Just Curious (Directors Out There)

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Discussion Overview

This thread explores the experiences and opinions of participants regarding the new career plan for Pampered Chef consultants, particularly focusing on the impact it has had on those who have held director status. Participants share their personal experiences with recruiting, maintaining status, and the challenges posed by the new requirements.

Discussion Character

  • Opinion-based
  • Anecdotal
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant, identifying as a consultant, expresses concern about the difficulty of maintaining director status under the new plan, suggesting it would be fairer to require only one senior consultant instead of two.
  • Another participant, who is a hobby consultant, notes that the new plan seems to make it harder for career consultants to maintain their status, especially during challenging economic times.
  • One participant disagrees with the notion that the new plan is more difficult, arguing that building a deep team can alleviate the pressure of maintaining director status.
  • A director shares their stress regarding their recruits' lack of desire to recruit, despite their efforts to highlight the benefits of doing so.
  • Another participant mentions that they were a hobbyist until a specific incentive was announced, indicating that not all consultants are interested in recruiting.
  • A former director reflects positively on the new plan, stating it reduces recruiting pressure by requiring fewer active recruits and allowing directors to retain their recruits even if they lose their title.
  • One participant appreciates the ability for directors to keep their recruits, emphasizing that this change is beneficial compared to previous requirements.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Views differ significantly among participants regarding the impact of the new career plan. Some express frustration and concern about the challenges it presents, while others see potential benefits in the changes.

Contextual Notes

Participants' experiences vary widely based on their roles as hobbyists or career consultants, and their perspectives are influenced by their individual recruiting successes and challenges.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to Pampered Chef consultants navigating the new career plan, particularly those in leadership roles or considering recruitment strategies.

kreaser
kreaser
Gold Member
Messages
551
I was just curious how many people had director status before the new career plan started and then dropped down to Team Leader because they didn't have 2 lines within their cluster? Now that I've been functioning with it a while, I can see the positives and negatives with it..I only recruited 1 person all last year during the incentive period. My sales were good, but just couldn't get recruiting going. I have recruited 3 already since Jan. and have 2 potential coming on board. The real excitement is that I have a couple consultants on my team really recruiting.. One, who didn't recruit before (we wont mention names chefsteph07) LOL
has gone wild with 4 already!!!
I also have a new recruit who is signing 2 June 1st.
So, right now my 2 lines will be ok...
but it's nerve racking!!! Every month it could bump up and down. I think it is very difficult to get and maintain directorship now..I really think, personally, it would be more fair if we only had to have 1 senior instead of 2..just my opinion
 
Im just a hobby consultant but I think it stinks. I have a friend who has been a director for years. She works hard and she recruits, her sales are good and she meets her sales/cluster sales quotas. But she is a team leader under the new plan. I think the up and down each month is going to be a problem. Confusing!

As far as I can tell...as I understand the new career plan...PC is making it harder on their consultants to keep going. All over the country things are changing because of the economy and most businesses are making things a little easier...as far as maintaining status...for their consultants/employees, but PC for some reason has made it a little harder. As a hobby consultant it doesn't really affect me, but for career consultants this can be a big problem.

Don't get me wrong. I love PC and think it is a great company. I'm not trying to bash them. I just think they picked a stressful time to make these changes.
 
Shawnna said:
As far as I can tell...as I understand the new career plan...PC is making it harder on their consultants to keep going. All over the country things are changing because of the economy and most businesses are making things a little easier...as far as maintaining status...for their consultants/employees, but PC for some reason has made it a little harder. QUOTE]

Actually, I do not see it that way. I think once you make director it will be easier to keep it...if you are continuing to work your business AND help those on your team. If we build deep as well as wide we should not be going up and down....take it like this. If have a 2 senior consultants and am a team leader...and if one of the senior consultants also has a senior consultant under them, then I am still safe if my direct recuit ever leaves the business--- I would still have a 2 senior consultants. Does that make sense. Yes, I think it requires more work but it is worth it because I think once we get our team DEEP as well as Wide then we never have to worry about the UPs and DOWNs.
Click to expand...
 
Shawnna said:
Im just a hobby consultant but I think it stinks. I have a friend who has been a director for years. She works hard and she recruits, her sales are good and she meets her sales/cluster sales quotas. But she is a team leader under the new plan. I think the up and down each month is going to be a problem. Confusing!

As far as I can tell...as I understand the new career plan...PC is making it harder on their consultants to keep going. All over the country things are changing because of the economy and most businesses are making things a little easier...as far as maintaining status...for their consultants/employees, but PC for some reason has made it a little harder. As a hobby consultant it doesn't really affect me, but for career consultants this can be a big problem.

