Supporting your new recruits is even more important than making sales. Let me explain…

Industry insiders estimate that between 70 and 80 percent of new consultants or reps in direct sales companies don’t take any action after they join. This includes placing an order or doing any training.

That’s crazy, right? We really need to improve that statistic!

Lack of support turns people off their new direct sales biz

Too many direct sellers are focused on recruiting but don’t think beyond that about their role as a sponsor or mentor to the new person. They view their job as ‘done’ once someone has signed up, after all the company or their upline leader provides training and it’s up to the new person to make a go of it.

Sometimes the person recruiting doesn’t feel they know enough to mentor or support the new person and so they don’t.

I completely disagree with that mindset. Even someone who is brand new to the business themselves can be a wonderful sponsor! They can either view it as exploring the new business together with the new recruit (that’s a great way to do it if a friend or family member signs up), or they can aim to just be 1 small step ahead.

You do not have to be a direct sales expert to be a fabulous sponsor to a new recruit.

Most new consultants in any direct sales company have some combination of excitement and doubt when they sign up. They believed enough in the products and the opportunity you offered to spend money on a starter kit, yet they also often have serious doubts. They wonder if they can be successful and if they perhaps made a mistake signing up.

If they don’t hear from anyone quickly and receive quality support, they will probably mentally ‘check out’ before they’ve even started. Remember that statistic from the start of this article? That’s 70 to 80 percent of new recruits… If you miss the narrow window of their interest and motivation, it might be too little too late.

I often come across people who aren’t supporting their team members because they ‘just joined for a personal discount’. In many companies these ‘personal shoppers’ can account for half a team. So many of them never place an order because it becomes too hard.

Here’s how that happens:

• They misplace their account login details
• They can’t remember the website to go to
• They don’t know who to contact for help (company support or upline)
• They don’t have a current catalog anymore
• And if by some miracle they do work out how to login, they don’t know how to use the ordering system and it looks too complicated.

That’s 6 strikes and they’re out. It’s all too hard.

Remove the barriers to engagement

When you make it easy for these people by offering to help them enter an order (or refresh their memory if it’s been a while), you can often completely engage them in the business. By nurturing them and helping them to make learning this new thing a little easier, even ‘personal shoppers’ can become valuable to your team as they enter regular orders.

And sometimes ‘personal shoppers’ become engaged and enthusiastic leaders. I’ve seen this happen quite a few times in my own organization. Someone joins as a ‘personal shopper’ and then starts to enjoy it a little more and grows their business just a little. After another while they recruit someone and start growing their own team!

Once you make it part of your routine that when someone joins to remove as many barriers as you can to ease their entry into the business, you’ll be surprised by how many people will be active members of your team.

When new people join, the ‘welcome’ is vital! It needs to happen soon after joining and the more personal you can make this, the better. Remember that direct selling is a relationship business, not just relationships with your customers and hosts but also with your team.

For tips on how to get your new teamie off to a good start, check this article.

I personally like to focus on the ‘bird in the hand, which is worth 2 in the bush’. Retaining a team members is easier than recruiting a new one. Imagine how much better our teams and our industry as a whole would be if we only had 20 to 30 percent of new consultants not take any action rather than that 70-80 percent currently!

I think we can and we should do better!

Are you an introvert? Do you struggle with recruiting or sponsoring in your direct sales business because you’re shy?

Then I’ve got you covered with a range of ideas and resources.

What is an introvert?

The biggest difference between introverts and extroverts is that introverts ‘recharge’ from being by themselves and extroverts gain energy by spending time with others.

There are a few more traits that introverts and extroverts tend to display, but don’t worry if they don’t (all) apply to you – we are all individuals:

Introverts	Extroverts
Gain energy from being by themselves	Gain energy from being with others
Are more introspective	Are more action oriented
Reflect more before making a decision	Make decisions quickly
Enjoy one-on-one conversations	Enjoy socializing in a group
Like to observe	Enjoy joining in

The most important thing I want you to understand is that as an introvert you can be confident and outgoing. But then you’ll have to make some time for yourself to recharge and that’s perfectly fine.

Meanwhile, extroverts can be shy or lack in confidence, and that’s okay. Confidence and shyness are not set in stone, these things can be changed if you’re willing to work on it.

Now, let’s have a look at recruiting tips for introverts and shy people.

Visual recruiting ideas

The worst mistake you can make is to do nothing at all to recruit. So make sure that you do something.

The easiest place to start is with your display and drawing visual attention to the business opportunity.

Consider adding this to your display:

• A positions vacant sign
• A lightbox with words like “flexible” or “earn cash”
• A shopping trolley with a sign saying something like “Do you want to be able to put more in your trolley? Join…. to make some extra cash!“

You can also add sticky notes to your catalog to draw attention to the business opportunity. You can write something like: “Could you sell these products?” or “Is this your opportunity?”

