Being in direct sales might
fairly often give the feeling "I do not
have to do much, just sell". Its true, you dont have to ship orders or create websites, or even design catalogs (even though we recommend it sometimes). Your job as the rep is to direct customers to products, thats it. The fact is, to sell the merchandise
is the hardest part.
Because "just selling" is more complicated than it seems, its important to you to have a promoting plan. First of course you will positive need
to set goals, so you understand
where you want to be by a set time. The next part is deciding on how to get there.
A advertising plan should add
the following:
- What types of advertising ideas you plan to use
This would be ideas such as purchasing ads, hosting parties online and offline, networking, having your own newsletter, etc.
- Why you want to use these forms of selling
Of course our main objective is to gain more sales, right? Dig a little deeper on these different forms of branding to really see WHY you are going to utilize these forms. You may want to host an offline party to not only build sales, but to book more shows. You want a news letter
to keep customers informed of new products and specials, to convince them to buy.
- How you are going to follow through on the ideas
Just having them down on paper doesnt do you much nice
. If you want to have several online parties, write down how you plan to pull in visitors. If you want to make use of
a newsletter (highly recommended), write down how you plan to grab
subscribers and what will go into your newsletter.
- Schedules
Do not
overwhelm yourself - contruct
a schedule of what type of promotion you will
be using first. If you want to have an online party, initial
your news letter
first. While I know you want to have that party, its important to do other things first so you are ready and have the best attendance possible.
Do not
skip this important step to succeeding with your company! Even though you are "just selling", having a promoting plan may generate it much easier to do your job.