How Can I Build My Team and Keep My Personal Show Schedule?

[cincychef]

Another thread got me to thinking, I am really trying to build my team right now, but I am also seeing the time and effort I am putting into this cause my personal show schedule to fall short.

I would love to hear what other people do with/for their teams.

Ok here it goes. My personal goal is to hold 10 shows a month this year and recruit 2 consistently.
I usually hold about 8 shows and this month I only have 3

The changes I have made this year to work more consistently for myself and my team are:
1. I now offer team training calls on the 1st and 3rd Monday of the month from 8:30-9:30. Our meetings are on the 2nd Monday and I also meet with any recruit leads, personal or team members with leads, at a local Panera Bread on the 4th Monday.
2. I book cooking shows on Tues, Thurs and Sat.
3. I also started offering to do my new consultants grand opening with them as long as they are signed, it is their show and they get the commission and the free product. My job is to do the ticket game with them and teach them the full service checkout. What do you guys do with this? This month I might do more grand openings than cooking shows. I am not sure if I am going to continue to offer to do it this way.
4. Last month I committed to holding 6 face to face interviews to help me feel more confident when doing an interview. It worked! I signed 2, but it was a lot of running around and so far in 5 weeks I have been stood up twice. I am not sure if I am going to continue doing these face to face.
5. I am also trying to add a set day of the week that I do new consultant training calls and have them get a time slot on my calendar when they sign. Right now I am spending way more time playing phone tag to schedule them than I am doing any kind of training.
6. I also want to start offering a monthly cook and book, but I am not sure where to fit it in.

I would really appreciate any kind of suggestions or tips from what has and has not worked for you... I am feeling kind of burned out and I also don't feel like I am offering enough, not a good combination.

 

[ChefLisa]

Wow Chantelle! I do not have anything to add to your ideas, but I am going to 'borrow' some of your ideas.

As long as you keep doing what you are doing, you will see great results. A Director friend of mine has been working very closely with her team with small baby steps. She has been doing this for about two years. She is a very strong Director and she now has a Consultant who has the team in place to promote to Director so my friend will hopefully be an Advance Director by the end of the month.

 

[jwpamp]

I agree with Lisa, Chantelle. It's all about consistency and persistence. You earned Paris and TPC in the past -- that means you CAN do it!It's all a numbers game and I am the first to stand up and tell you I was the MOST frustrated Director in the company when the Career Plan changed....I gave it 12 months and told myself that if I tried my best and did all that I could and it DIDN'T turn around I was outta here.But you know what happened? The fact that I gave it time, was consistent and persistent and that I didn't give up made all the difference. I have kicked up my personal sales (to at least TWICE as 2009), my Team is growing by leaps and bounds...but believe me, I was at an all time low just 12 months before this. Moral of the story: Stick with it -- give it Time and give it all your energy -- for at least 6 months. THEN see what happens!

 

[jwpamp]

Oh, on a side note (and don't anyone turn this thread into a weight loss one!!!!), I did the same thing several years ago with WALKING....I wanted to lose weight and I could hardly get off the couch because my energy level was so low....

so I decided that I would walk EVERY DAY for at least 30 minutes in my neighborhood.

I told myself that I would do 30 straight days of walking -- NO MATTER WHAT -- and if I didn't lose any weight and my pants weren't hanging on me after those 30 days, I would NEVER WALK AGAIN!!!!!

Well, you guessed it -- I lost 2 pant sizes and 17 pounds that first month.

Again, consistency and persistence. I'm just sayin'.....

 

[cincychef]

Janice,
I won't turn it into a weight loss, but you sound just like me! I also started working out at a gym this month at 6:30 am. I haven't seen any results yet, but I am going to keep at it. I need to be in a little better shape in time for Disney!I know consistency and persistence are the key. I am not thinking of quitting, just trying to get ideas of what other directors might do to make this easier. I need to grow my team, but I also can't keep running this much. I have 4 kids 6 and under that keep me busy too. If anyone has figured out time saving ideas that would be great. I did not get paid as a director last month for the first time and this job pays for our house and several other bills so I need to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Thanks for the input! Keep it coming.

 

[cincychef]

Who here does most of there interviews face to face and who does most of them over the phone and why?
Do you meet face to face to sign your new consultants?
If you could only do one face to face which do you think is more important?

 

[cincychef]

One more question, do you do your new consultants grand openings as their show? Does it pay off for you in the long run?

 

[jwpamp]

I am so glad to hear that, Chantelle! And 4 kids under 6 -- WOW!

