The Network Marketing Blog

Archive for March, 2017

I must say it is rather gratifying to see my book MLM, Network Marketing and the Secret of the Free Prize Draw, has now been bought by Network Marketers in the USA, Germany, Canada, Brazil – and now Japan… as well as the UK.

Still only one review, though – I just wish it wasn’t credited to “Kindle Customer”. People will think it’s me…

So I had been promoting my Network Marketing business by the fish kiosk for very nearly half an hour. Three forms filled in (one appointment), number four just giving her name and address…

When this lot turned up.

Sometimes you need to know when you’re beaten…

You know when you’re addicted to a Free Prize Draw in the street: You start at 4.54 in the afternoon…

That’s just the way the day panned out. If you saw my Facebook post yesterday you’ll know that I got kidnapped by my 16-year-old daughter for a completely unnecessary school run followed by my 19-year-old son needing me in the passenger seat while he drove to his school for one lesson (and then back  90 minutes later) – and what with the dog to walk and the dentist, you can understand that the time slipped away.

But we had a count-up the other day and in the last year, I have filled in 1,123 prize draw forms for my Network Marketing business (it must be over 1,200 by now). So if the late afternoon arrives without any more filled in, the Fish Kiosk starts calling (if you’ve been following this for any length of time – or have seen the videos on the MLM Prize Draw tab above – you’ll be familiar with the Fish Kiosk).

Anyway, that’s where 4.54 found me (wrote it on the corner of the first form) and within a minute a woman with a shopping bag came clopping along heading for the car park. In fact, she appeared so quickly that I was still shuffling paperwork which meant I could wave a sheet in her direction – always a good move: “Here you are, you can win a Hamper or £20. We just put your name in a hat…”

I swear we must have been there for ten minutes. If we’d had glasses of Pino Grigio in our hands we couldn’t have been more companionable. Absolutely yes, she definitely thought her phone bill was too much – especially with all the broadband and whatnot… and would she like to save 25% off on her other household bills… well, yes it was a bit of a leading question… I mean, who wouldn’t and would she like an extra income? Or a new car? Well, she didn’t mind if she did…

But no sooner had we got to paragraph three of the Magic Minute than the light dawned: “I know what this is…”

And she said the name of the company (which of course I’m not allowed to say here).

Exactly right. And how long had she been a member? And was she happy?

And this is what is so great about the prize draw: If I ring up existing customers and check that they’re happy and ask if there is anyone they can recommend, they consider the call as a bit of an intrusion – not really much better than those people who ring up from somewhere in the Middle East pretending to be from Microsoft so they can steal all your money and then spend it trying to blow you up.

But in this situation with the Fish Kiosk and the imaginary Pinot Grigio, everything was different. She promised to call her friend who she was sure would be interested – and her son who’s just moving house…

And when she finally moved on – with protracted goodbyes – it wasn’t five minutes before Sandra turned up. Now I know Sandra, although I didn’t recognise her at first: “I went grey,” she said. “and decided it was better to go blonde.” We had a lot to catch up on – I don’t suppose we’d seen each other since our children were at nursery school

And she too recognised what all this was about – and as can happen if you don’t work hard enough on building your list – it turned out that she had been signed up by someone else. She couldn’t remember who but it was years ago and she wouldn’t dream of leaving the club: “I’m constantly amazed at how small my bills are – and then there’s the CashBack. I really like the CashBack…”

– And would she mind calling three friends to ask if they would like a call from me?

Well, of course she would – and that was before I told her the company would reward her if they joined – and reward her again every Christmas as long as they remained members…

You would think that she had won the Lottery.

I  must confess to a smile as she walked off (on her mission to spread the word, it seemed). I have colleagues who say they couldn’t possibly do this – stand in the street being ignored by passers-by – enduring the sneers of those people who look down on canvassers.

Maybe it’s all down to mindset. Maybe I’m just lucky.

But I tell you: I wouldn’t miss it for the world.