Everybody knows that building a downline is hard work and that steady residual cashflow is not immediate. It may take months to years of dedicated work in building strong relationships and sponsoring people to eventually generate enough income so you can walk away from the daily business building activities and retire to the MLM lifestyle.
In the meantime, networkers must spend a lot of time, money and energy promoting themselves, and their “solutions” to attract the right prospects. For most people, money is the major issue. They need money to pay for their monthly autoship, for advertising, for the long distance phone calls and other overhead.
So what’s the solution to this money problem? Is it the “Funded Proposal”? There are quite a few people who say that it is a great way to generate “instant” cash and even make a substantial profit while you build your network marketing business for leveraged income. But is this really true?
There are ALWAYS two sides of the coin… [click to continue…]
Do you know who your prospect is? Moreover, do you know who your IDEAL prospect is? Most people in network marketing don’t have a clue who their prospects are. And because they don’t know who their prospects are, they never attract the right people to them.
The reason most of us networkers don’t know our prospects is because we haven’t taken the time to listen and understand who they are. We never shine the spotlight on the prospect because we’re too busy shining the spotlight on ourselves, our product and our opportunity.
As distributors, we’ve forgotten what it’s like to be a prospect. We tend to “vomit” all over them with our offer, like this: “We’ve got this awesome super juice that will cure cancer, make your hair grow back, your arms and legs grow back. We’ve got this super comp plan that pays out more money than you put in and our superstar space commander upline leader earns a million bucks a month!” [click to continue…]
What do prospects consider to be most important when making a decision to join a company? Is it company image? Company management experience, perhaps? A company’s product line, literature, history and heritage? How about potential earnings?
MLM industry legend Tom “Big Al” Schreiter, who comes face-to-face with thousands of people every year through the generic MLM training tours he does all over the world, discovered none of the above were of significant concern to prospects.
What he discovered were the top three things that influenced a prospects decision to signup, by a land slide, had NOTHING to do with the company providing the opportunity or the products. They were the following… [click to continue…]
Is it a good idea to be distributor for more than one MLM company? Logic would suggest that it is.
Today there are many network marketing companies that fail. Some companies are illegal and are shut down by the Government. Some companies must go through massive restructuring to survive. Just last week, a publically traded company terminated it’s MLM pay plan in favour of direct sales because it couldn’t afford to pay both the investors and the distributors at the same time.
Some network marketing company owners just plain have no integrity. They start out as a network marketing company to save money on advertising and get all of their distributors to take the risk in putting their name out there. Once they have enough customers, they just terminate the pay plan when they feel like it. Trust me, this has happened. [click to continue…]
Ninety-seven percent of networkers are destined for failure BEFORE they even start building their home based businesses. With no training on marketing and prospect psychology, without any clue on how to do this business, they are literally told to start burning bridges around them.
In my first network marketing company, there was no training on how to connect with prospects. It was all about inviting people you know to a meeting, showing them “the plan” and telling them you have access to the best products in the world and closing them with “grab your spot now because somebody who joins after you might EXPLODE and you’d hate to miss out on that wouldn’t you?”
It was all about tell, tell, tell. The formula was 15 plans a month. Here are some of the catch phrases that I can recall from listening to the CDs. “We’re looking for 15 planners!”, “If you’re not showing 15 plans a month, this is not a real busiess, it’s a toy!”, “I’d rather work with someone who shows 15 plans a month and signs up nobody than someone who shows only 2 plans and gets 2 signups.” [click to continue…]
The late Gary Halbert, who was one of the most talented direct marketers of all time, once asked his students:
“If you and I both owned a hamburger stand and we were in a contest to see who could sell the most hamburgers, what advantages would you like to have on your side to help you win?”
His students replied with a volley of responses:
- “I would use the freshest, tastiest hamburger meat!”
- “My prices would be the lowest!”
- “I’d pick the busiest location!”
- “I’d want a world famous recipe!”
- “I’d offer customers credit, so they can pay later!”
- “I’d have more staff so that I could serve more people faster!”
- “I’d sell my burgers wholesale!”
He listened to them all patiently, until each had their turn. He then turned and said…
“I’ll give you every single advantage you have asked for… but I only want one advantage. And if you give it to me, I will whip the pants off all of you when it comes to selling burgers!” [click to continue…]
What does it mean when a company does away with its play plan? It’s an absolute kick in the guts to the hard working reps who built the company from the ground up. All that hard work inviting people, talking to them on the phone, meeting people in cafes, restaurants and homes, doing presentations, the “no shows”, follow ups and coaching calls all of a sudden means nothing – a complete waste!
That’s what happened to the distributors of XELR8, makers of the Bazi nutrition beverage. Their company, a publicly traded company, just did away with their compensation plan. The three top distributors who had all reached the 250K Diamond level literally lost their livelihood over night and now they have to rebuild it all over again.
On January 19 2010, the chairman of XELR8, sent a letter all distributors telling them they are getting rid of their Multi-Level Marketing pay plan by the end of February 2010. Replacing the MLM compensation plan is a direct sales model where distributors earn a commission only from the retail sales of the product. [click to continue…]
How much monthly residual income do you need to be financially independent? Have you worked this out yet? What does it mean to be financially independent in the first place?
Financial independence means the passive residual income that is generated from the downline you have built covers your regular expenses (i.e. taxes, mortgage/rent, utilities, subscriptions and food). Therefore, financial independence gives you the divine option of quiting your J-O-B and never having to work another day in your life. Have you worked out the income you would need to have this privilege?
Let’s say that a good round figure for living a comfortable lifestyle without ever having to work again is around $5,000 per month. Some may need more, some will need less, but $5,000 is decent enough for the average person with the dollar at its present value (it may well be $10 million a few years time, but who knows?) [click to continue…]
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Network marketing is a business built on relationships. No relationships, no MLM business, no long term residual income. But how do you build solid relationships with the right people? The answer is MARKETING.
Marketing is the tool you use to put yourself in touch with qualified people. The vast majority of network marketers don’t know how to market. As Mike Dillard of Magnetic Sponsoring fame says: “This is an industry of promotion pursued by people who have no idea how to promote.” Most network marketers are running around like untrained salespeople, pitching their business to anything with a pulse. And they are failing miserably.
In the third book of the Rich Dad series, Rich Dad’s Guide To Investing, Robert Kiyosaki brilliantly points out the difference between sales and marketing. Sales is done person-to-person, marketing is done through a system. You can only talk to so many people and be rejected so many times before you get worn out. But if you have an effective marketing system that does the prospecting for you, this is a completely different game. [click to continue…]
Have you ever been in this situation? Straight after you signed on the dotted line to become a new distributor, your upline sat you down and got you to write out a warm marketing list? That list of 100 of your friends and family?
Some uplines will even put their new distributors right on the spot by getting them to call their list right then and there. Instinctively most new distributors know that it’s not a good idea to be prospecting their friends and family about a business opportunity. And guess what? It’s not!
This is the way most network marketing companies do business and it produces appalling results. The thing angers me about this approach to building an MLM is the truth is obstructed from the new distributor. They don’t provide you with the years of training you need – all they tell you is you can be successful if you just show the plan to as many people as you can and get three just as driven as you! [click to continue…]
"I've been in MLM since 1972. I've written and published several MLM books that people have used to build a good income from home. I've read all the great books this industry has produced. And yet, I've never seen a book that has produced as many strong network marketing leaders as fast as 'Success In 10 Steps.' If you're serious about avoiding the pitfalls and creating a successful future in MLM. THIS is the book you need to read!" Tom "Big Al" Schreiter, MLM Trainer & Legend
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