The Network Marketing Blog

Archive for March, 2012

We held our company’s annual convention at the weekend and I must thank all those distributors who came up to me and shared  the results they have been getting from what they learned at the Cold-Market Academy.

You can see the first of what I hope will be many testimonials at the bottom of the list of comments below. It is quite clear that the system does work – not just for me but for anyone who is prepared to apply it consistently.

And the best news is that I will be running another three courses over the next two months. So if you or your team have family and friends who said they wanted to think about it or they’ll see how you get on – or maybe they  just said  ”No”, then you will be very welcome. Just click on the tab above.

Even if your warm market is yielding results, you might find my “Golden Nuggets” useful. These are four “Top Tips” which I have found work wonders when it comes to helping a slightly sceptical prospect see the full benefits of what our company has to offer.

Meanwhile as I was driving home, catching up on my activity by making calls on the hands-free kit, I seemed to encounter an abnormal number of prospects who baulked at our modest registration fee and I thought you might be  interested in what I said to them:

“Are you looking for a job or a business? A job? That’s great. Most people have jobs.

“Here’s the way I like to explain a job: With a job it’s the boss who decides whether you get it in the first place and the boss who decides how much you’ll get paid – and they will always pay you less than your’re worth. If they don’t do that, they won’t make any money out of you.

“With a business it’s different. With a business you invest in yourself – that is to say, you pay out money up front because you believe in yourself. Then you decide how much work you will do and you will always get paid exactly what you’re worth to the marketplace. Now, that may be more or less than you expected but it will be what you’re worth.

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

If you want your business to fly, click on the Cold-Market Academy at the top.

Isn’t it great when you discover something really useful quite by chance?

My company’s annual convention is this weekend. They’ll be choosing the winner of the Prize Draw on Sunday which means all my forms will be out of date – but would you believe I only had five left!

So I took them down to town and of course this time I was able to point the closing date and say: ”Best of all they’re taking the draw on Sunday!”

Just look at the results:

The callbacks go in the back of the diary. I just punch some holes in the prize draw sheets and clip them in. It means that when I’ve got a spare minute, I’ve always got someone to ring.

Yesterday I had a spare minute. In fact I had a spare 30 minutes while my two younger children threw each other around at the Judo Club and their older brother pounded the Athletics track with Ipswich Harriers.

I sat in the car and looked at the callbacks. Some of them were growing exceedingly tatty and were barely legible beneath the notes about “try 17th 6p.m” and “father-in-law in hopital leave a month”

Another bore the legend “husband a way a lot”. I had underlined “a lot” several times and there seemed to be dozens of dates and times with “NR” for “No Reply”. This one was clearly ripe for culling – you have to cull them sometimes otherwise there won’t be room in the diary for the days of the week. I could just pull it out and recycle it – I wouldn’t even have to unclip the rings.

But the one thing you learn as a Network Marketer is “never give up on anyone…”

So I called again – and this time the husband was home! He had got back last night, his wife said. He was off in the morning but he was just putting their son to bed. If I could call back in 15 minutes…

I set the alarm on my phone. I called in 15 minutes.

And sure enough, to my astonishment, I found myself talking to a very pleasant IT consultant who listened politely to the brief explanation, said “yes” our services would certainly benefit him and I now have an appointment for April 13th – and he’s certain to be there because he has meetings scheduled at home in the morning.

I felt rather pleased with that – but then I deserved it. And that’s Network Marketing for you – an emotional roller coaster. If you don’t believe me look at this:

(That’s 79 No’s for one callback)

(20 No’s, 3 appointments and a callback!)

“Do you know how many Nectar points you have?”

The lady behind the checkout in the petrol station clearly wanted to engage in conversation. The last thing I wanted was a conversation.

Let me explain: On Saturday night my nine-year-old went on a Night Hike with the cubs. I had to get him to a “couuntryside residential centre” 45 minutes away at 9.00 p.m.

It just so happened that I had spent the whole of Saturday playing with my new toy – I’ve bought a Laser sailing dinghy which is, in effect, a lightweight plank surmounted by an absurdly large sail and designed to be handled by a 20-year-old.

I am 62 and I am exhausted.

On the way home at 9.30 p.m. it occurred to me that I would much rather be asleep and the A12 was not the place to do it. My options were to stop and sleep – or pull in to the filling station and buy one of those fluorescent-coloured highly carbonated aspartame-packed beverages with names such as “Raging Bull”, “Zappp!” or “TurboFizzz”. I know full well that all of them will take years off my life – but possibly not as many as driving into the front of a 20 tonne truck coming the other way.

