Face to Face Selling in a Face to Screen World – Direct Sales and the Internet

(This is a Guest Post from my friend Annette Yen.  Annette is a successful Direct Sales Pro who is using the internet to grow her business in cool ways.)

When I first started in direct sales, most people thought of a computer as a big untouchable machine in a large noisy room. I know this truth because my dad ran a computer services company with one of those monsters in his building.  The average homeowner never would have imagined that they would own their own computer just a few years later, let alone be able to reach almost the entire world with it.

For me, those early days of direct selling meant packing up my sales bag with my catalogs and samples and walking to my customer’s doors, greeting them face to face and hopefully making a sale.  That is, after all, what direct sales means; face to face – a customer buying directly from you.

Fast forward to today where the idea of someone coming to your door to sell something would be laughed at by most people. And, if you did this and happened to find someone home in our fast-paced world, chances are pretty good that they would be sitting in front of their computer screen ordering whatever you’re selling from an online source.

Does that mean Direct Selling is a thing of the past?  Absolutely not. In fact, the internet can bring a wonderful twist to your direct selling adventure. But only when it is done in a way that is well planned out and smart.

Direct Sales is a Relational Business.

The beauty of the current social media internet age is that it’s just that;  social, relational and people focused. It’s a direct seller’s dream!

Now instead of just walking out your door and knocking on the doors of maybe five to ten customers in a trip; instead of just driving to a home party to meet up with 10-20 ladies for a presentation; instead of just setting up shop at a vendor fair for six to 8 hours of work, you can walk through the various “doors” of social media and meet up with hundreds or even thousands in a matter of seconds.  And you can do it in your jammies!  That’s just amazing!

Social media avenues like forums, yahoo and ning groups, twitter, facebook and more, can help you to build a network of friends, connections, future customers and team members who, through your smart participation, will grow to trust you and ultimately look to you when they need your services or products or are ready to start their own direct sales business with your company.

Over the next few months, if Kelly allows, we’ll talk more about why you should use the internet to maximize your direct sales business.  So stay tuned!

Annette Yen loves helping women in direct sales make the most of their business using the great tools available on the internet and more.  Sign up for one of her free reports when you visit Direct Sellers University.