Your Direct Sales May MAP (Marketing Action Plan)

Use these dates to create engagement posts and theme parties for your Facebook customer VIP groups.

Hostess Coaching Checklist Printable

All this week on our Facebook business page, we have been going LIVE and talking about hostess coaching, so I put together this Hostess Coaching Checklist that you can use when you're coaching your direct sales hostesses. If you're not sure what I mean by the post cards referenced in the chart below, take a look at the post I shared to our group yesterday - there is a video I made explaining the hostess postcard system I developed a few years ago - it's done AMAZING things for my business!

Get the PDF version here on our Facebook Group.

Try This Trick to Increase Your Productivity

To-do lists. We all have them. Whether you keep yours digitally, on paper, or, God forbid, just in your head, odds are you've got a never-ending list somewhere of all the tasks that you should get accomplished. For me, working from home, I have a list that encompasses business related things as well as "life stuff". Yep, all in one list. Cause there is only one me, so why have two separate lists? Makes sense, right?

Personally, I have an on-paper list...which I realize is somewhat odd, being an otherwise digital style girl. But I have found that when I can actually X out an item on a list I find that far more satisfying than just striking it out on the computer or deleting it off a digital list. Personal preference I suppose. In any case, I have a calendar with a two page spread for each week, and in each of those days of the week, I write the tasks for the day. Yes, I do write ahead into days where I know I have a task coming up that will need to be done, but maybe not til next Wednesday or something. Putting my tasks to paper is my brain dump. If I can get it out of my head, it's more likely I will actually get it done on time. And no, things don't always get done exactly on the day that I planned them to. I'm still human, after all, and some days you just don't feel like working.

So, enter what I like to call the "30 Minute Day". This is a concept I started doing a few years ago when my task list was getting long and I was feeling overwhelmed. It's NOT something I do every day, or even every week...just when I need to. Basically, I take a look at my task list and figure out what stuff on there I am procrastinating on that I really need to get a move on, or what stuff just HAS TO get crossed off that list. Ideally for me (again, working from home) that "must do" list is going to be a mix of business and personal tasks. Often you'll find things on my list from "create more team group interaction posts" to "fold laundry" to "plan menu and make grocery list" to "write blog post on vendor events", etc. Ya know, all that "stuff" that isn't difficult but just isn't done. I am sure you can relate.

Once I've got my list, I set the timer on my phone for 30 minutes and start on one of the business related tasks. So that first 30 minutes I will be doing nothing but working on those team interaction posts. The whole time. If by some miracle, I happen to get them done with time to spare, I'll start scheduling them. When the timer goes off, I stop. Whether I'm finished or not. Yes, really. Then I set the timer for another 30 minutes and I tackle one of the personal items on the list, like folding laundry. In my house, that absolutely won't get done in 30 minutes, because I have a tendency to wash a ton and then leave it in like 8 laundry hampers waiting to be folded (raise your hand if you're that girl, too!!) So when the timer goes off, I stop folding laundry and leave the rest for later. Now I set the timer once more for 30 minutes, and this 30 minute block is a BREAK. I can do whatever. Watch some Netflix, play on my iPad. I can do anything I want, EXCEPT go back to that work or the laundry. The break time is essential, and I promise, even though you are technically working fewer hours, you will accomplish more, because your mind has time to relax. Try it.

When break time is over, the cycle starts again. 30 more minutes towards a work task, then a personal task, then a break. I cross more off my to-do list on my 30 minute days than you can imagine, and more importantly, I feel like I can conquer the world!! I dare you to give it a shot.

Three Ideas for Your Direct Sales Business This Spring

Spring is here in the direct sales world, and recently on Successfully Social's page we heard from our members that they wanted to know how to run their businesses in spring. In fact, it was such a popular inquiry that we made it the topic of our Facebook LIVE series this week. So, that said, here are some ideas you can use for your direct sales business right NOW while spring is in full bloom.

But before I get started, let me preface this by saying that both Kelly and I believe that you need to be full steam ahead with your business all year long...not on again off again with the changing of the seasons. Remember that the actions you take in your business right now will have long reaching consequences in the months to come. If you don't believe me, take a look at your calendar...if you took a month off around mid-December to mid-January, are you still feeling the pain of that 75-90 days later? Trust me, give it your all year round and you won't hit that bookings slump that many of your direct selling sisters fall into a couple times a year. Okay, enough with the PSA, let's get to our topic.

