Recruiting with Games

When I started my direct sales business, I didn’t play games at my parties.

At the beginning of my career, I thought that my guests would find games childish or just not fun.

I had been to party plan events with other companies, and I had been asked to walk like a chicken or sing a line from my favorite song – and I wouldn’t say I liked it. I was out of my comfort zone and didn’t want to do that with my guests.

So I avoided all games for quite some time.

But after playing some games that respected people’s comfort zones and focused on having fun, my results were excellent!

Guests were more relaxed, and I got more bookings and leads for potential new team members. So that’s why I am now encouraging you to try games.

Why do you want to use recruiting games in your direct sales biz?

Recruiting games benefit anyone who is not yet confident talking about the business opportunity more directly.

When you’re planning to play a recruiting game at your parties, this also ensures you don’t forget to bring up the business opportunity (which we’ve all done, I’m sure).

Games are a fun and relaxed way to introduce 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.

There are two essential things to remember when playing games at your direct selling event:

Have a little fun with it. That means you have to keep up a good pace, don’t slog through it slowly but don’t rush. Make some jokes and be a bit silly.

Make the game yours, so it fits your style, personality (and company and products).

Today I have 2 recruiting games for you that have worked well for me, so give them a try.

Game 1

To play this game, give each guest a piece of paper to keep track of their score as they listen to you recite the following poem. Anyone who adds the 25 points at the end should be followed up about the business opportunity.

You can also add small prizes (small incentives, chocolates, etc.) for high scores.

Game 2: Ask me about my job

This is a game that I play at the end of the party when people have well and truly ‘warmed up’.

I set a timer for 2 minutes to ensure it doesn’t drag on.

You encourage guests to ask you about your job as a party plan consultant. Then, you reward a question about being a consultant with a (chocolate) prize or a raffle ticket (with a raffle prize draw at the end).

Sometimes nobody wants to be first, and nobody asks you a question. The way to get the ball rolling is to act like an auctioneer and ask yourself a question like an opening bid. Make it funny, and guests will pretty quickly join in.

Keep your answers short and succinct, don’t overwhelm people with too much information at one time.

I usually throw (gently!) the chocolate prizes to the guests to keep the momentum going and add a bit of activity.

You can grab the free recruiting rhyme printable below.

How to gamify the recruiting process (and keep yourself in the game)

Sponsoring or recruiting new members to your direct sales team is the way to grow your business.

But many consultants find it hard to follow up with people who’ve shown an interest.

I certainly found it hard in the beginning!

I struggled with this for a while. I wanted to build my team and expand my business. I tried to make progress fast but procrastinated when I had leads. I found it hard to get a “no.” I didn’t make many follow-up calls and didn’t grow my team very much.

Sound familiar?

At some point, I decided I had to get better at following up. The way I did, it was to ‘gamify’ the process. I turned following up into a game with prizes. Who doesn’t like prizes?

How you can learn to enjoy follow-ups in your direct sales biz

First, I switched my focus from worrying about the results to my actions instead.

I started by rewarding myself with $2 in a spending jar for each follow-up phone call, regardless of the outcome. My goal was to get myself moving, overcome procrastination, and reward myself for the doing, not the result.

Once I made enough calls and earned a nice amount of $2 coins, I treated myself and my husband to a night out at the movies. We enjoyed a fabulous night at the Gold Class cinema because I had finally started making regular follow-up calls.

This first step, focusing on the actions and rewarding these actions, massively changed my attitude toward making these follow-up phone calls.

As a result, I started to make lots of calls. So when I happened to reward myself two weeks in a row with a cinema evening, my husband suggested I think of a cheaper reward.

I then moved on to jelly beans as I love jelly beans. I had a jar sitting on my desk, but I could only have one when I made a follow-up phone call.

I had to end that reward when I decided to clean up my eating habits.

So then, my teaching background came in handy, and I made myself a star chart. I put stars on a chart for every call I made, and I promised myself a nice treat when I filled up the chart! And that worked very well for me.

As you can see, I tried a few different reward systems, and they all worked.

Make recruiting easier by making it into a game. Free worksheet for #DirectSellers and #PartyPlan reps. Grab it now >>

I quickly overcame my fear of follow-up calls, overcame that procrastination, and learned to enjoy every call for its own sake.

Don’t get me wrong. I still got lots of “no’s,” but I also started to recruit more than I had before just because I made the calls!

