Your new recruits are probably very excited, nervous and downright scared! They are anxious to get started earning money, confidence with their products and a steady business growth. But are you casting them to the world too soon?

Many sellers we consult with offer to help their new recruits with their first party or two. Once the recruit has a party booked, the recruiter attends to assist and guide them until they feel comfortable. However, some of the most successful sellers we work with go one step better: they offer a New Recruit Practice Party.

Each of your new recruits could be invited to such a “practice party.” This party would involve each of the new recruits you’ve signed up that month. Each of these new recruits should invite two people to attend the practice party. Having friendly faces in the crowd always helps to steady jitters. The party should include their friends/relatives and possibly a couple of your own more successful and seasoned team members. The team members can offer valuable advice and tips to newbie recruits for boosting their sales, how to present, ideas for party games, etc. They will be excellent at “critiquing” the newbies and offering useful and applicable tips.

These parties should be segmented so each recruit gets the chance to do a part of the presentation. The presentations should be divided up and each recruit does a separate item, service, etc. They should each be involved in the sales part of the presentation (usually toward the end).

These parties are fun and relaxing and perfect for new recruits to “get the bugs out” of their presentation skills, sales skills, etc. The guests should be informed that it is a practice party and everyone will feel more relaxed knowing that fact. Guests are at ease and the newbie sellers will feel more freedom in giving information, showing the products and practicing their sales skills.

Recruits will feel much more comfortable knowing that they have this practice party (or even two) in order to develop their confidence and skills before setting off themselves. Since it won’t be billed as a “real” sales party it will set them at ease. Of course, it should be a selling situation as well. It should be productive financially but very casual and easy-going (read: lots of laughter, a few goof-ups, but ultimately a confidence builder!).

As their recruiter you can attend the party to offer them tips, suggestions on their techniques, etc. This can be done after the party at a personal consultation session or as a group session after the party. This is when the seasoned team members should offer their own ideas on how to run a profitable party. Recruits can learn from others’ mistakes and their own triumphs.

Some sellers even go so far as to pair up a newbie with a seasoned team leader. They work together until the new recruit feels comfortable on her own. Using this tactic helps get the newbie off to a faster start, earn more at her parties and streamline her party/presentation skills. Remember, an earning recruit is a happy recruit!

K. Moehr is President of Moehr & Associates, a marketing firm that specializes in helping motivated direct sales professionals grow their business. Moehr & Associates is publisher of numerous marketing books and newsletters, including the Direct Seller Guide and Top Sellers Tell. Learn more at: http://www.isellmoretoday.com or email sales@isellmoretoday.com

It’s so much fun to get an email or phone call from someone saying, “I want to know about your opportunity.”

Those words are the start of the interview process. If you just sign someone up without an interview, you lose the entire relationship and direct sales is a relationship business.

There are so many things you can share and ask about during the interview. Here are a few of the things I like to ask:

1. I like to begin by asking questions about direct sales such as: What made you decide to get involved in direct sales? Have you ever been involved before? Do you know others who are involved? These questions are a great door opener with no right or wrong answers.

2. What are your expectations for this business? Once again, there is not a right or wrong answer. No two people have the same goals for their businesses. When I first began, my goal was to be able to make a car payment. I’ve actually never met anyone else over the years with that same goal. If someone has unrealistic expectations, this will be a perfect opportunity to reset some possible first goals with them.

3. How do you see yourself marketing this business? Everyone has a different vision of how they’ll sell the products and how they plan to get the word out. Depending on the answer, this is a great opportunity for you to present some additional marketing ideas.

Get personal. I don’t mean “too much information” but I always share some of my hobbies, that I’m a mom, where I live and other small things that can help make a connection between me and the person I’m talking to.

These interviews can take place over the phone, in person, via email or even via an IM chat.  Get to know the person wanting to join your team. Start the relationship from day one.

Audrey Okaneko has been in direct sales since 1983. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or you can Become a Tupperware Consultant

In direct sales leadership mindset is one of the critical factors to success. The right mindset can move you quickly through the ranks toward upper-level leadership. Developing the proper mindset takes work. And most often we as leaders fall short in teh critical area of setting boundaries and expectations.

