I recently had a long chat with a friend of a friend, a lovely lady called Claire. She’s joined a direct sales company with products she’s very excited about and she really wants to make it a success.
However, she was in a bit of a dip when I talked to her.
You see, she wants to be a ‘social seller’ only. Due to her personal circumstances she can’t do parties or events. She was told it would be easy and that she could sell online in her pajamas if she wanted to.
Unfortunately Claire found it to be a bit more involved and a bit more difficult than promised! She had only made a few sales and most were to family.
After talking with Claire about attraction marketing and the mistakes I see social sellers around me make, she was inspired to change the way she ran her business on social media.
She took my advice and she’s now seeing more engagement with her posts, more enquiries and sales are starting to come in too. It’s early days but we’re both encouraged by the change!
In this article I’ve summarized the advice I gave to Claire.
Social Sellers forget about being social
The mistake I see 90% of social sellers make is that they’re focused solely on the ‘selling’ part of ‘social selling’ and they forget about the ‘social’ part
For social selling to work, your selling needs to be social, entertaining, educational and service based.
When it’s done well, social sellers can be hugely successful. But it requires you to put in some thought and planning for it to work, not just post an endless stream of product photos.
Have a think about how you can add value to your posts. When you talk about your products, try to answer these questions:
What is it?
What does it do?
Who is it best for?
What problem does it solve?
And the last question is the most important!
Whenever you can, demonstrate your products and its benefits to bring them to life.
Don’t post an image with something like “Buy this awesome drink bottle! It’s on sale…here’s my link.”
Bring it to life with a story. Try this instead:
“I’m on a mission to drink more water. They say drinking enough water can improve memory, mood AND help reduce sugar cravings. Woohoo! (I need all the help I can get with that…)
I’m loving my new drink bottle, it keeps my water cool all day (even when I leave it in my car for ages). So now I don’t waste as much money on disposable drink bottles AND I can easily keep track of how much I’m actually drinking.
Who wants to join me and be my water buddy? The drink bottles are currently on sale – hurray! Let me know if you want to join the water mission and I’ll send you the link.“
You could add a boomerang video of you drinking or moving the bottle up and down to grab people’s attention in the newsfeed. But the story is what brings it to life, it explains the benefits and it’s personal and relatable.
Build a Community on Social
It doesn’t matter which social platform you’re on, you want to build some sort of tribe of fans that come to see you and your offers.
You attract your people by posting interesting, fun, educational content with your personality.
As a direct seller you need to be on social media (yep, stating the obvious here).
Which social media? That’s up to you, wherever you’re comfortable and have connections.
But I do recommend you add Facebook to your mix – not in the least because you can create private customer groups.
Your customer group is the place where you can hang out, be a little more relaxed and have some fun. It’s also the place where you can sell to your existing customers and recruit new team members.
Why you need a Facebook business page & a group
Personal Profile
Business Page
FB Group
Your family & friends
Your ‘billboard’ (is Google searchable)
Your ‘clubhouse’
Sparingly post business posts
Post about your biz in a fun way
Engage with your customers and hosts
Doing business on a personal profile is not allowed and is spammy
You’re allowed to sell, run contests, and advertise
Engage, teach, have fun, and also sell and recruit
Less importance in newsfeeds
More importance in newsfeeds
Many direct sales companies don’t allow you to post prices or specials in public places, so that’s where your private group comes in super handy too!
I recommend that you create a private group that is visible to everybody. That gives you full control over who is a member and also makes it a little more exclusive.
What to post in your Facebook Group
Once you have your Facebook Group setup, you want to make sure you engage that audience. You want them to enjoy their time in your group, you want them to stay and you want them to participate.
Don’t worry too much about the size of the group, it’s quality over quantity here! An engaged audience that comment and participates is much more important than having lots of people in your group.
I generally recommend the 9 – 1 – 1 posting cycle (full credit to Karen Clark, she’s the one who invented it): Out of every 11 posts, you post 9 unique and interesting bits of content, one promotional post (perhaps with an image or video provided by your company) and one personal post.
One thing you want to add to your posting schedule is ‘engagement posts’. These are posts that invite a comment such as games, polls, or questions. I have an article with a bunch of free engagement images for you to download that you can use in your groups or your Facebook parties.
