Managements at direct selling companies as well as network marketing leaders on the field have a common goal: Maximize productivity and business volume. On the road, there are some signs and symptoms that show things are not going in the right direction. Some of the issues might be transient and do not hurt much, but some are not. To differentiate the two, managers and team leaders have to pay good attention to the warning signs coming from the field.
Here is a list of such signs:
Sales Volume
This is an area that needs special attention, for sure. There might be a slowdown in growth or worse than this, a decline in sales over the months. Almost all the time, this is an end result of one or more weaknesses.
Number of “New Members”
Newcomers are the lifeblood of a direct selling business. They boost growth. See if there is an increase or a decrease in their inflow.
Number of “Dropouts”
It is inevitable that there will be those who leave the organization for a variety of reasons. However, it is not good at all if there is an upward trend in their numbers, especially as a ratio of the existing number of direct sellers.
New Members vs. Dropouts
As a rule of thumb, the number of those who join should be greater than those who leave. The opposite shows that the field organization is shrinking.
Activity Among New Direct Sellers
There may be a downward trend in the orders placed by new members. This could be in the form of less number of orders placed or reduced order size. The worst of all is a decline in both.
Short-Term Activity Among Existing “Active Members”
An “active member” has different definitions among various direct selling companies. It can be a member who makes a pre-defined “activity” (i.e. placing order, recruiting a new member etc.) in one, two, three, four commission periods. So, there may be a case where “most recent period actives” get less and less as compared to “longer-term actives”.
Average Order Size
Within in a year at most, a statistically reliable order size gets established at direct sales organizations. A declining trend in this is also alarming as either the products are not as attractive or the organization is not pushing them to the market as before.
Field’s Reaction to a New Catalogue
The field may be less enthusiastic to your newly launched catalogue. This shows itself in the number of orders per member, order sizes or the number of new products being ordered from that catalogue, as compared to previous catalogue introductions.
Activity Toward’s the End of a Commission Period
A flat activity throughout the period happens if the field members are not motivated by climbing the career ladder as shown in the compensation plan. As a result, they don’t work hard to close the period at a higher level.
Attendance to Meetings, Webinars and Conventions
If you see less and less people in your meetings, this is just another sign of lost enthusiasm in the sales organization. It is just as dangerous if you start seeing the same faces in your gatherings.
Demands from the Sales Organization
By nature, a sales organization has to be a demanding one. A decrease in the inflow of requests from the field happens when the members start losing faith.
This list has not been intended to be in an order of importance. When any of these occurs, it should be considered as an alarm bell and taken seriously. Once a hiccup has been diagnosed, immediate action is always recommended. If the ball is let to roll in the adverse direction, after a while it might be impossible to stop, let alone turn it to the other direction.
