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.

“If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap, than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

While oft paraphrased as “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door”, he fact is if you build a better mousetrap, thats all you have accomplished.

• If no one knows you exist your mousetrap is going to languish in obscurity.
• Not everyone is suffering from a mouse problem and thus don’t need your mousetrap.
• Some actually want the mice to run free because they are cute and fuzzy.
• Everyone’s definition of better varies
• And even if they think it is better, it may not be enough better to make it worthwhile for them to beat a path to your door.

That being said if you have are taking the approach of branding yourself on the internet you need to get traffic to your door and you want that traffic to be made up of prospects and not suspects.  By that I mean that if you had everyone visiting your website for your mousetrap, your MLM product or MLM opportunity, you want it to be those that will recognize that your offer, your solution, is better and is something they may need.  You don’t want people that are just browsing or that have no interest in what your MLM product or MLM opportunity solves.

While you can’t control what people may want or their interpretation of your solution, you can improve your results by getting the right prospects to you.  Even so the majority of people coming are not going to immediately buy your MLM product or sign up for your MLM opportunity immediately.  You’re going to have to assist them just as you might request assistance if you were looking for a solution in a department store.  Whether you purchase in that store or not depends on how much you trust the person offering information to help you find the best solution.

So you need to get targetted traffic — traffic that is made up of people who are in your target market and to do this you need to find the sources for your market’s traffic.  Don’t fall into the trap of thinking everyone can benefit from your “mousetrap”, doing that will only lead to disappointment.  Spend time defining what portion of your market would be most interested in your offer and then generate your targetted traffic by advertising to them.

If you do some simple online research you should be able to find keywords that your targetted audience is searching for.  This in turn will lead you to the websites they frequent or “hang-out” at and this will be where your advertising will generate the best traffic for your MLM product or MLM opportunity.

If I have time and there is a demand, I will provide some specific methods for generating targetted traffic.  In the meantime concentrate on identifying your target market and find out where they spend time on the web.

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.