On Wednesday I spoke with Susan Guiher on Streamlined Success Radio who gave everyone the low down on her new incredible 94 day program that will kick your fall into high gear.

• You’ll be a part of a dynamic and high energy support group that will act as both mentors and cheerleaders to get you on track to achieve whatever goal you desire.
• Weekly lessons from Susan and her partner to point you in the right direction and break your giant goals down into achievable actions.
• Throughout the program there will be 16 webinars where you can get your questions answered and keep your energy high.
• Happy seat calls where you can get even more personalized attention in small groups to help you clear road blocks and stay positive.

And so much more!  I can’t even detail all of the benefits here.  I can however tell you that I’ve had a sneak peak at some of the lessons and exercises that are included in this course, and they are life changing.

Now for this much content and personal attention the price tag is pretty steep at $997.  However, until September 10th if you go to http://94daychallenge.com and choose the “pay in full” option you can use my special code: stream and knock the price down to $187!  How ridiculous is that?

Feel free to share this code with friends.  Better yet, sign up together so you can be accountability partners!

Susan Guiher is Founder and CEO of Thrive for Success Coaching and Consulting.   She is known as the ‘Belief Barracuda’ for her ability to quickly define and eliminate beliefs that limit an individual or organization’s growth.  Sue was recently featured in Insights Magazine as a thought leader in the coaching industry.  Sue has authored a top-selling book, Stop Spinning Plates and is a contributing author to several other self-help books.  She is an internationally known speaker, author, and business growth expert who teaches coaching professionals, consultants and entrepreneurs worldwide how to focus on the right things in their businesses so they can make more money AND work less hours.

With the fall and holiday season upon us Sue will be talking about how to reach your year end goals and what you can be doing to close out 2010 as your best year in direct sales!

1. Having a blog for your direct sales business will establish you as an expert in your field because you will be able to demonstrate your knowledge of your products.  Much like you would at a home party, but on a much grander scale.
2. They are easy to maintain. Everyone is afraid of writer’s block when they consider starting a blog.  Think about it this way, if you wrote one post about each item in your demo, you’d probably have enough posts to get you through 6 months of weekly updates!
3. A professional looking blog will make you look like a celebrity, even if you’ve only been in business for a short time. If your blog looks professional and provides valuable content, then you will be someone everyone will want to get to know.
4. Your direct sales blog will start a conversation with potential customers. You can build a relationship with visitors through their comments, through your newsletter, and by writing posts that directly relate to the problems your product solves.
5. You will create excitement and increase your sales by using your blog to promote special events, teleseminars, or new product launches.  By posting about these topics you will create suspense and raise awareness for what is going on in your business, and people always want to be a part of the excitement.
6. You will reach more people and draw them into your sales cycle.  Blogs are key-word rich, which will make your website rank higher in search engines and drive targeted traffic to your website.
7. Blogs are dynamic.  Just like learning styles in school, people prefer to consume their information on the internet in different ways.  You can include articles, podcasts, and videos in your direct sales blog so that no matter what format your audience prefers, it’s all there.
8. Your direct sales blog will help you get the word out about your business. Your articles written for your blog can be distributed to article banks as well as other blogs and websites to increase your visibility and reach
9. Your articles can be re-purposed later in a variety of ways that will build your business.  You can use them to train your downline, incorporate them into your demo, or record them into podcasts and videos.
10. Blogs can be started for free! This is the best part, because you can create a marketing engine for your direct sales business for little to no money.  Just go to wordpress.com and sign up for a free account.  If you’re looking for something more professional that will make you look like a rock star within your direct sales company then contact me for a customized design.

Relevancy is not something you probably think about on a day to day basis, but it should govern all of your marketing efforts and your sales demonstration.  If your product isn’t relevant to who you’re selling to, they aren’t going to buy it.  If you are talking about topics that are irrelevant, your audience is going to stop listening.  It’s as simple as that.  So, how can you be more relevant and keep the attention of your audience?

Your first step should be talking to your hostess. During your hostess coaching you should not only be asking her questions about who is coming to the party, but the preferences of her guests.  Is there a particular product that she has heard is popular with her friends, or a problem they are currently experiencing that you could solve.

Once you have a handle on who your audience is going to be at the party, you should be able to tailor your sales demonstration to cater directly to them.  This will also keep your demonstration fresh and dynamic for repeat customers.  For instance, if you’re showing anti wrinkle cream to a group of college students they are going to raise some eyebrows.  Choose products for your demonstration line up that are relevant to that particular group.

Your stories should also be relevant to who is in the room.  Everyone should be telling stories during their sales demonstration, whether it be your why story, or a story about how a particular product has changed your life.  Stories are great because even if the theme is the same, chances are you can change them up a little bit to suit your audience.  If you tell stories that are not relevant to your audience, they are going to lose interest and stop listening to you.

Being relevant is a key factor in keeping the attention on you at parties.  So by tailoring you sales demonstrations and your stories to each group you’ll grab and keep their attention.  Not only will you find that your audience is more focused on you, you’ll find that they want to book parties and buy more product because you have shown that you understand them and their needs.

•    Submit to article directories. My favorite is ezinearticles.com which is an article bank that newsletter authors use when finding materials to send to their customers.  It is also a much used resource for people who are just trying to find information on your topic, and ranks high in search engines making your articles easy to find.  With this service you provide a resource box that links back to your blog.

•    Spread the word with Facebook. I am always amazed when I look at my Google Analytics reports and a good portion of traffic is coming from Facebook.  Make sure you are letting your friends and fans know when you have a new post.  If you’re adding all of your contacts at parties to your Facebook then your blog will be a great way for you to continually serve them and be their number one consultant, which is important with all of the competition out there.

•    Leave helpful comments on other blogs and forums. It’s important to note here that you need to make helpful comments to get noticed.  Don’t go for a hard sell, or just post a quick “great post” and leave your URL.  Find blogs or websites that your target audience frequents and communicate with them through comments or forum posts.  If you make an impact and they find your information useful they will also want to check out what else you have to offer on your blog, and hopefully sign up for your newsletter.

•    Use your posts for your newsletter. Your newsletter and blog can go hand in hand.  Both are great ways to build relationships with your potential customers.  Your blog posts should be included in your newsletter, and people should be able to sign up for your newsletter on your blog.  By doing this you will create a cycle and repeat traffic that will help your prospective hostesses get to know and trust you, so they will want to book with you when the time comes.

•    Leverage your signature. Whether you have an email signature, a signature in a forum, or other communication platform you want to make sure that you have  call to action and the URL for your blog.  Your call to action could be about your current booking promotion, or better yet your free give away if they sign up for your newsletter. Now whenever you send a follow up email to a customer or a potential hostess they will have a place to go to get additional information without any pressure.

•    Promote your blog at parties. When you’re doing your demo at a party you have a captive audience.  Reference how they can find more information on your blog about certain products, or topics that you don’t have time to address right at that moment.  Make sure your URL is on your business card that they will be taking home with them (a bonus 7th way to promote your blog.) You can also promote your newsletter so that they never miss the latest posts or information about new ways to use products, or when you are running specials on their favorites.

If you even just do half of these you are going to start to see new customers and hostesses come rolling in through your blog.  If you are consistent those results are only going to increase exponentially.  One of the things I love about blogs is that you can really watch the fruits of your efforts unfold which makes it easy to stay motivated once you get the ball rolling.  Enjoy your success and please comment if you have any more ideas for promoting your blog (and you can even include your URL!)