1. Go get those Mother's Day orders. Aside from the December holidays, Mother's Day is one of the biggest shopping occasions of the year. And what completely rocks about that is that just about all of our direct sales companies have things that mama would love! From skin care to jewelry to purses to cookware to candles and more, direct sales is an industry geared primarily towards women (and let's face it, women are also the ones most likely to be shopping for mother's day - for their own mom, their mother-in-law, sister-in-law, their grown daughters, etc.) So how can you capitalize on that? Well, I suggest creating three product bundles at three different price points, maybe a $40ish, $75ish and $120ish. Make some cute graphics showcasing these bundles and put them in your Facebook VIP group. Then take those same images and create a printable PDF or printable image with each of the bundles and a little checkbox next to each of the three images. Put on all of your contact information/how to order information and give it a big fun title at the top like "I'm Making Mother's Day Easy For You This Year" and let all those mamas in your VIP group know they can print that out, check off the one they want, and give it to their hubby - you'll take care of the rest. You get some extra sales from the dads, and mom gets what she wants for a change. Win-win!

2. Get out! Outside, that is. Host a Sip and Shop or Spring BBQ for your customers and previous hostesses. For many of us, the weather is starting to get gorgeous and people are ready to get out and about. If you haven't hosted your own spring launch yet to show off new items your company has come out with, now is the time! You can do this poolside, in the backyard under the trees, or even at the playground and let them bring the kids. Do it as a mystery hostess and offer up tickets towards winning the host rewards for anyone that orders.

3. Spring Clean. If you didn't take my advice in the post about turning your retired inventory into bookings, you might be sitting on a bunch of retired items that you're no longer using. Maybe it's time to let some of them go - you could use the idea from that post I just referenced, or you could do something quick like snapping pics of them and selling them off auction style in your VIP group. Then take that cold hard cash and reinvest it in yourself and new products you don't have yet in your display. And side note, think mid to high price range items when you're adding to your party display - people will buy a $10 or $15 item sight unseen, but when it comes to the $90 stuff, they want to be able to see before they buy. And who can blame them?!

Will you try any of these ideas? What else are you doing to make your spring spectacular? Share below.

Your April MAP is here

Need ideas to use for your April interaction posts? Here is a compiled list of different fun holidays for the month - some of these would also make great theme parties inside your group, as well.

Get Successfully Social for March

Hey there direct sellers! With March right around the corner, it's time to formulate your Marketing Action Plan (MAP) if you haven't already. Awhile back in our blog post Top Ten Things to Implement in your Direct Sales Customer Group in 2018, we encouraged you to start some new things in your closed Customer Communities this year, and with that in mind I've created you a "cheat sheet" of a few things happening in March that you can use towards your theme parties and random holiday celebrations. 

Top 10 Things to Implement in Your Direct Sales Customer Group in 2018

There's nothing like a brand new year to get you inspired, right? Clean slate, time to try all the new things you've been thinking about, time to really make a plan. I adore a new year, and every single successful system I use in my business was kicked off in a January. In that spirit, I've put together a list of 10 things to plan for now, that will make your customer group kick booty in the new year.

1. Birthday Club. Every single month, create and post a graphic during the start of the month, celebrating all those that have a birthday that month. Ask that everyone who has a birthday that month comment below with their birthday to be entered into a special birthday club drawing. Take it a step further, and when you wish your friends happy birthday throughout the month, send them a link to your group and let them know they can be entered into your birthday club drawing if they are interested in joining your group.
2. Monthly Engagement Drawings. Create a post a week that is purely an engagement post. Not business related, but all tied to a theme, such as Halloween during October, St. Patrick's Day during March, etc. All commenters on those engagement posts go into a drawing for whatever prize you happen to be giving away that month.
3. Unique Hashtags. Create some that are specific to you and your business (or at least not insanely common), and use them frequently. Just 2-4 will suffice, and this will serve the dual purpose of helping you stand out, and allowing your peeps an easy way to search for things relating to you/your products (i.e. tell them to search for #floridachick when they are looking for a particular series of posts that you've tagged.)
4. BFF (Best Facebook Friend). Start this award for those that are always super active on your group, commenting, posting and participating. This is a concept I've used in my team group for awhile, but I think it would be a lot of fun to play with in your customer group, as well. And with Facebook having added analytics for groups not long ago, it's even easier to stay on top of who your top contributors are.
5. Theme Days. Pick at least a couple days of the week and give them themes. Such as #MotivationalMonday, #TipTuesday, #WordlessWednesday, etc. Your group members will get used to seeing and come to anticipate that day's theme, and you should see a spike in your participation (just don't make this all work and no play!)
6. Monthly Theme Parties. Choose a theme for the month and party inside your group around that theme. Depending on your product line, you might do themes like "Spring Cleaning", "Back to School", "Vacation", "Night on the Town", etc. Get creative and present your products in ways that keep to your theme.
7. Monthly Polls. Every month, ask your group what they'd like to see you highlight through doing a poll near the beginning of the month (or the end of the month, for the following month). This gives them a voice, and polls tend to get great interaction, because they are so easy to click a button and answer.
8. Random Holidays. Choose 2-3 bizarre holidays to celebrate each month in your group. You can see a list of random holidays here. You can choose holidays that relate to your business in some way, or just pick something completely fun and off the wall, and share photos, gifs, etc. that go along with the holiday. 
9. Cross Promotions. Build relationships with other direct sales women and choose one to cross promote every month or every quarter. This exposes each of you to one another's audience, and can help build both of your businesses. Just make sure that you completely trust the person you're inviting to share within your group, because you are trusting her with your most valuable asset - your customers.
10. Product Parade. Choose one product per week to offer at a small discount to your customers, and then highlight features, benefits and uses for that product all week long. 

