MLM Expert Advice

I know the first thought that passed through your head was “What do animals have to do with my business?”.  Thats pretty much the same response I got when I presented this information for the first time to my group.  Since then they’ve nick-named it the Doolittle talk because of the song “If I Could Talk To the Animals“.

But what do the animals have to do with anything?

I’ve found that if you can take complex subjects and break them down into easy to remember and understand terms that people will retain the information and you can teach them anything.  Animals are representations of the four personality types that dominate peoples’ behavior.  If I had said Choleric, Phlegmatic, Melancholic and Sanguine most peoples eyes would glaze over or they would nod off.

So back to the animals… everyone has parts of each animal in them but one tends to be more dominant than the others.

Lions

They represent approximately 15% of the population and when it comes to business they are all about the money.  They will see your business as a sales business.  In the corporate world these are the CEOs, the Kings of the Jungle,  the ones that go in and tell people what to do. While this works in the corporate world because these are the people the get the job done, in multi-level marketing they tend to alienate people.  When they order people around, people leave.

So should you bring in the Lions to chase everyone away or leave them alone?  Lions are well-connected so you do want to sponsor them since they can connect you to powerful people (business owners, leaders, politicians etc.).

But remember that a caged lion becomes depressed as it feels it has no control and is not appreciated so while you want to sponsor lions you should not expect to be able to tell them what to do or coach them in any way.  Once you have a lion in your organization you have to let them do it themselves.

They will come to you with questions and they will expect you to be direct, on point, and blunt.  Give them the options and move on.  If you want to motivate a Lion tell them where they stand in your organization and what it will take for them to be #1.  They like a challenge and they want to be on top.  But when telling them what it will take don’t tell them how to do it as they want to be in control.  If they don’t know how to do something they will ask.  For them its “my way or the highway”.

So when handling lions remember its “hands off”.

In part two I will talk about how to sponsor a fuzzy Koala.

One of the things I heard when I got started in network marketing years ago was the “3 foot rule” (although I think some people used an 8 foot rule!).  Essentially if someone came within 3 feet of you, they were a prospect.  In truth they were at best a suspect and at worst yet another stranger you were likely to earn the ire of or scare off.

Lets face it in a traditional business people don’t go out trying to drum up business from those who have no interest.  Does the grocer come knock at your door? Well unless you’re getting home delivery service (a real time-saver I must admit), the grocer is not marketing to you.  In fact, I know that when I do go to the store I have to hunt for someone who work there to figure out where they’ve moved my favorite brand of pickles.  And what about the car salesman?  When was the last time you were going past a lot and someone ran out of it and tried to sell you a car? Never you say? So why would anyone expect to find someone willing to join a business by doing this?  And who would want to join except perhaps those willing to go out and acost perfect (and not so perfect) strangers.

Ok so you didn’t use the 3 foot rule but maybe you left a paper trail.  Another thing I heard when I started was that if you’re really in network marketing could you be convicted of it.  In other words have you left a paper trail of business cards, pamphlets, flyers wherever you go.  If you went to the doctor or dentist office, did you leave your brochure mixed in with the all the magazines littering the tables.  Perhaps you were braver and had more time and you put business card flyers on every car always looking out for the ever present mall security.

Don’t get me wrong, these approaches will pay off… eventually but are you attracting the people you want in your business… and how long will it take?  Yes I know I’ve written previously that you do have to work to build your business but I would suggest you want to work smarter not harder.

In reality if you’re leaving flyers on cars, you need to be putting out close to 2000 a day, yes I said two thousand and if you really want to build that should be closer to four or five thousand per day.  The same goes for pamphlets.  If you are approaching anyone that comes within three feet of you I would suggest preparing yourself for a lot of NOs some of which will not likely be that polite.  On top of which you’re going to need to talk to at least twenty to thirty new people every day.

Now if you were like me when I first got started I didn’t have the time for flyering cars and I know I didn’t have the confidence to walk up to perfect strangers but I did know people who were doing these things and were able to be successful in the process.   I also know that those who were doing flyers had no time for anything else and those who were talking to strangers said there were some stores they were not allowed to frequent.