So I bought a bottle of Mountain Dew which sounds healthy even though I know full well that it isn’t. In fact the colour of the bottle is enough to kill you.

And that was when the lady said: “Do you know how many Nectar points you have.”

“No.” (Was I interested?)

“39,000.”

“Is that good?”

“Is that good? Is that good?? Jim, man here’s got 39,000 Nectar points and he says is that good? Good! I’ll tell you now good it is! 39,000 Nectar points is what… two times five, divided by what is it… um…£200 that’s what it is… You’ve got nearly £200 in Nectar points!”

In my somewhat befuddled state, I had the impression I had won the lottery or discovered a gold mine. It wasn’t until I got back in the car that I realised I had been in the presence of someone who considered £200 to be a lot of money.

I pulled a small item from the glove compartment and went back: “Look it seems to me you’re interested in money. This is about money… and more than you get from collecting Nectar points…”

“You’ve asked me that before.” said the man with the shopping bag on Friday when I asked him if he would like to have a go at my prize draw.

“Have I?” I said, quick as a flash. “What did you say?”

I’m getting very good at the smart riposte. In fact you could say it’s become a bit of a hobby.

He replied: “I said “Yes” and you’re supposed to be coming  round on Tuesday. In fact I was going to ring you about that. My wife doesn’t want anyone coming round. Sorry…”

Hey, this was not the way the conversation was supposed to develop. The whole point of the prize draw is to make appointments, not to lose them!

So it was just as well that the very first person I approached had already given me another one!

Meanwhile I’m rather excited. I’ve got the new Ronda Byrne book The Magic. Normally I don’t recommend anything I haven’t already read but she wrote The Secret – nuff said!

It appears I am now a permanent feature of the car park.

Today a woman came up to me and complained that she had lost her money in the ticket machine: “Aren’t you the parking warden,” she wanted to know. “I’ve seen you here before…”

No I am not the parking warden – but I can put you in my prize draw: You can win a car or £10,000…

And now I’m going to see her on Tuesday week.

Also, may I ask the ethics committee for a ruling on this: One of the people who wants a callback is a man who is already a customer but now thinking of becoming a distributor. He volunteered that he was signed up by a “lovely young woman” who told him all about making money. She even had her own Mini free from the company.

He confirmed that this was indeed Kirstie who is one of my team. Must I now pass on the lead to her?

And finally, I must add that I’ve just read the first two chapters of John Milton Fogg’s new book The Greatest Networkers in the World. What I love about it is that these are real stories of really ordinary people who made a million dollars out of Network Marketing – I mean really  ordinary people. Some of them, when they started, make you think: This person is is never going to amount to anything. But the one thing they had in common was a need. It seems that is the message of the book: Find people with a need…

“You know how it is with us – all feast and famine.”

This from one of my long-time customers when we met in the car park the other day. I was doing my half hour of prize draw and she was doing the shopping.

I knew what she meant. It was a dreadful day: You can see how dreadful from the statistics below. I got only three forms filled in – 67 people said “No” to me… and one of the three didn’t count because, as I say, she was already a customer.  In fact, what with all her chatting, she took up valuable minutes of my half an hour:

“Oh we do recommend you,” she said. “David tells everyone.”

And much good it seems to do me.

The problem was that this was the first time ever  - EVER – that I had come away without so much as someone to call back. In fact I began to wonder whether the days of the prize draw in the street had come to an end – all things go in and out of fashion and maybe this was one of them.

And so the next day I found other things to do – and today I realised that the rot was setting in: Seriously I considered not doing my half hour. The last thing I needed was another 67 people saying No to me.

We all get days like that – days of famine. And as Jim Rohn would have said, it’s how you react to them that makes the difference.

It was time for some serious talking to myself. This was a time for action. I grabbed the forms and the diary and headed down the hill.

And you can see the results below. There didn’t seem to be anything particularly different about the day. It was cold. It wasn’t busy. I got only four forms filled in.

But the very first person gave me an appointment. He lives in Ely which is too far away.

“But that’s all right,” he said. “I’m coming back next week to see my daughter.”

We’re meeting in Cafe Nero (free wi-fi for the signup).

And then – blow me down – eight minutes  later along comes  a charming lady who says: “This sounds just what I’ve been looking for. When could you come round?”

