Stop Gifting Your Customers to Other Consultants

Whether you have been in your direct sales business for years or are brand new, one thing you have probably figured out by now is that you work hard to acquire and maintain customer relationships. Now, I'm not saying that there is a LACK of customers, by any means. In fact, at Successfully Social we do our best to continually encourage you to approach your business with a mindset of abundance. But come on people, you still need to make smart decisions! I am willing to bet that many of you are handing your hard earned customers to other consultants in your company without even realizing it. But that all stops now!

So wait, I know what you're thinking..."NO, not me, I am not doing that." Okay, fair enough. But are you sure? No, I don't think that you're actually taking your customer's phone number and texting it over to the competition. But did you realize that every time you share a product pin from another consultant, every time you share a YouTube product demonstration that another consultant has created, even every time you grab someone else's Facebook party posts that they've shared in a consultant group, you are running the risk of introducing your customers to that other consultant. And I'm quite sure THAT wasn't what you had in mind, right?

Let's take a look at Pinterest first. So often we are jumping on Pinterest quickly in the car line, waiting at the doctor's office, etc. We see something we like and we pin it, if for no other reason so that we can come back to it later and check it out. Sound familiar? But what you might not realize as you're pinning that super cute product usage is that the consultant who originally took the pic and put it up is likely leading people who click all the way through on it over to her blog or her Facebook page, where she then has the opportunity to sell to those folks that ended up there. So then when you re-pin it quick just from that little preview screen without following that link and seeing where it goes, you could be unwittingly advertising for her to all of those friends, customers and hostesses who follow YOU on Pinterest. Instead of going down that road, when you see a product use idea pic you like, take note of it, screenshot it if you like, and then make it a point to go back and use that picture as inspiration to take your very own pic of that item for use in your social media.

The other examples I have for you are pretty similar. Let's just say that someone from your company has created a stellar product demonstration video and put it publicly on YouTube to allow her fellow consultants to use it. Super sweet of her, right? Well, yes and no. While there are certainly many consultants who will share like this just for the sake of the sisterhood, the truly social savvy chicks know that not only will all these consultants sharing her video, liking it, commenting on it, etc. will up her YouTube visibility, but this smart cookie has probably also got that particular video leading into another video on a product, or even the opportunity. And when you're putting that video into a party or into your customer group, you're pointing your customers right at her and saying "check out how cool she is". Hmm...no good, right? So instead (y'all knew this was coming) make your own videos!! They don't need to be amazing production quality with professional sets, but they should be YOU. And a general rule of thumb is...if something has a long shelf life, make a video. If it's a one-off breaking news type event, just use Facebook LIVE.

Okay, finally, grabbing that whole Facebook party from a fellow consultant and calling it your own. Y'all, I get it, writing a Facebook party can be tedious. Particularly with changing monthly specials, new product announcements, etc. And okay, of these three examples, this one is the least risky, assuming you are paying attention to what you're doing. Most of the consultants who are sharing their Facebook party have obviously created it initially for themselves. Only makes sense, yes? So IF you're going to borrow some or all of the posts from a party please at least do yourself a favor and make sure that you've gone through it with a fine tooth comb and removed anything that references back to that consultant's team name, their website, their Facebook business page or albums on their business page, etc. You would think that this would be a no-brainer, but I can't even tell you how many times I have seen one consultant push another consultants info out inside a party. Talk about an oops. Please don't be that girl!!!

Alright, so in closing, as usual, I am advocating for you to create your own stuff for social media absolutely as much as you possibly can. And in particular, be wary in these specific areas.