On Your Mark, Get Set, GO!
Last week my daughter was in a track meet with 22 other schools in her area. It was so exciting to watch the kids run so hard and at the same time learn life lessons about participation, winning, losing, determination, and facing fears.
The hero stories were endless; dropped batons but that didn’t stop them, pulled muscles and still crossing the finish line, coming in WAY LAST and still finishing the run. All great life lessons for these Elementary School kids. The biggest lesson of them all, was one taught by a young runner named Lily. Lily was running in the hardest run of the day, the 1500 Meter (4 times around the track). Lily is no stranger to competition, with a family history of runners, she was the anticipated winner in this race. She started off in the front of the pack of kids, then the unimaginable happened, her nerves got the best of her, and she had to stop to actually, physically, vomit. She may have had a bug, or her nerves were bad, we are not sure, but regardless everyone thought her race was over. But Lily astonished us all when she wiped her mouth, looked up and saw her competitors at least 100 Meters ahead of her, and she got back into the race.
What would you have done? My daughter was quick to say “I would have given up for sure”. Can you believe that in the end, not only did Lily get back into the race, but she quickly got caught up to the pack, and on the third of four loops she was back in the lead, and she ended up winning by at least 50 M.
Lily had a desire and conviction to win. Not only did she win, but she made many of us question our own determination. I will always admire this girl, whom I have never personally met before, but in seeing that resolve to never give up, she has won over our family’s admiration.
Our lives are filled with day-to-day challenges that we must face, and for those of us in Direct Sales, they include the simple (yet difficult) task of picking up the phone and following up with clients. Next time you don’t feel like following up, and it makes you feel like vomiting, think of Lily and finish that race!
Here are some statistic you need to know to make it a bit easier:
- Every Single Day there are over 70, 000 Prospects looking for information to find the best opportunity available to them in direct sales. That is a big audience to go after *
- There are over 20.2 Million people in Direct Sales, and growing 11% between 2014- 2015. If you don’t follow-up with your clients, you know someone else will!**
- With over 14,000 Direct Sales Companies in North America, you will want to share your products, to prove not only are your products great, but that YOU will be the one they will want to purchase from, and perhaps learn the business from.*
- You have a 60 – 70% probability of selling to an existing customer, so the majority of your customers WILL buy again from you, if you follow-up. ***
- On average, your loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase! ***
Knowing that, get back in the race! Oh, and as a mom of course I have to say, my daughter also did well, winning the 4 X 1 relay race, she came second in the Medley Race and Third in her 100M race. I was so proud of her getting up on the podium three times that day. It was the perfect day to take off of work, these are the memories that life is made of… this is why you do what you do, so the most important moments are not missed… Watch for the next blog post on Balance 🙂
Want to learn more about ways in which you can reconnect with your customers? Check out our past blog Follow Up The Old Fashioned Way for some great ideas.
* Source: www.businessfromhome.org
** Source: Direct Selling Association
*** Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs