The Truth About Direct Sales

I’ve worked with a bunch of different direct sales/network marketing/social selling/whatever-the-heck-you-want-to-call-them companies over the past ten or fifteen years.

The first company I joined was Southern Living.

I don’t know if they still exist, but it was cookbooks and cooking stuff and Gail Pittman pottery and dishes.

I didn’t love most of the stuff and I hated going to other people’s houses so that didn’t last long.

The next company was called Tomboy Tools.

I don’t know if they still exist either, but Tomboy Tools sold tools that were marketed toward women – the goal was to empower women and teach them how to use all kinds of woodworking and carpentry tools.

I REALLY like the concept behind this company, but it just wasn’t the right time for me.

I still have my pink toolbox and my pink tools though, and I use them all the time.

The next company I joined was Rodan and Fields.

I wanted to love this company, but I’ve never had a decent skin care routine, so it really didn’t make sense for me to join since I hardly ever wash my face. 

So that didn’t last very long either.

Then I joined the Traveling Vineyard. This was going to people’s houses and doing wine tastings and selling wine.

I liked drinking wine but I didn’t love driving to other people’s houses and running parties.

And then I quit drinking.

So that was out.

Then about two years ago I started working with Zyia Active.

It’s an activewear company, I LOVE the clothes, and it fits perfectly with what I do – help women make exericse a habit and encourage women to take care of themselves before they take care of other people.

The two go hand in hand.

When I joined in August of 2020 I had learned a little bit about the industry, but not much.

I was still pretty clueless.

I didn’t have any idea what I was doing when I joined with Zyia, and I’ll always be learning.

But two years later I’m still here and I’m still loving it!

I wanted to share my thoughts and observations for any of you who have been considering working with a direct sales/network marketing company.

Maybe this will help you figure out if it’s a good fit for you.

Here goes, in no particular order.

1. If a company requires you to invest money up front or purchase products that you must then store somewhere in your house and eventually sell in order to make money, this is a shady pyramid scheme and you should run.

2. If you don’t LOVE the product/service/whatever of the company you join, you’re gonna have trouble being successful. 

3. If you can’t make money without building a team, this is a shady pyramid scheme and you should run.

4. If you’re talking to a rep and thinking about joining and she directly tells you or implies or leads you to believe in some way that you’re gonna make big bucks overnight with very little work, walk away.

5. If the person you are thinking of joining with annoys the shit out of you, join with someone else because you will be connected to your upline as long as she’s in the company.

6. Like most things in life, you get out of it what you put into it. One of the things I love about this industry is you decide how much time you’re going to devote to it.

You might have a few hours available to you some weeks, and other weeks you might have only a couple minutes.

It doesn’t matter. Your business is always there waiting for you, and there’s no expiration date.

7. This isn’t a race. You don’t have to hit any milestones by any particular time. You go at whatever speed works for you. You can still have success when you go slowly.

In fact you are probably more likely to have long term success when you go slowly.

8. Consistency is THE MOST important part of this business.

9. Starting off small with something you can consistently commit to will eventually give you results.

10. Many – most? – (but not all) of the super successful people in this industry have worked for more than one direct sales company. This ain’t their first rodeo.

11. Network marketing can be an incredible personal development and growth tool.

It offers so many opportunities to challenge yourself and to surprise yourself.

If you’ve got a growth mindset this is a great industry for you.

12. If you are not willing to interact with people in any way, this is a terrible industry for you.

13. Sales is absolutely a part of this profession. At least it is if you want to have success.

14. All the information and tools and resources you need in order to succeed are out there. But nobody is going to hold your hand the whole way. You’ll need to be willing to figure some stuff out on your own. 

15. 80% of your results come from 20% of the work you do. Posting stuff on Facebook is NOT the best use of your time. Connecting with people definitely is.

16. There is very little overhead (in reputable companies).

I pay $150 month just to maintain the website for this blog.

On top of that I pay over $200 a month for Kajabi which is the business platform for my email and my online courses and memberships.

I pay $87 a month to a tech expert to do the stuff on my site I don’t know how to do and to make sure it doesn’t get hacked (again).

I pay $15/month for Zoom, which I use for E-School meetings.

I pay fees to PayPal and Stripe when someone purchases one of my courses.

It costs me at least $600 a month just to keep this site going. 

It costs me absolutely nothing each month to maintain my Zyia website as long as I have $600 in volume that month.

If I have less than $600/month in volume, it costs me $15/month to maintain my Zyia website.

For someone who shells out over $7000 a year to keep this blog running, fifteen bucks a month to run a business is pretty freaking awesome.

When you join a direct sales company, you get an established website basically for free. 

It’s a no brainer if you want to give it a shot.

17. This is an excellent option for anyone who needs to earn money from home or who needs flexibility.

18. This is an excellent option for anyone who would benefit from a couple extra hundred dollars a month.

19. All direct sales reps are NOT super WOOO HOOOOOOEY and culty.

20. Good companies value and are open to your feedback and constructive criticism.

21. No direct sales companies are perfect. There will be mess ups (just like in any other company).

The mess up isn’t what’s important. How the company responds to it is.

22. Your first two months in a direct sales company will be the easiest because your friends and family are all super supportive and they’ll buy shit from you and host parties because that’s what friends do. 

Once that friends/relatives momentum slows down, that’s when being consistent comes in.

If you’re consistent from Day 1 you’ll be in great shape when the excitement of the first two months wears off.

If you are simply riding the “Suppport my new business!” excitement, things will seriously slow down after a couple weeks or months and then you’re gonna have to start building momentum again.

23.  When you join a reputable company, you have very little to lose (because there is no up front investment you need to recoup) and a shit ton of potential.

Every company I’ve worked for required me to purchase a kit of some type.

When I joined Tomboy Tools the kit consisted of a tool box and five or six of the most commonly used tools (hammer, screwdrivers, level, etc.). So the kit contained the stuff people bought most often.

And like I said before, I still have my tool box and I use my tools all the time. 

When I joined the Traveling Vineyard the kit contained the glasses you needed for tastings at a party and four or five bottles of their best-selling wines.

Here’s what you get in the current US Zyia enrollment kit:

The current US women’s enrollment  kit is SO GOOD – the items in it change a few times a year – and right now you get some really awesome stuff PLUS a bonus set (and don’t forget the $100 gift card too!):

If you have the opportunity to work with a company you really like but you’re scared because you think you won’t be successful, you definitely won’t be successful if you never even give it a try.