021. 4 Things Your New Team Member Onboarding System Needs as a Direct Seller or Network Marketer

Episode Transcript

021. 4 Things Your New Team Member Onboarding System Needs as a Direct Seller or Network Marketer

[0:58] Well hello and welcome back to another episode of the build it like a business podcast Kelly lauermann here you are host founder of anchor design Co I'm so glad you're here today. Take a quick minute to Pat yourself on the back for tuning in for yourself. Because you're doing a really good job and I just want to make sure that you know that and that you recognize how important it is that you're taking this time today to support your own business to grow to learn that's important and I just want to make sure that someone is pointing out, just how great you're doing just by showing up so good job by you I'm really glad that you're here make sure you take a second to give yourself some credit for that. So today I want to talk about new consultant systems as a direct seller new consultant systems really set the tone for new team members success and so it's really important that, they are well thought out that their planned and it's not something that's really going fly by the seat of your pants that you're not making up your team members training as you go along because. What you do in those first 30 days for your new team member and in turn what your new team member does during those first 30 days. Is really what's going to determine how they run their business moving forward you know what we teach our new team members.

[2:26] Is what they're going to take as truth it's what they're going to take as their Bible that they go by as they're beginning their business and so we don't want to be teaching them things that they then have to unlearn, later on because we didn't go into it prepared right and that's never anybody's Intent no one says I'm just wing it I'm just going to not really think about how I'm training this team members going to like go for it and see what happens no one's going into it thinking that right no one wants to, teach the wrong things or teach bad habits but. When you wing it when you go in without a plan in place that's what ends up happening and so I want to go ahead and talk to you a little bit about how you can be intentional with your training and, your onboarding guides that you're using for your team members so that they can really get off to a strong start, and with that you can build a strong team as the recruiter or the upline or whatever your company calls it it's a little bit different for every company.

[3:35] But as the person who is bringing on this new team member it's really your job to show them how to start you cannot just leave that up. A person who's above you may be again that might have been your recruiter that maybe the person whose team you're on you can't leave it up to them and there's a couple of reasons for that. First and foremost right off the bat you're the one that has the relationship with this new team member the person who's joining your team.

[4:03] The upline your recruiter or the person above you does not have that same relationship and it's just not going to be possible for them to build the same. That you've built with them because most likely this new team member went on a common journey of going from.

[4:20] You know lead to customer to team member and so all through that from the time you were nurturing them as a lead to the time when you.

[4:30] Nurtured them as a customer to the time when you nurtured them and they became a member of your team you've been building a relationship with this person for a while now. And so that makes a big difference that matters a whole lot in your upline your recruiter. Whatever you call them on your business is not going to have that same relationship and they're not going to be able to forge that same relationship. That's not to say they can't have a relationship with this person. But it's not going to be the same and it would take them a while to actually catch up to where you are with that person right now in your relationship. If it took you a year to get to this point in your relationship with that person well it's going to take that amount of time for your upline or your recruiter to get there as well so with that your new team member is going to be more successful if they continue working with you the person that they already trust the person that they already have a relationship with. And I can already hear it now I know that the most common objection to me saying that is going to be from somebody who is relatively new in their business and honestly feels like they just don't know what they're doing themselves maybe they didn't have.

[5:40] Or you maybe you didn't have a great onboarding experience when you joined your company and you're like how am I supposed to teach a new team member what they're supposed to do I don't even know what I'm supposed to do and I just want to say that that's okay. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being new yourself and also wanting to take ownership of that team building process if you are at a point where you feel comfortable bringing people on to your team then you're at a point where you can also train that team member. Because here's the thing there is nothing wrong with learning together.

[6:16] As long as during the entire process you were honest with your new team member they understand that you're also relatively new that you're also learning as long as you didn't I promised them that they were going to magically have this thriving business overnight or that you were going to teach them everything immediately and they were not going to have this learning curve, as long as you were honest during the team-building process then they're going to be okay with learning with you there's nothing wrong with. So just make sure that during the actual team building process when you're helping them join your team.

[6:53] Like you're being honest and you're being upfront about where you're at in your business and what they should expect moving forward because in that situation. It's totally okay to be new and also training somebody at the same time you can learn together that's totally okay.

