Who’s Running Your Business? You or the Next Flash Sale?

Susan Larimer (00:00)

we’re consultants for a company, but we are in control of how we manage our company, what we promote, what we don’t promote. You do not have to do everything your company gives you.

Lisa Duck (00:15)

Welcome back to another episode of the Other 99% Podcast, where each week we bring you practical tips, honest conversations, and real stories to help you build a business that you truly love. So come on in, grab a coffee, get comfy, and let’s chat.

Lisa Duck (00:32)

Hey everyone, it is me, Lisa, and welcome back to another episode of The Other 99%. I’m here with our co-host Susan Learmer, and we’re talking about something that I think we both feel right to the core. And this has happened to us in all of our years in the direct sales field, and it’s gonna happen again to us this year as the holiday approaches. And it’s those flash sales, those sales that your companies like

Those reactive sales, you gotta share this because we’re giving 25% off of this, this, and this. And then it leaves you scrambling, like, my goodness, I gotta give it to my customers. I gotta make sure they know. But why? Why do we need to make them know that, Susan? Like, I mean, our company is gonna send them an email about it, right?

Susan Larimer (01:23)

Exactly.

And going through this preparation, like I could feel the stress that I have felt before this time of year when it’s special after special after special and deadline after deadline. And you have to keep it all straight. And so going through this, I feel the pressure.

But you know, after talking with Lisa and after going through our last episode, and I think the more we mature in our businesses, we realize that we’re in control. We do n we work, we’re consultants for a company, but we are in control of how we manage our company, what we promote, what we don’t promote. You do not have to do everything your company gives you.

And I don’t think they expect you to do that either.

Um, so yeah, this episode is super important.

Lisa Duck (02:14)

No, I mean, not yeah.

I don’t think they come out and say they expect it. I mean they want you

Susan Larimer (02:19)

They probably want you to.

Lisa Duck (02:21)

to because the whole reason is to make the money. But yeah, it’s it’s not an expectation. And like Susan said, you have the right to say yes or no.

So

Susan Larimer (02:30)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (02:31)

one thing I want to wanna say that you know, if you haven’t caught the last episode, I highly recommend going and listening to it because it walks through like, are you holiday ready? Like, do you have your holiday plan in place?

Have you set your goals for what you want to do for new customers for sales? Like how are you meeting them? Do you have your vents all set up and everything like that? And that’s not what this episode is about at all, because we did that all in the last episode. What this episode is about are those dreaded, I and I say dread it, but those dreaded promotions that come up and it’s, you know, we’re sitting there in in anticipation that something’s gonna come up because, you know,

Susan Larimer (03:12)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (03:12)

it’s that.

Black Friday deal, and we know our company’s gonna come out with a Black Friday deal, but they won’t give it to us until the very last minute. Why? Because we they don’t want us halting sales, right? Just to wait for that promotion. And they know everybody’s gonna do it, but it’s like we’re we’re waiting, and then when it happens, everybody feels frazzled, right? Especially like you have if you have a team, like you know.

Susan Larimer (03:35)

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that’s it. We never Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,

we never get especially this time of year, you don’t get a lot of notice. You know, you maybe get like three, four days notice. Except for the big like the holiday shipping deadlines. but for the most part, those little mini sales, you don’t get a lot of notice. So you’re already like like you said, you’re anticipating it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming.

And then it comes

Lisa Duck (04:03)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (04:04)

and then you’re like gonna get the content out and create the Canva graphic and get the email out. And it’s just it doesn’t have to be that way. Do not

Lisa Duck (04:12)

No

Susan Larimer (04:13)

carry this stress on top of all of the other busyness of your own life and personal family during the holidays.

Lisa Duck (04:21)

Yeah. And I always used to find it so stressful going on social media on those days where a big promotion was launched by the company and there’s just a sea of company graphics all

over

Susan Larimer (04:35)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (04:35)

the website or all over a social. And you’re like, Okay, well, I guess I didn’t make it to the, you know, to the finish line first. Like all of these other people post it.

What’s the point of me going out now after I worked a full day work of work and you know

Susan Larimer (04:52)

Right.

Lisa Duck (04:53)

now can but that’s what you you don’t need to worry about what everybody else is doing. Your customers may not have heard about it. Your customers may not need to hear about it, right? You

Susan Larimer (05:04)

Uh-huh.

Lisa Duck (05:04)

know your cup your customers best. Maybe you have a promotion that you already have established for your customers. Is this gonna benefit them?

Susan Larimer (05:14)

Right.

Lisa Duck (05:15)

Or is this promotion gonna complicate it? So we need to think about those.

Susan Larimer (05:19)

Yeah. Or is it gonna make you come across

as organized or like, my gosh, Susan’s all over the place. She’s

Lisa Duck (05:26)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (05:27)

talking skincare all month and now all of a sudden we’ve got some, you know, some I don’t know, some shampoo coming in. Like what what

Lisa Duck (05:34)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (05:35)

it doesn’t fit in.

Lisa Duck (05:37)

No, and I remember how we had um daily, I think it was like daily drops or something like that. And then

Susan Larimer (05:44)

Ooh.

