Let’s bust a myth about direct sales.
Direct selling is often seen as a more complicated sales process than the average product or service sale. The direct sales industry actually has a significant advantage over other sales methods: the central role of how social relationships impact your incoming revenue.
Many direct sales tactics drive more revenue to your business without you having to shell out tons of upfront costs and advertising investments. Maximizing your network connections and social media enables you to reach your target audience easier and lean on the benefits of joining a whole community.
For over a decade, we’ve been accelerating the sales processes of industry-leading sales teams to drive more revenue faster. Let’s review the essential direct sales tactics you should consider when strategizing how to utilize your network and drive more revenue.
Drive More Revenue With These 6 Direct Sales Tactics
The reason that direct sales companies are growing is because it provides the autonomy that people want in their work. If you don’t believe us, reference this recent study by the Direct Selling Association: 2020 Consumer Attitudes & Entrepreneurship Study.
The success of direct sales is often underestimated, with over 80% of direct sales people being with their company for more than a year, and many that have been with the company for decades.
Studying professional sales approaches and following a proven formula will ensure your success. Here are the top six direct sales tactics that will increase your revenue and enable you to expand your sales team and downline.
1. Free Samples
From free samples to social media giveaways, allowing leads to try out your product or service before committing is a great way to give them a real taste for what they would be getting on board with. Discussing your product or service during a giveaway also doubles as promotional work, which will grow your overall awareness and reach.
Allowing a prospective client to "try it before they buy it," you provide your prospect with the opportunity to experience your product, service, course or program. The ability to have the experience before buying can remove the fears and concerns that might cause your prospect not to buy or stall their decision. According to research by Eventeem, 35% of customers who try a sample will buy the sampled product.
You know this is true if you have ever walked down a grocery store aisle to find a person offering samples. Next time you are in a store where samples are being handed out, watch how many prospects buy what they just experienced. This same strategy works well no matter what you are selling, and it is especially powerful for those who sell training courses.
RELATED READING: 5 Effective Sales Prospecting Techniques
2. Make It Fun
Many direct sellers host parties and networking events to introduce their business to brand new leads and nurture current prospects. A great way to increase revenue is to make your product or service easy to buy at these parties and set up future plans with attendees to meet one-on-one. Even if it’s for coffee, this allows you to chat about your direct sales opportunity or get a referral.
Bringing your prospects together for an event can create an experience that increases your sales. One reason events help make direct sales is because the people who attend the event expect to be able to buy directly while they are there. There are a number of psychological forces at work that lead to sales in these environments. First, there is reciprocity. Because the host provided food and drink, as well as prizes, the attendees feel an obligation to buy something. Second, there is the powerful force that is social proof. When other people buy something, they provide evidence that what you sell is valuable. You make both selling and buying easier by making it fun and bringing people together for the experience.
RELATED READING: The One Way to Establish Your Credibility and Relevance
3. Incentivize Prospects
Signing bonuses and other monetary or gift qualifications are great ways to incentivize people to join your direct sales company. Especially if it’s a limited-time promotion, this way, a lead has even more of a reason to join sooner rather than later, therefore shortening your sales cycle and increasing your opportunities for more ROI.
Some of the best direct sales organizations have used bonuses and gift packages to attract people to join their company. These direct sales companies are incredibly well structured with programs and training that allow people who join them to succeed. Were you to ask someone who has joined a direct sales company, their biggest regret is likely to be that they waited too long to join, having given up income they might have made.
Incentives can contribute to accelerating a prospect's decision. This approach is best matched with a strong personal story and the ability to provide the prospective addition to your team the certainty they need to move forward in direct sales.
“Smart revisions of compensation models have been found to have a 50 percent higher impact on sales than changes in advertising investments,” reports McKinsey & Company.
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4. Discuss Long-Term Benefits
There are many opportunities for upward mobility and long-term earning potential in direct sales; try not to undersell your sales opportunity by focusing too much on short-term gains. This will be helpful for the more analytical leads you’re targeting - if someone is bought in for the long-term, they are more dedicated and will be determined to bring in more revenue.
One of the largest benefits of a direct sale is that you have the opportunity to build your own team. When you are successful building your own sales, you increase your long-term income by helping other people succeed by providing them the training and leadership they need to reach their goals and dreams.
Leaders build more leaders, not followers. There is no better example than my friend, Hector LaMarque at Primerica. Hector built a direct sales force of 12,000 people. Hector built the program on the long-term benefits of being part of the program. To do this, he spent a great deal of time teaching, training, and coaching, and teaching others to do the same. His investment in playing the long game was one of the keys to his success.
5. Responsiveness and Personal Relationships
Creating personal connections and always being responsive to a prospect’s questions is a great way to utilize social selling.
Travel Counsellors, one of my clients based in Manchester, England has thousands of travel counsellors. Their tag line is, "With us, it's personal. The founder, David Speakman, recognized two things that were true. First, he recognized the internet was going to make travel something transactional, allowing people to book their own travel. He also recognized that some people would want help making sure their holidays were everything they wanted it to be.
Steve Byrne has created and sustained a culture that is built on personal relationships and responsiveness. Each travel counsellor has their own book of business, sitting down with their clients and helping them plan their vacations or business travel. Because of their high value, high touch, high caring, they have one of the highest net promoter scores. Many of the travel counsellors communicate with their clients over social media, including sharing pictures of destinations and sharing stories from their clients.
“Using social selling tools can increase win rates and deal size by 5% and 35%, respectively.” : resource
6. Consistency and Tracking Metrics
Let’s not forget the essential traits you need to succeed in business and sales, including consistency in prospecting, goal setting, and time management.
As you pursue your direct selling career, it’s crucial to keep track of impactful sales metrics. A great way to start is by tracking the success of campaign strategies and seeing what brings in the most revenue and ROI.
There is nothing that will contribute more to your success than consistency. Consistently taking the necessary actions over time is the surest route to success. To ensure you are tracking towards success in direct sales, you need to track the number of leads you create, the number of meetings you set, the number of sales and your average deal size, your conversion rate and your progress towards your goals.
Each of these numbers can be improved through training, development, and coaching. You can improve your lead generation by improving your messaging. Increasing the value of what you have to offer a prospect in a first meeting (including a few of the things you find on this post) can increase your meetings. Improving your ability to convey the value proposition and how it will improve your prospect's future can improve your conversion rates.
Blocking time for each of the activities will improve your sales. The more consistent the action, the greater your results.
Conclusion
There is no need to reinvent the wheel. The strategies you find here have been validated by some of the largest direct sales programs, allowing these companies to generate sales measured in hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The fastest way to succeed is to follow a program and using as many of these strategies that fit your direct sale.
