The Direct Seller's Podcast
The Direct Seller's Podcast
The New Era of Direct Sales Marketing Strategies
Are parties really the lifeline of your direct sales business? On today's episode, we're diving in to discuss this topic. With a toolbox brimming with alternative methods, from email and text marketing to the potent reach of social media, this episode is your roadmap to revolutionizing your direct sales journey—one innovative tool at a time.
Stay ahead of the curve and discover how to cultivate a diverse and robust marketing strategy that doesn't hinge on a single method.
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Welcome to the Direct Sellers Podcast, the podcast for direct sellers who are ready to get uncomfortable, build their business and grow a team while changing the face of the direct sales industry. I'm your host, rachel Perry. Join me as we get real and talk about all the things you need to kick some serious direct sales booty From overcoming limiting beliefs to sharing the exact strategies you need to attract the right people who become customers and beg to join your team. I've got you covered, girl. I'm going to be your new BFF when it comes to balancing life and kids while building your direct sales business with poise, peace of mind and, of course, a good set of fake eyelashes. Let's get started. Hello, my friends, welcome back to another episode of the Direct Sellers Podcast. I'm your host, rachel Perry, and I am delighted that you are here.
Speaker 1:Today. We are diving into the topic of business tools, but that sounds boring, so it's anything but boring today. Here's why I am doing this topic today, something that we have been discussing inside my group coaching hybrid. It's a hybrid program, one-on-one group coaching. We've been discussing business tools on Instagram. I've been talking a lot about how parties are not the lifeline of your business. They don't have to be Okay. So I was talking to someone the other day and I was asking her how her business was and, as you guys know, like I have lots of conversations, mostly over email, because I send out some, a couple of emails a week in the hopes that you will respond to me so that we can start having conversations, so that I can help you in your business and someone reached out and she said, well, parties are the lifeline of my business. And I was like, okay, well, let's dig a little deeper. Why do you say they're the lifeline of your business? And she said, well, my company, that's what my company teaches. I mean, they are the lifeline of our business, that's what this business model is for this company. Like that's it. And I said, okay, awesome, like that's great. Yes, the party plan is a great plan. That I've only ever been.
Speaker 1:I've been in two direct sales companies and both have been party plan. One was for nine years and one was just in this past year, which is I was thinking about this morning. It's been I. That has not been my focus at all. The makeup business side of me, that has not been my focus. You guys have been my focus. So it's been interesting, but it's still been a part of it and things like that. But when I kind of use my experience and base my experience and look back on things, I definitely use more of my the first time that I was in direct sales as my reference. But I think the party plan model is an excellent one.
Speaker 1:I love it, but it needs to be updated and if your company is leaning into online parties, online parties, online parties or home parties, online parties, online parties or home parties, home parties, home parties and that's all they're teaching you, I think that there's a lot missing. So when I way back when when I was in my first direct sales business building my business if you have been following me for a long time you know that Amanda and I were the tag team Like that was kind of our jam we taught people how to party on Facebook in 30 minutes or less and y'all, it went gangbusters and people were having massive success because it was a new concept. It was at a time when people were tiring of home parties. People were getting busier, things were just changing as things do, and Facebook had sort of just come onto the scene just like a couple of years, and so people were just it was new, it was exciting. People were on Facebook and at the time when Amanda and I were teaching this, there was a huge, huge, huge like.
Speaker 1:It was an uphill battle. You guys companies, did not. Our company especially did not like the idea of online Facebook parties. They didn't like it. We had a lot of opposition from leaders, from mostly companies compliance departments of companies, like people did not like it. They thought this was the end. They thought that we were breaking all the rules and that this is not what direct sales is supposed to be. And it was hard. It was really hard, but we were finding success and we knew that we were connecting with people on a level. We were meeting them where they were. So I will never forget someone in my company actually said to me she was a top leader and she said to me she said I don't think you should be doing this.
Speaker 1:I think this goes against everything that our company stands for, and I was like what are you talking about? Why is this something that is wrong? Anyway, all that to say, now companies jumped on board. Now they're like teaching online parties. This is the thing that they're doing, but they're just a little bit too late. Okay, let me let me read. Let me say that again, I don't think they're too late, but I just think sometimes companies take a little bit longer to catch up. So all that to say, I am not bashing the party plan model. I think it's incredible and I love parties. I think they're awesome. I think if they're working for you, keep going. I think home parties are amazing, like if you can get some in-person events, I think that's incredible. I think if you are having online parties and they are working for you and you're getting results, keep going. But if you are having a hard time getting parties and I mean online parties, that's mainly what I'm talking about today and if you're having a hard time getting sales from those parties, I'm here to tell you that there could be a couple of reasons why and, as I said earlier, we're going to talk about business tools. Parties are one tool in your toolbox, like in your business toolbox. If you are on my email list, you get my emails. You have seen.
