At the risk of stating the obvious, in order to build business, you need to work at it. It amazes me how often I come across distributors who do nothing or very little work, but somehow expect to make money! We call our business "network marketing", not "notwork marketing". 

You are probably aware of the 3 main, distinct areas of our business, each with their own skill set. There is some overlap in these skill sets, but let's take a look at some of the things we can learn to grow our businesses and increase the rate of growth.

Every new distributor needs to start by creating a retail business. If you have been in the business for a while and don't have regular retail customers, it is time for you to re-focus on this part of your business. Selling product is the whole purpose of MLM, not just recruiting, as important as it is for our businesses. I was recently asked  by someone how much we pay distributors for each new recruit. Well, any MLM company that pays their distributors for recruiting, should be avoided at all costs, no matter how much money and potential earnings they predict for you, because this amounts to being a Ponzie scheme or that dreaded pyramid scheme which many uninformed people accuse us of being involved in. Remember, the ultimate goal of the company and every distributor, is to sell as much product as we can. Our bonuses are based on how much product we and our networks move. Don't expect your network to go out and sell up a storm to make you rich, while you concentrate on recruiting as many new slaves as you can. "Do what I say, not what I do" does not work. Lead from the front, learn the skills and increase your income by building a good, strong retail business.

Over the years I have asked many struggling distributors which part of the business they find the most challenging. The almost unanimous answer is "recruiting". It's interesting that most of these distributors don't have much, if any, kind of retail business either. To me this is an indication that they find retailing just as challenging as recruiting, but consider recruiting to be a problem purely on the basis of their fear of recruiting. Recruiting quickly becomes the most fun, enjoyable and fulfilling part of the business for successful distributors. For that to happen, you need to develop the necessary skills, competence and confidence. This is achieved as much in your head as by practical experience. This skill is important not only for your own first level , but is essential in building your second and even third generation of distributors. You have an obligation to teach your distributors how to recruit, and you can't teach what you don't know. It is also good practice to recruit with someone. Recruiting 2 on 1 has many advantages and will increase your success rate significantly.

Recruiting without mentoring your new recruits is going to make it almost impossible for your distributors to succeed. you would have to rely on the off-chance that you will find a self-starter who has all the necessary skills to be successful. There are people like that out there, but you are unlikely to find one who is willing to look at the opportunity you are offering, because they will probably be too busy using all those skills and being successful somewhere else. The rest of the poor souls you recruit and send out there will become cannon fodder to aggressive prospects, rejection, ignorance, lack of skills, and incompetence. It's just not fair.

There is plenty of information available from the company, in books and on the internet about all of these aspects of your business. Remember that this is your business. It needs to be run like a business. It takes effort and tenacity to be successful. All worthwhile careers require you to know what you are doing. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, electricians, plumbers, sales people, all spend time and good money on their education before expecting to be competent and successful at their jobs. MLM is exactly the same. You need to spend time and effort to educate yourself before you can legitimately expect to be successful. Don't just rely on your sponsor to spoon feed you. Learn as much as you can from as many sources as you can, not just your sponsor. I have seen sponsors give bad advice due to their own ignorance or greed or incompetence. Invest time and effort to educate and inform yourself.   The more information you have from various sources, the easier it becomes to sift the good from the bad. There are many techniques and strategies, not all universally suitable for every distributor. The more you learn, the greater the chance of finding what works for you.

Your business will grow no faster than you do. I love this business!

Our distributors have raised many questions they would like to have help answering. I will address those questions in my blog post, in the meantime, get a load of this!

When doing a Business presentation, we need to think about what questions the prospect may have in mind. Giving information which is not important to your prospect simply clouds the water and creates confusion. Too much information is more detrimental to your presentation than too little. At least if there is too little, they can ask for more information.

Is it important for a prospect to know all about all of the amazing products, the awesome founder and president, the incredible marketing plan with all its levels and percentages, the millions of aloe plants in the Dominican Republic being fertilised and weeded by such cute and friendly goats? Nope, I don't think so! Everyone you speak to has at least three questions in their mind:

1. What kind of business are you in?

 This needs a carefully crafted answer so that your prospect has a clear idea of the nature of the business. I don't mean something like "I'm in Network Marketing", that little phrase will bring down the shutters in an instant! Just watch the eyes glaze over. How about "I am in the health and wellness business." Better, but still not good enough. You could be a personal trainer, a doctor or nurse, or even a garbage collector. You need to be concise and clear. Maybe you could say "I am in the health and wellness business and we have a range of Aloe products that make people look 10 years younger in weeks". See the difference? Nothing vague or potentially deceptive.