[7:11] Now there's one more reason why I don't want you to just abandon your new team member to your upline or expect your own recruiter or higher up to train your new team member for you and that is that that person is being expected to do that for everybody else on their team so let's say your upline has 15 or even 20 people on her team that are actively. Growing their own teams and recruiting and they each have one person that just the way joined their team will now your upline has. Twenty people that they themselves have to train and that's a lot that's a lot of people to train all at once your new team members going to be more successful.

[7:55] If they can have an open and direct line of communication with the person training them and that's going to be really really hard for your up line to do. If they're also trying to split their attention among 10 15 or 20 other people or more at the same time.

[8:12] But if you take ownership of that process of the training process and the onboarding process when somebody joins your team you're going to be able to deliver a much more personalized experience than your upline is ever going to be able to just by nature of what they're expected to do by all the other people that are on their team so whether you're brand new whether you are a seasoned consultant or whatever your company calls you or somewhere in between you really do have the power to support your new team member is to set them up for success and be the Rock in their world as their starting something new and joining in on this journey of direct sales and as you do that you're going to have different tools that help support you along the way but today I just want to talk specifically about onboarding guides or new consultant packets there called a lot of different things and I want to be sensitive to the fact that there are women representing all different companies listening to this podcast episode right now and so you're going to hear me refer to these as onboarding guides for the most part as we're going through this episode because that really is the most accurate description it's the guide that you're using to onboard your new team member so I'm going to call it an onboarding guide.

[9:35] And not something like a new consultant packet which is what my direct sales company called it because that's a really specific name to a really.

[9:44] That company not every.

[9:45] Calls the people representing them consultants and so I just want to put that out there right up front so that if you hear me saying something like onboarding guide. And your company calls it a new consultant packet or calls it new team member training packet or something else. Know that we're talking about the same thing and I'm just trying to make sure that I'm accurately representing the largest number of people and supporting the largest number of people with this episode, now onboarding guides are a really powerful and really popular way to help train your new team members for a lot of reasons and so let's talk about those so first and foremost, they're really powerful because it works when you're not there you're not always going to be right there with your new team member helping them and holding their hand you might be growing your team.

[10:35] Across the country especially right now as we're working online you might live in one state and you might have someone join your team in a totally different state and so.

[10:45] You could get together on Zoom but you're not going to be together.

[10:49] Physically at any point for training and so your onboarding guide your new consultant packet.

[10:57] Really serves as the trainer when you're not able to.

[11:01] Be there it puts everything in writing which is just really clear and easy to understand and so now your new team member is able to. Back to that over and over again so let's say you do meet up over Zoom that's how you do their very first training session. You use the guide the onboarding packet or the onboarding guide as the guide for the actual meeting that you have with them, well now they can easily reference back to that onboarding guide over and over and over again and be able to see everything you talked about and the steps that they need to take so even if you're not physically right there they still have the instructions they still know what they need to do because it's all formatted into a concise easy to follow along guide that they have right on their computer or even printed out and saved in their office and this guide can actually be, just as much for your new team member as it is for you because remember earlier I was saying it's okay to learn together it's okay to be new and still take ownership of the team-building process of the training process after you grow your team well that's where this guide comes in because once you've got a guide, you're following it just as much as your new team member is you can follow it for yourself of course and literally take those actions that you're encouraging your new team member to do.

[12:26] But you can also use it when you're training your team member so let's say again we'll go with the zoom example maybe you're doing your. First training sessions over Zoom maybe you do them every couple of days for two weeks, well you could split that packet up you could split that guide up and say we're going to go over pages one through, for on day 1 Pages 5 through 7 Hyundai 2 and so on and you can now take that guide yourself and follow along and just. Learn as you're going and teach as you're walking through the packet. And use that to really influence what you're actually sharing and teaching you don't have to memorize it all you don't have to be perfect you just have to be able to follow directions the directions that are in your new consultant guide that are in your onboarding guide.

[13:17] And then finally having an onboarding guide or new consultant packet really standardizes the training throughout your team it makes sure that everybody who joins your team is getting the same level of training the same attention everybody is getting the same information and it really puts everybody on the same page so that's helpful obviously when everyone knows all the same stuff that's helpful for obvious reasons.

