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If there’s one business that’s easy to start and one you can make income right away with, it’s one in direct sales — having been a part of a few direct sales models in my day, I’ve seen marketing done well while also done horribly wrong. Inside this article, I share with you the 5-step method for building a direct sales business on the web… without spamming your friends and family! Finally, how to get direct sales leads that want your product.
With over eight years of experience in this space, I’ve used a simple system to grow my business portfolio into a six-figure annual income while being a part of multiple direct sales companies.
Which is most likely how you’ve landed here in the first place, to hear how I did it. But before diving in, let me tell you the first mistake I made because let’s face it I’ve had many!
Marketing Direct Sales: My First Mistake
The first mistake when starting my direct sales business was that I would brand my company and not myself. Some might think that attaching yourself to your new company is what you need to do, but it’s the worst thing you could do.
You see, when you brand your company instead of yourself, people no longer need you. You become just like those other thousands of reps in their timeline, and nothing is separating you from them, or the company itself for that matter.
So no wonder you lose potential clients to other reps, you aren’t unique to them.
So now that you know what I did wrong… let me tell you more about what I did right… it just took me a bit of time to figure it out.
What led me here
A few years into my direct sales business, I was becoming frustrated with the copy and paste marketing tactics reinforced throughout our industry. As a creative, I knew there had to be other ways to connect with my audience than with company photos and sales captions.
If I was sick and tired of seeing the same images and promotions in my timeline, I knew my readers had to feel the same way.
As I started to change the way I created original content by sharing my authentic journey, personal photos and giving my audience a behind the scenes look into my business, other business owners wanted to learn how to do the same.
Today, I’ve established a branding business built on purpose and authenticity and teach other entrepreneurs how to approach online marketing in a fresh, confident, and strategic way.
My story leads you right here… to learn how to brand YOU and how to set up a sales marketing process that will have you attracting new clients, creating more engagement, and growing your sales online in five simple steps.
The 5-Step Method for Direct Sales Marketing
These 5 Steps of my Direct Sales Guide to Selling on the Web includes:
- Determine your Niche
- Publish Content
- Using a Lead Magnet
- Have an active email list
- Consistency
Step One: Determine Your Niche
When building ANY business, the step many overlook is not taking the time to do some self-discovery. When I talk about branding yourself, your brand is something you discover, not build.
You don’t grab a cart and go shopping for the perfect brand for your direct sales business. My friend, you need to unlock and shine a light on all the actions, behaviors, and preferences you already possess.
What you need to understand is you have layers and layers of pivots, life cycles, and experiences that have led you to where you are right now. It’s time you use them to realize your core interest and shine a light on your journey.
Self-discovery is necessary to realize your uniqueness and what makes you stand out from the crowd. Once you can define what inspires and motivates you, your brand strategy is about sharing these passions (core interest) and authentic experiences with others (niche audience) through original content.
If you want to have your brand examined, evaluated, and reflected in a positive light, you need to put purpose behind what defines you and your reputation.
This was one area in my business that I missed the mark on big time in the beginning. I thought that since I sold skincare and everyone had skin that everyone was my possible client. But so happened, when I targeted my niche down to mothers over the age of 35 who still struggled with acne, my sales increased! I became my own niche client, so in every post, I talked to my 35-year-old self. I knew all the pains, struggles, and depressing thoughts going on her head, the same as my niche audience had.
And it wasn’t that only people looking for help with acne came to me, it opened the door to others to trust my authority because I wasn’t all over the place trying to sell every product to everyone in my timeline.
You want to become a big fish in a little pond, instead of a little fish in a big pond. Narrow down your niche as slim as possible and watch your sales increase.
Step Two: Publish Content
In today’s world of digital marketing and online sales, one thing to understand from the beginning is that you’re “selling” so much more than just your product or service on a daily basis.
Everyday readers of your original content are paying attention to the experience that your brand gives them, and the emotions that you invoke within them.
What this means is that you are not selling your product, service, or opportunity…
You’re, in reality selling yourself, your image, and your reputation. Which, in short, is your personal brand.
