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Here’s the good news: I got my customer – not the one I was after but isn’t that the nature of this business? Here’s how it happened: A week or so ago, while walking the dog, I heard a runner pounding along behind me but he didn’t overtake. Instead he slowed to a walk alongside me and it turned out to be a fellow member of the sailing club. We chatted as the dogs ran ahead down the lane. He was organising a pizza bake in his garden (yes, he has a pizza oven in his garden). He pointed out his house – the one with the solar panels.

Now my company happens to arrange for people with solar panels to get an extra payment for the electricity they generate (and I get paid on what they generate as well as what they consume) so I said: “I hope you’re getting your extra payment.”

Of course he wasn’t and he invited me round to sort it out – but after the pizza bake, of course.

Now I didn’t like to admit that I didn’t have his number and today I toyed with the idea of looking it up. But if you ring someone they can suggest an appointment next month and as readers of yesterday’s post will know, I’m in a hurry. I decided to drop in.

This was fine until I couldn’t find the house. There was another one with solar panels but it had a completely different name. Never mind, I could ask. It was only after I rang the bell that I saw the sign: “We do not buy at this door so do not knock and invite our wrath”.

In fact they seemed to have forgotten the sign because after they had told me how to get to the other solar panel house, I causally explained why I was on the way there and added: “If you like, I’ll tell you how it works. Takes me a minute. D’you want to hear it?” They did and so I went in and signed them up – and now I still have to go to the right house….

I’m rather proud of this blog. I’m proud of the fact that it’s been going for four years. I’m proud of it getting more than 70,000 hits a month – with more readers in the USA than anywhere else even though I’m based in the UK. But mostly I’m proud of the fact that it’s all true.

Which is kind of scarey because I am now going to write about the next two weeks and they haven’t happened yet.

In the next two weeks I will sign up four customers. I need to do this because four customers a month is the requirement for my company’s holiday promotion and so far this month I have signed up none.

I have found two new distributors but they don’t count unless they complete their training and you can’t rely on them to do that. So, to be absolutely sure, four customers it will have to be.

(at this point distributors with my company will be wittering on about “lifebelts” and “share options” all of which is too complicated to enter into here. Suffice it to say the requirement is four a month and four it shall be)

You don’t need me to tell you why I have to do this; it has nothing to do with six-star luxury, wall-to-wall caviar or any of that nonsense. It has to do with self-respect. I am in the top 0.2% of distributors in my company. I cannot, with any conscience, stand up at our training sessions and tell people how to do it if I don’t do it myself.

Meanwhile I should explain that getting into this situation in the second half of the month has a little bit to do with trying to sell the house and a lot to do with excuses. Because here’s a fact: Everything other than success is an excuse (you might want to write that down). And next week there will be just as many excuses – the only difference being that we’ll have the builders in refurbishing the bathroom instead of the kitchen – and the week after that it’s the decorators’ turn…

I know all about this. Like all of us, I have distributors in my team who tell me they can’t get started because they have a cold or they’ve just started Italian lessons or the dog is very old and needs round-the-clock nursing…  and I have to treat those excuses with the same polite understanding as a death in the family, a child undergoing chemotherapy or a business partner who empties the company bank account and skips to Poland – all of which I have also heard in my time. They are all excuses and all perfectly valid to the person who makes them.

But later on – and I’ve been doing this eight years now – you realise that there are no excuses. In Network Marketing as in life, either you do it or you don’t.

This comes to mind because on Saturday I went to one of our company events where they showed the video of Art Williams saying: “Just do it.” (if you haven’t seen it, you should – you can find it on Youtube).

And half an hour ago the following text arrived in reference to my 10 O’clock appointment for tomorrow: “Sorry but unable to keep appt tomorrow at 10a.m as we are now both working. I’m sorry but no longer wanting another appt. Regards…”

It arrived just as I was cooking pancakes. My wife is away and we always have pancakes when she goes visiting because I make such a mess with them and insist that there should be no limit on fillings (the ten-year-old had chocolate and tomato sauce).

“What will you do?” asked my daughter. She is twelve and takes these things seriously.