Lisa Duck (05:45)

you couldn’t like it was limited supply. So if your you or your customers wanted it, you needed to order, right? Because

Susan Larimer (05:48)

Mm. Those are bad. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (05:53)

you it chances are it may not be there tomorrow, and most likely it won’t

Susan Larimer (05:56)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (05:57)

because you not only have to compete with customers buying, but you have to compete with

And shall I say it, those hoarding consultants who have to buy 10 or 12 of the item just because it’s a sale item and they have the extra cash in their bank account. Like you can’t

Susan Larimer (06:12)

Yes. Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (06:15)

compete with that, right? So and and you shouldn’t have to. So

Susan Larimer (06:19)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (06:20)

those were the the promotions that I would just basically say to my customers, hey, this is what’s happening. Watch your inbox if you’re

Susan Larimer (06:29)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (06:30)

interested.

follow up because the company’s gonna be spamming them. I don’t need to be spamming them too, right? And this

Susan Larimer (06:36)

Right.

Lisa Duck (06:37)

was another reason why I always encourage my customers to be both on my email and

Susan Larimer (06:43)

No.

Lisa Duck (06:43)

the company email because I’m sending two totally different types of emails to them. The company is

Susan Larimer (06:48)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (06:49)

sales and promotion. I am purely value. So

Susan Larimer (06:52)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (06:52)

I never I never worried about them not or being on both email addresses at the same time. And this is a perfect reason why because they’re

They’re getting that information with me without me having to funnel it to them. Right?

Susan Larimer (07:05)

Yeah. Yeah,

I hate those while supplies last. Ugh, I hate them because then you’re trying to put it onto like a party

Lisa Duck (07:13)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (07:14)

order. If you don’t close the event in time, the people won’t get it. Supplies w limited supplies or while supplies last, they just add an extra level of stress that lately I’ve just been choosing not even to share them because I don’t

Lisa Duck (07:29)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (07:30)

need the stress. Your customers, like you said, they’re gonna know about it.

without you telling them about it. So just leave that to to your company to take care of. If they w if your customers want to take advantage of that, they can, but I’ve I’ve let go of the um very short time, limited supply, take advantage of it now, rushed feeling. I just I don’t want it.

Lisa Duck (07:56)

Yeah. And I find that if we’re always going into the DMs or the emails or sending text messages about, but wait, there’s another or there’s another deal or but wait,

Susan Larimer (08:07)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (08:08)

that just pr promotes to your customers it’s like don’t shop now. There might be a better deal happening next week. And

Susan Larimer (08:15)

Right. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (08:16)

it’s like honestly, I I don’t know if you guys have

Amazon Prime Day, the way

the same date times we have it. Okay, we just had it, right? And my

Susan Larimer (08:22)

yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (08:25)

husband sent me uh something to order and it wasn’t on a Prime Day deal or anything. And I went and I actually researched the the pricing on it. And I’m like, Do you know that it’s the highest it’s been since the last three months? I was like, I’m not buying it now. And he’s like, What? And I’m like, Yeah, no,

Susan Larimer (08:43)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (08:44)

it’s gonna come down. Like, give it a week or two, it’s gonna come down, and he’s like, Okay.

Susan Larimer (08:47)

Yeah. They jack up the

prices and then say, it’s fifty percent off. Well,

Lisa Duck (08:53)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (08:53)

it was fifty percent off at regular price. Yes.

Lisa Duck (08:56)

Yeah, so

but he he is laughing at me, but it’s a it’s something he needs. So I’ll have to bite the bullet and and buy it eventually. But I’m like, yeah, that that

Susan Larimer (09:04)

Black Friday maybe.

Lisa Duck (09:05)

well, no, it can’t wait till then. But

Susan Larimer (09:08)

Oh okay.

Lisa Duck (09:09)

it it’s like, you know, one of those things is like it they’ve trained us to check on pricing and stuff like that, right? And if we just keep telling our customers, there’s another deal or there’s another deal, then we’re just training them to wait for the next better deal.

And we’re also, and this is what I used to really, really get frustrated with um with the field. When you constantly offer no shipping, um discounts, um, you know, I’ll I’ll throw in a free product if you buy, you’re basically devaluing your product. You’re telling in a roundabout way, and you don’t even realize this, but you’re telling your customers.

I know my product is not valuable enough to pay full price or to pay to get it shipped

Susan Larimer (09:59)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (10:00)

to your house. So I’ll help you out. Do you think Walmart does that? Do they say, I know, I know gas prices is really expensive right now. When you go to the register, I’m gonna give you 10 10% off your purchase. No. They’re

Susan Larimer (10:13)

Right. Right.

Lisa Duck (10:15)

like, you want it, you buy it. And that’s mm-hmm. Yeah.

Susan Larimer (10:17)

Yeah. Yeah, we need to stop thinking that way. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (10:22)

It’s it’s crazy. I always I it always shocked me when people would constantly and those consultant or not the consultants, sorry, the customers who bounce from consultant to consultant doing the guilt trip, waiting to find someone, like, um, I’d like to order this. And then when you give them the price with the shipping, it’s like, my other consultant gave me no shipping. My answer used to be, okay, well then they might be able to help you with that. For me, if you want to

Susan Larimer (10:50)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (10:50)

order it, it’s this amount.

Susan Larimer (10:51)

Good for you.

Lisa Duck (10:52)

I was

never afraid to lose a sale. Never. Right? Yeah.

Susan Larimer (10:55)

Yeah, yeah. Yep. Good

for you. Yeah, another thing we were gonna talk about is not promoting the next sale before

Lisa Duck (11:05)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (11:06)

the current sale is done. So I had a a teammate and she would, you know, at the end of the month we would get the promotions for the following month. So say like September twenty-fifth, we get the drop for October specials.