Of course, now that I was making more calls, I was getting more practice. And just by making more follow-up calls, I got better at it. So my success rate improved, and I noticed that I was getting fewer “no’s” to get each “yes.”

And all I did to achieve this was to gamify my follow-up process. As a result, I enjoyed my rewards and learned to enjoy the process.
This is why I want to encourage you to gamify your recruiting actions.

To help you with this, I’ve created a handy printable worksheet that you can use to encourage yourself to make those follow-up calls, which will lead to more practice and, eventually, a higher success rate.

Worksheet notes

Set yourself mini rewards for every ten calls you make. When you’ve earned five mini rewards, you have filled the sheet and can treat yourself to a bigger reward. Remember, the results do not matter – you get a reward for doing so you learn to love the process!

However, it’s still helpful to track your numbers. You’ll see that as you make more calls, you’ll get fewer “no’s” for each “yes.” Seeing such improvement is incredibly motivating.

Not to mention, once you know what your average number of “no’s” is per “yes,” you will become more motivated to make the next call to get closer to that “yes”!

Mini rewards could include indulging in a sumptuous bubble bath, watching a movie, or catching up with friends. Those things that you don’t usually take time to do but that you enjoy doing.

Once you fill out the worksheet, you can treat yourself to something bigger. Perhaps a dinner out, new clothes or shoes, champagne and chocolate, something for your home office, whatever motivates you.

It’s important to celebrate your efforts and your growth in your business. We tend to make it all about results, but to get the results, we need to put in the work, develop, and get better. Then the results will come.

I’d like to hear what you’re rewarding yourself with and how you’re going with the worksheet. Leave a comment below. Let’s build a stockpile of reward ideas!

Seal the Deal

When someone has shown interest in joining your direct sales team, and you’ve already overcome their objections, you’ll want to “seal the deal” and sign them up for the business.

How do you do that?

No Coffee & Chat

Many direct sellers invite people interested in joining for a ‘coffee and chat’ to do that.

I don’t.

Up to about 15 years ago, I used to invite prospects for a coffee and chat but it didn’t work very well for me. Here’s why:

At the beginning of my direct sales career, I would get so passionate about the business that I’d suddenly develop a massive case of ‘verbal diarrhea’ and scare people away with information overload.
I found it challenging to schedule time to meet in person for a coffee. At the time, I was working a full-time job, running my direct sales business, and studying for my master’s degree. Then when I stopped working a job and focused entirely on my business, I had young children. Finding time for a coffee (working around naps and babysitting) was a nightmare. Interestingly, when I met them for coffee and a chat (and I kept verbal diarrhea in check), I often had them sign up before the coffee arrived.
Sometimes scheduling was such a nightmare that by the time we finally managed to catch up, they’d lost interest and turned up out of politeness – if they turned up at all.
Although the perception of the ‘coffee and chat’ is a low-pressure and casual event, many prospects still feel pressured. You’ve bought them a coffee, and they know you have given up your time, especially to meet them….to talk to them about joining a business. I found that some people struggled with the situation and weren’t comfortable.

So very early in my career, I decided that if I were going to be successful, I would have to find a way to ‘seal the deal’ without ‘coffees and chats’ with each potential team member.

I decided to sign people up at a party/event or over the phone. And that’s what I still do.

I’ve used many strategies to do this, and I’ll talk you through the ones that have worked well for me.

Strategies to Seal the Deal

Don’t be attached to the outcome
Be relaxed about the outcome of your talk with them. If potential new team members don’t feel pressured to join your party plan business, they’re more likely to give it a try. In other words: Don’t be needy!

Use a structured approach
I use the C.O.D.D approach at every party and event. C.O.D.D. stands for Compliment, Objective, Disclaimer, Date. This is a way to structure your talk to someone who has shown interest. To learn how to use the C.O.D.D. approach, read this.

To seal the deal after using C.O.D.D I’ll say something like: “Shall we go ahead and order your starter kit?” or “Let’s work out a date for your starter party – give it a go, you’ve got nothing to lose!”

Find out how ready they are

Ask the potential new team member: On a scale from 1 to 10, where are you now? With 1 being “I’m ready to run away screaming” (this usually gets a chuckle) and 10 being “Yes! Sign me up. I can’t wait to get started!

