Podcast: Digital Transformation in Direct Sales

Maria Osipova, VP of Marketing at Penny joined host Nancy Tobler on The MLM podcast to talk about Penny's latest Direct Sales Digital Transformation ebook.

After reading the Direct Sales Digital Transformation ebook, Nancy wanted to dig deeper into where the findings came from, who was surveyed and what it all means for the direct sales industry. In the podcast, Maria shares details on the behind scenes process and what's in store for the industry. 

Maria Explores:

• How digital transformation supports customer success
• The importance of digital training for the field
• Influencer culture meets direct sales
• And more!

Get a sneak peek at Maria’s interview below. To listen to the full interview check out The MLM podcast. 

Digital Transformation for Customer Success

Takeaway: What we've seen throughout the survey is there's an increased focus on the customer experience. For such a long time digital transformation was so focused on the field's experience and what kind of backend solution corporate needed. But as a result of the pandemic and a defined change in buying behaviour, the realization hit that really the number one focus should be all about customer experience.

So now digital tools are actually looking at how the customer is interacting with the brand and developing that deep trust. Customers want a seamless process where they're not annoyed with and upset when their checkout process isn't seamless. No one wants a clunky experience while waiting for their product to arrive.

When people come to direct sales they want to buy from someone they deeply trust but if the process doesn't align with their expectations customers will walk away. So essentially it's all about the customer.

Keeping up with the field and customer expectations

Takeaway: It used to be that people had a network of relatives, friends, and beyond and they did occasional outreach via social media but then also met up with people in person, and that's how they sold products and built their business.

But now... sellers have access to audiences way beyond that. And depending on how they build their brand, they gain this level of influence that's on a scale unlike the industry has ever seen before.

And I think that's where the direct selling companies need to shift towards, so they're enabling that type of knowledge, that type of strategy for the sellers, where they're not just leveraging the immediate pool of people, but reaching people globally who are passionate about their products.

That's the digital shift. The opportunities are endless from the global perspective. And they're built on a true relationship, as opposed to spamming outreach to anyone who happens to be in their contact list.

It's a lot of work and it's a lot of learning on the job to get to that level. And sometimes the field are a step ahead. And that's what we found in the survey. The transformation and acceleration for the direct sales companies is this need to enable those types of environments for their sellers.

Looking to the future... it's already here

Takeaway: Different companies and different countries are already starting to see success using 'future' technology. And direct sales needs to listen. If you look at Asia-Pacific and look at the e-commerce type of events booming it's far more around selling via video and selling in the moment.

And that's a hint to us, that personalized, in-the-moment selling is a process working in some environments. So we need to look at what parts can be brought into direct sales?

We used to have death by PowerPoint and now it's death by Zoom. The whole point of events is to foster social interaction, to see reactions and have conversations. But when your camera's off and your mic is muted, there's no conversation happening. And that's why people still prefer physical events, right?

So the challenge is how to make a virtual experience as interactive and meaningful as an in-person event.

If it's encrypted, customers get to talk to friends, customers can share reactions, customers can see products on stage including price and deals and product information... Then that will be a game-changer for the industry. (And for some it's already happening!)

Listen to the whole interview at The MLM podcast.

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