Fending Off the Scatter Bomb

(The following information is taken from Your First Year in Network Marketing by Mark and Rene Yarnell.  I am providing you highlights in the next several blogs in hopes that you will be equipped to survive and thrive in your hardest year of your network marketing business – the first one.  Here are the highlights from Chapter 6.)

The Scatter Bomb is a mental explosion that obscures the focus of distributors, causing them to stop using the MLM system taught by their upline.  They are lured away from a proven system to try the latest, hotest MLM marketing guru’s system hoping it will help them succeed more quickly.

The Scatter Bomb is tricky because it is so deceptive.  It comes disguised as the ultimate new tool or as the perfect strategy for success.  The reality is however, that changing direction every time a new system comes along is one of the worst things a first year MLMer can do.

MLM is a business system built on duplication.  Our downline will do what they see us do.  So, if we diverge from what we know works, so will they, and this causes confusion. 

The best weapon against the Scatter Bomb is patience.  The key to success is duplicating what has worked for our upline and then training our frontline to do likewise.  Eventually, this will result in generating a solid income for everyone on our team who patiently follows the proven system.

New associates must be taught to earnestly duplicate our system and not deviate from it.  They need to know that the day that they deviate from it is the day that they lose our support.  It’s that important.  If our associates are unwilling to duplicate one simple system that has proven itself elsewhere, they are destined  for failure.

Business Without Blinders

The Scatter Bomb also refers to the difficulty that new associates have in maintaining a clear vision of where they are going and how they are going to get there.

It is essential that new associates put on the proverbial ‘blinders’ during their first year in MLM.  Again, consistency in duplication of the proven system prevents confusing our entire downline and helps all of us move toward success.

Achieving our MLM goals is a process of getting accustomed to a new and better reality and quality of life.  We need to stay focused on the end result while:

1. Preserving our belief that it will happen

2. Blocking negative influences

3. Refusing to worry about how it will happen

Changing the System Midstream

There will be a temptation to change the system of recruiting ever so slightly because we think we know what’s best.  If we think this way, so will our associates.

New associates, especially those who have been successful in other businesses, think that they know more than their sponsors and those who have achieved MLM success.  In fact, the greater their leadership skills, the more likely they will want to invent new systems.

The best way to prevent new associates from deviating from the proven system is to anticipate their ideas in training.  Warn them of the danger of the Scatter Bomb.

Emphasize that MLM begins with relationships and requires numerous contacts and tenacious follow-through.  One of the aspects of the system that most new associates will want to change is the numbers of people they need to have on their warm list and then their goal for associates.  Associates will want to aim for lower numbers because they seem more realistic and achievable. 

We need to stress that any deviation from the system can result in failure.  Warning them of the Scatter Bomb during a relaxed training session will help us later when we need to constructively correct them if they start to deviate from the system.

The Lure of Other MLM Deals

We can expect that we and our downline will be approached at some point with other MLM opportunities.  The authors of this book claim that they have never met someone who has successfully built more than one downline at the same time.  It takes every bit of focus and effort we’ve got to reach the top payout of one solid MLM company.

Here’s the reality:  the trickledown theory works better in MLM than in economics.  Teach our leaders anything and if it works, everyone in our organization will learn it rapidly.

Success comes through PERSEVERANCE!

Associates who have remained with one company for many years, and have built new legs in each of those years, become very wealthy.  Those who think that the grass is greener with another company’s compensation plan learn the hard way that lasting wealth can only be realized through long-term participation in one company.

Diffusion by Other Leaders

It is often wiser to recruit new associates who have no prior MLM experience.  These folks are easier to train.  They do not enter our business with the mindset of having all the answers, and they are more likely to learn and stick with our system.

During initial training sessions, we need to promise our new associates that we will (1) never keep helpful information from them, and (2) we will never allow them to make errors that, experience has taught us, will cause failure. 

We need to reassure them that we want to see them succeed, and because of this, we need them to trust us by following the proven system of success.

Why is implementing a new system so detrimental?  It puts everyone back at ground zero, and it will take months for folks to become proficient at the new system.  In the meantime, valuable time and momentum are lost.

Diffusing the Scatter Bomb

The old adage, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time,” is so true.  Some of our associates will need our help learning to devise a weekly and daily action plan that will move them toward their goals.  Doing so, will help keep them focused and on track toward success.

For some folks, time itself is the issue.  We need to show them how to evaluate their day in the morning and then to plan their MLM work into the nooks and crannies of their day.

Being a Team Player

MLM is a team business.  Those who seek to fly solo will crash and burn quickly.  Success in MLM can be pared down to a few simple steps:

1. Envision the unlimited possibilities and shape our vision around the vast opportunities MLM offers.

2. Develop a game plan broken down into specific, measureable steps toward building our business and improving our character.

3. Get moving; don’t procrastinate; just DO it!

4. Generate an open dialogue with our mentors for our personal growth and development while giving honest feedback to our downline.

Attacking the Warm List Warhead

(The following information is taken from Your First Year in Network Marketing by Mark and Rene Yarnell.  I am providing you highlights in the next several blogs in hopes that you will be equipped to survive and thrive in your hardest year of your network marketing business – the first one.  Here are the highlights from Chapter 5.)