“Get another one,”I said.

” How will you do that?”

“I’ll just do it.”

Ah nostalgia! I clearly remember my father taking me to the Aldwych branch of the Westminster bank to open my first account. The manager wore a waistcoat and a watch chain and advised me severely on the benefits of financial prudence. He reminded me of my prep school Latin master, only without the physical abuse.

This week I took my son to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation branch in Woodbridge (it really annoys the HSBC people when you call them that). It was not his first account because nowadays you can have that when you’re three months old but it was a bit of an occasi0n none the less – not least because Owen is the only teenager in the world who doesn’t spend all his money as soon as he gets it.

(He also forgets to take his mobile phone with him – but then I did say he was unusual.)

So we went through all the intricacies of online banking and finally as we were about to leave I turned to the banking advisor and said: “Now I have to say this otherwise Owen will think not preparing him for a secure financial future: Tell me, if you had the opportunity to earn an extra income as long as it didn’t affect what you do at the moment, would you be interested?”

And she said “No.”

Now I must say I was a bit surprised – and conscious of the fact that Owen would not be impressed – but it would be worse to argue and so we left quietly. It was only on the way home that I started kicking myself. You see I have just finished reading Eric Worre’s book “Go Pro” in which he advises we should never prospect people directly: Always ask them who they know who …etc…etc…

But then today the bathroom arrived. Bathrooms arrive in a dozen cardboard boxes these days and they all have to be ticked off on a list. Once we’d done this, I turned to the delivery man and this time I played it by the book: “How many deliveries have you got today? My, you must have your work cut out…Now I know this wouldn’t suit you because you’re very busy but I bet you know two or three people who might be interested in looking at a way of earning an extra income as long as it didn’t affect what they’re doing at the moment.”

He thought long and hard about this. He put his head on one side and said: “Hmmm.” Then he put his head on the other side and said: “Hummm”. While all this was going on, I pressed him that he must know at least two people… at least one person…

But of course that was not what he was agonising about. What he was agonising about was why he should offer this extra income to his friends when he could use it himself. Finally he said: “The thing is, I’m self-employed.”

After a while he enlarged: “In fact there isn’t enough work for a full-time driver. They just use me when they need me.

- So you…

“So I would be interested in an extra income…”

It was amazing. I didn’t even have to ask for his details. He volunteered them.

If you have attended The Cold-Market Academy, you will know that I advocate getting the prize draw forms filled in while waiting in the queue at the post office. What I am thinking of is Ipswich Post Office.

I have never been in there without having to stand behind ten people (this doesn’t matter as long as I am in front of one. Graduates will remember that we always talk to the person behind us in the queue.)

But not yesterday. Yesterday the place was deserted. In fact it didn’t seem like the same place at all…

“Cashier Number Five,” said the automated voice.

“And how is your day today?” said Cashier Number Five. He was a young man with a pony tail, designer stubble and a sunny attitude. There was something very odd going on.

I had not arrived at the counter with the express purpose of prospecting a cashier. I was there to post my grandson’s birthday present – and besides when did anyone ever successfully prospect a Post Office cashier?

(I ask this question because I am guilty of generalisation when it comes to Post Office cashiers:They seem pleasant enough but hardly open-minded when it comes to opportunities to earn an extra income.)

But this one just didn’t seem as if he belonged behind a Post Office counter at all. I don’t know whether it was the pony tail or the designer stubble or just the “How’s your day today?” But one way and another, the next think I knew, I was asking him: “Tell you what, I’ve got a question for you – nothing to do with the parcel. But if you had the opportunity to earn an extra income without it affecting your Post Office work, would you be interested?”

He would. Five minutes later I sent him a text with the website address. I’ll be calling him today.

This was a bonus. I felt rather pleased with myself – and in Multi-Level Marketing feelings of optimism should never be wasted so on a whim, I opted for a bit of prize draw in the street. I hadn’t planned on it – for one thing I didn’t have the dog – but as you can see from the statistics below, it worked as well as well as ever. In fact I was tempted to put down the callback as an appointment. I had even put it in my diary for 10.00 a.m. on May 27th when the prospect said: “Ah, but what if I’m not back from Blackpool?”

