As I was approaching the Shop Demo setup of one of our sales reps, I saw that she had a fresh flower tucked behind her ear, and I had an immediate feeling of warm energy radiating from her, and it was perfectly clear to me that its center was the flower.
But the source of the energy comprised everything that was there in front of me–the beautiful display of Dolce Mia product, and the sale rep’ s smile and buoyancy. Ignited by this fresh, unassuming ambassador of the natural world, of positivity, authenticity and real, non-superficial, non-transient value became brilliantly clear.
Needless to say, she had a great show!
We have no territories dividing us, which is a feature of Dolce Mia and part of what makes Dolce Mia an exceptional place for a sales rep to conduct business. Removing unnecessary boundaries has created greater opportunity for us all. Greater openness makes it ever more likely that someone you meet will have seen or heard of Dolce Mia, which is good news for us all, not least because studies show that most people buy between the 5th and the 15th time they receive an honest, quality Dolce Mia message.
The matter of getting the sale then becomes simply one of staying in regular, warm communication until they’re ready to buy. Every friendly Dolce Mia Just Checking In! your customer receives is a step towards your goal.
Living in this Dolce Mia world of mutual support and helping one another requires we reject negative emotions and fearfulness, and trust to the good, and believe that this is how it works. My handwritten postcard to your customer saying “Thank you for your order!” or “Just checking in”, can be seen as an affront; but if you are nurturing in your customer the kind of earnest relationship that works in sales, you might see such supportive contact from headquarters in a different light.
No one thinks this way naturally. We tend to bristle at anyone’s reaching out to what we consider “ours”. But in sales, as in life, protectionism tends to be a dreary, and disappointing strategy. Worrying about competition, especially from within your own company, is an energy-depleting path that limits rather than expands your business, and at the end of which, more likely than not, you discover you have been protecting nothing at all. You have no customer, no order, and no one to blame but yourself.
But part of what makes us unique as Dolce Mia reps is that we set aside of this way of thinking. opening our minds and hearts and embracing the good of family marketing. If you show loyalty to your customers, they will be loyal to you. If you serve them well, they will repay you with their business, even if they have to go out of their way to do so.
In practice, how do we react when we encounter a customer of another rep? We say, “I appreciate your loyalty. Here’s my card. If you ever feel like making a change, please keep me in mind.”
Conversely, if we hear from our customer that another rep contacted them, we say “Great! Was there anything new she told you about the line that you may not have heard from me? I want you to know that I appreciate your business, and I know I must earn it every day by providing you with excellent customer service. How am I doing in this regard? If there is ever a way I can serve you better, will you please let me know?”
Do you want your customers ordering through you because they have no other options? Of course not. If that’s the reason they order from you, sooner or later they will find other options, and they will no longer be your customers. No, you want them ordering through you because they appreciate what you do for them, and part of what you can do for them is welcome them into the Dolce Mia community.
Sometimes it is not enough to hear, You can do it! You need to feel it for yourself, that you can.
Dolce Mia represents an opportunity that most people long for – being in business for themselves. At the same time, getting “there” requires making a scary leap. Will it work? Can I do it? How can I risk giving up what I have? It is a leap that most people want to make, but fear will stop the majority, and keep them from their dream of having a successful business of their own that they can feel proud of, working with a product they love, and people they enjoy. But as leaders within Dolce Mia, we can help.
First, we know that people love to be invited. It feels good to be asked to contribute or participate, as it means to us that our value is appreciated. We comfortably ignore opportunities that require work… that is, until someone asks.
Second, we also know that if we can bring ourselves to begin on a task that appears frightfully daunting, it magically becomes an order of magnitude easier.
We all know how great it feels to be out in the flow with Dolce Mia, selling and being showered with compliments. What if we were to invite someone we felt could benefit from a career with Dolce Mia to be a Dolce Mia rep for a day? Simply asking would be flattering to them. You would be offering them not the logic, not the reasoning but the feeling of being in Dolce Mia business.
With our Designer Rep challenge for May and June being to design and execute a fun and fabulous multi-day (one setup, one break down, many days selling) repeatable (there will be things you’ll want to do better) event, you will have many opportunities to welcome others to come over to your side of the experience – be a Dolce Mia Designer Rep for a day. Imagine how they will thank you, those who today stand on the other side of the line, suspecting and hoping.
Your business is a flowering rose. It will grow as it is destined to do, as it must do; all it needs, and very much what it needs is a supply of water and nutrients. Put your plant’s roots in this flow, or redirect nearby flow over to you and it will grow and flower, as is in its nature to do.