I would suggest to you that you want people to come to you not the other way around.  You want to attract people to you, your products, and your business.  One thing I did hear when I first started was “your worth in the marketplace is determined by what you bring to it”.   This statement set me on a path of learning and understanding the difference between marketing and selling.  With marketing you present advice, and knowledge and you concentrate on building relationships with people and you don’t think about the sale.  What happens when you do this is that people are attracted to you.  Why?  Because you listen and because you offer solutions for their frustrations and then they come to you.

Now here’s the best part, when they come to you, they want what you have to offer.  No more tire kickers or lookie-loos.  They have a genuine desire and you have more time for your family and no one is scared off when they see you coming.

If you haven’t started attracting people to your business then you need to start now.  If you don’t know where to get started I suggest you check out my link for your free MLM videos which gives you in seven videos the start to attracting prospects to you.  Stop the chasing and start working smarter instead of harder!

I suppose this goes hand-in-hand with knowing your WHY but in this case I’m going to look at the WHY NOT.

There are many good reasons to get involved with a multi-level marketing opportunity but these certainly are not it:

1. Doing a friend a favor or feeling pity for a friend.  An old friend calls up out of the blue and starts telling you all about this new business opportunity they are in and wants to set up a meeting to talk to you about it and you give in and sign up.  I would never want anyone to sign up as a favor to me.  Come walk my dog or give me a lift home if I have a flat tire somewhere perhaps but not get involved as a favor.  The only thing that can come from this is the loss of a friend.
2. Get Rich Quick.  First of all if its too good to be true, it probably is.  Sure if you have a strong network of people you can count on to buy whatever it is your are marketing you can make a lot of money quickly but in general for most of us this is not the case.  Patience and knowledge are necessary to develop a successful business strategy in order to be successful.  Being in an MLM is like a marathon, not a sprint.
3. Easy money.  This goes along with the previous reason.  Most people can succeed in an MLM but as with anything it requires tenacity and education. A doctor didn’t earn his degree overnight and you shouldn’t be expecting to become an MLM success that quickly either.  There is no easy money, you’re going to have to work for it.
4. Those at the top will put people under me.  While you may get some “spillover” due to the way a particular compensation plan is structured, the amount of income that comes from this source certainly won’t mean that you don’t have to put in the effort yourself to bring people in and be successful.  Again, there is no easy money and no free lunch either.
5. They have a product that sells itself.  Well if it really did then why wasn’t the person who told you that a millionaire already?   Yes the products are great (well 95% of them are) and they are useful or beneficial but products don’t sell themselves.  If that were the case there wouldn’t be billions spent on advertising each year.  Which is not to say you have to spend a lot to be successful in multi-level marketing but the product won’t sell itself.
6. I can build this business for free.  Well the product and the business opportunity won’t sell themselves.  You are going to have to put in some effort.   While there are some low cost ways of buidling a successful business in no way should it be considered free.  Your time spent in building your MLM business isn’t free, time is money too.  After all you were doing something with that time before you got involved with network marketing.
7. Donald Trump or some other all might poobah endorses the product or the business.  While personality can sell things, you aren’t “the Donald”.  And he didn’t make his money in network marketing.  Those that are successful in network marketing and have been in the same opportunity for a long time will tell you that its not about the personalities, they come and go, they are a passing fad… its consistant work that builds a business.  The product and the opportunity will still be there after the celebrity has moved on to their next project.

So why all the negative reasons to be in business?

Because sometimes its necessary to delve deep into your psyche to pull out your why and it helps to look at the why nots.  If your motivation to get started in MLM isn’t one of of those listed above you’re ahead of the game.  But you still need to find your WHY to stay on track.

So you know that you want to be a sponsor but you have no one to work with… yet.

Have you got a list?  You know what I mean that list of everyone you know or ever knew.  Have you got it?  Great, now put it away.

Huh?

I know you were told to make a list of everyone you knew and were probably given a script to use with them and were told this is your “warm” market and it will be easy to work with them.  There are at least 3 reasons why this always fails for someone new in network marketing:

1. If you’re new, you have no confidence in what you are doing and people can hear it in what you say
2. You have no credibility with the people you know (whether you have been in an MLM before or not).  Unless you have started a business of your own and successfully run it most of your friends or family are not going to believe that you will ever be able to.
3. Some of your friends and family will automatically be threatened when you try to be successful.  Have you ever wondered why there are no lids on a live crab barrel?  Because the moment any of the crabs tries to make it out the other ones pull it back down.  Why? Misery loves company.

