You should have a territory picked out to work the night before. If you have a car, you are set. Make sure your car is clean so as not to disgust your day of O. If you donāt have a car, then you should make sure there is room and have a ride in advance before the morning meeting. You should not keep a new applicant waiting for any time at all in the morning. As a leader you should always be bugging the manager to train. If you have been making ok money, and being a good guy to make atmosphere and impacts happen, then you should be given a day of observation by your manager. Especially if you made good money the day before.

After the morning meeting, the leaders all go in the office to meet with the manager. This is when the manager will get mean if something needs to get corrected. He will usually never lose his cool in front of the new people. So if the office looks sloppy, or not enough people are in pitch circles, or a new guy ran out of territory and then went into someone elseās and ruined another new persons day -- this is where it gets brought up. Leaders that are doing well get complimented and maybe some important news about campaigns are gone over. Then people are picked to get the Day of O.

There is a lot of controversy over what is and what is not said to a day of observation. Any manager I have worked with has always made it clear to a person that the day is unpaid and that it is a full day. But I worked mainly with Cydcor and more professionalism was needed. In clearance, where there are no fortune 500 companies that could be upset, I have heard horror stores where an ad for a ware house worker is posted, and then wham bam the poor guy finds himself on a day of observation! Anyway, the candidate gets a chance to evaluate the company and the leader is to evaluate them FOR the company. They are usually told to wear comfortable shoes. It is just hell for a leader to get a day of observation that is a woman wearing high heals! They always get blisters and usually canāt walk after half the day. Such women usually say that they had no idea to where comfortable shoes or that they did hear to where comfortable shoes but did not take it seriously and wanted to look professional with the heals. (But that does not help you because now they are sitting on a bench massaging there blister while your law of averages to a sale is being taken away!)

When you meet a day of o you should be very pleasant, smile and automatically take control. You take the attitude that YOU are evaluating them and that they have to impress you! (Because if you donāt they will walk all over you!) Make sure they are parked in a good area; make sure they understand that it IS for a full day. Off you go. So you are in the car now and it is time to prepare them for the negatives of going door to door. You let them know that there you have been given an area to cover. That it is too hard to set up appointments with everyone. People are not there, or are busy and you could not possible meet everyone at the appointed time. So all you will do is walk in, see if anyone is interested in what you have and if not -- go. This is not a time to press for people to buy. You can explain the law of averages. IE Explain that you are going to see maybe one hundred doors today and that maybe only 5 people will sign up for what you have. My point is -- you want to get this guy prepared to go door to door and to take the pressure off of yourself. This guy is now not expecting to see a sale -- so the pressure is off you.

If the day of O asks about compensation you defer it to later. I usually said that that was a question for the manager in the final interview. You donāt want to talk about money until you have made some sales.

You should ask a whole bunch of questions to the day of o. Find out what he likes and dislikes. What he is motivated for or running away from? If it is an older guy -- talk about management. If it is a kid talk about learning and growth. If the guy hates being in a cubicle then promote the fresh air. If she likes international business talk about how many countryās ds-max is in.

Now you go through the day. The person does not have to speak -- just to watch. You go through the day. Hopefully you will make a few sales by lunch. You buy the day of o lunch out of your own pocket. It is then that you can let the day of o know how much money you have made (I liked to make sure I had at least 60 dollars). If you feel a rapport going -- tell them to write down the 5 and 8 and let them know about the quiz before the interview. (I used to have fun with this! I loved watching them freak out and scramble to remember everything I said) Finish the day. Hopefully you will make at least one hundred dollars. At the end of the day you go back to office and have a chat. If you mutually like each other you can promise to try and get the person hired tonight. Before the person goes to meet the manager you need to know two things 1) will they start the next day and 2) will they give this one hundred percent. You take their number, seat them in the lobby to take the quiz and then go talk with the manager, You tell the manager that you want them and then usher them in. They get hired and then you see them off! THAT NIGHT it is critical that you call the person at home to congratulate them. They will go home and face the negatives of their family. May be the boyfriend will flip, or maybe his Mom will get upset. This is your time to turn around all that. (If it happens) All you do is call and say "hey X I just wanted to let you know that I had a great time working with you today and that I am looking forward to working with you tomorrow. If some one is pressuring them to quit they will usually bring it up there. If not they will thank you and you will hang up and that is that.