Few people are actually at a 10, but it’s an excellent way to find out what is stopping them from signing up. So, for example, if they say they’re a 7, you can ask them: “What’s stopping you from being a 10? I might be able to help with that.“

And people who are at a 6 or lower will probably not join your team. That’s fine (remember that you’re not attached to the outcome). You can keep these interested people as VIP customers or hosts.

Pillow test
If potential recruits don’t commit while talking to them, use the ‘Pillow Test’ technique. I say something like: “Let’s give it the pillow test – if you find yourself thinking about the business tonight when you go to sleep, you know it’s definitely for you. Then you should definitely jump in and give it a try!“

The next morning, follow up with a call to ask if they did think about it.

One of the reasons this technique works is because you’ve suggested to them that they will think about it tonight as they sleep. Not to mention, that’s what many of us do anyway. We think about our day as we’re drifting off.

And now you’ve suggested that this means something, namely that this opportunity is excellent for them.

As a bonus, it gives you a great opening for your follow-up phone call the next day.

Using the principles in this book, I built a global 20-million-dollar direct sales business at my daughter’s hospital bedside.

I’ve written the kind of book I would have loved someone to give me when I started out —it’s the HOW-TO OF RECRUITING.

This book comes with dozens of free worksheets, checklists, and templates to get you started on your direct sales journey today!

Order your copy here!

How to have a massive Black Friday in your Direct Sales Biz

Black Friday is coming! This is a massive opportunity for your direct sales biz, especially combined with Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.

Although Black Friday started as a US tradition following Thanksgiving, it has spread around the world and is now a global opportunity for us all. But as always, you’ve got to prepare to take advantage of it!

Don’t make this mistake…

I’ve observed many direct sellers making this mistake: focusing entirely on sales during this special weekend. Although Black Friday is a massive sales opportunity, you want to make sure you focus on future business growth too by collecting bookings and encouraging joining.

This is the time to use whatever stock supplies you’ve been able to gather throughout the year and invest them back into your biz this weekend. Offer prizes for everyone who books a December or January event and also put together ‘Lucky Friday’ bundles for everyone who joins your business.

Remember that a new team member is worth the most to your business long-term! Bookings help your business to continue to roll forward while sales are your income right now. Don’t make the mistake of only focusing on your income today – also work to grow your biz for tomorrow!

As very few direct sales companies add joining or booking incentives to their promotions, you’ll have to plan ahead and create your own!

Your Social Media Strategy

The more time you invest throughout the year into developing great online relationships, the better your results will be when it comes to promotions like this.

People don’t like to be sold to constantly, so you want to be adding value or entertainment in your social presence and your VIP groups.

But even if your VIP group is new or you haven’t been posting valuable content throughout the year, there are still some things you can do to promote your awesome Black Friday offers:

Go Live in your customer group. This is a great strategy for a few reasons: Facebook prioritizes live video content in people’s newsfeeds. This means you’ll get great reach with a Facebook Live. Second of all, live videos resonate with people as they can see the real you and catch your enthusiasm and excitement about the offers.
Use every available means to reach your customers. Use emails, text messages or messenger bots to promote your offers. I like to build up text groups and email lists as they are lists that I own and I don’t have to worry about Facebook or Instagram making changes to their platform.
Amplify features and benefits. Make your offers awesome and irresistible to your customers. Here are some ways doing that:
- Bundle Deals: if your company offers special bundle deals they’ll sell better if you explain the benefits of each product in the bundle and add suggestions who might like to receive these products as a gift.
- Discount: In the lead-up to Black Friday, encourage your customers to prepare a wishlist and tease them with ‘something exciting coming’ type posts. To make the most of discount offers you can create your own bundles and add a freebie to up the value. This helps to increase the average spend per customer.
- Build Excitement: Add to the momentum of the weekend by adding your own giveaways. As I mentioned above, it’s a good idea to have some incentives for bookings and joining your team, but you can also use gifts to encourage orders placed by a certain time, the first 20 orders, a draw from all Black Friday orders, orders over a certain amount, etc.
- In-home Event: Host your own in-home shopping event. There’s nothing better than the excitement of a group of people shopping together. You could even do a Live from the event into an online party or your customer group to share the excitement.

Takeaways:

Pin: Prepare for a MASSIVE Black Friday in your direct sales business.