- Might you not be back from Blackpool?

“Not if I’m having a good time. I’m going to see an old friend and if we’re having a good time, I might stay an extra day or two.”

So we have arranged that I will ring him on at 10.00 a.m. on the 27th instead.

There has been such excitement about the dog’s career as a Network Marketer (see “The Network Marketing Dog” May 9th) that I couldn’t wait to put her to work again. However, for the reassurance of the dog-loving fraternity, I should add that she did get her walk in the woods as well.

We didn’t manage the full half hour because when we showed up at the car park this morning, who should I find there but two members of my team who had already grabbed the best pitch. Meg and I did consider going into competition but thought better of it so it was not until four O’clock in the afternoon (not the best time) that we actually got started.

What happened? The seventh person walked past with what I have now come to call a “red” excuse – that is to say she didn’t want to enter the draw. I countered with the charity gambit. She paused, she turned back to me and agonised about which of the many charities she supported would benefit. Eventually it was “St Elizabeth Hospice” by far the most popular in my part of the world.

Then she saw the dog. The dog put on her most wistful expression: head on one side, big brown eyes dripping with sadness. The woman said: “Aaaah… and walked back to us. We now have an appointment for June 17th. That’s so far ahead it’s almost in a different time zone. But I know she won’t forget.

“I couldn’t forget you,” she said.

And she wasn’t talking about me.

 Note: This is not as bad as it looks. I spent a good part of the second period talking to one of my oldest customers – old in both senses. She was bemoaning the fact that she sold her house to the owners of her new sheltered accommodation for a good deal less than the market value.

Network Marketers tend to have a compulsion to give out cards: Leave a paper trail, they say. In my company there was a fad for giving out 50 a day – I think it was dreamed up by a printer.

You might as well give them out as not. Just don’t expect much in the way of results. What we need to do is talk to people – although of course giving out cards is a great way of finding people to talk to – particularly if you have an interesting card. In my company they’re shaped like pigs which is definitely interesting and people tend to say: “What’s this?”

Which means it’s not very polite if we don’t tell them.

However this is where we run up against a bit of difficulty: After our wonderful 60 second explanation, the prospect can say: “OK, I’ll have a look and get back to you.”

They can do that because they’ve got your card – which means they have all the information they need but you have no means of following-up – and as we know, the fortune’s in the follow-up.

Yesterday one of my team came all the way from the Midlands for a day’s training (and for readers in Texas which is nearly three times the size of the entire UK, I should add that over here 100 miles is a really long way). He was asking how do you get the information you need for the follow up.

Let me recount a conversation that took place on my doorstep this morning.

Dramatis Personae: Network Marketer; Delivery Man

DM: Parcel for you. Sign here.

NW: What’s this. Ah, it’s for my wife. Feels like clothes. More clothes!

DM: Tell me about it.

NW signs

NW: I don’t think we’ve met before. Have you delivered here before?

DM: No it’s a new route for me.

NM: Oh well then, you haven’t heard my intriguing question. Would you like me to ask you my intriguing question?

DM: What’s that?

NM: If there was a way you could earn more money without it affecting what you do at the moment, would you be interested?

DM: More money? Certainly would.

NM: OK, I’m afraid I don’t have time to tell you about it now but if you like I could send you some information by text. You just listen to a recorded message. Would you like to hear that? Have you got hands free in the cab?

DM: Yes.

NM: OK what’s your mobile number?

DM did not know his own mobile number. Had to go to the van to get it.

NM: That’s great. Now if you find the recording interesting, you might want to look at the website so if you like I could email you a link. Would you like me to do that?

DM: Yes please.

NM: OK, what’s your email address.

DM did know this.

NM: That’s great. Do you live round here by the way? [yes] Because we have a monthly opportunity meeting. If you give me your postcode, I can send you a text to invite you.

DM gives his postcode.

NM: Terrific. Now if you make a point of listening to the recording and reviewing the website tonight and then download the information pack they will tell you almost all you need to know. That will just leave me to tell you how much you get paid and how quickly. We can do that tomorrow morning, what’s the best time for you?