In previous articles, I’ve talked about the power of setting expectations with your hosts. As a direct sales leader, it is equally important to set expectations with your personal recruits as well as other team members. Failing to set healthy boundaries in your business can often result in being pushed to do too much hand-holding, and is often at the expense of your own personal book of direct sales business.

Here are “the don’ts” – five of my top ten tips for setting clear expectations with your direct sales team:

1. Don’t waffle. As leaders, we want to help our teams be successful. In as much as we need to be firm with expectations when communicating with our hosts, so too must we be firm with the expectations we set with our teams. Adhere to your call-in hours, and when someone tries to violate them, be firm, and clear. Respect their time, and they will learn to respect yours.

2. Don’t coddle. Hand-holding is not doing your consultants any favors. You are actually enabling them, and they will come to you for everything – including the resources they could easily find on their own. Quality leadership means training your team to know where to go to get their questions answered. You should only be the last resort resource and the go-to for new training, tools and advice. Require your team to understand the consultant manual, order entry, presentation basics and how to hold a recruiting interview. While it’s a nice ego boost to be asked to assist on a recruiting call, it’s hardly the best use of your time if you could be holding your own appointments in that time slot.

3. Don’t give up your own book of business. See number two above. If you’re spending all your time working with consultants, when do you have time to work your own book of business? Make your own business a priority and lead by example. A healthy calendar full of appointments that serve your own business is just as important as coaching and training time with your team.

4. Don’t give up your life. The only thing perhaps more important than number three above is to make time for your personal needs and your personal life. Direct Sales is a vehicle to make your dreams come true, but if you’re bogged down in the grunt work of your business, you’ll never have time to live that dream. Delegate the non-essentials to your team or an assistant (see number 5).

5. Don’t do it alone. Whether you have family support, team support or a personal assistant for your business, know your limits, and find qualified help to handle the rest. A true leader focuses on what I call IPA – Important Personal Activies or Income Producing Activities. When you step into a leadership role, it’s silly to try to keep all the plates spinning by yourself. You’ve earned the right to have help. Ask for it!

These five tips are foundational to a healthy set of boundaries as a direct sales leader. Without them, you’ll spend too much time not making money. That’s a sure fire way to go out of business fast.

Lisa Robbin Young offers direct sales coaching and training to direct sales professionals looking to grow their business like a real business instead of an expensive hobby. Sign up for her free weekly ezine at http://www.homepartysolution.com.

When coaching with my direct sales clients, one of the first things that always seems to come up is a discussion about recruiting. Most direct sales professionals understand that if they want to earn a comfortable six-figure income (or more), leadership is a necessary component to build a strong book of business.

A lot goes into being a direct sales leader. Whether you’re a leader of one or one hundred thousand. I’ve written previously about retention strategies, leading by example, and other qualities that a direct sales leader needs in order to successfully navigate being a leader. This series of articles serves as a starting point for more of the mindset issues that leaders face when trying to lead by example.

Only You Can Motivate You Motivation is a curious thing. No one else can motivate you, they can only inspire you to take action. Motivation (the latin root means to move) is about movement and action. No one else can take action for you. You must take action, therefore, you must motivate yourself.

In direct sales, we talk extensively about a person’s “why” – the reason they joined the business, or more to the point, the surface-level reason that they stay in the business. To be frank, a “why” will rarely, if ever, sufficiently motivate a direct sales consultant to keep working when times are tough.

As a leader, you must identify the “what” of your team. Once you’ve ascertained a consultant’s “why”, you need to dig deeper. It means sometimes hitting an emotional hot spot, and could even result in a few tears. If you’re a leader working from a place of compassion, that’s perfectly fine. The objective is to discover “what” really motivates them to stay engaged in the business. Here’s what I mean: A consultant may tell you that they joined the business because they want to be able to pay for their children’s college education. That’s a great “why”, but there’s a deeper reason here. Perhaps, upon further investigation, you discover that paying for their children’s college education is important to them because they weren’t able to go to school themselves, and they see a college education as a symbol of freedom from financial bondage and hope for a better life for their children. So their “what” is really freedom from financial bondage and hope for a better life for their children.