So she started promoting October specials immediately in September. And I said to her, what you’re doing is you’re saying, I don’t want any more sales in September. I’m already moved on to October, but you can’t purchase this until October 1st.

Lisa Duck (11:37)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (11:38)

So you’re forgetting about the September sales and specials and you’re moving on. And so nobody is gonna you’re training people.

not to purchase that last week because you’ve already moved on. And she was like, Oh,

Lisa Duck (11:50)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (11:51)

like you’re right. I am doing that because I can’t get this special until October first. Um, and same

Lisa Duck (11:56)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Susan Larimer (11:57)

goes with with

j building your team. So with our company, if you join the team as a consultant in the middle of the month, you get the rest of that month plus the next full month. So if you join, you know, September fifteenth, you get fifteenth to the thirtieth and then all of October to, you know, get those certain incentives and and levels. Um

What I was finding is, and we were kind of trained on this, you know, if someone wants to join on the 15th, tell them don’t join until October

1st, because

Lisa Duck (12:30)

Mm.

Susan Larimer (12:31)

then you get two full months in your like new period, your jump start period. But what was happening is you’re making people they’re excited now. They want to join now. They’re all in and you’re like, Oh, put the brakes on, come back to me in two weeks. Well, guess what? In two weeks.

they will have moved on. They’re not interested. They don’t have that excitement anymore. And then most likely you have lost them. So focus

Lisa Duck (12:59)

Well and

Susan Larimer (12:59)

on the specials today, not ahead.

Lisa Duck (13:02)

Yeah, and when we’re talking about a a teammate in that scenario, you’re almost telling them, wait a minute, don’t start when you only have six weeks. You need a full two months to hit

Susan Larimer (13:14)

Right. Mmm.

Lisa Duck (13:17)

this requirement because it’s that difficult.

Susan Larimer (13:20)

That’s true. That’s true. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (13:23)

Right? I don’t I don’t put

my faith in you that you could do this in six weeks. So let’s hold off. Right. I

Susan Larimer (13:26)

Right. Oof. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (13:30)

always had a weird way of thinking because it used to frustrate me that a lot of people were promoting that in Epicure too. And it’s like, why? How is that benefiting them? Like you said,

Susan Larimer (13:43)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (13:43)

they got the excitement. They’re gonna, they’re gonna take that excitement and then they’re gonna go build, build, build.

Susan Larimer (13:49)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (13:50)

What you’re asking them to do is pocket that excitement for a while. And then, you know,

Susan Larimer (13:54)

Does it work?

Lisa Duck (13:56)

come in. You in your head, you might be thinking, they’re gonna use that two weeks to plan and strategize, but they don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t exactly right. So you’re just

Susan Larimer (14:04)

That doesn’t happen. Right. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (14:08)

telling them, uh, I don’t I don’t believe in you. I don’t believe in you. So let’s make sure you have the maximum amount of time.

To hit

Susan Larimer (14:17)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (14:18)

these requirements because I want to make sure that you get it. But it’s also saying, too, and again, this is just a Lisa way of thinking, your upline typically gets some sort of kickback when they these things are hit.

At least it was in Epicure.

Susan Larimer (14:32)

Hmm. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (14:34)

So you want to make sure you maximize your profit from the when you’re bringing on that new client. So, or that new team out. Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (14:42)

So is it about you or is

it about the new team member? Mm.

Lisa Duck (14:47)

Yeah.

And think about it. Is your upline training you about the training you on this?

Susan Larimer (14:51)

Right, right.

Lisa Duck (14:52)

And is it again, is it for your benefit or is it for their benefit? And

Susan Larimer (14:56)

Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (14:58)

we probably already have a lot of haters and like higher ups in companies, so it’s all good. We we we just do real talk.

Susan Larimer (15:03)

We’re just being honest. We’re just being real. We love

our companies, but we’re consultants. but I love what you said.

Lisa Duck (15:10)

This is what this is what gets

epi like direct sales bad names, right? This

Susan Larimer (15:14)

Right, right.

Lisa Duck (15:15)

like stuff like this and we need to sort of like stomp it. We need to do our own thing. We we need to make

Susan Larimer (15:20)

Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (15:23)

direct sales great again.

Susan Larimer (15:25)

Yeah. I love what you said about pocketing excitement. You can’t pocket excitement. You can’t store it. It’s a very um spontaneous feeling and emotion. You can’t pocket it and save it for later. That’s a really good thought.

Lisa Duck (15:42)

Yeah. All right, let’s talk about this. So say for example, we all know that we’re gonna pre-plan something to do with Black Friday, or we should be. We shouldn’t be sitting there patiently waiting for our company to tell us what to do. But you already have a strategy set out because I know you have a great Black Friday promotion. Now your company, it’s two days before Black Friday, and your company starts hinting, there’s something exciting coming. What do you do? Do you

Susan Larimer (16:11)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (16:12)

stop and like do nothing with your own promotion? Do you pivot or do you continue and then see if that’s just gonna be an add-on? Like what how do you handle that?

Susan Larimer (16:23)

Yeah. If I have a plan and I have taken time to make content and map it out and maybe schedule posts or set schedule emails, then I I would now I say this, but I’m thinking of exceptions. I would stick to my plan.

But I know I’ve fallen into this trap because sometimes my plan and my deadlines don’t match with what the company’s offer offering. And I feel like the company offers kind of mess up my plan. So

Lisa Duck (16:56)

Mm.