Now I will mention some reality here! It can be a mental and physical struggle to keep a day of observation with you the whole day! Many leave leaders standing in the parking lot! Some will leave right when you get into the field. Then you have to come back and drop them off! Remember how I mentioned before how important it is to let them know that it will be a full day -- before you leave? Some will suddenly remember a doctorās visit; some will flat out say they wonāt do door to door. Some will call a family member to pick them up; others will catch a bus. Some will high tail it away from you to another job interview. Some guys will not take a person back. They say -- hey I said it was a whole day and you knew that up front. Iāll get you at the McDonaldās at the end of the day. Some leaders will give a guy bus fare back to the office. It can be a particularly trying experience on a person to try and close someone if you did make a sale that day. I have done it! But more often than not -- that is the end of the story. And the reality is -- many day of observations that get hired -- will just never show up again the next day.

Now on to retraining. I always like to say there are 3 types. There is a full day, a half-day and a check up day. Retraining makes a person a stronger merchandiser. You teach a stranger how to follow the 5 and 8. You come to realize that it must be followed exactly and that you canāt cheat it. That if you teach a person the 5 and 8 -- they will make money.

The full day is for a new person or someone who is on a serious slump. Atmosphere saves you here. Make sure your guy learns as much of the pitch as possible. Especially for a first day person -- take the pressure off. Say "I donāt care if we donāt make any sales today -- this is a learning day for you. You saw me do well yesterday right? Well now we need to take some time today to get you up to my level or better -- ok?" Ideally it should be you who trains your guy on his first day. Who can you trust more? This is the most critical day for a new guy and you want to make sure that he learns right. You pitch most of the morning. Then slowly start to get them to do some of the five steps. Have them do the introduction -- then you jump in with the short story. Then have them get farther and farther. You must teach them the pitch, and also to interact. They should be smiling, they should know how to answer questions, to learn to engage the people in conversations. You should teach the people to relax and just have fun. A rep that is in a bad mood or under pressure will not be received well by people in the field. Some reps will be ready to go after just a bit. Others will need a full day retrain again the next day. Having a person being able to go alone also depends on what type of campaign it is. Something complicated like AT&T where you are looking at phone bills -- you need the guy by you more. Something easy like clearance -- come on! But also, the new person needs to learn how to have a great attitude from the leader. New people learn not get offended by rude people and just walk away, to turn rebuttals around. And work ethic! You have to hustle and see a lot of doors with a retrain because they may not work as hard with out you to motivate them. At the end of the day, if they have not already, try and have them do a few doors alone. A lot of bonding can come on retrains. You give of yourself to a stranger to help them succeed. Plus you are both going door to door and in that kind of environment -- you just never know what is going to happen next. You hire a guy -- teach them -- watch them grow and go on their own. You feel like a parent. So when they toast -- it hurts. You should not show that it hurts. Officially you should promote that that is just helped your law of averages to help you getting people that will stick. But that is not how you really feel. You always wonder how they are or what they are doing. (Not with all of them of course -- just the ones that believed in you, that stayed with you the longest, that you bonded with.) Often enough a person will not show up after a first day retrain after you have paid them! This hurts. Usually you are the one that makes the money on a first day retrain and you are paying them for learning.

And then to not have them come again! You feel cheated. You wind up wishing that you had never hired them! At least you could understand it if it was a day when no money was made. But after a profitable day! Now you start to learn that you have to try and be careful about whom you hire, and that guys may tell you one thing but may be doing another. You chalk it up as a learning experience and as law of averages and you move on.

