I began building my dōTERRA business in November of 2015. My sister had placed me on her frontline and I already had a pretty solid Director team when I decided to actually do the business side. That month I hit Elite. The following month I hit Premier. I then decided that I wanted to build slowly and organically. I would grow into each rank every November.
November 2016 came along and we hit Silver. In 2017 it was Gold. Then in 2018 our team grew to Platinum.
Every November I made a plan. I connected with my sharers, builders, and leaders to see if they were on the same page as me. We made plans together. We taught together. We moved mountains together.
Novembers have always been my favorite season in dōTERRA.
Having this blog now, I felt it was SO important to share my steps with others so YOU TOO can move those same mountains and reach your business goals!
Whether it be November, January, or June, it doesn’t matter. Follow these steps, add your own, and take ACTION to make it through the journey!
Step 1: Make A Plan
This is a step that cannot be missed. Before you start anything, you want to make a plan to get there. I don’t need to tell you about how making a plan to rank up is like having a map before you go on a road trip. You need to know how to get there, right?
For all the examples I’m using in this blog post, I’ll be referring to November. If you read this in winter, spring, or summer, use the month that coordinates with your plan!
For me, I would have my plan set up over the last week of October. I would take the following steps:
1. Connect with all my active Wellness Advocates (sharers, builders, or leaders) to review THEIR goals (these rank-ups weren’t about me) and set up plans with them (teaching, supporting, mentor calls, etc).
2. Complete my own rank planner (used to be builder worksheets back in the day!) to see where I would need to put my focus, how many classes I would need to teach, etc.
3. Book my own classes and classes with my team.
4. Set up a night for a customer appreciation event (see more below).
5. Make my plan for the Holiday Catalogue launch (on Oct 30th).
6. Sign up for vendor events on November’s weekends to book classes, enrol people, and sell oils.
7. Set up the Testimonial Challenge for my FB customer group.
Step 2: Testimonial Challenge
The first Testimonial Challenge I did was the month I ended up hitting Platinum. I owe SO MUCH to this challenge! Here are the benefits my team and I received by doing this challenge in a planned rank-up month:
- Our group page of around 300 members went from having next to no engagement to TONS of engagement!
- Our customers learned an incredible amount about how to use the oils they already had.
- Everyone received a PDF ‘wish list’ so they could keep track of oils they didn’t yet have and the reasons they wanted it (based on testimonials).
- Because the testimonials came from OTHER customers – and not us WAs – it wasn’t like we were trying to ‘sell’ anyone on anything, so trust in the oils was built.
- It created loyalty.
- It created well-educated customers who began to use their oils more frequently.
- It brought questions to the surface about how to order on LRP for those who didn’t order already.
Once the challenge was over, we made it into a FB Unit so it could be accessed by anyone ever wanting to know more about any of the oils we discussed. As you can see from this photo, we had over 1500 testimonials in that one month!!
Step 3: Customer Appreciation Event
As a lover of planning events (and being an event-producer myself), I really felt that doing a customer appreciation event for our loyal customers (most of which were on LRP) was important. I really wanted them to feel acknowledge and appreciated for upleveling their health and the wellness of their families.
My vision was to have an event in a public place (vs my home) so we could invite a big group of people and would have the space required to make them feel loved and cared for with various ‘stations’.
After speaking with my most active builders, we agreed that everyone could pick a few of their most loyal customer to invite. We made this invitation SO IMPORTANT so they knew and understood that if they couldn’t make it, they needed to let us know so we could reach out to someone else. In the end, only one person had to cancel, but gave her ticket to her aunt who ended up a customer!
I cannot express enough how our event made our customers feel! We had activities for them to do, lots of prizes, food to sample (made with oils, of course!) and many tables/stations to visit where they did make-and-takes, received hand massages, and so much more!
These customers paid nothing to attend and felt no pressure for anything except to accept the love and care we were giving them as a thank you. This led to many referrals, bigger LRPs (they were trying so many oils they didn’t know much about!), classes booked, and overall joy!
If you want the complete step-by-step course that will walk you through exactly how to put on this same customer appreciation event, you can check out my course here! And, since you’re SERIOUS about moving your biz forward (I mean, you wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t, right?!) then I’d like to gift you with the code NOVEMBERRANKUP for receive 50% off the course!
Step 4: A Well-Planned BOGO Strategy
November was always a suspected BOGO month, so I made sure I had a plan in place for when that post was released by dōTERRA with all the EXCITEMENT about BOGOs!!
