It is often said that: “the roughest terrain to negotiate is the six inches between our ears!” ... do we procrastinate? It is called inertia and it usually as a result of “paralysis by analysis” – we over think things, we let our fears take over and we become a “rabbit in the headlights!” The doubt comes from fear of the unknown, or fear of failure, or fear of success, or fear of what your friends or family might think. Those same friends and family won't mind if you help to pay off their credit card or pay off their house, a few years down the track, so why wait and why care? In a blog I read recently, the writer asked: What if you fail? Isn't failing bad? – Failing is the main ingredient for success. .... There are 2 outcomes when you try something new – ...... you either win or you learn! In both situations you win! If you really believe that you have found an opportunity to change your life for the better will you start to think in a more positive way about your future and your success? If you truly believe that there is a way to succeed, will you think more positively? One of the biggest mistakes you can make is doing nothing because you’re too scared to make a mistake. You can’t handle success, if you can’t handle failure. All it takes to succeed is commitment and focus. Because the system laid out for you is so easy to follow, you just need to put the blinkers on and do it systematically. IS IT A PYRAMID? “ Pyramid Schemes have been illegal in most countries for over 40 years .” Well, if you think of a pyramid as an organisation that has the highest earners at the apex and the lowest at the base, you have just described companies, government departments, the military, banks, insurance companies and most other organisations. Here is my definition of an illegal Pyramid Scheme: " ...A business is only an illegal or unlawful pyramid scheme if it sells positions in the organisation, allocates positions, according to how much the entrant has paid, and doesn't move products or services through the network, so that fair and ongoing bonuses can be paid out of revenues, where people coming into the network gain an unfair advantage from doing no work or expending no effort...." If you are in a sound MLM business then you are in a "customer acquisition business" with a range of everyday goods and services, sometimes right across the globe, some of which can also be purchased from other suppliers, and thus must be competitively priced in the open market to be saleable, and you can sell to customers in any of those countries, through your very own online store. The entry fee that you pay is usually fairly small by comparison to the overall opportunity that you are buying into and usually reflects purely the administrative costs of getting you set up on the company’s system and the price of some initial sales stock. You are not paying for a position in the organisation, because you can only start in one place and that is underneath your sponsor. However, I prefer to look at it in a different way. You are always starting at the top of your personal network, because that is what counts the most. You are the “head of your empire”, no matter how big or small it may grow. It is a system where the entrant earns from his or her own personal efforts and where bonuses and commissions are fairly based on effort. Provided that the products are easy to move, that your business has a fair compensation plan, that the owners are people who are focussed on your success, then it is a good business to be in. A major point of difference with MLM is that your company doesn't pay third parties for advertising or marketing to the public, so those millions of dollars that conventional sellers need to spend on marketing, can be better used in customer savings and distributor bonuses. Better off in your pockets! You are placed in a network downline from your sponsor. You cannot make any money from your upline, only from your downline, and your upline can only make money from your efforts, when they help you sell product or build a successful network of other distributors who also sell products and services. So you make direct profits from sale of retail products, commissions on your volume and over-rides, as incentives to grow your network and advance in the organisation. These over-rides on your residual income come direct from the company, not out of any distributors’ pockets. You and your "pyramid" can end up more successful than your upline and his “pyramid”, and he will thank you for it every day! You pay a joining fee which is a tax-deductible overhead - it may be a one-time fee or it might be renewable, monthly or yearly. It usually buys you your Online Storefront - then you may pay an admin fee per month to be supplied with a comprehensive back office set up, that tracks your business, and is continually and automatically updated by your head office, which means that you are “Open for Business” 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in many countries. In some organisations, you will get access to online shopping malls in many countries around the world. The kind of internet access that you get the use of, would cost an individual or company tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up, and you get it virtually free, so don’t forget to factor that into your thinking. But, still, no one earns any money from any of that - only from moving products and services through their distribution network - so it is not a Pyramid scheme! - Our federal and state governments outlawed them around 40 years ago as they did in America and Europe, so there is virtually no way you could start one, today, in just about any country in the developed world. A good MLM company will have an Integrity Board or department that monitors these types of consumer issues. Make sure that you check this when you are investigating the opportunity. SOME MORE OBJECTIONS I don't have the time