The second type of retrain now. This is for a second or third day person -- some one who can do the pitch but still needs to get in the flow. This will mainly be an observation retrain for you. You will spend half the day doing doors together, and then continually meet up in the afternoon. The person will pitch the first 5 or so doors and all you will do is watch and not say anything. You evaluate. It is amazing how much you can learn about a person by just shutting up and giving them your full attention. If the person is doing fine -- great. If not -- then let them know what they need to do. Is the short story before the introduction? Are they letting a person ask something or roboticly continuing on with the presentation? Is there eye contact or lack of a smile? Are they fidgeting? They can now watch you pitch a little. It is best to separate once they make a sale. For the second part of the day keep meeting up after every few doors. You need to be sure that the person still has a great attitude and has not had some negative experience that has made them want to quit. People can be quite nasty to door to door sales people -- and this person is new and may not have reflexes on what to say or how to act.

The third type of retrain. This is just to check up on a person. This person is on their own. Generally you want to go out with a guy on you crew after there first day, the first week, first month and then just every once in a while. Many offices have team days on Mondays where everyone is teamed up. Make sure they are doing and saying everything correctly. Are they skipping doors? Not saying restrictions? Are they smoking in front of customers? Do the first few doors together and meet up every 30 to 45 minutes through out the day. Every once in a while do some doors together. Have fun.

I know it may seem incomprehensibly cruel to some people, but some leaders do not spend any time in doors with their retrains. Some leaders will just tell the person that they will meet up at the end of the day. Maybe they will take the time to listen to a pitch or two. It is very important to send out some with a leader that you trust! I have spent a good deal of time here explaining how a retrain can be done. Often enough it is not just followed. The new rep will usually not come back after a day of such treatment.

Paying a retrain. I always wanted to make sure that a guy earned at least 40 dollars. Hopefully they make the money on their own! But guess what -- if they didnāt -- then you had better kick in! I always felt it was a matter of pride to make sure that a guy I took out made money that day. Often enough, If we did not make money, I would pay the guy money from what I had out of my pocket. Some people evenly split the earnings of a day. I usually did that -- but I rarely sent a retrain home with over 100 dollars if it was I doing all the work. It is up to a leader to decide what he will pay a retrain. A good owner will have standards in his office. There are leaders out there who will not pay a new guy. If a new guy of yours is set up with such a character -- you need to be on the ball and make sure your guy get some money! After all -- you will be expected to pay that leaders new guy if you take him out -- right?

I would like to add that it can get pretty interesting when you have to take out a day of observation AND a retrain at the same time. I have always hated taking out a first day retrain and a day of O. They are both so new and you canāt leave them alone together or they might talk together and get each other to quit. This means you canāt go to the bathroom all day. Because after you come back -- they greet you with that silence -- and you know that you wonāt see either of them the next day. If you find out that you are taking a day of O and a retrain at once you must think quick. You have to find your retrain and pull him aside QUICK before you get introduced to the day of o. You have to tell your retrain that he is not to answer the new guyās questions, that that is your job. MAKE THAT CLEAR! A retrain thinks they know everything and starts to do a leaders job and can toast a day of observation quicker than snap crackle pop. Then I like to make it clear to the retrain that most of my attention will be focused on them. This day of observation has not even made a commitment yet and you donāt even know if you want to work with them; But that the retrain HAS already committed and that that is more important to you.

Now on to crew building. Based on the number of day of observations you take out, some will stay. You could go through a spell that last months of not having a crew. Or you might be the type that never loses one. You might always just have a few people and never grow from there.

You should always keep track of your crewās production. If any on your crew are near a bonus for hitting a weekly goal, you should try and motivate them to hit it. You also need to know this so that you can help them to earn more money if they are not earning anything. To help them by getting them on a retrain or in with a talk with the manager or what ever. When your crew is new you always want to make sure they are with your self or a trusted leader in atmosphere. A negative person might influence your guy to quit. You should be setting up your guyās retrain with the manager before the meeting. You should train them the most -- but it is good for them to see the style of another leader that you trust. Then you can return the favor to the leader another time. It might happen that you have two new people starting at once. You should only try and do one retrain at a time - but some people can handle it! I could not. The retrains just would not get the attention they need from me. I know this from painful experience. Sometimes you are in an office and you can not trust any of the other leaders with your guy. Some might be lechers, or on a slump, or have bad work ethic. You donāt want to have your second day retrain out in the field with a leader that will get stoned at lunch!!! This has happened to me! Of course I only found out after the fact -- days later! Other times -- everyone will refuse to take out your guy. This might be because they are on slumps, or have court or what ever. But this really hurts if you were the guy that helped retrain them or one of their guys!