So now that you understand what to post, your next step is to schedule a bunch of posts. You can use a scheduler such as Cinchshare or use Facebook’s own scheduling service. By sitting down each month to plan out your posts, you make your life so much easier.
When you schedule your posts, leave some room for spontaneous additions such as business achievements, recognition or a special. Whenever something interesting happens in your personal life that your audience can relate to (you kid’s first day of school, a kitchen disaster, dropped your phone, won a raffle, etc.) you can also post that in your group, not just on your personal page.
Personal posts like that make you less corporate and more of a person – just like your customers.
How to sell in your direct sales Facebook Group
So now that you have your regular attraction marketing posts worked out, let’s talk about selling in the group.
There are several ways to do sales, and I recommend you use all of them (variety is the spice of life, after all).
Educate If your product lends itself to it, you want (and even need) to educate people on how to get the most out of it. Examples are how to use a product to its maximum potential, how to care for your product, any product ‘hacks’, any background on how it was made or why was created, etc.
This is especially useful when a new product (range) is launched by your direct sales company.
The best way to do educational posts is with video! Video rules the rankings on Facebook and I highly recommend you get comfortable making videos and going Live.
With each educational post or video you want to end with a ‘Call To Action’ – that’s what you want your customers to do. At the end of a video or post you could say something like: “For more info on product XYZ, just send me a message now” or “Let me know in the comments how you use product XYZ” or “If you want to buy this product, just send me a message and I’ll set you up” or send them the link to the item on your shopping website.
Specials Specials are always exciting for existing customers. Definitely post your company’s sales, special offers, etc. in your group as soon as they come out.
Series / Focus If your products lend themselves to a series of posts, definitely do that. You don’t just have to do educational posts, you can mix things up with related games, polls, memes, etc.
Make sure you have some sort of focus in the series. Here are some ideas:
Ingredient Focus = focus on 1 ingredient. Post about which products use it, what it does (benefits), where it comes from, history, in pop culture (book or movie references), etc.
Color Focus = all the products in your catalog in that color. Post about any backstory (personal or from the company), how to mix and match, any educational bits on these products, etc.
Product Group Series = when certain products go really well together. This is almost like a ‘hack’. If they buy this one product, you recommend that they add these other products because then they can achieve a better outcome. Post about why do they go well together, any way to maximize the use, can they get these products as a host reward or on a special, etc.
Purpose Focus = a series about all the products that do the same thing (ie. cleansers or purses). Post about why you need this type of product, what makes them different and how to choose which one is right for them.
Seasonal Focus = a series on seasonal products. Highlight each product, talk about how it enhances your season, etc.
New Release Series = all the new products in the new catalog. This is very much an educational series but you can add in any other bits of information (where it’s made, pop culture references, hacks, how to care for the product, etc.)
And don’t forget, end each video with a call to action. What is it that you want them to do? Do you want engagement? Ask for comments. Do you want a sale? Post the link to the ordering site or ask them to message you. Do you want them to request a catalog? Ask them to message you.
Pick one thing and end the video with that ‘call to action’.
When you do a product series, make sure you do it over a few days or a week and don’t do them too often. Spread them out over the year.
A 100 Square* A fun way of ‘selling’ is using a 100-square. You create an image or document with 100 numbered squares. You sell each square for a certain price, let’s say $5, and you write the buyer’s name in the square.
This will give you $500 to buy a whole bunch of products from your company to create a couple of prize packs with. Once all the squares are sold you draw the winners and send them the prize packs! (If fewer squares are sold, you can either not do the draw (and not take the money) or buy fewer prizes)
If your total is enough to earn host rewards, you can use these for an extra prize.
The 100-square is very adaptable and can be used in a bunch of different ways to suit your situation. One variation is to use it for fundraising. You can donate a percentage of your commission and even the host rewards to a charity of your choice.
If you want to fundraise regularly, you could even pick a new charity every month (do a poll to ask your Facebook group which charity they’d like to fundraise for) and do a 100-square every month.
* As this is essentially a raffle, you have to be mindful of the rules and regulations in your state or country around raffles. Always abide by the rules!
Over to you: do you have any specific type of post you use to sell in your customer group?
