Work At Home

Find Your Niche in Direct Sales

by Kara Kelso & Anita DeFrank

Direct sales is hard, especially with all the competition. The best way to stand out from the crowd is to have your own website.

We've said this time and time again in many different articles, but it can't be stressed enough. If you are serious about doing business online, you MUST have your own, unique website.

Many direct sales companies do not allow personal websites, or for you to place product info on a site. If this is the case with your business, there IS a way around it. More on this further in the article.

The first step in finding your niche is to take a good hard look at your business (or all your businesses if you have more than one). Ask yourself the following questions:

What are the best selling products?
Which are your favorites?
Who is your target customer?
Which do you know the most about?
How much could you say about specific lines?

The next step is figuring out which products to focus on based on the answers from the above questions. On our message boards, we posted this example on finding a niche for Mary Kay:

When I think Mary Kay, I think make-up. Period. When I visit the main site, I see more specific things like skin care, spa & bath, fragrances, and other things that I didn't know about. Many items could easily be made a niche from.

From the example above, I see Mary Kay offers skin care products. Diving deeper into that I see "anti-aging skin care". Perfect niche! Instead of selling "Mary Kay products" or having a general site, what about a site focused on just the anti-aging products? There's
an entire line so it shouldn't be hard.

While Mary Kay does not permit the use of their trademark on a website, here's what you CAN do. Create a content website based on anti-aging tips, using products, proper diet, and exercise. Borderline health site, but with a focus on the anti-aging. Lead
into your Mary Kay site with "For more information on products, visit...".

This is just an example, and the same idea can be applied to ANY business. Other examples include websites dedicated to specific layout ideas for those selling scrapbooking supplies, specific scented items for those selling bath and body, specific information
sites for health product (focusing on one issue the health product you sell takes care of, such as diabetes or other health issues).

The possibilities are absolutely endless. There is a lot of room for reps of the same business to all have completely different websites. To gather suggestions, I suggest using a keyword tool which will show you exactly what people are searching for. There is an
excellent one here: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
Choose a topic that is small, yet has enough searches and can be expanded on.

Good luck in finding your niche!

Anita DeFrank & Kara Kelso, authors of Direct Sales Success, specialize in coaching direct sales representatives to reach their goal of becoming successful in their field. Visit -->
Direct Sales Helpers.com for free weekly tips.