I do a lot of interviews over the phone (and training, too). I don't see it making a huge difference, they still do well from the start...and it's easier on me!

As far as Grand Opening Shows, I occasionally do them with my new consultants, but have heard recently that there is another way to do it:

Schedule a "Grand Opening Show" BEFORE the consultant signs....

YOU keep $300 in sales (enough to get her the $40 kit credit and it will net you $75-$90 depending on your %).

THEY get the rest of the sales to put in as their first show (a few days later, after they have signed with their kit credit) and keep all the bookings.

It's a win-win : you get paid for the night out and she gets to submit her first show and takes the bookings.

This came from the problem of people signing so many people and never having enough time to give to their own bookings...wish I had that problem...but it does give a GREAT way to get paid AND help them out!

 

[pamperedbecky]

This is a great thread!!

I like that spin on the different way to do a Grand Opening!! Great idea. I'll have to keep it in mind. I have only done one or two grand openings with my consultants. It was because I left it up to them to decide. I learned at my recent Director Retreat/training to not really give them the choice. That's hard for me because I would not have wanted my director there....it's just to nerve wracking, but I'm trying to explain to them that I'll do all the "hard" parts like get them more bookings and do the recruiting for them so they can start off strong.

I like to try to do my recruiting interviews face to face, but have done them over the phone too. My last 4 recruits were face to face.

I do two meetings a month with another director. One is the whole cluster/team meeting and another is new consultant training. Anyone can come to that, not just new consultants. For the 3 consultants I"ve recruited this year, I've tried to do a lot more face to face training than before. It takes more time, but I feel most of them (well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad) had a stronger start because of it.

Since going to my director/NED training a few weeks ago, I'm also trying to focus on promoting a director. Nobody is anywhere near director, but I'm trying to help some of them realize that they can do it. So, in the past 2-3 weeks, I've done separate meetings with FOUR consultants on my team. Some are old timers and one is someone who started a couple months ago. After I asked them specifically about directorship, all wanted some help to pursue it or at least start down that road. IT does take a lot more of time and I certainly hope it pays off. Even if they don't become directors, I'm SURE their businesses will grow because of this extra effort. They ALL need to get to that 8 shows a month formula, so we're starting with the pretty basic equation of 6-8 shows a month. But, they all need some help getting to that point, so in the end I hope it benefits both of us.

But I can totally see where it's hard to balance your own biz with helping out your team. My own business isn't even where I want it to be with # of shows, but I figure if I can help others get there, in the long run I"ll be working "smarter, not harder" with my team having higher sales. And I also figured since my own business isn't quite where I'd like it to be, this is the time to focus on THEM more as opposed to when my shows get back up to the 8-10 shows a month schedule.

 

[cincychef]

May update, re reading this thread has been great! For May I signed 3 new consultants. My sales were down a bit and I did NOT qualify for director again But I did my first cook and book. I did several grand openings and several face to face interviews. I am still trying to balance my personal business and coaching my team,but I am seeing more and more the value in doing a grand opening with my new consultants, I have qualified 2 this year and I have 5 qualifying soon. I have booked June solid and picked 6 people on my team to contact and see if they are ready to promote to SC, my goal is to work closely with them.
How did everyone else do?

 

[pamperedbecky]

That's great, Chantelle! WOW. How did you book your June solid? I NEED to do that!!

Anyway, way to go on those recruits. Holy cow!!!

I NEED to get recruiting. My sales and my team sales are always fine (in May we did $13,000 something as a team!), but I need to get some personal recruits. I haven't had one since March and this means that I bet I'm out of the HO lead rotation.

But on a positive note, my team is recruiting!! I've been trying to focus more on it since coming back from my NED's director retreat in April and it's working! It's more work on my part but I've found it's inspiring some to look at their businesses differently. So, since I've been doing that, one of my consultants recruited her first (who is totally gung ho and I'm sure will have her own recruit soon!) and another consultant of mine has two pretty promising recruit leads and one of them is signing tomorrow! I just wish that those "counted" for me somehow to remain in the lead system. I also didn't get paid as a director for May because only one of my 4 SC lines was active. Oh well, not the end of the world.

I hope everyone has a great June!! I NEED to get more bookings!! That will help my recruiting. So, I need to get on the phone!!