If you want to learn more about ‘attraction marketing’ and how to draw people to you without being spammy, I’ve got just the thing for you: the Attraction Marketing Course for Direct Sellers. Check it out below!
Valentine’s day is a great opportunity for direct sellers to promote their business.
As you know I like to change things up, use themes and seasons so I can always offer something different. And Valentine’s day is a perfect way to do just that!
Galentine’s “Galentine’s” is a gals-only event. You can offer this as a theme party for an in-home party or online party.
Another option is to host your own Galentine’s party. Make it fun, lighthearted with some pink bubbly and Valentine’s chocolates and you’re ready to have a great event!
Social Media Posts During Valentines week highlight what you love in your direct sales biz. For example why you love your hostesses, your team mates, your company, or the products. Wear your heart on your sleeve and show your love and passion for what you do!
Send a Valentines Card to Your best Host and Customers Grab yourself some Valentine’s cards and sent them to your good customers and hosts. This card is just an appreciation card, you don’t need to sell anything here.
Showcase Red or Pink Products If you have a few red or pink products, you can highlight these. You can show them at your “Galentine’s” theme party or highlight them online in a Live video or image post.
Use Valentine’s Chocolates as Booking Incentive If you are using a booking incentive, some Valentine’s chocolates would be perfect. Who doesn’t like chocolate?
Your Facebook Group is your hangout, your clubhouse. That’s where you engage with your fans and it’s where you’re most likely to make sales, get bookings and where you’re likely to recruit from.
Additionally, many companies have very strict policies on what you can post publicly with more relaxed rules for private groups and personal messages.
So you definitely want a Facebook Group. If you don’t already have one, create one right now!
Then the next question is, how do you get people to join your group?
Funnel people from your business page to your group
When you post about something new and exciting, such as a special or a new product launch, you want to link to your group:
Oh wow, look at this new product – it’s so amazing! Join my group to see more information [link to your group]
The new catalogue is here with exciting new products. Join my group to see more [link to your group]
You can do something similar when you do a Facebook Live. For example, if you do a Live video about a brand new product, you can say at the end something like “Join my group to get more information“. Pop a link to your group in the comments so people can easily click through.
Once people join your group to find the information, you want to make it super easy for them to do that. So inside your group you pin a post with an image of the product and all the information, including how to buy it.
By pinning the post at the top of your group, people will immediately find the information they were looking for.
Ask party guests to join your group
At in-home parties make it fun to join your Facebook group. Ask people to join your group right then and there and everybody who joins on the spot gets a chocolate or some other little prize.
In online parties you can reward people with party points or lucky draw tickets when they join your group.
A really fun way to get party guests to join your Facebook group is to make it part of a game. The What’s On Your Phone game is designed to get people to join your group and it’s a super fun game to play.
Be loud and proud
If people don’t know your group exists, they won’t want to join it. So make sure you post on your business page about your group. You can talk about how grateful you are for your amazing group, and when people share your group with others – publicly thank them.
You can also ask your group members to post about the group. Perhaps do a little giveaway for everybody who posts about your group on their personal page and tags a few friends. Don’t ask people to invite their friends, it’s a bit rude to just invite people who aren’t expecting it.
When your group reaches a milestone, like 50 or 100 members, celebrate that.
Content is king
Content is king in your group. People will only stay if they get something out of it.
Post content that’s fun (it doesn’t have to be business related), educational and helps them to connect with you. Videos are a great way to check all these boxes!
And of course, if there are company specials and new offers, your fans will want to be the first to know about it!
A profile picture on Facebook and other social media is prime real-estate for direct sellers. Don’t underestimate this aspect of your online presence because it’s small.
Unfortunately, I see so many terrible profile pictures – which means lots of direct sellers and party plan consultants waste this space.
Your profile pic is part of attraction marketing
Your profile picture is part of your attraction marketing strategy. After all, to stand out from all the other consultants you are marketing you as a person. Your aim is to draw people to you…not a sunset or your cat or your beautiful baby!
Even worse, I sometimes see direct sellers use their company logo or a picture of their favorite product. That just looks spammy and impersonal which is the very opposite of what you want.