Plan ahead to be ready to make the most of the Black Friday weekend.
Don’t just focus on sales. Encourage bookings and joining with special offers.
Share your Black Friday offers through text, email, and social media to maximize your customer reach.

I’d really love to hear what you’re planning to do for the Black Friday weekend. Let us know in the comments below!

Learn more!

Mindset Matters when Recruiting

Today’s article is a guest article provided by Zoe Wright. Zoe is a qualified hypnotherapist, and she’s my number two here at Direct Sales Inspiration. She’s helped me put together the Mindset Mastery for the Recruiting training session.

The mindset, that is, your beliefs about yourself and the world, determine your behavior. This, of course, influences what actions you take in your direct sales business toward your goals. And over time, sustained actions in your business will likely lead to success.

As you can see, it all starts with your mindset.

If your mind is not in the right place, if you don’t believe that you can do great parties, or get bookings or recruit new people into your team…you will indeed fail. Because you won’t take the actions you need to. Or you might do them in a way that’s not helpful.

If you have expectations that you can’t make a success of yourself or not be successful in this particular thing – you will likely meet your expectations.

And you don’t want that!

So you need to believe in yourself and your ability to succeed. You need to set positive expectations for your business!

You also need confidence. And then, you need to make yourself take action.

So how do you do all that?

Set Positive Expectations in Your Direct Sales Biz

You can change your beliefs and expectations. It’ll take some effort, but you can do it. Things like self-talk are important in this area. If you constantly put yourself down and ask questions with negative expectations, you continue an unhelpful mindset.

For example, you might ask yourself, “Why can’t I recruit?“

In that simple question, you have a built-in expectation that you can’t recruit. In that question, that is presented as a given. Well, you don’t want to keep telling yourself that you can’t recruit! You also don’t want your brain to come up with reasons why you can’t recruit.

Instead, change the question to “How can I recruit (more)?” This question has the in-built expectation that you can recruit! And this is a question you want an answer to!

Turn on confidence

Confidence is not the same as self-esteem or a feeling of self-worth. You might feel confident in certain areas of your life and not in others. You might grow confident in specific skills as you practice them, and confidence waxes and wanes throughout your week.

But sometimes, you need confidence on the spot. Maybe you have a direct sales party, maybe you are doing a follow-up, or maybe you want to feel confident at a vendor event. In that case, it would be super handy to ‘turn on’ the confidence!

In the Mindset Mastery for Recruiting training, I teach you how to turn on that confidence in the longer term and the short term.

One quick trick you can do right now is to change your posture! There’s a feedback loop between your brain and your body. How you feel affects how you hold your body, for example, someone who’s sad holds their body differently than a confident, happy person. But it also works the other way around. How you hold your body affects how you feel.

While reading this, change your posture to ‘confident’: sit upright with your shoulders back and take up some space in your world with your arms or legs. This will make you feel very different than when you slump your shoulders, look down, and try to make yourself as small as possible. Do you notice the difference?

Another quick trick is to use Positive Prime. It’s an app that’s like a vision board on steroids and helps with motivation, confidence, and your beliefs about yourself and what you can achieve. Check out my experiences with Positive Prime here.

It also matters how you think about recruiting.

Does recruiting make you feel ‘icky’?

Many party plan consultants feel icky when they talk about the business opportunity. They don’t want to be pushy or salesy. And that’s perfectly understandable – nobody likes to feel that way.

So what if you could change the way you feel about recruiting and learn how to be honest and authentic and not pushy and still talk about the business opportunity?

That’s another part of what we do in the Mindset Mastery for Recruiting training: we help you to get to a place where you can share your opportunities for bookings or business without being salesy.

Something you want to do today to help with that is to get clear on what the business opportunity represents.

And this is different for everybody. A few examples are friendships, the feeling of achieving goals and awards, earning splurge money, financial security, and recognition.

When you make an extensive list of what direct sales can do for people, you’ll realize how awesome it is what you have to offer. Find that passion for the business (not just the products) and communicate that. People respond to your passion and enthusiasm.

For the first time, I’m sharing all my secrets to success in one place, along with how I went from being a nervous consultant to transforming into a vibrant businesswoman gaining membership in the prestigious Million Dollar Club.

Order your copy here

This book comes with dozens of free worksheets, checklists, and templates to get you started on your direct sales journey today!

Your direct sales business is a gift

The thing I love most about the direct sales industry is that we get to make a difference in people’s lives.