2. How much money can I make?

Before you can answer this question, you need to know what their expectations are. Are they looking for a little extra spending money, or are they wanting to quit their job and have a great lifestyle. Getting this wrong will ensure that they walk away. If you don't know what their expectations are, ask them, and tell them that's what they can expect to earn. Our business can provide whatever you prospect is prepared to work for. Inflating the numbers will not increase your chances of recruiting your prospect.

3. What do I have to do to make money?

This is a pivotal question and you need to answer it clearly so that you prospect can make an intelligent and informed decision. Tailor the answer to their income expectations. If they are looking to earn an extra $300, you can say something like "You need to find 20 people who want the glowing health and vitality provided by our Aloe Gel." Use your favourite product in an example of what they have to do. If They are super ambitious, craft your answer accordingly and make it clear and simple.

Remember that your prospect will not ask these questions, but they will be in his/her mind and need to be answered. If they turn down the opportunity, it will be because they are making an informed choice and neither of you need to waste any more time playing cat and mouse games. If they like what they hear, you have a new team member!

How long do you think it will take to do this presentation? It should certainly not be any more than 60 seconds. Use this outline do create your own One Minute Presentation or Elevator Pitch, they work and are heaps of fun to do!

Here are two sentences you can use to get someone to beg you to give them your brand new One Minute Presentation.

1 "I can give you a complete presentation, but it would take a complete minute."

2 "When could you set aside a whole minute?" Of course the answer is almost invariably "how about right now?"

Once you have signed up your new distributor, they can start learning about all the other wonderful things mentioned earlier. They don't need all that information to make a decision.

Many of these ideas come from the amazing Tony "Big Al" Schreiter, a great MLM trainer. He is also well known for his snappy one-liners which can be useful in grabbing attention. Here are some you can use as email signature lines, email subject lines, or even in everyday conversations to make people sit up and take notice. Enjoy!

"Are you married to your job or are you open-minded?"
Here are some headlines to help you start your creative process:

* How To Make Your Boss Cry In Three Easy Steps.

* Don't Make This $10,000 Mistake Tomorrow Morning.

* How To Make Every Day A Saturday.

* I Wish I'd Thought Of That!

* Does Your Boss Laugh Every Time You Ask For A Raise?

* My Parents Kicked Me Out Of The House - I Was Making Too Much Money.

* If You Don't Think Your Future Is Worth $300, Then I Don't Either.

* Stop Allowing Your Job To Steal Your Life.

* When Is Your Next Pay Raise? How About Tomorrow?

* The Three Words That Your Boss Fears.
. How to work half days and get full-time pay.

* How to spend an extra three hours with your children every day.

* I show people how to retire five years early -- but at full pay!

* Take a six-month vacation, twice a year!

* How to get $300/month raise without having to ask your boss.

* How to fire your boss and start your own business.

* How to get a 25% raise and never have to commute again.

* Click here to see a picture of my boss' face when I told him I quit.

* Click here to see a picture of the new car I won.

* Click here to see how much weight I've lost this month.
* How To Make Your Boss Cry In Three Easy Steps.

* Don't Make This $10,000 Mistake Tomorrow Morning.

* How To Make Every Day A Saturday.

* I Wish I'd Thought Of That!

* Does Your Boss Laugh Every Time You Ask For A Raise?

* My Parents Kicked Me Out Of The House - I Was Making Too Much Money.

* If You Don't Think Your Future Is Worth $300, Then I Don't Either.

* Stop Allowing Your Job To Steal Your Life.

* When Is Your Next Pay Raise? How About Tomorrow?

* The Three Words That Your Boss Fears.
* How To Get An Extra Paycheck Every Month - Legally!

* The Get-Rich Plan For People Over 40.

* I Knew He Was A Maniac, But He Was Right About One Thing!

* 3 More Reasons Not To Work For Your Overpaid Idiot Boss.

* Become More Popular - By Becoming Rich.

* Stop Paying The Maximum Tax On Your Paycheck.

* Work Part-Time, Live Full-Time.

* How To Call In Sick Seven Days A Week.

* Leave Your Boss A Good-Bye Note.

