How your website is ruining your direct sales business

The first time,  I’m revisiting a blog topic.  I have to.  It’s my duty as a direct sales agent / party plan ninja to warn all of you of a real and present danger to your business: YOUR WEBSITE. More precisely,  your choice to send customers to your website instead of taking orders personally.

Repeat offender: Jamberry

I have a Pure Romance party on Saturday night and one of the guests posted on Facebook that she couldn’t come because she was doing a Jamberry (It’s a nail wrap company) party of her own in the same time slot. I friended her (one can never have too many business friends) and asked what time her party finished and if she carried anything in stock.  My goal was to get her to stop by my party after hers ended in hopes of piquing her interest and possibly getting an order from her. In return for her going to trouble to come by, I was planning buy some wraps. Her response was, ” I only keep my personal stash on hand, so you would order from my site.” (This is not the first time I have gotten this response from a Jamberry consultant.)

Okay, stop. Stop it. Stttaaaaaawwwwp.

We just went from a situation where I was 100% likely to put money IN YOUR HAND and possibly become a lifelong customer to a scenario where I won’t meet you and will probably never order.

Let me repeat Picard:

Direct sales is built on customer relationships. Websites don’t do that. They just don’t. Not only that, you are putting all the power to complete the order (or not) in the hands of the customer. They want your stuff now, but if they wait to get home to place the order, the chances of it actually happening decreases dramatically because the sense of urgency is gone.

Seriously, people:

Listen to Boromir. He knows of what he speaks.

I’ll make this simple.

How NOT to sell to people who want your product:

1. Person expresses interest in purchasing from you.
2. You send them to your website.
3. They go online and get distracted by cat videos and/or buy a similar product off eBay for 1/10th of the price.
4. You have now made nothing.

How to sell product to people who want your product:

1. Person expressing interest in purchasing from you.
2. You complete the order for them RIGHT THERE and take their money in your own hot little hands.
3. They get product. You have made money.
4. This is not rocket science.

Rocket science is trying to figure out if the memes I just used constitute copyright infringements (Darn it. Must Google.)

Anyway, stop doing this.

If they offer you money, TAKE THEIR MONEY!

If you are a direct seller that regularly send people to your website instead of taking their money, is there are particular reason? Is your compensation plan such that it really doesn’t benefit you to go to the trouble of taking an order rather than sending someone to a website and potentially losing money? I really want to know. Because I am completely stumped at how I repeatedly encounter this.

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