How to sell in your customer groups

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.

If you’re struggling with ideas for those 9 bits of unique content, have a look at my 50 Social Media Post Ideas for Direct Sellers, that’ll start your creative juices flowing!

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!

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