By Dana Phillips.

It’s hard to believe that summer is almost here! I learned early on that great summer sales begin with great recruiting. When my team sales dropped dramatically during my first summer as a leader, I was devastated, depressed, and beaten. I spent most of my free time  asking, “what am I doing wrong?”  If you’ve been a leader for more than a year, you’ve suffered similar feelings. The good news is that I learned how important it is to plan and prepare for summer. Strong recruiting kicks off a fantastic summer.

I needed to do something wild and crazy to keep the team engaged to have great recruiting. So, I set a Magic # for June recruiting. This wasn’t just any average number; it was a big goal. We would set a new team recruiting record. Everyone thought I had lost it because we had never recruited that many, so I took it on as a challenge to prove that we could do it.

Here are four things that worked to get the team on board.

First, I had a heart-to-heart with my team. I let them know how much I believed they could make the goal. We also brainstormed all the benefits to them when the goal was made and talked about what they would do with the extra income.

Second, I got commitments from every team leader. I asked, “What would be your team recruiting goal if you knew you wouldn’t fail?” I learned what they wanted, not just what they thought they could do by asking this. It became a stretch goal. We had fun gathering each team’s goal on a flip chart and adding them up to see how close we were to the Magic #.

Third, we trained on the activities to “recruit like crazy!” Topics were:

  • how to find lots of leads;
  • what to say when inviting someone to hear about the opportunity;
  • how to have successful recruiting conversations;
  • how to teach your team to do the same.

That’s about all we focused on at every meeting, conference call, and one-to-one call. Think about what you could do on Facebook, Zoom, and other communication tools available to you.

Fourth, Follow Up – Follow Up – Follow Up!!! Let everyone know how the team is doing and how many recruits each has. Track results in your Facebook group and talk about it constantly. Communicate the results every day, recognize recruiters and keep cheering, teaching, and encouraging everyone to recruit!

Thank goodness I learned how to set the summer up with strong recruiting. It worked! Recruiting in June became part of my summer plan every year; it created many successful summers for our team. I want to encourage you to set your Magic # now and begin your summer strong!

BTW:  One thing I nearly forget. Some people want to work in the summer. They want a particular summer income. So make it about their wants, and your successes will be even higher.

Have FUN and ENJOY the journey!

Want to learn more about Summer Recruiting?

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