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The Party’s Over…Direct Sales Customer Follow-Up Tips

By Julie · Comments (0)

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you probably have a fairly decent party presentation. I routinely tell you how to increase the results from your home parties and there are a ton of easy to implement and simple tools you can use during your live presentations to make sure you're getting bookings, sales, and sponsoring leads at every home party you do.

But what about after the party? Follow-up tends to be the one area where most of us drop the ball and consequently lose some great booking, sales, and recruiting opportunities. I can be as guilty of it as you are, so I thought I'd give you a little nudge and reminder, as well as a few simple ideas for making sure you follow up with every paying customer after every home party you do.

Making Customer Service Calls Is Easy

I know getting on the phone can be a challenge and it's often uncomfortable to make a call to ask someone to do something (book a home party, learn more about your opportunity, etc.). Follow up calls that are specifically for customers from your home parties are actually easy to make, however, because they're purely customer service driven.

All you're doing it following up with those who purchased once they have their products, checking in with them to make sure they're satisfied and answering any questions they may have. The beautiful thing about this is that it often leads to a conversation about an add on purchase, booking a party themselves, or learning more about your opportunity, and that conversation flows seamlessly out of the reason you called – to support them.

Use The Wish List For Follow Up

If you're using a wish list during your home parties, it can become a great tool for you to use to follow up with customers who didn't purchase something they put on their wish list. Is it on sale next month? Is it a host gift or special right now? Connect with that customer and let them know how easy it would be to purchase it at a discount or earn it for free. You might consider keeping an index card for popular items and writing names and phone numbers of interested customers on those cards after each party. That way you'll have an instant list of people to call when that item comes up on sale or on the hostess gift list.

Schedule Your Follow Up

Whether you're making phone calls, reaching out with a Facebook message, or sending a text, it's important that you schedule a reminder so you'll actually follow up. Go to your calendar on the day you submit your host's order and flip ahead to the date you're fairly certain she can expect her order to be delivered. Then move out another week and create a reminder to follow up with every customer who ordered. If you don't schedule it, it's much easier to just forget to do it (or choose not to). If it's on your schedule, you'll do it more routinely. Trust me, this works.

Follow up With Your Host

Finally, make sure you take the time to shoot a hand written thank you note out to your host (if you need an easy, affordable way to do this that even allows you to schedule it ahead of time, click here) the week after her party. This acknowledgement solidifies your relationship and makes it easier for you to follow up in six months or so to book another party with her. You'll also want to make sure you call her around the time her order is scheduled to arrive to make sure she received it and answer any questions she might have about getting the items distributed to her guests. Remember, your host is the catalyst for your success, so you want to make sure she always feels valued and taken care of.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on after-party follow up. What do you do to make sure you're taking advantage of this important opportunity?

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Julie Anne Jones is direct sales corporate consultant, coach, and trainer, and the CEO of Julie Anne Jones, Inc. She is known for her authentic and easy-to-use scripting and specializes in specific language and tools for success in direct sales. To learn more about Julie Anne and her products and services, and to read her weekly blog posts, visit her at www.julieannejones.com.

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Categories : Customer Support, Follow-up, Home Party

Tags : Business Systems, Direct sales, Follow-Up, Home Parties, Home Party Sales, Phone Calls

My 3 Step System for Direct Sales Follow Up

By Julie · Comments (0)

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

We've all been there. You have a note to make a follow up call to someone whom you've been following up with for weeks (or maybe even months). You stare at the phone, frozen with the belief that she hates you, she isn't answering because she's not interested, that you're bothering her. It makes it very hard to pick up the phone. Those beliefs can paralyze you and eventually destroy your direct sales business.

I'll let you in on a secret that just might help…pretty much without exception, the things you tell yourself about making follow up calls and what the person on the other end is thinking about you are all lies. 99% of the time, if someone hasn't called you back or answered your e-mail, it's not about you. It's about how busy they are. And don't kid yourself. Those lies you're telling yourself are only about you. If you can't prove they're true (and of course, unless you have a hidden camera into the person you're calling's home, you can't prove they're true), they must be lies.