Now if you have a good sponsor they will tell you what to do with that list… do not call them on your own until you are credible by having a fantastic result from one of the products or by building your business and having a check to prove it.

Why?

Because until that happens you have no credibility either with the products or the business.  A good sponsor will use your list as “referrals” and have you on the call to introduce them and thats it.  They will follow a script and present the products and/or the business opportunity not you.

But what do you when the list is used up either because you didn’t call them with a sponsor or because you’ve been in MLMs before and can’t talk to that list about your new opportunity or maybe you’re just a recluse.

You can place ads in the paper or radio or ,if you have a lot of money, on tv.  Each of these methods will cost you something and will continue to cost something for every lead that responds to your ad but what if there wan an alternative?

In a previous article I talked about finding your target market and when it comes to your business opportunity you want to be targeting other multi-level marketers or those seeking your opportunity.  (The same applies fi you are dealing with your product you want those buying a competitive product or looking for a solution your product solves.)

Now you may be thinking “why would you target those already in a business?” but bear with me a moment.

Most people in an MLM are trying to improve their business.  They need information that can make them more successful.  So why not give them what they want and need. Try using an MLM funded proposal.

If you have information that would help others build their business that information has value and would be something other MLMers may want.  If you sell this product to them then the profits from the sale of the information is used to build a cash flow that pays for marketing the information.  Ok so now you know why you would market to people in an existing MLM but how does this get you anywhere?

People who are seeking an opportunity are also looking to be successful in whatever opportunity they may join.  If your information is valuable to someone who is looking for an MLM as well as someone who is already in an MLM then you will generate cash flow and generate a prospect list.  Additionally you make money from those who may reject joining your opportunity — so even if someone says “No” you come out ahead.

But why are these leads good?

An MLM Funded proposal invites people to learn by providing them a way to get some free advice (by signing up) and then presents them with the opportunity to purchase even more information that can be beneficial to them.

Someone who looks into your proposal is interested in learning about what is out there so they are definitely a prospect, not a suspect.  Those that buy your information are valuable because they are not afraid to invest in their education and they want to improve.  Those that don’t buy are still valuable because they wanted the free advice you provided in order to have them sign up.  They may be unsure about the benefits of your proposal and you can provide them additional information using an autoresponder or alternatively offer them other informational aides.

Your auto-responder is fulfilling an important role… building and strengthening a relationship by communicating with them and following up.  This relationship is what allows you to approach them about your business opportunity whether or not they decided to purchase your proposal.  The income from the proposal pays for the cost of marketing it whether its on the web, in a newspaper, on the radio, or on TV.

Whats the difference?

Some people believe that its all a numbers game.  You bring in the people and you present your opportunity and then you see who will join.  Now you teach them the basics and you see who stays in.

• Some will
• Some won’t
• So what?
• Next

Thats true of recruiters in MLMs as well as recruiters in the rest of the business world as well.  Recruiters try to find people to join or sign up. However, once the person signs they are then trained by someone else.  If you are doing this you are treating people as numbers. In a previous article I wrote about keeping the attention of a prospect and told you about the importance of strengthening the relationship between you and the prospect. If all you’re doing is recruiting them and then leaving them to fend for themselves or having someone else train them then you are destroying that relationship that you built — and you’re treating them like a number.

People aren’t numbers and if you treat them like one you’ll have no MLM future.

Multi-level marketing is a relationship game not a numbers game.  If you want to succeed your primary commitment must be to those you brought into the business not to personal profit.  You need to be a sponsor.

Sponsoring is a process that starts when someone joins your business listing you as their sponsor.  But sponsoring is much more than just that event. Sponsoring continues the relationship building that was initiated when you started communication with your new team member when they were just a prospect.  Sponsoring includes mentoring, training, encouraging, motivating, listening, and anything else that will help your newly sponsored person to effectively build a business.

