Just Ask

Published March 6, 2012 | By Tammy Stanley

This week I received an email from a direct seller who told me about another leader she met at a company meeting. This direct seller learned that the other leader had been in the business for quite some time before she really started selling and building a team.

When asked what was the thing that motivated her to step on the gas, she replied that she finally went to the company's National Conference. When asked why she had waited so long before going to the National Conference she said, "No one ever asked me to go."

It is only natural for us to think that because everyone receives information about the company National Conference or Convention, everyone knows that he or she is welcome to attend. As natural as it is to think that, you want to train yourself to think differently.

Compare that now to a home party. When the hostess sends postcard invitations as well as an email invitation to all her friends, they probably all understand that she is hosting a product party, but very few of them will feel any real need to attend.

If that hostess were to pick up her telephone and quickly invite all of the people on her list, the response would be completely different. Her friends would feel like she really wanted them to attend because she took the time to personally invite them.

I coached my hostesses on this very topic. I would ask them what they typically do when they receive a postcard invitation to a home party. They would usually confess that they did not pay much attention to it. I would then tell them that calling their friends and personally inviting them would be far more persuasive.

I then coached them how to make those invitation calls quick and powerful. Once I started doing that, I discovered that my hostesses were able to get the number of guests I requested without much trouble at all. I just had to tell them the benefits of personally asking their friends to attend, and they would snap into action!

When you take the time to call the individuals on your team and invite them to an up-coming training event, they too feel personally invited. Do not be surprised to hear things like, "Oh, I didn't realize I could go to that," or "I didn't think I had a strong enough business to attend that."

When you personally ask people on your team to attend a special training event, like a National Conference, it is an opportunity for you to engage them in the possibility of stepping up to the plate and taking their business to the next level.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of asking is that you stand the most to gain. When you ask the people on your team to invest in themselves by attending a training, you demonstrate leadership. It is powerful to see someone invest in themselves simply because you asked, and it forces you to acknowledge that you absolutely have the potential to be a persuasive leader.

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