in direct sales, has unlimited benefits and potential for those who stay committed. I just got done cleaning my house (3 hours). During that time, I frequently looked at my Blackberry for business email messages as is my standard operating procedure. In between vacuuming and dusting, I answered a customer question and generated income. After cleaning the bathroom and before taking out the trash, I checked again and noticed another online sale. The beauty of working at home is showing up in my life more than ever before.

The Direct Selling Business Opportunity

When I first left my corporate job and began my direct selling career, it was apparent to me that there are many benefits of working from home in direct sales. I could increase my income by increasing my activity. I actually had fun doing what I loved and generating my income at the same time. I could sleep as late as I wanted….

One thing I noticed though was that many people that I brought into the direct sales business would not wait long enough or put the effort in to allow the benefits to kick in. They expected it to be immediate and with no effort. If it did not happen, then they were gone.

Everything good involves effort and commitment to get you there!

The direct selling industry is no exception.

Working At Home On The Internet

My direct selling career branched off into internet marketing. Everyone in direct sales should be taking advantage of the internet marketing opportunities. Working at home on the internet is not a get-rich-quick  automatic opportunity either. I remember when I first started on the internet, I was so frustrated with the total lack of success. The effort hardly seemed justified.  Looking back now that I have been online for 3 years, I realize that I was unrealistic. My skills, like my direct sales skills, improved with time. I became more effective and more successful online as well.  I studied, invested and stayed committed.

Frequently when I set up a WordPress blog for a client now, the blog never develops past what I do to set it up.  After I am done and give them a tutorial on operating it, they never do anything except sit back and wait for people to come! I am not sure what they thought… build a website and the customers flock to your doors?

Internet marketing, selling on the internet is just like brick and mortar stores or a direct selling business. You must build the building, make a plan, educate yourself and market the business in every possible way.

Most of all you MUST work to get paid!

Working at home on the internet is the same. No work, no pay!

Benefits Of Working At Home

The benefits of working at home are vast.

• You can earn money while brushing the dog.
• You can generate sales while vacuuming.
• You can sleep late everyday. (Provided you go to work at some point!)
• You can find business leads when you are at the park with the kids.

You can post articles like this when you are in your PJ’s.

Work at home benefits do not just happen though.

It takes an investment of time, money and commitment.

The very definition of commitment is that you do not quit until you succeed.
Working at home, whether on the internet, in direct sales or for your own brick and mortar business requires commitment. In sales they say that only 20% succeed. Based on my experiences online, I would say that the same percentage is true on the internet. 80% of the people who start a website never generate income because they are not committed.

Are You The Successful 20% Working At Home?

Are you in the 80% working from home who do not stay committed or the 20%? I’ll bet since you are reading this that you are in the successful 20%.

Tell us some of the challenges that you had to overcome in your commitment to be successful working from home. Write a comment below about your success strategies and I will send you a FREE “Talking” e-book which is part of the $7.00 home business e-book series.

Dr. Steve Taubman, Teaches Direct Sales Relationship Building

Last night on Speakers In The Park, Dr. Steve Taubman gave us an awesome presentation on how to build customer relationships in our direct sales business and develop rapport.  He pointed out that building relationships is easier when you follow a system and develop the skills that will allow you to connect with your customers.

The following is a summary of what I took away from this awesome call. Thanks, Dr. Steve!

Building Relationships In Sales

When you develop the skills to build relationships in your business your selling skills will improve.  The three parts of relationship building include: preparation to build rapport, creating rapport and recreating rapport if you have lost it.

When you put certain practices into your daily life, it will become easier to be alignment with your direct sales customers and their for will close more sales.  The preparation phase includes daily practices that give you a better ability to connect.  They are: meditation, self realization, visualization and laughter.

Build Effective Relationships

This audio is a brief excerpt of the call during which Dr. Steve focuses on the actual steps to building effective rapport in a relationship. All of the Speakers In The Park calls are available by MP3 download when you join the Elite Direct Sales Club.

1. Acknowledge unspoken resistance.
2. Ask permission.
3. Listen intently.
4. Find something to love about the person.

Recreating rapport when you come out of alignment in a relationship includes these three steps.

• Acknowledge that there has been a break down.
• Listen to the response.
• Embrace everything.

Speakers In The Park, Skills Training For Direct Sales Professionals

The Speakers In The Park, direct sales training series continues. The line up of successful direct sales professionals bringing you education and entertainment is awesome! Our next presenter is Karen Clark.  Karen’s topic for the Speakers In The Park is “Going Local – Online!” Using the Internet to find local leads and it takes place on July 14, 2010.  Don’t miss it!

Business & Social Rapport Building

Speakers In The Park, Steve Taubman – Rapport Techniques Steve Taubman is our guest speaker for the next Speakers In The Park on June 30th, 2010 @ 9:15 PM Eastern time. He will be sharing on rapport building techniques for your business and social success. Learn more about the Speakers In The Park motivational direct sales training event. Steve writes:

We’ve all heard that it’s important to be in rapport with others before making requests of them both socially and in business. But many don’t realize how powerful this point is. We still bumble our way through sales presentations, secretly wondering if the person we met in a social setting that we are talking with even likes us or wants to listen to our proposition. We may even be convinced that we’re not appreciated, but we keep talking anyway, hoping our value proposition will overcome the deficiencies in our connection.

Well, think again. Empirical observation suggests that when two people are in rapport, one can say almost anything, even something completely inappropriate, and the other will see it in the best possible light, easily forgiving even blatant transgressions. On the other hand, when people aren’t in rapport, an innocent comment can be taken out of context and escalated to levels of hostility.

