If You’re A Direct Sales Virgin Then Don’t Follow Me!

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MY DIRECT SALES STORY

I’ve been involved with direct sales companies in the past. It always started out the same way. I got extremely pumped up about the products I was selling, I talked to everyone I knew about it, I even got some “home parties” booked, or some one-on-one appointments set up. Then it happened: I lost momentum. I might have even signed up some customers and maybe even a business builder or two but it never failed-I’d go astray. It’s not that I didn’t like the products anymore (in fact, I continue to use the products from two different direct sales companies), or that I stopped “doing” the business. I actually started  doing too much.

DOING TOO MUCH OF THE WRONG THING

I would read all the books about direct sales and network marketing. I researched all the different websites set up by the company’s top sellers. I would do everything but what I was supposed to do like talk about the business to everyone I’d meet, and setup more presentations and one-on-one meetings.  I began to feel phony and deceptive; that the only reason I’m talking to you is to get you to buy my products or join my business.

I knew that my products were good and that I truly was helping someone by introducing them to the company I represented.  I wasn’t brainwashed; I really believed it and I still do to this day.  I knew what I was supposed to do and how to go about doing it.  I just couldn’t.  It wasn’t and isn’t in my nature.

It’s not that I was afraid to do it, or was scared of rejection. Seriously, I really didn’t care about that. I just got bored. I would try to do things a different way and do them my way.  In the direct sales business, that’s a surefire way to fail.

CAN YOU FOLLOW THE PLAN?

In order to succeed, you just need to follow the plan. It’s already laid out for you. Do what your leader or sponsor tells you to do. If they’re not all that successful, then find someone in your upline who is successful to help you. I knew all of this but was unwilling to accept it.

DIRECT SALES IS NOT FOR ME

I finally realized several years ago that I’m just not cut out for direct sales. When people first meet me, I think they see dollar signs. I’m outgoing and friendly, and have experience with public speaking. But I’m here to tell you that those things just don’t matter unless you have that unstoppable fire in your belly to succeed in that business.  You have to have a “why” that makes you unstoppable.  If you have a “why” then nothing matters like rejection or friends avoiding you because they’re afraid you’ll talk about your business…again.

DO YOU HAVE A “WHY?”

Maybe it was too easy for me to quit the direct sales companies I joined because I really didn’t need the money and I didn’t have a strong enough “why” to make me want to keep going.  Or maybe it was the fact that I couldn’t control the people who joined my business and make them as excited as I was, or work as hard as me.  Maybe it was the fact that I get completely bored, uninspired and drained of all creativity by having to do the same thing over and over again (I found it painful to give the same presentation over and over again).  I think that’s why I like blogging so much.  Every day is a new day with a new post on something different, yet something I AM passionate about.

If you are in direct sales and you don’t need the money, then you have to find something else to motivate you.  You have to find your “why.”  If you don’t and you’re like me, then either you have to search far and wide for it, or find something else to do.