It takes time and you must build relationships with your team in order to dig this deep. It’s rare that a person will be able to bridge this kind of emotional gap on a first encounter, although it’s possible. You must demonstrate compassion and be a trusted source before someone will share their “what” with you. That’s logical, though, because it’s hard to share what sometimes may hurt.

And who’s the best consultant on your team with which to practice this new skill? You.

Get clear on your “what” before you ever approach your team. Knowing what motivates you makes it easier to share and connect with your team – especially when times are tough. It’s up to you to take the necessary actions to move your business forward. If you’re leading by example, you’ll need to know what really motivates you before you can ever inspire your team to get motivated themselves.

Lisa Robbin Young offers direct sales coaching and training to direct sales professionals looking to grow their business like a real business instead of an expensive hobby. Sign up for her free weekly ezine at http://www.homepartysolution.com.

Part of being a great party plan professional and network marketer is being well rounded. You want to be good at booking parties, good at boosting sales, and great at recruiting. You’ll notice that recruiting is on the end of that list. This is usually the progression that distributors take in building their business but the number one thing I hear when speaking to team leaders is that they wished they had started recruiting earlier. When starting a new venture like doing home parties or network marketing most people get nervous about signing someone on under them when they are so new themselves. The truth is though, you don’t have to be an expert to be a good team leader! This is something we all learn eventually but how can you get your new recruits over this barrier? Or how do you get your current team leaders to want to start their own team? Well the answers aren’t as difficult as you’d think! Here are four ways to turn your team into team leaders.

1. Make Recruiting a Part of Your Interview Process: Most of the time when we are talking about the business opportunity we focus on number of parties and commissions on sales. Are you incorporating the fantastic recruiting benefits that your company offers? If not then you are wasting a resource that is there for the taking. Many companies have incentives to get new distributors to recruit. Studies have shown and it stands to reason that when you have recruit, even just one, you stay with the company longer and try harder to build your business. Make sure you are asking in your recruiting interviews if your prospect has someone they think would like to sign on with them. Not only will they feel more accountable having someone sign on under them, but they will get the recruiting bug and start to build a team of their own.

2. Lead by Example: Most people don’t sign up as network marketers or home party professionals because of the money. While the money is great, most people sign on to have fun. The people at your party see you having so much fun that they want to do the same thing. It is no different when being a team leader. Show your team how much fun it is being a leader! If you’re like most team leaders then working with your team may be the funnest part of your job! Make sure they know that. When you’re having fun and setting an example of how easy it is to lead then they will feel more confident that they can do it as well.

3. Be Replicable: Your team doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel when leading their own recruits. Make it easy for them by bottling everything you do and making it easy to duplicate. For instance if you are having the same conversations with new recruits every time you sign on someone new turn these conversations into articles you write and send to new recruits. You can create an autoresponder that sends out your “steps to success” series of articles to get your recruit off on the right track. Another thing that I do personally is open up my weekly phone trainings to everyone in my downline, this way my new team leaders don’t have to create content right off the bat but can invite their team to listen in. When my leaders are ready to do their own trainings I share my notes with them so they already have something to start with. By being consistent and creating these systems you can easily pass these on to recruiters on your team and make it easy for them as well. If you’re successful and everything you’re doing is replicable then your team can be just as successful as you.

4. Make a Special Place on your Team for Leadership: If you’re already doing trainings for your team, or writing newsletters create the trainings in the same format you’re already doing but gear it toward leaders. This doesn’t even have to be extra work, you could just reserve one newsletter a month, or one training every so often for team leaders only (or those that want to be team leaders). By making it special you’re making it desirable. When you sign someone new on ask them if they would like to be a part of your “insert cool name for your leadership group here” which is reserved for people that are serious about the business and want to become leaders. When they say yes not only are you providing them the information they need to become leaders but you’re putting the idea in their head that they already should be recruiting and they’re making a conscious decision to do so even before they’ve started!

