MLM Expert Advice

The more I read of this book the more I see the parallels between what I have been doing myself and what I have been suggesting that you need to do.  I left off at Chapter 5: Who Knows What You Know and Do They Like You?… so onward and upward.

6. The Book Yourself Solid Sales Cycle Process – Michael Port offers a sales cycle with six (6)  keys that help you determine what you should be offering your prospect
   • Key #1: Who Is Your Target Client or Customer? Identifying your target will allow you to focus on the emotional connection crucial in the initial development of a relationship with your prospect.
   • Key #2: What Are They Looking For? If you don’t know what they are looking for you won’t know what to offer them.
   • Key #3: When Do They Look For You? What needs to be happening to them personally or at work for them to want what you have?
   • Key #4: Where Do They Look For You? Do you know where your market searches to find what you offer?
   • Key #5: Why You? Why would they choose you?  What is unique about your offer?
   • Key #6: How Do You Want Them To Engage With You? Do you want them to call or sign up for a newsletter.  Most prospects need to get to know and trust you over time and communication is the first step.

   Michael suggests giving your prospects a risk free sample of your services so that they have an idea what you know and what its like having you provide products and services to them. The sales cycle itself has five stages:

   • Stage 1: Simple and measurable.  Most effective when used with a keep-in-touch plan. Your list is made up of people who have given you permission to contact them on and ongoing basis.
   • Stage 2: Demonstrate knowledge, solutions, and sincere desire to provide value to your target market at no cost. Prospects should find it risk-free.
   • Stage 3: Help prospects make the most of the information provided in stage 2 and make a sale by offering them a product that you believe they are ready for.
   • Stage 4: Go the extra mile with your prospects. If they bought some information from you offer them an invitation to a workshop or webinar on the same topic.  This allows you to offer the next level of your service.
   • Stage 5: Not everyone will complete the cycle at the same pace or at all. You are building trust over time.
7. The Power of Information Products – Nothing builds your credibility faster than products and services designed to server your target market’s needs and desires. Information products in the form of e-books, CDs, etc. allow you to express yourself and provide you with:
   • opportunities for multiple streams of passive income
   • enhanced credibility by establishing you as an expert
   • more consumers because they speed up the sales cycle
   • time leveraging giving you the opportunity to make additional income

   Keep in mind that the market size for people who will buy your informational product is much larger than those that are willing and able to buy your product or service. Your informational product should be something you are enthusiastic about. But no matter what the product is always keep in mind your target audience as it should meet their needs otherwise its futile.  Michael goes on to outline a few steps to developing your informational product:

   • Choose the role you will play – the expert or the researcher
   • Choose your product framework – modular or reference type
   • Choose a title that sells
   • Build your table of contents for ease of presentation and organization
   • Create your content
8. Super Simple Selling – If you’re uncomfortable with the sales process its likely you view it as unethical, manipulative, and/or dishonest. To change your perspective you have to let go of the notion you aren’t worthy of the money you are earning.  Successful people get paid for what they do.   The super simple selling system that Michael suggest requires a paradigm shift.  Stop thinking of selling as manipulating and simply presenting a canned presentation when the opposite is true.  To sell you need to become more polite, more considerate and more understanding.  You need to listen more to and consider the needs of your prospects, clients, and consumers putting their needs before your own and grasping the deeper meaning of what they are sharing with you.  Selling becomes an opportunity to provide them with the services that would take them to the next level.

Well thats all I had time to read today.  If you’re reading this synopsis and its resonating even slightly within you then you need to go to the bookstore and pick up Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling by Michael Port.

I decided to catch up on some books I’ve been putting off reading because there always seemed to be something else that would be more productive.  The first one that caught my eye was Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling by Michael Port.  This book fits well into what I have been writing about recently.

Michael, the creator of “Think Big Revolution” shares a turnkey system of getting new clients based on the Law of Reciprocity.  He has some invaluable tips and techniques as well as exercises that will help identify areas for growth.  He covers why people buy from you, how to develop your brand, and how to best market your product and services, all of which are easily translated to your MLM business.

I’ll try to summarize what Michael says; however, you really need to pick up the book and read it thoroughly if you’re serious about success.

1. The Red Velvet Rope Policy – Michael writes that you should select only those clients that energize and inspire you and enable you to grow and give your best.  Remember, you are the company you keep.
2. Why People Buy What You’re Selling – You need to know why people buy what you’re selling and you can accomplish this in four (4) steps
   • Step 1: Identify Your Target Market -figure out the group that you’re most passionate about serving because it will determine where to find potential clients
   • Step 2: Identify the Urgent Needs and Compelling Desires of Your Target Market – this is what prompts your market to go in search of your services
   • Step 3: Offer Investable Opportunities -your services and products should offer your clients a resasonable return on their investment
   • Step 4: Uncover and Demonstrate the Benefits of Your Investable – identifying benefits allows you to speak and be in tune with your target market on a deeper level
3. Develop a Personal Brand – Personal branding is how you want to be known in your market and should be not only compelling but unforgettable.  Your brand consists of two things:
   • Your “who and do what” statement lets others know exactly whom you help and what you can help them do.
   • Your “why you do it” statement differentiates you from the others who share the same business as you.  It says something about you and what drives you.
4. How to Talk About What You Do – While your “who ad do what” statement serves as a jump off point for conversation, the next step is to ensure that you captivate and actively engage the prospect in a conversation that elicits questions about what you do.  When specifying what you do and what you provide it should lead to a discussion that allows you to share your expertise.  Michael helps you build a template for long, mid-length, and short dialogue.  Practicing these dialogues will help you become comfortable in expressing yourself and what you do in any scenario.  The next step is to speak well and with enthusiasm because if you’re uninterested in what you do, why should any one else be.
5. Who Knows What You Know and Do They Like You? – It’s now time to establish yourself as a category authority, a well-known, well-liked, expert in your field. First there are the credibility builders and then there are standards of service.  While these don’t set you apart, savvy consumers will expect them.  But to truly become a category authority you need to learn everything you can about the one thing you’ve decided you want to become known for.  To start you need to identify what you’d like to be known for within your target market.  Michael provides you with several exercises to help you in the mental shift of starting to view yourself as a category authority. Lastly you need to be likeable because even if you are the worlds foremost authority, if no one likes you it will yield you little.

That’s it for now, I still need to read the rest of the book in order to summarize what Michael Port has to write and there are 14 chapters so there will probably be 2 more parts to this.