The Fundamental Unit of Success in Direct Selling

Written by Brett Duncan. Brett is a “transitionist” who specializes in helping direct selling companies as they transition into the new era of direct selling. He is co-founder and managing partner of Strategic Choice Partners, a business development firm that helps direct selling companies take their next steps.

The Fundamental Unit of Success in Direct Selling

“What is the fundamental unit of success in direct selling?”

Every chance I get, I ask my clients and their salesforce this question. As I give presentations, be it at company conventions for thousands of a client’s Distributors, or in the board room with a handful of executives, I make it a point to ask this question every time.

I always get lots of great answers, too. “Recruiting,” “customers” and “retention” are common, and worthy, answers. “Trust,” “service” and “products” pop up quite a bit.

They’re all great answers; they’re just not the answer I’m looking for.

The key to the question is in one word: “fundamental.” Something that’s fundamental is necessary. It’s essential. It’s not optional. It has to come first, before anything else can happen.

So, with that in mind, here’s the answer I’m looking for:

The fundamental unit of success in direct selling is a conversation.

Sounds too simple, and a tad elementary, doesn’t it?

But just think about it for a second: All those things we love about direct selling (sharing, selling, recruiting, retaining, personal development, etc.) can’t happen unless first there’s some form of conversation about your company.

Conversations are the seeds of success for any direct selling business. If your Distributors aren’t having a conversation about your company or your products, I can promise nothing else is happening in your business. So many companies struggle to get a large portion of their Distributors to engage enough to experience the earliest victories in your business. So many simply don’t share, or host, or sell, or sponsor, and your numbers show it. I bet, if you could track it, that you’d find out that most of them aren’t even having a conversation. They aren’t even planting the seed for success, so how in the world can they (or we) expect anything to grow?

It’s so easy for us to lose sight of one simple fact: most people are scared of having conversations about your company. Not everyone, of course. Not the real go-getters, or the top sellers, or the frequently recognized. But the majority of your Distributors aren’t comfortable with it. For some, they’re truly scared of the potential rejection that could come from it. For others, they just don’t understand how to start a conversation about your company. And for others, they just never get around to doing it.

So you’ve partnered up with a bunch of “farmers” who refuse to plant any seeds. Sounds like a recipe for famine. If it’s a big harvest you’re looking for, this is not the way to get there.

Once you truly grasp the significance of a conversation in your business, and its fundamental relationship to success (or lack of) for your business, as a corporate exec, you realize, then, that one of your fundamental responsibilities is to spark as many conversations as you possibly can about your business. If you feel stuck or confused in your planning, just ask yourself this question on a constant basis: “How can we spark more conversations today?”

What’s really interesting is that a “conversation” can take on so many forms these days. It can still be a one-on-one dialog in person with someone else. Or a phone call. But it’s also a text. And a tweet. And a post, a reel, a Live. They happen on Zoom, in your inbox and on TikTok. They can be in print, on a podcast, on TV or even a car decal. Today’s consumer consumes conversations more than anything else.

Here’s the thing: a conversation isn’t just the fundamental unit of success for a direct selling business; it’s fundamental for any business.

This fact should excite us, because our very business model is built around getting lots of people involved to have conversations. And yet, we still struggle. Here are some quick thoughts to help you shift when it comes to sparking conversations:

How are you helping your Distributors spark more conversations with their connections?

The biggest opportunity in “field development” today is in helping as many Distributors as possible spark a conversation about your Company. It’s likely that the majority of them aren’t doing it (or they give it a shot and then give up after a week). Check your data; it will prove it to you. It’s quite likely that at least 50% of your Distributors didn’t sell anything last month.

As a matter of fact, it’s likely that 50% haven’t sold anything in the last six months. And consider yourself very lucky if it’s only 50%!

I think it’s safe to assume that most of that 50% didn’t sell anything because they didn’t even talk about your brand. They didn’t have any conversations. They didn’t plant any seeds.

Streamline, accelerate and amplify both the quantity and the quality of the conversations your most “normal” Distributors have, and I can promise you’ll see a surge in field activity. Give them words to say. Give them examples of how to use it all. Spell it out for them. It’s safe to assume that they either a) don’t know what to do, or b) don’t have time to do it all, or c) both, so do everything you can to make it as easy as possible.

When a new Distributor signs up with your company, start looking at it a different way. Start thinking in terms of how many conversations that new Distributor represents. Is it 20 conversations? 50? 100? I don’t think 500 is overshooting at all, actually. And yet most new Distributors fall well short of having more than 20 conversations about your brand. Think of their “enrollment” as simply their agreement that they’re willing to have some conversations about your brand with their connections. Equip them to do it! It may not be something they’re too interested in doing for long, so you must spark those conversations while the iron’s hot! Don’t bother setting them on the road for years of success ahead with your company; they’re not even sure yet they still want to do this next month! Focus on partnering with them to spark as many conversations as possible in as small a window as possible. Help them plant seeds quickly and often.

Here’s the thing: many of us call ourselves “network marketing,” and yet we do so little to truly market to the networks of the people who join us as Distributors. Every Distributor represents a new network of people where new conversations can take place. Before we jump straight into asking that network to buy, or host, or join, or recruit, let’s first just make sure we plant the seed of conversation.

How are you sparking more conversations directly with your customers?

Corporate is obviously more involved in the entire selling process in direct selling than ever before, and for good reason. There are capabilities and access that corporate has that simply aren’t available otherwise.

So how are you leveraging these capabilities to spark as many conversations as possible? More importantly, when a Distributor does get the ball rolling, how are you sparking more follow-up conversations?

Every digital tool and platform you explore should ultimately help spark more conversations. Every campaign and promotion should be built with conversations as a major KPI. Every product launch should spark new conversations. Every convention speaker, training topic, comp plan update, loyalty program, publicity effort, executive hire… EVERYTHING should ultimately help spark more conversations.

When you can accept that conversations truly are the most fundamental unit of success in direct selling (and they are), then everything you do must somehow spark more conversations.

So, as you look at the challenges in your business today, how many of them are rooted in a lack of conversation? Or maybe the wrong conversation? Sure, “conversation” isn’t the answer to every challenge, but my guess is that it’s a big part of the answer for many of them, even most of them.

We so often focus on getting results and meeting goals that we lose sight of simply sparking the activity that leads to those results and goals. At the end of the day, the direct selling company that can get the most people doing just a little bit to share their brand wins.

Focus more on sparking conversations; it’s fundamental to your success.

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