Remember, in my earlier articles I talked about reading your people and finding out what motivates them. Well, this is one of the times that your read really counts. For example, I might focus with one person on the opportunity for management while another person is strictly motivated by money. While all this is going on I am continuing to sell and show the older and newer people how it is done. All the while I am constantly selling the job and the company and their opportunity. The secret of success to all of this is that you must deliver!

You not only have to teach, you have to have enough knowledge to have something to teach! It sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but you can really eliminate a lot of duplication by doing it right the first time. I also involve the people who can sell in teaching their newer counterparts. Not only does it save me some time but it also gives me insight into which person has leadership skills or unique teaching skills. These characteristics will play a very important role as we continue to create A sales team.

Now the hardest part is to successfully layer your organization and polish everyone. The tendencies of most managers is that as soon as someone can sell they think their work is done and they can take time off or focus on other tasks. Wrong! This is a critical time to show your producers how much you care and how much farther they have to go.

Of course, while doing this you have to be doing the same beginning process with the newer people until they are producing. The objective is to have the early producers become your pace setters and then from their enthusiasm the newer people begin to shine. The real surprise is that you never know with any certainty who is really going to become your top performers out of the group. There are a lot of disappointments along the way. One of the original producers may falter or lose interest for a variety of reasons and all of a sudden one of the newer producers takes the lead and refuses to give it up. Sometimes I have gone through 3 or 4 groups of people before I find the first consistent producer. That is why I mentioned at the beginning that it takes extreme patience and persistence. It is very easy to get discouraged when one or two groups don't work out.

Remember the "Stone Cutter" story. The people that passed by when a single blow broke the stone missed the 100 strokes before it. Pretty prophetic. Once you think you have a viable crew you can finally take a deep breath and slowly, and I mean slowly, fade into the woodwork. What I mean by this is maybe you can appoint a tentative crew leader and let them know that you have an errand to do and you will be back shortly. This is the beginning of your true evaluation of your work. If you come back and everything is working smoothly, you can step out for a little longer period of time. "Special Tip" - never tell the staff when you are expected to return. Sometimes I never really leave. I watch the operation from a distance and do my evaluation. Someone once said, "It is not what you do when I am around that counts, but what you do when I am not around that is most important!"

Once you have your successful crew built and it can function in your absence, it is imperative that you are still around at various times so they understand that you are still very much involved in the operation. It is also important that you make those times when you are around count! Do not miss the opportunity to show advanced techniques to your peak performers in both sales and management, while still selling everyone on the big picture of advancement and opportunity. In other words continue priming the pump.

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