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Team Building

Direct Sales Compensation

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Scentsy compensationwww.thrivingcandlebusiness.comConcerned that devoting less time to personal sales and more to recruiting could hurt you financially?

The direct sales industry, for the most part, uses a two-tiered compensation plan. You can read more about it here; but essentially it means consultants get paid a commission on their personal sales and if they choose to build a team, they also get paid a leadership bonus on a portion of sales of all other consultants within their downline.

Recently I had a conversation with a direct sales team leader about compensation from personal sales vs. team sales. For maximum payout in direct sales, team building is a must. You must continue to build your own personal business by selling the products, and you must also share the business opportunity with others and continually sponsor new team members.

Optimal payout requires balance.

Personal sales pays a higher commission (up to 30% with Scentsy), and leadership bonuses range from 2-9%. At first blush you can see why one would rather have 30% than 2%.  Not necessarily so, read a portion of my (LA) conversation with the team leader (TL).

TL: Of my whole paycheck, the portion of my personal sales is so much smaller than what I get from the other team members. That stinks.

LA: That’s good. It shows team building. You’re working smarter, not harder, and the importance of balancing personal sales and mentoring others. The portion of my check from my personal sales is also very small compared to the leadership bonus I get from the hundreds of others I’ve brought in over the years – either me personally or sponsorees of others within my downline.

TL: Ya but aren’t you bored just selling the minimum personal sales required? I want to be proud of what I’m bringing in too. [Read more…] about Direct Sales Compensation

Are You a Good Scentsy Leader?

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Scentsy leadersSales are key in maintaining your direct sales business. Though to keep growing it’s vital you also build a team.

When you build a team, the focus changes from primarily sales to that of a mentor. Once you become a team leader, you still need to work your own business, and you’ll also be responsible mentoring and supporting others as well.

Tips to be a Great Leader

Here are some tips and suggestions that will go a long way in making you a team leader anyone would be proud to work with.

  • Put others first. Any good team leader will realize it’s no longer only about yourself and your business. You will need to put the needs of your downline above your own. Success will happen for your recruits, which in turn means you too. You don’t succeed if team members don’t succeed. “I’ll get my minimum sales in, and then I can help my team member” is backwards thinking. Flip the order of that and you’ll get better results.
  • Learn to prioritize. You must be able to put things in order of importance as a team leader. By doing this you will be better organized and show your team members how to do the same.
  • Walk the walk. As a leader you must lead by example. You can’t tell your team to do something and expect them to follow you if you’re not doing it too. A word of caution though, don’t rub it in their faces about how wonderful you are and all your sales and your recruiting success. That will demotivate, not motivate them. If you’re walking the walk, especially in this day of technology, they’ll know it. You won’t need to throw yourself a parade to ensure your downline knows you’re working.

[Read more…] about Are You a Good Scentsy Leader?

Would You Rather Join With an Eeyore or a Tigger Sponsor?

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Attitudes are contagious.

If you spend time with someone who is always crabbing and complaining, it too can drag you down. It won’t be long before you also start to adopt nonproductive emotions and attitudes.

Likewise, if you spend time with those who are positive, chipper and generally happy, it’s easy to maintain your own peaceful, joyful attitude.

Some say opposites attract, but I disagree. Like attracts like. I consider myself pretty positive. I embrace living in the moment and appreciating each moment. I don’t sweat the small stuff … and it’s mostly all small.

If you’re a direct sales independent consultant you know that you have a two-fold business, sales and sponsoring. If you’re having a hard time team building, take a look at what type of recruits you may be attracting.

Are You a Tigger?

Tigger personalityTigger is genuinely friendly and bouncy. He likes to sing, “The wonderful thing about Tiggers is I’m the only one!” He is cheery, positive, sweet and energetic. He’s FUN to be around. See for yourself.

eeyore personalityOr Are You an Eeyore?

Eeyore  is a pessimistic old grey donkey. He lives in the southeast corner of the Hundred Acre Wood, in an area labeled “Eeyore’s Gloomy Place: Rather Boggy and Sad” Have a look.

Like Attracts Like

I see direct sales consultants on forums and Facebook complaining or finding reasons to be upset about one thing or another. It’s no surprise their business isn’t going well. It’s no wonder they’re not building strong teams. They are leading by example, but not a very good example. [Read more…] about Would You Rather Join With an Eeyore or a Tigger Sponsor?

Garage Sale Recruiting

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direct selling tipsWill Brake for Garage Sales

Some independent direct sales consultants have a garage sale mentality when it comes to recruiting new team members. See if you are one of them:

  • You either target particular garage sales, yard sales, church sales, neighborhood sales or estate sales based on ads you’ve seen on Craig’s List or other advertising platforms – or as you are just headed down the street you stumble upon a sale.
  • You evaluate the signage. If it is large and brightly colored, you decide it might be a good sale. If it is small and looks like chicken scratch, you figure it was just thrown together and probably won’t be very good.
  • When you see the sign, you slow down to look down the street to see if the sale is visible or if you’ll have to venture down the street to seek out the location.
  • When you get to the sale you slow down to look from your car to determine if it looks good enough to get out.
  • If you see baby items out front, and you are not in the market for any baby items, you decide it must not contain any good treasures in which you have any interest, so you keep going.
  • If the sale is staged well or if you see some big items that catch your eye from the street you decide to park and get your bum out of the car.
  • If you do get out only finding there was nothing of interest to you, you silently curse to yourself that it was a waste of your time and energy to go look at that junk.

Do you recognize yourself in any of those descriptions? I sure do. Even though I am well aware that by making such unfounded judgments I am probably missing out on some gem that was available to me, I still repeatedly engage in some of these actions.

Judging Recruits from Afar

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Pushing Your Team Members Away

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rewarding-your-downlineThis blog post originally appeared in my WAHM column on Sparkplugging.com in July 2013

From the What Not to Do File:
Don’t give your team members prizes and gifts from another direct sales company

Consider this scenario: A direct sales consultant has some downline team members. She wants to offer a sales incentive because her numbers are a little slow.

Instead of offering as prizes some extra product from her company so team members can build their inventory, she wants to offer something different.

Instead of offering some business supplies to help build their own businesses, she wants to offer something different.

Instead of giving them a Starbucks or Amazon gift card so they can have a drink on her or pick up something to help their business, she wants to do something different.

She decides to buy prizes from another direct sales consultant with another company.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for supporting independent consultants. I purchase from other consultants on a fairly regular basis … but for PERSONAL USE!

Why would I not utilize my own company products which I could earn commission, add to my needed volume and help team members build their inventory? Or if I opted to do something non-company related, such as Amazon, the recipients could select what they wanted. [Read more…] about Pushing Your Team Members Away