The idea of building your team is often described as “sponsoring” or “recruiting” people into our coaching business opportunity. We would like to introduce a new term, and with that, a new mindset of the experience we create for someone when we are helping them explore whether coaching is for them. That term is “enrollment”.
Sponsoring and recruiting both imply something we do with people. The term sponsor often implies we are responsible for their success. The term recruit has been around for centuries and implies the act of signing someone up. In the case of coaching, we believe the best way to build a team is to act as a trusted advisor by helping someone go through the discovery process of what being a coach means. Then emotionally enrolling them into the possibilities, commitments, and partnership that happens when they join the team. When you learn how to truly “enroll” people, you will discover that you have built a team of strong members.
So how do you enroll great coaches to your team? Here’s a simple five step process. Get out your notebook and answer the questions to complete each step. Put them together and learn to have great enrollment conversations with confidence and ease.
Step One: Identify who is team member might be?
+ What type of Coach do you want to surround yourself with?
+ Describe their characteristics & personality. Consider her background, what they’ve been through.
+ Define what matters most to them, what they cares about.
+ Think about their needs and desires. How do they want to feel?
+ A year from now, having locked arms together with these coaches, what would people say or notice about this team?
Step Two: Create a vision for being a coach, and for the team you want to build.
+ Describe what you are setting out to do.
+ What is your dream for your team?
+ Explain why that matters so much to you.
+ Know why you choose Beachbody to support your dream.
Step Three: Identify your weak links and learn how to share them.
+ List everything you think might be a weakness or flaw
+ List everything you think you might need to apologize for
+ List your fears or concerns
+ List what you think might be missing in your business
Step Four: The Invitation; how to start the discovery process with someone.
+ Acknowledge you’re both busy “I promised myself”
+ Share your common ground, How do you know each other
+ Why them? What do you notice, admire, see, or feel about them that you admire and respect
+ Briefly share the vision or purpose you have for being a coach
+ Extend the invitation to come do this with you
+ Set up the Conversation to explore whether it might be a fit for them
Step Five: The Conversation; how to enroll them in the idea of what’s possible.
+ “Thank you. If nothing else, my hope is that we figure out what’s best for you right now”
+ Tell them why you specifically invited them (compliment)
+ Tell them your vision for what you want to do together
+ Tell them what is missing (weak links)
+ Acknowledge your common ground; Your Story = Their Story; how are they similar
+ Share what is possible with them; “What if this could…”
COMPLETING THE CONVERSATION
I believe we can be better together; STILL, an important part of this journey is what we believe; Can we do this? Will it be worth it?
Here’s what I want you to know:
+ I am going to do this, and I don’t want to do it alone.
+ Here’s why I thought of you…
+ We’ll continue to add awesome coaches to the group as we grow.
+ If nothing else…I’m grateful that you’ve been open to it.
+ Would you like to be a part of what we’re doing?
So let’s think about this:
+ What income would make a difference for you?
+ If you had a way to make that happen, how many hours would you be willing to invest to build something significant?
+ How long would you be willing to work toward that goal?
Here’s one of many stories about enrolling people with ease:
When I first launched my coaching business, I had a small list of 14 names. One of them was my great friend Judi. She was someone I truly admired and had been wildly successful as a real estate agent for many years. We were just launching the Beachbody coach network and had no tools or history of proof this was going to work. Here’s how my conversation with Judi unfolded.
Text: “Hi Judi, it’s Milan…I’m up to something interesting and I want to bounce it off you if you have some time tomorrow”
Invitation Call: “Thanks for hearing me out. Listen, we’ve both been super successful in our careers and I’ve always admired how good you are with people. You know I’ve struggled with putting myself first and I’ve been looking for a way to make that happen. I’m teaming up with a company that I think has some good ideas to help people get healthy and fit. Something I know we’ve both wanted. The truth is…It has a terrible name [It was "Million Dollar Body" at the time]…and I honestly don’t know the details of their game plan. We are just getting it off the ground and there’s a lot of things to figure out. But…all challenges aside, I can’t help but wonder what the two of us could do together. Are you open to having a conversation about what we could do with it?” “Great, does tomorrow work? We meet up or grab some tea and jump on a video conference?”
Enrollment Conversation Example: (1) “Thanks for exploring this with me. I know I didn’t tell you much about what I’m doing and the fact that you said yes anyway meant a lot to me. So thanks for trusting me like that. (2) I’ve always admired how disciplined you are with staying connected to people and how your advice to me has always been spot on. You have a mind for business and a way with people that totally speaks to why you’ve been so successful in your career. I guess that’s why I thought of you when I started looking for something I could pour my heart into. (3) After years in the corporate world, I’ve wanted to find a way to take better care of myself, and show other people how they can too. There’s a company I’ve found who is doing some great things in helping people get healthy. The name is a little off putting, but what they’re building is pretty amazing. You’ve probably seen some of their stuff on late night TV, because up until now, they’ve just been a company that sells fitness programs on infomercials. It’s call Beachbody, and some of their programs are P90X, Insanity, or 21-day Fix. Have you heard of them? (LISTEN)
About ten years ago they created a business opportunity that connects their customers to someone who helps them get results. It’s grown like crazy and is now going into international markets. I can send you some links to learn more about that. (4) As it stands right now, I’m just getting my mind wrapped around what I want to do with this. I love the idea of having a business where the number one success factor is that I need to take good care of myself. But…I don’t want to do this alone. The company is going through a major IT upgrade and things are a little bumpy right now. We’ve just launched into the U.K. and I know they are figuring out how to add some new products next year. It’s all new to me, but I have some fun ideas and I’d love to hear yours. Most importantly, I can’t ignore the idea of doing this together with you. Which is why I wanted to see if you’re open to exploring this. (5) We’ve both been successful in the past, we share an entrepreneurial spirit, we both love working with people, and we both talk about taking better care of ourselves. (6) What if we could come up with a way to lock arms and do something really awesome together? Your talents and my skills combined might lead to building something we’re really proud of. I know it’s not going to be easy…but it could be fun and really worth giving it our best. Are you open to exploring it with me? What are your thoughts so far? Is there anything about this that interests you?
The idea of having successful enrollment conversations by being straight forward, telling them your reasons, your weaknesses, and your desire to work with them changes the experience for the person you’re enrolling. You aren’t selling them on being a “Coach”, you are enrolling them in doing something great together. You’re inviting them into your vision for what’s possible and attaching it to their hopes and needs right now. This is not about convincing or recruiting…it’s about being a trusted advisor who is having a discovery conversation with someone they respect and admire. You go into these conversations with no attachment to the outcome. They simply decide based on what you explore together. Who knows, the idea of being a coach might not fit, but their desire to get healthier might cause them to join your customer group. Or, maybe they say "no thanks" but respect your approach and openly offer to refer people to you. The goal is to have them experience you at your best. Open, honest, and curious about how you can best help them.
Why this way of enrollment works so well?
+ You have a confident invitation process which increases your desire to have these conversations
+ You master these conversations by having them, and you get better every time
+ You already know people you would love to have on your team, now you can have conversations with ease
+ You naturally attract the right team members when you are clear and confident with enrolling people
+ You start to notice the right people for your team as you move about your life
TODAY'S TASK
Pick 3 people to have this conversation with. For real…or just as practice. It doesn’t matter. Just take a leap with courage and learn how to create conversations that make the enrollment experience fun and rewarding.