The Network Marketing Blog

Archive for July, 2012

The great worry about teaching something to other people is whether it will work for them too.

So it is very encouraging to see all the comments on www.coldmarketacademy.com from people saying how many appointments they’ve got. But there is always the nagging thought that half of those appointments are never going to materialise – in fact will any of them? And how many of those that do will lead to real customers? We shall never know if the distributor concerned never bothers to tell us.

So it was very exciting to receive a text from Bill and Heather. They have promised to post it as a comment but I can’t wait for that so here it is - received on Friday July 27th:

“Good afternoon John, Heather and I attended your Cold-Market Academy course on 5th July in Knutsford and have put into practise what we learned from you:

Four x five service customers. One x four service customer and one x one service customer - and more importantly,  lots of appointments lined up and we will be leaving shortly to do our daily CMA which we love.”

This means they have signed up six customers in three weeks without talking to anyone they have ever met before.

I hate to say this but these are better results than I’m getting. Today I rang them to ask what they were doing differently. As far as we could tell there was nothing – only that there are two of them and there is only one of me.

So that’s a comfort – but nothing like as much of a comfort as knowing that it will work for anyone.,

The next Academy course is on September 3rd and there are still places available – just click the link above.

You know those kids who run across a railway line for a dare?

I was one of those. Heaven knows how I survived. Set me a challenge and I cannot help but rise to it. If you know your colours, you would call me a Red.

Now my company has set me a challenge. They want me to beat my “personal best” over the next month.  They want us all to do this – and right in the holiday season (which, quite obviously, is the whole point). It’s what is called “upping your game”

OK, so I will “up my game”. In theory this is easy to do. All you need is more appointments. So how’s this for a target: Make ten appointments in two hours using nothing but the prize draw.

For that, I reasoned, I would need a lot of people. I headed for the centre of Ipswich and embarked on what I call my “street theatre” performance – just saying the script over and over without pausing, just carrying on with the next person who comes into range. Not stopping for an instant. It’s a sort of scatter-gun approach – but I kept it up for an hour until my voice gave out. Then I rewarded myself with lunch in Mizu and went back for anther hour.

And look what happened: Not ten appointments but four and two callbacks (one of which has already turned into an appointment).

Interestingly, it turns out that the first half hour was by far the best (was I fresher and smiling more broadly?) Also lunchtime is clearly not so good with everyone having to dash back to work.

But here’s a thought: If I made a point of going into Ipswich every morning for half an hour, would I come away with three appointments and two callback every day?

Watch this space…

I’m a trainer for my company. This is fairly unusual in Network Marketing – that the company organises a formal training programme. Usually it’s up to individual leaders to look after that side of things. But with us the company shells out more than £1million a year trying to give every distributor the best chance of success. It’s not wasted – well, not all of it…

Let me explain:

Periodically we get assessed: That is to say one of the most senior distributors turns up unexpectedly to find out whether we’re still doing it the way we should be – and although I passed… just…I was found wanting in some areas. One of them was the state of my Mini.

I have mentioned before that the company gives us a brand new BMW Mini covered in garish logos. I am very proud of mine but along with other generally declining standards, I had not cleaned it before last weeks’ training session.

My other faults – since I seem to be in a confessional mood – included not being fully prepared when the delegates arrived, fiddling with my Blackberry and wandering around the room looking at the paintings on the walls while my co-trainer was presenting. All this this appeared on the “development requirements” column of the assessment – which, I will have you know, I take very seriously.

So the next morning I set out to remedy the Mini situation at the local car wash.

I was sitting in the car waiting to be dried and fiddling with my Blackberry (this is allowed in the Car Wash) when I became aware of someone standing beside me reading the outside of the car. I lowered the window: “D’you want one?” I asked.

He said: “What’s it all about?”

It turns out that he owns one of the local estates and thinks what I’ve got “sounds brilliant”.

Which proves that Network Marketing works even when you’re no good.

Apologies to all those at The Cold-Market Academy in Ewell today: I promised to talk about the planner but never did…

When choosing a planner I would suggest black leather, two loops for pen and pencil,  a month-to-a view and pockets at front and back for the prize draw forms, DVDs etc.

I got mine from Success Motivation International. It’s a franchise and Chris Williams used to be one of their franchisees, offering courses in personal management (some people would call it Time Management but you can’t manage time; it just keeps ticking away. All you can manage is yourself).

You can find other franchisees on Google.

Be warned: The LMI planner is expensive – and so are the refills but it is part of a complete system and comes with instructions. However you can buy something that looks much the same at any good stationers.

On the other hand what would it be worth to you if you found a way to use your time more effectively?