Time for what? Time to fail? Time to keep doing what you have always done? Time to improve? If you are not succeeding doing what you are doing now, don't you think a different direction might be called for? If you could succeed at this doing 10 hours a week around your 40 hour J-O-B, which one would eventually become more important? Have you got 10 hours a week to watch TV - could you get up an hour earlier each day and go to bed an hour later each night? What do you do on weekends to improve your life? As Mark Twain said: ".. Insanity is doing what you have always done, the same way, each day, but always expecting a different result..!" I Think [the joining fee] is Too Much to Pay to Get Started If you think that the average investment in MLM is high, consider what you are getting for it – in most cases you are getting the chance to potentially make a great short term or long term income (that you can easily live on or retire on) without overheads, travel, government interference, staff worries, expensive equipment and about a million other problems, so is $200 or $500 a big investment? Is $1,000 a big investment? Is $40 per month over the top? In addition you are getting fantastic training and support from everybody in your team and your upline. These days, the internet makes it so easy. Your company site and your team sites will have hundreds of hours of free video training, audio files, webinars, access to printed materials, RSS feeds, social media and almost endless ways to build your team and your business. Do the maths and you will quickly see that your initial investment is a drop in the ocean, compared to the investment you would have to make in most businesses. Have a look at how much you would need to invest in one of the large franchise chains, or just in setting up a local suburban shop or office. MLM is a “no-brainer”. "I Can’t Sell/ have no Sales Experience/ don’t want to be in a Selling organisation" Guess what – you are not in the Selling business! Your MLM company is in the selling business – it is the warehouser, invoicer, shipper, storer, transporter, mailer of products, payer of salaries and overheads, payer of bonuses, advertiser, marketer, webmaster, call centre and a hundred and one other things, and the organisation that takes all the risk. You are in the Opportunity business – your job is to sell opportunities and dreams, build the sales and help to build the distribution networks and offer the hope of a better future to people who are looking for change – don’t confuse the roles. Yours is by far the easier. "I Can Make Money Investing Somewhere Else" Even if you only ever made $100 per month from your MLM business – think about this – to make $100 per month from your investment portfolio, you need to have $24,000 invested at an average return of 5% per annum. Not everyone has a lazy $24,000 laying around, but just about anyone can make $100 from MLM. That kind of logic crushes most excuses, wouldn’t you think? I Can Make Money playing the Stock Market (or the Forex Market) Good luck with that. If you are good enough and knowledgeable enough to make a living out of the markets, then we wish you well, but if you are a novice, you will need to have seed capital, spend a lot of time learning about it, find a broker you can trust, or set up your own trading system, which means costly software and monitoring systems and time consuming reading of complex investment reports. This is hard work and will take you as much time as building your MLM system, and it will probably keep you awake at night, wondering if the market is going to turn on you, tomorrow. If you do even a bit of research you will find that there are a lot of scammers out there disguised as experts, so be careful. Having said that, it is, of course, a perfectly legitimate way to spend your time and your money, but as yet, nobody has come up with a perfect system for predicting the markets. MLM, on the other hand, has come up with simple and nearly perfect systems, and all you need to do is plug in and follow them. SO, SHOW ME THE MONEY! How Much Can I Make? Short answer? - Anywhere from Millions to Nothing & everywhere in between!! But, every good MLM company very carefully and deliberately goes out of its way to say that no income levels can be guaranteed. You will see these disclaimers on all of their material. If you don’t see them, you may be looking at the wrong kind of business opportunity. These disclaimers are there because nobody has any quotas and nobody "gets the sack". You can do as little or as much as YOU want, and there are no quotas, and definitely no limits on what you can achieve. Some people will dabble with the business and may never make much money out of it, and that is THEIR CHOICE. But those who want to, will find a way to do it. Those who do succeed can live fantastic lives with enormous freedom, because this is a business where the bulk of your earnings at the high levels is RESIDUAL income – that is, money that you make from work you did in your early days – you can literally be making money while you sleep. Another old saying - " ...an entrepreneur is someone who will work 100 hours a week for himself, so that he doesn't end up working 40 hours for someone else.. and (from the great Jim Rohn..) ..."If you don't plan your life, chances are, someone else will - and guess what they have planned for you - Not much!..." and this one - "An entrepreneur is someone who will do the things that most won't so that he can enjoy the life that most can't... The freedom that it buys can be priceless. There is time freedom, freedom of choices as to where you live, when you take time off, where your kids go to school, when you sleep in, who you can help with your time and money and many other great advantages of residual income. Follow the Success Trail Look at the top achievers and follow in their footsteps and there is no reason why you can't make as much as them, or even more. If you hear someone say "that didn't work" just ask them: …”Was it the business that didn't work, or was it you who didn't work? ….”