Don't get me wrong. I love PC and think it is a great company. I'm not trying to bash them. I just think they picked a stressful time to make these changes.
Click to expand...
Actually, I do not see it that way. I think once you make director it will be easier to keep it...if you are continuing to work your business AND help those on your team. If we build deep as well as wide we should not be going up and down....take it like this. If have a 2 senior consultants and am a team leader...and if one of the senior consultants also has a senior consultant under them, then I am still safe if my direct recuit ever leaves the business--- I would still have a 2 senior consultants. Does that make sense. Yes, I think it requires more work but it is worth it because I think once we get our team DEEP as well as Wide then we never have to worry about the UPs and DOWNs.
 
To me, as a director, for the past 3 years or so, this has been very stressful. None of my recruits have the desire to recruit, though I have discussed with them the full benefits of doing so...I guess all I can do is keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully my new future recruits will see the benefits of adding to their team. I also have worked my tail off and earned trips, etc....but this new "qualification" has me stressed out.
 
I am in KReaser's cluster and we have had many conversations about this. Everyone in our cluster, except for myself, is a hobbyist. They have no desire to recruit. And that should be ok! I was a hobbyist until this Disney trip was announced, and I hadn't recruited in I don't know how long. It was not something I was intererested in, and to be perfectly honest, if it wasn't for this trip, I still wouldn't be.

I don't think Directors should be punished for the non actions of others. If you want to recruit just hobbyists, that should be ok. Now it seems we need to recruit those who are interested in promoting, or pushing those who signed to promote. I don't think it's fair. If Karlene had pushed me in any way to recruit in the years I've been in it, I might have quit.

Sometimes it makes mroe sense if a leader has a recruit lead to just give it to someone else in their team to keep THEIR status. That's no fair either. I think 2 is too many to keep active lines for directors if trheir consultants just want to do a few shows a month and don't want to make a leadership role.
 
I'm not a director anymore, but I was before I quit selling PC a couple of years ago. Personally, I think the new career plan makes it better for directors. Before, you had to have five signed, qualified, and active personal recruits, and now its just four signed and active, two of whom have to be senior consultants. That takes some of the recruiting "pressure" off of the director. I have never had a hard time with recruiting - as a director, I averaged 2 recruits per month, but a lot of them were hobbyists, which put the pressure to get the $4000 team sales on me, which for me, was difficult. Now, because the requirement is to have 2 senior consultants, it seems that PC is making it so that directors will have at least a couple of serious consultants that are working their businesses actively, both selling and recruiting, which takes some of the pressure off of the director. Keep in mind I say this as a "new" consultant, but I remember how stressed I was to keep my directorship when my hobbyists weren't selling and I had a slow month. Also, now with the new career plan, if a director doesn't meet their directorship requirements and they lose their title, they don't lose their recruits - which is HUGE in my opinion, because it makes it so much easier to re-promote. When I went through my divorce and I lost my directorship, I lost my entire team - 12 people - which sucked. I'm actually very excited about the new career plan, and even more excited about promoting under the new plan.
 
The fact that directors keep their recruits is wonderful. I have always felt that you should keep your recruits unless you quit. To have a couple bad months and lose everything you worked for is unfair. This part of the new career plan is better for directors.
 
just to be clear, it is not just because someone recruits someone gives them the title SC - they MUST be active EACH month in order to maintain that title......so, yes even if you do the recruiting - EVERYONE in the line must be also actively working.
 
well, as long as one member of the line is selling that line is active.....
The last person I recruited I almost put under one of my consultants just to have a SC, but realized I wasn't doing anyone any favors by doing that...but I know some people may want to do that.
 
Even though SC's have to be ACTIVE each month, that's not a huge requirement since that's only one show per month. For that matter, just a few orders together to make a show is enough to keep someone active each month. When I was a hobbyist consultant (my first year as a consultant), I did one show per month, and I didn't consider that actively selling. BUT - some may feel differently about that. I do think it would've been much harder if the requirement of 2 TL's to be director - that could make things hard. But to have 2 consultants who each sell $150 per month and maintain 1 recruit who also sells $150 a month (if I understand the requirements of SC correctly) doesn't seem that hard to me. It may take some a while to build their teams deep like that, but once they do, I think it will make for a stronger team overall. JMHO and YMMV.
 