These are literally the steps I’ve done for every single BOGO month (no matter how they’ve gone about releasing BOGOs):
- Once I know what the BOGOs are, I create an info sheet in Canva with the names of the oils in the BOGO, their benefits, recipes, and oils they pair well with (see example below)
- I take the ‘Primary Benefits’ of the BOGO oils from dōTERRA’s product pages and paste them into a FB post as well as in an email.
- I share my own testimonials about each oil on the FB post and in the email.
- I add suggestions for use in the FB post and in the email.
- I also like to add a contest just for fun – for those who purchase every BOGO, they get a ballot to win a prize pack (I’ll usually make it something like an Essential Life book or things other than oils). Or I’ll have everyone receive a ballot for each BOGO they purchase – they just send me a screen shot of their receipt!
Then off I send the email and post the FB post, using images of the BOGO oils with their pricing as well as the above info sheet.
Believe it or not, I usually do this around 4-5am so EVERYONE will have this email when they wake up. It might sound crazy, but I have customers who LOVE getting up on BOGO days to get educated on all the oils!
I’ve also heard from many who say they wouldn’t have purchased the BOGOs if they didn’t know all the great reasons to buy. So, no matter what you decide to do, be sure to make education one of the key factors in your BOGO planning.
When it comes to retail customers, BOGOs are the BEST time to turn retail purchasers into actual customers. Show them the price difference over 5 days of BOGO purchases – it only makes sense to buy them with a membership because it pays for itself!
Step 5: Flash BOGO Day
It was 2018 and we had one week left until the end of November and we still had quite a lot to go before we could hit Platinum. Then my hubby came up with a BRILLIANT idea! Why not do our own FLASH BOGO DAY?
Can you tell I like lists? Here’s another one (last one, I swear, but you’ll love it). This is what we did, step-by-step, to get the final volume in to make it all the way to Platinum (and with days to go before the end of the month!):
- We sat down and figured out exactly how much volume was needed and where (everywhere….lol).
- We searched through my stash of oils, through a prize bin I have (with small things like roller bottles, USB diffuser sticks, key chain holders, diffuser bracelets, etc) and gathered all the things that would fit into an envelope easily.
- We created our own little BOGO deals based on how much volume we needed and how many similar items I had to match the sale. For example, we did ‘Buy Serenity, receive an aromatherapy bracelet and USB stick’. Knowing how much PV Serenity was, we had an idea of how much volume it would bring into the various teams.
- We limited EVERY flash BOGO to the number of free stuff I had. For example, if I only had 6 aromatherapy bracelets and USB sticks, then it would go to the FIRST 6 people to respond and confirm with me! Once they purchased the oil on their account and sent me their receipt, I would send out their freebies! This created a rush of excitement, everyone wanting to be the first to respond and get their freebie!
- We planned out an entire day where we would release a new BOGO every hour on the hour.
- The day before this Flash BOGO sale we put together, I went live on our FB page to explain how it was going to work.
- On the day of the sale, I had scheduled posts (images made in Canva) every one of those 6 hours to explain the hour’s BOGO. Messages came streaming in and for almost every Flash BOGO, they were sold out before the hour was up. It was awesome! And SO MUCH FUN!
It brought me tons of joy to continue the idea of giving back to customers (after the customer appreciation event) and they loved getting free stuff! It was also helpful that we had the Testimonial Challenge all month because some of the oils I chose for them to purchase for the Flash BOGO was based on the most popular Testimonials we had. Weaving it all together made so much sense and really made such an impact on the month.
Final Thoughts
In a big, growing, rank-up month, be prepared for it all. Get ready to cry, to have fears come up, to be challenged, to have obstacles. Like a flat tire (true story).
Hold onto your goal, keep it in your sight, and (like I know every says) DON’T GIVE UP! You would be so surprised what can happen when you keep at it, stay in your lane (read: don’t compare yourself to anyone else), and keep moving forward.
Make yourself a playlist of music that inspires you and play it constantly.
Visualize the moment your back offices changes to that new rank. And do it daily, with ALL the emotions (maybe save this for when you’re in the shower so you can cry with joy in private lol).
Create a special blend with oils you love and call it ‘I am ________’ (whatever rank you’re going to be at the end of the month). Keep it in your pocket all month and use it all the time.
Finally, when that moment happens and your back office changes to that new rank, you comment below because I want to hear all the joy and excitement and the work and the fears you broke through to get there!
Are you working on growing into a rank right now? Comment below as well so I can cheer you on!
