The MLM Virtual Party or Live Event: An Idea That Is Gaining Traction
The concept is about as old as direct selling: an enterprising sales rep who wants to rake in a bunch of sales in one evening plans a gathering and invites as many of her friends, co-workers, and acquaintances as possible.
She asks a friend to host the event. The guests come to the host’s house on Friday evening at 7:00 PM. There’s good food, drinks, and pleasant conversation.
The sales rep makes her presentation and hands out some product samples. She gracefully handles the many questions that come in and offers to take orders from anyone who’d like to take advantage of her special one-night-only discount.
By the end of the evening, our sales rep has eight new customers. All of their products are shipped to the host’s house for pickup, all reinforcing the connections that were built at the party.
Fast forward to 2019. Is party planning an outdated concept in direct selling?
Not at all. But the younger generation tends to be less into physical events and more into online ones. The event needs to be authentic and digital.
That’s why the Virtual Party or Live Event has emerged as a great way for your sales reps to make product presentations to a much broader audience than could ever have been done before – all at the same time.
Whether your sales reps are planning local hosted parties or have embraced the concept of a live event, you need MLM software that can support them in that effort.
Help Your Sales Reps Reach a Broader Network
There’s a good reason why MLM sales reps have never abandoned the concept of a product party—and why they’re now making the Live Event (virtual party) popular: MLM sales are based on relationships.
On the one hand, the fact that we trust the person who’s selling makes us more likely to buy. On the other hand, we all have a natural sales resistance. The product party takes some of that resistance out of the equation by pairing a sales rep with a host and building a group dynamic.
Over the past few decades, of course, our human relationships have changed. Have you noticed how busy everyone has gotten? We’re also more mobile than we used to be. Ask someone about their circle of friends, and it’s likely to include friends from high school in one state, college in another state, and a previous job or two.
And then there are the friends we make on social media—people we may never have met in real life, but with whom we’ve shared an astounding amount of detail about our lives.
That’s why the Virtual Party / Live Event is gaining traction. Instead of inviting everyone to Holly’s house on Friday night, a sales rep can simply set up an event in Facebook and send everyone a link. The event will then be streamed to everyone’s computer, allowing them to see products and ask questions in real time or watch a recording of the event when their schedule allows.
What It Takes to Pull Off a Live Event or Virtual Party
As we mentioned, your MLM software needs to be ready for your next product presentation. Supporting a sales event is more complicated than it seems. Here are a few of the features your software must provide:
- Email automation. Your software should put invitation tools at the fingertips of both the sales rep and party host. It should make it easy to send invitations and track RSVPs.
- Calendaring. Your software should automatically tell the host what to do at each stage of party planning. Send invitations by X date. Invite at least X-number of people so that you can be assured of X-number of attendees.
- Flexible shipping options. For in-person parties, products will generally be shipped to the sales rep’s house or the home of the hostess. For a Live Event or Virtual Party, you’ll obviously need to ship to each attendee’s address.
- Ability to provide benefits to the party host. This is usually in the form of discounts or free products, based on the number of sales made at the event. Your software should track sales and make the necessary calculations automatically.
- Ability to offer discounts for the time period of your choosing. In the days of in-person parties, product discounts generally only applied on the day of the event. With the advent of the Live Event or Virtual Party, it has become common practice to provide a window of several days on either side of the event for additional purchases prior to closing the event. Your software should let you specify the duration of the discount.
- Ability to store names. Once a live event or virtual party is over, your sales rep will want to store the names and contact information of the attendees for future contact. This is where a mere party planning tool falls short. You’ll want an MLM platform that includes powerful CRM functionality that is extended to the distributor and hostess.
Support Every type of Event or Party with Prowess
Many software platforms provide pieces of the puzzle. Thatcher’s Prowess platform provides everything you’ll need to support the product events of your sales reps. Learn more about what Prowess can do for your business.