To view the full video of Laura Brandt’s conversation with McKinley Oswald, click here

How many times have you heard the phrase, “We are going to be the next company to hit massive momentum?” If you’ve been around the industry awhile, you know that this is the ultimate goal of every company. You want to hit that momentum phase. And when you get there, you want to sustain that momentum to maximize the opportunity for your company and your leaders. So how do you get there and what are some things you can do to ensure you succeed when you do?

In a recent conversation with IDLife President Laura Brandt, we talked about this very subject. Laura and I met several years ago when she was on the distributor side and most things about the industry were different. Laura gained valuable experience as a distributor and this gives her a unique perspective on the industry and as a corporate executive. Fast forward more than a decade and she is now the president of one of the fastest growing companies in the industry. IDLife has achieved success that most companies dream about, and they have managed to grab that tiger by the tail and continue to fuel the momentum phase.

“No one has a business continuity

plan for growing 300%.”

– Laura Brandt

When you hit that growth phase it can present some unique challenges. Along the way, Laura and her team have learned some vital lessons. They made some tough choices and figured out how to manage the growth. Many of these lessons can be applied to your company today, whether you are a brand-new startup getting ready to launch, or your company has been around several years and is looking for the next momentum phase. The principles are tried and true and companies that pay attention will benefit from these four hypergrowth strategies.

Hypergrowth Strategy #1:

In order to have sustainable growth, you have to have a phenomenal product that people want to buy from you repeatedly

Pretty simple, right? Yet, it tends to be so simple that it evades most companies. 

“I would give my life for simplicity on the far side of complexity.”

– Oliver Wendell Holmes

The simpler the better. Often times we have to go through the hard work of simplifying the product concept to ensure that we succeed. IDLife has done just that—from day one.

The IDLife Motto: We Help People Do Life Better

This is the beauty of the IDLife products—they help you do life better. They aren’t a potion, lotion or gimmick company. There are no promises made that the products are going to be magical for the customer. They don’t promise anything by way of results—in fact, they tell people that it is going to require work if they want to achieve success with the products.

Their products provide small, sustainable changes over an extended period of time. They encourage people to make lifestyle changes that stick and their products support that. The core product is a personalized offer, unique for each customer. And the retention rates are what Laura refers to as “insane.” In fact, 80% of their subscriptions are tied to a personalized product. People get on it and they want to stay on it.

Product matters—having a unique product that people want to order again and again is the first secret to achieving unique growth. It needs to be a phenomenal product that is shareable, and that people want to order repeatedly. That’s a fundamental that hasn’t changed over time. It creates long-term, sustainable changes to their lifestyle and can foster a unique customer experience. This allows you to support the customer in their journey, can help you develop a community, and keeps the customer on the product month after month.

Hypergrowth Strategy #2:

Find ways to win in a “no-win” situation when you

can’t keep everyone happy

When you hit hypergrowth, you will be forced to make tough decisions. You are put into situations where you can’t win. One of the biggest challenges for IDLife as they grew by 300% was that they already had a loyal following, meaning that they had a ton of people on subscription (auto-ships) of their products. And, if you can’t keep up with the orders, how do you decide who to keep happy?

IDLife took a radical approach to this challenge. They decided that instead of operating on a first-in, first-out order process, they were going to create a priority order for who got their products. They pivoted fast and created a new priority. And here is the order that they chose:

1. Subscribers (auto-ship customers) orders would move to the front of the line. IDLife realized that their subscribers are the lifeblood of the business. They had to keep them happy. Keeping their loyal customers happy became priority #1.
2. New customers would take second position. They knew that new people were important, and they needed to have a great first experience.
3. All other orders followed the priority of the first two, regardless of when the order was placed.

It was a tough call to make. Most companies would just stick to shipping the orders in the order they came in, hoping people would understand. This radical approach set a priority that created loyalty. In addition, business builders are paid on repeat orders from their customers. IDLife knew who to keep happy. And, the result? They were able to keep 90% of their subscribers, even though at one point they had no inventory available to ship.