But why put in all this effort if not to increase your bottom line? Because things will not always be perfect in any business.  A check will be delayed, a product will be backordered or a product that might be your best seller is no longer being produced.  If you’ve truly sponsored your team and built that relationship than they won’t quit because they have a relationship with you.  The real secret of MLM success is retention.  Retain everyone you bring into the business and you will be succesful not only in terms of money but in the amazing relationships you will have.

Take time to sponsor everyone in your group whether guiding a new sign up and establishing their real “WHY” or providing coaching and support for someone who is been in your team for awhile.

I don’t know who made the statement, “If I can help you get what you want, then I will automatically get what I want”, but its why sponsoring works to build and maintain your business.  If you are in the mode of helping people the money you want to make will be made especially if you are trying to help them make money.

I won’t tell you that everyone you have will stick around if you are a good sponsor because some people will just join and do nothing and others will quit.  But if you take the time to build relationships and not treat them like numbers then you will build and retain an MLM organization.

So you’ve managed to qualify some suspects and you now have one or more prospects you are going to present to.

How do you make them sit up in their seats and pay attention?  It doesn’t matter whether you are presenting to them in person, over the phone, via a webchat or teleconference, or even via email you have to get them to pay attention to what you have to say instead of whatever else may be going on in their lives or what they are missing out on by listening to you.

You need to start by building a relationship with you audience and doing this does depend on whether you are using an indirect method (phone, email, teleconference) or direct (person-to-person, conference).

Lets start with the indirect.

The more times that you can reach out to a person and start to create a strong relationship, even if all you are leaving is voice messages and email messages, the better your chance of making a sale and repeated sales or recruiting someone..

When you call and leave another voice message or send another email, physiologically, you have already been introduced to your prospect.  This lends a sense of familiarity to you calling again and at some level your prospect feels that they know you.

Think about when you last purchased a car or even a house.  How many times did your salesperson leave you to take a call or ask their boss a question or get something from their assistant or secretary. This is a tried and true technique used to create that sense of familiarity and build a stronger relationship. Each time they left and returned seemed to strengthen that relationship.  You can do the same thing with voicemail and email.

The key is not to give much of anything away and build curiosity so that your prospect wants to contact you back.  Don’t make the mistake of introducing yourself and telling them to check out a website and call you if they have questions because you neither have built curiosity nor have you left yourself much room or reason to follow-up.  Recall that you want to be able to follow-up multiple times to strengthen the relationship.  Similarly don’t leave them a message telling them everything about your product or opportunity because why would they want to call you back… after all you’ve already told them all there is to know.

People return your contact with them because they are curious about what you want to present so your contact with them when leaving a message or email should simply say your name, contact information, and let them know that you receive the information that they were interested and you have a question for them. This builds curiosity, after all who wouldn’t want to know what the call was about and what the question was.  Alternatively you can build curiosity by saying:

• I have some good news for you
• I have a favor to ask you
• I needs some information from you

all of which entice your prospect into getting in touch with you.

Thing can get interesting if you haven’t heard back from them after a few attempts to contact them.  You can then escalate the messages.  For example you could say that you were confused (which you may be) as to why they took the time to give you their information and that there must be a reason they did that and you’re curious as to the reason.  Then you can add that you would like then to call you back so you can understand their reason for expressing an interest and then you might be able to help them out.

When you have gone through the steps of building curiousity and letting them know you want to help, you will notice an increase in the number of prospects that either buy products from you or join your organization.

But what if you are presenting in person or even if you do reach them directly on the phone when you try to contact them?

You’ll want to start your presentation by building rapport (strengthening the relationship).  Find out how things are going for them and then use what they have said in your presentation relating it to the points you wish to make or relate a personal anecdote that is relevant to what they have just told you.  This grabs their attention.

Once you have their attention you need to then build curiosity with a statement that gets them to focus directly on what you have to say.  A startling statement that provokes curiosity will shock or surprise the audience and results on them sitting up and paying attention. Blurting out your topic and your purpose is generally NOT an effective attention-getter. You need to bring your audience into your topic by surprising them with information or a perspective on your topic that is new and interesting to the audience.

For example:

• I will be sharing with you the 10 things your boss doesn’t want you to know about starting a home-based business.
• Discover why your neighbor never leaves the house but drives a better car than you do.
• Here’s the secret your parents never knew or told you about money.

