Being in direct sales can often give the feeling "I don't have to do much, just sell". It's true, you don't have to ship orders or create websites, or even design catalogs (even though we recommend it sometimes). Your job as the rep is to direct customers to products, that's it. The fact is, to 'sell' the product is the hardest part.

Because "just selling" is more complicated than it seems, it's important to you to have a marketing plan. First of course you will need to set goals, so you know where you want to be by a set time. The next part is deciding on how to get there.

A marketing plan should include the following:

- What types of marketing ideas you plan to use

This would be ideas such as purchasing ads, hosting parties online and offline, networking, having your own newsletter, etc.

- Why you want to use these forms of marketing

Of course our main objective is to gain more sales, right? Dig a little deeper on these different forms of marketing to really see WHY you are going to use these forms. You may want to host an offline party to not only make sales, but to book more shows. You want a newsletter to keep customers informed of new products and specials, to convince them to buy.

- How you are going to follow through on the ideas

Just having them down on paper doesn't do you much good. If you want to have several online parties, write down how you plan to pull in visitors. If you want to use a newsletter (highly recommended), write down how you plan to gain subscribers and what will go into your newsletter.

- Schedules

Don't overwhelm yourself - make a schedule of what type of promotion you'll be using first. If you want to have an online party, start your newsletter first. While I know you want to have that party, it's important to do other things first so you are ready and have the best attendance possible.

Don't skip this important step to succeeding with your company! Even though you are "just selling", having a marketing plan can make it much easier to do your job.