Online Reviews: The Impact on Direct Sales Companies

Online Reviews: The Impact on Direct Sales Companies

The direct sales industry has always been known as word-of-mouth business. It has long been built on creating relationships around great products, an opportunity to earn extra income, and joining something one is passionate about. There is no question that one of the most impactful trends from 2020 is the impact and influence of online reviews.

 

Depending on where one may get their statistics, online reviews are here to stay and unless both companies and individuals don’t have a clear understanding of what those reviews mean, they will see their brand quickly deteriorate, potentially to the point of no recovery.

 

What the data says

Here are just a few statistics to demonstrate the impact of online reviews:

  • Consumers trust customer reviews 12 times more than manufacturers’ reviews
  • Customer reviews can increase conversions by 270%
  • 92% of consumers will hesitate to buy a product if there are no reviews left by customers
  • 84% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust recommendations from friends*
Impact of Online Reviews

After taking just a minute to think about these statistics, it quickly becomes clear that in direct sales, reviews are no longer something to put on the back burner. Whether it’s creating a simple, scalable way to encourage/collect customers and distributors’ reviews or managing reviews about a company’s brand, the key is being proactive. Creating a culture around having those who represent a brand of celebrating all that is good, their personal experiences, and even those times when something went wrong but it was quickly corrected or made right is crucial in the world we live in today.

 

Online Reviews Carry Weight

Now, it doesn’t take much to start reading reviews and get the sense of the following: these reviews are completely fake or, come on only 5 stars on every review site, to realize something is not right. And the majority of the time you won’t be wrong. However, we are seeing the impact of these fake reviews and the negative impact it is having on brands every day. A distributor who is upset about something with the company is quick to go online and spread the bad news, almost always stating things that are only semi-true or worse, completely untrue. Then what happens is theanti-MLM movement” trolls start copying and pasting that review on other sites and blogs. If a company is not proactive in managing this, it turns into a negative nightmare. 

 

The truth is online reviews carry weight, and that is increasing daily. Thus, if a brand does not find strategic ways to manage online reviews it will have a direct, negative impact on their bottom line. That means this will impact their customers and distributors as well. Creating a strategy to manage this aspect of online reputation should not be left up to anyone, it is vital to include professionals with experience and demonstrated success. This may come in the form of a consultant or agency. The financial investment will have one of the better ROI’s in your business.

Being Proactive Is Key

Now, to those leaders in the field of direct sales, you not only have the opportunity but the responsibility to push your companies to really be strategic in managing their online reputation. Remember, at the end of the day you are putting your reputation out there which is directly connected to the reputation of the company you represent. You want to feel confident when you share your story and a person goes online to do a search of your business that they find a strong, active and authentic brand. Not one where they see keywords like “pyramid scheme”, “scam”, “lawsuit” and many negative terms associated with your company’s brand. You don’t want review sites that have 2 and 3-star ratings. You not only want but need to have results that are positive with high review ratings. Be proactive both with those you bring into the business to post positive reviews as well as asking your company to create a culture around using reviews to build the brand.

Finally, separating truth from fiction, especially in direct sales, has long been a challenge because of the “independent business owner” component. Each individual has a different way of telling their story and building their business. That said, it would do the industry to have corporate teams join hands with their customers, distributors, and field leaders to commit to find truthful, authentic, and genuine ways to promote their products and opportunity. If the companies and individuals do not control the narrative of direct sales, they will continue to deal with statistics that people share like, “at least 50% of MLM participants drop out after one year.” This type of statistics more often than not comes from a source where the individual(s) felt they were taken advantage of in some way. There is an urgent need to continue to promote all that is good about the direct sales industry. In turn, the positive reviews will begin to flow and have a sustainable and measurable positive impact on a company’s brand. 

 

Direct Sales Contributor Bio: 

Seth Saunders has over 25 years of experience within the direct sales industry. This experience includes both corporate and field leadership as well as domestic and international operations. Seth has been married for 25 years and has three amazing sons.