When you are doing direct sales marketing you actually have three kinds of customers and to be a successful consultant you need to be focused on each of those in marketing efforts.
The three areas of marketing are:
- Recruiting new consultants
- Finding hostesses to hold parties
- Selling retail products
What I find is that most direct sales people are good at marketing one aspect of their business or another but not all of them and that this hurting your business! Today let's look at the all the areas that you could be doing lead generating for and how you can position your marketing efforts.
Marketing For New Consultants
Not all direct sales companies are party plans, but most have some aspect of reward for building a downline or recruiting new salespeople. Luckily for you, one of my all time besties was the top recruiter for her company nationally, three out four years in a row! We have talked a lot over the years about what makes a good recruiting plan and these ideas are a combination of my marketing and Kirsten's successful business practices at Passion Parties (now Pure Romance) and BeachBody.
Website – I think it is important to have a website beyond your company sponsored one for a couple of reasons. As we have seen time and time again, companies go out of business or change business models in ways that do not benefit the consultants. When you have even a small website that you control, you cannot lose that marketing channel if things change. Make sure to include all of the ways that you help your team including training videos, inspirational items and even your philosophy of work so that someone considering joining your team knows what you are about.
Parties – Some direct sales people really do not have a model for parties in their company business, but having groups of people gathered at one time increases excitement and shows that there is a need for the products that you provide. If you are in a party planning company make sure that your focus is to sell for the hostess AND recruit new people onto your team.
Followup – One thing that is easy to forget is that someone looking for a new career might not be ready right this moment. But if you stay in touch with them you can be there when they are ready to pull the trigger and join a company. Kir has said that she has sometimes followed up for years before someone has joined her team, but often they become top sellers. Don't give up if they say that they are not ready right now, just find out when they would like you to contact them next and keep a calendar of who to contact when!
Social Media – It is easy to get in the habit of posting your products (because that is what most direct sales companies provide) but you should really be posting pictures of getting ready for parties and “selfies” of you with all the happy party-goers in the background. Show that it IS fun to sell that you are a successful leader who can help your team succeed at their sales efforts too!
SEO – SEO (or search engine optimization) is great for finding people who are interested in joining a team like yours. For example, you might target a term like “jewelry sales in Kalamazoo” or “how to work from home miami”. These are terms that people who are looking for a career will be searching on Google to find opportunities like joining your downline! Write a blog post or page for each of these terms and let Google do its thing to help grow your team.
Marketing For Hostesses
If you are in a party planning industry the lifeblood of your work will be to find people who are willing to have you into their homes to sell your products and recruit new team members. This may actually be the most important person you can market for because doing parties will get you product sales AND the opportunity to recruit.
Website – One thing that I think will make a huge difference in the number of parties you can book is if you have a page on your website you can send them to that explains EXACTLY how you will take care of every little thing from sending out invitations to reminding them the day of the event. Everyone is super busy and having a party is a big commitment of time and energy. Make sure your hostesses know that you will be there to support them every step of the way!
Parties – At your parties make sure you have special “bonuses” if someone signs up to host their own party. This is how you can turn one party in three or four more parties. That said, remember that most people are not super creative and they may be thinking that all their friends are already at a party for this item. Remind them that they can invite work friends, church friends or even their mommy play groups to their party. Make a game of it and see who can come up with the most ideas of who to invite for their own party!
Charity Parties – One really neat way to book parties is to have a portion of the proceeds go to the charity of your hostess' choice. This kind of takes the pressure off of her to feel that she has to sell, sell, sell and lets her be more comfortable sharing and bringing in people to attend. But be careful, you need to make sure that you are still making money somehow from this party. It could be that you will be meeting your sales levels to Director Level benefits or you might be recruiting new team members or even just getting exposure on local news outlets for your philanthropy. Knowing what your goals are is super important to making your party a success!
Sell The Fun – Maybe you are a great party planner yourself! If you can show that you are a “fun guy” and make it a party atmosphere people will flock to you. Most ladies would like to have a girl's night out, but they don't know that they are charming or bubbly enough to pull it off themselves. This one is about charisma and showing that you are the kind of gal or guy that make any party a fun time.
Find Friendly People – One thing that isn't talked about enough is that there are super social people (extroverts) and less social people (introverts). In a party atmosphere or networking event you can see immediately who is mingling, shaking hands and throwing their heads back laughing. These are the people who you want to target to have your parties! They are simply wired more to want to be surrounded by groups of their friends having great time.
Marketing Your Products
Last but not least is the part that may seem the easiest to do! Mostly direct sales companies like to show off their offerings with great photography and send them out to their consultants to share with the world. And you can share some of these judiciously. BUT if all you are sharing is the same old photos that everyone else in your company has, what will set you apart from the crowd?
Candid Photos – Now-a-days people want to see real pictures of products in action. Say you sell handbags, take pictures of yourself actually using each of them in your day to day life. Or if you sell makeup, show one of your clients holding up a bottle of their favorite concealer next to their beautiful made up face.
Instagram – Instagram is a great way to visually show how neat your products are. Do a quick unboxing video when the new season starts, take some beautiful pictures of your products to share or even snap selfies of you using the items yourself. Make sure to learn the hashtags that are relevant to your industry.
Pinterest – Pinterest is full of women dreaming of their future life and is a great place to post your product photos. Make sure to link to your store or your website where they can get the great things that you have to offer.
Testimonials – Even hard industries like ones that sell personal products can have great testimonials to use that you can make into pictures using a free site like Canva. Take a quote about how your products changed someone's life and make it into a picture like this!
Direct Sales Marketing Wrapup
Hopefully this has given you some great ideas and something to think about for your direct sales business. It is super easy to get so focused on one aspect of your business that you forget that all of them make up a whole, successful sales program!
If you are looking for a way to make your direct sales business more organized, make sure to check out my direct sales business planner today!