Speaker 1:I shared an email the other day about how my husband and I may have shared this example before. I talk about this a lot. My husband is Mr Fix-It. He loves to fix things and he has a huge, massive toolbox, like I don't know what the majority of those tools are. He does which is good, because I'm not the one fixing things but if he just had a toolbox filled, he would be limited in what he could fix. He would only be able to fix things that required a wrench, but sometimes those things that need fixing require more than just a wrench or don't require a wrench at all, and so he has a lot of different tools so that he can use different things, so that when the situation arises, he has options. It's the same for your business.
Speaker 1:If parties are the only thing that you are focusing on in your business, it's time to add more tools to your toolbox. I also see this a lot with direct sellers who are just focusing on social media and that's their only form of marketing selling all the things. Again, we need to add tools to our toolbox. We can't just use one thing. So I'm going to talk to you a little bit today about what those tools could be. So again, parties are awesome if you can get them on your calendar. They're awesome if you're able to get sales, but when they don't work, it becomes very frustrating if you don't have anything else to use, because there are going to be times when your calendar is empty.
Speaker 1:And I'm telling you, facebook parties are not like they used to be. You can change the script that you're using. You can add different games, you can do different things, you can update it, which you should do, but that's not going to change the fact that there are a lot of people that are not on Facebook anymore. They are tired of it. They don't necessarily want to come to an online party. It's no longer a novelty anymore. It's more like oh my gosh, I'd have to go to another one. Like, I'm invited to so many of these things. It's changed.
Speaker 1:So, in order for you to be successful in your business, you've got to recognize okay, wait, these aren't working the way they used to, so I need to be thinking ahead. What can I do? Kind of like when Amanda and I were teaching Facebook parties in the very beginning, we're thinking ahead. We saw we tried something new. It worked amazingly in our business and then everyone jumped on board that it caught. People were like, oh my gosh, what is this? And we were teaching people how to do it. And then companies jumped on and they're like, yeah, this is amazing. Let's keep doing these. How can we change them up, all the things? And now that there've been so many changes with Facebook and it's not just the changes with Facebook, guys, it's just we are evolving, we are ever evolving and things that used to work don't work like they used to Like. When Facebook parties were all the rage, home parties weren't working like they used to, and that had been a wave that had been ridden for a very long time.
Speaker 1:Okay, we just have to be willing and able to identify when we need to either steer the boat in a different direction or just look in our toolbox and pick up a different tool. So let's talk about what are the tools in a different direction, or just look in our toolbox and pick up a different tool. So let's talk about what are the tools in your toolbox, what are the things that you can be using on the daily. So this is something that a lot of the students who come into my hybrid program are finding that they are doing parties, but they're just not working the way they used to. And the girls in my program are, generally speaking, are leaders with good size teams and what they're seeing is that a lot of their downline are having issues with the whole getting bookings and parties and, as a leader, you also want to be using tools that you can then share with your downline.
Speaker 1:You need to be doing things that are duplicatable or duplicable. That word is always. I'm always like is it duplicatable or duplicable? Whatever, you know what I'm saying. So it's important for you to remember this when you're looking at the tools in your toolbox. I'm assuming you want to build your business, which may mean that most likely, you want to build a team. If you don't have a team, or you already have a team and you're like I need to help my downline, so whatever you're doing, it needs to be that whichever tool you're using needs to be a tool that you could teach to a downline.
Speaker 1:So, some tools social media is a tool, okay, and we can even get more specific and be like Facebook is a tool. Instagram is a tool. Youtube is a tool. Pinterest is a tool All right, there are so many tools. Tiktok is a tool, although who knows what's happening with that. There are a lot of social media tools.
Speaker 1:I am not at all saying you need to have all of those tools at once, because let's go back to that toolbox idea that example Mark is not going to pull out all of his tools at once and use them all at once, right? No, he's not. And as you're building up your toolbox, you don't buy. I mean, I guess sometimes you might buy all the tools at once, but generally you're adding a couple of tools to your toolbox at a time, like, oh, I need this tool for this job, I'm going to go get it and I'm going to add it to my toolbox. You collect them, and the same goes for your business.
Speaker 1:So my advice to you when it comes to social media is number one. It's just one tool. So do not base your business on social media. Please, please, please, hear me when I say your social media accounts are not yours. You don't own them. So if Instagram goes down and I know you've heard this before if Facebook goes down, you will lose all your followers. This has happened to so many of my friends. It happens, and they don't have to give a rhyme or reason, and it's so annoying and frustrating to have to do the things that you have to do in order to get your accounts back.