DM: Any time is good. I’ll be on the van.

NM: that’s great. I look forward to talking to you tomorrow.

CURTAIN

The dog has an appointment. I don’t know why I never thought of this before but the dog is a a better Network Marketer than I am. Here’s how it happened:

I needed to go to the bank. I needed to get my glasses tightened up so they would stop falling down my nose. I needed to get another appointment and the dog needed a walk.

It might just be possible, went the reasoning, to combine all of these disparate activities into one trip to town – after all, I could tie the dog to a drainpipe while I did my half an hour of prize draw to get my appointment. One appointment, you will remember, is the expectation from half an hour – two if you’re lucky.

So we went to the bank and the optician and we were just heading for the drainpipe when the dog spotted a kindred spirit – nearly dragging me off balance as I juggled my planner, my pen, my prize draw forms and my script in readiness for going to work.

The two dogs did what dogs do and the man on the end of the other lead looked at me with that exasperated smile common to dog-owners the world over.

It was while all this was going on that I realised I had a golden opportunity. “Tell you what,” I said brightly. “Since we’re stuck here, I’ve got something you might like. It’s a free prize draw. You could win a car or £10,000. We just put your name into a hat and if your name comes out, you win the car. And if you win one, I win one too.”

He said that sounded good and we filled in the form. I asked the four questions on the bottom of it. We read through the script together and, in four minutes start-to-finish, I had an appointment for tomorrow afternooon.

Now tell me: Would I have got that appointment without the dog? Why didn’t I think of this before? Obviously the dog did not get tied to the drainpipe after all. Instead she stood patiently beside me as I told a dozen people they could win a car or £10,000.
Then a cheerful-looking woman in late middle age turned up: “Oo, aren’t you lovely. Helloooo…”

This to the dog of course…

The dog backed away to the full extent of her lead. The cheerful woman held her ground, hand out,  fingers twitching. What she said, as far as I remember was: “Choo-choo. Who’s a lovely…come on say hello…”

The dog, who is a sucker for this sort of thing, advanced cautiously and allowed herself to be stroked.

“There you are,” I said to our new friend. “Clearly she likes you. You must be a dog person. What kind have you got?”

- Sadly no dog now. Just a cat. What’s she called?”

“Meg.”

So we talked dogs and cats for a minute or two until I said: “Tell you what, I’ve got something here you might like. It’s a free prize draw…”

And we went through the same procedure as the man who did have a dog – and we made an appointment – with a proviso: “But only if you bring Meg.”

So next Thursday Meg and I will go to visit the cheerful lady and her cat. Two appointments inside 15 minutes: I decided to roll with this.

For the next 15 minutes, instead of saying to people: “Here you are, you can win a car…” I said: “Here you are, you can win  a dog…”

I believe that the amount of interest I received more than doubled. Of course, I had to explain: “Not really… you don’t win the dog. But you could win a car or £10,000…”

And sure enough it wasn’t long before I got my third appointment. That was three appointments in half an hour (see below). No callbacks, nobody saying they didn’t want me to tell them what it was about – just three appointments over the next week.

I don’t know how pleased Meg is about it though – now that her morning walk is going to be down to the car park instead of along the river or through the woods.

But still, she is getting a cat to chase…

Network Marketing is exciting – it’s not supposed to be. You’re supposed to just plod along: “Consistent activity” is the watchword… just do a little bit but do it regularly, you hear them say…

But I like the excitement.

Take the artist with the old boat: You could tell he was an artist – and a good one because his house was full of other people’s paintings (only an amateur hangs their own paintings. The professional keeps them stacked facing the wall).

But when I met him he had a great fat paintbrush in his hand. He’d been applying two litres of white yacht enamel to his 1952 Blackwater sloop. He did it slowly. He did everything slowly – including making a decision about whether to become my customer. I had to ring him back yesterday.

We know all about this, don’t we: “I’m not going to make a decision today… I’d like to think about it…Can I get back to you…”

But when I rang him, he said yes, he’d had a think. He’d looked it up on the Internet and he said: “Let’s go for it!”

