Affiliate since: 04/02/2014, Power Rank: 99999999 | Read Mary's 22 other Ask SC answers

When we say here is a FREE gift for you folks come running. I am no different. So would I come to depend on the offered gift or incentive?

I would say it is all about presentation. If you suddenly for no reason at all just hand the Gift Certificate or T credits out then that would come back to bite you.

But if your giving them as a reward for getting PSA's or making Team Leader and you have rules in place about qualifying for the "bribe" then I would say no it only speeds things along for you and your downline.

Just as every employer who wants trained employees to perform exceptionally well extra bonus's always help.

Other employer's offer benefits so should we. But it doesn't have to be gift certificates and T credits only. Try free co-ops, free advertising credits, free active PSA if you have more than enough to share. It is my understanding that referrals roll back to the upline when folks quit so you don't really lose them and you still get matching VP and you can still help them both as you are still the upline member.



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When we say here is a FREE gift for you folks come running. I am no different. So would I come to depend on the offered gift or incentive?

I would say it is all about presentation. If you suddenly for no reason at all just hand the Gift Certificate or T credits out then that would come back to bite you.

But if your giving them as a reward for getting PSA's or making Team Leader and you have rules in place about qualifying for the "bribe" then I would say no it only
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Affiliate since: 04/29/2014, Power Rank: 99999999

In my country it is often said “reward sweeten labor”. This basically means that if you want to get the best from your down line, add a little incentive and you will get them to produce more. I use to work at the bank and we all look forward to that bonus salary at the end of the year. It is always nice if after working so hard , you are recognize for a job well done , because in the long run, both you and your PSA or CSA will benefit.
Sometime, doing the same task/ job everyday becomes monotonous, hence, adding a little competition amongst your down line will encourage them to go the extra mile to get those new affiliates, and after all, they know that their efforts will be rewarded with a Gift Certificate, TCredits or transfer of PSA.
In no way this will come back to “bite” you because it is a “win win “situation. You will achieve more because you are the sponsor, you will benefit in so many ways. From matching VP when your affiliate becomes EA2, unlimited VPs when you personally sponsor Team leaders at different level and of course increase commission.



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In my country it is often said “reward sweeten labor”. This basically means that if you want to get the best from your down line, add a little incentive and you will get them to produce more. I use to work at the bank and we all look forward to that bonus salary at the end of the year. It is always nice if after working so hard , you are recognize for a job well done , because in the long run, both you and your PSA or CSA will benefit.
Sometime, doing the same task/ job everyday becomes
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Affiliate since: 04/13/2012, Power Rank: 99999999 | Read Andrew's 330 other Ask SC answers

I have seen it work and seen it fail based on the crowd and how often you run such incentives.

If you offer a contest for reaching a certain rank or securing X number of new members every 3 months or so you will motivate the takers to compete for the prize(s), but make it exclusive, to win and not the everyone gets a ribbon type event that is destroying the motivation to excel and be the best.

If you hold these contest or rewards too often they can lead to people tying their effort to a reward. If you suddenly don't offer a reward next month the dependent affiliate will simply stop working as hard. Don't laugh I see more people doing exactly this these days, especially students.

A Good Example is the Coke A Cola Caught Red Handed campaign where restaurant and convenience store employees can win a prize during the contest period simply for asking the customer would you like a coke with that or if they have ordered a coke asking them if they wish to super size it? These up sell skills are part of the job 365 days a year but millions of fast food workers and store cashiers only offer the up sell during the contest and then go back to doing the minimum when no contest is running.

The program started out as a boon to business getting people in the habit of asking if the customer would like to add another purchase to their order but here we are over a decade into the promotion and it's like Caught Red Handed for 60 days but that leaves 305 days our crew will under perform and cost us sales.

Sorry years as a fast food manager and convenience store manager bleeding through but the behavior is the same with any regular incentive. Soon it can get to where your contest cost you money instead of making it.

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I have seen it work and seen it fail based on the crowd and how often you run such incentives.