There you have it. Four ways to turn your already rocking team into a team of amazing team leaders! The key to remember is that as a leader you don’t have to have all of the answers. This is where the mantra “for yourself not by yourself” comes in for home party professionals and network marketers. You always have your upline and other distributors to ask questions of if you don’t have the answer. Don’t let lack of experience keep you from recruiting or your team from recruiting!

The last thing I will leave you with which could really be a number 5 to this list is don’t forget to set recruiting goals with your team! So often we focus on bookings and sales, don’t forget to set goals with your team about how many distributors they would like to sign on, keep it always forefront in their mind and pretty soon you’re going to see your downline grow and branch out with new teams.

Holly Chantal, M.Ed, is a Certified Book Yourself Solid Coach who helps direct sales professionals streamline their businesses and book themselves solid with ideal customers, hostesses, and prospects. She is currently working in the direct sales industry and enjoys sharing her experience as she helps other professionals achieve their dreams. Receive a Hostess Coaching Audio Training when you sign up for her ezine at: http://www.hollychantal.com.

We’ve all experienced the excitement and sense of accomplishment when you sign on a new recruit with your direct sales company. They may be someone that you just met at your last home party, or maybe someone that you have been following up with for months and were just waiting for them to save up enough money to buy their starter kit and join you in the business.

It’s always an exciting time when someone decides to join your team, you can make new friends, earn awards, and increase your revenue. The only let down is when your new recruit quits even though you can see what great potential they have. It is important in this situation to not take your new recruit’s decision to leave direct sales personally. I’ve seen too many great team leaders get jaded and lose their love of recruiting because of those times when their recruits leave before they can even get started. While this can be a very frustrating part of direct sales and leading a team, I am going to explain a few of the warning signs to be aware of in your new recruit’s journey so that you can be prepared to help and hopefully avoid this dilemma.

1. Your new recruit starts to complain about not being able to book any parties. This is very common and I know you’ve heard it before, you may even have felt this way when you started your own direct sales business. A lot of people sign on in the height of excitement with dollar signs in their eyes and not a thought in their mind about how much work building their business is going to require. When thinking about the time commitment, most people only think about the time it takes to do a party and how many they want to do a week. They don’t take into consideration the time it takes for follow up calls and preparations. So the best way you can prepare your new recruit is to make a schedule with them right from the beginning with the times they are going to commit to building their business other than doing parties. Set them up for success by helping them create good habits from the beginning because we all know that when you put in the work calling prospects and following up with customers, the party bookings will come rolling in.

2. Your new recruit starts to miss team meetings, or never attends them to begin with. Most recruits will sign on for the financial freedom, and ability to work from home that direct sales provides, but in the end they stay because of the people they meet. Your recruit is much more likely to stick with her business if she immediately gets involved and meets other people doing the same thing. Your team meetings are crucial to getting a new recruit on track, and the over all retention of your team. In order to increase attendance at your team meetings it is important that you keep them consistent. In the Book Yourself Solid System we talk about your “always have something to invite people to offer” this is a consistent event that you hold for a few reasons, and your team meetings are no different. When you are consistent you are setting an example for your team, you’re making it easy to remember and therefore attend, and we know that when you create a habit or routine it makes a task easier to accomplish. You will also begin to establish a team culture with your meetings which can go a long way in increasing your satisfaction with your business as well as keep your team motivated and working as a cohesive group.

3. You new recruit starts to complain that they aren’t making any money. Many times even if your recruit is doing great at booking parties, you might still find that they are struggling in other aspects of your business. Sometimes team leaders take their own success for granted and assume that if your recruit is booking parties that they are automatically going to be making money. If you hear this from your recruit it is time to take action! There are many reasons why your recruit might not be making as much of a profit as they should be and if they are putting in the work to book parties you don’t want to lose them because of something that can easily be solved with a little coaching. Find out if their sales are low, or if they are just reinvesting too much money in their business. Many times new distributors get so excited about their new business that they end up spending a lot of money on marketing materials and knick knacks for their business. With some coaching you can help work through these issues with your new team member. You can give them techniques for increasing sales, go through their demo with them and look for things like a low average product price, or that they aren’t emphasizing the benefits of the larger ticket items. You can also help them create a budget for what they can reinvest into their business, or give them cheaper or free solutions for what they are trying to achieve.