Hot tips for great profile pictures for direct sellers
To attract people to your business online, they need to feel connected to you as a person. An easy way to help with that connection is to make sure you have a great profile photo.
That photo doesn’t need to be taken professionally, it just needs to be a good photo following the guidelines below:
Include your face and shoulders
No sunglasses
Show your teeth in your smile
Slightly (!) squint your eyes to make your smile more authentic
Dress well and take care with your hair and make-up
Research shows that a good profile picture helps people to see you as more like-able, competent and approachable – which is exactly what you want as direct seller.
Key Take-Aways:
Don’t have a picture of your cat, kids or company
Do have a good picture of you including your shoulders, well dressed with a smile that reaches your eyes
Not sure how to do this whole ‘attraction marketing’ thing? No fear, I’ve got you. Check out my Attraction Marketing for Direct Sellers course to learn how to set-up and manage Facebook pages and groups, and how to draw people to you instead of pushing them away with boring or spammy content.
The Facebook Algorithm is a piece of software that decides what to show you in your newsfeed and in which order. Everybody’s newsfeed is completely different because the algorithm takes your own behavior as well as other bits of information into account.
When you open Facebook, the algorithm looks at all the stories posted by your friends and by the pages that you follow. The algorithm then looks at things like who posted the story and how often they publish, any negative feedback on that author, what time it is now, what device you’re on, what engagement stories already have, because the more engagement they have the more likely it is that you’ll see it in your feed.
The Facebook algorithm uses all that information (and then some) to make a prediction on what you’ll like and in what order to show you that.
How do you get the algorithm to like you? There are some general recommendations:
Complete your Facebook profile.
Publish regularly.
Create content likely to elicit positive feedback from your audience (positive comments, likes, or reactions. Reactions affect post ranking slightly more than likes). But do not ask for shares or likes – this is frowned upon by the algorithm.
When you want to post a video use Facebook Live or upload videos to Facebook directly, instead of linking to your YouTube videos.
Publish content that promotes engagement and an investment of time from your audience (games and video content is great for that).
Post content that’s informative and shareable.
Not just the algorithm but people also value Live videos. Through a Live it’s easier to feel connected to you as you’re showing your personality and passion.
It’s one of the best things you can add to your social media strategy – and it’s free!
I have noticed though that many consultants don’t know what to talk about on a Facebook Live or they feel they’ve run out of ideas after a couple of videos.
So in this article I want to help you with some ideas that you can use on your Facebook page or in your Group.
Facebook Live Ideas for your direct sales biz
1: Unboxing This is a video where you can show your passion and excitement about the product. It hops on the bandwagon of the ‘blind bag hauls’ and unboxing craze that’s still popular on YouTube.
If you’re brand new to your direct sales business, you can give your biz a boost by unboxing your kit on a Live.
If you’ve been in direct sales a bit longer, you can do an unboxing when you get a delivery with new products or when you’ve earned free products and you get that delivery.
2: New Range First Impressions
People love new products. When you get a new range for your kit, get excited and do a Live review and share your initial reactions. Tell your audience who you’ll think this product would be good for and any other information you think they’ll want to hear.
You can extend this with a follow-up Live a week or so later with further observations on the products and how you’re using them and finding them longer term.
3: Product Reviews
Choose one particular product and talk about your personal experience with it. If you can, plan to do a weekly review at a regular time to build a consistent audience.
Perhaps you can even theme your reviews per month. For example a month on concealers or mascaras, a all the different ways you can use throw rugs, the best cupcake recipes, etc.
You can even link a product give-away for attending (or watching the replay) of your Facebook Live. During the Live you give them a code word to collect and at the end of the month everyone who collected all the code words will go in the draw for a prize.
4: Share Your Story
Talk about why you joined and what you love about your direct sales business. This is great ‘attraction marketing‘ and it also helps people to get to know you better. Sharing your own story helps people to feel a stronger connection with you.
5: Behind the Scenes
People are fascinated by the inner workings of a business and love to peek behind the scenes. You can go Live while you’re setting up for a party, when you’re packing customer orders, your product storage, deliveries ready to go, your messy office when unpacking deliveries, etc.
You don’t have to go Live long, just a quick excited or funny video will go a long way in building that connection with your Facebook tribe.
