Customer Reviews

Direct Selling 101: Achieve Financial Success through Network Marketing

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In this very helpful audio book, the authors discuss the process of starting and building a direct selling business, from recruiting new customers to building a sales team and closing the sale.They teach you how to stay focused, manage your time, motivate others, set goals, and get creative. This is a $30 billion industry and if you want to be a part of it, this audio book is a must for getting started!

This is a Wonderful set of CD's. While it is mainly for "Party" type direct selling, it surely gives you examples of all types. Very clear and concise. You will definately grow your business with these proven techniques..

I listened to this audiobook online through my local public library's Netlibrary access.

My mom sold Avon when I was a child, mostly book sales not parties. A lot of women (and men) are going into direct selling with home party plan companies since the beginning of the recession. A friend of mine started selling Pampered Chef after being laid off from her full time job in human resources (granted, she's also a great people person who makes friends easily).

There are so many different home party plans available now, there really is something for everyone. Some of the most well known party plan companies include Tupperware, Scentsy, Pampered Chef, and Silpada. Candles, jewelry and cookware seem to be among the most popular products. You can find extensive lists of home party plans, organize by product categories, on web sites like MyMommyBiz and BetweenMoms.

Direct Selling 101 is a very beginner-friendly program, that gives you a lot of tips and advice that you can apply to your direct selling business, no matter which company you work with. The authors offer tips for:

--choosing the right program for you,
--some tips for booking lots of parties,
--planning your work day,
--setting and reaching your goals,
--getting organized, and working with your own organizational style
--tips for planning a 16 hour work week, and how many hours to spend on each activity
--how to fill out an activity log
--how to work around your daily rhythms of alertness and energy
--identifying the most high-value jobs, versus low-yield & time-wasting jobs
--identifying the times of day you are most effective
--how to direct your workflow into the right tasks
--how to identify your talents and strengths with a S.W.O.T. analysis so you can work in your strengths
--lots of specific examples of how to measure outcomes/success targets
--suggestions for making sure your parties give your clients what they want to get out of it
--how to define your priorities and deadlines
--how to determine resources available to you
--how to determine acceptable costs within the bigger picture of how you work
--how to define and plan to achieve exceptional performance
--describes 4 categories of how to juggle your priorities based on importance and urgency
-- and much much more!

Since being laid off from my job last February, I've been looking for an opportunity to learn some new skills (I've never done sales before, so this is definitely "new"), and have fun and socialize selling a product I would probably want to buy anyway, even if I weren't selling it.

The way I see it, it might be possible for top tier salespeople to make a living full time with direct sales. As a rank beginner, you probably won't do that well right off the bat. You might enjoy selling, or you might not. You might have a knack for it, or you might not. Either way, you have the experience of selling - a highly coveted and highly paid *skill* you can add to your resume, which might help you get your next interview, or make you stand out in a pool of other candidates who don't have sales, customer service, or people skills.

If you're still wavering, just think about how this opportunity compares to going back to college for a degree in a field you don't know much about. After 2 to 4 years of college level work in computers, medicine, law or whatever you will be saddled with a lot of student loans. So, if it turns out that your first job is not what you thought it would be, or you don't enjoy it, or you basically discover you have no talent for it (which is what happened to me when I taught high school Spanish the first year!), then you're stuck with those loans, and might have a great deal of difficulty finding a way to pay them off without remaining in the very same field that you discovered too late you didn't enjoy.

With direct sales, it's okay if you find out after you sign up that you don't like selling or you don't have a knack for it (or you don't like the product enough, and want to sell something else instead). At least you get to find out cheaply, by "testing the waters" with a very low initial investment: most plans cost only around $100 to get started as a consultant. In addition, if you make sure to sign up with a company that is a member of the DSA (Direct Selling Association), the company will be required to buy back your leftover inventory if you decide to get out of the business. This is as low risk as it gets. Plus, the hours are flexible, so you can do it full time while unemployed, or part-time around your full-time job's schedule.

If it flops, you lose very little, but you gain a new skill set while having fun and alleviating the social isolation experienced by so many people in our society these days. People are hungry for socializing opportunities, and a jewelry party or candle party or something like that gives everyone a perfect excuse to get together with friends.

Direct Selling 101 will provide you with an introduction to good organizational, sales and time management techniques you can use in any business, with specific examples of how to apply them to your home party sales business.

Good Luck!

This audiobook is so bad I'm trying to get a refund from Audible.com. The title and descriptive copy is completely misleading, as it has nothing to do with network marketing. It is entirely about "party" selling like Tupperware (where they came from), Mary Kay etc. Even if you are a woman interested in this kind of marketing, this program is worthless. Tedious and redundant with very little useful info and a LOT of filler. The male co-author actually has the gall to refer to himself as "Doctor" Phillips throughout the program -- though the source of his "PhD" cannot be found in any of his credentials.

Direct Selling 101: Achieve Financial Success through Network Marketing
Direct Selling 101: Achieve Financial Success Through Network Marketing

I received these CD's a while back with a few other books to read on Direct Selling. Tonight I go to play them and they are EMPTY. Hopefully I can get them replaced. We will see and I will keep u informed.