If you?re a direct sales consultant or distributor, you?re already familiar with postponements. They?re a fact of life in our channel of distribution and they frustrate many a consultant because ? to you ? the booked demo date meant income and, to the postponing host, the booked demo date suddenly became an inconvenience.
What?s helpful to know and get excited about is;
around 90% of your postponed demo dates are avoidable!
Why do I say that? Well, from my more than 15 years of direct selling experience; I?ve personally found when you sell direct through demos, pop up shops or trunk shows, around 1 out of 10 of those postponed demo dates can be genuine because of illness or a tragedy befalling the host. However 9 out of 10, of those postponed or cancelled demos you?ve experienced throughout your direct selling year, are absolutely preventable!
And these are the ones we?re talking about here ? the preventable ones!
The NUMBER ONE MISTAKE, that creates ONGOING POSTPONEMENTS is when you keep your thinking at the ?I?ll put a BANDAID on it? reaction, instead of a ?I?ll discover what caused the WOUND? approach!
So are YOUR reactions to direct sales postponements about the BANDAID or the WOUND??
Let?s look at the BANDAID Approach?
- You receive a phone call or text saying the demo date is postponed or cancelled
- You immediately feel frustrated
- You speak with the postponing host trying to reassure her you?re coming anyway and you hear yourself giving a few tips to keep the original demo date intact
- The Host postpones or cancels, regardless of what you say ? and remember; in this instance, her decision has nothing to do with illness or tragedy
- So you lose a day?s income and have great intentions to replace the lost business date and do something else on the day to generate direct sales income
- Then the date comes and goes and you wasted your day, or not
- This bandaid approach to postponements keeps the problem alive and possible for repeating in the future as ?the issue is still there, and I?ve covered over the problem and dealt with it, because that?s all I can do?
Let?s look at the WOUND Approach
- You receive a phone call or text saying the demo date is postponed or cancelled
- This time you get curious
- You speak with the postponing host trying to reassure her you?re coming anyway and you still offer your tips to keep the original demo date intact.
- The Host postpones or cancels, regardless of what you say ? and remember; in this instance, her decision has nothing to do with illness or tragedy
- This time you stay curious and debrief yourself, because you choose to be 100% accountable to yourself!
- You?re wondering – and go looking for, ?What caused this wound??
Taking this latter ?wound? approach, for direct selling postponements, means you?re being 100% accountable from a space of curiosity. You value your future direct sales business growth, and so you?re willing to ask yourself, ?Was there anything different that could have been done along the way, so this Host stayed engaged and excited about hosting her demo??
Your Checklist for ?What caused the wound??
- When I secured the date with this Host; did I ask her WHY she was excited to host a demo, herself?
- Did I help her start a list of intended guests, so we departed with her knowing WHO she could invite, and feeling great about her upcoming demo date?
- Did I find out how best she thought my product could assist these guests on her list?
- Did I suggest some language she could use to personally invite her intended guests, so she doesn?t default to asking them along to ?just come along to be a number? or ??come for a catch up and be a bottom on a seat?
- Did I check in with my upcoming host for her favourite reward or benefits available to her, via my company?s reward system
- Did I dig deeper and find out what this ?reward? for hosting a demo could mean for her, or do for her, when she has it?
- Did I book in close, or did I book too far out, and now I notice a lack of connection between us from the initial date up to the demo date?
- Did I send her a note confirming our date together and reminding her of the benefits of being my host, or did I leave it up to her from our one conversation when dating the demo?
- Did I set up, at the time of dating the demo, ?our next steps??
- ?What happens next is; your first step is to start inviting these friends we?ve chatted about today. Then the 2nd step is I?ll be calling you on <date> to discover who?s coming and support you with some bonus tips for a great a demo experience for you and your guests? does daytime or evening suit you best for a quick phone chat, when I call you??
- Did I personally chat at least once ? and preferably twice – between the initial dating of the demo and the intended demo date, or did I leave all communication up to phone text and emails?
If you can say to yourself ?YES?, ?Tick?, I have done all that ? well done! At least you validate you are on the right track when coaching your hosts for success and it appears that, despite of all you did very well, perhaps there is another underlying reason this Host has cancelled. So be it, for now.
If you notice a gap or two in your behaviour when stepping through our checklist?. congratulations – this could be the very cause of the business-damaging ?wound? called postponements! Your newfound awareness means, from now on, you know where to place your focus when coaching future Hosts – and close that old wound once and for all!
Remember; at the point of securing a date with you, you host was keen. So is your thinking going to be – the next time a postponement happens -? that old ?put a bandaid on it? approach, or the curious ?look for what caused the wound? approach?
When you go looking for what caused the ?wound?, you gift yourself the choice to learn and apply a fresh strategy that creates a better result. This means your future direct sales dates can have an increased probability to stick and hold!
I trust you enjoyed exploring and thinking about postponements in a fresh way! If you like what you?ve discovered, please share with your colleagues and spread this complimentary professional development for more direct selling consultants to benefit, too!
Oh?and, always remember, BE YOU!
Beverley Unitt
About the author: Beverley Unitt is the co-founder of BE YOU Success Coaching and on a mission to INSPIRE DIRECT SALES CONSULTANTS TO CREATE THEIR MAGNIFICENT LIFE!? As a team performance and leadership development specialist in the exciting world of direct selling, Beverley is an influential keynote speaker at conferences, festivals and roadshows; inspiring the empowering thinking, communication and behaviour necessary for consistent results. |