Direct Selling 101: Learning the Ropes
 Expanded Direct Selling 101: Learning the Ropes We hope you were able to join us in Baltimore. But if not, please plan to attend next year's seminar. In the meantime, you might also be interested in DSA's Direct Selling 101 DVD. Find out complete details by visiting our store and search using keyword "101." Weren't able to attend? Find out what you missed: A seasoned panel of direct selling pros with hands-on experience working with successful start-up companies will lead you through the basics of direct selling during our 2007 Learning the Ropes Expanded Program. You’ll gain information on key topics including marketing and compensation plans; building a three-year business plan; basic order processing and customer service infrastructure; management decision-making guides for direct selling; legal musts; salesforce development; communications and much more! Monday, September 24, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Monday, September 24
The kind of marketing plan a company utilizes can be the deciding factor in the success of the organization. The plan you select will shape your company and affect every decision your executive team makes as the company grows. How should you go about choosing the plan that will best fit your growing business? Which approaches have the highest success rates, and how have others implemented them quickly and successfully? These and many other questions will be answered in this insightful session.
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Compensation Plan Design Essentials Compensation plans are designed to encourage and provide motivation for specific behaviors from your sales representatives and their customers. New direct selling companies quickly learn that a winning compensation strategy is critical to their success. In this informative session, you’ll learn how to choose a compensation plan strategy that is right for your business model and how to leverage your compensation plan for aggressive growth.
Successful direct selling companies make operating decisions only after evaluating the critical metrics that gauge their success: salesforce turnover, retention, recruitment, sales, incentive success and others. Many corporate decision-making pitfalls can be avoided if your company establishes effective strategies for gathering and evaluating these metrics. This session will provide you with a system to utilize your company’s data, as well as address mistakes commonly made when executives exclusively use “gut feelings” or “intuition” for key business decisions. Successful and confident decision-making starts here!
Rejuvenate your mind after an information-packed morning and gear up for the afternoon with some good food and an opportunity to chat with your fellow attendees. 12:45 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Promotions That Drive Your Business Promotional programs are marketing activities designed to motivate the salesforce to take two basic actions: sell products and recruit others to sell. If your company isn’t selling enough product or recruiting enough distributors, you won’t have a company for very long. Our expert will explore when and why promotions are needed and how to fit them into your regular business structure at the drop of a hat. You’ll also learn the importance of matching promotions to your company’s preferred method of selling and gain essential tips on how to do so.
Ever wish there was an “easy button” to growing your salesforce? Five easy concepts will have new distributors banging down your door. Our panel of experts will discuss such topics as basic order processing and customer service infrastructure, creating the “business in a box” to promote distance recruiting, field services to promote growth, field communications including newsletters, recognition and more; and building the home office team: what is needed, what isn’t?
2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. Three Principles & Four Questions It can make or break your company if your corporate team doesn’t understand the underlying philosophies that guide our industry. Individuals new to direct selling often find its concepts and practices difficult to master. Questions like, “Why do direct sellers do the things they do?” “How do they think?” and “What are they talking about?” can often stop company growth in its tracks. Our expert has developed a decision process tool to help new employees and executives understand how to think about things in a direct selling context and make decisions based upon that thinking. He calls this process the “Three Principles and Four Questions.” Find out how it can keep your company on the right track to growth and success.
The laws surrounding direct selling vary widely, and are sometimes complicated, but staying on the right side of the law is critical to your company’s—and our industry’s—success. In this discussion, we will cover the basic legal topics about which every company should be familiar, featuring DSA’s Code of Ethics, state and federal laws including independent contractor issues, and DSA-produced model anti-pyramid scheme legislation. We’ll also cover the FTC and Internet issues in this layman’s session on direct selling law.
Sit back and enjoy a relaxed hour of story-telling, as executives from two successful direct selling enterprises tell you about their experience getting started in the industry, including pitfalls avoided—or not—and valuable lessons learned. Get a feel for our industry’s wonderful tradition of information-sharing and garner some great tips you couldn’t have learned anywhere else—and won’t want to learn through experience.
Digest everything you’ll have learned during the first nine hours of this seminar through an open Q & A session. Ask questions, benefit from the questions others ask and wrap your mind around everything you’re starting to understand about our industry.
Gather with other attendees at an area hot-spot for a relaxed evening of good food and conversation. 6:30 p.m. Party Plan Council Dinner For individuals whose companies will utilize the party plan method of selling, you’ll want to be in attendance at the Party Plan Council Dinner. Enjoy great food and take part in the Council meeting, facilitated by Lee Morgan (Chairperson, Creative Memories), as challenges specific to party planning are discussed. (Separate registration applies.) Tuesday, September 25
Just as your company should study history to avoid mistakes, you should also make sure not to recreate any wheels if successful ones are available. Our industry veteran will provide you with the basic elements that have helped other direct selling companies succeed, including attributes of the ideal direct selling company, variables within your control that will drive company growth and important retention and recruitment activities that will provide your company with a salesforce now and in the years to come.
Break bread with your peers and enjoy another opportunity to network with others who can provide your company with guidance—now, and in the future. 12:15 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Bringing the Dream to Life Direct selling in fundamentally different from other retail industries, and without a firm understanding of those differences, your company will not be able to succeed. Our expert will walk you through everything from product marketing to shipping and distribution to budgetary expectations and much more to provide you with an in-depth understanding of the differences you can expect, and what that means for your company’s operations as you bring the dream to life.
As you add layers onto your direct selling enterprise – corporate to field to customers—one lesson will directly add to or subtract from your success: communication is key. Whether it’s how you communicate with your salesforce about new product lines or company policy changes, or how your customer service team handles incoming calls, the philosophy around which you shape these communications will make a difference in customer and distributor retention and growth of your company. Our experts will guide you through essential dos and don’ts and provide you with valuable lessons learned to start you on the path to keeping all layers united around one cause: your company’s success.
3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Guiding Principles for Development & Growth Get the scoop on how to think, plan and address critical considerations in growing your business right the first time. Though there is a high degree of expecting the unexpected in your direct selling venture, this session will demonstrate a fundamental forecasting model that is extremely accurate at predicting sales and recruiting for your company.
Your company’s sales will be driven by your distributors – specifically those who have generated their share of sales and can show others how to do it effectively. But sales leaders are not all born; some must be created. How do you go about creating a generation of sales leaders who can grow your company and motivate others to do so, as well? This session will provide you with the resources you need to do just that, keeping your company on the right track for future success.
More information means more time for more questions. Wrap up this second day of sessions with a Q & A forum to help you process the information you’ve learned. Wednesday, September 26
Compensation plans, budgets, marketing, accounting, distribution …. These are just a few of the elements that comprise the foundation of your direct selling company. And they all need to be tied together with the appropriate software to keep your company operating full speed ahead. Can you use DreamWeaver to assemble your Web site? Will QuickBooks take care of your accounting needs? Can you keep track of your company’s downline in Excel? And when will it be time for an upgrade? This session will cover these important topics and address the pitfalls that exist for the young and growing direct selling company.
Experts who have been with us throughout the seminar will lead topical roundtables to provide you with an open forum to ask questions of and gain insights from others in attendance. This is the perfect opportunity to share your challenges with others and gain tips to stimulate company growth. Noon – 1:00 p.m. Networking Lunch Grab a bite to eat before you hit the road! Continue previous conversations with your colleagues before you head out of town to put the information you’ve learned into practice! Hotel Information |
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