Shouldn’t your MLM help you get more out of life?
“I can’t tell you how much time and money I wasted on trying to sponsor at the exclusion of all else. No wonder everyone on the call was so impressed with your message! I only wish I would have heard your excellent advice a year ago.” Sharon A.
If you’re like Sharon, reflect and see if your company (and sponsor) offer you (at least) these three things…
1. They show you two ways to make money in the business:
- Bring in recruits who buy product (you earn a percent of their purchase and sometimes, a one-time fast start bonus)
- Bring in customers who buy product for their own use, and who do NOT sell the product. You earn a percent of what they buy.
If all they focus on is recruiting, you might end up like Sharon. Fewer than 1 in 100-300 people want to do ANY kind of sales. Everyone is a customer of stuff. Silly to pretend everyone will want the opportunity.
2. For bringing in customers (who do NOT sell it) make sure they pay you AT LEAST 10% of whatever the customer pays, dollar for dollar. Use the best customer prices available to calculate your 10%. I mean just customers. Like what you are of say your cable TV service. You don’t also sell that. OK?
3. Run from any company or sponsor that insists ‘everyone’ will want the product or opportunity. Do not be bamboozled into accosting everyone you know or meet. You’ll end up in the NFL – no friends left – as they say in the business.
Remember it’s YOUR friends and connections you’re losing. Nobody cares but you.
The curse of ‘everyone.’
There is no product everyone wants. Much less a business opportunity. Recruiters and companies have long taken advantage of the ignorance of people who have never been in business before, like most new MLMers.
Find a company and sponsor that shows you how to find the folks who WILL want your product or business because they share the same values. Learn to ask for referrals so you don’t lose your friends. See how in Friends, Lies and Network Marketing here. (Free download.)
Any other criteria you think are critical to an MLM making someone’s life better than it was before? Use the Comments below…No need to sign in.
Well said Kim. It is shocking how many MLM or Network marketing top guns are misleading regular honest people by saying that this is not selling but sharing. And if you show even the slightest doubt about the veracity of what they (near gods in their own eyes) are saying they quickly make you look like someone who is a dangerous poison to be gotten rid of. The even sadder part is that the regular folks do want to believe the lie and blindly follow the top gun and make you an outcast.
Here's what I want to add after reading the manifesto.
You have to do more than communicate with your prospect. If you don't communicate with them, you'll get a definite no.
If you delivered a product to them, their life has to be better after they've used the product. We don't know if the product will work for them or not, so if the shoe doesn't fit, don't sell the pair. They'll just wind up bringing it back if you force it down their throat and most likely, they'll be upset with you because you sold them something that didn't work and wasted their time.
If you told your prospect that you'll deliver what they're asking for, deliver it. Don't promise anything if you can't deliver because they will never trust you again. First impression is absolutely important if you need to acquire a customer because a lost one is hard to replace.
Just as Kim said in her manifesto, focus on what they want. If you have a solution to their problem, provide it for them. If you don't, help them find that solution. I want to add this. The only way you succeed in any business is if you solve their problem, whether they buy from you or you referred them to another product.
If there's a 5 percent success rate in network marketing/mlm (whichever you want to call it), don't necessarily follow that group because as said in the manifesto, their methods fit their personality and not necessarily yours. Thus, I would say that there's less than 5 percent success rate. This is not McDonald's (they've been established enterprise long before you're in network marketing).
You have to develop a system that works for you and for those who work with you, you may have to help them develop their system that speaks their language, not yours. This may solve the problem of the blind leading the blind.
Continuous constructive feedback from others is an absolute must to ensure that your business system is well oiled.
Sidney
http://sid.fm/benefits
Kim –
While waiting for my doctor I caught a bit of some morning talk show. They were talking about Pampered Chef and what a great opportunity it was.
I was so turned off and shocked when a rep for the company said "the product sells itself"!!!! And, for only $100 something you can start your own business by contacting all your friends and family. And, she said anyone can do it!
One of the ladies that work on the talk show has been a rep for 10 years and bragged about making $100,000 a year from her business. What the average Mom or Dad doesn't see is that this gal in the TV business and has a totally different group of contacts than everyday folks do. She has done two home parties each week for 10 years to get the $100,000 a year.
I'm no longer in MLM. I am still marketing a product I love. I am doing it based on Kim's teaching. Let me say there is no stress and marketing is fun now. I know not everyone cares about my product and many people still think One-A-Day vitamins are fine and helping them. I don't stess over it and will offer them a report Are Vitamins Safe? I don't try to convince anyone because what is important to me doesn't always matter to others.
Robin
WholeFoodandMore.com
MLM and the BORG
Great advice… however, there is a problem. What I have found is that people are almost brainwashed in their companies. Little robots who hear nothing, see nothing, want nothing to do with any other perspective but that which they have been assimilated into.
They say, "But I am helping people with a Plan B." Oh really? How many people are losing money instead of making it? Then the 'justification' comes in the form of, "The just don't want to change their lives enough to work for it." Wow… a disgrace really.
I have been on both sides of the fence. A company that used direct sales to bring products to the market and a company that had products only to be legal. One was all about a mission, the other was all about the money. Both missing the picture.
The truth is that this industry should be all about the people within it. Both companies missed this mark.
What I gained from my experiences was far more powerful than knowledge… it was understanding.
The question now becomes for me, "What's next?" Dare I step back into the industry in seek of the passive leveraged income that I so desire? And if so… can I keep my grasp on my new found understanding? Can I retain my individuality… or is resistance futile?
When it comes to advice about MLM, this post is as good and as condensed as I've ever read.
I would encourage those who are newbies to print it out and read it over and over again, until you know it in your knower.
Paul
Eat Well. Live Well.
PurpleGreenPops.com