If you offer a contest for reaching a certain rank or securing X number of new members every 3 months or so you will motivate the takers to compete for the prize(s), but make it exclusive, to win and not the everyone gets a ribbon type event that is destroying the motivation to excel and be the best.

If you hold these contest or rewards too often they can lead to people tying their
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Affiliate since: 06/10/2014, Power Rank: 99999999 | Read Damian's 10 other Ask SC answers

Ok Ian

First of all lets not call it a "bribe" when you offer your downline an incentive it is meant to be an incentive to achieve goals for themselves and you. Remember you are a team and for your team to grow stronger it may require some "incentives" along the way.

I do a monthly incentive plan:

offer your team

5 affiliates for reaching EA
10 for TL

and offer them support on how to achieve this.
This will show you care for your team you are a great leader and care for your 'TEAM business"

You are building a business so you want quality hard working team.... would you bribe a builder to use cheaper bricks?

hope this helps

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Ok Ian

First of all lets not call it a "bribe" when you offer your downline an incentive it is meant to be an incentive to achieve goals for themselves and you. Remember you are a team and for your team to grow stronger it may require some "incentives" along the way.

I do a monthly incentive plan:

offer your team

5 affiliates for reaching EA
10 for TL

and offer them support on how to achieve this.
This will show
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

I always found it very motivating when mt upline offered insentives or awards for accomplishments. I think it could only backfire if you offered a lot of incentives to new affiliates, with whom you didn't build a trusting relationship yet.

I think insentives should depend on what rank PSA is and what both you and your PSA's can achieve with that award or incentive.

Gift certificates- i think are best used to give to your PSA for their first SO. You will earn their trust, and they will really get the feeling that they don't have to invest to start earning.

T credits- maybe you should give those to EA2's or higher ranked when they lack Action VP's to maintain the rank, that's a win-win situation for both of you.

Contests- always a good idea, but those are sometimes unfair to PSA's who are not in a situation to progress quickly. Low budget or environment which is not friendly to online jobs or online shopping can make things very dificult for some of us. If you make contests, make it rank-scaled: a diferent one for aff, EA and then for EA2's, BTLs or higher, with gift certificates being the most apropriate award for lower than EA2's and substantial amount of T credits for higher ranked.

I say this, because, as a new BTL i would strongly apreciate T Credits, i would know what to use them for, while as an AFF i didn't have a clue about their real value.

That's just my opinion, I hope it helps. :)
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I always found it very motivating when mt upline offered insentives or awards for accomplishments. I think it could only backfire if you offered a lot of incentives to new affiliates, with whom you didn't build a trusting relationship yet.

I think insentives should depend on what rank PSA is and what both you and your PSA's can achieve with that award or incentive.

Gift certificates- i think are best used to give to your PSA for their first SO. You will earn their trust, and
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

Gift Certificates can be a real valuable tool to use to build your team. How ever they should really only be used as a reward for obtaining a particular goal.

If you start using them to "bribe" affiliates then you are creating a dependency on them. ie: "If you want me to do something then what are you going to give me?"

The best gift you can give your affiliates are the tools provided by SFI and their independence.

Your affiliates need to realize the benefits of building their own team and business.

You shouldn't need to financially support your affiliates.

Another way to look at it is;

"If you give me a $10.00 gift certificate I'm only going to do $10.00 worth of work"

This isn't a good way to build a business.
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Gift Certificates can be a real valuable tool to use to build your team. How ever they should really only be used as a reward for obtaining a particular goal.

If you start using them to "bribe" affiliates then you are creating a dependency on them. ie: "If you want me to do something then what are you going to give me?"

The best gift you can give your affiliates are the tools provided by SFI and their independence.

Your affiliates need to realize
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Affiliate since: 04/02/2014, Power Rank: 99999999 | Read Anja's 41 other Ask SC answers

Hello Ian,

you made me laugh out just now with using "bribe" for this question! :D
Surely, there are different ways to use incentives if oneself has already enough earnings for this.

