Gaining Exposure

Last night we were vendors at the Grand Opening to the new organic bar Sugar Cane. A couple of weeks ago, Lexie was on her way to meet Kirk at a trendy local bar to show them AS10, and she stopped into Sugar Cane thinking it was a health food store. Long story short, they were interested in our product, and made arrangements with Lexie and Jerry to be vendors at the grand opening. Of course, Lexie and Jerry invited us to join them at the AS10 table.

There were hundreds of people at Sugar Cane, and most of them loved AS10; they loved the way it tastes (kind of like a tootsie-roll pop), that it's an easy way to get your daily fruits and vegetables, and of course that it's all natural. We were next to an organic tequila vendor, so we had the opportunity to show people how well AS10 mixes with alcohol and share our hangover-free experience (even people who love organic seem to love their alcohol!). Turns out the organic tequila vendor also has connections with a major local restaurant chain, so Kirk was able to make a connection there. We handed out tons of business cards and Newsletters, and several people provided their contact information to get more info. on the products.

The organic wine vendor, two vendors down,  was giving Kirk a hard time about our company being an MLM. She was insistent that MLM = pyramid scheme (= bad), and even the fact that about 80% of our products are sold to non-distributors would not convince her otherwise. The MLM stigma is unfortunately strong for some. Despite this, she took our card because she liked the product. She also took a card and newsletter for a friend of hers who sells health products. So maybe the MLM stigma isn't that strong after all!

After the Training: Marketing

That covers most of the interesting points from that particular training. As I mentioned, I found it motivating. So Kirk and I left the training and went straight to work. Kirk had the idea to make door hangers for our apartment complex and the neighboring complexes to get our message to more people. We went to the local Kinko's, where we were informed that they do not do door hangers. They suggested a place across the street, which we searched for to find it had moved (and is not open on Saturdays). As it turns out, none of the local sign printing shops are open on Saturdays.

While we were driving around, we found several physicians' offices. Which, of course, are also not open on Saturdays. So we went home. 

When we got to our complex, we asked if it would be okay to put up door hangers. While we were there, we also checked in with a staff member who had tried our products. She said she loved them and asked about how to buy, so we directed her to our website. 

Back in our apartment, we found a store online that does cheap door hangers, and designed our hanger. We used marketing materials that are available to us through our website to create the door hanger, making sure to stay as true to their original language as possible, since I know it is legally sound. (I've been consistently impressed by the marketing materials available to us through AmeriSciences.) Then we submitted our design and requested a proof.

MLM failure rate: network marketing takes work

I can see why they say about 95% of people who try network marketing or join an MLM will fail. I have no idea whether this number is accurate, but many people seem to be under the impression that they will get instant BIG results for little to no effort. I get the impression that many companies lead people to believe this. We were told from Day 1 with AmeriSciences that it would take work; that it was a legitimate business opportunity, not a "get rich quick" scheme. I guess that makes us lucky.

It's not that I think we've failed. In fact, Jerry and Lexie seem to be doing very well. They're doing what they need to be doing, and are getting out what they put in. So are Kirk and I. Team Kirk and Skeptic need to do more working (i.e., actually talking to people about the products, sharing samples, passing out marketing materials, etc.) and less talking about working. I have all kinds of ideas for marketing that don't involve just talking to people about the products and/or opportunity (my comfort zone; e.g., flyers--which I've made up but not distributed, promotional offers--free sample with purchase, discount on your first purchase, wellness talks in our complex), I just have difficulty figuring out the logistics for implementing my great ideas.  I also want to make sure that my "great" ideas don't violate the terms of our contract before I implement them. Kirk and I have a training tomorrow--the first major training session we've been able to make it to since joining--hopefully I'll get some answers then.

Team Meeting: Developing Marketing Strategies

I love our team! Kirk, Jerry, Lexie, and I decide to have a team meeting to discuss marketing ideas and develop a game plan. We meet over dinner at our place. Lucky for me, and anyone else who joins our team, Lexie, Jerry, and Kirk all have experience in sales, and have been very successful in their sales positions. They know how to approach people about products, and feel much more comfortable doing so than I do. I mention what I've discovered about developing an internet presence, and they say they're willing to participate in any videos, etc. that we do. They suggest that they consider the internet research and marketing portion of our business to be my area to develop. They want to focus on their strength, which is direct business-to-business sales. So we're hitting this from as many angles as possible. We all agree that we should have these meetings regularly, and bring in anyone else who joins our team.

One of the businesses we want to target is bars. There is already one bar in town that has decided to use AS10, so we can use them as a reference. We decide it would be best if we could present them with potential drink recipes as well as information about the benefits of using AS10 as a mixer (information they can use to promote the drinks themselves). We create several drink recipes that we decide taste good enough to present to bars. AS10 is a surprisingly versatile mixer...it seems to mix well with everything we try!