Direct Selling 101 - Neil & Dana Phillips

Let's make this clear: If you're going to purchase one book or audio book, this is the one you should start with.  Direct Selling 101: Achieve Financial Success through Network Marketing (Your Coach in a Box) is a no-nonsense, non-fluff guide to direct selling. Neil and Dana Phillips share their knowledge from many years of sales experience.

Especially helpful to me were the chapters dedicated to home parties and recruiting. Dana puts the words directly into your mouth giving you a script as to what to say, how to say it and when to say it. Sure, some of the dialogue is a little cheesy, but it's a great foundation for you to start building my own script to use with customers.

I loved the audiobook version of Direct Selling 101 and have listened to it twice so far. Highly recommended.

How It Works: Pro-Sirituins

You'll find Pro-Sirutins in the Anew Ultimate Gold Emulsion.

Think of a pair of elastic-waist pants. Over time, repeated use and washings, that elastic breaks down and doesn't snap back the way that it used to. Your skin has similar elastic qualities; over time the tissue that makes your skin taut and firm breaks down creating sagging and a dull droop.

Pro-Sirutin make the elastic qualities within the skin cells last longer. By giving them a boost, your skin looks lifted and younger. Pro-Sirtuin TX Technology is formulated to stimulate sirtuin youth proteins for healthier cells, and activate remodeling proteins to help restructure and strengthen skin.

Financial Site: Shoeboxed.com

Last week I was interviewed by Ryan at Outright.com about how I was using their spectacular site. I told him that I was so impressed how easy Outright was to use, and how a non-financial person like me could even understand it.

Ryan asked if there were any features that I'd like to see and I commented that I would like to be able to scan my receipts (ala Neat Receipts) and have those receipts auto-imported into Outright.

"Have you tried our partner site, Shoeboxed? With Shoeboxed, you can do just that; scan your receipts and have them imported directly into Outright."  I was beyond stoked.

Last night I registered an account with Shoeboxed, scanned some receipts and started playing around. With the free account, Shoeboxed does not auto-scan and OCR your receipts; you still have to manually import the data from the receipt into Showboxed. However, one thing I DO like about this is that the format to input the data is more like a form and less like a traditional ledger. For me, that makes it much easier to see and understand.

The instructions on how to sync Shoeboxed and Outright were a little confusing; the link was a little hidden. I had to take several trips to the "help" screens to figure it out. However, once I got it configured, magic happened.

All of my receipts were then synced with Outright's site, all of the details were ported over, and best of all, there was a link to see the original scan of the receipt. Way. Freakin. Cool.

To be fair to Shoeboxed, there is a service that ranges from $10-$50 a month that allows you to mail in your receipts. Shoeboxed with scan your receipts and I believe they will attempt to populate all of the fields including date, store, amounts, and even the credit card used for purchase. I'm not sure that I generate enough receipts yet, but I can see that being a valuable upgrade.

Final report? Shoeboxed is awesome. Marry it to Outright, and you have some downright spectacular tools. This is going to make tax time next year so much easier.

Business Cards - Make Yours Work Double Duty!

If you're like any other business person, you have a business card. Name, phone number, website address. Standard stock. Maybe some clip art. Very nice.

Why not make your business card work double duty as a recruiting tool?

On the back side of my card, I let customers know that I'm also a recruiter and I could help them build their own Avon business.

Advice: Make Your Bed

I used to be one of those people who bounded out of bed and rushed to grab coffee. "Why make my bed? I'm just going to sleep in it later," was my response.

Of course, there are several reasons to make your bed:
1) It's part of a ritual that makes you mindful
2) The bed will be more welcoming when you go back the following evening
3) If someone should stop by, you don't need to be embarrassed that your bed is unmade.