I just promoted to director May 1st--YEAH!!! As for me, this plan is very hard and stressful. I have to make sure each of my girls is active every month to get the benefits of being a director. For instance, I worked twice as hard this month with 2 girls and had to give them one of my catalog shows to make sure everyone had $150 in sales to make sure I maintained my director structure. My director, who promoted to Advanced Director last month, will be paid as a TEAM LEADER this month, because her downline had a horrible month (my cluster does not count toward her sales anymore). That is heartbreaking for her. In order to stay a director now, you have to have at least 6 people in your cluster where as before it was 5. I would've done better on the old plan, because it would not be nearly this stressful. I think the new plan is great for people with solid and secure clusters, but for new clusters it is very hard!

I am recruiting a new girl this week, so that will give me some breathing room, but I am not high pressure and I feel like I am being high pressure to these girls and I do not like it! So, hopefully I will recruit a few more people and add to my team to help ease the stress!
 
@Shannon - Congrats on promoting to director!! Are you going to conference? If so, which wave? I'd love to cheer for you as you walk across stage (wait...they still do that, don't they?? So much has changed since I was active with PC before). I know its probably stressful, but you can do it! Just get some people who are excited about directorship too. If no one on your team is, make them excited (I never wanted to be a director until my hospitality director, who is now my real director, showed me her paycheck and her TPC ring - I'm a total carrot person, and after that, it only took me 6 months to promote to director, too!). Good luck - you can do it!
 
Shannon,
Be careful on giving your sales away, i don't think that is allowed. I know in the past some consultants were "audited" and when it was found out the sales were not theirs everyone was in trouble.
 
I've been with PC for 5+ years now and after about a year in the biz, I decided that I wanted directorship because of the $$$. HOWEVER, I became a forever future. I was a future director for over 4 years and didn't really make that much more money. Now, with the new plan as a Team Leader and the extra percentage increase for my sales, their sales and their recruits' sales, I'm making a lot more money. I still do want to become director, but the idea of building WIDE and DEEP makes it so much easier for me to feel comfortable with moving forward with that decision. On the old plan, I watched a friend lose her directorship 3 times, so I decided that before I would ever even accept directorship, I personally, wanted at least 8 recruits on my team so I would be "solid". Now, with the new plan, I do find it a little hard to get my recruits to recruit, but the "instant promotion" that they receive is such a nice little reward and an incentive for them, that I present it that way.
Yes - I still do want to become director - badly. Yes - I am personally still recruiting. Yes - I am still encouraging my team to recruit. And yes, I think the new plan is better overall and takes away stress from you and rewards those that keep a consistent and constant business.
On the old plan, I actually kept my director active with basically just my sales each month. She wasn't doing anything, except basicallly collecting $200 in orders each month because of tons of family issues going on, but she reaped the rewards of directorship basically, because of my sales of close to or over $4k each month. That was NOT fair. This new plan prevents that from happening and I love that part. No more "coat-tail riders" out there under the new plan.
Ok, this was really long, but I do actually like the new plan. I feel it's very fair and encourages us to remain constant and active in our business if we truly want to view it as a business and not as a hobby. I am still close to becoming director, and hopefully will get it in June. BUT, I feel very, very comfortable accepting directorship now because I have a solid first line and they are building a great second line....and my own personal sales are doing great and my bookings are fantastic. God is soooooo good!!!!
 
c00p said:
I've been with PC for 5+ years now and after about a year in the biz, I decided that I wanted directorship because of the $$$. HOWEVER, I became a forever future. I was a future director for over 4 years and didn't really make that much more money. Now, with the new plan as a Team Leader and the extra percentage increase for my sales, their sales and their recruits' sales, I'm making a lot more money. I still do want to become director, but the idea of building WIDE and DEEP makes it so much easier for me to feel comfortable with moving forward with that decision. On the old plan, I watched a friend lose her directorship 3 times, so I decided that before I would ever even accept directorship, I personally, wanted at least 8 recruits on my team so I would be "solid". Now, with the new plan, I do find it a little hard to get my recruits to recruit, but the "instant promotion" that they receive is such a nice little reward and an incentive for them, that I present it that way.
Yes - I still do want to become director - badly. Yes - I am personally still recruiting. Yes - I am still encouraging my team to recruit. And yes, I think the new plan is better overall and takes away stress from you and rewards those that keep a consistent and constant business.
On the old plan, I actually kept my director active with basically just my sales each month. She wasn't doing anything, except basicallly collecting $200 in orders each month because of tons of family issues going on, but she reaped the rewards of directorship basically, because of my sales of close to or over $4k each month. That was NOT fair. This new plan prevents that from happening and I love that part. No more "coat-tail riders" out there under the new plan.
Ok, this was really long, but I do actually like the new plan. I feel it's very fair and encourages us to remain constant and active in our business if we truly want to view it as a business and not as a hobby. I am still close to becoming director, and hopefully will get it in June. BUT, I feel very, very comfortable accepting directorship now because I have a solid first line and they are building a great second line....and my own personal sales are doing great and my bookings are fantastic. God is soooooo good!!!!
Click to expand...

