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!

Do you find my posts useful? If so, sign up to receive emails in your in box whenever I post – on the right put in your email under Follow By Email! Also, sharing is caring – share my posts with other direct sellers you know so they can check it out! Join the Direct Sales Mavens Facebook Community here and let’s help each other achieve our goals!

Personal Goals – In Life and Direct Sales

When I was a kid, I was a big reader. I read everything. My grandmother, Missy, would buy me books (Nancy Drew, Babysitters Club), and I would be done with them by the end of the day. Book-a-saurus Rex.

Then I went to college.

Since there was so much required reading, I didn’t have time for personal reading. Or I felt guilty reading for “fun” when I was supposed to be “working” (i.e., reading college textbooks).

Liz finally reading for fun...

After undergrad, I started graduate school and most of my “outside reading” was related to my content area (psychology). I wouldn’t really call it reading for “fun.” I finished my MA and found time for hobbies again and started reading more, but still I was usually reading non-fiction.

Then I started my PhD program. After that reading anything that wasn’t a textbook or journal article (or textbook for a class I was teaching) was laughable. I do that all DAY, why would I want to read for FUN?! And then there were kids…and reading for fun really just wasn’t feasible for me.

So why do I tell you this? For two reasons. This year, in January of 2015, I was on Goodreads and saw that they were doing a reading challenge. It basically asked you how many books you wanted to read in 2015 and would track it for you (and remind you, “Hey, you’re behind yo”). I thought, “Well, I could definitely do one per month if I read at night after the boys went to bed.” So that would be 12. But instead of just putting my goal at 12, I put my goal at 15. While this may not seem like that much of a difference, for someone who went from reading nothing every day for “free reading” to reading more than a book a month would be a stretch. Creating a goal that was outside of my comfort zone pushed me to go outside of my comfort zone. I knew 12 would be easy, so I made it a little above easy. I also wanted to do this because I remembered how much I enjoyed reading – I could get lost in a good book, and I wanted to be able to do that again. I needed a hobby that would increase my happiness.

How does this apply to you? This should be you in your business.

• Think about your goal for the next year. Remind yourself why this is your goal.
• Add some to it.
• Break it down month by month, week by week, heck, day by day if you have to!
• Write it down.
• Make yourself accountable (but Goodreads won’t email you to stay on track).

My goal for the next year is to hit a lifetime milestone of $30,000 in sales with my jewelry business. I am currently at $21k. I would like to do this before my 2-year anniversary (May 1) but that would mean I would have 4 months to do that, and honestly I think that would be setting myself up for failure because I know the months that are between then and now are not high sales months. So my goal is to do it before my 40^th birthday, which is November 14^th.

That means I have 10 months to do $9,000 in sales – that’s $900 per month in sales. Let’s go for $1,000 per month since we receive $50 in credits for every $500. I could even break that down further into $250 per week in each month.

Since a goal without a plan is a wish, my next step is to sit down and figure out exactly how I’m going to do that. Three parties per month (with approximately $300 in sales each) minimum plus one vendor event (to expand my network) plus consistent online selling. There’s my plan, but now how to implement – find vendor events, find hostesses, you get the deal. Set up my calendar to figure out when my available dates are. Look for (and book) local vendor events that I could attend. Figure out when important dates for possible fundraisers are and commit to donating a percentage of my commission to a related cause. Over-schedule parties around holidays (Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day) to make up for months that may not possibly do as well (i.e., SUMMER).

Now that I have a plan, I need someone to be accountable to besides myself. My team leader, Leslie, is a good friend and can give me the “B please” talk when I need to hear it, so my next step is to talk to her about my goal, show her my plan, and help her help me be accountable. If she wants, I’ll even poke her about her own personal goals as well.

And the writing it down part?

Just did it.

You read it.

$30k by November 14^th, 2016 baby.

Breaking down goals like this may seem like a lot of work, but you know what? The work is “front loaded” meaning it happens a lot at the beginning but once you implement it, you check in on it to make sure it’s working (and adjust the work, not the goal if it’s not). I’d love to add an “and that’s it” to that but…making $9k in sales in 11 months for someone who usually sells $500 or less per month isn’t a “and that’s it.”