Susan Larimer (16:58)

I don’t know. It’s hard. I think what I’ve done in the past is, you know, stuck to my plan. Here’s my plan. Here’s information from the company.

Take it or leave it. I’m presenting

Lisa Duck (17:09)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (17:10)

it to you, but my plan is not changing, my deadline’s not changing, my offer is not changing. Um but do with the the company’s promotions what you want. I don’t know, what would you do?

Lisa Duck (17:25)

Yeah, I mean I think I’d do the same thing. So I know we’ve had um twelve days of Christmas events, or I used to do twelve days before Christmas and sort of try to do it in earlier months, uh not earlier months, but prior to that deadline, the shipping deadline and stuff like that. So it wasn’t technically the first twelve days of December like most people do it. And there there was always something that they’d throw in there that would mess me up. So

What I started to do is I started to not do like discounted offers. Like I wouldn’t say this is a this is the price of a product. I’m gonna give you 10% off so you could buy that product for this, because that product then might go on sale for lower than what I’m asking. And then

Susan Larimer (18:13)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (18:14)

there goes all my graphics, there goes everything like that. So

Susan Larimer (18:17)

Right.

Lisa Duck (18:18)

I I would prefer to do like

Spend 75 and get a free gift with purchase. Spend 75 and get a $25 shopping credit in in January.

Um,

Susan Larimer (18:33)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (18:33)

spend $75 and I will send you a free um a free uh product when the new catalog launches in January. So it was always like dollar based because that dollar value would stay the same no matter.

What the company threw at me. It might just be easier

Susan Larimer (18:54)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (18:54)

to get to that dollar value, right? So it’s like think about your promotions. Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (18:57)

Yeah, and something else I do, yes,

and I just remembered this, when my Black Friday my Black Friday event is the only time I give away my discount. And it’s a huge event. And if you shop between four and five A.M. you get twenty-five percent discount. Five and six PM, you get a twenty percent discount and so on. It’s the only time I give my discount away. And my customers look forward to it every year. And it is a huge, you know, three, four thousand dollar event for me.

Um what I do to prepare my customers is I say this special excludes any lemongrass offered specials. So if lemongrass comes in with a 25% off skincare, my customers aren’t gonna get 25% off plus another 25% off.

Um so I made that very clear. This excludes, and I did have people that’d be like, why why didn’t I get 25% off my whole order? Well, this was on sale by Lemongrass, and this was on sale by Lemongrass, therefore I told you ahead of time those were not included. So you can use that little disclaimer too in your verbiage and in your post, excludes

Lisa Duck (20:07)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (20:08)

all company offered specials.

Lisa Duck (20:11)

Yeah, that’s a really good point because and it we need to be clear, we need to treat our business like a business. And any other business, like I’m if you look at the flyers for your local grocery stores, there’s always like little this exc excludes or this includes, or you can’t combine this with other offers. There’s always

those little like um things at the bottom of the flyer or at the back

Susan Larimer (20:34)

Yeah. Disclaimers. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (20:37)

of the flyer or wherever it is.

But we need to

Susan Larimer (20:39)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (20:39)

treat our business like a business. So that what you said is like so true. true.

Susan Larimer (20:44)

Yeah. And

if someone, you know, wakes up at nine o’clock and forgot to place their order, can I still get it? No. And like, you know, you go to Coles or Target or whatever, they have dates where their sale begins and their sale ends. If you purchase that item uh the day before the sale starts and then it goes on sale, they’re gonna be like, sorry, it wasn’t on sale then. They’re not gonna give you the discount because you weren’t within those dates. So think like

Lisa Duck (21:08)

Exactly. Yeah.

Susan Larimer (21:11)

a real business. You are a real business.

Lisa Duck (21:14)

Mm-hmm. And exactly. And if somebody bought something at, say, Walmart and it went on sale, you’d have to go through the trouble of taking that item back, returning it,

Susan Larimer (21:25)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (21:26)

repurchasing it. So you’re more than welcome to send that product back to the company and then repurchase it today, but that’s all at your own expense. And most people

Susan Larimer (21:36)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (21:36)

are be like, I’m not doing that. That’s too much work. Right. And

Susan Larimer (21:39)

Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (21:40)

and they’re looking for that easy button. And there’s a

There’s a fine line between um accommodating your customers and being very helpful to just plain uh giving them, yeah, everything they want. And

Susan Larimer (21:51)

Being a doormat. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (21:55)

just yeah, it just doesn’t make any sense. But

Susan Larimer (21:58)

Yeah. And a lot of times I’ll be like, you know what? I just purchased that product too and now it’s on sale. I’m in the same boat that you are. I didn’t know about

Lisa Duck (22:05)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (22:06)

it. I f I share the specials as soon as I hear about it, but I’m in the same boat. Sometimes it happens.

Lisa Duck (22:13)

Yeah. All right. Let’s talk about something that I used to um get very frustrated with around the holiday season. And that is uplines or sidelines, they’re putting out promotions and they’re uh like a really big deep discount that they’re giving their customers. And you have maybe smaller consultants who don’t bring in the same volume of sales and

They can’t do that deep of a discount because they’re they they’re maybe not at that level. You know how some companies have tiers where they get more money if they do um more sales. What do you do in that situation? Like, how do you do you feel like you have to meet their their offers and then take a loss? Like, what what do you do

Susan Larimer (23:01)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (23:02)

in that situation? Like that that’s just a crazy situation to be in.