Finally, I highly recommend adding recruiting information with your order form on a clip-board. That way people are bound to see it at check out time.

Play games

Recruiting games are a structured way for you to talk about the business opportunity that isn’t boring.

Games are a fun and relaxed way to introduce the career options, without being ‘salesy’ or pushy. Guests are likely to be more receptive to the message when it’s shared in a fun way – especially if you add a little prize!

You can find some tips and printable games here.

Drop little hints to create sparks of interest

Throughout your party or demonstration, you want to drop little hints about how great it is to join your direct sales business. You can make comments such as:

• I love that I get paid to party
• I joined to support my product addiction – I now get products at a huge discount
• I love getting recognition
• This is so much fun, I can’t believe this is my job
• I just love this company because….

The best way to get started with this technique is to pick just one of these that you think fits best with your style and drop it at your next party. When that becomes natural, add another little hint to your repertoire.

You can find a little more on these little sparks in this article.

Conversation Starters

If you feel more comfortable talking one-on-one than in a group, you can start a conversation at ordering time. Pick one person you genuinely feel would be a great direct sales consultant and start the conversation in a casual way without pressure.

Here are some ways to start that conversation:

• I think you’d be great at this, have you ever thought about it?
• You obviously love the products/company, have you ever thought about becoming more involved?
• You could get all of these products at a discount when you join my team…

Follow-up for introverts

If you’re uncomfortable using the phone to do follow-up, there are other ways of doing this.

But you must do personal follow-up, not generic social media posts.

So what you do is send them private messages, text messages or even snail mail.

Read more on follow-up here and here.

How not to be spammy in your direct sales biz

If you’re worried about being pushy or salesy, chances are you’re not! People who consider other people’s time and feelings are rarely the type to be spammy.

Here are a few things to consider:

• When you do follow-up, you are not bothering people but you’re providing a service. Trust that if they don’t want to receive any further messages from you that they’ll let you know. And when they opt-out from further contact, respect that.
• Your business is a gift that you’re sharing. It’s not something you’re pushing onto people who don’t want it. You’re only working with people who’ve shown an interest.
• Always strive to be of service. When you adopt an attitude of service towards your customers, team members and leads you won’t be spammy or pushy.

Party tips for introverts and shy people

There are a few things you can do to make a party or demonstration a little easier for yourself. Remember that people generally want you to do well and are understanding of you when you let them know what’s going on.

I recommend addressing the ‘elephant in the room’ by actually telling people that you’re shy or nervous at the start of the party. Keep it lighthearted, make a little joke if you can but by letting them know they’ll let you off the hook. And once that’s out of the way, you’ll notice you’ll feel a lot calmer.

If you’re a new-ish consultant, use an “I’m in training” sign to let people know that you’re still learning. Again, you can make a little joke of it or create a funny little sign. It’s a great way to generate some goodwill towards any small mistakes.

If you worry about forgetting what you want to say due to nerves, create cue cards for yourself. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using some cards to keep yourself on track – in fact you can even draw attention to it by saying something like: “I get so excited and want to tell you everything, this helps me to stay on track…“.

This trick has as an added benefit that any guests who are thinking they might want to join can see that you don’t need to keep all the information in your head. It lowers the barrier for them if they’re wondering if they’re capable of being a consultant!

Encourage yourself to grow

Start small. If you currently do nothing at all to recruit people, don’t expect yourself to build an empire overnight.

Pick the smallest thing that you feel you can do and start there. Then move on to another thing you can add to your routine, and then another. Move forward at your own pace.

It’s important to encourage and reward yourself. Stepping out of your comfort zone is a big deal, celebrate it! Setting goals (no matter how small) and then rewarding yourself for achieving it, helps you to stay motivated and continue towards success.

Read more about the importance of celebrating wins here.

Another important way to get yourself more comfortable to doing things is to focus on the action rather than the result. You set yourself goals in terms of action, not outcome. For example your goal could be to play a recruiting game, to send follow-up messages, to start a one-on-one conversation at your next party. Then when you’ve accomplished the goal – regardless of the outcome – you give yourself a small reward.

Read a little more on why this is so important here.

Now that you’ve read all the way to here, I hope you realize that you can recruit and that you can be successful in direct sales as an introvert or a shy person.

If you want to learn more about getting into the right mindset for recruiting, check out the Mindset Mastery for Recruiting training. You’ll find this training helpful if you worry about ‘selling’ the business opportunity at your parties or if you feel insecure when talking about the business and it’s holding you back. You can explore the training here.

So now it's your turn to talk. What is the one small thing that you're going to do at your next party?

