The "how-to's" in network marketing are simple. Really. All we do is show people information, using tools, and if they have questions, we get them on the phone with somebody else. We also attend events. In my company, it's ten hours a week, one Saturday a month, and three weekends a year. If you do it consistently and give it enough time, you can earn passive, residual income and time freedom for the rest of your life.
Well worth it and easy to do. So why doesn't everyone do it?
Fear.
People get hung up on hearing "no" and don't do the daily activities or stop doing them and they never get the freedom they say they want and could so readily obtain. It's fear of rejection and fear of failure that stops people. Successful network marketers feel that fear too, but do the activities anyway.
How do you do that? How do you move forward in the face of fear?
Well, one way is to focus on the activities and not the results. If you focus on doing two exposures today and you do them, you are successful no matter what the outcome. You know the law of averages works in your favor and if you do enough exposures, in time, you will recruit a lot of people.
But sometimes those results seem to be a long time coming and we can't help but look at our (lack of) results. What we can do, though, is change the way we think about those results.
Most people think of results in terms of "yes or no". It's a win or a loss, a zero sum game. Since most people say "no", that's a game that gets tiring to play. But if you change the paradigm from "yes or no" into something else, every exposure can be successful.
Every time you do an exposure, there are four possible results:
- They sign-up
- They want more information
- You decide you don't want them in your organization
- They go into your drip file
If they want to sign up (and we want them to–it's our choice, after all) that's a good result. If they want more information, that's also good; it means they're interested and the process continues. If you decide you don't want them in your organization, you're not failing or getting rejected, you are rejecting them. "Application denied!" Try it–it's fun!
That leaves number 4, "they go into your drip file." What does that mean? It means we have delivered the information, we want them in our organization, and they haven't yet said yes. They haven't yet said yes. Notice the wording. We're assuming that everyone will eventually join our organization–it's only a matter of time.
See, you can look at what they say as a "no" or you can look at it as a "not yet". Which one feels better? Which one is the mind-set of a successful Associate?
So we wait for them. We don't try to convince them. Convincing is hard and ineffective. If we talk them into joining, we'll just have to talk them into doing something, won't we? And when you try to convince, you get rejected a lot and you fail a lot. You push, they pull, you chase, they run.
No convincing. Just stay in touch with them until they are ready. Share more information, a little bit at a time, over a period of time. "Drip" on them with information and stories, the occasional article or new tool, news about your progress, until they tell you (1) They are ready to get started, (2) They want more information, or (3) You decide you don't want them in your organization.
Don't flood them with information; that's convincing. That will chase them away. Drip on them–a bit here, a drop there, spaced out over the ensuing months and years. Not convincing, not asking, just reminding them that you and the benefits you offer still exist.
See, it's not so much about the information, it's about the person. Today, they don't see what we see; tomorrow they might. If they're doing well at their job today, they might not be looking for an opportunity. Tomorrow they might get laid off and have a different perspective. Things can happen that change someone's readiness in the blink of an eye. Changes in health, job status, stock market holdings, a foreclosure or bankruptcy, the birth of a child. Or maybe little Johnny once again asks why daddy never comes to his soccer games and for the first time, daddy asks himself that same question.
Circumstances change and people change and your role is to be in front of them when they're ready for what you offer.
I've had Associates sign up seven years after I first approached them. I've had Associates do nothing for seven years and then get going. And I've had Associates drop out of the business and sign up all over again years later, when they were ready. Every single exposure I've ever made has been successful, and every one I make in the future will be, too.
They sign up, they want more information, we decide we don't want them, or they go into our drip file. Every exposure is successful.
Categories Network marketing/MLM, Prospecting & Recruiting by
"In the First World War, sailors whose ships had sunk floated around in lifeboats, cold and hungry, for days, sometimes for a week or so. Then they'd start to die. The mystery was that a greater proportion of the younger sailors died first.
"How could this be? The young mariners were fitter and should have lasted longer. Eventually it was realized that many older men had been sunk before, or knew a colleague who'd been sunk and had been rescued alive. Simply knowing that they'd been saved before reinforced the will to live. They knew there was a route to survival. They didn't fret or worry. They knew that hanging on to life worked.
"It was decided to brief all crew that they might be stuck in lifeboats for many days, yet that they would then likely be rescued alive. Survival rates soared."
From, "Living the 80/20 Way: Work Less, Worry Less, Succeed More, Enjoy More," by Richard Koch
This story helps explains why it's so much easier to succeed in network marketing (or franchising) compared to other kinds of businesses. In this industry, new people are surrounded by others who have had the success they seek. They can more easily believe they can succeed because there is plenty of "social proof" that they can. "These others did it, using the same tools and the same systems, so I know I can do it, too."
And when you believe you can, it is much more likely that you will.
That's why stories are so important. It's why going to the big events are so valuable. It's all about building belief.
W. Clement Stone, founder of Combined Insurance Company and publisher of the original "Success" magazine said, "What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve".
Paul J. Myer was a friend of Stone. Mr. Myer owns over forty companies and was a pioneer in the personal development industry. I have the following quote from him on my wall:
"Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe,
and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to pass."
Categories Network marketing/MLM, Personal Development by