And so I went back (and found him with his paintbrush in his hand again) and signed him up. While I was in the middle of the process, my phone rang. Being polite, I silenced it.  However, driving away and feeling rather pleased with life, I remembered the call and pulled over to pick up the the message. It was a customer who had signed up last week without a second thought. Now she’d had one and she wanted to cancel.

See what I mean by exciting? It’s a good idea to see this sort of thing as part of the excitement. You just never know what’ s going to happen do you?

Now, I have a rule when this sort of thing happens. It’s a bit like someone getting thrown from a horse and having to get back straight on or my daughter when she lost control of her sailing dinghy and crashed into another boat – the coach sent her straight out again.

And me: I headed for Ipswich with my prize draw forms. OK, so I needed to buy a pair of summer shoes but before that, I needed another appointment. I knew I’d get one. I just didn’t know that the very first person I talked to would give me one – or that he would be leaving the army in 14 months time and had no idea what he would do then (I have an idea…)

As you can see below, it then took another 14 minutes to get the next appointment which means that if there’s any justice, I should make up for the woman who cancelled.

So one way and another it all makes a good story but how do you know it’s true – after all I used to be a newspaper reporter and everyone knows you can’t believe everything you read in the papers.

Well, I was just making notes about the woman who gave me the second appointment when a man I vaguely recognised came up looking me directly in the eye which is not what I’m used to in the street with my prize draw forms – and then I spotted his badge. He was a distributor with my company. In fact I was sure we had met.

He was astonished. He was elated. He said: “I can’t believe I’ve found you doing exactly what you say you do.”

I wasn’t sure how to take that…

But at that point, his phone rang. It was his upline checking that he had delivered his two new distributors to the Ipswich training course. Now I did know the upline. The upline was not astonished to hear that had been in the street getting appointments.

Because, as we both know, it’s consistent activity that counts. Doing a little bit but doing it regularly…

Exciting, isn’t it?

+++ The last Cold-Market Academy will take place on May 1st  – see tab above for details +++

Every town has its rough area: Furniture in the front gardens, cars on bricks – you know the kind of thing – and when you hear someone lives on that street, you know what to expect.

The trouble is you might not know the name of the street next to it which is almost as bad – and as soon as I turned the corner for my appointment yesterday, I groaned. Quite honestly, if this person wanted to join, I was going to have to make some excuse. In fact it was a relief when it turned out they weren’t home (why would I expect anything else).

So now I had an hour to spare and no new customer. Guess what I did?

Absolutely: Down to the car park with my prize draw forms. It was a grey day, a little chilly and 2.30 in the afternoon: Not ideal. In fact as I stood there and waited in vain for a passer-by (any passer-by), I wondered if I would do better just to go home and start again on the “No-for-Now” list.

But the wonderful thing about the Prize Draw is that it will always work – anywhere, anytime, any place because it relies not on the weather, not on the time of day, not even on me. It is driven by something that is unstoppable and immutable: The Law of Averages.

You can see what happened below: After eight minutes, the 21st person stopped and agreed to go in for the draw. I asked my questions. The answered “No” to every one of them.

I should explain that the questions are so worded that only the most awkward or stupid person would answer “No”. But then the Law of Averages demands that awkward and stupid people be heard.

Another seven minutes went by and another 19 people walked past without stopping. But the 20th did. She was a pleasant woman in her 50s. She gave the right answers. She gave me an appointment for next Tuesday and when I gave her my appointment slip, she asked: “Why don’t you give me your surname – you know mine.”

So I wrote that down too, adding that I didn’t usually because I didn’t want people calling me “Mr Passmore”. As soon as she saw the name, she asked if I was a member of the sailing club and the next few minutes were spent discussing boats (or as network marketers would say “building rapport”)

The next 18 people were not interested but number 19, a woman of retirement age wants me to call her when she gets back from holiday on May 13th. Personally I would like to put it down as another appointment because it felt that certain. However, technically speaking, it’s just a call-back and a lot can happen in three weeks.

