Today on the Modern Direct Seller Podcast, we’re going to talk about how you can still see success in direct sales if you’ve decided to shift away from parties and the in-person selling scene. Even beyond vendor events and pop-up events, there are ways to build your business and get in front of new customers simply by being intentional about having conversations that grow your social network every single day. If you’re ready to be more proactive, this episode is for you!

Get the 3 + 3 + 3 = 3000 worksheet and get started building your social network today.

Time based notes:

• 3:04 Benefit from in-person parties
• 4:22 Be in-person without parties
• 5:08 Be proactive outside of in-person events
• 6:28 Build relationships with 3 + 3 + 3
• 7:17 Reach out to current customers
• 7:46 Reach out to future customers
• 8:39 Reach out to teammates and collaborators
• 9:42 Have 3,000 conversations each year
• 10:33 The Modern Direct Seller Challenge

See Success in Social Selling with 3 + 3 + 3 = 3000

Recently on the Modern Direct Seller Podcast, we revisited one of my favorite formulas for success: 3 + 3 + 3 = 3000. I’ve gotten a lot of questions lately from podcast listeners and those in the Modern Direct Seller Academy about how you can still see success in direct sales if you’ve decided to shift away from parties and the in-person selling scene, so I thought it was time to once again share this simple strategy for being intentional about having conversations that grow your social network every single day!

So, you might be in a spot in your business where you’re thinking, “You know, I really don’t want to be spending time doing parties anymore.” And, I think that that’s happening for a few reasons. One, is that it’s a little bit harder to get a host right now. People are distracted. They’re out doing things. They’re kind of tired of the same old party format. They don’t want to be sold to. So, that’s one of the reasons why we’re definitely seeing a shift away from parties. I think there’s also a notion out there that parties feel a bit old-school. But, what I do have to say about parties is, the beauty of a party is that it unlocks a new friend circle for you, right? So, when you have a host that invites their friends to come party with you, or come to the event that you’re cohosting together, then they’re vouching for you, so it’s a great way to expand your network and get in front of new people.

All that to say: If you are a party person, keep on keepin’ on! There is still huge opportunity to do parties. But, if you’re thinking, “I’m feeling a little partied out,” or “I keep switching between a third-party platform and a Facebook party and an in-person party, and I’m not really sure where I’m finding my rhythm,” you might also be thinking, ” What are my other avenues to grow my network, to get in front of new people, but not be reliant on parties?”

If you are one of those people that love the in-person format, an alternative to parties is vendor events or pop-up events. Those are going to be great places to get in front of new people. Now, they’re going to be brand-new to you. They’re going to be kind of a cold market of people that don’t know anything about you, your brand, or your business, so it may take a little bit longer for them to develop a relationship with you. But, pop-up events and vendor events are also definitely great tools to have in your toolkit as ways to expand your network.

On the other hand, if you are one of those people thinking, “Okay, I don’t want to do parties, and I don’t want to get in-person,” then I’m here to tell you that it is definitely possible to build a thriving, profitable business without the party scene and without the in-person scene, but you are going to be leaning in to your social network more than you might have before. So, you’re going to be having more conversations in the DMs, the PMs, the texts. You’re going to need to be more intentional about building your brand online and on social media in a traditional social selling type of way in order to get in front of new people. That’s just the reality. So, I want to level with you that if you’re anti-party, or anti-in-person, that’s totally fine. But, you are going to be hustling a little bit. You’re going to have to have more conversations. You’re going to have to be proactive in finding those people that are in your niche and your target audience and really, really connect with them online, which may require a little bit more connection to your phone, a little bit more determination when it comes to building relationships with those followers. So, rather than just letting them come to you and being more reactive, when people are seeing your posts or engaging with you, you really need to be more proactive in connecting with those people that are in your network.

So, a formula that I share all the time is directly applicable here to those that really want to engage in the social selling aspect of their business. I call it the 3 + 3 + 3 = 3000 formula, and it’s one of the formulas that I train on quite a bit as a way to be really intentional about relationship building. And, this is not just a direct sales formula. If you have a small business, if you’re out there just trying to network with people, this is a formula you could absolutely adopt. Let me break that down for you:

The first 3 is reaching out to three current customers each day. These conversations might be more in the customer care department, like, “How did you like your order? How are things going? What’s new?” It doesn’t even have to be business-related; it could just be checking in, saying hello, asking what their plans are for spring break, that sort of thing, right? So, three current customers.

The next 3 is three future customers. These are three people that have not yet shopped with you, but you would love for them to be shopping with you. Maybe they’re lurking. Maybe they’re following you on social. Maybe they’re hanging out in a Facebook group, or they’ve followed you on Instagram or TikTok, and you see them there, but they’re not really engaging with you. So, this is really creating proactive conversations with three people that have not yet shopped with you. Now, the call to action here could be inviting them to learn more about your products. It could be inviting them to an event. It could be sending them a sample. It could be just opening up a conversation to get to know them more. But, the idea here is that you’re building your sales pipeline, so we want to be really intentional about connecting with these people on the regular. So, that’s three future customers each day.

And then, the third 3 is three people you would love to have on your team or collaborate with. This is really your opportunity to push relationships forward, think about who that ideal person is that you would love to have on your team, and open up conversations with them, share more about the business with them, or simply get to know them better. If you’re thinking more in the department of collaborations, this might be somebody where you maybe want to do an Instagram Live with. Or, maybe this is someone where you might get in front of their audience, they might get in front of your audience, and you can kind of create a little bit of a partnership there. So, you can be really intentional about these people that you’d love to have on your team or collaborate with.

Basically, those three 3s add up to nine conversations each day, right? Three current customers, three future customers, three people you’d love to have on your team or collaborate with, so nine conversations daily. That’s pretty manageable, especially considering that you’re just opening up your DMs, your texts, and your PMs. But, this is where it really adds up exponentially. If you’re my 10-year-old daughter, she would say, “Mom, three plus three plus three does not equal 3,000.” But, when you do this intentionally every single day over the course of a year, that is over 3,000 conversations. I’m even giving you some days off in there! Think about what that would do for your business. It’d be pretty incredible, right, 3,000 conversations?

So, if you’re not planning on doing parties, if you’re not planning on getting out there in-person and doing vendor events, pop-up events, networking events, and you really want to be reliant on your social network and a social selling strategy to build your direct sales business, you have to be having a lot of conversations. And, this is a formula that you can use to be really intentional about this.

So, we have our Modern Direct Seller Challenge starting next week. And, in that Challenge, we are unpacking this topic in detail, from structuring your week to make sure that you’re being intentional about getting these 3, 3, 3s in to advice on how to get out there and connect with people. We’ll even be giving the messaging to use. We’re actually giving you templates in the Boards app and Project Broadcast to really help you have these conversations. So, I’m super excited about this Challenge, because while this is something we’ve trained on before, I think it’s more relevant than ever before. If you’re thinking, “I don’t want to be as reliant on parties,” or “I’m not sure I want to be out there in-person doing as much as I used to, but I do want to lean in more to my social network and really position myself to be more of a social seller,” I think that the Challenge next week is going to be the perfect fit for you.

Now, I have to mention that the Challenge is totally free! But, if you did want to upgrade your Challenge experience, we have an all-access pass for just $9.00 that includes daily coaching with me, as well as access to the replays and the workbook that goes along with the Challenge. So, if you’re thinking about really stepping into this social selling space, I would highly encourage you to consider upgrading your free Challenge into an all-access pass, because I think 3 + 3 + 3 is going to be your key to success for social selling in 2023.

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Take Action: How can you get in front of new customers without being dependent on parties?