“£255,” said the jewellery salesman with the contrived nonchalance that comes from spending your day surrounded by absurdly small items costing a month’s wages.

£255 was indeed an absurd amount to spend on a ball-point pen. Of course this was not an ordinary ball-point pen. This was a Mont Blanc – and an engraved one at that. Engraving added another £20. I had no idea…

My company had presented me with the pen three months ago for being what they called a “Top Achiever”. In fact they gave me a fountain pen and a fibre-tipped pen as well. How much was the whole set worth?

“All engraved?” said the salesman. “About £900.”

I couldn’t believe it. How can a set of pens be worth £900?

More to the point, how could I have dropped the ball-point on the pavement while doing my prize draw – which was how I came to be buying a refill in shop where nothing in the window cost less than £2,000.

I came out shaking my head – not at the price. Or the fact that I could have been so careless. But because the company gives away dozens of these pens every year – on top of sending us on an £18,000 holiday … and the share options … and the rest. What on earth is the point of it all?

In the next half hour I found out.

Since I had been forced to come into Ipswich to buy the refill in the first place, it made sense to do my half an hour of prize draw in the town as well – my favourite spot was just down the road. I pulled out a form and a script, held up my planner and said to the the first person who came towards me: “Here you are, you can win a car or £10,000…”

Which seemed slightly surreal because only the day before, I had been at the other end of the country demonstrating it to a room full of people at The Cold-Market Academy. I remember looking at some of the faces in the audience and seeing expressions which said: “Yes, but you wouldn’t really do that…”

Oh yes I would – and again … and again.

If you are a graduate of The Academy you will know that we start off with a video showing how I used to do it – and how I used to get it wrong. In fact we had to speed up the video because it took me 22 minutes and 66 attempts to get one person to agree to enter the prize draw- and that was normal! Now I have a better script and it is hardly ever more than ten minutes or 20  people.

But on this occasion for some reason they kept on walking past. They said they were “all right thanks”. They said they were in a hurry. Some said nothing at all but walked past me as if I didn’t exist. It was a bit of a shock. Only 24 hours earlier I had been standing up and saying that this worked – that all anybody had to do if they wanted an appointment was stand in the street and say the same thing until someone gave them one.

I distinctly remember claiming it was infallible – that eventually you would get an appointment… anyone would get an appointment… the law of averages demanded it…

And yet the minutes ticked by and nobody stopped. Ten people ignored me – 20 ignored me. The little marks on the form where I record the numbers started to fill up all the space. I put circles round groups of ten so as to make it easier to count. They added up to more than 50.

For a moment there, a small morsel of doubt began to make its presence felt. I mean, if something’s not working, you don’t go on doing it do you?

I looked down at the form – at the little marks spreading across the white paper… at the beautiful, expensive pen which had made them…

And that was the point at which I realised why the company gives away pens costing £255. I didn’t even have to guess because there – staring me in the face, were the words “Top Achiever”.

That was me. I was a “Top Achiever”. So where did this doubt come from? If I was a Top Achiever, I was going to behave like one: From that moment on I started ignoring the people who ignored me. That is to say they no longer featured in my universe: I just carried on saying my ten-second script even if they had walked right out of earshot. I carried on while turning to the next person… and the next…

Sometimes there was nobody there at all but I just kept on saying the script. For the first time in the five years I’ve been doing this, I wasn’t reacting to other people. Instead I kept on saying my piece and it was up to the public to react to me if they wanted to.

Something very peculiar had happened. I had transformed from canvasser to street performer – and it felt terrific. Suddenly I was burning through the prospects: 50…60…70…the old…the young…it didn’t matter because I was in full flow and not stopping for anyone.

Which is how I came to be talking to the man with the enormous tattoo. It was so enormous that I could only see the top of it poking out of his shirt. Clearly it covered his whole torso and if I had to guess, it was Spiderman’s face.

Spiderman’s owner stopped. I carried on. His son stopped too. He had a snake crawling up his neck.

With a jolt, I stopped. They said: “What’s it all about? Then they entered the draw.

In fact they turned out to be really pleasant. They gave me an appointment for next Thursday. Together we retrieved the rest of the family (similarly decorated) from further down the street and established that Thursday was good for them too and I read the script once more.

As they walked off with their appointment slip and my phone number, I turned back to the form and counted up: 18 minutes and 73 “no’s”.

And here’s the question: Can anybody do that – even with the company’s standard-issue ballpoint which costs 25p and has a picture of a pig on it?

Well, on  Tuesday the Cold-Market Academy goes to Surrey. Maybe we’ll find out…