Most affiliates who have answered this question “advice” that contacting one’s PSAs and CSAs once a week is sufficient. (I wonder if they say that only because SFI encourages us to do so and rewards us with 30 ACTION VP when we do and I wonder what they response would be if SFI didn’t encourage us in this way.)
However I find contacting my PSAs and CSAs (and even my A2A friends) is easy – it’s whenever I wish to and have something to say. The difficulty I have is getting a response. I have 399 people in my team (and 77 A2A friends) but only a few have contacted me. Most haven’t even responded with a “commitment” letter when they join SFI.
So what do I do? New PSAs and CSAs get the welcome letter and when another team mail a few days later that explain SFI briefly, that it is their business, that if they work at it over time they will be successful, and that I am totally committed to SFI, believe in it whole-heartedly and are there to help them in any way I can. I tell them a little about myself and I encourage them to tell me a bit about themselves too. I congratulate them for choosing SFI. That this is THEIR business and that they should work in a way that suits them. There is no rush. And I explain they can grow their business with or without any cash investment – that I am happy to help them either way. I encourage them to log into SFI each day, to read all my Stream Posts and to visit my Leadership Page and read all my Blogs – that I hope each of these will be of help to them as they describe my journey in SFI.
And yes, they do receive a weekly team mail. This congratulates the MOVERS, explains something about SFI such as how to promote a product from TripleClicks, encourages goal setting in SFI and reflecting on one’s achievements, what I have done, am doing and am trying to do. And invites questions and comments, good or bad.
And I have sent out an additional team mail at times to highlight a special issue which one of my team had raised, such as the VP streak vacation, and I give the team member recognition too for raising it.
I do at least three Stream posts each week (so far 10 this month) and regular blogs (so far 12 this month). I don’t really know how they are being received.
And I write separately to each of my MOVERS with advice I hope will help them. Then, when I do get a response or a question, I reply as soon as I can and as fully as I can. Usually I have to research the topic as I want to “get it right”. I even translate a personal team mail into their native language (using translate.google.com), so they get an English version and a version in their own language (but again I don’t really know how well this is being received as no-one has told me yet).
Actually I use any questions I am asked as training opportunities – as a chance for me to “bone up” on an answer and prepare something that I can re-use. These seem to be very well received and of great encouragement to the team member concerned.
I’ve used SFIM Chat a couple of times when one of my team has been online but it is a bit slow, maybe that is because of the language barrier.
To be honest I just don’t have time to try and contact each person individually – does anybody? So I am learning to use the Genealogy Report to “reach out” to specific groups within my team with a specific message to them. I am hoping that over time some of them may become active again.
You know, really it is usually “one way traffic” from me to my team. I’d love to be able to really get to know my team members as individuals but that can only happen when they respond. I am still working out how best to achieve this. In the mean time because SFI offers the TEAM MAIL facility where I can quickly send a message to all my team I do use that on a weekly basis. What a great service this is to us. Everyone gets that message – it’s the least I can do.
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