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Direct Sales 2.0: Three strategies for improving your productivity

The direct selling sector is a huge contributor to economic growth in the US. According to data published by the Direct Selling Association, more than 50% of US adults report having purchased goods or services from a direct sales representative. In addition, 1 in 5 American adults reports having been or currently working as a direct seller.

Many direct sellers are attracted by the flexibility of work hours and the opportunity to develop personal business connections. However, relatively few direct sellers ever reach truly substantial earnings. Part of this is because of the time commitment that is required and the challenges in selling productively.

However, a stream of new productivity tools extending from web-based communication applications, to desktop sharing applications and free conference call offerings are definitely making things easier for direct sellers. This review touches on three major areas where direct sellers can work more productively.

Tip 1: Use a newsletter management application

For most direct sellers, e-mail is a key ingredient in maintaining existing relationships and prospecting new ones. We have moved well beyond the era of mere Outlook mail merge! New services by companies such as Constant Contact, EmailLabs, and MyNewsletterBuilder enable direct sellers to generate templates where preconfigured content can be easily inserted.

This content might outline announcements about new product specifications, incentives for performance, updates on shipping arrival schedules, etc. The key is that these systems enable direct sellers to generate professional looking content using a fraction of the time that earlier methods required.

The more sophisticated services provide tracking capabilities. These tracking capabilities can provide a range of data from the open rates on e-mails to the click-throughs on links. These services also frequently manage the unsubscribe feature in order to ensure compliance with spam laws.

Tip 2: Use a free conference calling service

In the last five years, there have been dozens of companies launching free teleconferencing services. All of them work on the same central principle: they give you a personal access number and a toll number to dial. If all users dial the same toll number and enter the same code, they are put into the call together. Active direct sellers can save hundreds of dollars a month by using such services.

The newer services offer extra functionality relevant to direct sellers. Examples include call recording, listen-only dial in codes for training and education situations, and archiving of content. One such service is Rondee, a conference call service which enables web-based scheduling.

Tip 3: Use an application to allow desktop sharing

Desktop sharing can be extremely helpful for the direct selling entrepreneur. Whether it's sharing a PowerPoint document illustrating the benefits and features of a new product or a spreadsheet showing the sales of down-line members, desktop sharing can be quite useful.

One could simply e-mail out the attachment or presentation to all participants. But a desktop sharing application enables the organizer to control the pace and presentation of everything. And more feature rich applications including those offered by Yugma or WebEx enable the presenter to switch control over to other participants.

Some users choose a best-of-breed approach and use different services for conferencing and desktop sharing. Increasingly, however, conference calling providers are moving to bundle desktop sharing functionality into their core service. Either way, direct sellers can benefit.