The Network Marketing Blog

Archive for January, 2012

I am writing this sitting in the passenger seat of my Mini outside the house of a couple who – for the second time – are somewhere else .

Personally, I don’t have anywhere else to be and dinner is being saved for me (I hope). So writing the blog may be good therapy.

The reason I’m here, of course, is because my company’s share option promotion demands two customers a month and there was a time around the middle of the month when I wasn’t certain I was going to do it. Result: I went berserk with appointment-making and ended up with a whole batch in the evening which normally, I would rather avoid.

In the event I ended up with six surplus customers (they’re like buses – never one around when you want one and then half a dozen come along all at once).

So one way and another I really don’t need to be here. But look on the bright side: I’ve cleared all my urgent calls and given a couple of distributors emergency advice on how to get their last two by midnight tomorrow to keep them in the promotion.

If you need emergency advice, by the way, this is it. It worked for me when I needed one more for the holiday promotion and I’m sure it will work for this:

Ring up a friend who said “No” and say: “Can you do me an enormous favour? Well you know my part-time business and how you didn’t want to join? That’s fine – I quite understand but I’m in a bit of a pickle. The company is issuing share options and I reckon they’ll be worth £350,000 in ten years’ time which is just when the children will be going to University and I’d rather been counting on it.

“But I need one more person to join by midnight tonight or I lose the lot – I don’t get a penny – and I’d really couldn’t bear that. Would you do me an enormous favour and just try it out. If you want to cancel later-  I promise I won’t be offended but would you just be the one that makes the difference between me staying in the promotion and getting kicked off?”

If they say “No”, don’t spend any more time on them. Just thank them for their time, end the call and try someone else. You may well find they call you back!

If they say “Yes” then clearly they can see the benefits of £350,000 in ten years’ time – in which case maybe it’s time for them to become a distributor!

I know it’s begging but here’s the big question: “What are you prepared to do in order to ensure your success?”

The answer should be “Anything legal and ethical” – and I reckon this scrapes in by the skin of its teeth!

Some places are better than others.

This was one of the others.

Or maybe it was the time: Thursday lunchtime – are there times when the unemployed go out en-masse to eat fast food in the street?

I put on a brave face but didn’t feel that confident as I ventured out with two Cold-Market Academy students for their first taste of doing it for real.

There was a biting wind. I was the only one with a coat and hat (I’ve done this before).

But it worked. Within half an hour Rikesh got an appointment – you see his reaction on the new video (click the Cold Market Academy tab).

So I now feel comfortable that it’s not just me. It can work for anyone anywhere. Margaret, in the other video was enthusing about it at our monthly meeting the other night and saying she is expecting to sign up a firm of solicitors.

We’re shooting the video on Friday and the tickets are going fast. I think it’s going to be good.

The little old lady manoeuvred gingerly into the last parking space at the Medical Centre car park and pulled on the handbrake.

Exactly what her husband said next is not recorded but witnesses state that he was not happy with her parking. He ordered her out of the car and took over.

Then he started the car again and drove into her.

After that he drove round the car park at high speed and ran into no fewer than 12 other cars.

My wife’s among them.

So today was interrupted. I got the call while I was signing up a new customer (the second today, no less!). I pressed the red button – if it was important she would ring back.

She rang back. Also she sent a text. It read: “Car bashed in”.

Actually it’s not the car I mind, it’s the time. It meant I had to spend two whole hours on the phone first to the insurance company, then to the legal protection company, then to the company who would be providing the courtesy car and finally to the repair shop who were going to collect and fix Tamsin’s car.

What I should have been doing was my half-hour of prize draw  - I didn’t do any at all yesterday. Instead I sat listening to call centre staff reading scripts – many of them the same scripts…

If I have been asked for my date of birth once today, I have been…. oh never mind.

Actuallu it wasn’t the repetition I minded – nor the way the people on the phone ignored all the full stops and commas or, indeed, anything that interrupted the endless  flow of terms and conditions. No, it was the time I lost that I minded. At my age time is a priceless commodity.

