Pilot Programs For Direct Selling Companies

September 11, 2014 By admin Leave a Comment

What Is A Pilot Program?

A pilot program is a group of activities planned as a test or a trial of a business model. Some party plan companies and network marketing companies choose to conduct a pilot program before officially launching their direct selling companies.

Why Do A Pilot?

The more you know about your business, the wiser you can be in operating it. Would you rather get smart along the way, or learn a bunch before you launch to steer your representatives away from activities that don’t work?

If you’re feeling uncertain and you’d like to minimize your risk of failure, doing a pilot is the best way to increase the odds that your business will be viable.

Here are some questions answered through pilots.

Before The Pilot

Before a pilot is begun, the first step is to define what you will be testing and what we will be measuring. This is the most important step in the pilot. In this step, options are suggested and evaluated. Decisions are made on what you will be testing and when. This step should begin as soon as possible.

The second step is to create the materials necessary to conduct the pilot. Only your pilot representatives should know this is will be a market test. Everyone else needs to believe this is a real business that just happens to be young. You will need to develop materials before the pilot is executed. A pilot cannot be conducted successfully without materials in place first.

While you will need to compensate your pilot program representatives, you won’t need a fully developed multilevel compensation plan for the pilot.

The third step is to create a pilot project plan. A pilot project plan is a schedule of the activities to be conducted before the pilot is executed, during pilot execution, and after the pilot has been concluded.

The Pilot

After the three steps above have been completed, then the pilot can be executed. A pilot is a market test that takes place over a defined period of time, usually 4 to 12 weeks.

After The Pilot

Before the results of the pilot are known, we don’t know what will happen next. Will you proceed directly to a soft launch or a hard launch? Or will you adjust the business model slightly, or retool it significantly, and possibly pilot it a second time?

After the pilot, you’ll have results that can be evaluated. Then, you will decide if the business will proceed forward with no changes or with some changes, or in rare situations, a business won’t move forward at all.

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 party plan and network marketing companies across the globe.

Jay Leisner and Victoria Dohr authored the top-rated book for new and young network 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.

Sylvina Consulting and Thompson Burton sponsor the pure education "Direct Selling Edge Conference Webinar" for new and young direct selling companies. The wisest direct selling executives never stop being students. They seek out opportunities to learn more. They understand that the long-term success of their companies depends on how much they know, so they make efforts to keep learning.

Broadcast live and with recordings included for later viewing, this powerful webinar will give you buckets of wisdom and guidance to help you on your journey.

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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