Susan Larimer (23:06)

Yeah, and I think that’s why a lot of companies have rules about um you can promote the company sales and specials, but if you’re gonna offer anything else above and beyond that comes out of your commission, you need to do it in a private group. Because

Lisa Duck (23:20)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (23:21)

like you said, if someone’s scrolling around and they’re like, Oh, Lisa’s offering thirty-five percent off, but Susan’s only offering twenty-five percent off, I’m gonna shop with Lisa.

Lisa Duck (23:30)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (23:30)

Um, so

there are a lot of companies have rules about that. A lot of companies have rules about making your own specials and sales altogether. You cannot. You cannot discount the products, you can’t do anything. Um But Lisa you had a really good point when we were talking earlier in that

We think that all of our customers are seeing

Lisa Duck (23:48)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (23:49)

what other consultants are posting, but they’re not. We are because we’re

Lisa Duck (23:54)

No.

Susan Larimer (23:54)

friends with the customers and we’re friends with those consultants, but most likely your customers are not seeing any other consultants’ specials or posts because they’re not connected on Facebook. So don’t don’t feel like you need to meet other people’s or match or

Lisa Duck (24:10)

No.

Susan Larimer (24:11)

beat other people’s sales. You just stick to what you’re comfortable offering.

offering and if it’s just the company discount, then that is perfectly fine.

Lisa Duck (24:20)

Yeah. I re and I remember always running into this because my team would all would be in my uplines um like Facebook community, her group for her customers, and they would see that she would be offering like crazy discounts. And then I I had to explain to them a few times it’s like what you see on

The front end of things isn’t really what you see on the back end of things. She knows how to manipulate the host benefits. She knows how to manipulate the sales. Plus, she has commission from what we’re selling. And, you know,

Susan Larimer (25:04)

Yeah, she’s at a higher level.

Lisa Duck (25:05)

at a completely higher level. So when she sells something, instead of getting the 25% that you’re getting, in

When you average out all of the the commissions coming in, she’s making about a 50% commission. Right? So and they don’t see that. Yeah. So

Susan Larimer (25:20)

Right. She has more room, wiggle room. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (25:25)

never worry about what other people are doing just because you’re seeing it. Facebook isn’t showing that to every single customer of yours. This isn’t also a another good reason why um having a community off of social media is very important.

Susan Larimer (25:42)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (25:42)

you can

deal with your customers through text marketing, through email marketing, something like that. But having your customer base just on social media is very stressful around the holidays because you

Susan Larimer (25:55)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (25:56)

you are in that complete competition phase the whole holiday season. It uh that would drive me crazy.

Susan Larimer (26:02)

Yeah. It

adds another layer of pressure that you don’t need. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (26:07)

Yeah. Yeah.

And when you’re approaching somebody with a deal, like make sure it sounds personal. Like don’t don’t

Susan Larimer (26:16)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (26:16)

reach out to people or and I really hate it posting like 20% off. Like I would go to my customers and say, you know, this came across my my feed or or my emails from Epicure. They’re having a 20% off deal. I thought that you might be interested in this, so I just wanted to share it with you.

Susan Larimer (26:37)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (26:37)

Right.

How does that better than a blanket? Hey, it’s 20% off. Anybody who sees this can buy it. Right? It’s true.

Susan Larimer (26:44)

Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (26:46)

Anybody who sees this can buy it. But anybody

Susan Larimer (26:49)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (26:49)

just going to the website can buy it. Anybody, so it’s like not, you’re not making that that sale any more special because you took that company flyer and posted in your Facebook commu community. Yeah, it didn’t do anything. Right?

Susan Larimer (27:04)

Yeah. Yeah.

And if you have a relationship based business like we talk about all the time, then you know which customers are gonna really appreciate that sale or that specific product that’s on sale. And so like you said, when you reach out and say, I thought of you, that

Lisa Duck (27:23)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (27:23)

means so much more than blasting out a generic twenty percent off until midnight sale to everybody. ‘Cause I think it’s gonna fall on

deaf ears, but if you private message or call or text like, my gosh, I know you love this vitamin C serum. It’s on sale until midnight. I just wanted to make sure you were aware. So that goes a long way.

Lisa Duck (27:45)

And I think a lot of people don’t do that because they feel like they can’t hit everyone. Posting that sale on a Facebook page will hit everyone. news flash, no, it doesn’t. Seven people might

Susan Larimer (27:58)

Nope.

Lisa Duck (27:58)

see that, right? So you’d have a better off chance. Exactly.

Susan Larimer (28:00)

And the wrong seven people. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (28:03)

Exactly. So you’d have a better chance of getting movement on that sale by private messaging your top customers or your customers.

Not even your top customers, but your customers that you know love the product but can’t always afford to do the purchases. That 20% off to them would mean so much.

Right? So make sure it’s

Susan Larimer (28:26)

Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (28:28)

like I thought of I’ve thought about you because I know that you’ve been having you had your eye on this. This could really help you purchase this, right? So be be mindful and thoughtful and

don’t think that social media is the be all and end all to anything. But

Susan Larimer (28:46)

Yeah. I’m

thinking of, you know, the seven people who are gonna see my post are the seven people I don’t want to see that post. And they’re like the the those people who

Lisa Duck (28:53)

It’s gonna be that person. Yeah, that

Susan Larimer (28:57)

see my reels in my PJs are gonna be like, Why were you in your PJs? Those are the people who are gonna see the post and I’m gonna be like, Ugh, it wasn’t for you. Not that it’s not that

Lisa Duck (29:06)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (29:06)

I didn’t want you to see it, but it doesn’t apply to you. And that’s those

Lisa Duck (29:10)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (29:10)

are the people who are gonna see that post. So

Lisa Duck (29:13)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (29:13)

Personal

messages, not spammy, not hey girl, just I thought of you. And you know your customers. You should know your customers well enough to know which customers really want to take advantage of which sales.

