Network Marketing: If it's so good how come so many people fail?

Ever feel like you’re trying to give away a virus rather than answers to some of life’s problems? It’s crazy making isn’t it.

You feel so passionate about your business, because you know it works. You personally have had some success. Your upline is wildly successful. You know this can put financial freedom within reach.

What gives? This business isn’t really hard. All you have to do is make a list of everyone you know and go show them your product (it practically sells itself!). And then sign ‘em up. Start your home-based business today and fire your boss. It’s fun and no more corporate America. Own your own life.

I mean after all, it isn’t brain surgery? If they can fog a mirror they can do network marketing. For that matter, put a note in dog’s mouth and the dog can do this business! Anyone can do this business. It’s just the “three foot rule, “If they are within three feet talk to them!”

I heard this when I started my network marketing business. And 20 years later I still read and hear it. And though there is truth in these statements I cringe. This isn’t brain surgery and typically most people can do this. I do believe that Network Marketing is very much the “People’s Franchise.” And yes, it can be fun. It should be fun. And you can own your life.

But if the above is true, that anyone can do this business then let me throw out a few questions to you:

• Why it is so difficult sometimes to sponsor people into your

business?

• Why do so many who start a business have such a tough time

getting into action?

• Why is it so hard to keep those who do start a business in action?

There is a good chance I don’t know you. But if you are working a network marketing business there is also a good chance that I’ve tapped right into your experience... and if not your experience, I’ll guarantee you have downline who struggle with those three issues... and more!

Why is this so? Network Marketing does not deserve a bad rap.

• People do make money... lots of it. • This business offers people an opportunity to have just about

anything they want.

• You can fire your boss. • You can own your life. • It can be fun. • But it’s going to take more than a dog with a wagging tail or a

simple three foot rule to get you there.

Cause and Effect I’m not sure when I fully “got” that it was me and only me who was responsible for the life I live. I make decisions every day that cause things to happen in my life (or not happen). The changes may show themselves immediately, like going to Sicily and eating too many calories that translate into immediate pounds!

Some of my actions today may take a while to bring on their effects. For example a good strong sustainable marketing program may not give me the same immediate caloric results ;-) but in the long run it will strengthen my business and improve my gross financial earnings.

If I don’t like what is going on in my life, my job is to make different kinds of decisions, have different goals and take different actions. When I do, voila, new results!

We all know the definition of insanity. Keep doing the same things over and over and expect different results. Often it is recognizing that we need to do something different that opens our eyes to the possibility that a home based business may be the answer to change some of things we don’t like in our lives.

The firing your boss thing is real, in network marketing you are your own boss.

• No one tells you when to go to work. • No one determines what kind of money you make. • No one micro manages you. • You get to stay home with the kids.

So, if being your own boss means this kind of freedom, why do so many people who start a home based business quit– fail– or worse, never really get started? Why is network marketing so tough?

Corporate America, Yuk The answer is simple and it won’t be very popular. We don’t tell it like it is. After nearly 20 years in network marketing and then another six years coaching the network marketing industry

I believe we are responsible for our “not so stellar reputation” and it’s because we don’t tell it like it is.

This is what I mean.

As a business coach one of my goals is to get you to think like an entrepreneur. But I run into a fair amount of resistance, because of the notion that we don’t want to be like Corporate America. Somehow the idea that running your home business like a real business translates into “being like Corporate America” and that’s not okay. Beware of this. Be really careful if you’re a Corporate America ex-patriot or if you find yourself repeating the phrase “not like Corporate America,” that you don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Here’s what I mean by that.

So many times people come to me hoping for the “magic words” to get everyone to say “Yes.” But the big truth is there are no magic words. There only are excellent simple tools that make every working day productive.

But if that’s true, why do so many people seem to struggle in Network Marketing? Why does network marketing have the less than stellar reputation it has? The answer: We are often our own worst enemy.

Here is the deal folks, you cannot tell someone network marketing is like a winning lottery ticket... it isn’t, it’s a business.

What you can tell them is that it takes simple business foundations based on learning and fun to have the kind of life you want with network marketing.

I made my mind up when I was 23 (a lot of years ago) I didn’t ever want to be a part of Corporate America again. I didn’t want someone else to determine my future or tell me when to work or when not to work. So, I started out on my entrepreneurial path. But that didn’t mean that I jettisoned good solid business foundations. I just jettisoned the jerks and the nonsense rules.

