Here’s an article from entrepreneur, CEO and founder of Mobile Text Alerts, James Pelton:
Sometimes I talk with retailers who are extremely stressed out about their jewelry business.
What is stressing them out is not necessarily their sales. They are stressed out because they don’t know what to do next.
Lack of direction is far more stressful than low sales.
If you have low sales, but you understand that you are building something, and you see growth in the future, then you won’t be too stressed out.
When people really get stressed out is when you see no hope for the future. You don’t know what is going to grow your business, you don’t know where future sales are going to come from.
If you are at a loss of what to do next to grow your jewelry business, here is a place to start.
I’ve been examining successful direct sales businesses to see what really sets them apart, and here’s what I’ve noticed as a proven method to grow your jewelry business
I think you can narrow down what successful retailers do into 3 steps:
1) Grow your audience
Successful retailers grow their audience, primarily on Facebook.
If you run a live sale, and you only have 20 people in your Facebook group, there is no way that sale is going to be successful. Even if you had 25% show up rate (which is way higher than most retailers have), you will end up with only 5 people at your sale.
So to grow your jewelry business, you need to grow your Facebook group!
Growing your Facebook group is not easy. I’ve written several posts on how to grow your Facebook group. 10 Creative Ways For Keeping Your Facebook Group Engaged
2) Run frequent and consistent live sales
Now that you have a fairly large audience, you need to sell to that audience.
Run frequent and consistent live sales to your group.
If you aren’t running live sales with your group, you need to start. I haven’t talked to a successful retailer who wasn’t doing live sales.
You should run these frequently, at least once per week.
But more importantly than running them frequently, you should run them consistently.
Maybe set yourself to run a live sale every Tuesday at 3pm.
This helps your group get in a groove, and set aside those specific times for your sales.
3) Make sure people attend your live sales
Now that you have a group of people, and you have a live sale schedule, the 3rd thing you need to do is make sure people attend your live sale.
You might think, “If my Facebook group is big, I will have lots of people show up at my live sale.”
But that just isn’t true. Time and time again I see retailers with huge Facebook groups (2k, 3k, 5k+) who run a live sale and only have 10 people show up.
Effectively notifying people about your live sale is just as important as having a big Facebook group.
You should use every communication method to remind your subscribers that you are having a sale.
You should send an email, you should post in your Facebook group, you should send a text, you should send a Facebook message.
Don’t think that your live sale is as important to your customers as it is to you. It is in the forefront of your mind, but even if your customers love your live sales, life happens, and they will forget.
I hope that helps get you started with some direction.
If you keep these 3 pillars in mind and keep working at them, you will be successful as a direct sales retailer.
Just to recap: If you don’t have a Facebook group – Create one. If your Facebook group is small, make it bigger. Be active, post content that interests your group. Be entertaining.
If you aren’t running live sales, you need to start! I know it can be intimidating at first, but it really isn’t too hard. In fact, I can almost guarantee you that after your first one you won’t be as nervous anymore.
If you are running live sales, but are having people show up, are you notifying your customers about your live sales? Which avenues are you using to get in touch with them? Send them emails, send them texts, post on Facebook, have them invite their friends, send them Facebook messages. Do whatever you can to make your live sale successful.
I hope that is helpful! Please comment below if you have additional ideas
Which of these 3 areas do you need the most help in? Do you need help growing your Facebook group? Do you need help running live sales? Do you need help getting people to show up at your live sales?
We are here as a resource to help make you successful.