Lisa Duck (29:26)

And I’ll I’ll take this a bit further. I thought of you because we seen this this promotion come in. Can I send you the link?

Susan Larimer (29:37)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (29:38)

Don’t just drop the link. Just ask for that that permission. Like, you know, are you interested? Can I send you this link? If they don’t respond, you don’t go back here. I just thought I would drop the link in because you didn’t

Susan Larimer (29:50)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (29:50)

send me a message. No, you wait for them to respond. If they miss it, so be it. They missed it, but you offered. You offered. So that’s

Susan Larimer (29:55)

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (29:59)

um that’s totally on them at that point. All right, Susan.

Susan Larimer (30:01)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lisa Duck (30:03)

I want I think this is a good thing for you to address because um this fits in well with your intentional life workbook and all those things, but talk about creating some sort of rule book or something around flash sales and the holiday

Susan Larimer (30:21)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (30:22)

because it’s very important, I think.

Susan Larimer (30:24)

Yeah, yeah, in the Intentional Life Workbook, I have a filter. And your roles and responsibilities have to pass through this filter, and then you’ll know if you should keep that role and responsibility. So same thing with your holiday specials, with everything that happens in the holidays, have a filter, a rule book. So it can be like a set of questions that you ask and they have to pass through. Like, is this going to

Whatever questions you want to ask. Is it going to make me money? Is it going to be an income producing special?

Is it going to benefit my customer? um Is it something that fits in with my original plan? So ask yourself some questions so that you know, okay, is this something that I should promote? Um it doesn’t, it doesn’t answer yes to any of these questions. So I’m just gonna let it go. I’m not gonna focus on it. But if it does pass that filter and it does answer yes to those questions that you have created personally for your business, then that’s something that you can say, okay, this is something.

that is aligned with what I’m offering, aligned with how I run my business, and I feel very comfortable and confident projecting this special.

Lisa Duck (31:37)

Yeah. And I think it’s important to say that just because we’re saying don’t promote it, it doesn’t mean that you’re not offering it. It like it’s out there. It’s an offer. If somebody comes to your website, they’ll see it. Right. It’s like, yeah. Like, don’t

Susan Larimer (31:46)

Yeah, if someone wants to take advantage of it. Oh no, no, no, don’t buy from me.

Lisa Duck (31:52)

do it. Like, I’m not promoting this, like I just gone.

Susan Larimer (31:54)

Right.

Lisa Duck (31:56)

It’s just that you’re not taking your energy away from something that you’ve already established in your business, the the promotions you’re already working on to stop everything.

Susan Larimer (32:07)

Yeah. Rearranging your plan. Nope.

Lisa Duck (32:07)

And insert the company promo. Yeah. Yeah. So

people can still buy from you. They could still do it. They can still find it on your website. Everything is there. You may even mention it in a social post in passing, but it is not gonna be your main focus for that the duration of that flash sale. And usually a flash sale is usually a 24, 48 hour thing and limited products. So it’s yeah, it’s don’t stress over them, right?

Susan Larimer (32:36)

Yeah,

yeah, yeah.

Lisa Duck (32:37)

Yeah.

So all right. This is gonna be fun. Do you think do you think we should uh do this? There we have a couple questions and we I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know how these are gonna go because these are

Susan Larimer (32:49)

I know.

Lisa Duck (32:51)

these are tough questions, but I’m just gonna ask Susan a question, and see what she answers to it, and then she’s gonna throw one at me and let’s see how this works. So

Susan Larimer (33:02)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (33:03)

so so Susan, your question is um

You planned a gift bundle for $75. Your company suddenly announces that it’s 25% off of all of the individual products that are in your bundle, making the $75 really not a valuable deal. And but their offer is for the next 48 hours only. Do you scrap your bundle or what do you do?

Susan Larimer (33:32)

ah

And this happens like every year and you’re like, oh all the bundles

I don’t know. Maybe I would move mine back a week. Like, hey, if you missed the company offered special, I have another special. It’s not quite as good as what the company offered, but I want to make sh

Lisa Duck (33:57)

Well, I wouldn’t say that. I I would I wouldn’t say that. Don’t say that.

Susan Larimer (34:02)

would you say in case you missed the special? Or would you not even bring it up?

Lisa Duck (34:05)

In case you missed the special, you

you could if you want to reference the special, sure. In case you missed the special, um, I just wanted to put together my own personal special for you. Um, just in case you didn’t get it, right? So here it is like promote

Susan Larimer (34:19)

Okay.

Lisa Duck (34:20)

it, still send the excitement, never put the negative into it, never. It’s like,

Susan Larimer (34:24)

Right.

Lisa Duck (34:24)

you know, that was a better price. No, it wasn’t. No, it wasn’t. They just have more money behind them. They can do that, they’re making a

Susan Larimer (34:28)

Yeah. Right.

Lisa Duck (34:31)

a higher a higher cut on that product that they’re selling.

Your deal is special. Your deal is great. So yeah, de definitely don’t um don’t don’t refer to that. And and yeah.

