Step #1 Fall In Love With Your Products
Have you ever been to a restaurant and asked the waiter about a meal and they have no idea what to tell you because theyve never tried it? Thats kind of what its like if you try to tell someone about a product youve never tried. Anyone who is successful in direct sales will tell you that its hard to share a product with someone if you dont first love it yourself. Even if you are a member of a company that sells hundreds of products, its important that you have experienced the product for yourself or at least have a working knowledge of the benefits. Use the product literature from your company to study and collect information from internet resources and learn all you can about the products you represent. Now Im not saying you need to go buy everything your company sells, but I am saying if you can at least order a few samples and simply test them out, youll be ahead of the game.
Step #2 Tell At Least 7 Other People How & Why You Love The Product
When you love something, its easy to share it. Notice I didnt say sell it. I said SHARE it. Tell everyone you can about how much you love the products your company provides and share with them why. Let people know how the products can help them simply by sharing your story and your experience. Thats why step 1 is so important. Its much easier to share with people a personal experience and your genuine excitement about the product. The more people you tell, the quicker youll build up confidence in what youre doing. Plus youll start convincing the most important person of all that youre all in - YOU. When it comes to telling people about the products, most people start with their family and close friends to help build up their confidence to start sharing outside of their immediate circle.
Step #3 Ask 7 More People To Try it for Themselves and Give You Their Honest Opinion
This is where you really are starting to go outside of your usual comfort zone and share the products with people. Heres a low-pressure way of sharing your amazing products with others: Offer some a free sample in exchange for their honest opinion. Then ask for their permission to follow up with them within 24 - 48 hours to see how they loved it.
Thats it. Dont ask them for anything up front except their honest opinion. When you contact them to follow up (hint: you MUST follow up!), ask if they would like a full size product shipped directly to their door. If they say yes, great! If they say no, ask them if you can send them a catalog, brochure or add them to your email/whatsapp list to keep in touch. Keep doing this and youll learn how simple it is to truly engage with people. Youll also find the people who want what you have to offer, which is key to growing a strong customer base. If people dont want what youre sharing, dont force them. Make room for the people who do, and youll build a stress-free business.
Step #4 Follow Your Companys EXACT Compensation Plan to a "T" for a Whole 6 Months
Ok. This is a BIG deal. Every direct sales company has a plan that others have followed that has led to their success. Since that is the case, why reinvent the wheel?? No matter what company youre in, I challenge you to follow the success/compensation plan step by step by step. Dont change anything unless absolutely necessary. By doing this you are doing 3 things:
Making money a whole lot faster! Because you have a plan to follow, you can make it easy for yourself to focus on your business and not all the excuses we give ourselves for not taking action.
If you are team building, you have a ready-made plan for your team members to follow, which makes replication easy! That means all they have to do is follow the steps just like you did. This is what it means to lead with integrity.
By immersing yourself in your companys culture, you lead by example. Similar to falling in love with product, youll want to fall in love with the companys leadership/success plan. When others who join you see you are willing to be accountable to your companys plan, theyre more willing to follow you.
Find Your Flow and Do What Works for You
If you follow the first 4 steps above while growing a direct sales business, you will find that you have put a system in place for growing your business. For instance, as you learn the companys success plan, you may find that instead of splitting up your work time into 7 days/week, you may be more productive putting in more hours just a few days a week. Another example may be that rather than making follow up calls on your home or mobile phone, you find that skype or Google Hangouts are better so you can record your calls - something that is especially useful for team building calls. I will say this as well: Anything you can automate - do! From filing to storing contact information and collecting names and emails, use technology to help you keep track of your work. Tools like time management apps, online scheduling/booking calendars, and email reminder cards an can be life savers!
Step #5 Use Your Website In Combination with Social Media to Share Virtually
Social media has changed the network marketing game for the better. Now, if you want to have a gathering, you can ask people to meet you in a Facebook group, Twitter party or Google Hangout and speak with them in the convenience of their homes. Or, you can bypass the gatherings altogether and take a picture of yourself using the products, share the image online and ask people to reply to you if they want to learn more. Now dont go doing this 100 times a day, but at least once a day, share a new product, mention how much it can help people and simply ask people to like, comment or share to show their interest. The real benefit to social media is exposure. Not only do you get to share with your connections, but you can advertise your business and expand your reach.
Follow your companys social media policy. Since social media opens your business up to global exposure, be sure you state where your products are being sold/shipped so you dont violate your companys terms and regulations. Ill also point out that is important to read and be knowledgeable of your companys social media policies and guidelines so that you stay in compliance. Remember, your customers, clients and team members are watching your leadership. Do right by the company and youll be just fine.
Step #6 Follow up Your Team/Costomer
One area I see Direct Sales & Network Marketing consultants seriously struggle with is in the area of following up. This is often because they do not have an effective system in place to keep up with their customers contact info, notes or a solid process for following up. Even if you have a good system in place, often times you may not follow up out of fear or not knowing what to say to follow up.
Its essential that you offer your customers a wonderful experience from start to finish. Following up is a great way to show how much you care, serve your customers and build relationships.ollow up Your Team:
We need to make our people feel valued and appreciated. Its not just about their money or making a sale. You want to ask questions, listen to people. Be more focused more on how you can help solve a problem for the customer instead of just closing the deal.
Have conversations, ask more questions and listen to people. Provide value and solutions. Come from that heart-centered, mission-based way of marketing and sharing your business. Do the unexpected. Go above and beyond. Do the extra little things that people dont expect or they may not get from anybody else.
Treat people how you would like to be treated. Really, truly, its a simple golden rule of life, but treat your customers how you would like to be treated as a customer, the gratitude you would like to be shown in what you think would be an incredible superstar experience for someone.
If youre worried about following up with people, with connecting, with sharing your business, remember this: when you are genuinely focused on helping the customer and youre being authentic and coming from that place of service, you will never come across as pushy, as salesy, or aggressive.
Once you have your mindset focused on serving, connecting and building relationships, your systems and processes will work even better.
Step #7 Set Goals and Create a Plan for Growth Based on #4 and #5
Success-in-your-direct-sales-network-marketing-business Once you know how the success plan works and youve developed your flow, use what you have learned in the early stages and set your goals even higher! Duplicate your success in others and build your team faster. Try a new line of your companys products and start the whole process all over again for another 6 months. You see, this is the beauty of direct sales. Most direct sales companies do not cap your income so you can earn bonuses, extra commission, free travel as often as you can as incentives for sharing the products with people and building your team. When youre all in, you might as well have big goals!