Good Telephone Messages Return Calls

Technology may be making life easier and yet it is also making life more difficult.  It is certainly has become the norm for most home owners to screen their calls.  This relatively new practice makes it more difficult for home-based business consultants to do their job effectively and provide good customer service.

The key to leaving a good voicemail message is to start with a script. Take the time to script out your message prior to starting your calls. In all home-based businesses, success is all about connecting with your customers and hosts, so the goal of your messages needs to be connection. When writing your scripts take the following points into consideration.

How To Get A Return Call From Voice Mail Messages

There are a few specific steps that you must put into your script to ensure that you get a call back from your messages.

1. You must have a legitimate business reason to be placing the telephone call in the first place.  Cold calling to book shows is not a legitimate business reason.  Did she mention a product that is on sale now? Did he express an interest in having a show?  Did she tell you to call?  What exactly is your legitimate reason for calling your customer in the first place?
2. You must establish some connection.  Don’t use your last name, as friends do not have to tell friends their last name.  Connect by the host, the product or your purpose. Connect with a recollection of them from your last encounter.  “This is Deb with MyFavoriteCompany; when we chatted at Mary’s show you said….”
3. Create curiosity.  “I have a quick question,”  I want to share something with you that I think you would be interested in…”
4. Create urgency.  “You mentioned you were upset that MyFavoriteCompany discontinued the XYZ product. I wanted to let you know that for August ONLY, we have a special item that is similar….”
5. Speak clearly and say your name and telephone number twice.  I mean say your telephone number clearly, slowly and twice. Once at the beginning of the call and once at the end of the call.
6. Be excited. Smile and stand up.  It is really difficult to transfer enthusiasm over the phone.  You are the only one who is as enthusiastic as you are about your company.  Smile, stand up and walk around while you talk.

Home Business Owners Script  Your Voice Mail Message

It is essential that you script out your message.  The script is your starting point.  Write out your voice message script prior to each series of calls you make.  Each call may be different and the script will give you a point of reference.  With a script you will get better at it.  Using your voice mail script will improve your message skills.  A couple of years ago we had Jeff Zaleweski on our home base business training call.  He talked about how to write a powerful voice mail script.  Jeff shared about his voicemail message-creating software.  So, check it out.  It is kind of fun.  When you use his message scripting software a few times to create your answering machine message, you will become  an expert at writing a good script. It is FREE!

Home Business Sales Consultants Should Blog

Our call last night was really information-packed.  The topics blogging, social networking and SEO for the home business sales consultant was popular as we had 106 callers.  Actually, I think we bit off more than we could chew trying to cover so much in an hour.  The short answer is that all home business owners should put systems into place to consistently blog and social network online while keeping in mind that the search engines are watching.

Social Networking & Blogging For Leads

In order to be effective, you will need to put a few pieces in place to find leads online by blogging and social networking.  Think of it as the recycling wheel.

You must compete the circle to be effective.  Recycling is only recycling if you take your recycle-able products out to the curb, they get picked up, turned into something new and then purchased by a consumer and re-used.  If you do not buy recycled products then you are not recycling.  In direct sales you want to generate sales for your home business through social networking.  You must socialize, blog and do it in such a way that it is search-engine-friendly so that all of the parts of your wheel are connected. (Or your web as in www.)

Compete the wheel:

• Affiliate Site
• Social Sites
• Blog
• Organic SEO – Click here to learn beginner SEO tips.

Social Networking Online For Leads

Online social networking is no longer really social in the true sense of being a leisure time activity.  It has become a necessary part of doing business in the 21st century. I guarantee that your competition is doing it!  Social networks are exactly that: a network of like-minded “friends” who support each other.

Direct Sales Company Affiliate Site

Your direct sales affiliate site is your company’s brand, and 9 times out of 10 it is the only place a direct seller will make a sale online.  The problem is that an affiliate site will never show up in the search engines, as it is 99% duplicate content from the corporate site. The cardinal sin of SRO is duplicate content so most often the affiliate site is ignored. So what to do?

WordPress Blog!

Often times blogging is the missing piece that direct sellers need to add.  This gives you the ability to brand yourself and also to get in front of the search engines.  Every new blog post is another opportunity to get seen when you use good keywords for your industry.  A WordPress blog is the best way to go. It is easy to learn and has great built in SEO features.

WordPress Blog Installation

Deb offers a bargain WordPress Installation for direct sales professionals.  This is the most affordable way to start blogging on the internet and still get good search engine opportunities.  (Free blogs are free and they will not do well in search engines either.)

After learning all about WordPress and paying other installers thousands of dollars, Deb decided to offer this bargain setup so that other home party plan reps or direct sellers can start blogging at an affordable price and not worry about being overcharged.  You will not find a blog installation package at any better price anywhere on the internet!

Compete the wheel:

• Affiliate Site
• Social Sites
• Blog
• Organic SEO

Nicole Walker, Shares How Direct Sellers Can Take Advantage Of Social Networking

We had a terrific call last night on social networking and how you can get the world wide web working for you in your direct sales business. The call went into overtime with two long winded speakers, myself and social networking expert, Nicole Walker. Nicole, voted the World’s Greatest Direct Sales Leader and honored in the Power 50, Nicole is a Lia Sophia sales leader who uses the internet to effectively market her direct sales business.

Social Media Recording

This recording is an excerpt of the hour and 20 minute long recording that took place on the Power Hour tele-seminar. These calls are FREE so join the direct sales newsletter so that you get all the call in information. All the Power Hours calls are available by MP3 download in the Elite Club subscription service. This service provides you with the full length call within 36 hours of every call so you do not have to worry about scheduling, time zones or if the kid are in bed. The direct sales training in the Elite Club is affordable at only $2.00 per call.

Direct Selling Women’s Alliance-DSWA Conference

Internet marketing and using social websites in direct sales is a huge topic to discuss in 20 minutes and that is exactly what I did at the Direct Selling Women’s Alliance (DSWA) Imagine conference this past April. The DSWA conference brings together a vast diversity in direct sales professionals, speakers and coaches to provide home business training and direct sales specific education. I think that the direct sales education provided at the event is enhanced by the diversity provided by the wide variety of companies represented. Plan to go to the DSWA event next year!

Using Social Websites To Market Direct Sales

In order to market your direct sales business in social sites it is important to be consistent and create a system. This video discusses how creating systems that will make your internet marketing social networking efforts more effective.

I just discovered a really cool search tool called LeapFish. It is so easy to search with because you can switch between MSN, Google and Yahoo instantly and it even shows the videos in the same search on the side bar that have your search terms. You can search in all the search engines at once!

Cool Search Engine!

Search In LeapFish

This search tool is searching all three search engines at the same time so it gives you a much broader reach. Check out LeapFish. If you like it, you can save the search box to your tool bar so you can use it anytime. (Add LeapFish to Your Browser)  I am impressed!