Guest Blog Post By: Nicki Keohohou, CEO Direct Selling Women’s Alliance
Throughout history, we have seen the cycles of the economy ebb and flow in reaction to many different influences. However, the ones who weather the storm have one thing in common: vision and optimism. Sound too simple? Let’s take a look at today’s current situation. What is the one word that comes through consistently during each nightly newscast on the economy, each printed report and every gloom and doom predictions? Confidence. Consumer confidence to be exact.
What drives consumer confidence? We can analyze economic models and charts for years to come, but it comes down to the energy that is spread during challenging times. It is a proven fact that negative and positive energy needs to travel from point A to point B. If your belief and message is negative then you will continue to spread that message from person to person. The same is true with positive energies. Whenever you make a conscience effort to change your thought process, you will see change around you. This may sound like a difficult task with so much gloom and doom wrapped around every message, but it is true! Through every difficult situation, a new opportunity is born because someone had the courage to believe in positive change! How many times have we heard the saying “that which does not kill us only makes us stronger”? The same is true in every aspect of life. Henry Kaiser said it best: “Challenges are only opportunities in work clothes.”
With today’s challenges, we are seeing adjustments in the very way we do business and that is in part due to the internet. Where the internet was once a one way avenue of communication, collaboration has now taken over. Customers are now directly interacting with producers and vise versa. When a new model and an old model of business collide, there are bound to be some painful changes…but in the end a new industry is born or elevated. Here in lies the very opportunity of the direct selling profession.
Direct selling is by and far the leader when it comes to collaborating with our customers. We listen to what they want and respond. We have been collaborating with our customers before collaboration became the buzz word.
Thinking your way to prosperity is one way to combat tough times, but let’s take a look at a few others:
In a recent article from Heather Nolte, she states nine very good points for weathering the storm that breaks down into a couple of different categories.
- Be efficient: Clean out old stock to increase your cash flow. Take a look at your lists and make sure they are reaching real customers. If not, split the list into customers and prospects, for each one deserves their own message. Assess how you do business and take advantage of any cost saving measures available: tax deductions, refillable or recycled office equipment, etc.
- Be pro-active: Believe in your product and get out there and sell. People are still buying. They still need product. Make it easy for them to buy, join with other direct sellers to offer a showcase of products in a high traffic area.
- Be Innovative: Sometimes we get stuck in the old way of doing things. Take a step back and reevaluate how you do business. Is there something else you can be doing in a new and different way to reach your customer?
Back in 1990, Faith Popcorn released a book called “The Popcorn Report.” In it, she identified trends that would affect our world in the next ten to twenty years. Many of them have come to fruition with the main trend being that people are pulling away from the traditional way of doing business. They are looking to control more aspects of their own life and today’s angry economy proves it. People are ready to be heard and they are ready for a change.
Remember, this has worked before in the past. Before there were Fortune 500 companies there were small businesses and they all sold to each other and built their own economy. Thanks to the breadth and depth of the internet, the small business owner can become his or her multi-millionaire and still run their business their way.
Go on. I challenge you. Make a difference in the world today—be successful!
Nicki Keohohou is the CEO and co-founder of the Direct Selling Women’s Alliance. The Direct Selling Women’s Alliance (DSWA) is a global organization dedicated to uniting direct sellers who share a common desire of achieving personal and financial success. The DSWA is the only association that serves the more than 59 million direct selling distributors around the world. Its members are affiliated with one of the thousands of direct selling companies, which generate combined annual revenues exceeding $109 billion. The DSWA is dedicated to supporting individual direct sellers as they build their home managed, independent direct selling businesses.
The DSWA is also excited to announce this year’s Celebration April 23 – 25. Business professionals are invited to take their place with a remarkable group of leaders, trainers, executives and distributors who will gather together under one roof to learn new discoveries and network for the good of their businesses and the profession. For more information or to register, visit www.dswa.org and click on the Celebration logo.