[13:44] But it also means that one anybody could jump in to help at any time, so let's imagine you do have a four-day training program where every couple of days for two weeks you meet up with a new team member to walk through a certain part of the onboarding guide well let's say that during week 2 you're sick you can't be there to continue that person's training well.

[14:11] If you don't have a standardized way of training then, you're kind of Sol we're out of luck you're going to have to put off that person's training until the next time that you can be together, but if you have a standardized way of training you could Now call in a seasoned team member or somebody who you trust on your team and say listen, I can't be there for this I don't want to put off this person's training can you jump in and help this is the same training I did with you so you're going to teach it the way that I taught you and so because this is standardized because the same information is going out to everybody you're able to work together with your team you can help your team members your team members can help you and then with that when your team grows their own team they can use the same system it's duplicatable which I know is like the magic word in direct sales we want everything to be duplicatable. Because that's what it really all comes down to that's what it's all about. How can you empower the people on your team to be successful in their own businesses.

[15:23] All right so we started off talking a little bit about why you really can't abandon your new team member to your upline or your recruiter and expect them to do all the training and for your team member to experience the same level of success.

[15:39] They could experience when they're getting training from you. And we've talked about what is the importance of an onboarding guide or new consultant packet why are they so dang amorian in the team building process in that training process, so now let's go ahead and talk about. For different tips or strategies that you can use to create your perfect onboarding guide or new consultant packet. That really sets your new team member up for success and it simplifies the process for you. And provides a standardized process for your entire team that's duplicatable that anybody on your team could use so let's go ahead and dig right in. So first and foremost the most important thing that you can do with your onboarding guide is to answer the question what is most important for my team member to do. First.

[16:32] Onboarding packets new consultant packets are most used and most effective within those first 30 days after somebody joins your team that first 30 days is when they're most excited it's when you're most excited it's also when they're the most invested in. Actually taking their direct sales business and making it into a real business and not just a hobby or a side Hustle. And so a new consultant packet or an onboarding guide is used during that time to help give them a process to follow so they can really do what they came here to do which is to grow a business. And I don't think I need to sit here and convince you that if you were to just like straight up abandoned your new team member in those first 30 days that they would also peace out like they would not be interested in growing a business if you just totally left them but it's also the same if your new consultant guide or your onboarding guide. Doesn't give them the right information up front so you've got to make sure that everything that's included in your onboarding guide is really necessary is really going to be something that actually gets them results.

[17:43] And it also has to be reasonable to accomplish for the average person within that first 30 days, so take some time to really pair down your to-do list of things that you want your new consultant to do.

[17:56] And remove anything that actually isn't necessary, and then remove anything that probably doesn't actually fit in in a 30-day span for somebody who is likely working another job and has a family to take care of and is really paying attention to their business. On the side of the life they already had when they arrived to your team. So often I see people Jam pack these new consultant packets these onboarding guides with so much information that it just causes the new team member to completely freeze up it just looks totally unreasonable it's almost as if. They're expecting the new team member to like drop everything and only work on their business which is not the case for 90% of.

[18:44] Most people are doing a lot of other things and this is being added to the. It's not replacing all those other things so just be conscious of. The life that your consultant is probably leading your new team member is probably leading when they actually get to this onboarding guide and make sure that you're giving them really relevant information information and steps and instructions that are actually going to get them results and help them see success. Quickly. And that you're leaving out anything that actually isn't necessary because truly you have an unlimited amount of time it's just about what's most important to set them up for success in that first 30 day span. And that sort of leads to my second point of the four that I want to share with you today and that is to show your new team member that it's simple and easy to be a member of your team no I'm not saying that tell her that it's easy to have a business or that like. Direct sales is some magical unicorn business where you don't have to work hard and you're going to get results because that's just not true and.

[19:53] No we don't need to be that person.

[19:56] But show her that actually being on your team is not a full-time job is not going to be this really difficult thing so think about it like this your new team member does not understand the business the way that you do yet they're just not there they're coming into this relatively blind bear coming into this without a heck of a lot of background information so if you brain dump everything you know about your company and your business and every tracking sheet and every to do list that other leaders in your company use and like everything gets vomited into this person's to do list in that first 30 days you're going to freak them the heck out like they are going to Sprint in the other direction I know I would.