Statements such as these will grab people’s attention quickly and create a burning desire to know what this is all about.

Ok you’ve got their attention and you’ve built curiosity and they are listening.  Now you want to make sure they retain it and remember you.  You can do this with two simple magical words… thank you.  Why? By saying thank you, you are feeding people’s desire to be recognized for whatever they have done, no matter how great or small.  In this case you’re thanking them for taking time away from their schedule to listen to what you have to present.  By using these words you will build a strong bond with your audience.

These are seemingly simple tools but when you apply them consistantly you will not only get your prospects attention and keep it but also you will increase your call backs, sales, and the size of your organization.

Do you know your target?

If so, what is it?

If you answered everyone, you are setting yourself up for failure and may be costing yourself a considerable amount of wasted time and money.  Now you may be saying “but I thought MLMs were for everyone”.  Thats true MLMs are for everyone but not everyone is right for an MLM.

Think back, how many MLMs have you explored before you found the one that was right for you?  Why would you expect your suspects to be any different?

Alternatively, maybe right now you are just trying to find consumers and you truly believe that your product can solve everyone’s problem.  First of all their is no product that is right for everyone and the truth is that most people don’t believe they even have a problem.

The key to maximizing your MLM success if finding your target market and marketing to it.  Whether you are trying to find consumers of your product or trying to grow your organization the same rules apply.

You need to narrow your focus to your target audience and then identify what drives them and listen to what problems they are trying to solve.  Once you have accomplished this you will no longer be trying to sell someone on something but rather guiding them to your product or opportunity with advice.  People are willing to buy something if they aren’t being sold on it. When you undertand your market’s needs you can provide a solution for them. This is known as attraction marketing.

But how do you identify your target market?

Well lets look at your product first.  It doesn’t matter what the product is but I will assume you know what the product is good for and what problem it solves.  If your products helps with a number of issues, choose one.  Those that could benefit from your product related to this one issue fall into 3 categories:

1. Those who have the issue your product solves and are actively searching for a solution.
2. Those buying competing or similar products.
3. Those buying your specific product because of its benefits.

You can provide advice and information to group 1 that gives answers to questions people with the specific issue would have.  Group 1 is just doing research they aren’t ready to buy yet.

Group 2 is using a competing product.  For them you need to address concerns they may have regarding the product – price, side effects, quality, etc.

Now group 3 is ready to buy they just want their potential concerns addressed about your product – can I get it at wholesale or preferred price? what testimonials do you have?

Each group is a separate target audience.

Now on to your opportunity.  You know that your business opportunity solves many problems.  For some they want to work from home to be with family.  Others want more time or money.  Again you need to choose one issue (I’ll use time) and again we have 3 groups:

1. Those who are looking for a solution to a time problem.
2. Those who are looking into a competing or similar opportunity or tools useful for a competing or similar opportunity.
3. Those who are looking for your specific business opportunity.

Group 1 knows nothing about MLMs and is just researching possible solutions to their time crunch.  Group 2 is familiar with MLMs so they know the industry in general and they are researching companies.  Group 3 is looking for your opportunity specifically and is looking for a mentor or a system of tools that they can get started with.

In both cases, whether product or opportunity, group 1 is the hardest to get interested in what you have because they are still researching the problem itself and know nothing of possible solutions.  Group 2 is easier because they are ready to buy into something similar.  And Group 3 is the easiest because they already know they want what you have.

Each group is a separate target and needs to be marketed to appropriately.  Depending on which you want to target you need to come up with the questions that group needs answers to. This will allow you to market to them either with a presentation or an ad where you provide the answers to those questions and letting them buy instead of you having to sell.

Which are you doing?

Did you think they were the same?

All Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) is done using a network marketing process but not all those that use the network marketing process are involved in multi-level marketing.

You still confused?

Let me define the parameters. Any payout plan that has more than one level is multi-level marketing.  It doesn’t matter whether its one more level (bi-level), two more levels (tri-level) or some other number of levels… its all mulit-level marketing.  I’ve even heard of some plans being called uni-level where there is only a single level of payout or some variation on that.  The point is, regardless of the designation if there is more than a single level, its multi-level marketing.

