Direct Selling Advice

Direct Selling involves Risk… so do relationships we learned to take or run from risk from one primary experience… The playground.  Let’s explore the 10 Direct Selling Playground Lessons and 10 Direct Selling Strategies… 

10 Lessons from the School Playground

• Direct Selling Playground Lesson #1 Acceptance
• Direct Selling Playground Lesson #2 Be Nice
• Direct Selling Playground Lesson #3 Play Nice
• Direct Selling Playground Lesson #4 Role Play
• Direct Selling Playground Lesson #5 Imagination
• Direct Selling Playground Lesson #6 Explore
• Direct Selling Playground Lesson #7 Bullies
• Direct Selling Playground Lesson #8 Friends
• Direct Selling Playground Lesson #9 Teachers
• Direct Selling Playground Lesson #10 Rainy Days

Time to Launch into Lesson 6…

“Faster!” I scream!
I suddenly feel the hands cup my back; I clinch the chains tighter in my hands…
As quickly as I feel the hands pressing on my back, they were gone… I look down and see Danny running underneath his arms outstretched in front of him from his last running push, I see him circling back around the swing set for another push if necessary.
I look back up… I realize I am higher than I have ever gone before!… Looking at the clouds, I suddenly feel my like I am floating… then suddenly the world goes in reverse… seconds later I am experiencing the floating feeling but instead of clouds I am looking straight down at the ground with Danny beaming a smile ear to ear.
“When I yell, ‘JUMP’… LET GO of the CHAINS! …see how FAR you can go!!!” Danny advises!
“OK!!” I shout back with excitement!
….
That day I discovered gravity is NOT my enemy, rather the IMPACT.

Playgrounds are a place of discovery; wonder and curiosity… combine Role-playing with Imagination the resulting lesson is …

Direct Selling Playground Lesson #6: Exploration

Playground children are risk takers… they are curious about their world…
Exploration takes us to places we have never physically been…
Exploration takes us to ideas we never would have experienced…
Exploration creates maps.
Maps outline boundaries.
Boundaries define us.

Where are your boundaries?

Kids learn to discover and try things to see what works and what doesn’t.
Kids learn to push the limits to see how far they can go before they get in trouble.
Kids learn to accept taking risk as a rite of passage into building confidence.

Direct Sellers need to discover and try things to see what works and what doesn’t…
Direct Sellers need to push the limits to see how far they can go before they get in trouble…
Direct Sellers need to accept taking risk as a rite of passage into building confidence…

#1 Exploring requires a leader/guide…

Who is guiding your exploration?
Who knows the lay of the land and the potential dangers it contains?
How well do you listen to their advice?

#2 Exploring requires the right tools

What tools are essential?
How many can you carry?
Do you know how to use them?

#3 Exploring requires the correct mindset

What are your expectations?
What have you done to prepare your mind?
Are you journaling your discoveries to share with others?

#4 Exploring requires courage

Why are you exploring?
What do you want out of it?
Are you willing to take the risk?

Direct Selling Strategy #6: Context Change-up

When you find yourself in a situation where the client is indecisive or even unmoving in their decision; use the Context Change-up Strategy.

Simply changing the physical setting can shift the other person’s focus or attention to appropriately correspond to the context of the environment.

When I am working with team members and they are emotionally shut down or unresponsive, I suggest going for a walk or going outside and helping me grill something… by changing the context, their behaviors often are more susceptible to change. I have found this strategy very effective.

Our minds non-consciously can direct our actions through repeated exposure/activity coupled with cultural norms and social expectations this results in our habits.

We are taught to behave certain ways in specific contexts. Use this to your advantage when negotiating or working at closing a sale.

Excuse yourself to get a drink and either sit in a different location or invite the person along with you.

Move the body, move the mind.

Keep the concept of context’s relationship to behavior at the forefront of your strategy book.

My office is structured in such a way to provide a two-fold social conditioning purpose.
Purpose One, the context for me is one of productivity and focus… I don’t watch TV there, I don’t invite friends there.. It is decorated specifically to inspire and recharge me.

Purpose Two, the context for business. When people come into that specific environment, it is to talk business nothing else… I will socialize with them in any room but that one. I will do the small talk, prior to going to the office or once I realize business is done, I invite them to go to another room and shift to a social dialogue. This has resulted in shorter, more productive and better focused meetings that all the attendees stay on task with (even creativity is noticeably enhance compared to other meeting environments)… the primary context associated with my office… is business.

Your Turn Readers:

How can you optimize the Context Change-Up Strategy in your business this week?