Thursday, December 4, 2008

Creating a blog for your direct sales company? Do's and Don't

This week's challenge may have a few of you stumped. Here are some guidelines to help you get started.

UNLESS your company gives you permission (or doesn't prohibit it), do not use any trademarked names in your blog web address, title, etc. many extablished companies (like Pampered Chef, The Body Shop at Home, PartyLite, Lia Sophia, etc) have very strictrules about "internet advertising" or "national advertising". Usually this includes using any of their trademarked names or words without permission.

That means you can't call your site "PamperedChefCooking.blogspot.com" or "LiaSophiaRocks.bogspot.com"

You could use "cookingchef.blogspot.com" or "pamperedcooking.blogspot.com" or something like that.

But if you do that, realize that you'll be stuck with that name even if you change companies.

Think you'll never change companies? So did the reps at Sarah Coventry.

I've had great success using a phrase related to my industry: BeautyRemarks.blogspot.com

You'll notice that I don't blatantly promote my affiliation with any company, I offer advice and helpful articles, and redirect readers to sign up for my newsletter - which is where I include all that juicy information.

That way, I'm not getting in trouble with my company, and I can still generate leads in my sleep.

It may seem like an extra step, but it protects you.

On the other hand, if your company is all for lettig you promote online, GO for it. When you can use your company brand name in your posts, it help you appear higher and more frequently in the search rankings when people are looking for your products by name.
Just realize that if you ever switch companies, you'll be stuck with an old blog that will be difficult to keep updated and you may have to start over with a new blog.
Questions? feedback? this is the place to put it!

5 comments:

Jackie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jackie said...

Thanks for the call on leadership tonight! Sorry I think I'm posting this in the wrong section, but didn't see where to go. I had a couple of questions.
First, about the issue of running your own business while training others - I have two recruits that started in this past month (thanks to training I learned from your calls!) So that is great! But now I'm having the issue of spending a lot of time with training them while I can't finish things with my personal business, like following up with folks who may want to book shows or entering orders, on top of also doing my part-time job. What types of ways can you recommend to strike a good balance?

Also, I'm not running my own meetings yet since I'm not a manager yet, but I have some questions about meetings anyways. I liked the mini-show idea! I know you said you rotate this with everyone doing a presentation - if someone is new, do you wait a few months before putting them in the rotation? Also, in my meetings with my upline, they tend to just have the top sellers show their presentation so that new people (and veterans) that are at the meetings can learn a lot. Is there an advantage for lower sellers to do their presenation too?

the coolest girl on the planet - HA! said...

YES!

First, make sure, as Ruth said, that you're giving them a comprehensive review of the Advisor University. If the answer to their question can be found there, you should point them back to the corporate training and not babysit them.

If it's a legitimate question, then by all means answer it.

One of the things I tell my teams is that if they can't reach me, they can ALWAYS call the home office to get an answer to a question. That also trains them to try the home office for the basic stuff, instead of having them call you all the time.

As for mini-shows, you don't want a brand new consultant doing one at their first meeting, but after two metings, I believe everyon's fair game. They've had a chance to review 2 mini-shows, and if they've been doing AY shows of their own, they should be practiced enough to do a mini with little difficulty.

EVERYONE needs practice in font of different audiences. With newbies, comment on the basics of the presentation. with seasoned pros, comment on more of the details and minutiae of the presentation. That way people can do both.

Glad you were on the call Jackie! I was wondering who that chicago number was!
-Lisa

Anonymous said...

Hi Jackie,
I feel like a johnny come lately to responding to you. I'm afraid I haven't been feeling the best and have been spending some serious time in bed trying to get rid of whatever this creeping crud is that has taken hold of me.

Yes I know. Recruits can take up a lot of your time. That's part of it. Once they get past their first few shows it seems they aren't as needy as before which frees you up. That's all part of why you are getting an over-ride on their sales.

That said, you also need to know your priorities. Your first priority should be to your personal business. It's okay to tell a recruit you'll get back to her. Then name a time but remember to stick to it. You may also want to encourage them to email you instead of call you. That way you can respond to them when you are more able. A phone call can pull you away from what you are doing and then it can be hard to get back to what you were doing.

Once a recruit has done her first 6 to 9 shows and she has seen several mini-shows it's time for her to get up and do her mini-show. Let her have some experience under her belt first before you put her in front of her peers.
Hugs,
Ruth
ps I'm so very proud of you!

Jackie said...

Thanks Lisa and Ruth!