6: From an Event
Next time you attend a big company event, a team meeting or a training session make sure you go Live. A quick Live video before or after the event (or even in the break) is a great way to show off your direct sales business from a different angle.
7: Exciting Reveals
When there’s a new special, a host or customer special do a Live. Your enthusiasm and excitement will be contagious. Don’t forget, you can also create your own incentives for party bookings or joining your team.
8: Top Tips & Product Hacks
Offering your tips on how to make the most of a product will be appreciated by your tribe. This is not a review but more of an educational video. Videos on how to use a product in an unexpected way (a hack) are very popular online.
9: Tell Stories
Have you ever heard the saying ‘facts tell but stories sell’? It applies to your Facebook Lives too.
Back stories about how a product is made, where it’s from or about some specific ingredients are a great way to talk about your products without being salesy. You can also talk about your company, the founder or some of its history.
10: Interview a Customer or a Team Mate
If you have a customer who’s achieved great results with a product you sell, they might be happy to talk about it in an interview. This is a very powerful testimonial.
You can also focus on the business side and interview a team mate who can talk about how the business changed their life.
You might find that when you start out with Lives, your audience is small. That’s okay, the replay will still be available and rank high. (Also, you can re-use suitable videos in your Facebook parties – bonus!)
If you’re consistent in showing up Live, you will be build your audience over time.
Nobody likes a spammer, so don’t be a spammer. Use ‘attraction marketing’ instead where you draw people to you with your social media marketing. Not sure how? Learn how to rock your social media marketing in a non-salesy way with the Attraction Marketing course.
In late April, Facebook introduced a new feature in Messenger: Messenger Rooms.
Direct sellers and party plan consultants may be able to use it as an alternative to Zoom for online parties.
Let’s do a quick compare of Facebook Messenger Rooms vs Zoom for parties:
Facebook Messenger Rooms
Zoom
Up to 50 participants
Free plan up to 100 participants
Unlimited talk time
Free plan limited to 40 minutes
Invite via link (no need to be ‘friends’ to get access)
Invite via link
No meeting scheduling
Meeting scheduling available
Screen sharing*
Screen sharing
Lock room option
Password protection
Waiting Room
Virtual backgrounds & effects in the Messenger mobile app
Virtual backgrounds
Host can mute participants
* I have not been able to get screen sharing to work on my laptop when I played around with the Messenger Room feature. It’s probably just teething problems.
As you can see, you do get way more features and control with Zoom, and I didn’t even list all the features you get with Zoom’s free plan.
Facebook Messenger Room Party Tips
If you are going to use Facebook Messenger Rooms for a direct sales party, I’ve got some tips to make the most of it:
Practice with a few friends or family first. I have not been able to get all features to work on my phone or computer just yet. Make sure you know all the features you can access before you dive in.
Start the room about 20 minutes before your announced start time. That way you get a link that you can send to guests or ask the host to send to guests. Leave the Messenger app open – once you close it, you close the room.
Since you don’t have a waiting room option, mute yourself but share a message either via a piece of paper in front of your camera or via screen sharing. The message could say something like “Welcome to the XYZ party! We’ll be starting at 2pm, I’m just getting ready 🙂 “
I recommend you do your Messenger Room Party via a laptop or computer because you don’t have to hold it up (although a tripod can help there) and – if it works – you have better screen sharing options than on a phone.
For more tips, check the article I did on Zoom parties, many of the tips apply to video call parties in general.
Let me know in the comments if you have any tips to add!
If you’d like a detailed, step-by-step guide for running Zoom parties, you can grab this quick online training that I’ve put together. It comes with printables, done-for-you images for your social media, suitable games to play, extra tips and ideas, and how-to guides for your online direct sales events.
Did you know that Pinterest drives more traffic to original sources than Facebook and Twitter combined?
Facebook and Instagram want to keep you on their platform for as long as possible. In fact they ‘punish’ content that aims to take people off the platform to another website. They do this by not making those posts a priority in people’s feed.
Pinterest is different. Pinterest is designed to move people off the platform to websites because Pinterest is more search engine and less social media.
This makes Pinterest the perfect place to promote your business!
The unique pins that you create (using Canva, for example) can be used to drive people to your customer group on Facebook or to your website or blog.