And then I had what they call an “Aha moment”. Waiting until the end and resisting the temptation to try and get a word in edgeways, I allowed as much of a pause as I dared and then said: “Well, thank you for making that so painless - it can’t be easy reading all that… actually I’m always on the lookout for good communicators. Tell me, are you in the market for more time, more money, or possibly both?”

And now I have another three people looking at the website – at least I know they can read a script.

And why only three?

I missed the first one – must have been distracted by a bent car.

A few days ago (January 17th) I wrote about the Marathon we’re all engaged in with my company. It struck a chord with so many distributors.

Today is the 24th. There is just a week left to the end of the month and any distributor who fails to get two average customers will be out of the promotion forever – and that means losing the golden prize of potentially £350,000 in ten years’ time.

This is one occasion when, in the words of Mission Control: “Failure is not an option.”

And so, as I said last week, the only thing to do is push, push, push.

And sure enough yesterday I went to see two customers. They didn’t know how important they were. They couldn’t see that I was sweating inside. They gave me tea, they both had little dogs that jumped and sniffed. I smiled and patted. I spread my hands and said: “I’m not here to sell you anything. I’m just here to show you who we are and what we have and if you’d like to join us, I’ll help you. But if you don’t…”

- If you don’t… what will I do? Sit here until you sign? Hold the dog to ransom?

In fact, as the time wore on and the second cup of tea came and went, I began to realise that it didn’t matter what they decided to do. Because, you see, on the way there I had passed by the car park and got myself another two appointments (see below). And if they didn’t join, I could always go out tomorrow and get another two – and if they proved equally difficult, then another two…

Because the essential truth is that if you push and push and push, you will always break through. The difference is that you can’t push other people – you can’t push them to join or make a decision there and then. You can’t even push them to  give you an appointment in the first place. You just push yourself – to keep on asking.

Because if you keep on asking eventually someone, somewhere, will say yes.

And I have the strangest feeling that deep down the two people I went to see yesterday knew that. So guess what they did?

They said: “Yes.”

Now the total for the month is four – with five appointments still to go!

It didn’t look like rain. If it had looked like rain, I would never have set off on a Saturday morning for an hour of Prize Draw down by the car park. If it’s raining no-one wants to stop and talk.

But by the time the sky went black, I was already there – and when the first spots of rain soaked into my entry form, I knew there was nothing for it but to seek shelter along with everyone else under the little alcove outside the shoe repair shop.

And that was how I learned to love the rain.

There was a man standing next to me. He looked out at the weather. He stayed put.

He was a young man – all men are young when you’re my age – and I find that young men are always in a hurry. Moreover he was wearing a suit and that meant that not only would he be in a hurry but he would be much too important to enter a free Prize Draw.

But he wasn’t going anywhere and I wasn’t going anywhere either and so I asked him.

He looked at me. He looked at me as a businessman in the prime of life might look at someone who is less important and on top of that, rather old and past it.

I just smiled. You can do that if you’ve been there and done it – and you know a secret that the other person has yet to discover.

He stopped and he thought for a second – and something made him loosen up and step out of character. Fighting against his better judgement, he said “Yes,”  he would like to enter my Prize Draw – and then we got talking and as it happens, he would be interested in “additional part-time earnings” as well.

So him I’m going to see on Friday afternoon.

Don’t ask me why this happens. All I know is that sometimes it does – as long as you talk to everyone…

The dignified gentleman with the snow-white hair stopped in his tracks and fixed me with bright blue eyes devoid of any trace of humour.

Then he said: “You’ve asked me that three times already.”

I had known this was coming. If you have a favourite spot for your prize draw, it is inevitable that you’re going to ask the same people again and again – after all shoppers are creatures of habit, just like network marketers… and if the two adopt the same habit, it is inevitable that their paths will cross again and again.