4. Your new recruit stops returning your calls. Unfortunately this is the last and sometimes the final sign that you will see before your new recruit bails and there may not be a lot you can do. Chances are they have shown at least one of the first three signs listed here and you can try to save them. If your new recruit stops reaching out to you or even returning your communication my recommendation is to treat this situation much the same as you would with a hostess. Leave 3 phone messages a few days apart letting them know that you’d love to talk to them and that you’re always there to help if they need anything, as well as an email detailing the same information. Then check in once a month after that with a friendly message to see how they are doing.

The most important thing you want to keep in mind when you are working with a recruit and you see these signs is that their actions are not your responsibility. You can offer all of the support in the world, but unless your recruit takes initiative and works their business they aren’t going to be successful and that is not your fault! Be the best team leader you can be and set an example by building your business and the success of your team will follow.

Holly Chantal, M.Ed, is a Certified Book Yourself Solid Coach who helps direct sales professionals streamline their businesses and book themselves solid with ideal customers, hostesses, and prospects. She is currently working in the direct sales industry and enjoys sharing her experience as she helps other professionals achieve their dreams. Receive a Hostess Coaching Audio Training when you sign up for her ezine at: http://www.hollychantal.com

Alright so you here it all the time about people online sponsoring 20 to 30 people per month into their MLM business and you’re wondering how the heck they’re doing it right. Shoot you’d be happy to sponsor 5 people into your MLM business.

Well the fact is that that number may be a bit inflated. But even if they’re not the secret is that the people that you do sponsor into your home business are good solid leads that will do what you ask of them, and take your lead.

Basically you want people who see you as the person that they just HAVE to work with.

The Best Way to Get People to Look Up to You and Join Your MLM Business Opportunity…

For this to happen you can’t just show people how great you are in the MLM industry. You can’t just say “I can make you a ton of money” or “I have lots of great training to give you if you join with me in my business. Nope… you have to prove yourself beforehand. How do you do this?

Well the first thing that you have to make sure to do is provide a ton of value to that prospect. In other words you have to make them see that you have a boatload of very results oriented and effective knowledge that you’ll just hand them over for free.

Now a lot of people are afraid to that, but here’s why it works. Your MLM business prospect has something on their mind when it comes to you. That something is “what can this person do for me that everyone else can’t do”. So you have to prove that right off the bat. And then what happens is that they begin to think…well if they’re giving me this much valuable and usable information now…imagine what they’d give me if I joined with them in their business. Imagine how fast this person can show me how to become financially free.

So giving a ton of value up front is very important.

The next thing that you need though is credibility. Now credibility can come in a lot of different forms. The best kind of credibility is third party word of mouth credibility. Having others say great things about you is a wonderful way to get people to see you as the real deal.

Another great way of earning credibility though is almost a trick but it works. It’s being published! Being a published writer, having a video published somewhere other than your own website.

But here’s the great part. It doesn’t have to be published offline anymore. Having something published online these days is just as credible. So in other words if you have articles that you’ve written for you MLM business and you’ve published them at Ezinearticles.com and it shows that you’re an “Expert Author” then you’ve got credibility from that.

Because frankly, most people don’t realize that anyone can just write an article and publish it, so then when they read your article they think “wow, this guy must be good”.

Other places to look credible are through press releases, or guest posts on someone else’s blog, or a mention from someone else’s mailing list.

Then there’s always the biggie of having a print book published, and nowadays self publishing is easier than ever, and just about anyone with even a meager budget can do it.

So there you have it… A few great ways of having people nearly bragging over the fact that they’ve joined and partnered with you and your business.

David L. Feinstein, noted business coach and home business entrepreneur, is the author of various articles and books that help to empower individuals to excellence. He has become a success coach and mentor to many thousands of people who are looking for a better lifestyle and desire to achieve success. http://www.BuildingDynamicFutures.com

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