Still, it just goes to show what you can do with a No-Show

+++ The last Cold-Market Academy will take place on May 1st  – see tab above for details +++

Three things happened this week that can teach us all we need to know about Network Marketing.

First of all I would like you to read an extract from an email sent to me by one of my team. This is a woman who has teenage children, a husband and a part-time job. She’s busy. But she joined me because she was determined to have a secure and comfortable future for her family. She told me this several times. She got started, she overcame the early obstacles. She promised me she would never give up – and indeed she didn’t.

So finally I decided that this woman was going to be be the one to build her leg of my business. Obviously it made sense for me to help her. So I sent her an email suggesting a home meeting – that if she would like to get some friends round, I would come and present our opportunity to them. What follows is a small section of her reply: “I would love to volunteer to be someone you work closely with to get to the leadership level in 3 years but I am too nervous to invite people to a home group meeting so maybe I am the wrong person for you to ask. I need to think of another way to get a quick start with distributors.”

I didn’t reply to this because I didn’t know how to. There’s no point in bullying people but I couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t be critical. I wanted to say: “If you knew you would make £50,000 from inviting people for a home meeting, would you do it?” but I had used that one to get people to our annual convention. I suppose I was just plain non-plussed at the idea that someone could start a Multi-Level Marketing business and then baulk at the idea of inviting people round for a coffee to look at it. Is she ashamed of it or something?

And then I was invited to a Leadership Meeting by the top distributor in our company. This is a man who knows more about this business than anyone I have ever met. It brings him an income that would make your eyes water and now he sees it as his mission to help as many people as he can to achieve the same (oh, all right it won’t do him any harm either but that’s Network Marketing for you!)

Anyway he showed us a Youtube clip which I would like you to watch before you go any further. Just copy and paste the link and then come back and read on. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ&feature=youtu.be.

Isn’t that great? Do you think the leader was nervous? Or the first follower? No, they were too busy having fun to be nervous – or was it that they were so determined to have fun that they overcame their nervousness? We don’t know. But what we do know is that the people who followed them did not join in right at the beginning – so what was the reason for that? Was it nervousness? And did they overcome it?

The point is that in this business you do have to stand out from the crowd. If you’re not different, why would anyone stop doing what they’re doing and start doing what you’re doing?

Which means that sometimes we have to do something we don’t want to do in order to get what we want to have.

And it just so happened that there was a piece in The Times which illustrated this to perfection. It was by Matthew Syed, the author of the fabulous book “Bounce”.  He had interviewed Andy Murray about facing Novak Djokovic in the final of the U.S. Open in September 2012. After gaining a two-set lead, Murray had slid back to two sets all and it was looking as though the young man who had come so close to a grand slam title so many times was going to let another one slip through his fingers. He was beginning to believe what people had started to say about him – that he was another British player who just wasn’t quite good enough.

Then, during a rest break, Murray went into the changing room and looked at his face in the mirror. The face that looked back at him was haggard and drawn – not the face of a winner.

Suddenly he found himself doing something he had never done before. He gave himself a pep talk.

“You are not going to lose this match,” he said to himself. “You are NOT going to lose this match.

As he explained to Syed: “I started out a little tentative, but my voice got louder . ‘You are not going to let this one slip. You are NOT going to let this slip. This is your time…’.”

And when he walked out onto the court again it was with his head up and confidence in his stride. In short, he looked like a winner.

And guess what he became?

So what will my nervous distributor do? Will she give herself a pep talk? Will she square her shoulders and ring up her friends and say: “You know my part-time business? Well I’m expanding it and I’ve picked out just a few people to help me take it to the next level – and guess what, you’re one of them! There’s money in it and you’ll have a lot of fun. Come round on Thursday at seven and I’ll show you what it’s all about. If it turns out to be for you, that’s great. If not, that’s fine too – but I think you’ll love it!”

Do you think the average person could read that over the phone to a friend and survive? I mean, would they be struck down dead or would the world stop turning? In fact would it be anything like as bad as dancing appallingly badly in front of a crowd of total strangers?

Probably not,

In fact what might happen is that some people would turn up and of those, some would join – even if it was out of curiosity.

… and one way or another, the momentum would begin.