Same holds true for your business. If you're rushing around trying to get sales a couple days before a campaign ends, that's because you haven't "made your bed."  Here's why you should "Make Your Avon Bed" every day:

1) Making sales every day is part of a ritual and makes you mindful of your business
2) Your business will be more enjoyable and you'll be less stressed when you close your eyes at night.
3) You won't have to worry about being judged by your UL when campaign closing day comes.

So - put on a fresh face and make your bed!

How to Avoid Sucking

From WorkAwesome

What is Sucking?

There are really two types of sucking or “sucks” in this world:

• Something that takes away from what you should be doing.
• The results of your performance when you were spending too much time in something that takes away from what you should be doing.

For the sake of simplification, I’ll call the first examples “sucks” and the second examples of “sucking.”

Common Sucks

Television

It’s a suck because it rarely gives back. It robs of you of valuable time if you let it. The news used to be one of the examples where you got something in return for your investment of time, but with the advent of 24 hour news networks and the return of “yellow journalism” (not to mention the stories that tend to rely on increasing fear rather than knowledge) that has pretty much gone out the window. I’m not saying don’t watch it – I take in a few programs a week – but limit it. There’s much more out there to accomplish that involves turning your eyes and ears away from the television than there are keeping them glued to it. It’s not called “The Idiot Box” for nothing.

Read the rest of the article

What Does Your Voice Mail Say About You?

Do you use your cell phone as your Avon business phone? I do.

What do your customers hear when they call your number? I recently called one of my downline and after several rings, I was transferred to her voicemail. A baby was crying in the background. "Hey, you know who this is and you know what to do. Dig?"  I was horrified.

There was no way to tell if this woman was the party I called let alone if she sold Avon. All I could tell from her voicemail is that I didn't want to talk to her.Your voicemail should reflect your business. If you called an investment firm and you heard a baby crying, or someone saying "you know what to do," how would you react?

"Hi. This is Nick, The Avon Man. If you would like to leave me a message that includes your order, please do so along with your phone number. I'll call you back shortly. If this is a friend of mine, I'm looking forward to speaking with you soon."

What does your message say about you?

It's Always Something

"I had to take the kids to softball practice." "I needed to work late." "I was too tired when I got home from work." "I needed to take the dog to the groomer." "My nose was running." "I had tickets to a show."

These are all really great excuses why you can't go to work. If you were employed by someone else, it's their loss. Their employee doesn't show up for the day, and you get to enjoy your time off. However, when you're working for yourself, if you don't "show up", then your marketing department, your sales department, your financial department, your customer service representatives and your merchandising departments are all off for the day as well.

Roseanne Roseannadanna was one of my favorite Gilda Radner characters. Roseanna always had some kind of other-worldly experience going on in her world, but in the end, she always persevered. "It's always something. If it's not one thing, it's another." Either your dog needs a haircut or little Jimmy won't hit the whiffle ball.

Yes, it's always something -- but if you're serious about your business, what can you do to make your business a priority? What are you willing to do to become successful? What are you reasons for owning a business instead of working for someone else? Money? Freedom? Flexibility?

How Does It Work? Avon Reversalist Serum with Activinol Technology

Ask your customer to apply a little bit of Avon Reversalist Serum to their skin, and they're going to love how it makes their skin feel.

"But what does it DO?" is what you'll often hear a customer ask.

Reversalist Serum contains Activinol Technology. In a nutshell, here's how it works:

• When your skin is cut, a molecule called Activin is rushed to the wounded area. This molecule helps speed the production of new, fresh skin cells.
• Scientists and Dermatologist now consider wrinkles to be "micro-cuts", little lines etched by trauma from squinting, sun damage and age.
• Reversalist products have Activinol Technology, a formula that rushes activin to the surface of the skin to help regenerate new, fresh skin cells.
• The result is younger looking skin

Avon's Day and Evening moisturizers contain Activinol. The Reversalist Serum contains 5 TIMES the amount of Activinol than the night time moisturizer. Use the products as part of your skin care regimen for ultimate results.

HOWTO: Find Free Shipping Codes for Your Customers