We will soon be announcing a new rep challenge for the months of May and June. Without getting into the details, your goal will be to design a business effort (an event, a show, a sales action plan…) that gets you in front of lots of qualified customers. You might invite your customers to you (diverting the flow). You might go to them (stepping into the flow). Either way is fine, and you may design an event that is some combination of the two. We want to hear about your creative strategic design. And because this is a design/execute business challenge, we want to know how much you sold. What was your time invested? What were your expenses? What was your profit? As Dolce Mia Designer Reps, we can enjoy ourselves, feel great about what we do, AND make money. This triad is one of the unique features of the Dolce Mia opportunity. And to reach our full potential as Dolce Mia Designer Reps, we must do all three.
Because I am hoping that many, many, many of you will take advantage of this fun, I am promising rewards for all that do.
More details soon!
I discovered something fun today! I was listening to the recording of yesterday’s conference call when I found that I could speed it up in my audio player. I sound really funny at 1.5 times normal speed, but my long pauses are greatly diminished, and you can still understand everything that is said. So, if you are in the mood to race through one of these recordings, put the hammer down on your audio player and go for speed 1.5. You can get all the value of the call in just 66% of the time, leaving 33% “free time” to practice what you’ve learned. (You won’t believe how much time I waste just thinking about what to say next.) But on the other hand, if you want to throttle back, get cozy and just have a good time with those of us who were on the call, just listen. There is so much of value in these calls. I hope you’ll find a way to listen that suits your mood.
A word of caution: If you take the speeded up route, you’ll find yourself thinking to yourself in fast-talk. I hope I wake up tomorrow with my inner-voice back to normal!
Challenge: Sit down with your significant other and talk about ways he or she can help you let people know about your Dolce Mia business, in a way that is comfortable, easy, and fun for them. It should be something they can make a part of their regular day, so that it takes no more time, and only makes them feel better, and you too.
What do you have invested in your business? Some money, yes, but mostly it’s your will, your desire to see your dreams come true. What if I told you there are some very simple things you can do to guarantee your investment? They cost you nothing, and these actions have been proved time and again to work.
One such action, which you’ve likely heard of, is a “goal poster”. Imagine sitting down and creating a collage, using words, personal photos, magazine clippings of designs. Anything can be included. Illustrate parts of your poster if you want to. Piece by piece, layer by layer you are creating a shrine of sorts to what’s most important in your life today, and what is important to work towards for tomorrow. Every single item that appears on this poster should be special to you in some way, deeply so. But it is also to true that the process of creation in this case is very much just as important as the finished product. Your goal poster is being lovingly made.
Make your goal poster something you don’t mind displaying for all to see. Although this is a highly personal thing you are making, you will need to have it somewhere you can physically see it — tucked into a drawer is no good – as a constant reminder, and inexhaustible source of energy. After all, this is how a goal poster does its work.
So, thinking still….only energy-giving images, ideas, icons should be on your poster. You want a poster you will LONG to look at, pine for, one that you miss when you are away
By the time you’re done, you will have had a lot of fun tapping into the heart of your life, and you will have insured your success by giving focus and force, and weight to your personal direction. In the face of setbacks (they will come) you will be fortified by your goal poster; you will be less likely to forget about your goals and give up because you have put some serious time and thought into collecting and arranging your treasures, and assembling your net wisdom. You have a foundation, now, from which you will find it possible to say, Well, that didn’t work, but something surely will!
I believe in you.
Alex
Challenge:
Take your next planned Dolce Mia work time and use it to make a goal poster of your own. Lifelong reward will follow from these few hours invested in you.
One of the best parts of being in business for yourself is discovering new things you are capable of.
Alex
I love this post from the Dolce Mia Sales Rep Forum because it gets to the heart of Dolce Mia’s commitment to helping our reps build strong, enduring businesses for themselves through personal, old-fashioned customer service.
Hello everyone,
I wanted to share a recent experience I had with a customer. I was at an evening event and this customer purchased several gift baskets from me for gifts and one hand sanitizer for herself. We had a nice chat and then off she went. Later that night she emailed me to inform me I had forgotten to give her the hand sanitizer in her bag.
Oops. I felt really bad and rather stupid, as I had never done that before. I was very apologetic, and she kindly asked if I could ship it to her or else could we meet up halfway. I told her I was doing an event the next day and wondered if it was convenient for her to meet me at that event instead? She said she would be in the area near my event and that worked out great for her.
At the event she found my table and after apologizing profusely again, I gave her the hand sanitizer. Also for her trouble I offered her a complimentary travel size lotion of her choice. She seemed very happy to get some free product!
Remembering that she had purchased gifts from me but not much for herself, I subtlety suggested that perhaps she wanted to get something for herself so she could enjoy some of the nice products for herself. She immediately agreed and proceeded to purchase a full size lotion from me!
So, I just wanted everyone to know that you can take every opportunity (good or bad) and sometimes turn it into more business. What started out as a mistake turned into another sale for me. Also, whenever possible, try to see your customers in person. If I had shipped her the sanitizer I definitely wouldn’t have gotten another sale. It was the personal interaction that sealed the deal. So, I’ve found that with good service and relationships you can turn any customer into a potential life long customer….
