“Outsourcing” is a hot topic, but what is it and can you use it in your business? Outsourcing is the process by which you pay someone else to do tasks that take you away from making money with your direct sales business. Can you use it for direct sales businesses? You sure can! Here are five things you can outsource to make your direct sales business more efficient, and possibly even more profitable.

1. Newsletters

As a direct sales business owner, you have to communicate with your downline and your customers. A newsletter is a great way to do this. However, if you’re not comfortable writing a newsletter each month, you can outsource this task to someone who is more suited to it.

Find a ghostwriter, someone who will write the content in the newsletter for you. You can still pass it off as your own work. No one on your team needs to be the wiser. You do need to make sure you’ve read the content, though, just in case someone asks a question about it.

2. New target markets

Hire someone to call your current customer list and ask them some pointed questions. Ask them how old they are, which products they are using, their income bracket, whether they rent or own their home, and how many people are in their family. You may find, after compiling the information, that you have more people in one age and income bracket using your products than any other market. Now you know which new market group to target with your advertising dollar.

3. Autoresponders

Autoresponders, an automatic system of sending pre-written emails to your contact list, are great for saving time and money. You may not understand the concept, but there are people that would be willing to set up your autoresponder system for you. They will be able to create emails for nearly any reason you would send an email, all without having to personally attend to an email system. Autoresponders are set up and then when someone joins your list the emails go out in the order scheduled.

4. Drop shipping

If you’re in direct sales, you may have one outsourced task already taken care of for you. Many direct sales companies have a process in place where you never have to maintain inventory of the products you sell. This process is called “drop shipping”. You place the order, tell the system where the order needs to go, and the company sends it to your customer for you. If your sales are brisk and it is keeping you from other work, you may consider outsourcing this task further by hiring someone to input these orders for you.

5. Direct mailing

After you’ve built up a client list, you’ll want to keep in contact with them on a regular basis. You may have created a postcard with coupons and need to mail it out right before a major event or holiday. Paying someone to label and stamp each postcard could be money well spent.

Outsourcing is an excellent way to get more done in your direct sales business. There’s no reason that you, as the business owner, must attend to each and every task. Your time and effort would best be spent completing tasks that will help generate a higher income. Even though you may be putting out money by outsourcing these five tasks, it might be some of the best money you’ve ever spent.

Contact Val to discuss your outsourcing needs and where you can better spend your time and money. These are just 5 of the many tasks that can be done for you by a virtual assistant.

The good news is that you are likely a member of your target market, so you probably understand them very well. Still, it’s important to consider the demographics of your market – their gender, age range, disposable income level, marital and family status, occupation, an so on. Moms make different buying decisions than single women, and single parent families have different needs than two-parent families. We know women and men make very different purchase decisions, and twenty year olds shop differently than 50 year olds.

Find out what your customers want, need, and are willing to pay for on a regular basis. Trendy or “hot” products can be quick money makers today, but you’re going into business for the long term. Make sure the company you choose is prepared to keep up with trends, or select products that your market will still want next season and in the years to come.

Are your customers currently using products similar to those offered by the company you are considering? A recognizable product and brand is easier to sell. If you sell something so unique your customers don’t know how to use it, you will have to educate them about what it is and why they need it before they’ll think about buying it.

You may be tempted, as many other have been, to make sure your target market wants your products by offering “everything.” Choosing a company that sells a huge variety of products or signing up for multiple companies isn’t the best choice, especially when you first start out. You can’t be all things to all people. Trying to meet everyone’s needs often becomes confusing, maybe even chaotic, and you end up not being able to offer the personal service customers prefer. By specializing you can become the expert “go to” person for your products.

What is the competition selling? It’s natural to think that if there’s no competition for your products they’ll sell like crazy. But it may be that no one else is selling them because they figured out that no one is buying them. While I might avoid jumping into an overly saturated market, it’s not necessary to shy away from competition. Compete by providing something others don’t. Give your customers extra value, extra time savings, or just good old, extra personalized customer service.

Products don’t sell themselves. When you become a direct sales consultant you’re going to have to market and sell the products. Be enthusiastic about your products and passionate about offering your customers what they want.

For more help deciding which direct sales company to join, claim your free report and email series, “Choose Your Opportunity.”

For online success, I recommend that direct sales consultants develop their own online presence, separate from the company and the online tools they provide. Market yourself, not the company you are associated with. By sharing your expertise and developing relationships with potential customer and team members, you will establish trust and earn a loyal following.

Think about how you connected with your offline customers and team members. A friend or family member probably hosted your first sales party and many of the invited guests were other family members and friends. They were all people you either have a personal relationship with or who have a relationship with someone you know.. The company you represent and the products you sell were not nearly as important as the fact that they know you, like you, and trust you. The party guests were there to support you, not the company.

It’s no different online. People want to do business with someone they like and trust. On the Internet you are just one of hundreds or thousands of consultants for your company. Why should someone choose you over all the others? How are you going to stand out from the crowd? And how are you going to distinguish yourself from all the thousands of consultants for other, competing companies?

The answer lies in developing your own online presence and establishing yourself as an expert in an area related to the products you sell and the opportunity you represent.

Your online presence starts with your own website or other publishing medium for self-expression. You won’t be nearly as successful online if your rely solely on your company provided website. It has it’s benefits, and will continue to be your ecommerce site if you sell online, but it is designed to brand and market the company. Success will follow from branding and marketing yourself.

A comparatively easy way to set up and maintain a website is by building a blog. One can be started for very little money, or even for free, and will provide a permanent “home base” for all your online marketing and activities. It can be the one site to which you refer all your current and potential customers, team members, and colleagues, and where they can interact with you. Your blog becomes the center from which you can link to your company site as well as branch out to all kinds of other marketing.

There are a few different options for starting a blog. If you prefer to do things yourself, you’ll need to purchase a domain name, set up hosting, and install a blogging platform. WordPress is probably the most popular choice and many hosting companies provide one click installation of the script.

If you need some help with set up, it’s available here at Easy WAHM Websites or you might want to consider one of the ready-made sites that are for sale. There may be a perfect match for your product line and business opportunity.

Because it’s so easy to use, many first time bloggers choose a hosted program like Blogger.com. If you use one of them, be sure to read and understand the terms of use to avoid being shut down, and always backup your data so it that can be restored or transferred to another platform if necessary.

How you choose to start is not as important as getting started. There’s never been a better time to market a direct sales business online. The recent explosion of online social networking and social media marketing offers new and fun ways to build trust and develop the personal relationships that are crucial to direct sales success.

[Note: Many direct sales company policies prohibit or restrict marketing from your own website so be sure to understand and follow the guidelines before you start building your site. I am not recommending you do anything that risks your status as a consultant. If there are restrictions, I suggest asking some very pointed questions to make sure you know what is and isn't permitted. Perhaps they just don't want you actually selling the products on your site. Or maybe they'll allow you to market from your site if you don't use the company name and you link to your company site for product and opportunity information.]