 

[Sheila]

I was on vacation in TX most of May & am just seeing this thread, but I'll add what I do. Even though I'm brand new at being a Director, I've gone from 3 in my downline on Jan 1st to 14!!! So I've definitely found my niche in recruiting and having successful recruits who are also recruiting. Coaching calls: I need to do better! I haven't really had a set schedule, I just try to give them 10-15 min's any time that they call asking a question. They all know that I have a 1 year old & a 2.5 year old and that it's very possible that I'll be distracted, so the ones who know the nap schedule usually try to call while the kids are down or after 8PM when the kids are in bed. Some just use e-mail.My shows: I cluster my shows on the military payday weekends! I do 6PM Fri, Noon Sat, 6PM Sat & 2PM Sun. Then I'm done until the 2nd payday of the month. We do have DODDS (school) employees who get paid every other week, so if the host and majority of the guests are on that pay schedule, I'll often do another show on an off weekend.Starter Shows: I explain to new consultants that they can host a show with me as the consultant and use $20 or $40 of their FPV towards the new consultant kit -or- they can do the method that makes more sense to me! If they sign up first, I give them their first show as their own show. I encourage them to come with me to one of my shows to observe my techniques, then I'll go with them to their 1st show. I explain to them that it is VERY important for their friends/guests to view THEM as the consultant, not me as the consultant and them as the host! If the guests see the newbie actually doing it, it clicks in their head that she really is a PC Consultant! Once they have that idea in their head, they are more likely to book a show with her and/or come to her for purchases. If they just see her as the host, they can be more hesitant about being one of her first shows. So far, everyone in my downline (8 1st line, 4 2nd line & 3 3rd line) have all opted for the 2nd option! Not one has used the FPV to reduce the cost of their kit. They all see the benefit to getting the commission check, the host benefits and the bookings to help get their new business up & off the ground. I'm also "in the loop" on local vendor events. So every single time that I get an e-mail asking if I want to participate in one, I jump on it & sign the contract. I then e-mail the opportunity out to my team with a breakdown of hours & it's first come, first served on time slots. The booths really help to get their names out there, get bookings and now some of them are starting to get recruits from past booth leads!!!Interviews: I keep new consultant info packs assembled & with me at shows & at booths. I do the full service checkout at shows. I never use the typical questions in the recruiting videos on the PC web page. I simply ask if they would like to take home some information to learn more about being a consultant. If they say yes, I hand them a pack of info. Right now, it has the "come join us" brochure, the "amazing" brochure, the "new consultants rewards" brochure, the "come join us" DVD. If there's a recruiting incentive, there's a printout of it in the bundle too. The bundle used to be in a reusable shopping bag with a SBRC, a new catalog & a 2010 calendar!!! But I ran out of calendars & reusable shopping bags, so I go plain jane now! I also quickly go over the Come Join Us booklet and show them the new consultants rewards that can be earned. If applicable, I cover the current recruiting bonus, show them the photo of all the items in the New Consultant Kit & tell them when they get ready to watch the video, to do it with their spouse/significant other ... oh, and put the kiddos down first & pop some popcorn ... the video is about 15-20 min's long. I then point to the person on the left in the photo (Yolanda Easton) and advise them that she's my upline & she's on the video. They love looking out for her when watching the video. I then wait 2 days. Some will call the next day or the 2nd day with questions. If I haven't heard from them, on day #2 I follow up with an e-mail that says: "Hi _____, I was just checking in to see if you had time to look at the recruiting information. If so, what did you think?" That's it! I leave it up to them to respond. I've done that with probably a dozen or so people now. Most answered the e-mail. The 2 who didn't got a call with the same question. New Consultant Training: I offered one day a month where we could do conference calls to answer questions. I only had 6 on my team and none of them were interested. I've done one "Step Up" program and it seemed to help a little.Successful starts for new recruits: I encourage ALL of my recruits to wait until 2-3 days before their kick off show to sign. That way, they have more days beyond their show to earn benefits vs. loosing 2-3 weeks on the beginning while they are sitting around & waiting on their show date. So far, I've only lost 1 recruit lead with that method. I could have signed her on the spot at a show, but she wouldn't have lasted. So I can justify my method. Only the serious ones follow through & sign later! If they flake out, I'm convinced they would have flaked out anyway, so I'd rather it happen now than after I've invested a lot of time & effort into training them.How to encourage consultants to recruit & promote: I did an excel spread sheet showing my December - March sales & presented it to them at the April Cluster Meeting. The spreadsheet had columns showing the difference in pay that would have been made, was made or could have been made for the various levels. The columns were: Consultant, Consultant with $15,000 in sales, SC, TL, D. Letting them see the difference in pay was very effective! I had 6 on my team at that meeting & we are now up to 14!!! I recruited some or helped to recruit some, but 2 of the girls at that meeting started recruiting after they saw the pay scales. Even being lazy, and only doing 1 show in a month, they could see a $200 & $300 pay difference on my paycheck & decided real quick that they wanted to promote! It could have backfired & caused them to get mad that I was making so much off of them, but it didn't. They were impressed and want the same ability to earn more for the same amount of work! This month, the overrides actually doubled my salary. I can't wait until they see that!!!

