We are headed into the home stretch of the holiday shopping frenzy for direct sellers… I am not sure about others but for Thirty One, our cut-off is December 10th. That means just 8 more days to wrap up what has been our busiest season of the year. It means 8 more days to convince our customers that we have the perfect gift for that special someone in their life.
So, do you know what the THREE top mistakes are that we make as direct sellers? I know that there are many answers to this question, depending on what trainer you talk to, right? I saw a list by Linda Albright which seemed to keep it simple. It also could apply to any direct seller as well as some AWESOME entrepreneurs who may struggle with some of the same things.
- Talk to much. Are you new to direct sales? Are you struggling with holiday back orders? Do you get nervous when meeting new people? I don’t know about you but for ME, in certain situations I talk to much. I ask a question – perfect right? Then there is that awkward silence. Maybe they are thinking about what you asked. Maybe they are looking at the products you offer. There are a MILLION reasons why they don’t respond right away to the question and NONE of them have to do with you. Do you start talking again during that silence? Does silence make you even more nervous? As a result, we talk too much and we loose the sale. Being nervous doesn’t mean that you need to babble or ramble on. Wait for their response and LISTEN. If you do all of the talking for the first 10 – 15 minutes – you have now lost a sale.
- Discounting diminishes value. This was the first time I had really thought about how discounting effects the value of a sale. Now, I don’t mean the specials run by our respective direct sales companies. The discounts I mean are the ones that we use to clinch a sale. It may be free shipping, it may be free tax or maybe an additional percentage off of an order. Do you “hawk” sales to gain customers? Or do you confidently talk about price to your customers. Believe in the value that you are providing to your customer. When you are nervous and unprepared, our customers begin to doubt the value of the product that they are buying. Definitely not the picture that we want to paint for them. In fact, it may become what the customer expects every time they shop with us.
- Know how to sell your products. This almost sounds like a no-brainer, right? We all know our products. We have our favorites that we push because they are the ones that help us reach our goals. During the holiday season when we experience back-orders or sell out of things because of an upcoming catalog change – we may loose that confidence. All of a sudden, we don’t know how to sell our products. We are not sure about the ideal customer, the perfect gift recipient or how a particular product will help our customer. As difficult as it may be, practice having at least one or two solutions for every product. Now, if your company has hundreds of products, this could be difficult but it is important to growing your business. If you are an “off the cuff” kind of person, you can easily wing it. For those who become rattled when they can’t think of a solution – make notes and keep them with you. Even the best leaders rely on notes during a presentation.
So, what is your TOP sales mistake? Share it with us in this “no judgement zone”.
Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!
#salesmistakes, #thirtyonemonthlyspecial, #solution sets
Hope Wissel 