August was an interesting month for me. I had some really big goals but I was unable to meet them. It was all beginning to seem like nothing that I was doin was working and I was getting nowhere fast in my business.
Two days after my birthday my education company announced an additional incentive to help us with recruiting. I promptly let the 2 people who were interested in joining the company know. That day I got my first team member. She was in the middle of buying a house and moving so I gave her some space to get settled so I haven't met with her yet to get her started. Yesterday was the last day of the month. I emailed the other person who had been interested a final reminder email of our incentives and that they were ending and by the end of the day I had my 2nd team member.
The first 3 months are very important to a new direct sales business. That is when you will have access to the fast track bonuses which will help to build inventory or income. A successful 1st 3 months will often be the deciding factor in keeping a new team member. That being said those first 3 months are crucial to you as a leader in building each team member.
So now that I have team members what should I be doing? The very first thing is to have a meeting with them. Either in person or by phone depending on how close they live. That 1st interview is so important in determining how you can best create an action plat to help your new team member meet their goals.
Finding out why they joined and what their goals are in their business is vital to your successful leadership. You can not help a new team member achieve their dreams if you do not know what that is. Yes your goal may be to reach the top of the company pay scale, but your new team member may just have a goal to make $500 more a month. Your job as a leader is to help them reach their goals not your goals.
As a leader you must realize that it is up to you to make sure that your team members have all the information, tools and encouragement that they need to reach their goals. Once you have done that you can not do the work for them. Don't waste your energy on a team member that doesn't follow through or keep commitments. Put your energy into team members who are putting forth the effort. As long as they are working a plan to grow their business, be available to help when its needed. Otherwise check in with those team members who seem to lack commitment, but wait for them to decide that they are ready to commit to growing their business and meeting their goals.
Just like raising a child, raising a team member is a process of helping them learn and grow until they are independent enough to do things on their own without you holding their hand. Yes that means putting a lot of time and energy into building that new team member and then slowly backing off as they gain more confidence and skill. Encourage them to incorporate a program of personal and professional development.
One more thing while you are expending energy to develop new team members and growing their business, don't forget to expend energy on building your own business. Most direct sales businesses require team leaders to be doing a minimum amount of sales in order to receive team building bonuses. Direct sales is all about sales. So the money might be in building your team, but the money isn't there if you are not all making sales.
I am excited to embark on this next stage of my personal and professional development. Helping others reach their goals is a new challenge for me and I can't wait to help others be the best that they can be.
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