There is a lot of hiring and managing going on in canvassing right now with the start of the prime canvassing season. For managers in outbound marketing (canvassing & show/ event marketing) it can be a difficult time of the season; difficult in different ways because you have teams to build, maintain, promote and fire. It can be challenging for the manager. There’s also a ROI that’s expected for the department so it’s a balancing act for the manager.
The other side of the equation is retaining great people. It’s frustrating to have a great marketer who all of a sudden decides they’re leaving. It’s difficult because a department can be built quickly on great people because they can take some of the burden off you to be able to help train and mentor others, plus being high producers for you. But, when other circumstances intervene it can leave you hitting the reset button and starting over to recruit and hire great marketers again.
Here are a few examples of the challenges for the manager. You can have what I call the fast-start hire. They’re they person who learns the system and scripts quickly and they hit the ground running getting results. They’re getting leads, appointments and sales, but then after a few weeks or months you look at their numbers and you see they’ve dropped off. You were blinded by their fast production and maybe you took your eye off them because they were self-starters, self-producers, but they dropped off. Now you’re faced with what to do with them. Retrain, redirect or let go? When do you cut ties with marketers? In addition to them there’s all the other marketers you need to track and evaluate.
There’s also the ‘good person’ hire. They’re the people who try hard, know the script verbatim, they show up on time, but they just can’t get their production up. You become their cheerleader and you want them to be successful, possibly more than they do, but for whatever reason they’re not getting the results. Thinking if you give it time they’ll finally get the results you need. At some point though you find yourself realizing you’re not a charity and you just might have to let this ‘good person’ go. What I find, is if you study anyone successful in any vocation or field they have an ‘X’ factor. Regardless of background, education, wealth or any other circumstance they will succeed.
“Desire is the starting point of all achievement it’s not a hope, it’s not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire that transcends everything.” Napoleon Hill – Author ‘Think and Grow Rich”
Interpreting Mr. Hill’s quote to face-to-face marketing would be that you must find the way to make success work. The key ingredient missing from many people is the ‘keen pulsating desire. Being able to transcend the challenges is being connected to the right people with the experiences you can learn from and borrow. It’s why I do the live calls each month, write these articles and do all that I do for the industry. These are the factors that managers have to face often with little guidance and support. That’s why you’re here, as a Canvass King member.
Get into The Mindset of an ‘A’ Player
What does the ‘A’ player want to know? Who is the ‘A’ player? They have the mindset that is driven and motivated and most importantly produce. They have the work ethic and self-drive, the kind of people you really want, they want to know what’s next. They want to know what the pathway to success is in your department and company. This is an important message in your evaluation and it starts in the recruiting process. You communicate what the evaluation and promotion process is as part of the recruiting.
I’ve talked about it in the last two month’s management calls that it’s about being on message when recruiting people. From the recruiting ad through to the interview process communicating the right message resonates with the right people, the kind of people you want to attract, hire and employ. They have a clear path and standards they’ll be evaluated by and they’ll know what’s expected of them. It’s no different than when they were in school. They’ll have a defined grading period.
You not only share what the minimum standards are to keep the job, but also the promotional standards. How they can get promoted to the next levels, including what the job will look like, their job title and compensation at each level. No one can achieve a goal if they don’t know what the goal is. This is all tied to the recruiting message.
The primary motivating factor should be money. That’s what people say they want. They want to make more money, but one of the primary motivators of people is not money, rather it’s recognition. Everyone at some point in their life has felt slighted because they didn’t get the recognition they deserved. It may be from their family or in school. As a child you brought home artwork and wanted mom and dad to proudly display it on the refrigerator door so everyone could see your work. This desire for recognition as adults continues. Emotionally we still want our work to be put up on display. So it’s important that you have a clear process for evaluating and recognizing (promoting) people and you communicate it. This can easily motivate ‘A’ players. Also understand this will not connect with 80% of people. This is what I mean by being on message.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Old Chinese Proverb
Many years ago I was working with a multi-level company in Atlanta, Georgia and one day I was working with a fairly new canvasser. In the neighborhood we were canvassing at the time, we didn’t have a lot of contacts so we had a lot of time to talk. In that time, he told me of his goal to someday own his own office (becoming an owner was the ultimate goal sold to people in the recruitment for this company). He was new and at entry level and the next step would be running his own canvassing crew. He knew he was at entry level, but he was able to describe with clarity what he needed to do to go from canvasser, to field manager, then to an office manager and to ownership. The company had done an excellent job of communicating not only the path to success for this canvasser, but also the steps he needed to take to get there. For him, his goal was to own his own office. He knew to get there, to that goal, was he needed to knock on 100 doors every day, to present to 25 prospects to have the opportunity to make the sales numbers he needs. Everyday activity that builds towards the ultimate goal. Never underestimate how communicating this not only in your recruiting, but in your daily management can affect your key players. Always be selling the opportunity and recognition available to your people. You’ve heard me say before that recruiting is marketing. Ask yourself what is marketable to your people.
On a bigger, more personal level for you as the manager when you have a clearly defined evaluation and promotional process it will get you out of managing people and into managing a system. When you manage the system, it will manage the people.
A simple model to follow for evaluation and promotion can be set up based on 3 areas:
- Performance
- Behavior
- Attitude
If you don’t have clear steps for evaluating and promoting your people you must take the time to define these. Lock yourself in a room if you must, but you have to have these clearly defined first so you can communicate them. If you want help defining and establishing these, you can always reach out to me for help.
You must establish bare minimum standards and your promotional standards. In addition, the time period within which they have to meet these standards and to what level they’ll be promoted.
In summary you define your entry-level:
- Grading period
- Minimum standards
- Promotional standards
If people don’t make the grade within your definition, then you have clear measure and reason for letting them go. It’s not personal, it’s business and because you have a process you’re managing the system and not people. (If you’re not sure how to identify these steps or standards I can help you develop these.)
It’s easy to evaluate people on the number of leads and appointments they get, but this can be limiting in developing people, especially at the entry level. As the manager you want people to advance into higher leadership roles, not necessarily management roles, but leadership roles in order to lessen the burden on you.
In addition to the performance evaluations, there also are character evaluations you make. You want people you can count on!
I’ve developed a spreadsheet that defines and tracks the standards to take the unknowns out of the system. I share this tool with members and private clients to help them define the process and help quantify the different steps through the ranks.
As your department grows, you as the manager, cannot physically train every person. You have to have a system that allows you to grow people, but also develop ‘star’ people as leaders to be able to mentor and coach others through your process and system. You need the people who can walk with new hires, someone they can see and model their behavior and performance after. You need a system that will allow you to multiply yourself and your efforts. You build a team and momentum by developing people to replace you.
When you develop a strategic and systematic approach to evaluation and promotion you create a system that allows you to develop and advance people up through the ranks of your department and put it on a path to grow and become more profitable.
If you’re a Silver Level Member, or higher, you have access to additional resources through the Canvass King member website. For more immediate help and guidance, you can reach out to me to schedule a call. Simply email me at cthompson@canvassking.com.
I remain committed to your canvassing success,
Chris Thompson – The Canvass King