It’s not a secret that the wider perception of Direct Selling is negative.

I keep repeating that during my training sessions, there is a section that firmly believes Direct Selling will never work.

This is the reality, do not assume anything. Assumptions breed destruction as it takes your perception away from reality.

If you assume from a seminar you attended, that you will change your life in a snap – Unfortunately, it’s not true.

The biggest hurdle between you and a life of fulfillment from Direct Selling is this widespread negative perception.

Warrior Mentality to fight it

How do you counter the perception once you know it exists? Through free-flowing logical communication (which is taught in the objection handling lessons) and a warrior mindset.

Warrior mentality in any kind of sales means turning the other’s momentum in your favor.  And that does not include

(1) randomly hurting the self-respect of prospects or

(2) Show pictures of people who did it to prove your point- no matter how closely you have witnessed the success.

You need to frame out your proposition – Are you offering better products or a ‘life-changing’ business opportunity?

Don’t merge both of them into something like a ‘life-changing product’, that’s a lie.

You need to address the various myths in people’s minds, especially the one that all Direct Selling companies are scams/pyramids. 

Here’s a refresh from my previous article – concentrate on these points of discussion:

1. Is the focus on recruitment, or on product sales?

2. A hefty amount during Joining?

3. Product Quality and Satisfaction Guarantee

4. Company age and legacy

This questions helps drive conversations that bring awareness to the entire industry. Help Prospects draw red flags instead of promoting your company.

Pre-Defined rules and Leadership

Underestimating pre-defined rules or the system can have dire consequences.

Yet, almost all beginners have a propensity to do this, in some capacity, which severely damages the entry speed into the business.   

The rules are based on the experience of several individuals who took the bullets so you don’t have to.

Respecting those rules infers learning from people’s mistakes.

If someone in your team does not follow the rules, you should work with them to build trust until they do.

Because if you don’t, they will bring several others down along with themselves. Don’t feel afraid, no matter who they are.

Strong Feedbacks can be given without hurting Ego. Reinventing the wheel is always a strict no-no!

A similar affair with Leadership. But Leadership is a positional game.

Your team respects your line of sponsors looking at you.

Since the line of sponsorship can be very deep, more often we try to reach the highest accessible leader.

In that process, sometimes we ignore the active leader who is just above us. 

A grave mistake in itself – also something subconsciously your team learns.

When the same happens to us, we are not able to deal with our egos.

The weight of your words

Your words have weight. It travels further and deeper than you think.

From the correct person and at the correct place and time, it can change the world.

Let that settle in for a bit. Now review any business speech you might have given in recent times.

The audience can be of any size but can you guarantee your communication was potent?

Were there corners where the communication could have been sharpened and maybe – just maybe – the prospect could have been closed? We need to understand the impact of our words from a very early stage.

That way we will lose less and win more – respect. The most powerful yet basic way to do that is the WWW technique.

This helps develop your common sense in the business by asking yourself these three basic questions before saying anything to anyone.

Is the thing I am going to say/do right for this place? What are the possible consequences?

Is the thing I am going to say/do right for this time? What are the possible consequences?

Is the thing I am going to say/do right for this person? What are the possible consequences?

Direct Selling is a business of communication as much as it is of sales. Never forget that by putting reaction before judgement.

Owning Fundamentals

People say you need a business owner’s mentality to succeed in Direct Selling.

I say you need to own your fundamentals in order to do that. That brings us to – What are fundamentals?

Fundamentals are those basic things that must be done periodically (daily/weekly/monthly) to grow the business.

Most of the time it is basic – like showing demonstrations of products daily, a fixed amount of sharing monthly, or any other sales and leadership lessons.

You don’t need to practice it, learn it – you need to own it. Like the back of your hand.

There needs to be a balance between training and fieldwork.

Do too much of anything without doing the other – and there is a problem in balance. 

Know more about the three key fundamentals in Direct Selling here.

The stronger your fundamentals – the quicker the growth, the more sustained your network and a better leader you become.

Tackling Disappointments

Probably the reason for most exits of beginners.

Beginners can’t handle disappointments or negative viewpoints from prospects.

This happens mostly to all of us for not being acquainted with a client or customer-serving role.

And the brutal reality is – You need to be experienced in client relationship management if you were to go up the ladder in any job.

However, if you have a solid understanding of the industry perception and rehearsed in objection handling, it becomes a lot easier.

Just don’t take any disappointment at heart, this is our business.

Start collecting points from your experiences and pour them back into the objection-handling exercises.

On top of this, we need to come out of a short-term mentality and play the infinite game.