I’ve been in direct sales for over 17 years. My business has offered me freedom from a job I didn’t love, the freedom to work around my 3 children (and be present for every important day and milestone), and the finances to enjoy a lifestyle we love.

That’s a lot to be excited about!

When I truly understood the gift of direct sales

And even though knew I loved this business and I knew I wanted to offer it to everybody, it didn’t hit me how awesome a direct sales business really is until my daughter was diagnosed with acute leukemia at 6 years old. (*)

It was then that I understood just how much of a gift this business really is.

Because I was able to work from her hospital room and continue bringing in a good income for our family. In the kids’ cancer ward I didn’t meet any other mother who was able to continue their career….

These families had massive financial stress on top of the worries about their child.

Meanwhile, my business was a positive distraction and my team and my customers provided me (knowingly and unknowingly) with support. What precious gifts!

Offer the gift to as many people as you can

I think it’s our duty to offer the gift of our direct sales business opportunity to as many people as possible. And you don’t need to know what the gift might become for them – everybody enjoys different gifts.

Offer the gift of your business opportunity to everyone. Use this direct sales recruiting trick...

For some the gift will be friendships, for others is guilt-free shopping or a family holiday. I’ve seen women use their business to leave abusive relationships. I’ve seen women discover their strengths as they progressed on the career path.

It’s so rewarding to offer the gift to someone and watch them grow and thrive in their business.

So next time you’re tempted to skip talking about the business opportunity, remember that all you’re doing is offering them a gift. Keep that image of the gift in mind – it’s amazing how mentally freeing it is to think of recruiting that way!

Party trick

At your next party or event, place a beautifully wrapped gift in the center of your display. When someone asks “What’s in the box“, you have the perfect opportunity to talk about the gift of the business and how it’s different for everyone.

Tell them that for some the gift is a new car, for some an entirely new career, for others a bit more room in the budget…it’s like a magic present!

Offer the gift of your business opportunity to as many people as possible, perhaps you can even think of yourself as Santa for the 18+

(*) My daughter is okay now. She beat the leukemia and is a picture of health!

Dive further into the recruiting process with my FREE Recruiting Mini Course. You’ll get tips, tricks and printables. Join today by signing up below

21 Days to Success in direct sales

Title: 21 Days to Success in your Direct Sales Business: Take the Challenge

Here’s a serious question: Are you ready to take consistent action every day? Are you ready to build good habits for direct sales success?

The habits you implement in your business are the difference between a thriving business and a stagnating one.

Are you even ready for success?

You’re still reading, so I’m guessing the answer to the above questions is YES!

I’ve created a 21-Day Challenge designed to help you move your business forward while you build habits for success.

The 21-Day Challenge aims to ‘talk’ to 3 people every day. And when I say ‘talk,’ I mean to have contact with. You can talk to people in person, over the phone, via text message, via Facebook, etc. It doesn’t matter how you speak to 3 people as long as you contact three people daily.

But don’t worry – you’re not alone in this Challenge. I’ll be there with you every day.

My Promise

I promise you this: if you can contact three people every day for 21 days, you will grow your business. Not only that, you will build those good habits that will help your business to thrive.

During the Challenge, I will contact you every day via email. I will help you with ideas on how to find people to talk to, provide pep talks and help you stay motivated, and help you with free printables and tips.

Your Promise

You might be thinking now, “But I can’t do this because….” Perhaps you’re an introvert, shy, busy, or you don’t know how to do it, or you only know seven people …. or whatever other reason you must hold yourself back.

But have you ever tried this for 21 days before? Why don’t you throw yourself into it and ‘have a go?’ as we like to say in Australia. Then at the end of the 21 days, you can decide whether you can do this.

When you start the Challenge, I want you to promise to put in effort every day and not give up.

Make the most of the next 21 days.

You can focus on getting bookings, sales, or sponsoring during the Challenge. Or perhaps a combination of those 3. It depends on your goals and what your business needs right now.

I recommend offering each person you contact three opportunities: to join your business, host a party or event, or become a priority customer and join your customer VIP group.

The secret to success with this Challenge is consistency. So if you genuinely want to make yourself consistent, you want to get a streak of 21 days. If you miss a day….go back to the start until you have had three contacts per day for 21 days straight. And once you reach the end of 21 days, your business will flourish!

Focus on the doing, not on the results.

