Online Leadership

Lead Your Network Marketing or Direct Sales Team Online

Online Leadership.

Whether you are leading a Direct Sales or Network Marketing team or downline, there are certain things you will need to do in order to unify, motivate, and lead your team.



Though these tips are geared towards the online leader, many can be adapted to the offline world.

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Team Unity

--Team Name
Start by creating a team name for your team.

You are not just a “group of AVON representatives” you are TEAM AVALON, a fantastic team of AVON Reps.

If you are having difficultly thinking of a name for your team, ask for ideas from your downline.

When all else fails, ask your kids!

They can be a great resource to help you with your online leadership.


--Team Motto
Get a motto for your team. Make up a mission statement. For instance, your motto could be:
Team Avalon
Changing futures!


--Team Logo
Consider creating a team logo that you can place on tote bags, stickers and the like. You can then use these logo items to give away to team members for contests and incentive offers.


--Team Group
Create a free Yahoo Group specifically for your team, even if your company already has a company Yahoo Group. This will feel more personal to your team, and they will have a more private place to share questions and ideas.


--Send Greeting Cards
Put your team logo and motto on a Greeting Card and make custom cards to announce events, meetings, and recognition. That added personalized touch can make all the difference in this digital world.

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Training

--Duplicate
Whatever it is that you are doing in order to build a successful team, part of online leadership is that you need to be able to duplicate it. You need to be able to train your team to copy your moves step by step so that they can succeed as well.

Many who fail in this business simply do not know how to get started. If you can make your actions easy to duplicate, it makes it a lot easier for your downline to succeed. As the team leader, it is your responsibility using online leadership to ensure that your downline knows what they need to do in order to succeed in your business. What they do with this information is their choice.



--Training Emails
Set up a series of training emails on all aspects of your business. Go over company specific training, team specific, and training on the industry in general. Feel free to use some of the resources you have seen here on this site.

Use an AutoResponder Service to automatically send the messages to each team member who requests them over a one-four week period.



--Team Website
If you are web design savvy, you could make up a Team Website with resources and training information. My former Tupperware Director did this for our team. It is very user friendly and its password protected. She even has pictures up of all of the team members. Its nice to put a picture to a name, especially when a team is scattered across the USA.


--Chats and Conference Calls
Try holding Team Chats on a weekly or biweekly basis, or use a conference call service to bring your team together on the phone. Talkline 99 offers a free conference call service to up to 99 callers.

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New Recruits

--Training
Make sure you get your new team members off to a great start with your training program.


--Send a Greeting Card
Send a greeting card out to welcome your new team members to your team.

Use a greeting card service for an easy way to manage your leads and store your personally designed cards.


--Call
Personally call and welcome each new recruit to your team.

Ask this team member what kind of contact they would like to receive in the future from you: call weekly/monthly to go over goals, no contact whatsoever, emails only, etc. This will allow you to assist the new recruit without making them feel uncomfortable, and makes it easier for you to show online leadership.

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Incentives

--Incentives
Offer your team members incentives for:
-Reaching company milestones (ie promoting to Manager, etc)
-Recruiting
-High Sales
-Selling the most of a particular add-on item
-New Recruit Fast Start Program

The incentives can be anything from a Team Logo bag to product to company made promotional items, even cash. Ask your team for feedback on the types of items they would like to receive.

Make sure you make your Incentives Program accessible for all of your team. Make the goals they need to reach attainable, and allow everyone the same opportunity, whether they have been with the company for years or they have just begun.

Even recognition can be considered a valuable incentive, as studies have shown that people prefer to be recognized than to have a physical item as an incentive.


--Contests
Having drawings or contests can be a way to motivate your team. You can give drawing slips to team members for achieving a particular goal, such as recruiting. The prize can be a large prize than a typical incentive, such as a $25-50+ gift certificate or cash.

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Lead By Example

--Hypocrisy
A team will find it difficult to follow a lead who does not practice what she preaches. If you are in Direct Sales, for example, and you endlessly talk about doing Home Parties, but do none yourself, it will be difficult for your team to decide to start doing them.

If you are in Network Marketing and you drone on and on about how important recruiting is, yet you rarely attempt to recruit on your own, your team will collapse.

People want to follow a strong leader, who is leading by example. This is the most important thing you can do as an effective leader in your leadership role.


--Purchase the Products
Does your company sell laundry soap? Do you use it?

You need to.

As an online leadership mentor, it is your responsibility to be using as many products as your company offers (feasibly). At the very least, you should purchase, over time, ever product that your company offers for personal use.

It’s ok to say that you do not care for a product or two. In fact, it is much more helpful to a team to hear that their team leader does not love every product because it builds honesty and trust. They will come looking to you for opinions on products they haven’t tried. How will they feel when you tell them you haven’t tried it either?


--Is it Doable?
Make sure whatever methods you are using to grow your business and your team are duplicable. For instance, I have built a content based website to help grow my teams. In order for my team to duplicate me, I have provided them with step by step instructions, in the form of this site, so that they can build a content site as well, if that is what they would like to do.

I also have multiple other methods, all described in this site, on how to build a business. My actions are doable. Anyone with the desire to replicate my success can copy my online leadership to have that success for themselves.

I am also available to my team to council them on finding methods that might meet their needs better.

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Importance of Education

Being a team leader is a lot of work.

Others are depending on you to come up with ideas, and motivation.

Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Education

And don’t take it personally when people fail.

Many people do not understand that it takes work to build a business. Just offer them the resources you have, and if and when they are ready to give it another shot, be there for them.

Do not waste your time on those who do not want to work.

It is stressful to them, discouraging to you, and not a fair use of your time for those team members that truly desire to change their lives with help from your online leadership.

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