Direct Selling Business Tips: Keep That Personal Touch with Product Samples
Every direct selling business wants to keep its customers happy. Every direct selling business also wants to give the very best tools to its distributors.
What if I told you that the key to doing both is an old-fashioned sales technique that’s so simple, it’s in danger of being overlooked entirely?
I’m talking about offering product samples. We’ve probably all been to stores such as Costco or Trader Joe’s where they regularly offer bite-sized pieces of food for free. They then talk to you about how great the product is and direct you to where you can buy it in the store.
Can offering samples help your direct selling business thrive? That may be a slight overstatement. But samples are a surprisingly important tool for not only attracting customers, but also demonstrating to your field that you are consistently investing in the tools needed to make their business thrive!
Making it easy to provide samples is just one service provided by Verb, a Thatcher partner company.
Taking the Hassle Out of Product Samples
In the rush to offer distributors and customers lots of handy online tools, many direct selling businesses have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. They’ve de-emphasized the need for face-to-face contact and steered our industry towards more of a “two-clicks-and-you’re-done” mentality.
Verb, on the other hand, gives your direct selling business the best of both worlds. They’re effective because they keep in mind what should be at the heart of every direct selling firm: personal relationships.
It’s about striking up a conversation with a friend, listening to their needs and interests, and then mentioning that you love the product you’re using that meets those needs. You can really move the needle by providing a sample of your product. Your friend gets to feel firsthand how great their skin feels, how much energy they have, or how the product can make a difference in their life after trying that sample.
We are living in an increasingly mobile world. Many of us grow up in one place, go to college in another place, and settle down for work in a third. Our friends and colleagues are often scattered across the nation or even around the world. How do you maintain a “Hey, give this product a try” type of relationship with people in other time zones?
That’s where Verb comes in. Their platform makes it easy for any direct selling business to prepare and ship product samples to people virtually anywhere in the world. Banish any thoughts of putting your product in plastic bags and going to the post office to mail them off. Verb handles fulfillment for you.
The platform then sends your distributors reminders about following up with the recipient, gives prompts for conversations to have, and provides a host of other tools that help sales reps use technology to build relationships while reducing unnecessary friction.
Satisfying Customers and Distributors at the Same Time
By providing product samples, you can demonstrate to your sales team that your business is built around products that people love—and you care about the relationships your distributors are building with customers.
Verb customers are using the platform to take this to a new level. They’re creating content that educates customers about their products, sending out push notifications to the customer base, and letting customers communicate directly with the direct selling business.
Verb also offers technology that allows distributors to create interactive personalized videos for their contacts. Within these videos, recipients can click to order a product sample or buy a product.
Thanks to open APIs, Verb and Thatcher tools work seamlessly together—anything you do on the Verb platform will feed through to Thatcher’s Prowess platform. As an integrated suite of tools, you and your team can drive new levels of performance and know that everything will get done correctly.
We at Thatcher are delighted to partner with innovative companies like Verb and constantly strive to bring you the best tools, strategies, and capabilities available.