The focus: Please as many people as possible and allow people to continue to grow their business.

Hypergrowth Strategy #3:

Find proven practices (and partners) and then follow them

For any company, it can be extremely challenging to take a hard look at what you are doing wrong and then realize that you may need to seek outside help in order to improve. When companies are in a hypergrowth phase, it can be even more difficult as you appear to be succeeding in so many areas. One strategy to achieving and maintaining hypergrowth is to analyze the areas that you need to improve, and then find the partners to help you do that. Finding the key fundamentals—proven methods and tactics—and then implementing them is critical to success.

“We had to take a hard look at ourselves. What are we doing well and where are we failing? We took a look at the industry as a whole and we were shocked. The industry as a whole was failing at e-commerce."

– Laura Brandt

Systems That Have Driven Success

• Key fundamentals: Over 70% of consumers want to shop on their phones
• Mobile application for customers: Spent hundreds of thousands of dollars
• E-commerce the way it was intended: Having a website that looks and feels like people expect it to—mobile responsiveness and the ability to retarget and increase exposures
• Systems that make it easy to share the opportunity: Focus on the fundamentals with new-age technology to provide an app for business builders

How Verb’s App Technology Makes It Easy to Share the Opportunity:

• Sampling: Remove pain points and make it simple for Associates to build
• Proven Practices: Providing a playbook that works—Verb’s system is a proven model that Brandt says is “light years ahead of the competition”
• The Ability to Customize: Being able to record their own videos and choose different ways to sample the products
• Committed to Roadmap and Improvement: Allowing companies to do what they do best while Verb focuses on the technology—what Verb does best

“We couldn’t find the versatility that the Verb system offers anywhere else. We have only been on the system for a few short months, but the Verb mobile app has been a game-changer and I’d hate to think where we’d be if we didn’t have it.”

– Laura Brandt

Being willing to take a hard look at yourself can pay huge dividends. And, finding the right partners to meet you where you are and drive your success further is a proven strategy that will continue the growth trend.

Hypergrowth Strategy #4:

Do the right thing

Frequently, a growth phase can change the company’s identity. New success, new leaders, new achievements—all can lead to a new culture. And, holding on to your true identity and what got you there is critical to maintaining who you are and the brand loyalty and equity you have built over time. Often this can come down to something simple: Doing the right thing. That’s really it. You know what got you to where you are, the partners who helped get you there, and the strategies that helped you achieve your goals. Continuing to do the right thing even when you have hit hypergrowth is very important and can be a challenge.

The recent business environment has led some companies to look to take advantage of the current pandemic, even adjusting things to profit of the current landscape created by the Coronavirus. IDLife made a critical decision that they were going to take the high road—and do the right thing—even when they could’ve made decisions to create small wins now.

Let’s take a look at two of these decisions they made to do the right thing:

• Gave their immune system product away to people across the nation
• Offered their VIP Customer Program (and its accompanying product discounts)
       for free to anyone fighting the pandemic

Two things that people everywhere are looking for were given away for free. Some people wondered if they were going to make any money. And, they actually have grown. They are adding more VIP customers than ever and giving a huge percentage away for free. But, this type of action is creating brand equity and loyalty that you can’t put a price on.

There is always a right way to do it. And choosing to do the right thing may at times be difficult, but it will pay dividends and can fuel your hypergrowth.

The Secret to Hypergrowth:

It requires valuable products, making tough decisions, finding the right partners, and doing the right thing

IDLife has been one of the amazing hypergrowth success stories in the direct sales industry over the past 12 months. They have done it the right way. Their unique strategies aren’t easy and the simplicity they provide in their systems require work. And that’s the true DNA of their company. They don’t promise anything to anyone—in fact, they tell people that it is going to require work. If you are looking for an opportunity, they have that. If you are looking for powerful products that can impact your life, they have that. IDLife always tries to choose to do the right thing. They legitimately help people do life better—from both a product and a business standpoint. And these strategies have paid off in sustained hypergrowth. These valuable lessons should be applied to our industry as a whole. We could all benefit from implementing their strategies and together we would all be doing life better.