That’s always the question isn’t it? Whenever we know we have to 1) have faith, put in 2) time, 3) effort and 4) money before seeing any results?
Here’s today’s answer, Part I. (Oh and yes, please try this at home.)
“Well, Lulu, do you mean “make it” as in earning a certain amount of money? Say $5,000/mo? Or $300 extra/mo?”
“YES. I need to replace my income. Right now, that’s $4,000/mo. Can I do that?”
It is possible, yes. Let me tell you what you have to do, then you tell me if you think you’re up for it, ok?
1. This is a sales-type business. Like real estate. As in any commission sales business, the sky’s the limit. You can make as much as you want, because you are creating your own income. Plus in NM, you earn a piece of the efforts of others, too.
That’s the good part. Now here’s the tricky part.
2. To make even one dime with this, you have to bring in product orders: customer orders and recruit orders. The company pays you a percent of all the orders you bring in. The percents are different depending on where you are in the pay plan, but imagine for now that you get 10% of all orders you bring in. OK?
You want to replace $4,000/mo. Bring in $40,000 in orders and they’ll pay you that. 10% of $40,000 is $4,000. Each month you do that, they pay you $4,000. To make $300/mo, you bring in $3,000 in orders/mo. Bring in $100,000 and get $10,000. See how that works?
That’s why they say “unlimited income” – because you can bring in as many orders as you want. The company will never say no to more orders. So the more you bring in each month, the more they pay you. It’s a percent of all the money you (and your babies) bring in (in orders).P.S. One big advantage of this type of business over say real estate sales, is that many customers are repeat customers, so some of that monthly income comes from repeat orders. That’s a BIG reason this business model is so cool, to me.
End of Part I.
What if Lulu hears this, and says:
“Oh, I can’t sell.”
“I don’t know anyone.”
“I’m too shy.”
Is Lulu ready for the real world of marketing? Marketing, where gurus like Seth Godin tell us our marketing approaches to people need to be “remarkable” i.e. worth remarking upon?
I for one, am still working on THAT part. Sigh.
So yes, you could do therapy; or tell Lulu it’s not selling, it’s “sharing”; or offer other self-help programs.
But if Lulu says those things, after hearing your answer (in green above), is she ready to do a network marketing business?
This is not just a moral question. It’s also about 1) how you want to spend your time and 2) how long you want to wait to earn income as a result of Lulu’s efforts with you. Different strokes for different folks – at different points on the path…
Results so far here.
Part II tomorrow, I hope.
Sure, I’d sign her up. But I’d tell her she’d be a fool to put all her eggs into this basket.
That doesn’t mean I’d sign up anyone.
I once had a guy sitting in my livingroom ready to hand over $500. He was out of a job. His plan was to sell the high-end skin care door-to-door. I told him to keep his money and focus on finding a job.
Walter Reade (from Wisconsin)
I would probably recommend that she not sign up as a rep and just become a customer instead. Unless she is placing a really large order, in which case it’s worth it for her to sign up as a rep just to get her own product at wholesale. Then she’s happy about getting the best price and I’m not frustrated by her not living up to the dreams I had for her. If she knows she’s buying her product at a huge discount, she is more likely to stick with it. And you never know, she may end up talking to her friends about it anyway when she becomes a “raving fan” customer.
Michele
http://www.GoodHealthMadeSimple.com
http://www.Michele.NetworkMarketingCentral.com
I like Michele’s answer.
I would not be anxious to sign Lulu up. There are only so many hours in the day. Teaching her would take too much time. In addition, the likelyhood of her jumping out is still high no matter how much time I spend teaching her.
Greg Cryns
http://www.wahmsearchengine.com
http://www.workathomeprofiles.com
I would have her try my product or service for a couple of months and see if she “loved it madly”.
She’s not ready to sell herself – even with the plain English explanation of what it would take – at least not right now.
As a part-timer who is still really only getting paid on his own efforts and those of maybe one other (who is in the learning phase and has some customer sales, thanks Kim!), despite personally sponsoring over 25 people (many of whom would have probably run away from this line of questioning on what it really takes, showing me that they should not have been sponsored at all)…I am sick of the quitters and really only want to invest in those who are not scared by such things. As I believe Walter said in another post, the ideal person will actually treat this like a business, complete with some amount of capital to invest in marketing, like in Kim’s original ad for her start-up.
When I ask myself why I’m still doing the business after 3+ years (I earn hundreds a month, every month, but certainly not full-time income), it boils down to familiar things with many of you: love the company and products, love seeing how I have helped people with my company’s products, and honestly would go nuts without something that lets me grow my income on my own, in addition to my salaried job. 😉
Even my upline has remarked to me that they are amazed I have stuck with it, that many people would not have stayed through the first couple years to even build up to what I have. What can I say, I’m stubborn. 🙂 And I’m sick of the flighty types, I’m looking for current professionals (I’m an engineer with a MBA) who are willing to take a risk and stick by it until it makes it, period. Maybe a bit snobby to only look for professionals? Perhaps, but that’s part of my ad plans. 🙂
This is probably an instance for the “Say no first” approach. You could say, “Well, Lulu, I really appreciate your being honest with me. But, let me ask you, “If we could teach you those things, do you think you could learn?” If she still says no, then it’s time to Say No First and say, “Lulu, I really appreciate your time and if you don’t feel you could learn with our help, then this business probably isn’t for you, and that’s OK. We love our customers too. So why don’t we set you up as a Preferred Customer and you can have your product shipped to you automatically every month. Isn’t that easy?
However, if she says, “Well, I guess I could try to learn.” Then I would suggest that she join me on some of the calls on leads that I’m going to be making this week. By listening to what I say, you’ll know if this is something you feel you could do.