I personally prefer to drive people to my customer group on Facebook because that’s where I build a lasting relationship with them.
Pinterest tips to promote your direct sales business
Descriptionswith keywords Make sure your pins have good descriptions that use keywords. Keywords are the words that you might use in a search if you were trying to find you or your products. However, don’t just list the keywords, remember that an actual person will be reading your description.
Don’t worry about followers On Pinterest followers are not as important as on Facebook or Instagram. They do help to proof that you are legit and helpful when someone clicks through to your profile, but only a few people do that.
Remember that Pinterest is more about searching – people just want to find good content or the right product. If you provide good content (helpful blog posts, for example) then you will gather followers over time. People that follow you are more likely to see your pins in their Smartfeed.
Board titles matter Board titles matter both to people and to the Pinterest algorithm. Don’t be too clever with your board titles, just be descriptive. You also want to be specific in your board titles. For example, it’s much better to name your board “Gluten-free Cake Recipes” than “Cake Recipes” or “Summer Make-Up Trends” rather than just “Make-up Trends“.
Pin regularly Pinterest likes it when you pin regularly. Content of regular pinners is more likely to end up in people’s Smartfeed or search results than irregular pinners. If daily pinning is too difficult to maintain, you can use a scheduler such as Tailwind to help you out.
Use secret boards I highly recommend that you use secret boards to collect ideas and inspiration for yourself. That’s where you keep everything that your don’t need your public ‘brand’ to show.
Promoted pins are the bomb Promoted pins are the Pinterest equivalent of Boosted Posts on Facebook – but better. Once your Facebook ads are finished, they disappear from people’s feeds. This doesn’t happen with promoted pins because they are saved on people’s boards, they still appear in search results and they stay on your boards. They are also better than Facebook ads or boosted posts because it’s cheaper on Pinterest!
Pinterest is such an exciting platform for direct sellers that I highly recommend you start putting some effort there as part of your social media strategy.
During this Covid-19 pandemic, social interaction has become more important than ever before. Having to distance ourselves from each other physically and practising self-isolation means we need to take care not to become lonely.
Humans are social creatures and social connections are vital for our mental health. As a direct seller, you can facilitate online social interaction in a really fun way using online tools.
I have been using Zoom for online training and video conferencing and I find it easy to use and reliable. Zoom allows you to have a group of people interacting through their device camera and microphone at the same time.
Using Zoom you can demonstrate products, play games, and allow people to ask questions – just like an in-home party.
How to make the most of a Zoom party as a direct seller
Stand-Alone Zoom Party
You can organize a Zoom party for an hour or so and do a condensed version of an in-home party. You would have to have a think about which products would translate well to a demonstration via video and make a careful selection.
At the end of the party you could gather orders in a variety of ways: you could call each guest and have your check-out chat with them over the phone, you could post a link to your order page (if you have one), or you could post a catalog out to guests beforehand and have them message or email you with their order.
Keep in mind that the more personal and interactive you make this process, the better the results.
Zoom Party as Part of a Facebook Party
Another option is to have a short (30 minutes or so) Zoom party that is incorporated in your Facebook party. You make the Zoom party the main event in the Facebook party and use the Facebook party to drive guests to the Zoom event.
By making it part of your Facebook party, you can keep in touch with guests before and after the Zoom event, which provides you with more opportunities to engage with the guests and keep the party going for longer.
About Zoom
Zoom offers a free account and a paid account. The free account is limited to 40 minutes per event. This means that if you use Zoom as part of your Facebook party and aim for a 30 minute event, you can get away with using a free account.
However, if you plan to make Zoom a more substantial part of your direct sales business, you can get a paid account starting at $20.99 per month.
Zoom is easy for your guests too!
Once you’ve scheduled your Zoom event, you get a link that you can send to your guests. All they need to do is click the link, if they don’t already have the Zoom app they will be prompted to download it with very clear instructions.
Zoom works on mobile and on desktop and is very user friendly even if people have never heard of Zoom.
One of the features I love about Zoom is that you can share your screen with participants. And there are lots of ways that you can make use if this:
Display ‘rules’ at a glance while you explain what you’re going to do in the Zoom party
Show customer or host offer details while you talk about it
Show images of the starter kit during your recruiting pitch
Show all the features and benefits of a particular product or range that you’re going to demonstrate
Using Zoom you can also get creative with themes. Play a quick game that matches with your theme and you could offer prizes for the best hat or earrings that match the theme.