It was my turn to say something. I said what I say to everyone… and what, presumably, I had said to him three times already. I asked him if he wanted to enter my prize draw.

I said it in exactly the same way I say it to everyone. I couldn’t help it. I was on autopilot.

And what do you think he said? he said: “Oh, all right then. What’s it all about?”

And now I have an appointment for 10.00 O’clock on Monday morning…

This is getting serious. It’s getting worrying. I have to gather two average quality customers this month – and when I say I have to, that’s exactly what I mean. The prize is too big – the consequences of failure unimaginable.

This is the very first month of my company’s share option promotion. It will last for three years and five months. It’s a Marathon.

And like a Marathon nobody is expected to set off at a sprint. All we have to do is gather those two customers every month. I can do that! I did 16 in one month – when I was brand new and didn’t know that I was doing. Two is nothing. Two is sleep-walking…

So why, on the 17th day of the first month do I have only one?

Followers of this blog will know the answer to that – the shambles was described on January 8th under the hopeful heading “Look on the Bright Side”. If I hadn’t mucked that up I would have four by now.

But one thing I do know about this business is that if you just push and push and push, you will get there and so I have been piling the appointments into the diary. Today I had four.

What happened: One no-show and three cancellations…

To put it in a positive context, this meant I had some spare time today. So, as you can see below I went out and got some more appointments – three more.

Unfortunately I then got home to find that one of them was for the afternoon I had promised my wife I would be home so she can take our eldest to his drama class…

There are 15 days left. I have six appointments still to come. It’s not enough…

(For the Cold-Market Academy, please click the tab above)

The voice on the phone was wary: “Do I have to pay money up front?”

You can see where he was coming from: Never pay money up front… If they want you to pay up front it must be a scam… Why should I have to pay to do a job?

And once you’ve been in Network Marketing for a while, you will know that this question goes with the territory.

So what to do about it?

Well, you can delay answering it while asking the prospect about themselves and why they’re looking for an opportunity…

You can say: “Shall I tell you how the money works?” This sounds encouraging – just as long as they don’t switch off as soon as you tell them about the registration fee.”

But mostly I find that nothing works because the prospect has already decided they’re not buying anything.

So how would it be if they suddenly changed their mind and saw “money up front” as something positive?

Here’s what I say:

“Are you looking for a job or are you looking for a business?

“I’m sure you’re aware of the difference but I like to explain it like this: With a job it’s the boss who decides whether you can have the job in the first place – and the boss who decides how much work you have to do – and they will always pay you less than you’re worth because if they don’t do that, they’ll never make a profit out of you.

“With a business it’s different: With a business you invest in yourself – that is to say that you pay out money up front and then you  decide how much work you’re going to do – and you will always get paid exactly what you’re worth … which may be more or it may be less than you imagined.

“So, of those two ways of making a living, which do you think would suit you best?”

Of course you will still get some who say: “A job.”

In which case, congratulations! You have just saved yourself a tub of heartache trying to turn a duck into an eagle. Just say: “That’s great. Now all we need to do is make sure that you get the very best value out of the wage your boss is going to  pay you. Here’s how we do that…”

(For the Cold-Market Academy, click the tab above)

Take a look at the stats below. This proves that in Network Marketing, if you put in the time, you get the results.

On average I get one appointment for every half hour doing the Prize Draw. As you can see, after 26 minutes, I didn’t have one.

What it doesn’t show is that after 29 minutes, I still didn’t  have one. In the end it turned up in the final 30 seconds!

You don’t have to be smart to be a Network Marketer. This time I turned up for Wednesday’s two O’clock appointment to find my prospects in the hall with their coats on and the dogs scampering in preparation for their walk. The appointment was for four O’clock! Now it’s scheduled for Friday afternoon, awkwardly close to the Pantomime in the evening

Still, it did mean I had an unexpected hour to made up for not having done any Prize Draw at all  this week (Monday working with new distributors, Tuesday the Boat Show). Stats below.