One Good Tip For Direct Sales Team Growth

Drop It: The Ultimate Secret to Rebuilding a Flagging Sales Team

Compare two direct sales organizations. The first is brand new and as yet has no consultants. The second has been in business for a few years and has recently undergone a major down turn, going from sixty down to thirty consultants. In this example, both have the same goal: Direct sales team growth!

Each wants one hundred consultants. Question: Which is more likely to arrive at their goal first?
Logic and mathematics would favor the second organization. After all, it’s got a thirty person head start. But in reality, it’s much more likely that the first organization will win. Why?

Expectation. While the second is indeed further ahead in raw numbers, they’re also carrying the baggage of negative expectation, based on their recent downturn. The first has no such expectation.

Several years ago, my dog was hit by a car, squarely in the flank. He yelped for a minute and then ran around the block four times at top speed. When he finally came to rest, everything went back to normal. We, of course, brought him to the vet, who confirmed what my dog already knew. He wasn’t seriously injured. As far as Prince was concerned, the incident was over as soon as he finished running the laps.

Had that happened to me or you, we’d still be telling the story today. We’d never drop it. We’d have an explanation for how the “big crash” had changed our lives forever. We’d use the “big crash” to explain away our failings and transgressions. We’d blame ourselves for having gotten into the crash in the first place. We’d join a Big Crash Survivors support group.

We human beings are an interesting species. We like to carry our past into our future. We like identifying with the incidents that “shaped us.” We crave meaning, so we use the incidents of our past to generate a story of what’s possible or impossible in our future.

The reality is, however that the past, in and of itself, has no power over our future, except the power we give it. If we were to drop the story, we’d have a fresh start. And the choice to drop the story is ours alone. No matter how much we defend our right to carry our story; our meaning, we are victims of nobody or nothing but ourselves. Even survivors of the greatest abuse and atrocity ultimately heal the moment they release the past. That is, in essence, the foundation of all emotional healing and personal transformation.

And it’s no different in business or day to day life.

I was recently driving and missed a turn. I went a distance before realizing it, so by the time I did it made more sense to recalculate my route from where I was than to double back. The new route was significantly longer than the original one. For the next ten minutes, I berated myself for my stupid mistake. I’d just added an hour to an already long journey.

Then, I thought of my GPS (which I wasn’t using right then). I remembered how my GPS would respond if I chose a turn other than the one it had suggested. It would simply recalculate the route from where I was. It would never say, “I told you to turn there, stupid!” It would just pleasantly give me the next right action, given where I was then.

So, I shifted my attitude. Where I had been or where I could have been, had I not made the mistake, had no bearing on where I was in that moment. The question then became, how can I maximize the experience of this moment? What value can I derive from this experience?

So, I began looking around me and noticing the beauty of the route I found myself on. It was significantly nicer than the way I’d originally planned. I found a great little restaurant for lunch and a nice spot to walk my dog. What could have been an unpleasant experience turned into a major win.

Sales Team Growth & Building

So, what’s the big secret to building your sales team and recovering your business growth?

Drop it!

Not the business or your sales consultants, but the story. Stop carrying the negative expectation, the regret, the recriminations and blame, the fear and the assumption that the past equals the future. It doesn’t. Let go of the sales consultants who quit. Forget about the fish that got away.

Build A New Sales Team

Start fresh. Find a new sales team, one that has no regrets. The new consultants that you bring in will be positive and focused on the future.

Be like the GPS. Wherever you are is fine. Wherever your past mistakes or circumstances beyond your control dropped you, that’s where you are now. And it’s OK. This is the perfect place from which to calculate your route to success. Empty your mind. Forgive your past. Develop what Zen practitioners call Beginner’s Mind.

If your sales organization is the second in our example, you’re actually in a much better position to succeed than the first, as logic and mathematics confirm. But only if you capitalize on your strengths and move forward with fresh enthusiasm and positive expectation that comes from knowing that you’ve only just begun.

Direct Selling Team Success

Your success and the success of your direct selling team is in your hands. Drop your stories of the past and create a powerful future starting NOW and teach your team how to do the same. Team growth and success is in the future.

Word count: 951