To top it off a young woman had been standing and watching the proceedings. It turned out she  just happened to have lost her job last week. Would she be interested in “additional part-time income”

You bet!

And as a postscript, I just rang David the man with the recommendations: Would he be interested in getting paid for them?”

“Well, do you know, I think I might. We could certainly use the money…”

This arrived in the post today. It’s such a nice letter that I’m going to reproduce it in it’s entirety.

Dear John,

Not many people write letters nowadays but I really wanted to thank you personally.

Ten days ago I was told to have a look at your blog. It opened my blinkered eyes.

I have been with the company for two years and have 50+ customers. My mantra has  always been “If I could get in front of more people…”

I now religiously do 30 minutes a day in a range of locations. I always come away with an appointment. If this continues and I maintain an 80% conversion rate that will be 208 customers a year!

Thank you so much, I now have a focus and a reason. The brilliant bit, other than buying some prize draw forms, is that there is no cost!

I have also always enjoyed your talks at the company events.

Yours aye,

Ruscombe Smyth-Pigott

John’s reply:

Thank you so much, Ruscombe. It’s hearing that people are getting results that makes the whole thing worthwhile.

What I find amazing about your letter is the 80% conversion rate: How do you do that? I find that half my appointments are cancelled or postponed and of the other half, 50% join and 50% don’t.

And I was happy about that – it means that from half an hour’s activity a day, I end up with one customer a week. If you do that consistently they send you on a £10,000 holiday!

What would they do if I had an 80% conversion rate??

It rained on Wednesday. In fact it rained all of Wednesday (it had been raining on Tuesday as well). If one more person says to me: “The farmers will be pleased…”

It did occur to me that nobody would be going out – that there was no point in my taking my prize draw forms out to the corner of the car park.

But successful Network Marketers know one thing: It’s the activity that’s important, not the results.

Besides, regular readers will know I have a tiny covered area I frequent when it rains. But it was till a slow day. For long minutes at a time, I walked round in circles. I hummed to myself tunelessly. I worked out that if I didn’t get an appointment today then it would be the third day running that had happened.

In fact as you can see below, it took me 31 minutes to talk to 30 people which is hopelessly slow: I want hundreds.

But the Law of Averages doesn’t care what I want – it only cares about continued activity.

And sure enough, out of just 31 people, I got my appointment.

There is a Costa Coffee on the retail park at Stanway in Essex. I can tell you that because I am in it.

Unexpectedly as it happens. I’m supposed to be in Cafe Nero in Woodbridge, Suffolk meeting a lady called Louisa who wants be in charge of her own financial future after working for years for a boss who thanked her by making her redundant.

But at the last minute she let her doubts steal her dreams and cancelled – after all these things never work, do they?

On the good side, she gave me an extra two hours in my day and saved me a good deal of petrol since tonight I am due to meet three other people who are taking their dreams to our Opportunity Meeting in Brentwood (lorry drivers and residents of East Anglia will understand the geography).

So I am not particularly worried by the meagre results of my half-hour of prize draw in the car park. Talking to 16 people in 33 minutes would normally count as a waste of time. But I don’t want an appointment in Stanway (look it up on the map).

However, I did have an ulterior motive…

Sure enough a van pulled in and the driver disappeared into Costa – to emerge five minutes later with his coffee and muffin.

Yes, he would like to enter my prize draw and five minutes later we were still chatting about how he gets paid and how I get paid (basically he gets paid once and I get paid forever). I like to think we got on rather well. If he didn’t have a parents evening to go to tonight, he would be at our Opportunity Meeting – but he may yet look at our website…

I was just looking round for other commercial vehicles when I discovered I had completely failed to notice the Windscreen Repair man – he had a van and a gazebo – but no customers. As I wandered over he got out of his van. He was the first to speak: He shook my hand. He introduced himself.

And not only is he now in the prize draw but he too knows how I get paid – and the essential differences compared to the way he gets paid (quite apart from the fact that my business costs £100 and his cost £14,000).

He’s not coming tonight because it’s 33.2 miles to Brentwood (how did he know that?) and it’s obviously not worth driving 33.2 miles to find a pot of gold.

But you never know – his wife is expecting their first baby. She’s on 18 months maternity leave. Already she’s thinking she doesn’t want to go back to work. Is it really possible that 18months of part-time effort could replace her full time income? He may think it worth firing up the computer tonight.

All I know is that I put in my activity – and when I went into Costa for my large skinny cappuccino, I felt I deserved it.

Anything else is a bonus.