New Year, New Ninja Leader? Direct Sales Coaching Resolutions

This week I’m specifically talking to my leaders, my Ninja Coaches, people who excel at a particular skill or activity (i.e., coaching their direct sales team).

I resolve to…

• Lose 50 pounds.
• Save $1,000.
• Increase my customer base by 200 people.
• Get a beach body by going to the gym every day.

As we know, January is a time for resolutions. It’s a “new day,” a New Year even, and people are out there making these wild predictions. As a psychologist (and a watcher of people in general), I always wondered why. Why now. Why not, like, oh, I don’t know, last week. I’ve talked to a lot of new direct sellers who signed on in December who said they were going to wait until January to start their businesses.

I don’t get it.

Start now. Like NOW. Go. Now. Bye. GO.

BUT here’s what I do get. A new year is almost like a new “slate” – it’s an opportunity for you to make a goal and have a start date (January 1) and we all know that goals need start dates. And assessment dates (because we have to assess progress and make changes). And end dates (or why would we have the #EOMHustle right?!).

As a leader, you can do this too.

Take an honest look at yourself last year as a leader and a coach for your team. What did you do? What didn’t you do that maybe you should have? Where did you focus the most of your time?

• Leading by example? (This is huge by the way, and it IS part of coaching).
• One on one coaching calls?
• Pop up/party prep coaching?
• Stroking egos of team members who are feeling down about their business?
• Social media posting?
• Putting out fires?
• Telling people where to find shit that they should know how to find themselves?
• Sending out team incentives?
• Creating and managing team incentives?

Be honest with yourself. Write down what you spent your time doing last year (or at least for the last two quarters because we know November and December are cray-cray and not normal).

Now the next question. And it’s a hard one.

Did what you were doing get you where you wanted your team to be?

*Pause*

Clears throat.

Now, if it did? Fantastic! Fabulous! Do more of THAT!

If it didn’t…let’s assess.

Think about your ROI (return on investment). If you spend 10 hours per week posting to your team Facebook page and nobody is working…something ain’t working. If you spend 10 hours per week trying to get your team on the phone for one-on-ones, and they aren’t calling you back or scheduling a time…something ain’t working.

Side Bar…

I have heard leaders from different companies say, “People just don’t want to work!” So wait…your team member shelled out $99/$175/$50 for…what? A kit? Maybe but probably not. Team members typically don’t work their biz for two reasons: 1) they don’t know how to, and/or 2) they can’t find the time to work it into their already busy schedule.

Remember that whole resolution bit I talked about at the beginning? THEY resolved to start a thriving business in [enter start date here] and…nothing. Maybe they didn’t do the 60-day trainings, maybe they didn’t know how to, maybe they got caught up in life. For whatever reason, they had a dream, an idea, and it came in a box (all kits come in boxes right…?). And right now it’s on the back burner. It’s fizzling. (And by the way, they probably blame their network for not supporting them or the company for not helping them because humans are typically loathe to take the blame for something themselves).

So if you’re feeling frustrated with your team not working, if you have $0s on your team, think about those two things. Do they have the tools to be successful? If so, do they have the time? Something else to think about – sales is like addictive substances. And we all know this. Once you get a sale, you want another one. So if you have lifetime $0s on your team, their goal (in your mind at least) should be 1 sale. Get that 1 sale. Get it done, get it over with, log in to your dashboard and see a sale and get The Bug. If a team member says they’re too busy (and cheers to you for getting them on the phone or getting them to text back by the way), then coach them to that one sale. If it happens like we’ve seen it happen, The Bug will bring them back to you for help with time management. I have even told team members to copy my social media posts if that’s what it takes to push them into “drive.”

Because sometimes they’re not creative (or they don’t think they are).

Sometimes they are shy or don’t want to harass their network.

This is where our jobs, as leaders, comes in to remind them that they ARE creative in their own way, and that they AREN’T harassing their network if they truly love their product. And that’s the massaging egos part of our job.

Side Bar Over.

OK so back to work on you and your team. Some questions for you.

