I’m a stay at home mom. I love spending time with my family and being an active part of the community. However, I missed the interaction that comes with a job and of course, the extra income. Each time I considered rejoining the workforce and my husband and I became comfortable with the idea of me doing so, inevitably one of our children would come down ill at school and I would be home for two days with them. I thought, ‘How would I be able to do this if I had a part time job?’ That’s when I found out about an opportunity to work from home as an independent broker of utilities.At first, I was a little skeptical of a direct marketing career (I had never been in one) but the more I learned about this particular opportunity, the more I saw the value of it and need for it in the marketplace. What I like about it is:1) I didn’t have to buy a starting inventory of product and convince my family and friends to host a party and then convince their friends to do the same. Not that this type of direct marketing opportunity is inherently bad, it’s just not one that fits my personality or desires.2) My ‘product’ is actually educating people and helping them SAVE money on a commodity that they buy every day. It’s not a discretionary spend. No one says, ‘I’m cutting back today so I’m not going to use natural gas.’3) Many of the plans offer customers flexibility by requiring no joining fees, no long term contracts and no cancellation fees. Too many people feel handcuffed by their utility suppliers with contracts and penalties. Our programs free people from these handcuffs.4) The concept of allowing individuals and companies to piggyback on our group buying power to get attractive rates made a lot of sense to me and gave me comfort of its long term potential. When I meet with customers I see the value that our services provide and they are thankful to me for it. It’s a good feeling! It’s also one in which they willingly refer me to their friends and family as well.5) Although my product is intended to save people money, sometimes potential customers have pretty attractive rates that I am unable to do so. That’s fine too. The potential customer knows he/she is getting a fair deal from their current supplier and they are also happy I’m not trying to force my product on them to ‘close a sale.’ In these instances, we walk away knowing that we’ll talk again in the future to revisit this opportunity.6) It allows me the flexibility to work from home and earn an income. Make no mistake, it’s not a get rich quick opportunity or work very little, sit back and get paid a lot of money. It is what it is, a chance to make money by acquiring customers and building a sales team and my income will be commensurate to my efforts in both of those areas but I’m comfortable with that. If I wanted the chance to make millions with little or no effort I would buy a lottery ticket.What I’ve also learned is that staying focused on the mission and setting goals is critically important to success. Each day, I set goals of how many people I want to talk to and which customers I want to follow up with to ensure that they are happy with our services. Since I am in a home based business, it’s easy to feel isolated and alone, especially during days when things are not going as well as planned. Revisiting my mission and reviewing my daily goals helps me to stay on task and keeps me motivated.I’ve also learned that people are constantly bombarded with marketing and some clearly have a disdain for anything that is directly marketed or part of a MLM business model. I’ve had the acquaintance with the nervous smile back away from me when I asked about their natural gas bill or the family member that acted as if I had a third eye when I told them what I’m doing. I can’t convince people to feel differently and I don’t have the time or the desire to put forth the energy required to attempt to change their minds. I simply move on. I will save other people money and introduce other people to this business who, like me, see it’s potential. You must do the same.In summary, I wanted to share my story in hopes that it reassures you that you are not alone in pursuing your dreams through a direct marketing opportunity. You are also not alone in having occasional feelings of self doubt and frustration; it is life after all. However, I’ve found it to be a great opportunity for me personally and I hope that you do as well in whichever direct marketing opportunity you choose to pursue!

No matter which industry you come from or what is the size or nature of your business is; being able sell the products and services is the prime goal of every business. When we talk about selling a product or service, the marketing strategy of the company plays an extremely significant role in deciding the client age the company is able to achieve. You may come out with the best offer in your industry, if it is not marketed correctly; you cannot hope to sell your offering in the market.There are various ways of marketing a product or service such as mass advertising, promotional campaigns, posters, flyers, exhibitions, trade shows, etc. Even though these traditional ways may give your offering exposure in the market, they cannot guarantee any conversion rate. Furthermore, considering the cost involved in these expensive means of marketing, the returns aren’t worth the pain. If you are looking for an effective way to market your products or services, direct marketing can prove to be an extremely viable option.Direct marketing is the process of targeting only those people who are likely to be interested in the product or service being offered. These prospects are collated in especially generated lists called consumer mailing lists or otherwise known as homeowner lists. The prospects are found using a number of research tools such as social media, telephone directories, business listings, and several other databases. These mailing lists can be bought from any of the reputed mailing list generation companies. These companies have team of qualified lead generation professionals to find the best possible prospects for every nature of products and services.Although there are several lead generation companies easily discoverable online; when looking to buying consumer mailing lists or homeowner list, you need to make sure that the lists you purchase are either recently generated or updated, as obsolete mailing lists may not be at all useful for your company’s marketing. Furthermore, you may also read customer reviews to get a fair idea about the quality of mailing lists a company delivers.