BRIBE/INCENTIVES
But seriously, a "bribe" normally is given as pre-incentive to do (or not do) something AFTER receiving the bribe. So, in this context: no, it is definitely not wise to give your downline those incentives directly without them having done anything else than just opting in.
As pre-incentive it is better to announce competitions where those incentives can be earned. Your downline will hear it and might engage even more just to get that bonus from you!
Another nice point here: those competitions can be just a few times a year, they don't need to be completely regular. Thus, you can control your investment even on lower earnings.

REWARD
Of course, gift certificates, TCredits and such are good as rewards for any achievement as long as you think that the reward equal their work. Always think which rewards you would choose for one of your affiliate reaching EA and another one becoming TL. For me, it would be Tcredits (up to 10 possible) for EA and gift certificates for TL (evtly combined with TC).
Attention here: Don't discriminate anyone no matter when/where they opted in or how much you talked to them. This system only works if you treat each of your PSAs as equals and are not limited in the incentive counts (ie if you already earn enough money).

HELPING OUT
Another use for those incentives is to help your downline achieving certain goals. This method should only be used on affiliates you have lots of contact with, are eager enough to earn more and can truly achieve their goal with that help.
A good example here is the 10actionVP-missing-to-TL: if this happens to your teammember, 10Tcredits will surely be able to be converted into those action VP via TripleClicks within the day they were recieved. TL saved, teammember happy and you get extra points for him/her.
A bad example would be to give out gift certificates and Tcredits to PSAs you neither had a talk to yet or that weren't really active that month. Your incentive would just make "puff": the other one either doesn't use them or isn't able to use them for good and achieve something through it. Wasted effort and money on your side. in the worst case, that person asks for more and more incentives like that and you end up getting bitten.
It would be another question if you know that person personally (like a dear friend or family), have regular talks, trainings and meetings. In that case, it will be easier for you to estimate his/her true situation and if this gift will really help. But be careful here too, if freebies and money are involved, even a known person can get greedy quite fast.

Last but not least, two tips of mine, whatever incentive methods you may use:
- Limit your investment cost and never cross it
- put together your own system for incentives with help of your budget and review it regularly

Happy sponsoring!
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PS: just from listing those, I noticed my favorite are the competitions :)
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Hello Ian,

you made me laugh out just now with using "bribe" for this question! :D
Surely, there are different ways to use incentives if oneself has already enough earnings for this.

BRIBE/INCENTIVES
But seriously, a "bribe" normally is given as pre-incentive to do (or not do) something AFTER receiving the bribe. So, in this context: no, it is definitely not wise to give your downline those incentives directly without them having done anything else
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Affiliate since: 05/15/2014, Power Rank: 99999999 | Read Robert's 12 other Ask SC answers

Hello,

Dear Mr. Chivers,

The term 'bribe' is not the best word to use.
As sponsors, and co-sponsors we are not bribing our CSA's and PSA's, we are merely trying to boost their morale and confidence, that SFI is the best choice for marketing, and that they have done the right thing by registering on SFI and becoming a part of this huge organization.

We are showing our new affiliates, that they can actually earn some (might I add substantial) income within the first three months (no other marketing organization can even come close to that, what SFI can offer).

It is wise to send out GC's, X-cards and TCredits to your team every once in a while.
I for example do that at least 1/month.
It has proven to be fruitful for both the Sponsor/Co-Sponsor and their line of Affiliates.

Note:
Only 'bribe' those people who have proven to be truly devoted to SFI, meaning they are here every day for their daily VP's and/or have some Sales VP's as well.
They will lead as an example to those that may have abandoned or lost hope in SFI, and can win them back.

Hope this has helped.
Wish you all the best.
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Hello,

Dear Mr. Chivers,

The term 'bribe' is not the best word to use.
As sponsors, and co-sponsors we are not bribing our CSA's and PSA's, we are merely trying to boost their morale and confidence, that SFI is the best choice for marketing, and that they have done the right thing by registering on SFI and becoming a part of this huge organization.

