(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.
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