And once you determine WHO your niche audience is, you create original content in audio, written, or video form to ascend your message that provides solutions to the problems they are having.
When you know everything about your niche client, creating content becomes a breeze. Producing content becomes simple because you’ve done your research and know what they are reading and watching, where and how they are living, and what keeps them up at night.
For instance, if you sell skincare, but aren’t passionate about it, find another topic related to beauty and wellness that you can publish content on that would fill a need for your ideal client and that they find valuable to consume.
For YOU to position yourself as an expert in your field, you must tell your authentic brand story and use your brand words and adjectives over and over again. This story includes being transparent with your WHY, sharing what encouraged you to get started, your struggles, and the solutions found.
Step Three: Lead Magnet
If you’ve done an excellent job of creating a desire for your product or service with your original content, you next want to lead your ideal client into your sales process to do the selling for you.
There are several ways to generate leads for your direct sales business. But whichever lead magnet you choose, you do so in exchange for their email address.
The most common lead magnets for direct sales would be:
- offering product samples
- showcasing how-to video tutorials
- adding them to a Facebook group community
- giving them a digital download (workbook)
By offering a high-value lead magnet, you help your customers get to know your business, product, or method better. You can also get to know your niche audience better too. And it’s not salesy what-so-ever!
Download your copy of my interactive Direct Sales Guide to Selling on the Web HERE!
In exchange for their email address (using an opt-in form), you deliver the lead magnet to them and enter them into your sales process and email sequence automation.
The more they trust you, the more your brand will grow.
Plus, by using a lead magnet, you cut out all those cold-reach outs because your niche market is your warm market and who you want to be serving!
Step Four: Email List
If you ever want to run and grow your business on auto-pilot, you need an active email platform. Period, no questions asked. Yes, you need to interact with your niche audience on social media. But you also need to become more personal and make deeper connections via email.
I consider my email list the most prized possession that I care for.
When you can use a lead magnet opt-in to capture your niche audience’s email address and deliver your promised item in exchange, the sales process continues.
As your niche client is inside your email list, you need to love on them post-download of your lead magnet in an automated sequence. Do this to thank them and offer them related tips to their lead magnet. Next, you should to lead them through their next steps and condition your relationship weekly through consistent high-value emails.
You aren’t doing this in a way to spew products onto them, but in a way that allows you to give them more value and transition into talking about your product.
As you become known for your brand and not the company you rep for, you gain more authority. People will come to you for your valuable information. So even if you decide to add another company to your portfolio, pivot careers, or become an affiliate for other products, you remain reputable.
Step Five: Consistency
It’s pretty simple… Consistency allows your audience to build a memory structure around who you are and what value you have to offer. If you stop showing up online your audience stops paying attention to you.
The more familiar we are with someone, the more we like them. So the more you tell your story with consistent visibility, the more people will know, like, and trust you.
In the end, many of the troubles you face today, such as:
- bugging your friends and family
- relying on cold reach-outs
- losing clients to other reps
- the fear of sales and sounding salesy
- doing live and in-person events
- prospecting cold markets
… go away when you market your brand and not your company.
Direct Sales Business: In conclusion
But you first must STOP apologizing for who you are, for failures, and for owning a space in the world.
Within my Personal Branding Playbook, I not only cover being your AUTHENTIC SELF… but also having CONFIDENCE. Because apologizing for taking up space in this world is a self-confidence problem.
And I can tell you with absolute certainty having self-confidence about who I am and what I want… has been a secret weapon for my success.
DOWNLOAD my interactive Direct Sales Guide to Selling on the Web HERE:
“If only someone would’ve handed me this workbook eight years when I started my direct sales journey, how much discouragement I would’ve prevented.” That’s what I was thinking when putting this workbook together for you.
The five-step technique shared on this episode and in this complimentary workbook is a proven way to attract new clients, create engagement, and grow your online sales… in less than 30 days!
No fluff… just real steps you can start taking today to turn your direct sales business around.
Again, download your copy of my interactive Direct Sales Guide to Selling on the Web HERE!
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