An increase in network marketing retention can have a huge impact on team growth and long term residual income. In this post, I’ll share how to increase retention on your team.
In my network marketing business, I think of retention as keeping new and existing business partners active for the long haul.
A sad fact about our industry is that on average, three out of four new distributors stall out in their first 90 days and quit the business. A staggering 90% of new business partners do not make it through their first year!
This leads to a major drain on your income because retention is where the long-term residual income in the network marketing industry comes from. The good news is that even a modest increase in your network marketing retention rate can lead to a dramatic increase in your income.
It is important to note that of those who do quit, better than half of them do so in the first 90 days in business. This is why it is so important to start new team members the right way on day one and help them have success in their early days in business.
An increase in network marketing retention has a huge impact on residual income
For many years, I focused on prospecting and sponsoring, and became known as a top enroller in the network marketing industry. But, then I shifted gears and focused more on retention. I found the results to be almost immediate and long-lasting, too. Increasing retention has had a greater impact on increasing my monthly check than the number of new people I recruit each month. And it’s easier to do too!
Much of our members-only team training focuses on retention. Here are the keys to increasing retention in your business.
Training is everything!
Effective training should be readily available for new and veteran team members. We’ve had best success offering training that’s available at the team member’s convenience rather than rely only on live training. An important part of ongoing training is one on one mentoring.
Enroll the right people the right way. We teach our team to enroll prospects that ask to join the business. Much of the training focuses on generating high quality, highly responsive leads. Our team is not trained to use warm-market tactics like pitching friends, neighbors, and relatives who are not even interested in the business. We do not teach our team to sell or close prospects on the business. When you have to close people to get them in, you’ll have to close them every time they hit a small obstacle. They are the first ones to become quitters.
Have new team members define their personal goals on their first day. Make sure their goals are realistic. Both you and your new business partner will need these goals to measure their success. Each team member’s success is measured against their own goals.
When team members have success and feel part of a team there is no reason to quit
Get new team members off to a fast start. New team members need to make money early in their career for both their belief in the business and for credibility with others. Nothing helps increase network marketing retention more than making money quickly!
Be a true servant-leader. Helping a new team member is more important than even your own prospecting. Live up to your commitment to be available for your new business partner. Make it easy for business partners to reach your upline in your absence.
Effective and regular communication makes a big difference. Provide essential information, without flooding new partners with information overload. Regular emails from the team email autoresponder series have proven to be an effective way to keep team members in the game and help them get back in the game if they’ve become sidetracked.
People love recognition. For many people, recognition is an even bigger motivator than money. Recognition can be as simple as a personal email or phone call. For some, edification in front of a group can bring huge rewards. Look for ways to recognize even the smaller accomplishments of your team.
If you want to maximize team growth and long-term residual income, shift more of your focus to an increase in network marketing retention.
To your success
Joe Barclay