My Story is much the same as Andrea's! Except for the part about my director riding my coat-tails. My director works her business and is an awesome director!

But for myself - I couldn't believe the difference in pay from FD in March to TL in April! Over $100 more for basically the same sales of myself and my team!
I too seemed to be a "Forever Future". And the benefits of being a FD weren't much at all. I have 8 on my team as of today - but keeping 5 of them active and selling all at the same time was an impossible feat, and until I could do that, I wasn't getting any benefits to speak of for all of the time and effort I put into training and coaching them. Now, as a Team Leader, I feel like I am being rewarded for what I do (plus, I just really prefer the title Team Leader instead of FD - always thought that was a bit hokey) and the pressure to promote is gone! Yes - it is still my goal to become a director, but the discouragement that I felt so often when I would be so close to promoting, but missed it by one show not being submitted, etc...is gone too. Until I promote, I like being a Team Leader! It's a title with some meat behind it, instead of a FD - which to me was just sort of an honorary title w/o much meaning.
 
I'm going in Wave 1! I can't wait. It will be my first conference. I have 3 kids and this is the first year I don't have a baby, so I'll be able to go!!! YEAH!!!
 
chefsteph07 said:
I am in KReaser's cluster and we have had many conversations about this. Everyone in our cluster, except for myself, is a hobbyist. They have no desire to recruit. And that should be ok! I was a hobbyist until this Disney trip was announced, and I hadn't recruited in I don't know how long. It was not something I was intererested in, and to be perfectly honest, if it wasn't for this trip, I still wouldn't be.

I don't think Directors should be punished for the non actions of others. If you want to recruit just hobbyists, that should be ok. Now it seems we need to recruit those who are interested in promoting, or pushing those who signed to promote. I don't think it's fair. If Karlene had pushed me in any way to recruit in the years I've been in it, I might have quit.

Sometimes it makes mroe sense if a leader has a recruit lead to just give it to someone else in their team to keep THEIR status. That's no fair either. I think 2 is too many to keep active lines for directors if trheir consultants just want to do a few shows a month and don't want to make a leadership role.
Click to expand...

I think on our teams we need both the hobbyist and those who want to promote. Without the "hobbyists" then there might not be room for those who want to promote. Think about it...if we all recruited and those under us recruited then eventually everyone in the world would be a consultant and we would have no one to sell to....kind of far fetched....but my point is that I believe that it IS OKAY not want to recruit and that NO ONE should feel pressured to do so. I just like the new plan because I think it will be easier for us to keep our titles once we acheive them under the new plan.

I really think once we get used to this new plan and those of us who want to promote and do this on a more "full-time" basis, will be more successful.
 
You can lose your recruits. If you have someone below you promote to director (or you lose your directorship because you dont have two with recruits), they pass you. They go to the next level up. Since this is about to happen to me, I obviously don't like this rule and don't quite understand why the person who recruited someone loses them simply because she's not as good. Honestly, the girl under me is a better PC consultant - especially a better recruiter. I understand me not gaining financially because she passed me but I'm not happy that she will be gone forever.And to answer the original question, I recruited three earlier this year so that I could keep this girl under me. I was told that I would not lose her even if I didn't maintain directorship. None of the ones I recruited will be recruiting so I will have one director and four hobbysists under me. I will be losing directorship soon but dont know if the old program would have been any better for me. Consistency is the key and sometimes its hard to be consistent at the level the company requires AND do it part-time....
 
Yes, you can lose your recruits if they pass you, but that has always been the case if I remember correctly. I was referring to if you just lose directorship but none of your recruits promote. When I was a director under the old system, none of my recruits promoted to director, but when I lost my directorship, I lost all of my recruits. Under the new system, with the same scenario, I'd keep my team and be back on track to repromoting to director. I hope that makes sense...
 
cookie325 said:
Yes, you can lose your recruits if they pass you, but that has always been the case if I remember correctly. I was referring to if you just lose directorship but none of your recruits promote. When I was a director under the old system, none of my recruits promoted to director, but when I lost my directorship, I lost all of my recruits. Under the new system, with the same scenario, I'd keep my team and be back on track to repromoting to director. I hope that makes sense...
Click to expand...

You are correct about losing recruits if they pass you...that was that way under the old system also. I like it that if you do not maintain directorship you do not lose your recruits because it takes some of use a long time to build up just what we got so I am glad we get to keep them.
 

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