Direct Sales Definitions: Know These Terms
Like all jobs, direct sales have its own vocabulary that you'll need to get to grips with if you're thinking about joining a direct sales company. The jargon includes terms like up and down line, cold calling and hostess. Some will be familiar, others entirely new, and extending your vocabulary will help you to hone your business skills. This two-part glossary of key terms will get you started.
Annual conference, annual meeting, seminar: A gathering usually held in a major center where all the local direct sales personnel can congregate and be rewarded for their successes. They can feature classes, ceremonies with awards for achievers and shows. They are designed to be fun and inspiring to people in the field. Companies may reward high achieving staff with free or cut-rate registration costs.
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Client (plural 'clientele'): Essentially, an upmarket word for a customer.Close, closing a deal: The stage of a sale where a client agrees to make the purchase.
Cold calling: A way of making sales by targeting blocs of people who are not known to be seeking the product or service, using telephone marketing.
Commission: The proportion of a sale, or of profits, that accrues to you as the salesperson.
Consultant: In direct sales, another title often used for a salesperson.
Consumers: The market made up of individuals who buy and use the service or product.
Customer service: Courteous and professional treatment of customers and dealing with their needs and concerns.
Database: The records and information about your clients and their purchases and requirements. Some databases are paper records in filing cabinets or on index cards, while other records are stored using computer spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel.
Demographics: Information about the client base in an area that is relevant to targeting sales, including whether people own or rent homes, age, ratios of men, women and children, income brackets and so on.
Distribution center: A place or building such as a warehouse (in the case of physical goods) where the sales items are centrally managed before shipping or dispatch.
Host or hostess: In direct sales selling, the term for the person who offers their home for a party, class or other event in their home. Typically the host/hostess is rewarded with free goods or discounts on purchases for reaching or exceeding sales targets.
Incentive: A reward-based way of motivating people to buy (or sell).
Inventory: A catalogue of the items a company has on hand, available for dispatch.
These are terms that are everyday parlance in the world of direct sales. In the next section, we'll introduce you to some more.