Okay, not so hard right? When you sit down to do your 2018 planning, take some time to think about which of these ideas you're going to implement into your customer group this coming year, and what that's going to look like for you. And then come back and tell us all about it!

Customer Service Quick Tips

Anyone can make a sale at a party, but to get those customers coming back to you over and over again, one of the most important things you need to do is give them amazing customer service. The advent of social media means that it’s easier than ever to reach customers far and wide, BUT it also means that it’s easier than ever for your customers to find another consultant to meet their needs if you’re not taking great care of them. So, with that in mind, here are four basics of customer service that you need to absolutely live by:

·        Listen to your customers. Even if they are complaining. Especially if they are complaining. Sure, some people will always find something to complain about, but sometimes you’ll find there is validity in what they are saying. If something is wrong (they received the wrong item, it wasn’t what they expected, etc.) make it right. Someone who walks away upset is likely to tell others how NOT helpful you were, so don’t give them that option. Do whatever you can within your power to make their experience a good one.

·        Don’t make promises unless you will keep them. Not just “plan” on keeping them, but actually do it. Being reliable is crucial in any relationship, and a business relationship is no different. If you tell them you’re going to call them tomorrow with a price, do it. If you think there’s any chance in the world you can’t make that call, don’t even say it.

·        Be helpful. Is your customer looking for a solution to a need or problem? If you have something that will fill that need, fabulous. Hook them up. If you do NOT have something that will fill that need, be honest about that fact. Don’t try to sell them on something else that is ultimately not going to be a fix for them, because in the long run they will realize that the product you’ve sold them isn’t going to do what they wanted it to do, and that will leave a bad taste in their mouth about you and your products. Better for them to look elsewhere for the item they need now, and then be willing to come back to you in the future because you were honest with them upfront.

·        Treat them as real people, not just sales. People like to feel like you’re remembering THEM not just their purchase, and this becomes easy if you simply take a few notes after speaking with them. You might jot down that their daughter is applying to colleges, or that they are helping their mom move, or that they just got a new puppy. Next time you speak to them, bring that up in conversation, to check in and see how things are going in that area of their life. Remember the old saying, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!

30 Post Ideas for Your Business Page

Writing content is easy...said no one ever. Let's face it, we all get tired of trying to come up with new content all the time for all of our social media channels...customer groups, fan pages, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter...the list is endless. Sometimes we all need a little spark. Well, that's what we're offering up here, with a list of 30 different posts you can craft for your Facebook Business Pages. Now, you'll notice we didn't say "here's 30 posts, go post them." Nope, sorry, that's not how we roll. Over here at Successfully Social, we firmly believe that you need to make these things your own...put your own spin on, your own voice to...basically take these ideas and craft them to fit YOU and your business and your products. The whole cookie cutter plan might work in the (very) short term, but long term you need to discover your own style, we're just here to help that along a little.

So, with that in mind, take these ideas below, and couple them with our previous post on Your Roadmap to Business Page Engagement and make yourself a content plan for next month. I promise you, when you start doing these things on a regular basis, they really do become easier.

We would love to hear from you on what posts you're creating over on your business page - drop us a line here, or come play with us over on Facebook!

Connecting With Others On The Go

Relationship marketing is at the core how we build a strong, sustainable business. Advertising has changed dramatically, companies are putting their dollars into digital marketing. Not surprising as people can be tied to their phones but they are also happy to connect and do business with others that they know, like and trust.

As you go about your day in your local community do you really connect with others. Do you smile, ask questions, use people's name? Your local community is a gold mine of customers, hostesses, team members, referrals, every person on average can connect you to 300 more. Learning the skills of relationship marketing is truly a must in this business. The classic book "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie is a good read and education on how to successfully connect with others.