It doesn’t take any extra time if you were going to be making the calls anyway. And, what I find is when people listen to how I mainly have a very friendly and fun conversation with people, they often realize it’s not as impossible as they might have thought. Or, they’ll listen and say, “I’m sorry, but I could never do that.” In that case, you say, “I understand completely, and we love our customers too. Let’s just set you up for your product purchase on auto……..etc.
Then, if she really wants to learn, she could read Kim’s books or listen to tapes or spend some time on the web site.
What I will NOT do is chase her or try to drag her over the finish line.
JUDY MARSHALL
http://www.JudyMarshallTravel.com
I would not sign her up at this point in my business. I must admit
I would have given her a try and tried my best to encourage her to do all the things I was told to do to grow her business.
Now with the qualifing process thatI use she would not be a person I would sign up. She would be one less attrition in the ratings.
lshields
This is a sales business and she just said she can’t sell. It’s not a fit for me or her.
I would ask her if she wanted to try the product. She wouldn’t need to sign up as a rep to get the best price. Who knows maybe she would love it, have results she was hoping for and start to recommend it to others. I would be more than happy to have her refer others to me.
I will work with the people who like to sell and really want to do network marketing. I can tell the others, “this is probably not the right thing for you because your success depends on selling product and maybe building a team of others selling product.”
For me it’s not about how much time it would take for her to learn, it’s just not something she wants to do because it’s sales. Not a fit, at least not right now. I think if I respect others feelings and listen to them they will remember and contact me at some point if they are ready to give it a shot.
Robin
I wouldn’t sign her up yet. I would ask her to sit in on some of our team calls and listen to some trainings before she makes any decisions.
It doesn’t matter to me how long it takes for her to be ready or if she’s never ready. It has to be on her timetable, not mine.
There are only two ways to make money in this business and if she isn’t comfortable selling product or sponsoring people, why set her up for failure? Let her go through the training and then make up her mind.
I would let her sit in on some trainings and realize that there are ways to sell without “selling” (most people think of selling as being a pushy agressive salesperson). Once Lulu realized that our team teaches no pressure ways of selling, she may rethink it.
~Roxanne~
Dear Roxanne, Judy, and Robin,
I couldn’t agree more with all of your posts. You all demonstrate great maturity in your thoughtful answers.
Roxanne, everyone is a salesperson. It is just a question of what type of salesperson are you? Selling by attraction is a win/win and yields lots of referrals.
Robin your active consideration of others will shine out to Lulu. When someone has told you “no”, why waste time and efforts trying to contradict their feelings at that time. How often have you heard the old, “we don’t sell, we share” rap. That is almost an insult to most people’s intelligence. Maybe later like you said, especially after she gets a first hand experience with the product.
Judy Marshall said, “What I will NOT do is chase her or try to drag her over the finish line.” That shows great posture and respect for self and business.
In my mind, if I have to convince someone to join my team, then there is not the flame of interest there needed to grow into a passion for what we do. Like Robin said so well, its about the fit. It sure is not one size fits all.
Another point to keep in mind is that your ‘babies’ will mimick what you do. If you enrolled them with begging, pleading, arm twisting, brow-beating, etc. then that is what they will do to their prospects, too. Yuk.
Network Marketing is kind of merging with Internet Marketing. People used to buy leads from online companies, but now they are learning how to generate their own via, Websites, S.E.O. and PPC. These marketing methods allow us to cast a much broader net, therefore we can afford to be highly selective in who we feel is a “keeper”.
Look for the motivated, computer savvy, entrepreneurs unless you like running a daycare center for adults. Yuk again.
Just wanted to say that I really enjoy the brilliant minds that visit this blog, even when they disagree.
To OUR success,
Tom Doiron
Tom,
Thank you and I appreciate your insights.
In reference to your last sentence, I agree. Think of how boring this world would be if we all agreed all of the time. 😉
Disagreements can be healthy and fun at times. Just as long as we don’t dwell too long on them.
~Roxanne~
I have signed up people before who told me some of those same things.
I signed them up because I had a different approach that they could use and they were comfortable. We worked on the rest as we went if they wanted to branch out.
I tried to make sure they understood the time requirements, struggles they would definately face, and let them know that I would be there to help them along the way.
So, yes, I would sign them up if they convinced me THEY really wanted this.
I am not interested in pushing people into network marketing if they aren’t committed. It isn’t fun for either of us and they won’t make the financial rewards they are seeking.
Brenda Bunney
http://MLMSuccessBunney.com
brendab@brightok.net
I think it depends on who it is. If it is a good friend of mine that I would enjoy working with, then I sign him up. That is, after teaching him all that is involved with building a network marketing business.
But if it is someone I don’t know, who say, answered an ad, then I probably will pass and not do any therapy.
But what is good is if you’re with a company that puts an emphasis on making money with customers, then there is no pressure to immediately find business reps. You can ‘casually’ get them as you build your customer base.
Paul Eilers
http://www.PurpleGreenPops.com
I would sign Lulu up with some caveats.
1. Make it clear this is an entrepreneurial opportunity and she has to work, learn, study to build her business.
2. Clarify what selling means – Selling is a supply and demand situation – everyone is selling their product or service, lawyers, hotels, accountants, travel agents.
3. Identify your ideal customer. Decide how to reach them.
4. Decide which method of marketing you want to use. If you are using the internet or a marketing system where people come to you and you don’t have to go out looking for them it makes a huge difference.
5. Have Lulu realize that Rome wasn’t built in a day and if she wants to reprogram her thinking so that selling doesn’t seem so daunting to her she has to learn how to do that and use some of the resourses that are available for that. Juliette Gray http://www.whoisjuliettegray.net