It’s really easy when you are self-employed to lose focus on what’s important. So easy, just ask me. It happens a dozen times a week for me. Right now I’m editing this post while on an airplane bound for LA with a 4 ½ year old’s feet kicking my while he sleeps. (At least he’s asleep so I can edit. Wait, back on track…)
If you’re a Wine Shop at Home consultant (or involved in any direct sales business), you have likely even had the experience of getting distracted or even – gasp – lest I talk about it, discouraged at some point.
Business is just like anything in life: there are ups, there are downs, and there are in-betweens. However, when you can ride out the downs and learn how to turn your in-betweens into ups, you’re much more likely to see long-term success with your business. Let me be clear, to be successful in anything, especially direct sales, you MUST be able to turn your in-betweens and downs into ups.
Want to know how?
Get More Bookings on Your Calendar
Yes, yes, I know that sometimes picking up the phone to schedule a booking is really darn hard! Trust me, I know all about this. Picture me stomping “I don’t wanna” with my feet and fists.
Here’s the deal: when you work from home, it’s hard to prioritize (especially if you have kids). If you don’t prioritize properly, pretty soon you’ll find yourself with no tastings on your calendar or with tastings that aren’t really the best ones (and by “best” I mean the tastings for which you’ve been a really great host coach – they’re excited, you’re excited, and you know it’s going to be a great event for all involved).
At that point, it’s not fun to look at your calendar.
You might even look at it and think, “Eh. This doesn’t work. I’m going to quit.”
In my experience – and I’ve seen a lot of consultants come and go in the direct sales business – the consultants with bookings on their calendars typically do not quit because they know that each tasting is money in the bank.
And that feels great!
Turn the Down into an Up
There was one point in my business recently where things just felt awful for me. My averages were low and I was just not connecting with my customers. For some reason I was having a hard time getting bookings, and it would have been really easy for me at that point to just throw in the towel and think, “Forget it! I’m not doing this anymore, it sucks!”
The truth is, in the moment it did suck. I can own that.
The cool thing about direct sales is that even when you’re totally at a low point, you can walk into a tasting or party and turn it all around. You have no idea what will happen yet you have so much control over the outcome.
You don’t know who will be at the event. It could literally turn your business around in a matter of hours. It’s happened to me time and time again. I was at a low, I didn’t want to walk out the door and do that one event. Heck, I was silently begging for a reason to cancel, not go, have an “emergency,” but I went anyway and that tasting turned my business upside down in a VERY good way.
I walk out the door even when I don’t want to because I know that I can walk into that one tasting and book 3 or 4 people that would lead me down a path of new business and new tastings. Or I could walk in thinking, “I just have no idea where my next team member is coming from…” only to shake hands with them 5 minutes after walking in the door.
The truth is, it really just takes one or two good bookings to get some new leads. Suddenly, your business will be off to the races and you’ll start to see some awesome progress.
Motivation Doesn’t Come Before Action
Sitting around waiting to be motivated doesn’t work. You must take action first.
That action can be as simple as glancing at your list of prospects and imagining what it would be like to call them and ask for a booking. The important thing is that you keep pushing forward and put an emphasis on “just one more” because that, truly, will make all the difference. If you’re waiting for the motivation to do it, you could be waiting a LONG time. You have to take the action first. Even when it’s hard (and it’s hard a lot).
Anything worth doing is worth being uncomfortable for.