Founder Program Wisdom

May 2, 2023 By admin Leave a Comment

A Founder Program should be a campaign to attract and enroll experienced direct selling representatives who will be rewarded when they meet specific performance measurements.

However, not everyone knows this.

Some companies think a good Founders Program is one that recognizes one of the following situations:

everyone who joins by September 1
the first 100 independent representatives who enrolled
the first 20 people to reach the title of Director

They are mistaken.

A good Founders Program isn’t a program to reward the first in. The people first in are not special in any way in terms of their performance. They are just average, so why reward them as Founders? It doesn’t make financial sense.

Facts

The average independent representative never recruits anyone. The average representative who does recruit will recruit just a few people.

Every direct selling company wants to attract and develop representatives who are better than average at recruiting, and they want to do it right away.

Many experienced representatives want special treatment.

How To Attract The Top 5%

There are several steps you can take to attract what I call the top 5%. You can have:

Another step is to develop a Founder Program. Before you take that step, however, keep reading.

Bad Advice

Monthly Stipends or Minimum Guarantees

Don’t pay monthly stipends to someone who says they will build a great downline if you pay them a monthly stipend. Don’t provide a guarantee of minimum income to a promising leader, either. Don’t believe the hype. Don’t take a leap of faith with your money.

Good Advice

Instead, if you don’t live in Missouri, act like you do. The state motto of Missouri is show me.

What Do You Want?

The purposes of a Founder Program are to attract the top 5%, to compensate early leaders differently, and to grow the business faster.

You want Founders to recruit more (higher quality and quantity). You want them to build teams faster. You expect them to be more productive in selling and above all, you will reward them when they meet or beat time-based goals.

What Do They Want?

Founders want special treatment, to be paid through the compensation plan, and more, to receive recognition for their roles and performance, to be part of your inner circle, and above all, to have personal relationships with the owners of your company.

What Is A Good Founder Program?

A good Founders Program is one that is developed after your compensation plan is fully designed. Like a compensation plan, it motivates and rewards specific behaviors, but in this case, the achievements are time-based.

If all Founders begin recruiting and selling at the same time, your Founders Program can be engineered to foster competition which is a great thing.

If you are thinking about having a Founder Program, or if you have one and you’d like to get some professional advice on how to make it better, contact Jay at Sylvina Consulting at 503.244.8787.

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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