Recruiting is as much a mind game as it is something that you do. There are five things that need to be in place in you and your biz when it comes to recruiting:

1. A belief in the business opportunity with your company
2. Having a consistent business yourself
3. A sense of fun and joy in your direct sales biz
4. A focus on others
5. A desire to learn and develop in your business

Let’s have a look at each of those and I’ll link to some helpful articles that can take you further in that particular area.

You believe in the business opportunity with your company

If you don’t really belief in what you’re selling, people will know at some level that you don’t actually belief in it.

Look around in your team and larger organization: How are others making the most of the business? What does your business mean to you? Have a good think about this and make sure you are firm in your own mind about what the business opportunity means to you.

On my ‘About‘ page I talk about what my direct sales business means to me and my family.

You have a consistent business yourself

You want to be able to get bookings and sales consistently in your own business. Not only does that set a great example as a consultant, you’ll also have gained confidence that this business works and you’ll be able to speak authentically on it.

As a direct seller with a consistent business, you’ll also be able to help your brand new team members get their own business started successfully.

This does not mean you should stop recruiting until you have this in place – but it does mean you should work deliberately towards a consistent business.

Here are some articles with useful tips:

• 3 Tips to increase attendance at your parties
• Get even more bookings from your parties
• Make referrals work in your biz

You maintain a sense of fun and joy in your direct sales biz

If you don’t actually like what you’re doing, people will sense this! If you don’t enjoy your direct sales business, you will find it hard to stay motivated and achieve goals.

Make sure you don’t lose your enjoyment in the biz by trying new things, challenging yourself when you get bored and generally staying inspired.

Here are some articles that might help:

• Podcast review for direct sellers
• Create the ultimate vision board
• The life-changing magic of positivity in your direct sales biz

You focus on others

During the recruiting process it’s important to focus on the other person. Adopt an attitude of service: you’re not trying to lure them into your business for your own reasons, you’re offering them a fabulous and flexible business opportunity.

As leader you want to adopt that attitude of service towards your team members. Know that by helping your team to thrive, you will thrive.

I’ve got a few articles for you that talk about this a bit more:

• 8 Pieces of advice on leadership
• Your direct sales business is a gift

You have a desire to learn and develop in your business

Being in business means that you’ll experience ups and downs. Dealing with this requires some resiliency and a deliberate effort to keep up your motivation.

You’ll also find that as you grow in your business, you’ll be challenged in new and different ways. Learning how to deal with each new challenge is what helps you to grow as a business woman.

Some of the learning will be skills based – you might need to learn how to phrase your recruiting message. Some of the learning is mental and about coping with uncertainty or stress.

Taking the time to reflect on your business and where your current challenges are, will help you to seek out resources to help you grow.

Check these resources to take you further:

• 3 Books for direct sellers
• What successful direct sellers can teach us

Unlock the ultimate secrets to mastering your mindset!

When you follow-up with someone who is potentially interested in joining your direct sales business, it’s important to ask good questions to get to know them.

Always lead with the relationship, not the business

As the title says, I put the relationship first. So I start by establishing rapport and have a chat with them. I make a conscious effort to smile, even when I’m just on the phone because it makes a noticeable difference in how I come across.

When you move to the business part of the chat, using questions makes a big difference. I found that people don’t raise anywhere near as many objections when you begin with some questions.

Here are some of the questions I use and find very helpful in my recruiting chats:

• How do you want to benefit from a direct sales business?
• What are you aiming to achieve?
• What are your most important values in life? (eg. money, health, family, success)
• How do you see the direct sales business fitting into your life?

But, I’m not like you…

Sometimes during these chats, people will comment “I’m not like you“. They say that because they think you have something (skills, abilities, or personality) that they don’t have and worry that this will hold them back from direct sales success.

I find it helpful to respond with a question: “What am I like in your eyes?” This will tease out what it is they think they are lacking. Once they’ve responded I ask: “May I share what I see in you?” and I then give them my genuine opinion of what they can bring to a direct sales business.

Asking questions like these helps you to get to know people better and that helps you to build rapport so much faster. I have a higher success rate using this method and I suspect it’s also the reason that people who don’t join initially do join with me at a later date. We build a stronger connection at the start of the relationship and I keep the relationship going using my leads book.

My philosophy is that our business is first and foremost a relationship business. If you see it that way too, sales will flow and team members will be drawn to you.

Want to learn more about the recruiting process from start to sign-up? Join my free Recruiting Mini Course. Click the button below to begin.

‘Sponsoring sparks‘…? What?

No, we’re not trying to create a wildfire here. We want to ignite positive business growth in your biz with these sparks.

Most guests at your parties won’t be thinking about the business opportunity.

They came to a party, to have some fun, to see some friends and to buy some products. They did not come to start a whole new business!

Well – that’s what they think…

To get them started on thinking about joining your team, you sprinkle ‘sponsoring sparks’ throughout your presentation. And once a spark has ignited, you need to keep adding sparks until it becomes a fire!