. A 5 figure income per month inside the first year is very achievable. The only question you have to ask yourself is - if a bunch of people will do it, why shouldn't one of them be me? It is a fact of life that nearly 96% of people who start in MLM don’t make an income that they can retire on. ....MLM companies know that – they don’t fight it. They just expect there to be enough leaders to make their companies prosperous. Don’t fight the statistics – find a way! So? What is the answer to that one? BE ONE OF THE 4%! It’s just a decision, and a bit of work, and the ability to plug into a proven system and follow it. ..AND FINALLY - JUST DO IT! Get Started So, once we understand all of that, and have those goals set, we just FOLLOW THE SYSTEM (you’ll hear that in every MLM organisation, because it is the only way). Repeat, repeat, repeat - just go and tell everyone you know about your great opportunity - stick to the system. Sort, don't sell, and you will get enough good people on board, that the NO's won't matter - in fact, they will be forgotten. Now back to the plan! Phase 1 – Use the products, sponsor, lead and sponsor some more! Phase 2 - Repeat Phase 1 Phase 3 - Repeat Phase 1 Phase 4 - Repeat Phase 1 Keep it simple and never get out of Phase 1! That is really how easy it is to build an empire! Do, on day 101 what you did on Day 1 – don’t make the mistake of getting into the management phase. As an example, if you want to run a successful restaurant, there are many things that you might need to do, but the one that counts the most in the restaurant’s success is turning out great food every meal and every sitting. Without the basics the other stuff won’t happen. MLM is no different. Keep it simple. Sponsor, and help you downline to sponsor, then move the products and train with your group and the rest will take care of itself. We wish you well in your network building and we are here to help. BE COMMITTED Remember the example of the big train rumbling down the track? 1. You could get upfront and drive it! 2. You can get on board to enjoy the journey, 3. You can stand on the platform and watch it go by, 4. You could stand in the middle of the track and try to stop it (good luck with that!) 5. You could try to outrun it, or 6. You could just turn around and go home, Your choice. We hope that you will get on board and join your upline on the journey with all of the friends that you will make, along the way. Or in the words of the old Middle Eastern proverb: "The dogs bark, but the caravan rolls on!"
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BUSINESS BUILDING
Build equals work But it's not like you have to do HARD work. Here is what you WON'T be doing:
Above all you aren't going to be evasive or secretive about the company who you are very proud to represent. But you ARE going to be:
Because in direct selling, nobody succeeds unless their downline succeed. The late, brilliant Zig Ziglar said it best: ..”You get what you want when you help enough other people get what they want...” Now, obviously there is no way that you are going to be able to talk to all of those thousands of people, by yourselves, so this is where you get to understand the principle of a lot of people doing a little. ......Read on, good people. THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF NETWORK MARKETING The numbers aren't important, but the model is. You will build a network when you find enough good people who want their goals as much or more than you and who will be prepared to work with your and your upline. The network builds when you find leaders who find leaders and so on. You might start out as a local business, but it will take off and, if you can find 3 good leaders and they can find 3 each then the business will start to run on auto-pilot. Don't forget a lot of those people will be people who live in any of the countries that your business operates in and in some MLM businesses that’s the whole world, and most of them you will never meet!! This is where the excitement begins to kick in, when the understanding begins to kick in! But before you get carried away, our advice is to keep it local to start with, build a group of great people around you and nurture them and it will take off in directions that you may not have dreamed of. Let's Throw Some Silly Numbers Out There Some Silly Numbers – except that they are achievable! If you did manage to build 7 lines wide and all their downline 7 wide, down to 7 deep you could have, potentially 960,800 people in your whole organisation - if each one of them had just 2.5 customers, you would have a total of 2,402,000 customers and 960,000 IBO’s – a total of 3,362,800 people using the products and services. If they all used and spent just $35 per month on your goods and services that would be a total of $117,698,000…. (a not insignificant amount of money!!) Now let's assume that, because we are only human we only do 0.05% - 1/2 of a percent (one half) percent of that volume - that could still mean $58,849 per month in sales or $706,000 per year in revenue - would that be enough to make some nice bonuses? And that is only achieving 1/200th of the goal. How would you go at your “J-O-B” if you only achieved 1/200th of your quota? Do you think your boss might have something to say about it, come the end of the month or the end of the financial year or Friday afternoon? OK, OK, now, let’s not be silly. Most people will never get anywhere near those goals (not within a bull’s roar!), but we can get a fair way along the journey from "zero to hero", make some great money and we can all have a bit of fun, trying!! Concentrate on sponsoring two or three good leaders and help them to get two or three each, then build down deep, looking for leaders. If you are in a binary