If you’d like a detailed, step-by-step guide for running Zoom parties, you can grab this quick online training that I’ve put together. It comes with printables, done-for-you images for your social media, suitable games to play, extra tips and ideas, and how-to guides for your events.
If you have any Zoom tips you'd like to share, please leave a comment below.
You can’t turn on the TV or radio without being inundated with news about the Coronavirus (Covid-19) and the impact it’s having globally. And now I’m going to add to it…but I’m specifically talking you: direct sellers and party plan consultants.
This pandemic will impact everyone, including us. However, despite this growing crisis, there’s a lot that you can do to protect yourself and your business.
Quick tips for direct sellers during the Coronavirus crisis
Hygiene While you’re still able to host in-home events, make sure you widely publicize the extra steps you are taking to ensure everyone’s safety. Examples include providing individual product samples, minimizing touch, and providing hand sanitizer.
Most direct sales companies are providing guidance and advice to their consultants, make sure you check them out and implement them so your customers can be reassured they’ll be protected as much as possible.
Build your business online When my 6 year old daughter was diagnosed with Leukemia, my family faced our own health crisis. I spent many months in hospital with her and wasn’t able to run my usual in-home parties or team training sessions. I had to get good at running my business online and now we all have to get good at it! (My daughter is fine now, she’s in remission and a picture of health.)
An engaged customer group on Facebook will be vital for your business. If you need help with that, check this article where you can also download free engagement tiles to post in your own group.
You want to add Zoom to your arsenal. Zoom is fast becoming the default video conferencing app across the world. I’ve got some handy tips for you to organize Zoom parties in this article.
Attraction Marketing Until this pandemic has run its course, opportunities for vendor events and perhaps even in-home parties will be limited. This means you’ll need to promote your direct sales business online.
The way to do that without being pushy or spammy is ‘attraction marketing’. A great place to learn exactly how to do this, is Direct Sales Inspiration’s Attraction Marketing Course.
And because we’re passionate about helping as many direct sellers through this Coronavirus crisis, we have a 50% discount code for you!
To get the discount, just use “corona50” at checkout.
Care Packages As the crisis lengthens, more and more people will suffer financially. Hours will be cut and jobs lost - at least temporarily. The tourism industry is already suffering major cut-backs and more are sure to follow. Our industry can offer people impacted by the crisis a way to make some additional income during this difficult time.
Perhaps you can offer a number of 'bonus' packages (care packages) for anyone who joins your business due to virus-related job loss or cut-backs. These care packages could be products you have on hand, a stationary package, or some other incentive.
I want to stress here that it's super important to be sensitive and compassionate. It would not be wise to come across as though you want to capitalize on their hardship. Make clear that you are offering an option to help them.
It's also important not to over-promise on your business opportunity. Don't make big income claims - they will have to put in some work into their new business.
When in isolation If you are forced to self-isolate or your area is in lock-down, make the most of the time.
You can grow your business online - if I could do it from a hospital room you can certainly do it from home. Having some time at home is also a great opportunity to increase your business knowledge and do some self-development.
This too shall pass Remind yourself that it's going to be okay. Do your best online during the crisis, but don't forget it's not the end of your business if your parties dry up.
You can re-launch when the pandemic is over.
After I had been in business for quite a few years, I moved over 700 kilometres away to a new town where I had no connections at all. I used all the techniques to re-launch my business in a new area that I write about in this blog.
You can re-start a business and build it up again once this crisis is over.
Now is not the time to panic! We're fortunate that in our industry we can be flexible in how we conduct our business. Using technology we can be connected to our teamies, our customers and our prospects - even when we're confined to our homes.
When my daughter was isolated in hospital as her immune system was so weak, I never felt lonely because I managed to stay in touch with friends and family and my business connections. I'm so grateful that she beat cancer and that she's healthy. But in a funny way, the crisis our family went through has prepared me for this global crisis and I know that my business will be okay.
I'm sending you all my love - especially if you or your friends or family are in a high-risk category.
