One of the easiest ways you can recognize, support and encourage your direct sales team is to send them handwritten notes. I built productive, loyal teams, and I believe the handwritten note was one of the keys to the success of the teams.

People save handwritten notes, especially when they are words of encouragement, recognition, and celebration. They put them on display or tuck them away in a drawer for safe keeping and easy access. When someone is discouraged or frustrated, she can take out the stack of notes you’ve written her and get an instant pep talk.

You don’t have to have a big team of top producers to use the handwritten note as a success tool. You can start with your first downline.  Woo Hoo notes are the easiest to write. You can say everything in just three sentences:

1. Reason for the note/congratulation statement
2. Specifics about accomplishment
3. Hope/good wishes and/or something personal

Celebrate her first win.

Yay! You did it! You launched your...

Whenever you make an offer in your direct sales business, be sure that the recipient of the offer is clear on what it is going to do for her. You don’t have to mention what it is going to do for you. Making it about her is excellent customer service and leadership. And your intentions and motivation might be to serve; sometimes direct sellers use language that doesn’t come across that way.

I have a big goal, so I’m offering a discount to the next 5 people who place an order.  

When you lead with yourself or your goal, you are making it about you. Some of your customers might care that you have a big goal, but most of them don’t. If you want to offer a discount to boost sales, do it, but leave yourself out of it.

Instead: Flash Sale: 10% off the next 5 orders.
Call it a Flash Sale. Just the name gives people a sense of urgency.

Better: Flash Sale: 10% off all orders placed by 5 pm.
Instead of limiting it to the number of orders, give people a time...

There are always new things to learn in your direct sales business. Every time you want to increase your party schedule or promote to a new title, you have to learn new skills and systems. Master leaders of large teams do different things and do things differently than new leaders. The best way to learn new skills and systems is to be coachable. The two keys to being coachable are to be open to new ideas and to be clear on where you want to go.

You can hire a coach, join a group coaching program (I hear there is a really good one called Spark, wink wink) or be coached by your upline. The advantage to being coached is that the coach has a bird’s-eye view of your business. She can see things that you can’t because you’re in the thick of it. She’s probably been where you are, and if you’re open to coaching, she can help you get where you’re going faster.

People who are coachable are open to new ideas. You can’t do the same things and expect to...

Christmas in July is a fun event to do in your direct sales business. It can boost sales, fill your calendar, clean off your shelves, and help you make new contacts. It’s an easy theme for the summer because no one expects you to go all out but the word “Christmas” puts everyone in a shopping mode.

Date and Time

Two or three hours in length is perfect. Because this can be a big booking event for you, try to have it during your ideal party time. So if you like to do parties on Thursday evening, have your Christmas in July on a Thursday evening. If someone can come to your CIJ, chances are she is usually available that same time and day and you have one less objection to overcome.

Décor

Don’t pull out all your Christmas stuff unless you love Christmas and you’re looking for an excuse to leave it up for the rest of the year. If it’s easy, pull out a couple of stockings or put up a wreath. If it’s not, use red table cloths and play...

You’re prepping for your direct sales company’s national conference, and you’re excited to learn from the mainstage and the breakout speakers. You can’t wait to see the new products, catch up with your girlfriends, and meet new people. It can be a bit overwhelming when you’re there, especially if you don’t have goals for the event.

Before you go, think of three questions that you can have at the ready to ask people when you’re in line, sitting at lunch, walking to a breakout, or waiting for a session. Ask the questions to people you don’t know so that you get well-rounded answers.

Keep your questions concise and specific. In many cases, you might only have a minute to ask the question and get the answer. “What’s your best recruiting advice?” is too broad. “What do you say at checkout about the opportunity?” is much better because she probably has that on the tip of her tongue.

Don’t be intimated to...

Yesterday I wrote about what you can do to boost your personal volume at the end of the month in your direct sales business. I also wrote about what not to do. Do not tell people you have a goal and need their help.

Today we’re going to talk about why you don’t want to do that.

1. Most people don’t care about your goals, but they are polite enough not to tell you that. The first time you do it, you’ll probably get a pass, and you might even get one the second and third time you do it. But a pass isn’t a sale. It rarely works, and the few times it does pay off isn’t worth risking your friends unfollowing you.
2. It’s bad leadership for your team and future team. Your team watches what you do. Your future team, especially the ones you don’t even realize are considering the opportunity, also watches what you do. Do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do is a terrible leadership strategy. It’s confusing and hypocritical. You want to be clear and have...

It’s the end of the month, and your personal volume is slightly (or possibly extremely) off-target. You can panic and do nothing, or you can be pro-active and take action to boost your numbers. If you choose the first option, you can skip this and binge watch Bravo TV. If you choose the second option, you can save the binge-watching for your reward for hitting the numbers (or at least working all the way until the end).

Okay good, you’re still with me which means you’re choosing to take control of the situation. 

The first thing you should know is that you’re not alone. Everyone is here at one point or another, and the more your business depends on other people’s business, the more often you risk being here. Second, most of your numbers are going to come at the end of the month. Part of it is because you’re consciously or unconsciously using it as a deadline, and people wait for a deadline to take action. The other part is that you fall into...

Summer gets a bad rap in direct sales. It’s hard to get parties in the summer. Everyone is on vacation. It’s too hot. Those are all myths. Well, except for the hot one. Except here in San Diego. When it gets into the 80s, people lose their minds. Try growing up on the East Coast with no air conditioning. That’s hot.

Anyway, summer can be an amazing season of your business if you work with it not against it. Sure it’s a different rhythm and vibe than other seasons, but that’s what makes it so fun.

Here are some tips that will make summer your favorite season of business.

1. Make your parties shorter. Try to be done with your presentation before the sun goes down. If people want to stay and hang out, that’s fine, but no one is going to be disappointed that they sat through a short presentation.
2. Do more one-on-ones or small group presentations. You’ll be able to make stronger connections which will make your business (and life) better. Your...

We’re going to talk extensively about recognition in Spark and how to use it at every Success Stage. Recognition is something that you can start before you even have a team. You can recognize your customers and hostesses, and we’re going to talk about the best ways to do that too.

In a lot of ways, recognition is like gratitude:

• It can’t be overused.
• No act is too small for a high five or a thank you.
• It has to be sincere.
• It is always about the person receiving it.
• It does just as much for the recipient as it does for the giver.
• It is most effective when it is done in the recipient’s love language.
• It reinforces behavior.
• It strengthens relationships.
• It’s good leadership.
• It’s addicting in the best possible way.

Recognition is also like cookies, the really good homemade kind. Once you have one, you want more. You figure out that you have to earn them, and you start doing more to get more. They fuel you to go for the bigger cookies. And you...

Spark is a group coaching membership community for leaders and aspiring leaders in direct sales. Enrollment will open at the end of the summer. But there are a few spots available now for Founding Members.

Spark concentrates on leadership, team building, and personal business skills.

Business basics are included because I want your personal business to be easy for you so that you can spend your time serving and growing your team. So when we talk about

• booking
• selling
• recruiting

you’ll ask yourself two questions:

How can I use this to make my business better?
How can I help my team use this to make their businesses better?

Most of the time we'll be talking about:

• leadership mindset.
• team building.
• scalable systems to make working with a large team manageable and fun.

When Spark opens for everyone, there will be monthly training units you can access when you want, live group coaching, Q&A, and whatever else the Founders decide they need.

All of the content is...