I really am interested in your views about the role of the party in Direct Sales. Thanks for sharing. Here in Europe, especially in France, party-plan companies are the trend and the most profitable but they do have an issue with the lack of flexibility of the party. Most times, I notice with my clients that they use the parties to attract customers and then I help them put together plans to retain customers. A few years ago you would focus on challenging the distributors to do more, book more, upsell. Nowadays what works best is attracting customers back to distributors by using email campaigns and other digital and social networkw strategies.
If you’d like to know more about what France and Europe are up to with Direct Sales, feel free to write or call.
Best regards and thanks again!
Jerome

So how do you get to know your customers? Listen, really listen. To who? To your ISCs. They are our frontline and they hear from customers before we do. Too many companies try to shape the company into what the owners or shareholders state as focus-of-the-day, but that often leaves executives with metamorphically pushing water uphill as we work to shape our customers into what the company wants them to be, rather than providing them with what they want, and what they are willing to pay for. DS has had its ebbs and flows throughout my long standing career in the industry and those who typically recover fastest from the lean years are those who have learned to listen, really listen, and then truly partner with the field to implement a viable plan. Not just paying lip service to partnership, but actually involving top leaders, active and committed leaders, in rolling out the solution. This partnership ensures they will support the plan and engage their teams in it. Win-win for all!

Thanks Neil – should’ve known you would come up with a great twist on it all. I like the difference in thinking about how we support the people who sell vs. how do we get more people to sell.

Thanks Luca!

Thanks so much JoDean. Glad it is helpful.

Thanks Metin!

So true Spencer. I often laugh (sadly) when I think of all of us as individuals and how we personally prefer shopping on Amazon, and in the meantime our companies have resources dedicated to making sure our products don’t show up there.

Beverly – really appreciate your comments and thoughts here. Thanks!

bd