 

[cincychef]

But on a positive note, my team is recruiting!! I've been trying to focus more on it since coming back from my NED's director retreat in April and it's working! It's more work on my part but I've found it's inspiring some to look at their businesses differently. So, since I've been doing that, one of my consultants recruited her first (who is totally gung ho and I'm sure will have her own recruit soon!) and another consultant of mine has two pretty promising recruit leads and one of them is signing tomorrow!

Becky,
Please share what you are doing!!! I only have 2 SC lines right now and I am afraid one of them is quitting:yuck:

 

[cincychef]

How to encourage consultants to recruit & promote: I did an excel spread sheet showing my December - March sales & presented it to them at the April Cluster Meeting. The spreadsheet had columns showing the difference in pay that would have been made, was made or could have been made for the various levels. The columns were: Consultant, Consultant with $15,000 in sales, SC, TL, D. Letting them see the difference in pay was very effective! I had 6 on my team at that meeting & we are now up to 14!!! I recruited some or helped to recruit some, but 2 of the girls at that meeting started recruiting after they saw the pay scales. Even being lazy, and only doing 1 show in a month, they could see a $200 & $300 pay difference on my paycheck & decided real quick that they wanted to promote! It could have backfired & caused them to get mad that I was making so much off of them, but it didn't. They were impressed and want the same ability to earn more for the same amount of work! This month, the overrides actually doubled my salary. I can't wait until they see that!!!

Sheila,
How did you do the spreadsheet? I would love to see a copy if you can attach it!

 

[baychef]

My thank you buttons are just a clicking!!! Chantelle...if I were at home, I would put my "I am not worthy" smilies on their knees bowing to you!!!

I am about to go and have my cluster meeting. My ED is visiting and I am recognizing my direct recruit who just promoted to D after a long battle of the wills with herself!!

The energy is so high right now. My ED is telling all Directors that recruiting and getting SC numbers up are key. And...Chantelle, what you are doing is fabulous. You are not seeing the results right away but trust me...when things start popping, you WILL see the results of all of the hard work.

I try to do face to face interviews with RL and find them to be the most successful. After that, it takes the work you are doing, creating that high exciting energy by focusing on the positive...and then their motivation has to kick in on it's own. They have to do the work.

Have to run but I am anxious to read this thread over when I am able to!

 

[Sheila]

I'll try to get it updated and post soon. I wanted to update it before out meeting on the 14th anyway! I want them to really SEE the difference that I'm getting as a Director!!!

 

[pamperedbecky]

Becky,
Please share what you are doing!!! I only have 2 SC lines right now and I am afraid one of them is quitting:yuck:

Well, after attending my Director/NED's Director Retreat at the end of April, it gave me the spark to work more closely with my team and see who is interested in promoting to Director. I hate feeling pressured myself and I know I didn't have any desire to recruit for quite a while into my own business, so I just assumed if any of my consultants were interested in recruiting more or promoting to Director, they'd approach me. Well, during this retreat, we were asked to call 3 people right then and there who we think would make good Directors and call to discuss this with them. I reached none of the 3 I called, but left messages and said I'd follow up when I got home. So, when I got home, I called those 3 and another one and basically ALL said they'd be interested in meeting with me to discuss this more. Some specifically said they want to become directors and others just wanted to build their businesses. But I have to say that none of them quite have their show schedule where it needs to be. I'm finding that this is more work on my part to do these mostly in person meetings but in the last couple weeks, it's kind of died down a little with the meetings because they have all been so busy with the end of school and other things.

I imagine that once we all get into our summer routines, I'll pick back up with regular meetings and phone calls. It's more work on my part, but in the long run, I'm thinking even if they don't promote to director, they are doing things that will build their businesses, which will help them out and ultimately help me.

So, just like we say in recruiting, JUST ASK. I've found it's the same for seeing where your consultants want to take their businesses. I don't think you can wait for them to come to you, unless they are total go-getters and know exactly what they want out of their businesses. So, I suggest asking some of your consultants who you feel would be good director material and see what happens!