Do I Have To Sell To My Friends?? (Becoming a Consultant)

How did you become a Jamberry independent consultant? Maybe you were sitting in your kitchen thinking, “I love sales! I'm too old for a lemonade stand and the kids' baseball fundraiser isn't til spring. I just have to find a product to sell to all my friends and family!” So you did an internet search and landed on the Jamberry Nails website. Maybe it happened that way. But it's not likely. It's not likely because very few people like sales.

We don't go looking for something to sell. But we DO sell. Everyone sells something. If the reason for sales is important enough to us (like the little league fundraiser), we will pack up product and go door to door if we have to. This kind of sales is no fun for most of us, but we do it. And if we fall head over heels in love with something (like the newest local winery), we will tell everyone within earshot why they should love it, too. This is also sales. We just don't get paid for the sales pitch.

Just because we use different terms for a concept doesn't mean it's a different concept. Confused? Let's look at the new winery a bit more. Let's say the winery has a salesperson who tries to convince someone to purchase the wine. The salesperson introduces the wine to a potential customer. She calls the customer over to her selling station and shares the benefits of the wine. She pours a row of samples of the wine for the potential customer to try. After the samples are tried, she gets feedback in order to overcome objections. When the objections are overcome, she goes for the close by asking if the potential customer would like to purchase some wine. She convinces the customer to also buy a corkscrew to open the bottle, adding an extra $5 to the total sale.

Now, let's change the language from sales language to friendship language. “Betsy, you HAVE to try this new wine I found! (Introduction of product). It's sweet, but not too sweet. It goes well with about any kind of food. It's only $15 a bottle and it's made locally! (Sharing of benefits of the product). Here, take a sip of mine to see if you like it before I pour you a glass. (Giving a sample of the product). What do you think? (Getting feedback about the product). You think it's too dry? Oh, that's probably because you're drinking Mountain Dew right now. Anything would taste dry compared with all that sugar! (Overcoming an objection about the product). Of course I'm right. But it does have a cork, so you'll need a corkscrew to open it, or better yet a rechargeable wine opener like mine. (Adding on extra products). They sell this stuff all over the area now. It's getting really popular.” (Setting up for a close).

All the elements that a salesperson would use to sell wine, friends do to each other all the time. But we don't usually get paid for it. And we don't think of it as selling because we're just sharing what has become important and valuable to us. And we don't stop with wine. We do it with everything we love. We hate the idea of our friends missing out on something that we can't live without. There's even a word to describe this kind of relational, viral, free advertising and sales. “Word of mouth.”

Not only do we dislike selling, very few people like being sold to. Don't get me wrong, we like to have the stuff we want. In fact, we demand it! You can't keep us from getting the things we want. Just watch the YouTube videos of Black Friday shopping frenzies. But that's buying and we like to buy! But we don't like to be sold. We don't like the idea that someone convinced us to want it. We hate being manipulated. We want to be made AWARE of a great product so we can choose. In fact, if our friends were enjoying the new winery in town without the courtesy of telling us there's something better out there than Boone's Farm, we would be a little perturbed! We don't mind when someone shares a great new product with us and then lets us decide if we like it or not. If we like it, then we enjoy it together with our friends. If we don't, then we enjoy each other as friends in spite of differing tastes in wine. Make sense?

Being a Jamberry Consultant is no different! Except, unlike the baseball fundraiser and the new winery in town, you do get PAID for your sales pitch! Getting paid doesn't diminish that fact that Jamberry Nails rock and women all over the place love 'em to death just like the best wines! If you're like most of us, you either saw a friend flashing her nails around or you were invited to a home party. Either way, you just had to have those nails! Aren't you glad that you already knew someone, or were introduced to someone through a home party who could get you these vinyl sensations?

That's the difference between sales and distribution. Jamberry Nails DOES sell nail wraps. And without paying customers, there would be no Jamberry Nails. But as an independent consultant, you are NOT required to be a skilled salesperson! You're not even required to be an unskilled salesperson! You are just the awesome lady who can hook people up with the Jamberry Nails that they're dying for anyway. You are a DISTRIBUTOR. There is no pressure in being a distributor. But there is lots of activity. And that activity pays really really well.

As a distributor, you need people to distribute to. So you make people aware of this amazing new product called Jamberry Nails. You come up with all sorts of creative and stylish ways of making people around you aware. Like wearing the nails and waiting for people to ask about them. Or talking about your nails on your Facebook page or Twitter. Or talking to your friends and family about them. Or booking home parties (the best way). There are hundreds of ways of making people aware of Jamberry Nails.

As a distributor, you connect the people who just have to have Jamberry Nails with the only place they can get them, YOU. They can't go to the store and pick them up. Women love them and they're exclusive. YOU are the pipeline between the company who makes Jamberry Nails and the hundreds of thousands of women out there who desperately want them! You might be thinking, “Jamberry Nails are cool and all, but there are NOT hundreds of thousands of women out there who desperately want them.” Oh, yes there are! They're just not AWARE yet that they want them. You are leaving them hanging, like the woman who drinks from the new winery while her friends settle for Boone's Farm!

As a distributor, you leave it up to the consumer if she wants the product. You're not a salesperson! You are a consultant. You connect women who love Jamberry Nails with the company who can give them what they want. So you don't have to sell to your friends. You just make your friends AWARE of the product, because that's what friends do for each other. And you make your product AVAILABLE to your friends who want it. And what about your friends who don't want it? Nothing changes! You're just two friends with different tastes in nails. Duh. Friendships are only strained in this business by women trying to sell stuff to their friends. But you're not a salesperson. Remember?