[20:44] Because all that context that you have is not there for this new person you have all the context of meeting other people in your company maybe you've attended events in the past. You've done your own research you've had time to actually be in the business but your new team member doesn't have any of that context so just be conscious of what you're actually giving them so that you're not completely overwhelming them don't make being a member of your team a chore on top of starting a new business on top of whatever else is going on there in their life. And you can do this by one like I said in the first tip pair down what you're actually putting into your onboarding packet pare it down to the most important information. And then also make sure that you're really simplifying everything into step saying you know here's step one. Here's what you do immediately after that here's what you do after that, try to leave as little guesswork as possible and make everything very clear so for example if you're describing how to do something maybe you're describing how to book an appointment.

[21:57] Instead of brain dumping this big long multi paragraph essay about how to do it think about how you can tell them what to do and show them what the steps are in as few words as possible, make the content that you're giving this new team member the instructions that you're giving this Duty member the absolute simplest that it can actually be that's going to make it so much easier for them to absorb and take action on which is really what allows them to be successful and also makes the training process a lot easier for you at the same time. Now I know that this process isn't always easy so I just want to take a second to invite you to a workshop that I'm doing it's called 30 days and 30 minutes and it's a free Workshop, where I'm going to get on a live video with you and actually walk you through how to come up with your new consultant training process your onboarding process for new team members so I'd love to invite you to come and hang out with me there will be a replay you just have to register for the event again it's free so like do the free registration. You can join me live if you can't be there live no big deal as long as you've registered you'll be able to watch the replay.

[23:16] But we're going to go through exactly how to actually come up with what your 30 day plan should be in about 30 minutes so you can register for that at anchor design co.com thirty minutes so the number 30 and then the word minutes I hope I'll see you there. But anyway let's go ahead and move on to tip number three and that is to make your onboarding packet your onboarding guide.

[23:41] Easy on the eyes yes I'm very serious although I know that that sounds really silly to make it easy on the eyes here's why. There is a big difference between cute and tacky. Tasteful and overwhelming dated and fresh and you've got to look at your onboarding guide and decide which side of the line does it fall is it cute or is it tacky is it tasteful or is it overwhelming is it dated or is it fresh part of the job of your onboarding packet is to make your new team member feel good honestly like in order to be successful in order to even want to take action. They have to feel good about what they're doing, and she should not be having to question her decision along the way but if the very first tool that she's ever given to help her get her business started looks like DIY clip art project from 1998 you better believe she's thinking to herself.

[24:48] Oh my gosh what have I done is this for real.

[24:53] Not only does looking professional matter in just setting the tone for the type of business that you're running but it plays a big role in your new team members perception of what she's getting herself into so if you want her to be excited about growing a sustainable profitable business, actually makes money so that she can support her family or quit her job or reach whatever those big goals she has is then you need to show her that that's what you're helping her build and of the materials that you're handing her show her anything other than that then she is not going to believe that that's what she's here to do and. Most likely she's not going to waste her time she is going to move on there's a million other opportunities out there and if you don't show her that yours is going to fulfill her needs then she's not going to put her time and energy into it so you've got to make sure that you're setting the right expectations that you're setting the stage by having a professional image for your new consultant packet for your onboarding guide whatever you want to call it.

[26:03] And last but not least tip number four is that I want you to put your personality into it. So right now everyone's really using a recycled version of somebody else's onboarding guide.

[26:16] So many people barely even know what's in their new consultant packet or what's in the guide that they're using to train their team members. Their entire training system is like really unintentional and when I first started anchor design Co years ago. Back when the design part of my business name actually made sense and I used to do design work. I used to create custom onboarding systems for my clients and I saw this all the time I could almost read my clients Minds before they spoke when they'd send me their current system and they'd say. My new consultant packet is mostly a mix of so-and-so's packet that she did in a training years ago.

[27:01] And I could tell like I knew before they said anything. From the Microsoft Publisher clipart to the awkward color scheme that seriously did not match at all it just. Screamed that person's name the original creator of the packet. It screamed her name from a mile away in the absolute worst way and. Whether you call this personality like I'm calling it now.