Joy
Challenge:
Did you set any goals for yourself this week? If not, get in the habit of goal-setting. It will make you a success.
This coming work week, set a goal that is way smaller than what you think you can do. What you want is to start establishing good business-building habits through weekly goals. If you set a big goal you might exhaust yourself reaching it, then be left depleted at the start of the following week.
By putting a tiny goal forth, one you could reach with your eyes closed, almost laughably small, you greatly increase the chances of this being a point of permanent change in your life. The sense of accomplishment is addictive.
Alex
Hi, this is Alex Mountjoy, the president of Dolce Mia. This is my training message for our Dolce Mia Designer reps on how to use our Shop Demo program in retail settings to make sure you remain in control of your revenues, your schedule, and proudly at the head of a healthy and growing Dolce Mia business.
At Dolce Mia, we are always looking ways to put our reps in the driver’s seat—to keep you in charge of your happiness, your earnings and your business growth.
This is why we offer you more ways to sell than any other company, because we want you to be able to build a business that is enjoyable, profitable and that operates and grows on your schedule, not someone else’s.
One of the opportunities you have available as a Dolce Mia rep is to sell to businessess. Boutiques, salons, natural food stores….these are just a few examples of the many excellent retail outlets for Dolce Mia that you can do business with as a Dolce Mia rep.
What I want to share today is a unique way to use your flexibility and creativity to jump to the front of the line, as it were, in these opportunities.
Here’s what you do. Go into a salon, let’s say, where you would like to see our line sold. Introduce yourself and ask to talk to the owner or buyer about holding a Dolce Mia demo event in her salon for a few hours on a day of her choosing. You will advertise the event to your mailing list, put up fliers in coffee shops and local businesses, post an events notice on Craigslist and generally do your best to get new business coming in for her. You will also come up with a theme for the event that fits with her business and is something she can get excited about. And you’ll take care of all the arrangements, decor and refreshments yourself, without her needing to do anything at all.
At event time, you will set up a demonstration table, where customers will have a chance to chit-chat, sample and buy your Dolce Mia products, or place orders for direct delivery to them, or for pickup at the salon at a later date. You will collect contact information, using our Tell Me About You form; and you will happily share this information with your host so that she can build her customer list too.
To summarize, this is what your host gets with your Dolce Mia Shop Demo:
- A chance to offer a fun event to her customer base.
- An opportunity to attract new business.
- It doesn’t cost her anything. You handle all the set up.
- And an opportunity to see how her customers respond to Dolce Mia.
The idea is that it is nothing but good news for your host, and nothing for her to say no to.
What you get:
- A warm, friendly, hosted environment, with guaranteed traffic.
- The chance to sell cash-and-carry, and take orders, and meet prospective clients, all while setting a great example, demonstrating, for customers, for your salon owner, and for persons who might consider becoming reps themselves how wonderful a product Dolce Mia is, and how great a business opportunity as well.
- You also get driver’s seat control. By offering to take care of everything, and make something positive happen for your salon owner, you are earning yourself free reign to run an event the way you think it should be run, and also, importantantly, removing every reason for her to say No.
This is last point is very important, and is really the key to the Shop Demo strategy of opening retail accounts. When take the approach of asking a retailer to place an order, you put yourself in the position of likely needing to wait, and be patient, and work hard at keeping in touch, until the time is right for the retailer to buy. When you go in saying, I’m not even going to ask you for an order! I just want to do a demonstration here, so you can can generate some excitement in your customer base, and hopefully get some new business too, while at the same time getting a chance to see how your customers respond to Dolce Mia as a product line, and to me as a Dolce Mia rep! … how can she say no?
With the experience that Dolce Mia events are very successful, you may even decide that the way you would like to do business with this salon is by having events on a regular schedule, and in between doing some form of consignment deal.
One more time, here’s your pitch for the Shop Demo:
I would like to introduce you to this fantastic new beauty line by Dolce Mia, and I am not going to ask you for an order. What I would like to do is schedule a time that would be convenient for you for me to come in for a few hours and do a Dolce Mia product demonstration. It’ll be a fun event, with a theme we can choose together, and will give you a reason for you to contact your customer base, and something to get them excited about, a special event to get them to come in, and hopefully to bring a friend too. I’ll put the word out to my customer base, and do some local advertising, and that may bring in some new business for you, too. And I’ll take care of everything from start to finish.
Both approaches can work. The important thing is that as a Dolce Mia rep, you have options. Try them both, see how it goes. Reevaluate, with an eye to what’s giving you the best return for time invested. Do more of what works, less of what doesn’t, and perhaps try a little bit of something new.
That’s my training message for today.
I believe in you.
Thanks for listening.
Alex
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