To view the full video of Mike Brown’s conversation with McKinley Oswald, click here 

One of the first steps that a new distributor is asked to do when getting started is to define their “why.” When times get tough in building their business, they can look back at this why and it will remind them of their purpose for building a business. Many times, the why becomes the driver that gives them the vision to build successfully and overcome challenges.

The same can be said for successful direct sales companies. Starting with “why?” can have a dramatic impact on the direction you take with your products, the initial leaders you attract, and the overall success of the company. When times get difficult for the business, the company’s why provides a foundation to base the way you address challenges. The most successful companies in the industry have clearly defined their why.

I recently had a conversation with Mike Brown, CMO of Amare Global, on this very topic. Amare Global clearly defined their why from day one and it has been a key driver in their success.

It All Starts with Why

When Amare was in pre-launch phase, their executives went through a series of exercises to establish what they believed collectively as a group and what they wanted their company to stand for. The goal was to build a multi-generational company that made a difference in the world. It wasn’t a two to three-year play. They wanted to make a difference and it began with the values and beliefs that helped establish their why.

“People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”

― Simon Sinek, Start with Why

Amare’s core values established the words that would be a key part of their culture: Love, Integrity, Innovation, Service, and Humility. This was established before products were selected or a compensation plan was defined. Their core values helped them to strive for excellence. This was put to the test early on when their Chief Science Officer joined their Founding Executive team, and he challenged the team to create better products. The initial products were good, but Amare was striving for excellence. Their Founder agreed with the team and they tossed the original formulations and delayed the launch by several months—all in an effort to stay consistent to their core values and to strive for excellence.

Defining your values and establishing your why makes difficult decisions like this easy. Making decisions with the long game in mind rather than quick wins helps ensure that you stay true to your company’s vision and long-term goals. Whether your company is in a start-up phase or seeking to take the next jump, establishing your why and sticking to it can help your team make difficult decisions become simple ones.

“We started with five core values. Those five core values were something we believed would drive a business and a culture that we could be proud of for generations to come.”

– Mike Brown

How Your Company’s Why Impacts Your Field

The old saying goes: Culture eats strategy for lunch. These days it seems that culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Having the right culture in place will help you attract leaders who buy into why your company exists and why it does the things it does. This has to be something that your company commits to—it has to be in your DNA. It is much more than preaching a fluffy why, it comes down to living it and practicing it in everything you do. Like attracts like. If you shortcut the process, your field will see through it and will build their businesses accordingly. However, staying committed to your why will help you build a strong foundation of loyal leaders.

When Amare put together their first marketing pieces, their initial company video came in at 12 minutes in length. They made efforts to shorten it to follow guidelines that suggested shorter videos would appeal to average attention spans. Who would watch a 12-minute video when studies show that most people pay attention for less than 60 seconds? But Amare wanted to create a deep emotional connection with their initial group of distributors, allowing them to amplify that emotion for decades to come. They needed 12 minutes to be able to convey that emotion and kick off their efforts to have disruptive conversations about mental health. They even released a shorter 4-minute version, but in the end the field and their prospects responded to the 12-minute story of Amare. It told their story, explained their why, and attracted the right leaders. They weren’t trying to do what everyone else was doing. They were going to do it in a way that supported their beliefs and values.

“All organizations start with WHY, but only the great ones keep their WHY clear year after year. Those who forget WHY they were founded show up to the race every day to outdo someone else instead of to outdo themselves. The pursuit, for those who lose sight of WHY they are running the race, is for the medal or to beat someone else.” 

― Simon Sinek, Start with Why

Going from High Tech to High Touch

One of the first tools that Amare created was a mental wellness assessment in a tearpad format that helped their Wellness Partners engage with their contacts and start a conversation about mental health. The tool was extremely effective, but due to the physical nature of the tearpad, it had limitations. Amare and the Verb team came up with a concept that allowed app users to share a digital version of the mental wellness assessment. This opened up the ability to move to one-to-many sharing through the app, compared to the one-to-one experience with the physical tool. Technology removed geographical boundaries and also offered improved follow-up with email drips, notifications, newsletters, and more.

“Taking the assessment from physical to digital allowed us to remove geographical boundaries and enable it to be used online where one Wellness Partner could reach out to many prospects. It also enabled follow-ups with drip campaigns. Verb has been a great partner to help us do that.”

– Mike Brown

Taking the proven principles and tools of direct sales and combining them with technology can help your company maximize leverage and scalability without sacrificing the core fundamentals that help direct sales companies grow.

How Verb Can Help Your Company Go From High-Touch to High Tech:

• Convert physical sales tools to digital tools
• Provide data and analytics on which tools are working
• Combine physical tools (sampling) with technology (e-mail responders and automated reminders)
• Create personal contact via long distance through our interactive video feature
• Turn home parties into virtual live meetings with Verb Live

Your Customers Have a Different Why

Customer segmentation is a hot topic in direct sales today. Focusing on their key needs and what they are seeking from your company can help you to create a loyal customer base. Let’s be honest: not everyone lists financial freedom as one of their key needs. Customizing the journey for your customers—everything from a customer welcome kit to the long-term community—creates this value and helps you develop a passionate fanbase. This type of loyalty can also lead to a higher conversion rate of customers to business builders.

Providing the right tools for your business builders to help with customer acquisition is paramount in today’s direct sales environment. One of the most effective tools is sampling—allowing your potential customers to try your products before they buy them. Creating an experience with “instant gratification”-type products can help increase your customer conversions through sampling.

Amare took the experience of distributors attempting to do sampling on their own and provided a simple solution through the app, with technology-enabled follow up. Through a process of testing and fine-tuning, the sample system has become an additional tool that a significant portion of their Wellness Partners use to build the business.

“What we love about the Verb platform is the blend of high-tech and high-touch. The ability to connect with the technology.”  – Mike Brown

Your Why Matters                                               

Most successful direct sales companies have adopted the simple principle of starting with why. It matters. It will contribute to your culture, to the type of leaders you attract, and help you to make the right decisions in tough moments.