How to Beat the Summer Slowdown in Direct Sales

Hello friends!   I hope you are all having a great week!  The weather has been beautiful here and we are enjoying every bit of this beautiful Summer! 

With June month end approaching, I am already starting to hear from my team members that they are already feeling the affects of the Summer Slow down.  Summer Slow down?  What Summer slow down?  I am here to help you get past that dreaded Summer Slow down so you can rock your Direct Sales business this Summer!!!

I put together a list of ideas to help you in thinking outside of the box and start booking those Summer parties and find new Customers!

• Summer Themed Parties:  Summer is such a fun time to host a party!!  Stick with cute Summer themes that everyone loves such as: An Icecream Social, Wine and Cheese Tasting Party, Pool or Patio Party or Backyard BBQ Party.

• Have a Facebook/Virtual Party - Connect with your friends all over the country.  Set a date and time for everyone to log in to Facebook.  Offer a door prize to those who attend, an additional incentive to those who ask questions about your business and then let them shop away!  As the hostess, you can either earn the hostess rewards for yourself to earn inventory, or raffle off the rewards as an extra incentive to those who attend and place an order. 

• Party On the Go - Fill up a pouch or bag with a few catalogs, orders forms, hostess exclusive flier, recruiting flier and a few product samples.  Give it to a friend or willing hostesses to take to work, a friend's house, family get together or a girl's night out.  She collects the orders and earns FREE or discounted products.

• Mystery Hostess Party - Guests earn tickets various ways in order to win the hostess rewards.  This can be done on-line or in a home.  Guests can earn tickets by brining a friend, bringing an outside order, booking a party, or signing up as a Consultant.  Get creative!!!  Once all the orders are in, draw a ticket to see who wins the hostess benefits.    

• Heels and Deals Booking Blitz - Pull together your list of FRANKS (Friends, Relatives, Acquaintances, Neighbors, Kids (Mom's of Your Kids's friends), Spouse (Wife's of your Husand's friends).  Put on your sassiest pair of heels, your hottest lip stick and set the timer on your phone for one hour.  Call as many people as you can in that hour asking them to host a party or just to say thank you for supporting your business.  Build that relationship with your customer, a phone call really does go a long way.  Having those sassy heals and lipstick on really does go along way, when you feel sassy and confident, it will shine through to the other end of the line.  Try it and see what happens!!!  

• Booking Blitz Buddies - You know how they say you are more likely to succeed with your diet if you have a buddy?  The same goes for Booking Blitz's!  Try the Heels and Deals booking blitz with a fellow Consultant.  Knowing that you have the support of a fellow team mate will make the Booking Blitz go a lot quicker and will be a little less scary if you know you have a buddy cheering you on.  Once your power hour is up, call each other to share your success stories!

• Open House/Launch Party/New Product Premier - You do not have to have your launch party ONLY when you first become a Consultant.  You can have an Open House/Launch Party/New Product Premier style party ANYTIME to celebrate a new catalog, a new special, or just an excuse to get your family and friends together. 

• Kid's Sporting Event - I am actually using this idea from a fellow team member.  She set up a small table display at her child's Soccer game and the Soccer Mom's went wild!!  Make sure to pass out catalogs to all the Mom's for both the home and away teams.  What Soccer Mom doesn't love to shop?  Don't forget to purchase in advance a lot of product samples to pass out!

• Mommy and Me Tea Party/Brunch - Have Mom's and Daughters of all ages gather at your home or even a Tea room/Coffee shop for a morning of fun and pampering.   Serve finger sandwiches, cookies and tea/punch.  You can even team up with anther direct sales company that offers pampering products and have her invite her guests.  You can both share in the leads and the pampering!

• Neighborhood Ambush - Distribute fliers with your information and a coupon for 'One FREE Product' for scheduling a party with you.  You can choose your neighborhood or every neighborhood in the city!  I love to do this during my Kid's naptime.  I load up the kids in the car with a few hundred fliers and pass them out to all the neighborhoods in my city as the kids sleep soundly in their car seats.  It's a great way to have a very productive nap time!

• Shopapalooza - Team up with friends who sell for other Direct Sales Companies and host a one stop shop!!   Each consultant will invite their friends, family, contacts and previous customers.  In return, you all gain new customers from the huge pool of attendees.  It's a great way to network with other Direct Sales consultants and gain new customers at the same time!

• Have Your Friends Help! - Give your friends some products at a discount in return for becoming a product ambassador.   Have them share their testimony with everyone they come in contact with while arming them with catalogs, samples and business cards.  It's a great way for your friends to earn discounted products and come into contact with those outside of your network.

• Booking Games - There are so many different booking games out there to play during your home parties.  My personal favorite booking game is Deal or No Deal, and it has worked many times!!  My team can provide real life testimonials on how well it has worked for them too!

