Effective Recruiting Strategies To Drive Revenue Growth In Your Direct-Sales Organization
Many business ventures provide an opportunity to grow your business by adding sales representatives or marketing consultants etc. There is much to be said about the opportunity to garner high-revenue yields when building a direct sales organization however there is a popular temptation that aims to derail the focus of a successful duplication strategy and dooms over 95% of those involved.
Quality Over Quantity
Most of those in old-school MLM and Network Marketing opportunities were (and are still) taught to over-sell potential benefits and promote inaccurate expectations of the business to anyone and everyone, regardless of ability or skill set, with the goal of purely adding numbers. This is motivated by the erroneous belief that headcount equals growth. A challenge quickly presents itself when they realize that an increase in organizational size through this recruiting methodology does not typically equate to an increase in organizational revenue, which after all, is truly the yardstick we use to measure the success of any organization. It does in turn create an organization of needy underachievers that eat away at your time and suck the energy out of your ability to grow and lead.
This also rings true for any business or corporation attempting to grow its sales force. Achieving ultimate recruiting success relies heavily on the ability to duplicate a proven, effective business system with the strategically selected high-effort entrepreneurial individuals who will drive the business as passionately as you do. It is the only way to ensure the long-term revenue growth of your organization.
Regain Your Leverage – Don’t Be Desperate
This can only occur if we are able to attract and then quickly evaluate a candidate’s skill and ability early on in the process. What I am saying is that you need to become discerning about who it is you desire to bring into your organization. Accurately doing so is vital not only to estimating how much coaching time and effort the prospective candidate will require in order to independently drive their business, but also how to best go about equipping, empowering and training them in a way that best unlocks their potential. What we’re really vying for here is to effectively identify those high-effort individuals who can quickly assimilate and implement what has been taught.
Effort Is The Key
When I’ve consulted with hiring managers of corporations, I would teach that they must identify each of their teams’ personality types in order to effectively communicate, instruct and empower each to get the results they desired. However, in a direct sales model a novice really doesn’t need this tool in their tool kit to be successful because what I want my team to do is purely empower and manage effort….that’s it. I have found that since effort is the key ingredient here, I can teach a less experienced individual how to focus on identifying and managing effort quite easily.
In these situations, my goal is to prevent my team wasting time on those that will not provide a good ROI, which is a big complaint that I hear because it is a stumbling block for so many. The second biggest complaint I hear is creating value for the training effort and help you provide them. Much like a child, if value is not established for your time from the beginning they will continue with that perspective and be habitually needy.
The other shortfall to catering to that mindset is that in the end, you will have actually robbed them of the satisfaction of achieving independence. Remember, we want to empower those that want to take the bull by the horns, not be lassoed to “Dr Phil” them. Let another business opportunity take on that responsibility, but I would strongly advise against shackling yourself to those types of projects.
It All Starts In The Recruiting Process
It all starts with identifying the effort level of any viable candidate quickly and accurately. This is essential because the pattern will be set by the time they come aboard and you will find yourself to be locked into a high-maintenance mentor rut. Plus, the added bonus of early identification is knowing who not to actively pursue. But how do I determine that so early in the process?
Every manager in any structure feels that the time and effort they provide is rarely valued and often taken for granted. To correct this, there is a method I teach to achieve quick effort identification while at the same time increasing the value of the instruction you provide within the recruiting process. I employ a technique I call an “effort pass-code” and found it to be very helpful. It provides a platform for the candidate to earn your time, creating a partnership rather than a parent child relationship.
Put A Pass-Code On It
“Effort pass-coding” involves finding out what they need from you, and then committing to meet that need on your terms once they complete a related task (earning the effort pass-code) which will allow them to become a vested partner in receiving what they request. If I’m trying to identify a candidate’s true effort level, I will “effort pass-code” as many things as possible. It’s pretty neat because there are so many opportunities
If for example, I am asked to spend some time to discuss the business opportunity specifics or provide answers to marketing questions, I state that I would love to, but I need them to do something to help them prepare. I need them to gather information on the topic, take notes and be prepared to discuss them with me, which will allow our conversation to be far more productive. I then ask them when they believe they can get that done. I schedule a time for them to call me on the deadline they made.
Maybe you have an application process or paperwork that needs to be completed. This is a great way to have them complete those and find out how effort driven they are.
You can find out a lot about a person from how they handle that type of interaction. How far out did they place the deadline? Did they follow through on their commitment? How eager were they to get that done when you placed a little obstacle in the way? Pay attention because this is exactly how they will deal with obstacles in the business if they come onboard.
From that information I have found that I can typically place people in one of four effort categories.
The four main effort level categories are:
1. The All Star – High effort, high achiever. Self motivated and desires to be independent.
2. You chase after their potential but realize that they are not self-driven and in the end, realize that you want success for them more than they want it for themselves.
3. The Jogger – This is more of an analytical person. It’s not bad to have joggers on your team because of their consistency. Their analytical nature makes their sales process longer but they respond to “effort pass-coding” but will typically set the deadlines farther out to make sure they do a good job. They are information gatherers so give them assignments and point them in the right direction. Have a fear of failure so they desire to do it right and their perfectionist nature makes their pace slower.
4. The Eeyore – Yes from Winnie The Pooh. They’ll make you want to rescue them. Don’t do it – just stay away.
So when recruiting, your immediate focus should be to quickly identify the effort level of your candidate or prospective addition to your organization through “effort pass-coding”. Remember that it is not quantity but rather the quality of the individuals added which will drive your revenue. Another added benefit is if your organization has an internal training program and coaching system, which will take a lot of the “heavy lifting” off of you and free you to continue to grow your business. Additionally beneficial is a business, which is positioned where prospects are pursuing you to earn the opportunity to be a part of the organization. This totally alters the scale and gives you the leverage to be more discerning about who you will bring into your sales organization and spend time training.
Though more difficult, most business opportunity processes can be easily tweaked to incorporate these strategies. If not, there are enough good business opportunities out there that have a system and culture that gives you the freedom to determine who you want to work with. As a resource to provide information about identifying the right opportunity for you; read the article “From The Business Chiropractor: Getting Your Business Spine in Line”. It’s was written purely for the purpose of identifying and determining if a business opportunity is the ideal fit for you.
Written by:
R. Patrick Daugherty
The Biz Coach
For more information about Patrick feel free to visit:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickdaugherty
http://www.yourbizcoach.wordpress.com
Patrick Daugherty has a passion for coaching business executives and entrepreneurs in the art of identifying, attracting and retaining top talent while effectively communicating, mentoring and coaching them to reach their personal and professional goals. Over his 15 year career he has been fortunate enough to have consulted and coached leaders in a wide range of industries from international technology firms and large insurance conglomerates to numerous staffing & recruiting companies as well as state & local policy makers and grass roots organizations. He is now utilizing that wealth of experience to help coach entrepreneurs of small and home-based business.
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