But then how does that relate to network marketing?

Networking is an approach to building a business.  It is the process of creating and/or discovering and using connections between people. Real networks stem from friendships or business relationships. Everyone knows someone, and thus everyone has a network.

Networking goes beyond your personal network by tapping into the networks of people you know… and people they know.  Its a process where you interact with and become known both through formal and information gatherings to people who can help you with marketing your “product”. Networking is about talking with people and obtaining referrals so that every contact you make is a “warm” contact. You may feel a bit awkward about asking for help this way. It takes skill to network effectively.

The art of networking has several essential aspects:

• Meeting people who can be of help to you
• Collecting and updating contact info, like phone numbers and e-mail addresses
• Keeping in regular contact with those in your network
• Thanking people for their help
• Helping others when asked

In terms of mutli-level marketing the network marketing “product” is both the actual product and the business opportunity as well.

But why use networking or network marketing to build your Multi-level organization?

“”I would rather earn one percent of the efforts of a 100 people than 100 percent of my own.” – J. Paul Getty, one of the first billionaires in the world

Networking allows us to work smarter, not just harder.  What Mr. Getty is stating is that he would rather teach one person to do something and allow that person to teach another using the power of duplication. If we teach five people and they each teach 5, the result is an exponential growth of your business and your income.

Multi-level Marketing using the networking process allows the creation of a business emprire through duplication resulting in incredible incomes for those who participate.

Some people will tell you to use “Network Marketing” to counter some one asking if your opportunity is multi-level marketing. The reason for this is that multi-level marketing has, in some circles, because people have attempted building their business the wrong way and as a result of their failures have a bad taste left in their mouths from their experience.

If you master the skill of networking then you can teach others to do the same and build your business whether you call it multi-level marketing or network marketing. If you’re still trying to master that skill I recommend you request your free mlm videos which will put you on the path to becoming a networking powerhouse.

Huh?

Why what?

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs

“Desire is the key to motivation but its the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence that will enable you to attain the success you seek.” – Mario Andretti

“You must have long term goals to keep you from frustrated by short term failures.” – Charles C Noble

To be successful at anything in life, whether its your relationships, your career or building an MLM organization, you ned to have a WHY.  A driving reason that will pull you past any obstacle that’s thrown in your path to success. A strong why will help you get past excuses, bad habits, and nagging doubts (or doubters).

But how do you find your why?

Taking a cue from Steve Jobs, how about looking at your what.  If I’m starting to lose you again bear with me.

If you could do anything in the world what would it be? Don’t give me your “safe” answer.  I want to know your ultimate fantasy whether or not you truly think it would be achievable.  Lead singer for Van Halen? Angelina Jolie’s husband? Brad Pitt’s wife? Teacher? Clown? Dog Catcher?

Ok, now we have your what. Now for why? Why is that “what” your fantasy?

My what is to be a singer/song writer.  Not likely to lucrative as I don’t sound very good even to my own ears outside of the shower but its a fantasy after all.  Examining my what to find my why resulted in:

• I want freedom.
• I want to do something creative.
• I want to influence others.
• I want to uplift others.

So to do what I love I need to follow my why and the rest will happen.  That is how and why I got involved with MLMs… so I can achieve my why and love what I do.

But why is why so important?

So you can do the things you need to do to build your business day in and day out.  So you can handle the short term frustrations that come in any endeavor.  You need your why so that when things aren’t going right you don’t give in — you dig in.

If you believe in your why (and why wouldn’t you if its truly a real why) then you will have a strong foundation.  And every success is built on a solid footing.

Now that you have your “WHAT” and your “WHY” work with leaders in your organization to make sure they have theirs and then reach out to everyone in your group so that they can grow and become leaders.

And keep in mind, this isn’t just to improve yourself and your existing organization.  If you knew your suspect’s WHAT you can then get their WHY and you’d be able to qualify them better to determine if they were a prospect whether for your product or your business.  The better you qualify your suspects the less time you will waste with those who are not right for your business.  This allows you to concentrate on those that are right and in turn makes your business more successful.

Feel free to comment and share your What and Why… and your Success!