As I work, day in and day out, with direct selling companies and their field representatives, I am struck by one undeniable truth… the art of selling is being lost. I once took a college course as part of my major called The Psychology of Selling. On day one the professor asked “who doesn’t want to sell stuff when they graduate”. The majority of hands in the classroom went up. He replied with a belly laugh and said “I have got bad news”. He went on to explain that EVERYTHING is sales. You sell a product, you sell your time or you sell your knowledge.
In our industry of direct selling, it is all sales. We sell product, we sell opportunity and we sell the booking experience. Sales isn’t pushing those things, it is pulling those things. We sell by creating desire, by filling a need or by solving a problem. That is the pull and we are no longer effectively teaching the mechanics behind it.
Today’s direct seller most often relies on the brand name to do the selling. You can see that illustrated up and down social media walls and feeds. They expect the name to create the desire in others that it creates in them. They expect the brand to create excitement and enthusiasm. They expect the company name to do the booking and the recruiting as well. When it doesn’t, they become frustrated and discouraged. It is at that point that we lose them.
We focus so much on branding and brand story in the modern age of direct selling. Those things are important in this visual age of social media but we can’t forget the engine room of the industry, selling. The most important thing we can do for these consultants and our industry is teach the art of the sale.
Michelle Archer 