What can I do to help my struggling new consultant in a toxic situation?

[crystalscookingnow]

I have a new consultant on my team that's struggling. She's not a real go-getter anyway, but she called me this morning to talk about some things from her party last night.

At her grand opening that I went to, she had a past consultant there as a guest. No biggie, right? WRONG! This past consultant told her that she was doing everything wrong, had the guts to tell new consultant that the HOST was supposed to do the party and made the HOST do the demonstration! She wouldn't let the new consultant figure the orders and then, get this, when new consultant did the recruiting and bookings talk.... She was talking with the lady next to her & not giving the new consultant the benefit of respect. I couldn't believe it.

Unfortunately, past consultant is new consultant's next host. I'm debating whether I should go with new consultant to help her out or let her do it on her own. She really felt like she should just quit b/c this wasn't how I taught her to do things & she was trying to explain that to the past consultant but she doesn't have a real strong personality to tell the past consultant to sit down & be quiet. I would love to call past consultant and tell her this myself but I know it's not my place. If she's that interested in doing parties again, maybe she should re-sign!

Just had to get that off my chest. Any suggestions for helping new consultant? She would really benefit from the business if she could just get things rolling.

 

[esavvymom]

I would definitely make a point of first- telling your new consultant she did nothing wrong, and the past consultant is a PAST consultant for a reason! She didn't know what she was talking about! NEVER has PC has the HOST do a show....maybe HELP. I personally would go with her to the next one- since you know she'll be there. Fortunately, if this past consultant is hte HOST, she'd be the one expecting to DO the show, right? But that won't bode well for future bookings! If the guests think THEY have to do a show, they will never book one of their own. Maybe if you are there with her, you can tell the guests that hosts do NOT have to do their own show- unless they happen to be like Suzie Host here and just love the attention (make a joke about it or something- but she'll get the hint). But more importantly, you can keep that past consultant out of the new consultan'ts way while she does the check-out!Don't let her bully your recruit and give up.

 

[loreo]

I agree with Bobbi- I would go. I have a new consultant whose mother was a consultant. This has not been an easy road. Did I mention she is only 18 and not a strong personality either. I feel for you.

 

[raebates]

Bobbi's advice sounds good. Make sure your new consultant understands that everyone has their own way of doing PC. Just because the past consultant did things that way, it doesn't mean that anyone else has to.

 

[susanr613]

Yeeouch - what a way to start off a business - I feel for your consultant! Bobbi's advice is perfect - when your newbie sees how you lasso in Ms. Buttinski, she'll learn how to handle those strong, toxic personalities in the future.

 

[mscharf]

Well I would recommend, if you new recruit is willing to have her say (when the old consultant makes a comment) "That is the beauty of this company, you own your own business, and can do things how you like!!" and then QUICKLY move one. I think this will deter the old consultant, and hopefully quiet her down!

 

[PamperedDor]

hmmmm, maybe when she does the Past Host show she should recruit her back and put her on her team... "wow, you obviously loved doing shows, why not join again??" and take it from there - when met with a NO, say, well, then let me do MY show and MY job... ;0

 

[PCJenni]

recruit the past consultant. Make her show her own grand opening and "show" her how we do things now and why it works! Sounds like she is jealous.

 

[pampered1224]

Personally, I would go too. This is a very volatile situation with more than one persons perceptions of PC at stake. Your new consultants and her potential new customers and hosts and yours as you may loose that consultant because of a - and I love that word Susan - TOXIC host! I think too that you may want to help her host coach this one. Make sure the first thing your new consultant says is this: "I noticed how much you got into the party and wanted to know if you would like to re-sign up to be a consultant? We could use this party as your kick off show. You love to be the spokes person so why not use that to your advantage and get your own business started." If she says yes, you know what to do. A "No" answer gets the host three choices on formats. 1) Express - no demo. Consultant makes something ahead to take. 2) Interactive. Demo where everyone gets a job to do creating the recipe. Then past con. host is not in the limelight. If she takes over, so be it. 3) Free form demo. I do these and love it. We do intro and thank you. I talk about my business, the booking benefits and what we are making and some of the tools we will be using. NO MORE THAN 30 minutes taken here. I then ask for help or if anyone would like to play with some of the products. Then whomever wants to help can. The rest do not have to, they talk about the products and put together their orders. That talk time allows them to sell each other products and I always get help in the kitchen. If these are not option you like, then please go with her.