system, you put your good people down one side of your business. In those systems, be guided by what your MLM Company advises. If we do it as a team, attend some of the great events that our company puts on, and on a regular basis, we can have a bucket load of fun with other like-minded adventurous, and motivated people, and most importantly, we can hear from people who are making those incomes – people who started out just like us, who set easy, achievable goals, then consistently and persistently go about achieving them - people who don't let excuses get in the way of progress - people who don't let anything get in the way of their dreams!! People who have “planted their flag” - for whom failure is not negotiable! Focused and committed people. Do you see the raw power of it? That's why we call it a "Direct Selling Engine". That is why the smartest companies in the world are recognising it as the way to get their products and services out there, into the marketplace without multi-million dollar marketing and advertising costs. That engine can turbo-charge your business!! And it can change your life for ever! It is the ultimate multiplier - even in the Old Testament, someone said - go forth and multiply! Must have been the first MLM’er!! OK , all jokes aside NOW LET'S GET REAL!! PROSPECTING - HOT COLD AND WARM Where do I get my Prospects? In short, everywhere. Remember our List, a couple of Articles back? Like we said right at the start, that list that we put up could go on forever –there are as many prospects as there are people. But you want to work with your “Warm List”. What is a Warm List? Many people make the mistake of assuming this to mean people you already know, but it can also be people that you have not met yet. It is just a matter of meeting them, qualifying them, piquing their interest and making the right approach at the right moment. It could be someone you meet in a lift, or a taxi, or on a train where you have 30 seconds to a minute to make a good first impression. That is what we call the “elevator speech”. It could be someone that you see around your school, or club or on a committee that you admire or think you would like to know better. It could be someone who has had some bad luck that you think might need a bit of a lift. You can take as much time as you need to build your “warm list”. The point is –
Your upline will provide that training for you. You can also find prospects by finding leads everywhere – your contact lists, your Linked In network, your Facebook friends, and your Twitter followers. If you publish a blog, or regularly contribute to other peoples’ blogs, there are opportunities to capture those leads. You can purchase leads, but this takes a bit of expertise, so talk to your upline about how you do it. Internet and Social Media marketing is a lot more specialised than many people think and we will deal with that in another e-book, later on, EVENTS & TRAINING DAYS Big lesson - go no further until you fully understand this point. If you want to appreciate how to make the big bucks, and find the inspiration that you might be searching for, then get in a room with a bunch of people who are doing it!! At every opportunity. In other words, attend all the EVENTS!! Whether they are weekly training sessions or opportunity meetings in a small room, or regional or national or international events in an auditorium, they are ON because they are a part of your system, and you must plug into your system. It may not mean that much, as you read this, but “plugging in” is one of our core concepts and we all need to understand it. Each of us need to trust our upline and join in. You can’t duplicate for your downline if you don’t totally trust what your upline is doing. Hence, the concept of “plugging in”. Get on the bus and come along for the ride. It is that simple. The System Will Provide Reinforcement if You Get On Board Our business depends heavily on positive reinforcement. When you are “out in the trenches” on a daily basis, it is important to get some positive reinforcement from your team mates on a reasonably regular basis. WHY? Because, MLM is not a J-O-B! There is nobody telling you what to do, when to turn up, how much you will earn whether you achieve or not – making you work within certain time frames, allocating tasks that are within your comfort zone. You are you own boss and this could mean that you may be well and truly out of your comfort zone. You are setting your own times, your own goals, your own pace and sometimes it can all get to be confusing – especially where you might get frustrated at yourself for the lack of progress that you thought you were going to make, so it is necessary to get with the team on a regular basis and keep yourself on track. One of the best ways to do this is to hear success stories and get training from people who can present a slightly different perspective. Sometimes it is just the way that one presenter puts the story across, a joke or funny story that you relate to, or a way of describing something that was troubling you. It might be hearing one person’s inspirational testimonial that lets you believe that you are not alone – that you can do it – that you are not the only person who is having a particular challenge. It might be that you just get an opportunity to walk up to one or two of the leaders, and ask them a question about something that is troubling you, or to be able to enjoy their company in a social setting at the end of the day. The word “networking” comes into its own, when you are in a position to interact with members of your network on a reasonably regular basis. It might just be that a weekend away with a few like-minded people is a good way to blow out a few cobwebs. Everyone comes away from an event with a positive story to tell and a way to re-focus their energy for the next few months, so don’t underestimate it. Be like a "frog on a lily pad" – hop from event to