Disclosure: This post may contain links to products where I may earn a small commission.
Direct sales can be a tough business. Your customers are your lifeline. Your business is entirely dependent on your ability to retain and grow your customer base. You can’t rely on a flashy website or a storefront in a busy downtown district.
One way you grow your direct sales business is through word-of-mouth and getting current customers to chat up your services to their friends and family. This is awesome and extremely effective and cheap! A downside to this is that just as customers chat about an awesome experience, they talk MUCH more about a negative one. Customers are twice more likely to talk about a negative experience than a positive one (Global Customer Service Barometer).
Here is a list of ways that you can almost guarantee you will turn off customers to your direct sales business.
- Being too Aggressive– We all know what I’m talking about here. You are at a direct-sales party and the salesperson is just overly aggressive. This is probably the main reason why people hate in-person parties. Customers do not like feeling pressured to buy something. It creates a negative experience and they will not come back or refer to any friends or family.
- Being too Annoying– Social media is awesome for direct sales businesses. It provides you the ability to more easily and efficiently connect with a broader audience. Just make sure that the audience wants to be contacted by you, how, and when they want to be contacted. Make sure to ask for these preferences when signing customers up for your email list. One tip-off that this might be happening is if people continue to leave your Facebook group shortly after joining or if they unsubscribe from your email list shortly after signing up.
- Being Hard to Contact– Customers have grown accustomed to convenience when shopping. Direct sales customers are no different. Make it super easy for them to contact you. Your contact info should be on every correspondence you send, every social media page, and so on. Also, make sure that you monitor your messages. Make it a commitment to respond to all inquiries within 3-5 hours. If you are going to be any longer than that, make sure you set up an auto-reply or voicemail message that explains when they should be hearing back from you. You want it to be as easy as possible to do business with you.
- Being Unorganized– I get it, it is tough to keep up with everything. You are literally everything to your direct sales business: CEO, accountant, marketing director, social media manager, shipping supervisor, etc. It is imperative that you keep everything as organized as possible, at all times. Take some time to organize your inventory, use an inventory control system, organize all of your supplies and marketing material, keep a calendar with all-party dates and deadlines, etc. Being unorganized leads to inefficiencies and huge customer problems. Which leads to our final point.
- Don’t Resolve Problems– You are your business. If a customer brings a problem to your attention, try your very best to resolve it as quickly as possible (regardless of whose fault it was). Sometimes that may come at a slight cost to you (which really stinks, I get it), but I guarantee you, it will be less than the cost of a lost customer and negative word of mouth. Consider it a cost of doing business and move on. Your time is better spent growing your business than going back and forth with an angry customer.
In conclusion, your goal should be to make it easy and enjoyable for your customers to do business with you. If you aren’t sure how you are doing on any of these points, simply ask. Customers will give their opinions if they are asked. The feedback may be tough to hear, but essential in growing your direct sales business.
Have you had a bad experience as a customer? What mistakes have you made in your own business? Leave a comment below, we would love to hear from you!
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As a freelancer, I can agree with everything on this list!
Thank you so much! From my experience, the basics matter. Thank you for reading and commenting!
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Yes to aggressive and annoying! I hate joining groups only to be bombarded- puts me right off
Such great tips. I’m always worried about being annoying. Its hard to know when to pull it back!
xoxo Christie
http://icanstyleu.com/blog/
There is definitely a fine line. It is SO important to market yourself and your goods but you don’t want to turn off potential buyers. If you are ever worried you can always ask a trusted (and honest!) friend if you are posting the right amount on social media. You can also really take a look at your stats- are people unfollowing me? Is my reaching trending down? etc. They might be indicators to try a different approach. Thank you so much for reading!
This is great advice. I am not in sales, but nothing turns me of faster as a customer than someone who is too pushy or blasts you with advertising on social media non-stop.
As someone who does a lot of shopping and has just renovated a house, I have come into contact with some of these types that definitely lost me as a customer!
Oh no! That is a stressful time already, let alone having to deal with bad customer experiences. I hope your renovations went great! Thank you for reading!
This post is great and spot on! I love all of the tips.
XO-Lisa
http://www.thatssodarling.com
Thanks so much! Thank you for reading! <3
I appreciate this list as someone trying to get into freelancing. It’s important to keep customer service in mind no matter how busy and frazzled you get. Thanks for sharing!
This list applies to so many fields. A positive customer experience is a positive customer experience regardless. Good luck with your freelancing, you will do great! Thank you for reading.
These are so accurate. There are only a few direct sales companies I truly love, and when I find a good rep I stick with them because sometimes the hassels of trying to contact the rep aren’t worth it.
Yes, it seems when you need to get in touch with someone they are impossible to find! Thank you so much for reading!
This is great! I work with a lot of Sales people and some need to take this advice haha http://www.svadore.com
Yes! I think we all know a few 😉 Thank you so much for reading!
I have never worked in direct sales but your list makes sense to me! The one thing that really turns me off is overly aggressiveness. Also, I’d like to add that when I never hear from someone (not even an occasional FB like on a pic or status to show they have a remote interest in my life) until they want to make a sale to me, that really irks me. Hopefully, your tips will help many!
Oh my goodness, yes! I am about to amend my list. I HATE that. As soon as you see a FB message from someone that you went to high school with you know that they are selling something. I’m all for marketing your goods, but keep it somewhat genuine! Thank you so much for reading!
Yes to all of things points! I hate it when a person is too pushy it kinda of makes me feel pressured.
Yes! I end up buying so much crap that I don’t need. I guess that is the point, but it turns me off and I refuse to come back. I would rather have a customer for life than a customer that regrets doing business with me. Thank you so much for reading!
I used to have a clothing store and I always was very attentive to my client’s problems. Its good for you business reputation to be trustful .
http://www.marieavenue.com
Yes all good points and all I have experienced many times. Under promise and over deliver is a point I always remember too.
Yes , I have had some broken promises and it always makes it awkward because there are friendships involved. Thank you for reading !