Speaker 1:So one of your tools needs to be email marketing or text marketing. Okay, you either need to be collecting emails or you need to be collecting phone numbers. Period end of story. So you have social media, you have email marketing. You have text marketing. You have parties Okay, you have, um, you can be doing an and I say this, but you could be doing a podcast. I know a lot of direct sellers who have started podcasts. That might seem big and scary and podcasts are hard to market. I'm not going to lie Like that's not going to give you the biggest bang for your buck, in that you're not going to see massive results right away with a podcast, but it does help create authority or establish authority. Whatever the tool is you had.
Speaker 1:There are so many ways to make money in your business. Affiliate marketing is another way, and you can be an affiliate for things, but also you kind of, instead of focusing on getting parties booked, what if, instead, you started talking more to your audience or in addition to the parties, about becoming an affiliate, because ultimately, that's what they're doing. When they join your team, right, they're becoming an affiliate. Or when they host a party, they're an affiliate in a way. So it's thinking about ways to market your business in such a way that you're not relying on just one thing. So let me give you an example and I'm not going to give you all the examples that we talk about in my program because, well, we don't have time for that.
Speaker 1:One idea is, if you are using text marketing and if you're not using text marketing, this might be one thing that you focus on first. Again, remember, you're not going to add all the tools at once. I want you to decide on one tool that you could be adding and focusing on as well, in addition to the parties or in addition to your social media. So for you, last week I think it was I talked about email marketing. Well, let's say you decide you want to do text marketing. So if you use Project Broadcast, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't use Project Broadcast, you can go to rachelaperrycom, project broadcast, and there's a sign up link in there. You do not have to pay very much. You create campaigns, so someone would text.
Speaker 1:You might say to your customers or to the people in your VIP group, or to your audience text the word VIP if you'd like to be part of my VIP club, and that VIP club might be a club where you send just one weekly text and it's very exclusive and it's only and you're sharing the company specials that come up, but you're also it's an opportunity for them to get more tips and tricks and to get prizes and things like that. And you just create this exclusive space in your text marketing and you text them once a week, like don't bombard them with texts. That's a really great way to get some extra sales. So if parties aren't working out so well for you, you can go okay, this month is a little tight for me, this month is a little hard. So you know what I'm going to look at my text marketing. How can I use this tool this month to really help me and make up that difference that I'm not getting with my parties? Does that make sense? So you're just looking.
Speaker 1:This is called strategy, business strategy. You are looking at your business and you're going okay, this is, I need to add this tool to my toolbox and here's how I'm gonna use it. And so, let's say, you're gonna focus on adding text marketing to your toolbox, your business toolbox. Then maybe next month or a couple of months later you're like okay, I've got this down, now I'm gonna add email marketing. Now, all of these things you're not gonna get overnight success necessarily, and I know we want that. But this is building sustainability in your business, and a sustainable business is one that survives. It's one that thrives. So in order to do that, we've got to add these tools.
Speaker 1:So I want you today to decide what is the next tool you're going to dive into. If it's email amazing, I talked about that last week. And if you want that email course, it's. I think it's email amazing, I talked about that last week. And if you want that email course, it's. I think it's $49. Go to rachelaperrycom forward slash email.
Speaker 1:If you want to focus on text marketing, let's get into Project Broadcast. Go to rachelaperrycom forward slash Project Broadcast. Literally, you can sign up for as little I mean I don't know if it can be free but for as little as $6 a month. So it depends on how many customers you have and all the things. But if you're not using text marketing, that might be something simple. You can add to your toolbox that you can kind of just start promoting and do the VIP club Like you can. That's just one thing that you can use text marketing for.
Speaker 1:I mean, this is not for sure. This is not a podcast episode on text marketing, because there are many, many, many options when it comes to that, like follow-up campaigns, welcome campaigns, all the things. But for today, I'm just suggesting what if you create a VIP club, an exclusive club, just for those who are on your text list? I think that would be pretty powerful, and they have to opt in, obviously, but that's just another tool. So I want you to think about that. What is the next tool you're going to add to your toolbox? And then I want you to master that tool and then you can focus on adding another one.
Speaker 1:But don't get complacent with this. Don't think, oh well, parties just aren't working for me and like I don't know what else to do, I'm just going to post on social and hopefully conversations will start. No, we got to get scrappy. You've got to take control here. You've got to do the work, and I know that you can and I know that you will, all right, listen, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate that you take the time to listen to me chatting in your ear. I'll be back next week for another episode of the direct sellers podcast. Until then, my beautiful friends, take care. That's it for this episode of the direct sellers podcast, but our fun doesn't have to end now. You'll catch me hanging out over on Instagram between episodes and I'd love for you to join me, so hop into my DMs. I promise you're not getting any hate girl messages and I promise I'm not gonna be asking you to weirdly buy anything. Send me the message podcast so I can send you my free 90 day action planner, because who doesn't love a good template?