Direct Sales - What you need to know
August 15, 2007 | Author: Eve Lester | Filed under: Working at Home
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While you are looking at working from home, one of the options will be direct sales. That is where you sign up as a ‘distributer’ with a company, some examples are Fuller Brush, Avon, Mary Kay, etc. I will get into more detail on some of those in a minute. One big problem with direct sales that can get confusing is the sheer number of ‘direct sales’ companies that are actually more like MLM scams.
How to Spot a Scam Direct Sales Company?
This is not always easy, but one general rule of thumb is to read the ‘opportunity’ page, if the page is filled up with info on requiting others more than the great product, it might be a scam. Take a look at this Fuller Brush Opportunity website, it may not be the best designed site in the world, but take a look at all of the details it gives you, about the product, where to sell it, bonuses, etc. A company that has more information about all the money you can make and all the potential, with little information about what you will actually sell is probably a MLM company.
A MLM company works with a product that has very little value, but a high price, and you will not be selling the ‘product’ to other people, you will be selling the business opportunity to other people to sell, it is a vicious cycle, and a complete scam for anyone but the guys at the top.
Should you ever Pay to be a Direct Sales Agent?
While I am a firm believer in not paying to work for someone, in Direct sales you can’t always get that option. Some of the bigger companies are free, but even with those it is hard to sell without getting a ‘kit’. The fees for the kits vary greatly, I have seen ones from 10 dollars and on up to 500 for a jewelry sales company. The best thing I can tell you to do is to research the company you are looking into joining, do a Google search, a Google blog search, etc. And see what others are saying.
Can you work for more than one Direct Sales company at a time?
Yes, depending on the companies rules, but diversity is a good thing, if you have a website that sells both Mary Kay and Fuller Brush you will have a good variety, but you will have to marked each more. Or you can have 2 websites, one for each, and not combining the two. Again, read the terms of your service, I am sure Mary Kay wouldn’t want to be on the same page as Avon. Sometimes the company will let you sell products out of a business, locating prime real estate for that can be fun- we have a actual mary Kay store here in town, and they do great!
What about Websites to sell my Direct Sales Products?
While it would be nice to be able to design our own web page to sell the products the direct sales company provides, it isn’t always allowed. Some will only let you sell on their site with a URL like http://directcompany.com/yourid, while you can buy a domain name and have it point to that URL (best option if you have to do that) be sure to check with them first. Some companies will let you ‘buy’ a website that is already made that you can put on your domain name. Sometimes you can make a website yourself but you are limited to no using the brand name or certain pictures. While others, luckily, will let you sell any way you want, those are my favorite, you can sell on Ebay, a website, flea markets, catalogs, etc.
I want to go ahead and put out a call for posts, if you work for a direct sales company, that is NOT a MLM, head on over to my contact page and let me know, if you are the first for that company I would like to do a little interview so your opportunity can get out there. I will be using your ‘affiliate’ link so you will get credit/down line of any one that signs up via this site. I would like to cover as many companies as possible, so I hope to hear from you soon.
Table of contents for Direct Sales
- Direct Sales - What you need to know
- Selling Products for Health Companies
- Home Business Comparison Report - Worksheet
- Direct Sales Interview- Barefoot Books
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3 people have left comments
Working from home in Direct Sales has been a great success for many people and it suits the type of lifestyle where flexibility is a key element.
In the same way there are Network Marketing companies that can provide a similar opportunity. If you think about it we have all heard stories about cowboy builders who charge excessive amounts and do a shoddy job. But this doesn’t mean to say that all builders are like this. People just need to do some research and educate themselves about what to look out for.
It’s the same with Network Marketing, some companies do a bad job and give the whole industry a bad name. This doesn’t mean that they are all the same.
If you educate yourself about your own personality and about how various companies work you will learn a lot about the potential that exists for anyone to make a good living.
Your right John, not all network marketing sites are a scam, I just have a hard time telling them apart. Thanks for that.
[…] a guest post written by John Murphy. I asked him to write this post after his comment on my post on Direct Sales. He pointed out to me that not all network marketing schemes are scams. Because I do not have the […]