You are to be in atmosphere when your guys come in the morning and when they return from the field at night. You are to be there to see if there is anything wrong with their attitudes, to make sure they settle up, have a territory, understand the campaign and go over their goals.

At least once a week you should try and have crew meeting. It can be before or after work. I preferred after work at a pizza hut. At these meeting you try and go over goals and get people to want to be leaders with out looking like you are ramming it down their throats. Getting a crew meeting together can be like pulling hair! They are already coming to two atmospheres, a day in the field and a morning meeting and now this? But you do not want to be seen as the leader in the office that is not getting with his guys, does not have a crew name, a crew poster and is not excited about getting to the top!

Once a week there are leaders meetings. And after the morning meeting, the leaders go in the managerās office to meet with him. These are the time to bring up if you think that you have a guy who is near leadership! All the leaders and the manager should then work on trying to get this guy to want to get a head by desperately striving for leadership. This will be done by constantly promoting the benefits of ownership and being a VP to this guy. He will be encouraged to ask all the leaders and the owner how to succeed in the business. If all goes well he will get promoted as long as he is making ok money and keeps a great attitude. If your guy hires on people you should try and help him retrain. After all, they will not count as your first generation, but their production counts in your crew production. And if your leader quits, his first generation guys will now be your first generation.

Every Sunday, you need to call your crew. Why? They have the weekend to think about quitting! You need to make sure you have a crew come Monday morning! You donāt make it long. "You just call and say Hi X, this is Y. Just wanted to wish you a good weekend! How are you? Well I am looking forward to seeing you tomorrow! Have a good night! Bye! " You all just have no idea how well this works! You might have a girl swearing she will never darken the office door again -- but then that call will get her in for another week and help your owner pay his rent.

Here is a summary of crew building. You hire them. You get them set up on retrains until they are ready to go on their own. You watch over them like big brother in atmosphere. You record production. You always make sure that leadership and success in ds-max is promoted that the pitch is gone over, and that they are participating in the chanting. When ready, you get them to beg for leadership from all other leaders and the owner. You have weekly crew meetings and call them on Sundays. You help your leaders build their crew and treat their guys like they are your own -- that goes with all of your generations -- be it 2nd, 3rd, 4th or whatever.

And now for a little reality. I have been through many crews. Some guys last years, others for just a day or a week. You can never tell off the bat who will stay and who will toast. You always need to monitor your crew. You need to make sure they are not hanging out with bad people in the office. There are some cases where a person will build a big crew, get negged out, quit, and get the whole crew to quit with them. Some will identify with another leader in the office besides you. They will still be on your crew, but in heart really be with another leader. And the reverse is true. I have been through both situations. It is important to have good working relationships with the other leaders so that you can help each other out is situations like this. A real slap in the face for me was to have a guy get fired. Managers are willing to make money off of just about anybody as long as they treat others with respect and represent the campaigns accurately. When someone I hired was fired for those reasons I took it personally. Leaders get desperate to build crews and they hope that guys will act like they should. This is not always the case. One guy I had fraudulently signed up non-existent customers on new campaign! Another guy I adopted could not be trusted to act with any kind of professionalism around a female! A second generation guy I had was rude to customers -- forcing them to sign up for AT&T services they did not want and he doctored applications to make it look they ordered things they never wanted! There are no background checks with Ds-max affiliated offices. With the amount of turnaround and recruiting that they do -- how could they possibly afford it? Bad guys do get discovered -- but only after they hurt some one or some thing. On the flip side -- there are a good deal of owners out there who will not fire a guy that is a bad apple if he is making good money! It takes courage to fire a guy if he is paying half of your rent! Some guys will quit on you because their loved ones might complain or for the hours or because they are not making any money. But crews do get built. How else could the company have spread around the world?