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Direct Sales Marketing Plan
If you are in direct sales, you know
there is not one easy way to have a direct sales
marketing plan. Let's get creative together with the
tips below.
Direct Sales Tip: Cookie Cutter Service
Doesn't Cut It Anymore
In the evolution of marketing, one trend
that has thankfully become a mainstay in the strategic
planning process of today’s innovative businesses is the
practice of niche-marketing. In brief, it is the
deliberate attempt to more narrowly define your
marketing message so it speaks clearly and powerfully to
a small market segment whose needs you are uniquely
qualified to meet. Companies who have jumped on the
niche-marketing bandwagon are successfully navigating
the rough whitewaters of today’s uncertain economy and
are demonstrating that a company can never stop
“fine-tuning” their strategy for growth.
Having made this point, you may be expecting us to
lament about the many reasons you should incorporate
niche-marketing into your strategy for growth, or
expound upon the 6 steps you should take to more
narrowly define your customer profile. While these are
certainly worthwhile endeavors, that is not the focus of
this article. In fact, narrowly defining your target
customer is a difficult task for most direct selling
companies, due to the fact that their increasingly
diverse distributor base reaches an ever widening target
customer.
Any direct seller will tell you that it is not uncommon
to find at an in-home show, the hostess’ 16-year old
niece sitting alongside her 72-year-old grandmother.
Niche-marketing is a challenge at best for direct
selling companies and would make for an interesting
topic of a future article. Instead, we use the example
of niche-marketing to make a point that there is great
value in knowing – without a doubt - who your customer
is and suggest that this same concept can be used to
understand your distributors and ignite your business.
What’s this miracle elixir that will improve distributor
loyalty, increase retention, revitalize recruiting and
strengthen distributor moral? It’s something called…
niche-servicing. Put simply, niche-servicing is the
effort on the part of a company to narrowly define the
various segments that exist within its distributor base,
going to great lengths to understand, acknowledge and
meet the unique needs of each of these segments. Stop
for a moment and let that sink in. In fact, go back and
read the definition once again so that you grasp the
significance and value of this new concept.
Now that we have your attention, let’s take a closer
look at the four components of niche-marketing and how
you might employ them within your business.
Component #1: Narrowly define the various segments
within your distributor base. This means that you no
longer see your distributors as one cohesive group with
similar interests, needs and motivations. To do this,
you’ll need to extract some data that can give you a
better picture of who you are serving. For example, what
percentage of your sales force falls into the four age
ranges: 29 and under, 30 to 45, 46 to 65, and 65 and
over? What other groups exist within your distributor
base? Are there significant size groups of stay-at-home
moms, single moms, husband and wife teams, “Internet
Only” distributors, or rural dwellers who may be in an
area all on their own? Find out if there are specific
ethnic communities within your sales force. Know where
they are located and meet the leaders of these groups.
Knowing the “genetic make up” of your sales force is the
first step to implementing niche-servicing within your
direct selling company.
Component #2: Understand the unique needs of each of
these segments. This requires that you invest some time
and resources in researching each segment you have
identified as being significant. Two methods of getting
to know a specific segment of your distributor base are
surveys and focus groups. While face-to-face research is
ideal, it can be costly. Randomly selecting a group
within a segment and flying them in for an all day focus
group would certainly provide you with a wealth of
information and create massive good will within that
segment however, it may not be in your R&D budget just
yet. A less expensive alternative is to utilize your
company’s website to gather the necessary insights from
your primary distributor segments. Interactive on-line
surveys are ideal, in that they allow you to capture the
results in a format that can be analyzed statistically
as well as objectively. On-line chats with a particular
segment are another way to open up dialogue and better
understand what a particular segments needs.
Component #3: Acknowledge the unique needs of each
segment. The first outward step to incorporating
niche-service into your strategic plan is to simply
acknowledge these groups as valued segments of your
distributor base. This may be as simple as putting the
spotlight on a success story within a particular ethnic
group each month, or establishing an award for a husband
and wife team who exemplify true partnership in business
and in life. Acknowledgment of distributors who are
single moms may come in the form of an annual college
scholarship that is awarded to the son or daughter of a
star distributor who is succeeding in business while
raising a family on her own. There are endless ways to
acknowledge and bond with these unique segments. In
fact, the simple act of recognizing the challenges a
particular group may face can do more good for
distributor moral than you ever imagined.
Component #4: Find innovative ways to meet the unique
needs of each segment. Here is where a company puts its
money where its mouth is, by going the extra mile to
meet the needs of their primary segments. This may
include adding a few pages to the company website that
speaks specifically to a particular segment or offering
special breakout sessions at your national convention
that offer solutions to the unique needs of seniors,
Hispanics or distributors who also juggle a 9-5 job. If
you have a considerably sized segment under the age of
28, niche-service might include a “Generation X”
Conference that features retro music, young keynote
speakers and a message that hits a cord with this very
special generation.
As we round the corner and head further into the 21st
century, consider the value of forgoing the “cookie
cutter” approach to servicing your distributors and
incorporate niche-service into your strategic plan. Your
reward will be greater loyalty and an influx of
distributors who see your company uniquely positioned to
meet their specific needs.
Article by:
Jane Deuber is a Co-Founder of
www.DSWA.org (the only association dedicated to the
needs of the independent party plan and network
marketing professionals). Discover what makes the DSWA
so unique. Listen to three motivating and informative
free teleseminars by visiting www.mydswa.org/tele_class.asp
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