Most direct sellers and party plan consultants mention the business opportunity once. (If at all) But it’s easier to start a fire with more sparks.

Sprinkle those sponsoring sparks throughout your party

You want to apply as much focus, time and energy at your parties to recruiting as you do to sales and bookings.

Do you do that at your parties?

One way to create these sparks of interest is to use compliments. Here are few you can make your own:

• You’re so bubbly and fun! You’d make an excellent consultant…
• You’re so passionate about the products! Everyone listened to you.
• I’d love to work with you…
• I noticed you spoke to everybody here tonight! You’re such a people person…
• It would be awesome to have you on my team!

Dedicate Display Space

In your display, you want to reserve a third of the space for the business opportunity. You could use a light box, a positions vacant sign or a story board to spark interest in a visual way.

I created this story board in a free collage app. I printed it on photo paper and I display it in a pretty frame.

Always keep the following in mind:

Sales are your income for today, bookings are your income for tomorrow while recruiting is income forever.

At your parties, your audience will follow your focus. So if you focus on the business opportunity, they’ll go along with you.

As long as you make it fun and interesting!

If you want to learn more about the recruiting process from sparks to sign-up, join my FREE Recruiting Mini Course. Sign up by clicking the button below.

We all love cold, hard cash!

And you can use that love for cash to spark interest in your direct sales business opportunity with Referral Cash vouchers.

Referral Cash vouchers plant a strong psychological seed regarding the opportunity to make some money by joining your team and also about the opportunity to ‘cash in’ the voucher.

What is Referral Cash

Referral Cash is a type of referral voucher that someone can ‘cash in’ with you once a referral joins your direct sales team (or if they themselves join). The voucher specifies they can cash in their voucher “with their next order” to ensure an ongoing relationship with them.

On the back of the voucher are some ideas to help them to think of who they can pass the voucher on to.

It’s worded to show the benefits of a party plan or direct sales business so it might just spark interest in them too!

I’ve found that a lot of my referral cash vouchers are cashed in by someone who decides to join themselves! When that happens I usually give them an extra voucher because they might know someone else too who might join too – they are often a great source of further leads!

These cash-like vouchers are a great psychological tool. It’s hard for people to throw away something that’s worth cash. I’ve noticed this when people join my team months after I gave them the voucher and they kept it all that time!

Referrals are a powerful, low-effort way to grow your business. For more information check this article on referral vouchers.

Grab the vouchers by filling out the form below. I’ve got 4 different currency versions to suit your needs.

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Pick which two-sided voucher you want to use and print them on some nice paper. Pop your details on the back and give out the vouchers at your parties…easy!

Did you know that 70% of people have a natural preference for absorbing information visually?

This statistic presents us with a powerful way to spark interest in joining your team. Below I have some suggestions on how to maximize your display to promote the business opportunity.

Display Space

First and foremost, it’s very important to ensure you allocate a good amount of space to promoting the business opportunity.

The #1 mistake most direct sellers make when it comes to their display at parties or showings, is that they dedicate it completely to products and maybe some party bookings.

The rule I work by is the rule of thirds: A third of your display space should be dedicated to the business opportunity, another third should be dedicated to party bookings and the final third is used to showcase products.

Making this relatively small shift in your display will have a big impact in your business!

What to display

Although I encourage you to be creative with your display, keep in mind that you don’t want it to be cluttered! The key message needs to be clear. Here are some display ideas:

• Use a big bow on a ‘position vacant’ sign. I like to use a ridiculously over-sized bow because it sends the message that the business opportunity is a gift and at the same time it attracts people’s attention.
• Attach cash to your opportunity display. If you can afford to use real bank notes, it will have a stronger psychological impact, but you can use fake cash too. I like to display the amount of cash that a consultant earns at a typical party. Make sure you mention that the amount is the typical amount earned! I like to ask guests to think of what they’d do with that extra cash and I usually mention how wonderful it is that you can earn that money for a couple of hours of fun. Fill out the form below to grab some display cash for US, UK, Canadian and Australian bank notes.
• Pop a storyboard on your opportunity display. A storyboard is a collage that you display to show the benefits of the business, the lifestyle it can support. Your images can include the friendships you’ve made, the family holiday you could afford from the business, incentive trips you’ve qualified for, prizes you’ve won, recognition, etc. During the party you can share the story behind some of the images to bring the storyboard to life. A storyboard also acts as powerful social proof!

These ideas are just a starting point. Your business displays are limited only to your imagination and creativity.

My bonus tip: change your recruiting displays often – you never know if a different display showing a different angle of the business opportunity will spark interest in a repeat guest.

If your display is always the same, it will stop having an impact on repeat guests – it’ll become ‘background noise’ for them.

So make sure you have a few different things you can display and talk about.

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