9 Things You Must Do to Build Your Direct Sales Team

Building a direct sales team requires strong leadership, enthusiasm and passion. Notice I didn’t say that you have to have all the answers. Stop thinking you have to “know everything” before you can be a leader of leaders, and start making a bigger impact by focusing on the bigger picture of where your direct sales biz can take you, and others. In other words, get out of your own way and make those big dreams you have a reality. My “9 things” list is based on my two-decades plus building a multi-million dollar direct sales team. Take the lead and go.

1. CREATE your vision. Successful leaders create their vision – before setting goals. Mix 1/3 passion with 1/3 purpose, add in 1/3 crazy and blend well with massive action. Vision will inspire you and others to act.

LEADERS LEAD BY MOBILIZING PEOPLE AROUND A COMPELLING VISION OF THE FUTURE.

2. BUILD belief. Lack of belief and confidence are the #1 reason people don’t start a direct sales business, or give up. Your belief in others is what will motivate them to take a leap and go for it. Send cards, texts and Facebook messages that let your hostesses, potential sponsors and team members know how awesome they are.

3. SERVE others. Successful leaders put the team before themselves. This is true for direct sales success as well. Plan on devoting your time, energy and sometimes profits to mentor and coach consultants. Don’t worry about the party chain you’re giving up to give a new consultant a great start, or the profit you just lost by helping a Consultant at their Grand Opening party. That’s small change compared to the lives you’ll help shape, and the bigger income that will come back to you in the future. Let this question be your guide: “Is what I’m doing serving myself, or serving others?”

4. GENERATE leads. Consistently. Use a door prize slip or customer form, host live and virtual parties with intention and play a duplicable sponsoring game. My go-to sponsoring game is, “Ask me a question about my job”, which lets the guests talk about your biz instead of you sounding like Charlie Brown’s teacher. Seek out the talented people you want to work with and invite them to learn more. Finding the fun, talented, motivated person you want to work with requires a focused strategy of asking, asking and more asking, and then follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. Did I mention ask and follow-up?

Watch my Google Forms tutorial to learn how to create a (free) lead form for your Direct Sales biz

5. INVITE others to join your dream team. Developing your future leader team is as simple as asking your new consultant if they want more: more income, more personal development, more fun. If yes, invite them to join your Dream Team – or create your own inspired team name. Don’t have a leadership training program for your future leaders? You do now. Make one up. Offer weekly opportunity events and training using multiple ways to connect to get more results: 3-way calls, teleconference, webinar, coffee/happy hour meet-ups and workshop invites are just some ideas. Or, use Facebook Live to go live on your Facebook Group page and broadcast  training to your team right from your smart phone.

6. ASK open ended questions. You don’t have to know all the answers, just the right questions. Here’s my top 5: 1) What interests you most about [leadership, the company, hosting a party, earning the trip, etc.]? 2) What is your BIG WHY? 3) On a scale of 1-10, how committed are you to making your WHY a reality? 4) Tell me about a recent success; what did it take? 5) What do you attribute that to?

7. DUPLICATE by sponsoring 2 for 1: Rinse and repeat steps 4 -6 and influence each new Consultant to join with a friend. Remember, your newbie only knows what you tell them. Say: “Most new consultants join with a friend because it’s so much more fun to have a biz buddy. Who would you like to invite to team up with you?” Three new consultants can become six, which can turn into twelve and then twenty-four. Holy downline! That enthusiasm on fire thing really works.

8. RECOGNIZE effort, progress and results. Use Facebook Live to give shout-outs on your group page and create a wall post with a fun graphic. Delegate training topics and workshop to-do’s to boost confidence while building a sense of community. Delegation is also how you get consultants to show up for your team training, and bring friends. Use the 100/1 rule that I share in my book, Success Secrets of a Million Dollar Party Girl, to build self-esteem: Give 100% attention and effort to the ONE thing your consultant does best. They’ll be able to conquer multiple bookings and sponsors in a single bound!

9. INFLUENCE with your attitude, actions and belief. Successful leaders are caring, empathetic and grateful. You are influencing all the time, even when you post on Facebook. Are you the dream consultant that you want to sponsor? If yes, keep doing more of that. If no, then work on being an awesome consultant first. Do what you want duplicated.

Ready to really rock your direct sales biz?