* Work For 50 Weeks. Vacation For Two Weeks. Is That Fair?

* Why Some People Don't Care If They Get Fired.

* The Secret Paycheck You Didn't Get.

* Would You Rather Have A 3-Day Workweek?

* Here Is How To Make Your In-Laws Jealous.

* Can An Employee Become Rich? -- Nah.

Be sure to look for other great ideas from Tom "Big Al" Schreiter.

Success

Today I thought I would begin with some quotes I have collected which express some real wisdom, and then see how we can turn them into something useful, rather than just some clever quips.

"Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be." George Sheehann

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." Winston Churchill

"Imagination is the workshop of the mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishments and wealth." Napoleon Hill

"Visualise every goal as a reality every day. Make it real in your imagination, and you will make it real in your life." D. L. Preston

"The more positive you are when you think and work toward your goals, the faster you achieve them." Brian Tracey

"Success: No magic formula. You gotta be willing to put in the work for it. Consistent, hard work." Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

"Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction." John F. Kennedy

"Visualise the thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin." Robert Collier

"What you think, you create. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you become." Adele Basheer

"Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success." Swami Vivekananda

"Action is the foundational key to all success." Pablo Picasso

"Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity. Successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results." William James

"Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success." Dale Carnegie

" The real secret of success is enthusiasm." Walter Chrysler

"Success is the progressive realization of predetermined, worthwhile, personal goals." Paul J. Meyer

"Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement." W. Clement Stone

"Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success." Swami Sivananda

"Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." Napoleon Hill

These truisms can serve as a powerful tool in our efforts to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves to move us towards our ultimate lifestyle. Carefully read through these quotes and select two or three that really resonate for you, or if you have some favourites, use those. Write them down or print them for frequent reading and read them in the morning sometime, convenient for you, and again several times during the day. Use your imagination to picture yourself as if you have reached your ultimate goal. Imagine how you will feel, what you will be doing, what your home, car and clothes will look like. Make it as real as you possibly can.

Doing this will serve to motivate and inspire you to do what needs to be done to get there. It will create excitement, direction, determination and the persistence necessary for success. This is an extraordinarily powerful tool for success. Besides all that, it is great fun!

Always remember that this opportunity is REAL. It has been proven over and over and over. There is no room for doubt, those who have made it work are there for us to see, to talk to and to emulate!

I absolutely love this business!

What is it that we do?

Many of us have been asked what we do or what our jobs are. We need to think carefully about our answer so that we can create some curiosity and interest in order to open the door for an opportunity to recruit. I have some suggestions, but first I want to look at what it is that we really do.

You may have noticed that I like to keep things simple and in that tradition let's drill down to the real basics. Our one and only purpose is to solve problems, other people's problems in particular. If your prospects or customers do not see a solution to a problem or a need in what you have to offer, there will be no deal. It makes sense then, that we do not offer solutions (business/product presentations) until we know what their needs are. In order to discover their needs, we need to ask questions and then we need to listen. Their responses should raise more questions until you are sure that you really do understand their needs and whether you have a solution or not. This conversation also gives you the opportunity to decide whether you think you could work with them or not. Yes, sometimes it is not a good idea to recruit someone, so don't desperately sign up everyone you can persuade to sign a distributor application form.

The questions you ask are important, but the answers are much more important, which means that you should be listening far more than talking. Listening obviously helps you get information, but it also helps to form a bond of trust with your prospect. As strange as it may seem, listening is a far more powerful tool for connecting with others than a lot of talking. If you do all the talking during this phase of the process, your prospect will....(yawn)....become bored and you will give the impression that this is all about you rather than the prospect.

So, if our role is to solve problems, it makes sense that our presentation or pitch or whatever you want to call it, should address their specific needs. This means that we can't do the same presentation over and over without adapting it to make it relevant to your prospect. That would be like trying to sell ice to an Eskimo, when they have just told you that they desperately need a new hunting knife. Being able to tailor make your presentation is not as scary as many seem to think, it just means that you need to know your business and products. If you know what you are talking about, you will have a lot more knowledge in your head than you could possibly put into words in the time you have to do an effective presentation, but it does mean that you have all the information you need to provide a customised solution to your prospect's need. Some of you know that I am not a great believer in spending much time explaining the compensation plan during a business presentation. The reason for this is that I have never come across a prospect who was likely to see the comp plan as a solution to their problems. All they need to know is that they will be compensated for work done by those they help, the intricacies around how that is calculated is irrelevant at this stage.

