The Network Marketing Blog

Posts Tagged ‘money’

“Here you are. I always give one of these to the person behind me in the petrol queue…”

The man behind me took the Piggy card. He looked at it.

“It’s about money,” I said brightly. “Are you interested in money?”

“A bit.”

Nobody had ever said that before. Usually they say: “Always interested in money.”

But “A bit”?

I was so non-plussed, I didn’t pursue it. It was only when we returned to our cars that I saw his point. His was a Reliant Robin.

Thankfully I climbed into my shiny Mini and set off for the training in St Albans. I had left far too much time for the journey and had an hour to kill in the Novotel so I went up to the bar, bought myself a Mineral Water and said to the man next to me: “I always give one of these to the person next to me at the bar…”

He looked at it. “It’s about money,” I said brightly. “Are you interested in money?”

“Always interested in money.”

Ah!

So I am pleased to report that the laws of nature are still functioning. In fact it turned out that they were functioning particularly well. My new friend was staying at the hotel on a three day course for trainee double glazing salesmen. Very soon I was giving my presentation to seven of them.

Silence.

The morning Twitter abhors silence.

This is when a bunch of us get together on a telephone conference call at 6.28 in the morning and talk about what we’re going to do during the day to complete our Business Development Plans.  Today  Christine Wise was the moderator. Already she had invited three people to share their plans but she wanted more.

“Is anyone out there?” she kept saying. But all she got was an electronic hum down the wire. In the end I thought I’d better say something.

Now I don’t normally contribute. I like to listen (I think that makes me a “lurker”) but as a rule at that time of the morning, I don’t much feel like talking. However nobody else was going to, so…

“This is John in Suffolk.”

And what would I be up to today? Christine wanted to know.

I explained that what with the Business Training to do in Norwich, it would be just the basic 50 cards. But I felt I had to add something so I explained that in my small town, I was finding that some people had already had a card. So now I offered them with the words: “Have you had one of these yet?”

Which turns out to be great because it demands an answer – usually another question: “What is it?”

And since people have asked, I have to tell them.

“What do you say?” said Christine.

“It’s about money.”

“Great,” said Christine (Christine is one of those perennially enthusiastic people who do so well in this business. To her everything is “great”. But in fact, thinking about it afterwards, just saying “it’s about money” is a wasted opportunity – and, anyway, that’s not all I say. In fact I go on: “You can save money or you can make money. Which would you prefer”

… and then: “If you’d like to know how it works, it takes me 35 seconds to tell you. When would you have  35 seconds?”

But, as I say, none of this came out on the call – and so off I went to Norwich, thinking I had some unfinished business to deal with before the day was out.

Actually there’s a can of beans there: Just as I was leaving, Tamsin reminded me I had offered to collect  our seven-year-old from school, give him tea and take him to his tennis lesson. But if I was going to be in Norwich instead, then she was going to have to get back from Ipswich early which thoroughly mucked up her plans. This is the sort of domestic juggling act we all have to contend with (and  I seem to struggle with).

So all of this left me even more unfinished business at the end of the day: Not only would I have a stack of cards still in my pocket but I would need to find some flowers and a sit down to write a suitaable apology. I had just under an hour before my 8.00 p.m. appointment with the neighbours who said “No” three years ago (they said “yes” this time, by the way)

So that was how I  found myself pushing a bunch of oriental lillies round Tescos and dispensing the rest of the cards. I was down to the last doozen – I had reached the stage when the elastic band no longer holds them together. I had been through the checkout and paid for my flowers. I could have gone home and shifted the last twelve tomorrow. But I knew Christine would never do that – and also, I knew that I was going to have to confess all in this blog. So I had to give out the last of them whether I liked it or not.

There were three people waiting for their prescriptions at the pharmacy: “Here, have one of these….”  I said to one.  “We seem to be of a similar sort of age, have one of these.” I told another, ” It worked for me…”

The last had his son with him: “You’ve got children. I always give one of these to people with children…”

He looked at me hard. He took the card, and he looked at that hard.  Then he studied my badge – and finally he turned his back and went off with the assistant to find his off-the-shelf medicine. But suddenly he called over his shoulder: “I’ll be back in a minute.”

So I waited for him – and it appears that this wait – and not giving up on the last dozen cards… and all the other little disciplines that had led to this moment – may have born spectacular fruit.

My new friend returned, still brandishing my card and said: “OK then, what’s it all about…”

So I told him. It took me 35 seconds. And it turns out that he is interested in making money – very interested. In fact what he said was this: “I run a finance company.  Also I have a drainage cbusiness and I invest in property – and I’ll look at anything else that makes me money.”

So now we’re meeting in Costa’s  In Ipswich on Monday.

And now you know why I get up so early in the morning.