Have you ever been propositioned by someone who hadn’t yet earned your affection or respect? Were you less than warm in your response to them? Was it what they actually said or was it just a feeling? Contrast that with someone whom you found likeable, who made you laugh. Did you ever hear someone like that say something outrageous, something you’d slap someone else for? But you didn’t. Why? Rapport.

Definition Of Rapport

So, what is rapport? Rapport is defined as the feeling of comfort, familiarity, and affection that comes from two people being “in synch” with one another. It’s well established that, as Bob Burg says, all things being equal, people do business with those they know, like and trust. Rapport is the “like” part.

Developing Rapport

The art of building rapport is well worth the time developing. Here are five ways to assess the level of rapport you’ve gained with someone. Never, ever, try to sell your product or service until you’re sure rapport has been established.

1. Are you both in pace with one another? In other words, are you synched up in speech rate, breathing rate, and the overall speed of body movements?
2. Is the other person smiling warmly and nodding in agreement with points you’re making?
3. Are they displaying open body language: arms uncrossed, leaning forward, facing you?
4. Is their eye contact genuine and alive or fixed and glazed over?
5. Are they making comments and asking questions or are they rigid, nodding occasionally or looking past you?

If you’re not in rapport, don’t bother going any further. You must have rapport first or all your efforts will be wasted. With some people, this will happen naturally. But with others, you may need special skills and knowledge to “bridge the gap.”

Speakers In The Park, Education For Direct Sellers

If you’d like to learn how to master rapport with virtually anyone, and what to do if you feel you’re not in rapport, please join us at our direct sellers educational event on Speakers In The Park where I provide give you the five most powerful techniques that will help YOU positively influence others and inspire them to action.

Email Marketing Best Practices

Last night’s Speakers In The Park call with Spencer Howerton and MyNewsletterBuilder was a smashing success!  We had 91 marketing professionals on the call to learn more about the best practices in email and newsletter creation.  This is an excerpt of the call”

My Newsletter Builder Email Marketing

If you decide to try MyNewsletterBuilder.com then enter the words Speakers In The Park in the coupon box and get 14 months for the price of a 12. www.MyNewsletterBuilder.com

There are three key best practices to remember when marketing by email and thinking about your subject line.

1. Avoid blatantly spammy looking stuff.  This includes anything in ALL CAPS, overuse of punctuation, especially exclamation points!!!!, and any number of words that can flag your email as spam (see list below).
2. Make sure that the recipients can easily recognize you based on your “from name” and subject line.  If they don’t recognize you as the same company or individual that they signed up to receive email from, then they will probably regard it as spam.
3. Give the recipient a reason to open and read your email.  Make your subject line interesting and enticing so that the recipients actually *want* to read it.  Having people receive your email but not open or read it can eventually result in your future emails being regarded as spam, even if you do everything else perfectly.

Email Marketing Spam – Words That Are Viewed As Spam

I personally sort through my spam myself because whenever I allow the spam filters to do so, I always end up losing “not spam” mail.  Remember also, that even if you do allow all mail into your inbox without the benefit of your spam filters checking it, that your server has their own spam filters which you can not control.  For example, Comcast has very stringent spam blockers and they frequently flag regular mail as spam based on the number of links in it or some other rule that they have put into place.

This is the list of words that Spencer gave me that we should avoid as they are perceived as spam.  It is amazing to me how many of these spam words I receive in my inbox everyday. I have printed the ones in red that I have received in my inbox within the past couple of days!

Email Words That Are Viewed As Spam

I have used 3 different newsletter and auto-responders services in the past 3 years and find MyNewsletterBuilder to be the most user friendly and affordable. If you decide to try MyNewsletterBuilder.com then enter the words Speakers In The Park in the coupon box and get 14 months for the price of a 12. www.MyNewsletterBuilder.com

Speakers In The Park, Newsletter Marketing With Email

Spencer Howerton is the next Speakers In The Park presenter.  His program is about how to conduct an effective email marketing campaign.  If you are on the Cash Flow Show newsletter list then you will get the dial in number on the day of every call.  Click here if you are not on the list or you would like to read about Spencer and the Summer direct sales educational Speakers In The Park series.  Spencer writes:

Writing Email & Newsletter Subject Lines

Writing Email & Newsletter Subject Lines: What works and what doesn’t…

Ode to the email subject line… Ah, the elusive well-written subject line. More powerful than good copy, memorable graphics, and even free offers. The well-written newsletter subject line is the holy grail of email marketing. Having a poorly written subject line for a great newsletter is like posting a personal ad with no picture… who is going to read that???

Since the subject line is the only thing your readers see before they either open your mail or toss it in the trash bin, it needs to do more than offer them a low price.

• Is a low price or a good deal all you have to offer your customers?
• Can you offer them a quality product, give them relevant information, and invite them to begin a dialogue with you as an introduction to a business relationship?

Effective Email Marketing Programs

Taking these points into account when deciding how to title the subject line can improve your open rates – and performance – and your overall effectiveness of your email marketing program.

You will learn how important it is to the time to have a well written subject line on your all emails sent… and how to write a powerful and effective email subject that gets by the spam blockers.  Join us on the next Speakers In The Park call and you can find out these tips and more as Spencer welcomes your questions about how to bring your online marketing presence to life for your business.

Best Email Newsletter Builder

I have used three newsletter and auto-responders services in the past three years and have found Spencer’s company, My Newsletter Builder to be one of the best email services for home business owners. It is very affordable and user friendly and they have special features that make it perfect for the direct sales professional email to a downline. With MyNewsletterBuilder.com you, the sales leader, can create an educational piece and send it to your team. The team member can then forward it on to their list with a flick of a switch, embedding their information in the place of yours!