Show me The Leaders!

July 31st, 2009 No comment

If you’re brand new to direct sales or network marketing, you may be either scared or excited about starting your own team… all of us who are in direct sales or network marketing felt that way in the beginning.

You start promoting your business opportunity, and one day… BAM! There it is in your email account your first: “Congratulations, you have a new downline member!” If you are like me, you got such a BIG GRIN that it gave you cramps on your face and you started doing the happy dance.

I’m sure you thought: “Yeah! I’m on my way! The first one is the most difficult, the rest will be a piece of cake”

Knowing how important is recruiting, sponsoring, training and motivating a team, you immediately contact your new downline member sharing all your excitement and offering your help and then you wait… (crickets chirping)… and wait… you try again with another email… (nothing)… if you’re brave enough to actually call your new sign up and they don’t pick up the phone or even worse, they have a bad number … you panic and then you start thinking… maybe it was not such a good idea to join this business, maybe they saw a red flag I didn’t see, maybe…

STOP!

You need to start thinking differently, you need to think like you would think if you had 1,000 people already in your downline! Would you be begging those that are not responsive to promote their business, to place their first order, to go out and show and sell some products? I know you would not.

“But Mariangie, I need to do something!” (I can read minds) Yes, you do! You need to find your LEADERS!!!

“Show me the leaders” is my motto now, not everybody has the same vision and to be brutally honest, most people are lazy and think that starting a home based business is an easy way to stay home, do nothing and collect a check… NOT going to happen!

You need to welcome your team members, let them know you are going to be there for them, give them the tools they need to get started (I created a short “Getting Started” report and that is the first thing I send them by email after I welcome them to the team), and then I tell them that I know they will have questions and that I’ll be happy to answer those questions for them and start working together in building their business.

Some will reply back with: “Thank you, I’ll go over the report and send you my questions” and some will not.

If they are the leaders you’re searching for, they will come back with tons of questions including what should their first order include, if they should pay for the upgraded backoffice, how to order marketing tools, where to advertise, “do you have a sample ad I can use?”; you’ll know by the kind of questions they ask if they are your leaders or not.

Those are your jewels, treat them right, maintain constant communication with them, work with them to make them successful, give the extra mile for them.

Your non-responsive downline members maybe are not ready yet, maybe they were just curious, maybe life is keeping them busy, maybe they are even reps of the competitor company lurking…! You never know, that is why it’s important that you keep regular contact with them, maybe once a month, to ask if they have questions, if they had the chance to look at the product catalog, to suggest a new place to advertise, etc.

You’ll be surprised to find that maybe some of them start ordering products for themselves and it’s not uncommon that even years after they joined, some of them find that their circumstances change, and they decide to take a serious look and work the business and become a leader! Again, you NEVER know.

Leaders walk at the front of the pack, they don’t need anyone pushing them, their own motivation is enough, they will come to you for help, of course, but you will see them flying on their own very soon.

This will actually help you leverage your time so you can concentrate your energy in working your personal sales and sponsoring and working with your newer leaders. Finding your leaders is easier than try to “create” a leader… so show me your leaders!

About Mariangie - She lives in Puerto Rico where she works full time as an Agronomist, owns a home based business since 2004 and is the proud mother of 2 bright kids (and 2 cute cats).