Is Duplication a Realistic Possibility in Direct Sales?

As far back as I can remember, I have heard the phrase "you need to be duplicatable", when referring to the upline/downline relationship in direct sales.

I’m not sure I’ll ever forget an experience I had very early on. I saw an ad that was so well written, so convincing, that I responded and joined, thinking I would "run two businesses". The ad was all about a great system, about the entire team working together, with the same system. This ad was all about duplication.

Right after signing up, I was asked to call the upline to the upline. While I could very well afford the few cents the phone call would cost me, I was very surprised that this man did not have an 800 number. The original ad of course had an 800 number to call. The person who I originally spoke to also had an 800 number. Ut oh, I was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe I’d been had by an ad.

While on the phone with this man, he asked lots of motivating questions. Did I want to earn a full time income quickly? Did I want to become a top leader within the company? He then told me he was the person to help me. His entire system was creating a list of everyone I knew and calling them. This was actually the one system I had been publicly speaking out against for quite some time. When I explained that I would not be calling any of my friends and family, he told me I was not "serious" about earning money, or becoming a leader. I decided not to tell him that the year before I had been ranked number five in the nation with the company I was currently with. I chose to have him hang up convincing himself I was not serious. I did call the company the very next day and cancelled my account and received a full refund.

In the past, I did have doubts about this word duplicatable, and this experience assured me that there is no such thing as duplicatable. While uplines can offer suggestions and ideas, they must be implemented by the sales distributors and the results very well might be different as the two people are different.

At one point in my life, I bought a few leads. People were amazed that I had conversations with almost everyone I called. I have a gift for gab. If you personally do not have a gift for gab, you are not going to be able to duplicate what I did with these leads.

Each of us is different. Each of us has different combinations of strengths, weaknesses, and different levels of comfortability. I have met both men and women who were not comfortable speaking to strangers. I do believe it’s a skill that can be learned, but this person, who is not comfortable speaking with strangers will not have the same results as someone like me who can start a conversation with absolutely anyone.

I believe there are other techniques that can be taught also. For example, when you give someone a catalog, always get their name, their phone number or even their email address. You need to have a way to contact this person.

Don’t be discouraged if you can not duplicate your upline. Instead develop your own system and your own strategy that takes full advantage of your strengths.

Happy Sales

About the author:
Audrey Okaneko has worked at home since 1983. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or visited at http://www.scrapping-made-simple.com