Building your team with integrity
Most Forever business owners start by developing a strong retail base often as a result of their passion for the products and a genuine desire to share them with others. As confidence grows and they start seeing a profit as their customer base becomes established, for some it becomes natural to think about developing a team.
Talking about the Forever business opportunity is only daunting when the focus is on the result; a new team member rather than the process. What’s important is to retain the integrity that you displayed in building your retail base, and an authentic desire to help others.
It’s all about asking the right questions
It’s worth taking some time to think about the sort of person who would be a good team member - somebody who would genuinely value the opportunity that they hold in their hands. While Forever is possibly the most level playing field, where anyone with the right commitment, attitude, work and persistence can succeed regardless of gender, age, ethnicity and background, the timing of the opportunity has to be right.
The only way to properly establish that is by asking good questions and investing your time wisely and effectively. In the long run this will save a lot of time and energy (and potentially frustration) by working with those who have a genuine desire and who are willing and able to carve out the pockets of time to get started. It will be infinitely more rewarding and enjoyable for you both.
It’s worth remembering that trust and relationships take time and effort to develop. These principles are crucial both in developing life-long customers and in building a team. It’s also important to be kind and patient with yourself. Skills take time to learn, embed and practice, so do not expect to be perfect or even close to perfect.
Be authentic
One of the simplest ways to be more authentic, to take the pressure off yourself and build relationships and is to just talk to more people. If you have set yourself a target of adding two people to your team this month and then only talk to two then you are hugely invested in those two people joining your team. This puts inordinate pressure on you and them. When we are pressured we are not relaxed or natural, and that pressure can be felt by others and will change your behaviour. In short you will not be yourself. If you’re talking to many people you can be more relaxed, more authentic and genuine. You still want them to join your team but you will be happy to wait to develop the relationship to build more authentically and naturally.
Understand what motivates people
Taking time allows you to ask questions and understand their needs and motivation. Not everyone starts a Forever business for the same reasons and you should understand what their motivations are before you bring up how it can be a good opportunity for them. For instance, if you just keep talking about how Forever can provide an additional income, but they aren’t motivated by money then it is unlikely that any of what you have to say will be of any interest. Whereas if you know that they will be motivated by the thought of helping others or personal development instead then you can highlight those key points. Motivation is key and by developing relationships and getting to know people over time you are better able to establish when it might be appropriate to discuss the opportunity.
Asking questions is the key to discovering people’s motivations, as is being a good listener. We don’t learn a lot when we are talking, and again people intrinsically know at a deep level if we are genuinely interested by the quality of our listening. Even as we connect virtually over video conferencing, we are still building relationships, we must still be good listeners and be authentic. Taking time, genuinely connecting are the foundations of good team building and with the foundations in place offering the business opportunity becomes natural and enjoyable.