However, what I am talking about today is how to connect digitally with the people you meet. And it is so easy! Business cards are still a great tool for connection but having a digital connection is powerful as well. Connecting through Messenger as often as you can is an ideal way to be able to keep in touch with the people you meet. It's as easy as scanning their Messenger Code. Here's how:

From Home, tap your profile picture in the top left corner. Tap your picture at the top of the page. Tap My Code to let someone scan your code, or tap Scan Code to scan someone else's.

Once connected, you can continue the conversation. Think of messenger as digital conversations, not digital sales. Remember the lessons in Dale Carnegie's book!

You can also connect people directly to your public online events. You can create a QR code for these events and people can scan the code and join the event. Here are the steps:

If you're the host of a public event, you can create a QR code to promote your event.

To create a QR code:

Go to your event and click the three dots in the top right

Select Create QR Code

Click Download

These tools are a great way to connect through conversations in your community. Practice them today so you are ready to use these tools next time you leave the house.

Three Ways to Stand Out at Your Holiday Vendor Events

I spent some time the other day thinking about the upcoming holidays and how I can maximize this month and share idea's with others to help them maximize the month while bringing enormous value to our customers. This month's cheque is our holiday cheque and typically the highest cheque of the year. So what's a direct seller to do? Do the things that other's don't, so you can have a business that other's won't.

IDEA 1: Bring a tree to decorate with your products, use your products as gifts under the tree and stuff some stockings with our products INSTEAD of setting up a table display. Ensure the decorations, gifts and stockings are ready for sale. Don't follow the crowd, bring the fun factor and enjoy the festive season!

IDEA 2: Use your table as a gift wrapping station! Bring gift wrap, bows, tags, ribbon, confetti, and stickers, and let people wrap their purchases at your table, play some Christmas music, serve some cocoa and cookies. Put a jar on the table for donations to your favorite charity and ensure your finger is ready to help them tie the perfect bow! Providing a service invites people to your booth and gives you a chance to start some conversations; we are in the relationship marketing business after all! Have a sheet for them to fill out their contact information so you can send a thank you card and forward to the charity for tax donation receipts.

IDEA 3: Expand your Social Media following by sharing the fun of your booth with your audience. You are going to be announcing on your social media channels the amount raised for your charity, so ask them to follow you (it's easy they have their phone with them, after all). Create a contest around the day by offering a special drawing for those that share a selfie (with their fabulously wrapped gift) on your business page, and let them know they will get a second chance of winning by liking your page! Remember to follow through, comment on their pictures, and ensure that you have a strong content plan for after the event.

Now go out and ROCK your vendor events and remember to take some time to brainstorm some ideas of your own.

Free Q&A Happening Tomrorow

Who's joining us tomorrow? We've got a LIVE Zoom training and Q&A on "Customer Facebook Groups that Thrive Not Die." Two times to register:

Daytime - Thursday, September 28th

10:30 am PT/11:30 am MT/12:30 pm CT/1:30 pm ET

Evening - Thursday, September 28th

5:30 pm PT/6:30 pm MT/7:30 pm CT/8:30 pm ET

Go here to sign up for the Q&A and receive the free 3 part series: https://social.lifelinecoaches.com/bonus-qa/

We've just launched our "Social Media Communities that WORK" ecourse - your step-by-step program for building a community of customers that increases your income! Visit the library and click on the button that reads ‘Social Media Communities that WORK!

So what IS Successfully Social?

Hi blog world! Welcome to our brand new Successfully Social blog.

Successfully Social officially launched AS Successfully Social in January of 2017, but we've been around creating content prior to that...that's just when we became "us". So who is us, you ask? Let me delve a little deeper...

Successfully Social is Beth Reed and Kelly Van Balkom. We've been in direct sales for a combined insane amount of years, and in 2016 teamed up with Lifeline Coaching & Education to make the realm of social media more accessible to the average direct seller. Social media has changed the face of direct selling, and we are ultra passionate about helping other direct sellers see that they not only need to DO social, but that they need to do it RIGHT.

We've all seen those direct sellers all over Facebook who are doing it wrong...being in your face obnoxious, selling on their personal walls, sending unsolicited messages about joining their team, tagging you in posts about their oh-so-exciting sales, etc. Please, DON'T BE THAT GIRL!

Let's put the SOCIAL back in social media...put the relationship before the sale. Be someone that people WANT to do business with. I promise it's not difficult, and we'll be here for you every step of the way.

Look for more blog posts coming soon, more courses coming soon, and in the meantime you can join us over on Facebook by following the links on the right. See you on social!