Part of the power of this Challenge is that it allows you to concentrate on the numbers, on the doing. You can allow yourself not to focus too much on the results. You need to talk to 3 people daily, but you don’t need to get 3 ‘Yes’s’!

By focusing on the process, you can take some pressure off yourself and each conversation. All you need to focus on is having those conversations and having some fun with them – don’t worry about the outcome just yet.

Before getting started…

Before starting this Challenge, gather all your contacts:

past hosts
previous customers
friends
family
acquaintances
sponsoring leads that were on the fence before

Create a nice hefty list of contacts. And don’t worry if the list isn’t that long. We’ll also work on finding more people to contact during the Challenge. But it’s helpful to be ready with your contacts, so you have no excuses to procrastinate!

As you go through the Challenge, tracking your results is helpful. That way, you can see the work you’re doing, and you’ll also be able to see your conversion rate. Throughout the Challenge, you’ll see how many “No’s” you get for each “Yes.” And you’ll notice that getting several “No’s” is standard. When I went through a similar process, I would get excited to get those “No’s” out of the way to get to my “Yes”!

Let’s get started!

Are you ready to get started on your 21-Day Challenge? I want to invite you to sign up below – and if you’re smart, you start the Challenge with a team buddy so you can work together and cheer each other on!

Let’s build some great habits and get your business to the next level!

Get more referrals

Title: Are you ready to make referrals work in your direct sales biz?

Many consultants don’t view referrals as an important strategy in their business. But used consistently, referrals can be used to grow your bookings and your team with very little effort.

Referrals are a very powerful way to grow your business because people trust the recommendations of a friend more than from anyone else!

And when you encourage people to recommend your business, you’ll have a better chance that past party guests or hosts will actually mention you to a friend.

Sometimes just mentioning your referral incentive at a party will remind people of that one friend they know would love a party or your products.

Make referrals work in your direct sales business.

So, to make things easy for you I’ve created a few different referral vouchers that you can use in your direct sales or party plan business.

You can choose to focus on either bookings or recruits – depending on what your business needs. Or you can offer both options – it’s up to you!

How to make referrals work

Use your vouchers consistently, hand them out at every in-home event, post them in your Facebook parties, and have them on hand at your vendor events or markets.

Make a habit of publicly thanking people who refer others to you. People like to be acknowledged – especially if there’s a reward involved 🙂

Regularly post about your referral program on your social media to make sure everybody knows about it. Remind people that they can cash in the voucher for themselves if they host their own party or if they themselves join your team!

Grab the done-for-your referral vouchers below and drop us a line to share how you encourage referrals in your direct sales biz.

How to overcome: I don’t have time

When a lead thinks they can't fit #DirectSelling into their lives, this is how you can respond.

This is part 3 in the “How to Overcome” series that delves into how to deal with objections when you’re recruiting in your direct sales business.

Many people would like to join a direct sales business but they believe they don’t have the time.

This is almost a bit funny to me, because I have found my direct sales business incredibly flexible.

I have been able to work around a full-time job before direct sales became my primary career. I have been able to work it around my children when they came along. And more recently I managed to run my business from my daughter’s hospital room when she was desperately ill.

Many successful consultants have found that they absolutely can work a direct sales business around their life’s circumstances. But it does take a little thought and pre-planning.

For this week’s article, I have conducted 3 interviews with fabulous women in the direct sales industry to ask them how they juggle their family, work, and newborns and their direct selling business.

You can use these stories as examples when you talk to leads, or even show them the videos. You can also use the fabulous tips and ideas for your own business.

In the first interview I talk to the lovely Sarah Snowdon who tells us how she prepared for having her second child and is now juggling her business around a new bub and a toddler.

In this second interview I talk to the amazing Rebecca Croxford. She runs a direct sales business, has a job, runs her own counselling practice and has a young family including a new-born and a child with special needs. Phew!

And last but not least, I talk to the gorgeous Rhiannon Jordan who was pregnant at the time of interview and talks about preparing her own personal business and team business for some time off.

You can use these wonderful stories and tips in your own business, in your team, and of course when you’re talking to a potential recruit and they tell you they don’t have the time to join your biz.

The direct sales industry is so wonderfully flexible and there are so many ways of running a biz. Perhaps you can start a conversation in your team Facebook group to some examples. You’ll find that how much time people spend and how they run their biz and fit it in their life is very different form consultant to consultant.