Susan Larimer (34:43)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (34:43)

And I mean, if it was if you just happened, say say you promoted it the day before the company released that bonus, then all all I would do is I would make sure that I was able to like work another bonus in there. Hey, for the next 48 hours, anybody who purchases, you’re gonna get a free blank with the $75.

Susan Larimer (35:03)

Uh

Lisa Duck (35:04)

Bundle, right?

Susan Larimer (35:05)

Or maybe if

they bring it up, would you change offer

Lisa Duck (35:10)

Well

Susan Larimer (35:11)

the company or no? Like they see yours and they’re like ready to order and then they’re like,

Lisa Duck (35:13)

Yeah, well s yeah

Susan Larimer (35:16)

wait a minute, would you match that price?

Lisa Duck (35:20)

I would never hide, like I would always honor the company pricing. Like I would never hide that. So

Susan Larimer (35:25)

Sure. Right.

Lisa Duck (35:27)

I I would probably do that. Okay, yeah, for the next 48 hours, um, there’s this add it bonus on. But

Susan Larimer (35:32)

Yeah, yeah.

Lisa Duck (35:35)

once the company special is done, that bonus is gone. Right? It’s like it’s taken

Susan Larimer (35:38)

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (35:40)

away, just like the company takes away that flash sale, right? That’s

Susan Larimer (35:43)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (35:44)

I think that would be the easiest way to work around it, especially if you had them.

running at the same time because it’s

Susan Larimer (35:50)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (35:51)

it’s easier to pivot when you haven’t yet announced it. But when you had it running, so say you announced yours

Susan Larimer (35:54)

Right, right. When it’s out there.

Lisa Duck (35:58)

on Wednesday and it it’s gonna end on Monday and then the company end comes up with a a weekend holiday deal and you’re like,

Susan Larimer (36:05)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (36:06)

oh man, no. Right? So and I would only make that added value equivalent to what like the

what the company was giving. So

Susan Larimer (36:18)

Company. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (36:19)

you know what I mean. So if if they would have saved an additional five dollars from

Susan Larimer (36:25)

Okay.

Lisa Duck (36:25)

buying these products now all individually through the company deal, then the the value of that bonus I would give them would be equivalent to like five bucks. And it doesn’t have to be your company

Susan Larimer (36:35)

Yeah. Okay.

Lisa Duck (36:37)

product, right? It could be here’s a I don’t know what grocery stores you guys here have there, but we have like Metro. So here’s a

Here’s a $20 uh $5 Metro card to put towards your turkey dinner. It doesn’t

Susan Larimer (36:50)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (36:51)

have to be um something like that. Or it could be even um for the next 48 hours, anything you purchase, I’m gonna donate um $5 or $10 worth of food to the food bank in your name. Right? It’s like a a

Susan Larimer (37:05)

Mm, yeah. I love that.

Lisa Duck (37:08)

uh feel good, feel good kind of promo, right? So

Susan Larimer (37:10)

Yeah. Yeah.

Mmm, I love that.

Lisa Duck (37:14)

There’s always different

always different ways around things.

Susan Larimer (37:18)

Yeah.

Okay, this one’s for you. It’s my turn. Your turn to be in the hot seat. Okay.

Lisa Duck (37:22)

Okay. uh

Susan Larimer (37:25)

All right, your biggest competitor announces a Black Friday sale that’s much deeper than yours. Do you match it?

Lisa Duck (37:34)

Never, never, never. I mean, the chances of our customers overlapping are pretty darn slim. And if

Susan Larimer (37:44)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (37:45)

they are overlapping, so be it. Let them shop with them this time. If I have a customer that is purchasing from two consultants at once, they are not my valued customer. And I

Susan Larimer (37:56)

Hmm. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (37:58)

am giving the the promotion that I’ve put together has been put together thoughtfully.

And I know that I am giving the best value that I can financially afford to my

Susan Larimer (38:10)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (38:11)

valued customers. So no, I don’t change a thing.

Susan Larimer (38:14)

Yeah. I think that’s what we have to keep in mind. What are you comfortable offering? If it doesn’t

Lisa Duck (38:21)

Mm.

Susan Larimer (38:22)

sit well with you or you’re like, that’s a lot of money out of my pocket, don’t do it. You don’t have to

Lisa Duck (38:28)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (38:28)

do it. So again, back to that filter. What are you comfortable offering above and beyond, like out of your commission if you choose to do that? Okay, I love that.

Lisa Duck (38:38)

Yeah. Okay,

should we go to the next one? Do you like these? Okay, so

Susan Larimer (38:42)

Sure. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (38:43)

the next one. You already emailed your customers twice this week. And oh, your company now announces another flash sale. Do you send email number three?

Susan Larimer (38:56)

Oof, okay, I’m going back to the filter. Does this keep

Lisa Duck (39:00)

Ha ha ha.

Susan Larimer (39:01)

in theme with the other emails that I sent? Or is this one gonna be like out of the blue, random, feeling kind of needy, like I need to get another sale, like here’s another sale. Um, and maybe think about how it comes across. So if your customer is receiving two already, um, I’m j I think I’m just gonna

Well, I’m gonna use the filter. I’m gonna trust that my customers have seen the other emails. And if it’s an email that fits in with my plan, I will send another email. What about you?

Lisa Duck (39:39)

Well, I’m not gonna answer because

the next I’ll answer with the next question because we’ll go to the final question because I’ll I’ll it’s

Susan Larimer (39:45)

Okay.

Lisa Duck (39:45)

in and around the same thing.

