Is Your Party Plan Business Staying Up With New Technology

This article is a complementary post to go along with our sales training call tonight (2/2/11). On the call we discussed how to use technology in party plan businesses.

Audio Recording Excerpt: You may have to click twice to activate the audio. Elite Club members get the MP3 of every call the day after.

The scary thing about technology is that the more you learn, the more there is to learn.  Home party plan consultants sometimes have a tendency to lag behind in incorporating new technology into their business. The newest tech things can help you to free up time so that you can do what sales is really all about: connecting to real people.

Home Party Plan Online

If you feel that your online activities are taking too much time, then you may want to incorporate some new technology into your party plan business. The following services are technology service providers that will bring value to your party plan business.

MyNewsletterBuilder Sales Friendly

MyNewsletterBuilder is a home party plan and direct sales-friendly email service that brings you opt-in boxes, segmented groups and team-building capabilities. With the enterprise account, team leaders can “push” good content down to the team who can then send it on to their lists. Imagine how your sales would grow if you were creating powerful messages and sending them down to your team, who then just forwarded them. The affiliate information automatically changes in the links in the footer to include the new affiliate’s link.

The MNB content corner offers “news” for you to use in a variety of niches to serve both your customers and team training. You can maintain multiple groups and send pre-formatted newsletters to your clients, team and potential recruits. MyNewsletterBuilder has many built-in features for the direct seller and is user-friendly.

Try it for FREE for 30 days! MyNewsletterBuilder

Gold Mail Quick Message Technology With Your Voice

GoldMail is an easy way to combine your voice with your content to create an on-demand media message that is delivered to your customers or sales team using video and audio presentations. Speak in your own voice by creating emails and online content in a simple to use format that can be delivered through email or shared on blogs and social networks.

I created this GoldMail message in 10 minutes without ever having used the service before. I uploaded a recording that was in my computer, but you can use a microphone to record a specific message for each GoldMail.

When you send a message via email it will be in a link form like this: See My GoldMail Message! This would be something to consider for party plan host coaching.

Social Media Automation

In January our call was on social media automation. The online community can be overwhelming and time-consuming. When you automate parts of it, such as adding the RSS feed or NetworkedBlogs application to the page, it will free you up to do other things like make qualified friends or join niche groups of like-minded individuals. Social media should not be automated to make you look like a robot, but you should automate some parts so you have time to connect.

Use Technology For Your Calendar

There are many calendar services available for free. If your home office provides you with software contact management in the order processing system, then you should use that. Otherwise there are many calendars available that will give you reminders and also send reminders from you to friends.

Google calendar comes to mind first. The Tele-seminar calendar that we use for our sales training calls is the simplest form of Google calendar. Google has many features.

ThunderBird is an open source software and it is my calendar of choice. I use it for repeating events, birthdays and reminders of all kinds.

The Client Angel is a customer management software program that is affordable and designed specifically for party plan businesses.  The Client Angel enables you to store and manage your customer information, track sales, create and manage events, and maintain reminders all in one database.

Social Media Downline Technology

Similar in structure to the way MyNewsletterBuilder allows you to format emails and send them down to your team, the @MyWorks social media application allows you to push content down to your team and they can either pre-approve you for immediate distribution or approve it and send it on themselves.  You can see @MyWorks social media application on my fan page.

This is a great tool for gung-ho team leaders with some less than gung-ho socially speaking downline consultants!

The application is by invitation. It is relatively new and when I last spoke with them they were unsure of the fee involved. They have a trial period for fee as well.

If interested in trying @MyWorks out, send me an email or comment on this article and I will send you an invitation.

Online Home Parties

There are a wide variety of ways to hold online home parties. In this scenario everyone is in their own home!! A successful online party takes as much effort and host/customer coaching as a live party. There are many ways to host one:

Many sites are set up specifically for online home parties. Using a home party plan chat room will give you some nice technology features and also the possibility of publicity too. Most have a calendar and steady flow of visitors.

Conduct your own webinar with a service like Go To Webinar. Most webinar services have a free trial period. This is a great way to have a show for family that live in all parts of the country.

Online meetings regardless of the technology used must be FUN! I strongly recommend a great power point show!

Technology Can Be Overwhelming

It can be very overwhelming when considering all the technology options available out there. Just try one thing and get good at it and then add something new.

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.

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 your goal is 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 (or the world wide web) are connected.

Compete the wheel:

• Affiliate Site
• Social Sites
• Blog
• Organic SEO

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 SeO 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!

Direct Sales Consultants Grow Business Online

Nicole, voted the World’s Greatest Direct Sales Leader and honored in the 2008 Direct Selling Power 50, is a Lia Sophia sales leader who uses the internet to effectively market her direct sales business.

lia sophia Leader On Direct Sales Radio

Nicole who is a Regional Manager with lia sophia will be our guest on The CashFlowShow – Direct Sales Radio next week. (10/04/11 @ 8:00 PM EDT).

lia sophia leader, Nicole Walker took the fast track to success by incorporating internet marketing into her direct sales business from day one.

Nicole is going to share with us how she leveraged the internet to set records and grow a massive sales organization with Lia Sophia.

Nicole Walker and lia sophia provides you with a direct connection to building a highly successful and profitable business!

She is a Certified Professional Business Coach and has expertise in direct selling, developing direct selling systems for business, sales, booking, team building, as well as personal development, organization and time management.

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.

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. Learn more about how blogging for direct sales companies make it easier to create an effective social media presence.