The Three R’s: How to Optimize Direct Selling Recruitment and More
Concerned about direct selling recruitment? Every direct sales firm seems to be in a never-ending battle to attract more people.
Our businesses live and die on their people and the relationships between these people. But if you’re focusing only on direct selling recruitment as a way of boosting your sales figures for 2020, you’re missing the big picture. In fact, by our calculations, you’re missing about two-thirds of the picture.
Recruitment is just one of the three R’s that are absolutely essential to the health of a direct sales firm. As we head off to the DSA Sales & Marketing Conference at Lake Tahoe, Nevada (and hope to see you there!), let’s shift our focus back to what we know will work for direct sales companies: revenue, retention, and recruitment.
The First R: Revenue
It happens to every direct selling firm: you attract new customers, they try a product, they buy a refill or two, and then they drop off the map. Or, they like the product and sign up for monthly delivery, but then they have little further contact with your company.
The solution here is better communication. For all the energy we put into direct selling recruitment, our industry historically hasn’t been good about increasing our revenue from the people we already work with. How about using automation to get special offers in front of that new customer, increasing the chances they’ll make a second purchase right away? And how about sending different offers tailored to the interests and needs of your monthly-shipment folks so they’ll be compelled to try a new item now and then?
This applies to your sales reps, too. We tend to think that of the thousands who sign up to sell our products, only a handful will be superstars and the rest will simply be too lazy or too busy to sell much.
Now, we’re not saying everyone has superstar potential. But with a little training, just about everyone can do better than they’re currently doing. Automated technology can help you deliver this training—and we’re eager to discuss this at the DSA conference.
The Second R: Retention
Automated communication can do more than inspire your customers and distributors to move more product. It can also help you stay in front of them with messages that increase their loyalty to your firm.
What sets one direct selling business apart from the next? Sure, the quality of your products is important. Your compensation and bonus plan for distributors makes a huge difference. But don’t forget that your customers and sales reps also want to feel good about being associated with your company.
Your customers want to feel like they’re getting something from you that they can’t get from a store. Your sales reps want to feel like they’re doing more than just earn paychecks from you—they’re living the life they want in our new “gig economy.”
What you say to these people is up to you. But too many direct selling firms drop the ball here, missing opportunities to communicate and build relationships with their people. We’re here to help prevent that.
The Third R: Recruitment
Now, we never said direct selling recruitment wasn’t important. We just know from our years of experience that the other two R’s have to come first—and if you get them right, you won’t always be in a mad rush to attract more people.
But if you really want to grow your business, you do need a steady stream of new people coming in. You’ve probably already identified many ways of doing that. What we caution against is putting direct selling recruitment ahead of selling products.
Why? Because if there’s a fourth R nowadays, it’s Regulatory Compliance.
You’ve surely noticed that the FTC is cracking down on our industry. The companies that tend to get in trouble are those that overemphasize signing people up. Those that reward recruitment over actual product sales. Those that ask distributors to carry inventory.
So, while we’re at the DSA conference, we’ll be eager to speak with you about direct selling recruitment practices that can help you meet your goals without running afoul of the FTC.
Let’s connect while we’re at Tahoe! To schedule an appointment to speak with our experts during the conference, just drop us a line.