But I’m doing it.

Watch me go.

So what’s your goal? Shout yourself out in the comments. I want to hear your business and/or personal goal. Read more (how much more)? Lose weight (how much)? Make sales? Grow your team? Save for a house? Whatchu got?

Do you find my posts useful? If so, sign up to receive emails in your in box whenever I post – on the right put in your email under Follow By Email! Also, sharing is caring – share my posts with other direct sellers you know so they can check it out! Join the Direct Sales Mavens Facebook Community here and let’s help each other achieve our goals!

Re-Energizing Your Direct Sales Business

Are you having a "summer lull?" I hear that a lot.


"Nobody is shopping because they're going on vacation."

"I can't find a hostess because everyone is so busy."

"I'm too busy to work my business."


It sounds as if our businesses need an injection of energy.

*Wouldn't it be great if WE could get an energy injection??*

Wait.

You can.

Need some strategies to get the love back (or to gain some momentum if you're just starting)?

1. Start with love for your product. If you don't love your product, why the heck should anyone else? Hello? Who wants to buy a car from a person who says, "Yeah, this car's OK. You want to buy it?" NOBODY. If you feel "lost" with your product, find your love again. If you sell jewelry, get yourself a new piece. If you sell beauty products, get yourself something new to try. Re-focus.

2. Re-focus with your "Why" too - everyone has a "why," why they joined their company. I mean, most of us had to pay for our starter kit. Did you have an idea of where that purchase would take you? You must have. So why did you sign up? And has your "why," why you work your business, changed? If so, figure it out - put pen to paper and tell yourself why you do this. As I ask my team members, "Why did you click the 'Sign-up' button?" Was it to make extra money to pay for...a vacation? Your child's schooling? To have a girly fund to pay for manicures and pedicures? Focus on it. Laser sharp focus. And remind yourself of it. Every. Day.

3. Get with your upline - do you have a mentor, a team leader, someone whose job it is to help you when you encounter problems? Talk to them. Develop a rapport or relationship with them. I will bet you that she/he WANTS to talk to you, and not just about business either. They should care about you as a person, be interested in your life (and your Why), and want to help you grow your business for YOU.

4. Take the summer to flash your wares. Everywhere you go is an opportunity to share your products. Use your bags at the beach. Wear your jewelry to a BBQ. Gift the hostess of a party one of your candles. Send a new mom a pampering package from your products. Can't find a hostess for a party? Bring the party with you everywhere you go. I have a Bounce Bag I bring with me everywhere (bounce as in "in case you need to get out quickly"). It has catalogs, samples, signage, business cards, pens, order forms, and a notebook to take notes on potential customers. I can, literally, have a party (or pop up as we call it) ANYWHERE. Your business is portable. Bring. It. Along.

5. Grow and learn. If you're not interested in learning about how to better your business, you wouldn't be reading this. Right? So spend 10-15 minutes a day (or longer if you can) learning something new about your business, about direct sales, about selling, about social media... never stop learning. Never stop implementing new strategies (but don't try them once and then decide they don't work - keep at it). Need some ideas? Check out my Pinterest board for Direct Sales. Pick a pin and "go with it" for the day.

Does your company offer national sales calls, trainings, and opportunities to learn about your products? Get at them. These are typically filled with suggestions, things to implement in your business that can fuel that fire that you want to keep you going. Use the opportunities you have available to you and WORK!


Create free infographics with Venngage.


So here's your homework:
- Check your "Why" - is it working for you? If not, tweak it. Write it down. Post it in your office space.
- Like the Direct Sales Mavens community page on Facebook and comment on the post for this week about your why. Shout It Loud And Proud!
- Connect with your mentor/upline. They want to talk to you. Set up a time to touch base with them this week.
- Learn one new thing this week and comment on this post with what you learned.

Go be amazing!
-Liz

Goal Setting for 2015, Chloe + Isabel Style

As the end of the year looms, it’s time to set some goals for 2015. We should set goals often and keep them visible to us to remind us of why we’re working. Goals that are written down are more likely to be accomplished so let’s start off 2015 by writing down some goals.