Great Places to Leave Catalogs for Customers

• Hair Salons/Boutiques/Personal Gyms - Ask to set up a small display with catalogs and fliers, if a display will not work, ask to leave your catalogs in a common area of the facility.

• Doctors Offices/Hospital Waiting Rooms- I have personally left several catalogs my kid's Pediatrician's office and Hospital Waiting rooms.  Be sure to introduce yourself to the receptionist and let her know of your new business.  See if she will mind if you leave a few catalogs behind.

• Break Room at Place of Employment -  Leave a catalog in the break room/lunchroom at your place of employment.  Are you a Stay At Home Mom?  Then ask your spouse to bring catalogs to work and pass them around and leave them in his break room or lunch.

• Leave a Catalog with your Waitress - If you received amazing service while you were out to dinner or think your waitress would make an amazing Consultant on your team, leave her a catalog or your Business Card.  Leave a personalized note just for her on how she would make an amazing addition to your team or party hostess.  She will give you a call just to hear more!  .

Do you have any tried and true ways that helped you beat the Summer Slow Down?  I would love to hear!  Please leave me a comment and share your success stories!
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Creating a Direct Sales FRANKS List

Hello friendsl!  I hope you are all having an amazing week and a wonderful start to your Summer!  I don’t know about you all, but it seems like time has been flying by lately. I’m sure that is just a direct correlation with how busy we have been in recent weeks wrapping up school activities.  School is officially over for us here so let's Bring on Summer!!!  Today we are going to chat about creating a FRANKS Contact List.  You are probably asking at this point, who is FRANK?  LOL!  Here is where this fun term comes from:

(F)riends or Facebook

(R)elatives

(A)cquaintances or Activities

(N)eighbors

(K)ids

It's very important when creating your FRANKS List to go in with a positive attitude and open mind. Remember that you are presenting someone with an amazing opportunity!!!  The gift of buying an amazing product, earning free products or the gift of time and financial freedom.  More importantly, never pre-judge!  Some one that you omitted from your list could end up on someone else's list and end up as their customer, hostess or new team member.  If you think they are an amazing person, someone else does too!  You just never know how people will react, or who they could lead you too.  You also want to remember that your FRANKS contact list is your greatest asset when starting your business.  Keep in mind too that as your business grows and evolves, so will your FRANKS List.

Creating a FRANKS Contact List is simple, you just write down names of people you associate with in each of these categories.   Keep your list long, it will feel so much better when you receive your first few no's knowing that you have so many more people to talk to about this amazing opportunity.

FRIENDS - Ask yourself, which of my friends would be interested in hearing more about your opportunity?  Don't forget to look through your Facebook friends, cell phone contacts, email contacts or your LinkedIn contacts ~ there may be some people there that you still count as friends but you haven't spoken to in awhile.  All of those high school friends and old sorority sisters that you haven't connected with in years, what a great reason to reconnect and let them know what is new with you!!!  Just be sure not to bombard your online contacts with status updates and impersonal messages that are perceived as spam about your business.   This not an effective way to utilize social media and it will only turn them off.

RELATIVES - Do you have any relatives, local or out of town who may be interested?  Don't forget to include your spouse's relatives too when building your list.

ACTIVITIES - Are there people I have met in activities that I participate in who may enjoy hearing about your business or looking for a career change?  Think about your community organizations, church and other social groups.

NEIGHBORS - Your neighborhood is a great place to start sharing the love.  Pass out your catalogs or flyers letting them know that they have a new Consultant in their neighborhood.  It's also a great way to connect with a new neighbor that may have just moved in looking to meet other neighbors.  Share with her the possibility of having a fun get together and invite the neighbor hood over for a girls night out.  

KIDS - If you have kids, I am sure you have met other parents through their activities, daycare, Mom's groups and play groups.  I personally have met a lot of parents and teachers through my daughter's preschool and have turned into the "go-to" mom for my business.  It's been such a amazing opportunity and I love it!  Everyone at my daughter's preschool knows that I am the "it girl" for my business!

When compiling your FRANKS Contact List, it is important to use Memory Joggers to get you started.  Here are a few examples of memory joggers: Babysitter, Banker, Bridesmaid, Dentist, Doctor, Sorority Friend, BFF, Teacher, Gym, Co-Worker, Sister, Realtor, Unemployed, Stay At Home Mom, People Person, Popular, Needs More Money, Best Dressed, Strong Influence, Service Industry Worker.  These are just a few sample memory jogger terms or adjectives to use when thinking of those individuals who would be amazing assets to your FRANKS Contact List.

As you create your list, remember to keep an open mind and do not pre-judge!!  You never know what someone else is going through, what their dreams are or what their current financial situation is.  You could be providing them with an amazing gift and they will be forever thankful for the opportunity.  Sometimes people just need an idea presented to them, they may have never realized that what they had been searching for all this time was right in front of them.  All they need is for you to ASK!

For even more tips for your Mompreneur business, follow me on Instagram,Twitter,Facebook