To start a fire, it helps if you have kindling – wood or paper that burns at a lower temperature. Do you have kindling for your direct selling fire? If you have a network marketing or party plan company, you may be wondering what you can do to grow your direct selling company…
Take the 7-Question Compensation Plan Quiz
Compensation plans should be designed to motivate and reward specific behaviors. To find out how your compensation plan is doing, answer “yes” or “no” to each of the following questions: 1. Personal Consumption Do your independent representatives personally use or consume your products? 2. Sales to Customers Is the percentage increasing of total company sales…
What To Do When Leaders Stop Leading
Leaders are so important to the success of all direct selling companies. They sell more, recruit more, and still active in the business longer than the average representative. That’s the good news. The bad news is that all leaders eventually stop acting like leaders. Why? There are many reasons and there is a lot you can…
It’s What You Don’t Know
I began my career in direct selling in 1986 when I went to work for a company that develops and sells network marketing software. My previous background was software development, so I was hired as a programmer/analyst. Within a few months, I was promoted to project leader. In those days, project leaders did everything for their…
Good Communication
Communication with the field is one of many vital ingredients in the success formula for direct selling companies. It should start within minutes of receipt of a new representative’s application. An automated email from your company should be sent confirming acceptance of the application, along with some words of thanks and excitement. In the starter…
Tuning Your Company
Like an orchestra, a direct selling company is composed of many instruments, each of which must do its part to produce the desired result, a symphonic success! When one or more elements are in need of tuning, the performance of the whole company suffers. Are your company’s instruments tuned for success?
Compensation Plan Webinar
If your company has a compensation plan (or soon will have one), you should attend and learn at the Compensation Plan Conference webinar. From compensation plan experts, learn how to design, analyze, improve and protect your company’s plan. Find out if your plan is producing the results that you expect or should it be improved….
Commission Run Auditing
What is commission run auditing? Why do it? Who should do it? How do you do it? What is Commission Run Auditing? Commission run auditing is a process of many steps to validate that your sales force is paid properly and accurately based on the rules of your compensation plan. Stated another way, acceptance of…
Your Business: Marathon or Sprint?
Building or growing a business is very much like running a race. Are you running a marathon or a sprint? The answer is important. Let’s find out if you’re in the right race. A Marathon If your business is like a marathon, your focus is on a finish line many years out. You realize in…
Why Do They Leave?
Did you know that the average direct selling company experiences an annual retention rate of only 20% for new representatives? It’s shocking, but who wants to be average? Wouldn’t you rather your company be better than average? You bet you would! Before telling you what you can do to raise your rate of retention, let’s…
Pilot Programs, Pre-Launches, and Launches
If you are launching a new direct selling company, you may be contemplating the use of a pilot program and/or a pre-launch, before you launch your company. A pre-launch is also called a soft launch. Pilot Programs A pilot program is a group of activities planned as a test or a trial of a business…
What About Sales Tax?
If you’re launching a new direct selling company, you should be asking this question! Collection and Remittance Most businesses register for sales tax collection authority, collect sales taxes, and remit collected taxes only in the states where the business has a physical presence (a store, an office, or a warehouse). However, direct selling companies are…