Referral Marketing’s Unfair Advantage: Predictive Actions, Modeling Daily Behavior, & Feedback Loops For Decision Making

Posted by naxumadmin / December 20, 2022

“When the rules of the game change, you can’t do the same thing and expect to win” – Anonymous
The social selling space has evolved drastically over the last few years.
A select group of companies have continued to dominate in the rapidly changing space and reap massive rewards, outpacing the competition, while average companies are declining.
The rules of the game have changed. 
To discover where the ‘unfair advantage’ stems from requires looking deeper into the behaviors, systems, and processes that winning companies deploy. 

The age-old business quote is indeed true: “If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it.”
Most direct selling company’s data that is used for decision-making comes from transactions, orders, commission payouts, and all historical events that happen when and after the sale is made.
All the data leading up to the sale is rarely accounted for.
Years ago, teams would call into team conference calls to share their ‘daily numbers’ of dials made, presentations hosted, and follow-up meetings booked. More sophisticated teams would post their numbers into a google sheet that was shared.
In the end, the corporate teams have rarely had access to the data of what the field is ‘actually doing’ to grow sales.
The missing “presale” date becomes a challenge for companies when wanting to provide content and tools for social sellers to win.
Because the data source of the independent promoter’s actions are not accurately tracked, corporate leaders resort to interviewing top sellers to gather data on ‘what is working’ and ‘what is not’. 
The challenge is then enlarged since many top sellers do not have their own depth of data required and are only sharing feedback from the phone calls they have had with their own teams. 
There is an awkward feeling in running a corporate team because if action is not taken on certain top field leaders’ suggestions during feedback sessions, people can become offended or feel favorites are coming into play. 
How does one escape the drama of the old broken feedback cycles? 

‘Predictive Action’ Technology 

Companies around the globe are learning that in order to get the pre-sale data, a story is needed along with a platform powerful enough to have members actually use the system. 
Presently, there are companies who are creating online platforms and mobile phone apps that ‘feel like’ a top leader who suggests what to do throughout the day and have members imitate the modeled proper behavior.
The power of these predictive action platforms is that the field actually adopts and uses them at high rates to bring real-time feedback loops of actual data. 
A brief list of applications include:-   How to invite a new contact

• How to followup with a prospect
• How to have a customer reorder
• Training and leadership development
• Best practices for sharing in social media
• Mentorship opportunities downline
• Share streaks and consistency of the team’s behavior

Delivery Methods For Predictive Technology

The predictive applications can be delivered through web-based or app-based interfaces to members. The key is to create fun gamified experiences that hook members to engage daily in order for the data on the platform to be maximized. 
Some companies position the actions they want members to take as a daily commitment and have members focus on ‘winning the day’.
Members will commit to how many prospects they will reach out, follow-up calls they’ll make, and minutes they’ll spend watching training content. 

Companies will gamify daily goals by tying a dashboard that measures streaks and consistency for the team members ‘taking action’ and will display the results to create a fun competitive environment that engages members.
The key in the dashboards is to make them public, as Robin Sharma says, “What you focus on grows.” 

Other companies will put the work in to interview top field leaders and create business rules around the words to say or text to prospective customers. 
By organizing the actual words and phrases for inviting contacts, following up, and sharing products and services, platforms can feel like a coach who model the next thing to say or do to prospects. 
When the content and business rules are wrapped with a predictive engine, the system becomes intelligent and can even ‘suggest’ the next action for members to take. 
The displays for the suggestions can be set up to maximize the member’s time, where instead of members learning how to read reports to know what to do next, they can simply tap and follow the next ‘suggested’ action and move on.   
Predictive actions allow for more activity in less time.

How Is The Data Used?

Companies with predictive action platforms can answer questions such as:”How do the majority of our members share our story in English? And in Spanish?”
“Which social media content are members willing to share from our library? Out of what they are willing to share, which assets get the most guests to our shopping cart? Which pieces of content are driving purchasing?”
“What messaging is NOT WORKING? Where are our field reps sending everything we’ve coached them to say and are still not getting results?”
“What training content is the field actually finishing?”
“What responses to objections are most effective for our members in each language and country?”

What are the benefits of “daily feedback loops”?

1) ComplianceMost organizations that deploy independent affiliates to share the company’s stories are concerned with compliance.
The predictive systems not only suggest what to say compliantly, but, because the corporate teams can track the results, the content can be continually improved.
When organizations do the work to create compliant systems that are relevant and actually convert sales when promoters use them today, they remove the incentive and temptation for independent promoters to make outlandish claims to get sales.
2) Financial SavingsThe feedback loop from predictive engines can guide in making content creation plans.
With the known data that promotors are willing to share and which styles of content are converting the best, the focus can be put on the content budget in producing videos and ‘shareables’ that have an increasingly higher impact.
The financial savings of knowing which content to produce, which to leave behind, what to translate into other languages for market expansion, and more are all benefits of daily feedback loops. 
3) ConfidencePredictive platforms give sales teams a path to run on.
When ‘would-be’ promoters are seeking an opportunity for a side-gig or social selling opportunity, they are always asking themselves “Is this something that could lead to success?”
Because the predictive platforms present a proven path to follow, even the newest members of the social selling community can have the confidence to commit and take daily actions promoting offers.

About Ben:Ben Dixon loves referral marketing. His family found direct sales back in 2006 and has had success using technology to create home-based businesses. Since 2010, Ben has focused on serving referral marketing, party plan, mlm, and direct sales companies across the globe with the technology they require to empower their passionate fans to virally grow their businesses.
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