How much time did you spend planning? Planning your own personal business month, planning your social media posts to your team, planning your emails to your team, your texts to your team, scheduling your days when you will do one-on-ones (if you’re doing them haphazardly and whenever you can, I REALLY suggest you create office hours and do them then consistently and do an outside touch base with a team member only if they aren’t available during your office hours). Work your business (of coaching) like a business. We open at X and we close at Y (although good luck with that closing at Y bit, team members will text you at all hours sometimes). Hell, even plan to plan. I plan on Sunday nights. Every week. Here’s what I’m going to do and on what days. Team Member Jane has a party on Tuesday so I need to call her Monday and do a walk through (and remind her of that constant calendar). Write these things down. Don’t have a planner (or use your phone calendar or Google Calendar)? My gosh are you kidding me? How do you stay sane and organized? Do you? Git’r done.

What does your team snapshot for the last 6 months look like? Who’s consistent? Who are your rock stars? Who’s inconsistent? Who seems to have lost interest? Now, some silly questions. Where do you make the most money? Rock stars (and consistent rock stars are like whoa I love you). Are your rock stars self-sufficient? What do they need from you? A “good job” every once in a while? A shout out on a corporate Facebook post? Now look at your lower-level team members. I break them down into consistently over $1k, $500-$999, and under $500 (and then the lifetime $0s). Push all your consistent ladies to go just a LITTLE higher every month. In your monthly planning, look at their sales average for the last 4 months (don’t count November and December), add on some bucks, and talk to them about their goal (with your goal for them in mind). No comfort zones ladies – push them outside.

Do you track your team? I use an Excel spreadsheet and created tabs for overall sales (so there’s a new column every month with their sales from Dec-15 etc.), contact info (in case my phone dies a painful death), and then there’s a tab for “focus.” Sally hasn’t had a sale in 2 months. She’s on my January list. Rhonda hasn’t responded to my Facebook posts or emails for a few weeks, what’s up with that – she’s on my January list. So the focus tab is a work in progress and is based upon the overall sales tab. I also track their pop ups/parties in a calendar and contact them 2 weeks, 1 week, 2 days before, and 2 days after to talk about the different things that need to be done (especially initially – veteran team members are like ya ya I know – and as long as they do it, I’ll leave ‘em alone).

Do you break the goals down into bite-sized bits with your team? Team goal is $50k. 50 team members. $1k/team member. 4 weeks in the month, $250/week per team member. Average party is X, that means we need XYZ numbers of parties to reach our goal. Be sure to add in a cushion of a certain number of parties that will be $0 or get cancelled. I even break it down into daily goals sometimes (especially if there’s a promo going on like a sale – “Today we want to do $50 each – that’s 2 $25 sales or 5 $10 sales”). Think about that. Every single team member has a goal of 2 $25 sales today. That is a) easy, but b) forgettable (“I’ll just do it after I get out of work” NOT). So just like I drink 20 oz of water before I can have my morning coffee (so I can reach my water goal for the day), we need to coach them to work the sales early rather than late. “Get your goal met by breakfast and then maybe, heck, double it and feel awesome for the rest of the day…”

And last of all (because this is a long post), Do you have a growth mindset? Are you encouraging your team to recruit/find their +1/whatever your company does? Most well-thought-out recruits do wayyyy better than a random who joined off the website. Are you, in your head, increasing your monthly sales goal by $1k or so per month? Are you helping your team members grow as business people who new business knowledge and suggestions? Are you growing your own business?

You're still reading! High five!

Let’s close this out because I’m on page 8 and that’s just crazy. So your team didn’t do as well as you’d hoped last year. Or they did and you want them to do even better (growth mindset). Here are the Cliff Notes:

• Planning.
• Intentional contact with team members to encourage goal setting and reaching.
• Track and break down goals.
• Think in terms of growth.

Now do two things – first, pat yourself on the back for reading all of this, and second, high five. You got this. Now go be MORE awesome. How are you planning to be more awesome? Comment below and let me know!

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