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Posts Tagged ‘team leaders’

Today I am posting a copy of an article I wrote 4-5 years ago about how to recruit new team members into your Direct Sales business. Even after all of this time I still find the information in this article to be relevant so I wanted to post it here today on my blog for all of you.

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11 Essential Direct Sales Recruiting Tips For Team Building Success by Shelly Hill

I have been working in Direct Sales since 1989 and I have learnt a lot over those years as to what it takes to be a successful Direct Sales Recruiter. I have been one of the top 10 in recruiting in our Direct Sales Unit since 2003.

One question I am often asked is, how do you manage to get so many recruits? My reply is simple, I did my homework first on what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to talking to potential recruit leads.

Here are some recruiting tips that I have learnt over the years.

11 Essential Recruiting Tips

1. Never over-hype the business opportunity! Some people are leary of those who over-hype any business opportunity, making it sound too good to be true can scare people off. Always give straightand truthful facts about your companies business opportunity.

2. When talking to a possible recruit via phone or in person, always speak clearly, do not use slang words and make sure you sound like you are excited to be talking to them about your Home Business Opportunity. Try not to have other distractions going on at the same time in the background ie. kids screaming, hubby yelling etc. The new possible recruit deserves your undivided attention.

3. Allow the person you are speaking with to to ask you questions. During the conversation at several points, make sure you say “Do you have any questions for me?” then go on and answer them.

4. Make sure you educate yourself about the current New Consultant Specials that your company is running so you can explain them to the possible new recruit. You should inform your new potential recruit of all costs in starting this home business along with normal ongoing costs such as reordering of catalogs, monthly website fee’s, order form costs, mandatory quota’s and so forth.

5. I like to end my conversations with “I would like for you to think about all of this and you can contact me again if you have any questions for me” and let them know how they can contact you again via email, phone, mail or in person type of contact. Let them know when you are available ie. Your schedule.

6. After a few days or a week if you do not hear back from them, you can initiate contact again to see if they have any questions for you. Never assume they are not interested, sometimes they get busy with other things so always follow up with them atleast one additional time.

7. I keep a list of possible recruits, sometimes its just not feasible for them to join right now ie. money committments, family committments and so forth. The next time we run a good new consultant special, I pull my list and initiate contact with them again. This has worked several times for me in getting new recruits! Just because they say no now, doesnt mean you will get another no in a few weeks!

8. I try to connect with all recruits on a personal level too. I tell them why I joined and started my own home business, a little about myself and why this company has worked for me. This gives them a personal connection. I also ask if they have children or if they are married and how this business can work for them around their family obligations and so forth.

9. Always be honest when recruiting! Dont lie and say you are making thousands of dollars! Let them know that with any business or job, it does take consistent work. Hard Work does pay off!

10. After I get a new recruit, I always follow up! I like to email them and let them know I am available to answer questions or to help them get started any way I can. I also like to snail mail them a Thank You card with my personal contact info inside it. I always make myself available at any time to answer any of their questions or to offer help when they need it.

11. Consistent Contact with New Recruits is essential for them to stay in it for the long haul. Keep in contact with them via phone, email, postal mail, team meetings etc. This keeps them connected to you and well informed about the business they are now involved in.

Remember, When you recruit…its also your job to help them get started by answering any questions they have. You just don’t sign them up and never contact them again. That makes for bad business relationships! The more help you offer and the more connection you make with them the better recruit they will be for you!

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out this site!

A few days ago I had a friend email me because she is considering joining one of the direct sales companies and wanted my thoughts and opinions about the company she was considering joining. When I asked her to email me the information that the consultant gave her when she requested the business opportunity information I was really floored at what this consultant DIDN’T give her.

What do I mean? Well…no wonder my friend was “lost” and had to ask me for my opinion because this consultant was so dang vague in the information she gave her that I couldn’t even make “heads” or “tails” with it either. The consultant didn’t give her any type of commission structure numbers, nothing about downline recruiting or the recruiting structure and she didn’t even explain the sign up process. Seriously…what she sent her was 3 very vague paragraphs about what it cost to join and where to sign up. WTH? ugh!

So today I thought I would discuss this topic on my blog. If you are emailing prospects information about your company’s business opportunity program you need to make sure that you are giving factual and detailed information about the cost to join, how to join, quota’s that the company has, recruiting policies, commission structure, recruiting specials, training programs for new consultants, etc. etc. etc.

You can not email people 2-3 vague paragraphs and think they want to join your team and your company when you are not taking the time to thoroughly answer their questions and to provide them detailed information!!! No one wants to join a company blindly and if you are not going to provide that prospect with the information they need up front and quickly that prospect will go elsewhere to get the info and you will lose the prospect to someone else in your company.

That is my 2 cents on this topic so please make sure you are providing enough information to your prospects when they request it via your web site (consultant rep site) or  if they request it via email. If you take the time out to thoroughly deliver the information needed so that they can make a good informed decision you will see your recruiting numbers CLIMB instead of DECLINE.

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out this site!

As a Direct Sales team leader, I like to provide a way for my teammates to interact and communicate with one another. One of the ways I like to do this is by having a group message board, but there are certainly other ways you can do this that will suit your team’s needs.

1. Group Blog – You can set up a free blog and give all of your teammates the log-in information. They can read your updates, business tips and post their own.

2. Email Group – One of the most popular sites online that offer a group email loop is Yahoo. You can upload files, photo’s and store archived posts. Your members can get individual postings or a daily digest of postings delivered to their email in-box. You can set it up that you are the only one allowed to post to it or keep it open so that your group can post and respond to messages too.