Do you see the difference? All businesses need good foundational business tools. All businesses. That includes knowing when you’re going to show up for work and when the workday ends. Real brick and mortar business hours. The difference now; it is your business, you determine those hours. You also determine the hours you spend with your family – away from the business.

When we don’t give our downlines these basic business tools we have chaos and I’ve never known that to be a friend of business... or a desirable life.

None of this constant double tasking with the phone stuck to your ear. Or being like Pavlov’s dog and answering the phone every time it rings.

Think about that for a minute. Is the business you’re in so life- threatening you need to respond immediately every time the phone rings?

And yes, there are ways to create these boundaries without your team falling apart. In fact it will make it stronger. How attractive do you think it is to run your life around people calling you? hmmmm Now that you determine your future— you do own your life— it means having a clear idea of exactly what it is you’re going to do in the time that makes you money. Those activities (I call them money making activities) typically come out of a financial projection each month. Yes, I know Corporate America does financial projections and they hold people accountable to those projections. But just because big business does it doesn’t mean we don’t. It means we do it differently from them.

You have one of those life-changing choices here. You can put this article down now... or keep reading to see if you can get some of the angst out of your business by adding in a friendly way to turn your process from hobbyville to business.

First, you determine what kind of volume you need to generate in order to make the money you want to make. And then you determine the exact activity you need to do in order to make the money. This may sound difficult, but that’s only because you don’t have the simple steps under your belt. If you have a modicum of sense and a desire to have something you don’t have now, you can learn to do this and do it without the stress of Corporate America.

Now here is what’s funny about this. We often jettison tools like keeping a good clean calendar, real store hours, financial projections, goals, because they feel and look too much like Corporate America. After all we’re supposed to be having fun here and we’ve fired our boss.

And yet where is our attention? What question do we ask when we talk to our recruits, “Who did you sponsor this week? Or How much volume did you sell?”

No wonder so many people turn tail and leave. We create a major disconnect. We recruit with only half-truths. I refer to it as The Sin of Omission. Network marketing takes work, organization and entrepreneurial thinking for sustainable success. That doesn’t mean we have to do what Corporate America typically does, turn your working environment into a dog eat dog competitive arena with your focus on results results results. Do you see the difference?

There are ways to have good strong challenging financial goals and enjoy the process of each day as we walk through our daily lives. It all depends where your focus is. Just because we have a financial goal and the activity lined out to get to that goal, doesn’t mean we need to make ourselves nuts or put high pressure on ourselves (or our team) to achieve the financial results.

STOP here a moment to reflect on that. If your emphasis is:

• learning • having fun

... with everything you do in your business (or your life for that matter) what do you think happens to your results?

Do they go up or down?

You’re having fun and you’re learning. Is that a combination for success or for failure? How attractive is that?

I can promise if you’ll play all out you’ll take your results to the bank.

Five Steps To Work Smart (less) and Make Money In Network Marketing Ladies and gentlemen I’ve hammered hard in this article that we are the cause of our problems in network marketing, because we don’t tell our folks this is a business and it takes business tools. This doesn’t mean that we don’t work. I get that we do. Unfortunately, much of the work we do is trying to undo what we created... a poor business environment.

If you want your network marketing business to meet its potential then it’s time you work to your potential and coach your downline to do the same.

That doesn’t mean drudgery, hard work or hard discipline tactics. It simply means working with good simple business foundation tools... and using these tools as you coach your new recruits. The process of duplication will take care of the rest.

It is impossible for me to give you what I believe to be all the tools right here to run your business. But, if you will use these Five Steps every time you talk to anyone related to your business you will see huge changes. (I actually use these steps in all facets of my life and find that things really roll along smoothing when I’m diligent.)

The first thing we need to do is realize that the initial change comes from you. Before you can get better results with others you need to get better results from yourself.

At this point I loose some of you. “Oh no I have to do something. Yes you do. And if you’re not willing to make some changes stop reading now. Accept your business (and probably your life) is stuck right where it is. Because how you show up here is how you show up everywhere. There is no pixie dust here. For the rest of you who really want to turn your business around, make money and help others make money I do have some magic words (but no pixie dust).