Susan Larimer (39:47)

Okay. All right. So the next one is scenario. A flash promotion is fantastic, but it has absolutely nothing to do with what you’ve been talking about all month. Do you share it? There we go.

Lisa Duck (40:00)

So here’s my answer to both of em them. When this time hits, I typically would send out uh an email or some sort of notice to my customers saying, hey, busy time of the year is coming and we know that there’s going to be sales coming left, right, and center. If you want to be in the no for all of the emails, then just hit reply or click on this link or send the word flash to this number.

And I will put you on my sales notice list. Those people and those people only because they’ve opted in will be the

Susan Larimer (40:39)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (40:39)

only ones that get any other additional promotions on my list.

Susan Larimer (40:44)

So do you have people that will say like yes? See I w I’m I’m just feeling afraid of all the people who might miss that one email or text message and then they miss out on all of them.

Lisa Duck (40:57)

But I put it so

it when I was doing Epicure like full full time, it was in my Facebook group. It could be on the footer of every email that you have from now until Nov uh November 1st. Like it’s it’s a little bit of prep. It’s not that one and done notice, right? It’s not that one and done. But you just let them know that I,

Susan Larimer (41:14)

Okay. So it’s like a a gentle reminder.

Lisa Duck (41:18)

yeah, I have this holiday flash sale. It could be a banner on top of your personal website.

You know, want

Susan Larimer (41:24)

Got it.

Lisa Duck (41:25)

to be in the know for all of the upcoming holiday flash sales, click

Susan Larimer (41:29)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (41:30)

here and then have them fill out a form. And

Susan Larimer (41:33)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (41:33)

on if you’re using My High, that form is going to feed them both into email marketing and text marketing. You decide

Susan Larimer (41:39)

Right.

Lisa Duck (41:39)

how you wanna send them. It could be even a message, you know, a conditional section on your email too, for the people, the people

Susan Larimer (41:46)

I love them.

Lisa Duck (41:48)

who wanna know all the deals. You’re sending out uh an email this week, but this

Susan Larimer (41:52)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (41:53)

week’s email was supposed to be.

completely value based. But my, my company just released a sale yesterday. Well I could still put that in there and send it only to the people who have indicated that they want to be

Susan Larimer (42:05)

Mm mm.

Lisa Duck (42:06)

notified of every single flash sale. Right? Yeah.

Susan Larimer (42:08)

Yeah. Got it. Okay.

Lisa Duck (42:11)

I never blast out. And I trust that people will find it. Your customers, your customers don’t always need you to tell them what’s there. Yes, that’s good. But yeah.

Susan Larimer (42:20)

Right. If they want something, they know where to find you. Yeah, yeah.

Lisa Duck (42:24)

Yeah,

for sure. All right. Let’s let’s end this with this this analogy because I I thought it was so good. But Susan does it justice. So Susan, take it away from here.

Susan Larimer (42:38)

Okay, so if you’ve listened to previous epis episodes, somehow we got stuck on like a restaurant analogy. We were talking about restaurants and waitresses and service. So this is another food analogy, but this is a meal analogy analogy. Um, so our theme is march to your own drum. Make your business and run your business your way. You are in control. So your holiday strategy.

is your meal. Okay? We’re using lots of analogies here. Your relationship with your customers is the table. Like Lisa said, the foundation, the firm foundation. The products and services are what you’re serving. Okay? You’re serving the food. Those are the products that you’re offering. Your marketing plan is how you’re inviting people to dinner.

So your sales, inviting them to make a purchase, your invitation, come to dinner with me, let me share my products with you, come to the table. Um, the surprise company promotion, those flash sales, those limited quantity sales, those are the gravy. And at first I’m like, what does that even mean? You don’t have to take the gravy.

You can have the gravy. The gravy can really enhance the flavor of your mashed potatoes or other products, but you don’t have to take the gravy. Um, it can make a meal better. You can pour it on all of your food items, or you can pass all together, but it’s completely up to the person. Um, and if it doesn’t belong on the plate, you don’t have to serve it. So you’re not gonna put um a pair of sneakers.

on your dinner plate. Has nothing to do with the meal and all of the food. Keep it off the plate. So you want to add

Lisa Duck (44:32)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (44:33)

anything to that?

Lisa Duck (44:34)

No, I just love that. When I when I heard that, I’m like, that makes total sense. Because I’ve always

Susan Larimer (44:38)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (44:39)

I’ve always thought about the company promos as the gravy to your business. They they can’t

Susan Larimer (44:43)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (44:44)

be the meat and potatoes. Um, it’s just that extra bonus. So if we think about it that way, then we know that, you know, we have already built the good, the good meal, the good um solid meal that’s gonna feed our family, feed our business.

And the company’s little bonuses are just gonna be that the little extras. The icing on the cake. Yeah.

Susan Larimer (45:06)

The icing on the cake.

Lisa Duck (45:10)

All right, everyone. Well, we brought you another long one. Here we are. But if you’ve made it to the end, thank you so much for your support. We truly appreciate you. And if you haven’t followed us on the platforms or liked and and subscribed and done all the things, please make sure you do that because it really helps us um

Get seen by others. So we hope that you join us for next week’s episode of the other 99%. Take care, everyone. Bye-bye.

Lisa Duck (45:39)

That’s a wrap for today’s episode of the other ninety-nine percent. If you enjoyed today’s conversation, be sure to like, share with a friend, leave a review, and subscribe so you never miss a new episode. We drop fresh content every Tuesday.