What Makes a Good Direct Sales Recruit?
If you’re trying to build your direct sales business, you probably understand the value of recruiting new direct sales team members to build a downline. Doing so will ensure you not only earn money for your own sales, but that you’ll earn a percentage of team sales as well. Who can beat a deal like that?
Not everyone is cut out to be a direct sales consultant, however. And wasting your time trying to recruit people who simply cannot or will not sale is fruitless. If you learn what to look for in a new recruit, you can save yourself the headache of signing up people who will ultimately only leave and kickstart your recruiting efforts by finding people who will really build your team. Here are some things to keep in mind…
Look for people who are passionate about your products. Someone who has an attitude that they can take ’em or leave ’em isn’t your best bet for a company representative. Find people (ideally customers) who love the products you sell and want to tell everyone they know about them.
Ensure your recruits have the time to devote to the business. While someone with a full schedule has the advantage of being able to connect with more people, someone whose schedule is so overloaded that your new recruit can’t get everything done may not be the best person to choose.
The ideal direct sales consultant is someone a vision and goals for the future. She can see herself driving that company provided car, taking that free trip she won for the highest sales, or even paying for her daughter’s college education with the money she makes. Whatever her dream or vision is, what’s important is that she has one. And has the desire to turn it into reality.
A good salesperson (and after all, that’s what you’re looking for!), is a good listener. It’s someone who realizes that knowing what the customer wants and then providing it is how to make sales and build a successful business. If your potential recruit can’t listen long enough to understand the program, it’s highly unlikely she’ll listen to her customers either.
Look for someone who is ethical, honest and operates with integrity. Not only will those traits make her more pleasurable to work with, but they’ll help her do a better job servicing her customers and building her own team.
Encourage questions. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ve covered everything in your presentation. Ask your potential recruit if she has questions or if you need to clarify something for her. It’s better to cover any questions you can before she signs up than leave her with a misconception about the company or its policies which will only cause her to drop out later.
Use your website to recruit. Post a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) on your site along with a contact form so prospective team members can contact you. Respond promptly to any questions and weed out those who aren’t serious about building a business with your company.
Being a good team leader will help make a better recruit, so learn all you can about leadership. Become an expert at communicating with your team members–before and after they sign up. Send out email newsletters, inform them of company sales and specials, share selling tips and let them know how much you appreciate them. After all, a successful team makes you successful!
While you may not find the perfect direct sales consultant every time you recruit someone, knowing these principles of what a good consultant is and how to recognize one, will help to ensure that you pick more potentially successful recruits than not. That, in turn, will not only ensure their success but your own as well.