OK Grab a pen— no don’t keep reading— grab a pen!

• Who are you calling? I never said these steps would be hard. But I know a good many of you won’t do this. Regardless of how many people say, “write it down” you don’t. It’s a simple thing to do— anyone of us can write down who we’re going to call. So I urge you— challenge you— be coachable and write down the names of those you’re going to call. Take a minute now and do this. (Now there’s a concept, do it now— not later— now.

Take a minute right now to take charge of your business. Can you imagine the CEO of IBM drawling, “Oh I’ll do it later.”) If your work- day is over and you’re reading this, make the list now for tomorrow.

The list will include every call you intend to make in your business tomorrow. That means new prospects, follow up calls, calls to your downline and calls you need to make to upline or support people. Oh go ahead— Make the damn list now. Not later NOW.

Some of you may be working off an “ever growing” contact list. You just keep adding names. That’s great. Now make a list off— of that list— of everyone you’re going to call tomorrow. Just those names and numbers you’re going to call tomorrow should be on that list.

• What are you going to say? Have you ever “practiced” what you were going to say in your head and you’re brilliant, only to find that when you have the conversation for real marbles fall out of your mouth?

Want to make sure that never happens again? Then don’t put that pen down. Now that you know who you’re going to call let’s think about what you’re going to say.

Write down a few ideas of what you want the end result of the conversation to be for every person you’re going to talk to.

Then write how you think you need to introduce the conversation. What are you going to say after you say, “Hello…”

Do you know people take more time to plan their vacation than they plan their business day? Why? It’s more fun to take a vacation? Maybe. But I’ll tell you this. Start planning your day and you’ll start to make money and show others how to make money. Then not only will your days be more fun, but so will your vacations (that’s plural).

Here is one of my observations. You are more likely to get exactly what you expect. What do you expect out of your business calls?

Do you think people will put you off?

Do you think people will be glad to hear what you have to say?

Do you have an end goal in mind?

Are you consciously moving the conversation in that direction?

Are you ready to find your authentic voice so everyone will at least listen to you?

• When are you going to call? The only reason to put that pen down is because it’s out of ink and you need another. That’s right. Get your calendar out and write down exactly—yes exactly— when you’re going to call them. Instead of saying, “I’m going to make calls for a couple of hours today.” Get your calendar and decide which couple of hours you’re going to make your calls. And block the time out.

Make an appointment with yourself. An appointment you’ll respect just like you respect the one you make with your doctor. You show up there right?

Show up here too.

As soon as you say, “I’ll make the calls after the kids go to bed.” Or, “I’ll make the calls later today.” You’re in trouble.

Because you haven’t made a clear decision of when you’re going to call. You haven’t decided exactly what time you’re going to work. That’s a huge problem in network marketing.

We don’t decide. We don’t make a conscious decision to get the action done. We don’t go to our calendar and give that action its very own time for it to happen. If you want your network marketing business to flourish (read make money) you need to give what you do in your business its very own time. Please note that this starts with “you” not your downline.

• How to Get People To Follow Through. This section like the others is really simple. You need to be clear about what your exact expectation is of the person your talking with... and they need to be clear about what you expect of them. That’s it. Let’s say you’re talking to someone who has expressed an interest in your business. You want to get them into action now. So, you ask them to check out your website, or listen to a call (recorded or live) or maybe they are going to join you at a live event. It doesn’t matter what it is.

What’s important is that they understand that they are agreeing to actually perform this action. The best way to do that is to make it their idea.

Watch how simple this is to do.

Give them choices. “John, would you like to get your next piece of information:

• from my website • or would you like to listen to a call (recorded or live)

• or would you like to join me at a class, event or…”

Just two or three choices. No more. They should be choices that can be accomplished in the next couple of days. Who is directing this conversation? You are. But who feels like he is making the decisions. The person you’re talking to.

Now, that piece about the person feeling they are engaged in the decision-making is really important. If the person you’re talking to is engaged in the process, they are much more likely to follow through.

This works just as easily with downline members too. Give them a couple of things they need to do when they first get started. You don’t have to pull up with your “dump truck” and unload. A couple of steps at a time that get accomplished is much more productive than overloading someone into overwhelm.