I’ve been called the “follow-up queen” simply because I always call when I say I’m going to, and I keep following up, no matter what, until someone tells me to stop calling. This approach has supported my success for years. Here's the trick to this. When I send an e-mail, I always give those on my list a clear way to opt out right at the top and bottom of every e-mail. I do the same thing with my follow up calls. My message lets them know my follow up philosophy and how to opt out of my follow up list if they would prefer I stop calling.

That way, if I haven't heard from them, I can assume they still want to hear from me instead of assuming they wish I'd stop calling. It's a huge shift and one that can literally change your business. I had one client who followed up with a woman for nine years before she finally was at the right time and place in her life to start her business. And she thanked my client for continuing to follow up and for never giving up on her.

I created a diagram of how my follow-up system works and I thought it might be helpful. Here it is, in a nutshell.

Then beyond week 3, simply schedule a follow up call every single month until you either reach the person you're calling or they request to be taken off of your list. I make a point of reiterating my follow up philosophy every few months just to remind them by saying, "My follow up philosophy is to keep following up until we've connected. If you'd rather I take you off my list, just give me a call or shoot me an e-mail and I'll do that. Otherwise, I'll look forward to hearing back from you soon or I'll follow up again if we haven't connected."

Trust me, this simple three step system will completely change the way you look at follow up calls. And that could mean you actually start making them, which will impact your business in all areas, guaranteed.

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Categories : Follow-up, Organization, Relationship Building, Self Development

Tags : Business Systems, Customer Service, Direct sales, Follow-Up, Phone Calls, Relationship Building

Are You An Accidental Direct Seller?

By Julie · Comments (0)

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

Are you succeeding in your direct sales business on purpose or accidentally? If you're like most direct sellers, you started your business based on an invitation to "give it a try" and possibly found yourself stepping into this unknown realm of direct sales/home party plan without really understanding exactly what you were doing from the beginning. Because of the nature of how your business probably grew, it's also possible that you just added necessary skills a little at a time and on an "as needed" basis.

All this can add up to a way of doing your direct sales business I call "flying by the seat of your pants." That basically means that you do what you need to do to get everything you need to get done done each week, but you're probably not completely clear about how (or sometimes even why) you do those things. This can result in your business running you instead of the other way around and in you feeling overwhelmed and always behind as you scramble to recreate the wheel every time you do something.

It can also make it difficult to mentor others. Since the definition of mentoring is teaching others to do what you do, you have to understand what it is you do in order to be successful before you can teach someone else to do those things. Once you start sponsoring people into your business and building a team from this perspective, you can quickly become an "accidental leader." More often than not that results in the blind leading the blind, and it's difficult for anyone to succeed in that scenario.

So what's the solution? Systems. A systematic way of working your business that ensures that you're doing everything you need to do to succeed, intentionally and consistently so nothing is falling through the cracks. It's easy to teach someone what you do if you're clear about that yourself. But first you have to figure out what you do.

Here's a list of the areas where you need to work systematically in your direct sales business. See if you can use it to discover where you currently have systems in your business that you may not have defined, and where you'll need to think about creating systems where there are currently none. This could involve creating a schedule, changing the way you follow up, or overhauling your home party presentation.

1. Administrative – This includes banking, e-mail, keeping up your website, processing orders and returns, and anything else you currently do in your home office

2. Customer Support – Including follow up calls after parties and communicating with your current customers through newsletters and social media, etc.

3. Downline Support – What do you do to support your downline? This includes new consultant training, ongoing consultant training, one-on-one coaching, etc.

4. Host Coaching – This is an important area that many people miss. What are you doing to make sure your hosts are having a successful experience with you, including phone and in person meetings, sending out invitations, etc.

5. Your Party Experience – Does your party look easy to duplicate? If not, you need to consider changing how you're doing it. You want people thinking, "I could do what she's doing." It's a great sponsoring seed. So look at the systems you use during your parties and make sure they're working.

If you take the time to really look at your direct sales business and make sure you've got the proper systems in place in all of the above areas, you'll find it's not only easier to run your business, but also to teach others to do the same thing.

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Archive for Follow-up – Page 2

The Party’s Over…Direct Sales Customer Follow-Up Tips

My 3 Step System for Direct Sales Follow Up

Are You An Accidental Direct Seller?

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