The most critical months for every new MLM associate are the first six months.  During these formative and impressionable months, patterns of success must be firmly established in their minds. 

Few associates will survive their first year in MLM if they misspend their first few weeks.  The authors believe that MLM’s high attrition rate is the result of the seeds of failure sown in the early stages. 

The foundation of every MLM business is the creation of the warm list.  This is made up of the group of people from our past and present whom we know well enough that if we called them they would recognize our voices before they heard our names.

Our warm list is not only made up of people that we know but also of people with whom we would like to forge a lifetime business relationship.  Our warm list is what makes us unique from everyone else in our business. 

The longer our warm list, the more solidly we will be able to establish our business.  The authors recommend making a list of 2,000 that we personally know.  Then, we should select our top 25 people with whom we would most enjoy being in business. 

(Email me if you would like a copy of their memory jogger list.)

The Warm List Warhead Strikes

These warheads are the excuses offered up by associates for not contacting folks on their warm lists.

First Warhead: Lack of Conviction

To be successful our MLM business, we need to have such a firm conviction that our MLM business can produce financial and time freedom that we can’t help but share it with people.  If we lack such conviction, we will hold back from sharing with people.

Some folks offer the excuse, “I’m waiting to call my friends until I am really making money.”  The solution for this is to rely on the testimony of our upline’s success when sharing our MLM with our friends.

Each of us has a chicken list.  These are the folks that we perceive as successful in their careers with whom we think we need to wait to approach them until we are more educated, making more money, and working our MLM business full-time.  The problem is that while we wait to share our business with them, someone else is, and they are likely joining up with someone else much to our chagrin!

Second Warhead: Lack of Self-Esteem

Some new MLMers think that the folks on their warm list don’t respect them enough to listen to an MLM presentation.  Our greatest fear is their rejection.

The reality is that our greatest challenge with these folks will come when they see our success and then get angry with us for not sharing the business with them.

If they do resist seeing our presentation, we should simply emphasize up front that the choice to join us is completely theirs, but we just want to give them all of the information that they will need to make a strong decision.

Third Warhead: Fear of Losing Credibility

Professionals sometimes fear acknowledging their participation in MLMs for fear of losing credibility with their colleagues.  However, the truth is that when a highly respected professional joins an MLM organization, the floodgates start opening for others to join as well. 

More times than not, ordinary folks are the ones that become the ‘big hitters’ in the MLM world.  This is one of the things that makes MLM so great – anyone can be successful no matter their career background.

If we don’t show our prospects how completely convinced we are about our MLM business, we will fail.  Even if we are convinced about our MLM business, but we fail to share it with our other work associates, we will miss out on signing up some of our best warm list people.

Fourth Warhead: Embarrassment from Prior Failure in MLM

This is actually a legitimate concern, but here’s how to overcome it.  We need to share with them that we have now accumulated enough information and experience in MLM, that we can confidently share this new opportunity with them.  Turn past failures into assets of experience.

Fifth Warhead: Qualifying the Leads

Traditional sales and marketing reps are taught to always qualify their leads.  Because anyone can succeed in MLM, qualifying our leads can result in missing out on potential MLM superstars.

Do not under any circumstance; attempt to assess in advance who is qualified, interested, and approachable and who is not.

Sixth Warhead: Conflict of Interest

Some folks, like Pastors, refrain from recruiting their warm list because of a perceived conflict of interest.  This can be a real issue that needs to be carefully considered.

The best way to overcome this issue is for us to never prospect on the job.  Rather, we should seek out contact with these folks in the normal course of life.  We should state that what we want to share with them is completely separate from our other career and then seek to set a time to meet away from their traditional business setting.

Target Marketing

It can be helpful to prioritize our warm list be using target marketing. This involves focusing our prospecting efforts on selected groups of folks on our warm list who might be open to  (1) the business opportunity, part-time replacement income, and/or tax deductions; or (2) our product or services.

Organizing our Follow-up Call File

This can be done via computer spreadsheet or by using a card filing system.  In either case, write the contacts name and phone number.  Then, note the date called along with a phrase that will help you recall the essence of the conversation.  Lastly, indicate the date of future contact.

Never ever throw away contacts until they become associates or you attend their funeral!

Success Results More from Attitude that Ability

Our biggest asset is enthusiasm!  We are not salespeople or recruiters; we are educators.  It is our job to teach as many people as possible that there is a better way to live and to earn a residual income. 

The only real way to do this is to learn to set appointments and show 100% of the plan.  In our initial contact, we are to seek to peak their curiosity rather than satisfy it.  Then, we share our enthusiasm and set a time to show them the whole presentation.

“A person convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” 

We must not waste time showing the presentation to anyone until we have sifted for interest first.  After sharing our enthusiasm and seeing if they are interested; then, we set an appointment.

SW Rule

Some Will

Some Won’t

So What

Because Someone else is always Waiting

Ask for Referrals

Ask for referrals.  This will help us replace every No with a new prospect, and as a result, our warm list will never run out.