event – diarise the events before you diarise anything else – always register for them as soon as you can so that your downline see you being enthusiastic and energetic – remember, this is a business of duplication – your downline will do what you do, even if you think that they aren’t noticing. Make sure they see you being the first to register and the most enthusiastic one about the next event. Above all, promote the events in your group and get as many of your people there as you can. It will build your business faster than anything else. If you don’t understand that, just accept it, as a given it for now, because it will and you will surely believe it after the first event that your downline group attends! One of the great outcomes of events and trainings that we often hear, is when a new leader is getting people along to the events in numbers and is seeing how that helps to build his or her group. It is often because the group learns things that their leader maybe wasn’t able to communicate, and that is the value of getting your people in front of the other fantastic leaders that you will have in your upline organisation. Never underestimate it. Happy Clappers! If you are saying to yourself "I couldn't stand being in a room with all those crazy happy clapping people", think again! Don't let your ego or your irrational fears defeat your dreams and aspirations for your future or your family's future. How dumb would it be to let pride get in the way of progress? When you attend the events, you will hear highly inspiring business common sense from some very successful (meaning wealthy) people who are the leaders in your business and in the worldwide Direct Selling business. Yes, the audience will be enthusiastic, because they are people who are getting actual validation that the system works. Don’t confuse enthusiasm with evangelical fervour. Take our advice, go with the flow and allow the enthusiasm in the room to permeate your thinking. It makes total sense to go along, and it makes no sense to stay away, especially when it is only going to cost you, most times $20 - $30 and a couple of hours of your time! … and it is fully tax deductible. National convention. Then once or twice a year - the big National Event. If you are still embarrassed to go, you can wear a wig or a false moustache, or some other disguise, and hide yourself in the crowd of thousands of people who are excited about their futures!! I guarantee nobody there will be mocking you or laughing at you, and you can sit right up the back, in the darkest corner, and let your guard down as much as you want on the day, and, if it’s still a problem for you, sneak quietly home and tell all your friends you went to a footy match or a funeral! But I would like to wager with you that you will get SOMETHING out of the experience, and you will come away with the confidence to tell your friends and family where you have been and, more importantly, where you are going from there on. NEXT WEEK!! ...THE CRESCENDO... Are you enjoying this so far? Rule #1 - You don't need to care about my big goal and Rule #2 - It's personal - I don't need to know yours! Just tell your leaders what your short term goals are and together you will work out a way for you to get there, and if you are serious about it, you will have the help of your upline and many others who all care about anyone who wants to have a go! We can all refine our goals as we go along. They just come down to simple numbers and timing. We only succeed in the MLM business if our downline succeed first. What other form of business can boast that? So, when it comes to the big goals, set your own! - Whatever you want to do - we don't have quotas in direct selling - it's YOUR BUSINESS!! - you do it at your pace, and no one will tell you otherwise - but we can tell you, from experience, the faster you start the quicker you will build. “Your upline will run alongside you as fast as you want them to - they'll even try to keep up, if you decide to outrun them!” But here are some worthwhile goals! We suggest that you try to imitate them until you get it. Here is how to build it. You will see that it comes down to simple numbers. Phase 1 1. First client - your own best customer - YOU!! You only need a reasonably achievable amount of volume in your whole customer organisation! If you don’t or won’t use your own products how can you seriously ask anyone else to use them – that is how you will learn about them. 2. About 25 personal clients - no time limit, ever! - The quicker the better! - That is our number, what is yours? 3. 2 or 3 front line IBO's with 2 or 3 each in their front line - everyone finding customers! You might be in a conventional MLM system or a binary system. It doesn’t matter. Just concentrate on finding 3 leaders and help them find 3 leaders, anywhere in the organisation and you will be well on the way to a huge network. All the leading MLM’ers in the world, (whatever business they are in) will tell you that they succeed by finding and working with leaders. You will get a thousand people into your network if you can just find 3 leaders who find 3 more leaders. After that, it can take off and your business can be on “auto-pilot” and that is how the numbers will come (with your help and input, of course). Just keep sponsoring, so that your people downline see you doing it and they will naturally assume that that is the norm, and will do it too. Whatever you do, your downline will emulate – that is one of the most important core concepts of MLM building. Don’t take my word for it, just accept it as lore (..and law!) Note that I said "Build" - build equals work - you have to come prepared to work, and there is no such thing as a free ride. In the next chapter we will see what you need to do and what you won’t be doing – let’s hope we can dispel some myths and concerns about what MLM is or isn’t. |
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