Productivity Tools for Direct Sellers

Direct Selling 2.0: Three Techniques For Improving Your Productivity
by Linda Rogers

The direct selling sector is a large contributor to economic growth in the US. According to numbers reported by the Direct Selling Association, more than 50% of American adults say they have having purchased services or goods from a direct sales representative. Additionally, one in five 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. Yet, relatively few direct sellers ever achieve truly substantial earnings. Part of this is because of the time commitment required and the difficulty in selling productively.

However, a number of new productivity tools ranging from online communication systems, to sharing your desktop apps and free conference call solutions are most definitely making selling easier for direct sellers. This commentary look at three major areas in which direct sellers can work more productively.

Tip 1: Use a newsletter customization application

For many direct sellers, online communication is a critical component of maintaining relationships and prospecting new ones. We have moved far beyond the days of mere Outlook merge! New offerings by companies such as Constant Contact, EmailLabs, and MyNewsletterBuilder enable direct sellers to generate templates in which preconfigured content can be added.

This content could outline announcements about new product availability, incentives for higher performance, updates on shipping 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 would have required.

The more sophisticated offerings provide tracking capabilities. These tracking capabilities can provide everything from the open rates for e-mails to the click-throughs on links. These services also typically manage the unsubscribe function in order to facilitate compliance with spam laws.

Tip 2: Use a free teleconferencing service

In the last few years, there have been literally dozens of companies launching free teleconferencing services. All of them work on the same basic principle: they give you a PIN and a toll number to dial. If all users dial the same toll number and enter the same PIN code, they are put into a group call. Active direct sellers can potentially 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 PIN codes for training and education situations, and content archiving. One such service is Rondee.com, a conference call offering which provides web scheduling.

Tip 3: Use an application for desktop sharing

Desktop sharing can be of vital importance for the direct selling entrepreneur. Whether it‘s sharing a PowerPoint document illustrating the features and benefits of a new product or a spreadsheet showing the performance of various down-line members, desktop sharing can be extremely useful.

One could just e-mail out the presentation or attachment to all participants. But a desktop sharing application enables the presenter to control the presentation and pace of the material. And more feature rich applications such as those offered by Yugma or WebEx allow the presenter to switch control over to other participants.

Some users choose a best-of-breed strategy and use different systems for conferencing and desktop sharing. Increasingly, however, conference providers are bundling desktop sharing functionality into their core service. Either way, direct sellers are benefiting.

About the Author

Linda Rogers is a native of California. Rogers‘ work for Rondee.com‘s free conference call service is typified in her voluminous commentaries on telecommunications topics.

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