We are showing our new affiliates, that they can actually earn some (might I add substantial) income within the
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Affiliate since: 04/18/2014, Power Rank: 99999999 | Read Ruth's 21 other Ask SC answers

At the outset, from the point of view of the affiliate initiating the prize, award, incentive etc. I would like to bring to your attention that it all costs money to the affiliate and is therefore not taken lightly by the affiliate initiating the process.

“Bribe” in my opinion, has a negative connotation as it implies that you are expecting something for nothing, which cannot be the case at SFI.

For all the incentives or promotions that I present I make sure that there are conditions attached to the awarding of the prize which bring the affiliate to a status that allows them the opportunity to grow their own business consequently.

What I am inadvertently telling my PSA’s is that if they put in the effort, so will I.

Here are two examples of the types of promotion or incentives that I use to motivate my team:

1. I offer a challenge signing 3 PSAs within a period of time with 1st, 2nd and
3rd prizes.

2. I offer reward for achieving EA2 status and maintaining it for one month
thereafter.

What I hope to achieve through this process is a sense of achievement from my PSA’s and that they can then appreciate the value of growing their own businesses and by my direct contribution it is my way of saying thank you.

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At the outset, from the point of view of the affiliate initiating the prize, award, incentive etc. I would like to bring to your attention that it all costs money to the affiliate and is therefore not taken lightly by the affiliate initiating the process.

“Bribe” in my opinion, has a negative connotation as it implies that you are expecting something for nothing, which cannot be the case at SFI.

For all the incentives or promotions that I present I make sure that there are
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Affiliate since: 01/30/2014, Power Rank: 99999999 | Read Sheron's 117 other Ask SC answers

This answer can vary and yes if this is done at the wrong time you can develop DEPENDENTS which won't be profitable.I see nothing wrong with Gift Certificates being rendered to your downline but at the right time.In the initial stages I feel you need to let new affiliates show the leader that they can become.They have about 2 months to aim for this.The first month you show me that you understand me and the tips and Inspiration I am giving you let me see some action earn NO less than 11VP daily ,38VP weekly and 15 VP monthly I accept nothing less ,for I do not want excuses I want change.
When I check your ledger it should look like mine reason I am duplicating myself.
You should have your to do list update all the FREE AVP must be earned ,I need to see participation in every area in TripleClicks and SFI.Show me how much your business means to you for if this is not happening then you can not be serious about the success of your business hence see why I told you gift certificates should be given the right time for remember ATTITUDE controls ALTITUDE and from your performance it informs me about how or if you are really serious about your business.
In your second month you should be promoting SFI and your store( BECOMING A TRUE MARKETER) which means I should be able to visit your blog/website( SO I can aid in correcting if needed).Being a leader is not about doing this for your team it is about giving your team the resources and monitoring what they are doing with them and correcting them when you need to.Building a team is like raising a child you direct them and monitor their performance and congratulate when needed and give reward when they earn them!!
So warning to all if you are sending gift certificates and feeling that the is the solution it very well might do the opposite.I visit forum and I see "how do I place a standing order for a PSA she will pay me back". I find this wrong for any person purchasing a SO for you should be you and the next thing if they do not make EA this month they can next month and if they really want to make EA they will for where there is a will there is always a way.They need to have the opportunity to make a mistakes for this is the way to learning!
All affiliates need to know you cannot make money with out investment.You are given a store fully stock absolutely NO overheads.You do not have to worry about stock, employes etc.What is $36.25 monthly that you cannot sacrifice for improvement of you.Remember you are spending on you the best person to invest in.Nothing in life of value is easy or FREE and you get nothing for nothing.
I would use Gift Certificates to create a challenge/contest between my team for advancement and you need to show me you are SERIOUS about the building and development of your business for I want LEADERS not DEPENDENTS!


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This answer can vary and yes if this is done at the wrong time you can develop DEPENDENTS which won't be profitable.I see nothing wrong with Gift Certificates being rendered to your downline but at the right time.In the initial stages I feel you need to let new affiliates show the leader that they can become.They have about 2 months to aim for this.The first month you show me that you understand me and the tips and Inspiration I am giving you let me see some action earn NO less than 11VP daily ,38VP
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