As you found out in the last post, I was flying high just after the Launch. It really was one of the very best nights of my life. Since that time, I have been on a holiday break with the family and had some time to regroup. I basked in the afterglow of the Launch, while being fully aware that it was time to REALLY get to work growing this business. Now I have to share something about myself with you. Sales has always intimidated me. I was never the chick who sold Mary Kay or Avon, Tupperware or candles. Just never did it. Went to the parties, bought the stuff, never sold it. If my kid got two school fundraisers close together, you’d never know about the second one. I’d just write a check. Scared of being a pest. Now think of where I am now. My SOLE purpose in life (well you know, in addition to working my 9 to 5 and rearing children) is to SELL something. That’s pretty hilarious. It’s like God saying, “Oh you WILL learn to be a salesperson yet!” I’ve discovered something, however. This is very different from Mary Kay or Avon. MY name is first in the title of the product. This is MY baby, birthed from my brain (sounds all Science-Fiction-ish) :). I am finding that the sales part is coming naturally to me. Well, folks are still pushing me a bit, saying, “Nikki, tell them about the Wand!” I don’t enter a room talking about it because who wants to be THAT chick? But let me tell you where I thrive….Facebook! It’s like I’m in my sales element there. I write my little posts, take testimonials from my personal page and scoot them over to the Nikki’s Magic Wand page…I love it. It’s easy and feels natural. Just last night, I wrote a post thanking my friends for being so generous with their time and enthusiasm by spreading the word, my website link (www.nikkismagicwand.com) and pictures. I also mentioned that our business consultants want us to have 250 Facebook “Likes” by the end of January 2013. You should have seen these folks take action. There were 20 new “Likes” in under an hour. I was being tagged in messages to THEIR friends AND orders started coming in too. My post, expressing thanks and making a request was the “sales” push I needed to make. That’s what the title of this post means. I opened my mouth, instead of sitting on the sidelines, hoping with crossed fingers, that someone would ask for a wand and look what happened….I got “fed” additional “Likes” and orders. The “take away” for me and for you is that you MUST step out of your comfort zone to grow. Sales has always felt uncomfortable, but I’m finding that when it’s something that means something to me, it’s not hard at all. I could stand up in front of people and talk about Nikki’s Magic Wand all day and then tell people exactly why they should own one. I’m going to be a salesperson yet!!!!
Preparing for the Launch had taken so much energy that I haven’t flashed you back in awhile but there’s no time like the present…
Early 2012–When we last chatted about this journey, Julie had designed the logo and we were planning the “look” of the product and brand. Also, the very first prototype came in the mail and worked like a charm. So, what to do next???? Nope, I didn’t know either so I sort of just walked around with the thing, marveling at it. But, someone had the bright idea, Vince maybe, and said, “We need to test it. Have people hold it, try it, see if they like it.” So, we crafted a survey of sorts–a list of questions to ask people when they saw it. We asked people if they had any trouble getting their make-up out, would they use this, what they’d be willing to pay. Before I could really get going with the testing, guess what happened. My beautiful prototype snapped right in half. Turns out prototype material is FAR different from final materials so it was on the brittle side and snapped. Trust me, this was devastating for many reasons, not the least of which was that this little brittle thing cost $400. Yes, you read that correctly. $400! Thank goodness I was the one to break it because that could have ended a friendship on the spot. I’d like to tell you I’m joking but I’m not sure. 🙂 So, I took my 1/2 of wand, stuck it down into the internal part of an ink pen that holds the ink and had people use that. Thinking back, I know my testers were thinking, “What is this mess this chick is trying to convince me to like and then buy?” But, I kept showing it around, with the caveat that it was not the best looking, but worked great. I’ll stop here now…but I’ve got plenty more to share.
As always, thanks for reading and remember, if you want something, you’d better speak up!