3. Message Board – Having your own group message board is one of the most efficient ways to communicate with your team online. All posts can be categorized into topics and archived. Your group members can log-in when its convenient for them, read and respond to posts or ask for ideas from other group members. There are a lot of sites online that offer free or low-cost message boards. I recommend setting your message boards to private that way only you and your group have access to them.

4. Group Facebook Page – These days you can set up a private page for you and your group on the popular Facebook website. This is an option, however…I don’t feel it’s the best option for group interaction because your postings are not easily organized into topics.

5. Chat Rooms – If you are not looking for a way to have your discussions and topics archived for future use, you could set up weekly group chats in a free online chat room.

6. Teleconference Phone Calls – You can set up teleconference phone calls for your group and these calls can be recorded for the team members who couldn’t attend so that they can listen to the call when it’s convenient for them.

Why should you provide a way for your team to interact with one another? There are many benefits such as:

a. They can partner up to do parties or business events together.
b. As a group, they can hold brainstorming sessions to generate new ideas.
c. If you are using one of the first 4 options listed above, members can post questions and get timely responses when you are unavailable, from other members.

As your group grows and membership spreads out of your local area, you should provide a way for all members on your team to interact with one another as it helps to ‘instill’ the feeling of belonging to a team, we are all in this together.

This article is copyright 2009 by Shelly L. Hill, all rights reserved. This article can not be reprinted without Shelly’s official author’s bio attached to it. Please contact Shelly to obtain a copy.

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out this site!

Many consultants jump into Direct Sales and don’t know anything about it and they don’t take the time out to educate themselves on it and this is a big mistake!  Just like any “job” or any “business” you need to know what you are doing and if you don’t know…well, you need to take the time out and educate yourself on it!

One good source of business education when it comes to Direct Sales is education that is provided to you from your corporate offices. This can be training seminars, company sponsored conferences, online webinars, phone teleseminars, etc. Whatever your company offers in business training it is YOUR job to take it! Many consultants “blow it off” and make “excuses” as to why they don’t participate in company sponsored training. Like I said, that is a big mistake!

Many Direct Sales companies already know what works and doesn’t work in regards to having a DS business and they tailor their training programs around what they know to be a successful system. They want to teach this system to you so that you can have a successful business. So…whatever training that is offered to you by the home office, make sure you take it!

Another good source of business education comes from your immediate and distant upline managers and team leaders. As someone who worked in Direct Sales for over 23 years…I can personally tell you that over the years only about 40-45% of my downline team ever attended my meetings and/or rallies. Many said they were too busy, had kids, too tired, blah blah blah and let me tell you…those who did attend my meetings and those who did attend company sponsored training sessions were more successful than those who did not. Now grant ya…this doesn’t apply to everyone but it does apply to those who have NEVER done Direct Sales before and just jump in with no intentions on getting officially trained!

Now…do you need to attend all of the training opportunities that are offered to you? No…we all have real lives and we all are busy people but you should participate in as many of them that you can so that you are constantly learning new business skills and staying on top of what works in Direct Sales and what doesn’t.

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out this site!

Often times I see consultants giving customers discounts if they purchase products from them. When I ask them why they are giving them these discounts they tell me that they want the customer’s business so giving them a discount will entice the order from the customer.

Well..that might be true and I say “might” because if you are just blindly giving out discounts to people to just get their order it is REALLY going to take a “bite” out of the amount of money that you earn.

In my honest opinion you should not be placing a slew of advertisements (in-print online or offline) offering customers a big discount if they come buy their products from you because you are in a direct sales business to make MONEY. With most direct sales company you earn 25% to 40% in commission and if you are giving a slew of people 10% to 20% off their purchases with you…well…that adds up and that big chunk of discounts takes a huge bite out of your wallet.

I think if you are going to give discounts out to folks it should be LIMITED…like 10% off their FIRST order from you or 10% off their 10th purchase from you or something along those lines. However, I wouldn’t be placing a slew of ads all over the place allowing every Tom, Dick and Harry to take advantage of that discount.

In addition…it should never be a discount with NO expiration date!!! If you really want discounts to work for you they should have an expiration date of 60 days or less so that it encourages the customer to order sooner than later (later…they could forget).

I do believe in giving discounts but on a very limited basis because in direct sales we are not like big retail stores that can take big cuts into our profit line. So my advice…don’t sell yourself short. If you are going to give customer’s discounts…give it to only a few of them at a time and make sure they have a 60 days or less expiration date.

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out this site!

Back in the old days of Direct Sales Marketing leaders used to train their downline consultants to “pressure” folks to get the sale. I am here to tell you that pressuring people to book parties from you or pressuring people to give you the sale is a tactic that you should NOT be practicing! Why you might ask?

Well…to me it is common sense but I will explain why. I am sure that the majority of people in this world have been pressured at one time or another to purchase something and/or to book a party from someone. I want you to remember how you “felt” when that person was pressuring you for the sale or the booking? How did that make you feel? It certainly didn’t make you happy did it? Of course not!

We all get into Direct Sales to make money and that does mean that you need to be talking to people and asking them for the “sale” but…asking them and pressuring them are entirely two different things. If the person tells you they are not interested then you really need to back off and find someone else to talk to about your business and products. If the person says…”not right now” then make a note of that and contact them in a few weeks. (don’t contact them tomorrow!).

Pressuring people to book parties and/or to give you an order is really not the way to go. You can get bookings and orders without pressuring people and “irking” them off. You want to come across as a professional and a gentle/caring person…not as a bully who is asking them to spend their money with you.

So…the next time you are pitching your business to another person just remember that pressuring them is really not the way to go.

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out this site!