 

First, what is your goal for the year? Would you like to be able to pay your car payment every month with your C+I business? Would you like to take home $500 per month in commissions? Would you like to have at least one in-home pop up per month? Would you like to save for a vacation for your family? If so, how much do you want to save by December 2015?

Now break that goal down into monthly segments – how much do you need to make per month to pay off your credit card by December 2015? Divide that by 12 and see how much you would need to make per month. How much does that equate to in sales? Remember that commissions under $800 are 25%, commissions between $800 and $3,000 per month are 30%, and commissions over $3k per month are 35%. How much do you need to sell per month to reach that goal?

Once you know that goal, think of this: in-home pop ups typically garner $700 or more in sales, while online pop ups usually sell about $250-$300 (on average). How many of each do you need to schedule per month to reach your monthly goal? Add an extra one just for good measure since we all know that sometimes things don’t go as planned, and that is your pop up goal for your months. Go through your calendar for January and put in every required activity: work, school, and kids’ activities. Once you have done that, find your spaces and highlight them in green. This is when you can pop up. Have two hours on a Saturday? Offer a one-hour pop up with look books at a coffee shop. A pop up does not have to be a huge affair!

Now comes the question of how do we expand our networks so that we can have a constant calendar where our calendar is filled with pop ups with engaged hostesses? I’m going to focus more on networking in coming weeks, but start thinking about your next hostess. Whenever you pop up, the goal is to connect with customers and schedule at least one pop up from the attendees. This will help you expand your network and keep that constant calendar. You may want to create a hostess packet that includes a look book, a wish list for your hostess to create her list, and a guest list worksheet that you create. You can also put other things in there such as candy or a note – make it personal for you! Bring your hostess packet with you to every pop up with the intention of finding your next hostess at the party. Doing an online event? Always ask your participants who would be interested in hostessing and tell the attendees about the hostess rewards we offer. Be sure to get interested ladies’ contact info so that you can contact them about their pop up. Use a note like this via email, Facebook, text, or even…a phone call!

“Hey Tammy! This is Liz Wright, the Chloe + Isabel jewelry merchandiser from Sarah’s party on Tuesday! I know that you were interested in hostessing your own party so I wanted to check in with you about upcoming dates. I have these three dates still available this month – which works for you?” If Tammy says this month doesn’t work for her, look at next month. If she says she’s too busy, offer a one-hour pop up or an online event. If she says she doesn’t know a lot of people in the area, offer an online event. You may also run into someone who wants to hostess but is far from you. You could send her a pop up in a box – a set of look books, a set of wish lists, and instructions for how to place orders (including her link). Be sure to include a date that the pop up will close to increase urgency for her attendees.

Remember that in-home events take about 3 weeks to plan well (sending a save the date, sending an invitation, getting RSVPs, and planning the actual party). Online events can be planned more quickly, but in both scenarios your hostess needs to be involved in the invite and reminder process because her people don’t know you – they know her.

 

A couple more points about goal setting. Setbacks – they’re going to happen. Look at a no sale pop up as an opportunity to learn how to do better, not as a failure. Your reactions to unpleasant and unexpected events are going to influence your motivation. Learn what you can and move on. Adjust your goal as needed and move forward. If you realize your time line isn’t realistic, adjust it. But never give up on it. Figure out what your core activities are – what makes you the most money and what makes you the most connections? Focus most of your energy on those things. Monitor your progress towards your goal and give yourself a pat on the back for getting there. You may notice that I post a monthly sales goal at the beginning of the month and keep the team updated about it weekly. Sounds so familiar doesn’t it… *smile*

 

So there’s my long-winded goal setting message! Whew! Now I want to hear from you – what’s your goal for this year? What’s your goal for January? How can I help you get there?

XOXO,

Liz

 

 

It’s your friendly neighborhood Chloe + Isabel MM with some business tips! Have questions, want to set up a chat with me, or want me to talk about certain things in these weekly emails? Let me know! Send me a text or call me at 210-465-1894, Facebook message me, or email me! I want to hear from you and help you be successful in your business!