(If recruiting isn’t going as fast as you’d hoped, consider, instead of quitting, building a steady customer base. STEP ONE here. STEP TWO here. STEP THREE here.)
How are your going to speak in your own voice and stand out in a sales business where they tell you to duplicate everyone else?
How will you ever stand out if you say, write and do the same things as everyone else? And no, louder doesn’t work.
STEP 4: Speak in Your Own Voice
One: Ignore everybody for a while. How else can you learn to speak in your own voice?
Two: Go inside and figure out what your voice is, your angle, your style, your little brazenness and weirdness and how you can apply it to your marketing style.
Here’s how Mary Jane did that very successfully with her weight loss product – using morbidly obese as her angle (because that’s who she was). Scroll down to Interview 1 and 2 here.
You must find a way to stand out if you want to be noticed, loved and followed.
“Be a small, ridiculously evolved, very rare and weird fish in a great big pond…Because the Internet is really big, and because you chose a gigantic pond, there will be a fair number of people interested in your topic who also resonate with your particular brand of weirdness. And that weirdness will shine like a little beacon to attract them. More here.
OK ladies, you ready?
P.S. In my experience over the last 20+ years, I’d say we, the women who comprise 80% of the MLM distributor force, have tried hardest to be what we (many of us) think we are supposed to be.
We emulate the men on stage
We try to be like little doctors
We try to be what we think is a good sales person, and parrot the company line about how great the management is, how great the product is, blah blah.
And when that doesn’t work, we go into denial. “Is this sales?” “Oh no! We share!” Or we do catalog sales – we help others – anything but the dreaded “I sell stuff.”
How about we back away, ignore everybody for a while, and learn to speak in our own voice?
One way to start is to find your product hot button. More on that in STEP 5. Your own voice is more than your style as it relates to the products you market. It’s that special part of you which exists with or without the business.
Try out new own voice – tell in the Comments below.
UPDATE. Just read Maureen Dowd’s NY Times column, Nuns’ Story (in case, PDF here). It helps explain why some women have not been more willing to develop, much less speak in, their own voice.
“In 2004, the cardinal who would become Pope Benedict XVI wrote a Vatican document urging women to be submissive partners, resisting any adversarial roles with men and cultivating “feminine values” like “listening, welcoming, humility, faithfulness, praise and waiting.”
Whaa?
Kim,
I think one of the reasons we, in the past for me, have tried to act like men is because it is often the men who are teaching and training.
Sorry men, this is not meant as a bash, and I recognize that we have extreme differences in a lot of areas and need to approach things differently.
We are told to "follow the system"; follow the script; don't do anything that another person can't do immediately, etc, etc, etc.
Frankly, while I GET duplication, the reality is, I've never met a top income earner that didn't have something slightly different that others will say "Can't be duplicated."
Whether it is personality (and let's face it, one's personality can make a HUGE difference in their ability to sponsor and be a leader); budget to build with; available time, or whatever. There are differences.
Once I learned to speak in my own voice, everything changed for me. And, yet, even now, some say – that can't be duplicated.
So, what are we to do? For me, I look for those who say – how can I make this work and fit for me – instead of the ones who say – I can't do that.
Can't or won't? Big difference.
EXPECT Success!
Jackie Ulmer
Kim…
It's so true I had to "re-find" my voice. I got back into the "good ole boy" way of doing NM and it just doesn't work for me.
When I finally went back to "my script" in my personality it worked, it was me, it was genuine. And people picked up on it, and they responded.
"To thine own self be true"
I love the concept of NM, and the benefits of residual, but sometimes I hate the BS that comes from those who do it. Sometimes those at the top, treat those under them, as if there only value was that they are "money makers" for them.
Did you ever notice the change in an upline when you stop producing? Did the calls get shorter? They usually do – their interest in you is less. Hmmm???
I dont' want to dupllicate that!
It's time for a change… to break the system for the better. This is a "people business" not a system business.
Does anybody feel like me?
Yes-U-Can-Succeeed… it can be genuine – it can be fun!
Debi