Table of Contents
November 2009
Retaining Distributors to ensure they stay and ensure they sell
We are all painfully aware that Distributors’ sales skills often don’t kick in before their enthusiasm ends. They attend your training, sell to their friends and family, then things decelerate alarmingly. A few weeks later, they’ve left.
And, with over half of the UK’s Distributors leaving within a year of joining, the ramifications on the industry, and you, are huge. All those costs of recruitment, materials, training, time — the opportunity cost of all those lost sales — huge.
Even more frustratingly, you can see why their enthusiasm wanes. Some don’t get the instant return they expected. Others think an early setback makes them a ‘failure’ and lose their confidence to continue. Others review their first 1-2 months performance, do the maths and think it’s not worth their time in the long term.
Whilst there is not one panacea to eradicate attrition, there are certain activities that will definitely make you more successful in encouraging Distributors to stay. Here’s one that focuses on the fact that Distributors’ motivation is inextricably linked to the sales skills they display from Day One..
How to sell more
The good news is, for Distributors to be successful (and motivated), there are only two sales skills they must master:
- Opening doors, and
- Closing sales
Your team needs to do both to succeed. You need your team to do both, or they’ll leave.
The rest of this article shows simple ways to master the former – opening doors to potential buyers.
The perfect buyer
A ‘perfect buyer’ is someone who wants to – and can – pay for your product.
To find the best way(s) for your team to see more buyers, simply grade each possible sales activity – e.g. cold calling, networking, referrals etc - on a Good Grief Scale:
‘Good’ – how likely that activity is to work [1: low; 10: high]; ‘Grief’ – how unpleasant that activity is for them to do [1: no grief; 10: grief-laden, due to cost, time, hassle, their hatred of it etc])
So, for their business, an abridged Good Grief Scale might be:
| Good | Grief | |
| Cold Calling | 2 | 10 |
| Networking | 5 | 5 |
| Host a product evening | 10 | 8 |
| Referrals | 10 | 1 |
The ideal Good Grief is a (10, 1). So, in this example, referrals are the best bet.
Action point: Ask your Distributors to complete a Good Grief Scale. It’s the best way for them to find the best route to seeing more ‘perfect buyers’.
The perfect referrer
Referrals are so critical to maintaining momentum that your Distributors must master how to trigger them right from the start. This means it should be a key element of your initial, and ongoing, training.
I’ve implemented successful referral strategies for organisations all over the world. I’ve trained the world’s largest referrals organisation how to teach referrals.
My experiences have shown there are four rules your Distributors must follow if they are to trigger early referrals:
- They have to ask for them. People rarely (never?) refer you unless you request it.
- Be specific with who you want. Recently, a Distributor for Utilities Warehouse told me he wanted referrals into “anybody with a phone”. I told him this was so vague that I didn’t know where to start — so I wasn’t starting. After a couple of questions, we identified that charities would be an excellent referral for him. I know lots of charities who want to cut their costs, and so do a great number of my contacts.It was now easy for me to refer him. So, I did.
- Since Distributors often feel uncomfortable asking for referrals, give them scripts to use. The best ones usually involve two questions – for instance:
For customers
- What do you like best about … [insert product name]? [e.g.‘it makes me feel more energetic’]
- Who do you know who also … [insert their answer]? … [i.e.‘wants more energy?’]
For friends/family
- I really want to make a success of my new business. Please would you help me? [‘Yes’]
- Who do you know who ... [insert specific targets, as per Rule 2]? [e.g. works for a charity?]
- It is easier to get multi-referrals from one person, than it is to get one referral each from multi-referrers. Therefore, your Distributors must treat their referrers like gold dust.
Make sure they enhance the referrer’s reputation when meeting their contact. Reward them for the referral. If they don’t, why would the referrer want to refer them again?
This article is called “Retaining Distributors: to ensure they stay, ensure they sell.” Teach them how to get multireferrals quickly, and watch their sales, their motivation and your retention soar.
Andy Bounds is Britain’s Sales Trainer of the Year, helping his clients win £4.3billion in 2008/9. To see how he can help your Distributors sell more, contact
