Mentoring Your Network Marketing Team

By Richard J. Norris

One of the reasons why I advocate that network marketers concentrating on building their organizations deep, rather than try to sign up every warm body they can, as quickly as possible, is that to have staying power and long term residual income, those you sponsor need to be properly trained. Training your downline and assuring that they are successful is not only good business, it's your responsibility as their sponsor.

Individual Training

When you sponsor a new distributor, you are making a pledge to them to be their mentor and do everything possible to make sure they understand and are practicing the habits that will enable them to follow in your footsteps. Initially, this will mean direct, one on one mentoring of your distributors. This should take the form of scheduled training on what steps they should be following to find qualified prospects and present the business opportunity (telling them to make a list of their 100 closest friends and family and wishing them luck isn't meeting your responsibility, nor will it successfully build their business and by association, yours). Very few come in to network marketing already possessing the skill sets needed to be successful from day one and you need to work with your new distributor to identify the areas where they need training and then either provide that or indentify appropriate places where they can obtain it. Role playing with your distributor, with you playing the part of a prospect, stopping to critique as you go is especially helpful. You'll also want to just "check in", preferably by phone, but at least by email periodically to see where they are and what help they can use from you. Your new distributors need to know you're concerned and available. I would suggest you sponsor and train no more than five distributors at any given time and don't take on more until you have helped them to build their business at least three levels deep and are assisting their new distributors to do the same.

Team Training

One night a week should be dedicated to a team training call. Even if you only have 2-3 people in your organization, get in the habit of conducting your own team call. This positions you as a leader and gives you and your team an opportunity to talk about obstacles you are experiencing in building your business and share strategies for overcoming them. The old adage "two heads are better than one" really is true, and being able to share experiences is a great way for your entire team to learn and grow. I would suggest that you structure these calls around a specific topic, such as "Talking to a prospect for the first time", "Lead generation", etc. But, it doesn't hurt to ever so often have a call that basically amounts to an "Ask Anything" session. There are several places where you can sign up for free for a conference call number that remains the same from week to week, so that your team knows what the call in number is, and scheduling your calls at the same time and night each week will make attending routine for your team.

Summary

If you want stability in your organization, you must dedicate yourself to being a true mentor to those you sponsor. Providing training and assisting in the success of your distributors, ensuring that they will in turn treat those they sponsor in a like manner, will mean that more of them earn money and remain in business. One of the main reasons people leave a network marketing business is frustration and a feeling that they have been left alone to figure things out for themselves. You have the power to build a solid foundation that will stand the test of time, through education of those you sponsor into network marketing and you owe them nothing less.

Note from Richard and Glenna:  If you would like to learn more about network marketing and the power it can provide you financially, please view the videos on the right, Brilliant Compensation and What the Wealthy Buy on Payday, and feel free to include your contact information when prompted to do so afterwards and we will be happy to contact you personally regarding the opportunity to get started with ARIIX. If you were sent here by one of our team members, please get back in touch with them and they will make sure you have all your questions regarding getting started with ARIIX answered.