Are you in a direct sales business and trying to figure out, like me, how to streamline your systems so that you can spend more of your precious business time working on income generating activities?

Well, I'm here to tell you that there are some simple steps you can take NOW to help your business for the long term and an Autoresponder is one of those ways! An autoresponder is an online program that takes a prewritten email message or series of messages that you've created and sends it out automatically when someone signs up either via email or a web form.

That sounds a whole lot more complicated than it really is. So let me give you examples that might work in various aspects of your direct sales business to help you see how easy this really is:

Lead follow up and tracking. Do you advertise either online or offline? With an autoresponder you can put an email address into your advertisement and when one of your potential customers/ recruits emails you to find out more about your company, they are automatically sent your initial packet of information instantly. Take it one step further and you can even put a different email address into each ad, making it easy to track which ads are producing results.

Lead Generation. Do you have a coupon or e-book that you can give away to potential new customers or recruits? Set it up in your autoresponder and create a web form (all free with most systems) that you can place in your blog or on your website. Then just add a quick statement of "Request more information on my business today and receive a free gift" sending interested prospects to your autoresponder where the gift and the information are sent to them automatically!

Downline newsletters. If you've built a team of distributors under you, you'll want to stay in contact with them regularly. An autoresponder can do that easily, first with a "welcome to my team" email and then later as you broadcast your team newsletter through the list.

Help your new consultants get off to a great start in their new business with a series of email training messages geared toward those days when they are waiting for their starter kit. It's a great way to keep the enthusiasm high during those first days!

Is there a specific area in your direct sales business that seems to generate the same questions from all the distributors in your group? Set up another series of emails specific to that business topic and set up your team members there as the questions come in.

Leadership communication. As your direct sales business grows you'll promote leaders from your team. Set up a series of emails congratulating them on their promotion and encouraging them in their new role as leader. Many people in direct sales have no idea what it means to lead a team of their own and you can set up a system to get them trained and equipped as well. and have it work for you continually.

Customer newsletters. Stay in contact with your customers by using an autoresponder series just like you do with your downline. Have a welcome series for new customers to keep your name and information in front of them.

Customer classes. Set up a series of emails that highlight a product of the month from your product line, or an email class on how to use some of your products.

Contests Set up a series of contest emails for either your customer base or your downline. For instance, have a "scavenger hunt" through your catalog and use the autoresponder system to create the excitement over a series of days.

I'm guessing that most of you, unless you're brand new to direct sales, have much of the information for many of the above ideas already in your computer somewhere. With an autoresponder it's just a matter of transferring that information into the system where it can work for you, even when you're off doing other things. Give it a try. Many autoresponders have a free trial offer so you can check out how they work before you take the plunge. but after just 6 months of using it with my own direct sales business, I can tell you it's well worth every penny!

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