What a way to make money! Your job is to help people. Rex Maughan often talks about how important it is to love your clients and your distributors so that you always have their interests at heart, which will guarantee you success.

So back to the implied question we started with. What do you say when asked what it is that you do? Now that WE know what we do, we can formulate our reply. First, some basic principles. Your answer must be truthful. If you start with a deception, what chance do you think you have of gaining their trust, that essential ingredient for success? There are definitely some words we should avoid because they immediately bring the shutters down because of the perceptions they create. Some of these words are “opportunity”, “network marketing”, “MLM”, and of course, “selling”. So we need to be honest and to avoid these words. It also needs to be comfortable for you. Hopefully some of the following suggestions will help you formulate your own answer. Some of these ideas will not stand on their own as they will come across as being evasive, as if you have something to hide, they need to be combined with other statements so that they make up an acceptable answer.

In one of our FLP training videos, the question is answered with something along the lines of “I establish sales networks for health and beauty products.” Notice how variations of two of the “don't use” words are actually effectively used. The reason why they work is because they are used in a way which actually distances the speaker from the actual selling and networking.

Here are a few more ideas for you to use, adapt, mix and match to formulate your own reply.

“I own a business that teaches people how to earn additional income outside of what they are currently doing.”

“ I help people create more time, freedom, and money in their life.”

"I teach people how to make more money on a part-time basis than they do full-time at their job. Do you know anyone who may be interested?" or “Has anyone ever taken the time to show you how to do that?"

“I put people on the fast track to retirement, I save them money and help them retire up to 15 years early.”

“I am a Success Coach and I help people to have better health and to develop a growing income from home.”

“I help home business based entrepreneurs make money.”

“I own a business and teach people how to earn additional income.”

“I work with a team of millionaires that help people to create financial and time freedom.”

Here are a few ideas that I personally find a bit flippant and can't see them working for me, but if you like them, by all means use them. They could work for a specific kind of prospect.

“I am in the business of getting paid while I sleep”

“I have fun, drink coffee, and make money. Would it be worth a few minutes of your time to have a coffee and see if it's something you can do?”

Hopefully some of these ideas will work for you and perhaps trigger some ideas of your own.

I absolutely love this business!

Confidence

Those of you who have attended some of my training meetings or have read my article in the latest Forever Australia/New Zealand newsletter, will know that I believe that trust is a vital part of success in our business. If your prospective customers or distributors do not trust you, they will not do business with you. In order to be trusted, you need to be seen as being 1. Competent. 2. Reliable and 3. Honest. Betray any of these three elements and you have lost trust and it is VERY difficult to regain it.

As important as it is to be competent in order to be trustworthy, there are, of course, other good reasons why we should strive for competence. We become competent through learning and experience. In other words, we need to learn as much as we practically can about our business and our products, and then we need to use our products and apply what we have learned in all the other aspects of our business. It is by doing that we become competent or learn the skills necessary to become confident enough to succeed. The important words there are competent and confident, because competence builds confidence, which moves us to action.

If you are finding it difficult to talk to people about your business, or find that very few people are prepared to listen to you, it will invariably be because you lack confidence. Unfortunately, it is impossible to fake confidence indefinitely, and if you are not confident, you will not be able to sustain the effort necessary to succeed. The good news is that you can learn the skills and become competent and confident in a short time by having the courage to move out of your comfort zone and by “practising” your craft by actually speaking to people.

Are you going to make mistakes? You betcha! Making mistakes is good, in fact it is the only way you are going to learn. Making mistakes means that you are actually doing something, and you will get better at what you are doing, so don't beat yourself up about it, give yourself the recognition you deserve. Be kind to yourself. Even if your early attempts appear to be epic failures, remember that you are in training and every attempt is an exercise in your training program. Analyse what you have done, find ways to improve on it, and continue to practice, practice, practice. You will soon become competent and confident, and when you are confident, you will enjoy approaching and talking to people about your business, and you success rate will improve, which will serve to increase your confidence, and your success rate will sky-rocket! 

I absolutely love this business!