Once you have some different examples, you can share that with people who wonder how to fit it in their own life.

Also check out:

Part 1 for How to Overcome: “I can’t afford to join”
Part 2 for How to Overcome “I dont’ want to be salesy”
Part 4 for How to Overcome “I’m afraid to stand up and speak in front of people”

Recruiting or sponsoring can be scary … What do you say? How do you bring it up in the first place? When someone shows an interest, how do you follow up without being pushy?

In over 8 Modules, the Recruiting Masterclass will teach what to say, what to display, what to play, how to find potential team members outside of parties, online recruiting events, how to overcome objections, how to warm up your leads and how to follow up!

Recruiting is a skill that you can learn, even if you think you don’t have it in you!

C.O.D.D……Let’s go fishing

Title: A Structure for your recruiting chats that actually works

Have you ever heard of C.O.D.D? It’s a technique to use in your direct sales or party plan business to fish for potential new team members.

And luckily it doesn’t actually involve any cod fish.

I feel I should start with a confession: In my first two years as a direct salesperson I did not recruit a single new team member.

Not a single one.

Things changed after my first convention and learning about C.O.D.D. Learning to use this technique helped me to grow into an international record holder within my company for sponsoring the most people in a single month.

C.O.D.D. stands for Compliment, Objective, Disclaimer, Date.

You can use this structure to casually arrange for a coffee catch-up with potential new team members or to sign someone up on the spot.

So let me walk you through it.

How to use the C.O.D.D structure in your direct sales biz

Compliment

You start the conversation with a compliment. It’s important that the compliment is genuine because people can smell a fake from a mile away. Also, you need to make the compliment fit the person. You can’t say the same tired line to everybody because people will talk to each other or may overhear your conversation where you say the same thing to everybody. Learn to see the good in people and compliment them on it.

At parties or direct sales events, I look for people who would make great team members and I tell them why. I say something like: “You’d make a fabulous consultant because…

You were so passionate about our products. Everyone listened when you told them about your favorites!
You are so warm and friendly. I think you managed to catch up with everybody at this party! You’re obviously a fabulous people person.
You are the life of the party!

Objective

After your genuine compliment, you move straight to the objective before they even have a chance to respond to your compliment. Your objective could be to get them to take a recruitment information pack home or encouraging them to buy the business kit on the spot. I usually say something like: “I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it before, but…

I’d love you to take home this information and have a read of it.
The business kit is such amazing value so you’ve got nothing to lose by giving it a try.

Disclaimer

Use this easy structure to make those recruiting chats easy and fun.

The disclaimer is meant to put them at ease. You keep it casual and ensure they won’t feel like you’re putting the “hard sell” on them. Which you are not. I usually say something like

“Don’t worry, if it’s not for you I promise I won’t stalk you, but there’s no harm in finding out about it. If it’s not for you, you might actually know someone that it would be perfect for.”

Quick note: if your objective is to sign them up on the spot, you skip the disclaimer and go straight to the sign-up phase. You can say something like “Let’s go ahead and order you the kit. It’ll feel like Christmas when it arrives!” Then you move to set a date.

Date

In this phase you’re trying to set a date to meet them again. You can ask: “When is best for you to catch up for a chat about it and I can answer any questions you might have?” or something similar. When you’re trying to sign someone up on the spot you can ask something like “What’s best for you to have a gathering to let your friends and family know. A weekend or weeknight?”. Have your diary ready and try to get a firm appointment.

Let the passion for your direct sales biz shine through

The key to this process is to realize it’s a structure for effective conversations, not a script.

To make it work, you have to make it fit your personality and style. You have to find something real to compliment someone on, and you have to have real passion for your business. Authenticity and passion will always shine through and by using techniques like C.O.D.D. you can become more effective.

Authenticity and passion will always shine through….

To become fluent in using C.O.D.D., it helps to role-play it a few times. Perhaps you can practice with a friend, business buddy or family member before your next party or event so the conversation is smooth and natural. Once you’re confident you’ll see that your sponsoring chats become a lot more effective.

Now, go fish!

Recruiting or sponsoring is a skill that you can learn, it’s not something you are born with. If you want to improve your recruiting skills to build your business, check out the Recruiting Masterclass. It’s jam-packed with ideas, strategies and tips to help you become a superstar recruiter in your own direct sales biz.

Learn more!