[27:28] Or you call this your branding which I'm hesitant to say because I don't want to overcomplicate it whatever you call this it's the thing that's missing from most new consultant packets and its really doing a disservice to you as a professional. Your new team member did not join your team for the products she could have joined anyone's team for the products. But she chose to join yours specifically so she should know who she's working with. You is a color scheme that shows your personality choose fonts that send the message that you want to send.

[28:04] Make sure you're including professional or at least well-lit not blurry photos of yourself. Make sure that you show up in your training guide. Make sure your new consultant or your new team member feels like she joined the team of a real live Human that she's excited to connect with and get to know don't just recycle someone else's materials, that have been regurgitated hundreds of time over the past 10 years. Not only are they out of date but they just don't look good they just look unprofessional and when you're trying to show your new team member how to run her business. Unprofessional is the last thing that you should be showing her and that you want to show her.

[28:50] Now after all that you're probably either thinking I'm on board I'm ready to create my new system or you might be thinking. Oh my God what high have is, really not working it's totally working against me but where do I even start to actually fix this problem and so. No matter which person you are I want to point you in the right direction before we wrap this episode up so that you have some steps that you can take you know what you need to do next so. If you are in the first crowd you're ready to dive in and create your own system I highly recommend using canva to do so if you're not familiar with it it's a free app you can use it on your phone your computer your tablet for Designing things it's about as professional as a non-professional, design app can get like it's really good it has tons of features it has tons of. Blank templates that you can use as well which will help with the designing part of it if you're not a designer you basically would just need to piece together. Pages from their templates and then you would just need to input your own content so right out the instructions of what you need to teach your team member. And then take that and put it into the templates that they already have and then from there you'd really just be updating the colors and all that of their templates the fonts.

[30:17] All those things to make sure that those templates don't look like you just stacked together some pre-made templates so they actually look like their custom to you.

[30:28] But canva, is great for Designing it will give you a little bit of a head start while still letting you totally DIY it from scratch and come up with all your own content they have a free version which is amazing and, good enough for 99% of people and then they also have a paid version which is also great and really inexpensive if you want to try the paid version for free I can give you a, free trial I do not remember how long. The free trial is off the top of my head I apologize but you'll see when you're signing up for it that you can use my referral link which is Anchor design koat.com. Canva now. If you're looking at your new Consultants system or maybe you're looking at your lack of an onboarding system and you're feeling a little bit overwhelmed you know it needs help but you just don't really feel that good about completely starting from scratch on the design let alone coming up with all the content yourself. I would love to invite you to check out the full circle system. The full circle system is a plug-and-play system of canva editable templates designed specifically for direct sellers it includes.

[31:43] Onboarding packets Sonu consultant packets onboarding guides whatever you want to call those it includes recruiting guides. Includes Hostess programs and all kinds of different guides like that so that you really have a well-rounded system for your entire business.

[31:59] All of it editable in canva and it all comes with free updates for life so that any time something new is added to it you get all of that as well without having buy new templates or pay a designer to update it for you everything in the onboarding guides is really specifically designed. For onboarding new team members in the direct sales space the content is already there so that you don't need to think of all the instructions and information yourself you can just go through and edit rather than having to completely write it from scratch you can make minor tweaks and updates and customize it for your company and your products and your business model rather than having to go and actually figure out exactly what to say what order to put things in all of those things and then design it on top of that so that is option 2 and that's the full circle system you can check it out at anchor design co.com system and as a listener of the build it like a business podcast I'd even like to give you a special 50% off discount code you can use that anytime this week so it's going to be live all week long. So you can use podcast 50 so that's podcast 502 get 50% off the full circle system through the end of this week just as a little thank you for being here thank you for showing up for yourself today and just a way to help you.

[33:29] Really get started on getting that system in place so that your business can grow and be successful and your team members businesses can grow and be successful as well.

[33:40] All right I hope that this was helpful and that you're really excited to start implementing these four tips to take control of the training process, as your team begins to grow and if you loved this episode I would just love it if you would snap a screenshot of your podcast app and share it on Instagram and tag me at anchor design Co because it seriously makes my day whenever someone shares the podcast and tags me it really just brings such a smile to my face so if you would take a second to do that I would be forever grateful.

[34:14] Alright guys I hope that you have an amazing rest of your day. I hope I'll see you on the gram if not I'll see you back here same time same place next week bye for now.