It's all about You

I have long been interested in the reasons why some Forever distributors are so fabulously successful, and others not so much. First let me define the kind of success I am talking about. It is not so much linked to income as to expectations. For example, someone may be quite happy with their lifestyle, having enough to pay all the bills and everyday expenses and are able to salt away a little every month for “rainy days”. Let's say they then have $300 to $400 of discretionary spending money for entertainment, hobbies etc. A little more would be nice, so they start a Forever business. Without too much effort, they create a business which brings in an extra $300 to $400, and are very happy with that. And why not be happy with that, they have just doubled their discretionary spending, which is where most of their “quality of life” comes from. That is significant, and if that is what they wanted to accomplish, they are successful.

So, back to the question, why are some more successful than others? There are, of course many reasons, but I want to drill down to the one factor which undergirds and overarches all the rest. So here is my reasoing. To state the obvious, all Forever distributors in any particular country have the same products, the same marketing plan and the same company leadership. It has also been proven that differences such as sponsor, personal citcumstances, geography and any others you can think of are not bariers to success, they are excuses. So, the only difference is the distributor. For some, this may be a difficult pill to swallow because it means that the success or failure of your business rests squarely on your shoulders. To my mind, this is fantastic news! It means that this is a sure-fire business! “If it is to be, it is up to me!”

Another amazing, fantastic, awesome implication is that a major part of our business is focused depends on our own personal growth and development. This is the absolute best investment in time and effort any of us can ever make, and it is what most of our training and “work” is designed to do.

I absolutely love this business!

Create passion and commitment!

Most MLM companies recommend that their distributors create and maintain a “Dream Book”. This can be a powerful tool for discovering what your real goals and aspirations are, or in other words, why you want or need to succeed in your business. This is often referred to as your “Why”. When I first started out in MLM, I was a miserable failure at doing this, because I did not understand what I was supposed to be doing and why I was doing it. Oh, I was certainly enthusiastic about it, so I rushed out and bought some wonderful glossy magazines (which I could not afford) with fantastic pictures of beautiful homes, boats, cars, clothes and all the other trappings of the high life. I meticulously cut out the pictures (I got an A for scissor work in kindy), glued them into my beautiful hand bound book, and added my own creative touches with coloured pencils, glitter and everything else I could think of. It was an impressive work of art and I was convinced that it would have the enthusiastic approval of my sponsor, and it did.

The problem was that I had become so absorbed in the process of creating a beautiful piece of art, that I had completely lost sight of the purpose of the exercise. When I think back on the contents of that “Dream Book”, I think that it should rather have been called a “nightmare Book”, because I was not passionate about its contents and nothing in it inspired me. It had been a complete waste of time, effort and money. So the question is, how is this supposed to work, and what is it supposed to accomplish? In order to answer these questions, I would like you to do a little exercise with me. I am sure that many of you will have done this before, but it will serve very well to make my point.

Imagine that you are holding a lemon in your hand. Create as clear a picture of it and what you are about to do with it as you can. Imagine the feel of it, what it smell like, even see its colour and texture. Now imagine taking a sharp knife and cutting it into four pieces. Now pick up one of the pieces from the cutting board, and notice how juicy it it, the board is wet from it. Now lift the piece of lemon to your mouth and take a good bite of it. Feel the tart, sour juice fill your mouth and run down your chin. The glands in your mouth immediately react to the tartness of the juice.

OK, now be honest, did you have to swallow I little extra saliva after that exercise? Of course you did. This illustrates very clearly that even though you were completely aware of the fact that there was no lemon in sight during this exercise, your thought process and your imagination were able to elicit an involuntary physical response, as if the lemon was real. This is an amazing, powerful and important ability. This principal can be used in different ways which can affect our lives significantly.

Your “Dream Book” or your goals or your “Why” needs to be so important to you that it creates a physical change in you. You need to be passionate about it and you need to look at it, think about it and refine it every day. This will flood your brain with dopamine, a hormone which makes you feel good, able to make better judgements and even increases intelligence. Consequently, you perform better, are more creative, achieve more and are far more likely to remain committed and to achieve your goals. If you listen to the stories of successful distributors, you will find that many had a very powerful why, rooted in severe financial difficulty or need. Resigning from your job without any other income may be a good way to create your own powerful Why, but I don't recommend it! Passion, enthusiasm and exciting goals, will make the journey far more exciting and enjoyable.

I can't stress enough the importance of this principle, and it is something only you can do for yourself, nobody else can do it for you and it is essential for success.

I absolutely love this business!