2020 was a very special year for Jérôme Hoerth, General Manager QN Europe. The European QN countries for which he is responsible experienced above-average growth in the first few months and required all of his organizational talent to cope with the rapid growth.
But the world changed completely unexpectedly, practically overnight. The coronavirus crisis came out of the blue. The first lockdown soon followed. All wheels came to a standstill. Naturally, this included the QN Network Marketing business, as it was no longer allowed to be conducted in person due to massive restrictions. However, Jérôme Hoerth promptly recognized the situation and reacted accordingly: don’t leave the sales partners out in the cold!
Solutions that could be implemented quickly were needed. “We didn’t have time for long discussions and decision-making processes,” recalls Hoerth. “I have been thinking for a long time about strengthening the opportunities for structure building and training via social media in the future and at the same time investing in product branding via these channels. But at the time, the future was still a vision with no fixed timeframe. Now everything had to happen very quickly. Out of the valley of lamentation, out of the comfort zone. Into digital communication! And always remember: we are a company that operates in almost all European countries. That means we have to be able to communicate in at least three languages right from the start.”
Fortunately, the course for social media had already been set before the coronavirus crisis. QN Europe was therefore able to hit the ground running and support its sales partners. Facebook Live and Instagram concepts were the first step. Exclusive virtual training for managers followed almost simultaneously in the social media recruiting area. The company’s webinars enabled the contactless presentation of the business model and products. All of these measures were gratefully received by the sales partners.
With up to 20 presentations a week in seven languages, the company was able to meet the needs of the network. This made it possible to support the sales partners in these unusual times. At the same time, they were able to show what is actually possible online. Hoerth knows that in order to use social media to acquire customers, you can’t just walk in the door. The personal brand must be authentically built up and strengthened. This is the only way to attract attention and find like-minded people who may then talk about the business offline.
Always leading by example, Hoerth has applied what was recommended and taught to the sales partners himself, thereby proving that it works.
QN Europe has developed an online training system that takes all new partners by the hand in a virtual academy and accompanies them step by step. This support is available both online and offline. In this way, QN Europe complements the work of its managers with a tool that, according to Jérôme Hoerth, “really helps every new partner to grow”.
In fact, the apparent restrictions imposed by Corona are opening up completely new perspectives, especially for a distribution company like QN Europe that has been acting with foresight for years. It encourages a rethink. Decentralization is being given space in places where centralization previously dominated the community – and sometimes limited it.
Just the realization of what is possible when a team takes a running start and moves out of its comfort zone gives you an idea of the potential of this company. This also applies to the sales partners. Everything that used to be organized by the teams in terms of events has been converted to digital – and with a level of professionalism that puts many organizers in the shade. “The digital age is truly being lived by our partners,” says Hoerth proudly.
QN Europe has not only arrived in digitalization, QN Europe is already living digitalization in its entirety for the benefit of its sales partners. In recognition of the massive digital support provided to sales partners, Network-Karriere is presenting QN Europe with the DIGITAL BUSINESS AWARD 2020.
Jérôme Hoerth, General Manager QN Europe: “We are proud but also humbled to receive this award. Humility because, despite the enormous progress we have made, we are still in the process of digital development and will also incorporate artificial intelligence into our measures in the future. However, our network must also be praised at this point. We are very proud that the measures we have initiated and implemented have been accepted and implemented by our sales partners. So many sales partners have ventured out of their comfort zone this year. The great thing is that they have also taken the credit. We are so proud of this award and thank Network Careers for this recognition, which also goes to our sales partners!”