Keep it simple. I know most of you have a “getting started” booklet. But don’t throw that at your new recruit and expect much. Break that down into small bites.

Would you like to know how to be sure they are moving forward and getting their business started after your brilliant keep it simple training? Read on. Remember when I promised you no pixie dust but real magic— check out step five.

• Get a clear time for them to finish and follow- up with you. Ok what do we mean by getting a “clear time” to call someone back? It means an appointment just like the one you make with the doctor. A real appointment is made for a particular time. This step is paramount in making a change in how people relate to you. Make that exact appointment.

If you and I have just discussed that you are going to make your contact list of 100 people, my next comment will look like this:

"OK, Cindy, when can you get that list built? Can you do it today or do you need until tomorrow to get it done?"

What I’m doing is giving choices (closed ended questions) that always ask do you want this…or that. This gives the person you’re talking to some control in the process. They are enrolled, that is, active in the decision making process even though you are actually guiding it to the end you want.

In other words, who’s directing the conversation? You are. Who’s making the decision? She is. Everyone is a participant in the conversation.

Again, these kinds of choice questions are closed ended questions. Do you want to do this or that?

So when you tell me I can do it tomorrow (why do today what we can put off until tomorrow right?), I say:

"Great, let me get my calendar. Why don’t you get yours and let’s set a time for us to talk about your list." If you hear yourself say, great I’ll give you a call after dinner on Thursday, you have not made an appointment. Your doctor’s office doesn’t say, “Oh just come in anytime after lunch.” They make a firm appointment. (By the way why doesn’t your doctor’s office do that? It wouldn’t work would it? Neither will your business.)

If you want people to respect you as a business person you must treat your business with respect.

To book that appointment your conversation goes something like this:

"Great, what works best for you tomorrow during the day or the evening?"

They choose evening.

You say, "OK would that be before dinner or after dinner?"

They choose after dinner.

You say, "OK my calendar is free at 7:00 pm or 7:30. What does your calendar say, which works best for you?"

Again what you’re doing is give a couple of choices.

Your goal now is to get her to an exact time. An appointment is an exact time that both parties agree to.

She says, 7:30, and you say, "Great you’re in my calendar for 7:30 tomorrow evening."

You end with how excited you are to get them started.

Compliment them with specifics that you’ve noticed about them. Specifics that you think will help them in their business and then hang up. Stop talking.

This won’t stop all of your no shows or “I didn’t get to it yet’s.” But it will stop many of them. It will cut down on you calling the same person back two or three times (or more) to get one thing done. It will cut down on all your “telephone tag.”

In other words, you’ll work smarter not harder to make your network marketing business successful.

This week keep planning your day. Some say it takes 30 days to build a habit (personally I think it takes 90 days). Stay focused on this until it becomes part of your “normal routine.”

• Take a minute to decide who you are going to talk to.
• Determine what your intention for the conversation is.
• Pull that calendar out and write down what time you’re going to make the calls.
• Make sure you are clear what your expectation of the person you’re talking to is and that they are clear of what is expect of them! 5. Make a firm time specific appointment to call them back after they have completed their call to action.

If at this time you’re thinking these 5-Steps are a lot of work or finding some other reason why this won’t work... it’s pushy, it’s too personal, it’s... whatever, check out how they affected Heather’s business!

Jillian within the first three months of your Savvy Sponsoring program our volume went from $19.000 to $53,000. Your coaching program made an incredible impact on my life and my business because it brought out a better "me." That increased my sponsoring (it's that law of attraction :) and made me a more effective leader and trainer. Thanks to those “Five Questions” I now teach others to see and create their vision of who they want to be, do, or have and they stay in action.... Thanks Jillian! Heather Jaques

Copyright 2004-2006 www.SavvySponsoring.com Jillian Middleton is a Mentor Coach and Trainer, and author of the courses 5 Steps to Working Less and Making More in MLM and Setting Up Your Store Hours and Design Your Calendar .

As creator of the Savvy Sponsoring Strategies programs, Jillian trains network marketers and direct sales consultants the same strategies she used to build two 6-figure network marketing businesses in 5 years.

Get Your Free Report: The "5 Steps to Work Less and Make Money In Network Marketing" at www.SavvySponsoring.com If you would like to inquire about having Jillian speak at your next event, please send an email to speaking@savvysponsoring.com