Fun, Fun, that’s what summer is all about!  I had some strategic conversations with coaching clients this week about keeping their team active with fun ideas over summer.

  • One client said, “I want my team members to continue to do parties and work their business over the summer.”
  • Another said, “I’m taking a LEAP of faith and working with my team to promote to the next level in June.”
  • Another said, “ My goal is to add 10 new personal team members over the summer so I’ll have a stronger team by fall.”

Each one of these leaders are dedicated to growing their team and their business over the summer.   They are committed to working with their team each month over the summer months even when they hear….

  • I’m going to take the summer off.
  • I’m going to lay back for most of the summer.
  • No-one wants to book parties in summer.

As a leader in Direct Sales, you have to recognize summer is a different time of the year to work your business. Schedules change, kids are out of school, people are going on vacation and many people like to plan FUN things.  And that’s what I recommend for your team over summer. Make it a FUN summer plan. Here are my 5 suggestions for keeping your team working over the summer.

Hold Fun Summer Mega TEAM Parties.  This is a great way to help team members invite one or two guests to a mega party. Its simply holding a party where team members invite 1 or 2 guests. This is very effective as an in-home party at your home, or if it’s very large consider holding it in a church hall or meeting room. It’s also possible to hold a MEGA Facebook party for those who love to buy your products online.

Benefits: Team members have a FUN team event to invite their guests, and Leaders have the opportunity to train team members to have FUN successful parties. This is called on-the-job training.

FUN Theme parties.  Creating themes for summer parties gets people in the mode of summer business. One of my coaching clients is in the Natural Skin care business and she’s offering “Summer Skin care” classes teaching people how to use natural products for their skin during the summer months. I suggest you come up with some themes for some FUN summer theme parties and build excitement with the team to book them. Give them some phone scripts on how to invite people and get their calendar full over the summer months. Here’s a copy of my FREE Summer Fun Theme Parties handout.

Benefits:   People LOVE to have fun, learn how to solve problems with your products and have a memorable experience. This is how to keep your calendar full of successful summer fun parties.

Fun Summer Team Meetings.  One of the most FUN times for my team was our mid-year Summer Team meeting. I used to hold this every year in July (usually a week after 4th July). We usually had a summer picnic where we invited husbands and kids. Everyone got into the spirit of summer and shared lots of summer selling, booking and recruiting tips.

Benefit: Best way to build team camaraderie and get everyone sharing ideas for summer business.

FUN participation on social media.  Mix it up in your Team Facebook Group. Choose weekly themes and assign team members to share their summer tips each week! This builds engagement and participation in your team group and also helps them get more confident at posting and going live on social media.

FUN Summer Team Incentives.  The team loves to earn FUN summer incentives. Think of FUN summer incentive gifts that everyone would love. My favorites were – Outdoor living things like, picnic items, fun bright paper napkins, melamite coffee cups.   Another favorite for summer would be biz books for summer reading, or even $5 Starbucks cards to use for coffee chat conversations.   Catch my series on “How to Recognize & Reward” Team members here.

These are just a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing! That’s what summer is about working with your team. They are looking to you for summer ideas and ways to stay focused, and as a leader that means you must be organized and pro-active every week working with your team.

One of the best ways to keep yourself accountable and build strong relationships with your team is to work with the CALENDAR CLUB TEAM Booking System. All of my leaders who work this system sail through their summer months because it allows them to be creative and keep the team booking parties all through the year. Your team members LOVE to be part of a team that is successful and shares great ideas and with the CALENDAR CLUB system, they get to be part of something greater than themselves working towards bigger team goals. You can learn more about this system that comes with a workbook FULL of resources for leaders and 5 video’s that help you learn how to become proficient at working the system. Read more here.