from Steve Martin's LA Story
Do you have a direct sales team working with you? Perhaps this will help.
Motivate Your Team Through Communication
It's almost impossible to build a successful direct sales team without communicating with your team members. Communication is key to building a good team of sales consultants who are motivated to build their own businesses, and who will build yours by doing so.
There are three aspects to communication that every team builder should recognize and use if they want to build and motivate their team:
1) Commitment to communicate
For the best results when you begin building a group of quality team members, you need to determine that you will communicate with your team on a regular basis. Once you've made that commitment, make it a part of your daily routine.
Jot down notes to yourself on your planner or set up an automated system on your computer so you will remember to send out birthday or anniversary cards to team members. Call your consultants to congratulate them on their first party, sales goal, recruit, or any other important milestone.
Email your entire team every morning. You can send success quotes, motivational thoughts, contest news, or deadline reminders. It doesn't have to be long, but the idea is to stay in touch so your team knows you're available and are committed to communicating with them.
2) Communicate clearly
If your communications are hard to understand, poorly written, sloppy or simply disorganized, they won't be nearly effective as clear, concise communication with your team.
Keep your sentences short when writing. Use spelling and grammar checkers. And proofread your writing before sending it out. These simple task will take only minutes, but will pay off greatly in building rapport with your team. If writing and grammar are not your strong points, enlist the help of a proof reader.
Team members need to know that you have valuable information to share with them, and that you can help them succeed. This is much simpler when you can express yourself well and communicate your message clearly, whether on the phone or in writing.
3) Communicate consistently
Consistent communication might be the most important aspect of building a good team. Even poorly written communication is better than no communication at all. Never let your team feel you just signed them on and forgot about them. Communicate with them on a regular basis for the best results. Never let the words “sorry I've been out of touch lately” ever be said by you!
Consistent communication might include a weekly newsletter, a blog that is updated regularly, note cards, text messages, email updates, telephone calls, or anything else you can use to encourage team members and let them know how important they are to you, as well as how much you appreciate them.
Communication truly is key if you want to build a successful sales team. In today's age of speedy emails and texting, there is no reason not to communicate with your team on a regular basis. Doing so will motivate them to build their own businesses, which will build yours as well.
Greg Cryns
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