ENSURE NETWORK MARKETING SUCCESS IN 2014 WITH THESE 6 TOP TIPS FROM INDUSTRY EXPERT YOGEETA MISTRY

It’s that time of year again and, like many of you, I’m preparing for Christmas fun and festivities.

Your sales are probably the best they have been all year and it’s easy to get caught up in the moment of fantastic sales, lots of new people sponsored into your organisation, plenty of positive results and ending the year with a bang.

But don’t let the bubble burst on December 31. If you’re unprepared, building sales and momentum in January can feel like a huge slog up a seemingly vertical mountain.

If not planned well enough, January could feel like a bleak midwinter.

Successful network marketers not only know how to celebrate their successes, but they also know the power of reviewing the previous year and indentifying where they can make changes to take even bigger steps forward. For me, planning January is vital to launch yourself into momentum mode immediately.

By taking some well thought out and planned strategic steps prior to Christmas - and I would recommend actioning this sometime in November - you can guarantee a much more profitable January. The profit is in the planning, so here are some of my top tips to ensure January gets off to a winning start for you:

CONTACT IS KEY
January can be the time of year when some of your team members are evaluating whether to continue with you. Now’s the time to keep the transient nature of team building to a minimum. Thank people for their effort with a special note, get your team together and reward the top sellers and leaders. Make people feel valued, special and important. Whether it’s a phone call, card, communication through social media or a webinar, ensure you are focusing on contact.

INCENTIVISE YOUR TEAM
Devise an incentive to keep your team inspired to work in January. Perhaps base it on order values and new team members, as this can be monitored. It must be something that is not only enticing for your team, but easily measurable. Send out regular reminders in December of your January incentive.

INCENTIVISE CUSTOMERS FOR LOYALTY
Without customers, no one has a business. Run a loyalty scheme in December for anyone that purchases in January and offer a free gift or money off. Produce ‘just for you’ vouchers or organise a sale for existing customers to give them the special feel good factor. A ‘refer a friend’ reward scheme gets you building new business.

PLAN A TEAM MEETING IN JANUARY
Advertise this in December. Ensure you have face-to-face contact or organise a webinar with your team as early in January as you can to reinvigorate them and get them back into the swing of things. It’s easy for people to stay in holiday mode, so a get together can be the vital injection of motivation and inspiration your team needs to kick-start them back into business.

POWER OF THREE
Review your business with the ‘power of three’ - which three things worked for your business really well in 2013? Build on whatever was a winning formula for you. What three things were you weaker at? Perhaps it’s an area where you need improvement or to eliminate or outsource something that is slowing you down. In which three areas do you want to build your goals? It could be team members, sales or organising more meetings. Identify three key areas for each aspect of your business - strengths, weaknesses and goals.

SET YOUR GOALS WITH THE END IN MIND
Chunk it up and then break it down. This is how I have set my goals for many years. Think about where you want to be at the end of 2014. This has to come from within, not from your peers and what they think you ought to be doing. Chunk it up in terms of what you’ll have, what you’ll see and how you’ll feel about it - encompass all the senses. Then work backwards in quarters to realise where you’ll need to be in September, June, March and right up until January and the end of your first week.

Yogeeta Mistry has been involved in network marketing since 1996 and actively builds her business while offering generic training and support to the UK network marketing industry through her book, Direct Selling Success. A certified NLP practitioner and an inspirational public speaker, she also offers business mentoring and coaching. Visit www.directsellingsuccess.co.uk for more information.