The Best Measurement for Predicting Growth

November 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Direct selling companies measure their businesses in many ways.

While monthly sales are a good measure of a company’s month-to-month or year-to-year performance, it isn’t the best measurement for predicting the future.

The best measurement for predicting the future of a direct selling company is the number of leaders in your sales force. This is because leaders have great influence over others.

What is a leader?

A leader is a person who has personally enrolled at least 3 others and who is active in the business by meeting or exceeding the minimum personal and group sales requirements of the company’s compensation plan.

It would be great if everyone who joined a direct selling company became a leader. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen. Instead, leaders comprise a small but important minority.

What should be measured?

Each month, you should measure the numbers of active representatives, active leaders, and active leaders as a percentage of all active representatives.

If you see all three numbers increasing, this is good news. It means your business is growing larger with a greater density of leaders. Looking forward, your rate of growth can be predicted to accelerate.

If your percentage of leaders is falling but the total number of active representatives is growing strongly, additional information is needed to draw a conclusion. Has there been a sudden burst of new recruits that has diluted the number of leaders, or are there simply fewer leaders?

If you see all three numbers falling, this means your business is shrinking and unless you take steps now to reverse the tide, things will only get worse.

Leadership development is important for every direct selling company.

Leadership Development

Most leaders in the sales force aren’t naturally born that way. Leadership development is the name given to a system that identifies prospective leaders and provides them with training, tools, support, and recognition.

An investment in the future of others, leadership development is a priority of all successful direct selling companies.

A Helping Hand

Sylvina Consulting can assess your business, identify areas in need of solutions, and help you to grow your business faster with a strong leadership development program. Contact Jay or Victoria at 503.244.8787 for further information.

Jay Leisner, the President of Sylvina Consulting, is a top compensation plan and direct selling expert, a trusted adviser to new and established network marketing and party plan companies. For more than 30 years, Jay has enjoyed assessing and improving network marketing, party plan and referral marketing companies across the globe.

Jay Leisner and Victoria Dohr authored the top-rated book for new and young network marketing, referral marketing, and party plan companies, "Start Here: The Guide to Building and Growing Your Direct Selling Company".

Available in English and Spanish. This startup guide contains 250 pages of wisdom that will guide you through the right steps to start and continue on your journey to build a successful direct selling company.

You will save thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of your time using the information you will read in our book.

In 1986, Jay began his career in direct selling by working for a major direct selling software provider. First as a software developer and later as a project leader and a business analyst, Jay worked closely with new and established network marketing and party direct selling companies to provide them with software solutions to meet their unique requirements.

Jay contributed in many ways to the success of large implementation projects for many companies. Jay also worked with dozens of smaller companies to assist each of them in various capacities to provide them with the systems they needed to help their businesses to grow faster.

Along the way while working with them, he learned the secrets of successful direct selling companies and the challenges faced by them. In true entrepreneurial spirit, Jay’s decision in 1999 to start Sylvina Consulting as a direct selling consulting company was driven by what he saw was a need for answers, advice, and solutions.

In 2004, 2006, 2009, 2014, and 2018, Jay gave presentations on compensation plans, recognition, and field leadership development at conferences held by the US Direct Selling Association.

He traveled to South Africa in 2015, 2016, and 2017 to conduct workshops on compensation plan design and recognition programs for member companies of the South African Direct Selling Association.

In 2017, Jay spoke at the Canadian Direct Sellers Association Meeting on the importance of recognition.

More than just a compensation plan expert, Jay is exceptionally skilled at advising new and established companies on business strategies. Before offering advice or solutions, he asks important questions to understand each client’s specific concerns and goals.

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