Your Business: Marathon or Sprint?

May 1, 2021 By admin Leave a Comment

Building or growing a business is very much like running a race.

Are you running a marathon or a sprint? The answer is important. Let’s find out if you’re in the right race.

A Marathon

If your business is like a marathon, your focus is on a finish line many years out. You realize in order to get to that finish line, you’ll need to build up endurance.

Pacing yourself is crucial. Finishing the race alive and healthy is more important than rushing to achieve a short-term goal.

A Sprint

If your business is like a sprint, speed of execution is most important. Your focus is on achieving short-term goals quickly. To reach them, you’ll run as fast as you can for a short period of time. What matters today is the next three months. The next race is out of mind.

Your Compensation Plan

Is your compensation plan designed to win a marathon or a sprint?

If you have a marathon in mind, your compensation plan encourages the key behaviors (sales, recruiting, and leadership) but also patience. To climb the success ladder, your representatives will need to pace themselves. You describe your plan to others as the “get rich slowly” plan. You feel the same way about your business. You’ll get there, but it will take a while.

If you view your compensation plan as a sprint, you have set expectations for your sales force that success will come quickly. Run as fast you can! Time is of the essence. Hurry!

Why Does It Matter?

Whichever race you’re running, you should make sure that your teammates (those running the business with you) and your independent representatives are each in the same race.

If some members of your management team think you’re running a marathon but instead you’re running a sprint, or your sales force believes they are in a race that is different from yours, their focus and their pace may not be in harmony with yours.

Running a marathon requires patience and consistency. Sprinting takes a concentrated burst of energy with blinders on to ignore everything except that which matters for the race.

Conclusion

Using analogies like “marathon” and “sprint” can help you, your home team, and your sales team to understand the type of race you’re running. When everyone has the same understanding, you’ll cross the finish line together.

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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