Why We Wrote The Book

“He or she who shows the most business presentations, wins.” - Rosetta Little.

We wrote this book out of frustration.

Not frustration at the wonderful world of Network Marketing, or frustration caused by any particular Network Marketing company. Indeed, we have spoken to many Independent Distributors from many different Network Marketing companies globally, and they have spoken of similar frustration.

Have you ever experienced the following?

A new, fired-up distributor joins your business, excited about the opportunity to change their life circumstances for the better. They “get” the business, they know what they have to do to make a success of it and they can’t wait to get started.

Equally, you’re excited about your new recruit. You feel that you’ve finally found “the one” person that is going to take the business seriously, someone you can work with, someone who is going to stick around no matter what.

Within a few short days/weeks, they’re no longer taking your phone calls or replying to your messages. You’re eager to catch up with them because the customers they promised to sign up never showed on your system, and the new recruits failed to materialise. What happened? Where did it go wrong?

Does any of the above describe your own experience? Yes? Well, there’s good news… and there’s good news!

Firstly, you’re not alone. This happens throughout Network Marketing.

Secondly, the cause of this phenomenon is exactly what this book has been written to address.

If the quote by Rosetta Little at the top of this page is true (and we believe it is), then the first objective is actually securing the appointment to show your business presentation.

In Network Marketing, we do a fantastic job of equipping distributors with skills and systems that will help them to jump the ‘hurdles’ that they’ll encounter throughout their Network Marketing career; from writing their list to overcoming objections, closing techniques, presentation skills, coaching, leadership principles…

Indeed, we seem to have a proven system for all of these areas of the business – and they work fantastically well, in the main!

Strangely, for some reason, we don’t seem to have any such system for helping distributors make initial sense of their contact list.

Astonishingly, in many cases, the actual process of securing the appointment seems to be glossed-over with a “just say these words, in this order, to as many people as you can, regardless of your relationship with them” approach, in a rush to get new recruits into action as urgently as possible.

And this is our overriding frustration:

In the rush to get into action, not enough forethought is put into what we are going to say to prospects before we say it.In fact, in a profession of systems and procedures, this part of the process - the most important part, lacks any sort of real system beyond:

1. Write your list
2. Call people from said list

Often, new recruits are unleashed with the most basic of training and encouraged to pitch everyone over 18 with a pulse – starting with their closest family and friends. You know the script, something along the lines of:

“Hi, Tina. This is just a quick call. I’ve started this new business and I’m really excited about it. I believe there could be some benefits in it for you. How soon can I call round? I’m available Tuesday morning or Thursday afternoon…”

And this is where new distributors fall over. As great as this script is (used in the right context), how many people speak to their closest family and friends in this manner, really?

The response that they get is what often drives them out. They fail to clear that very first hurdle. Yet, we continue to send new recruits into the field, charged with approaching their nearest and dearest, using this script verbatim. There is little, if any, consideration given to existing relationships and how people usually communicate with each other, which invites resistance, suspicion and, often, ridicule from their prospects.

If the resistance, suspicion and ridicule they encounter doesn’t drive them out of the business entirely at this stage, new distributors are often seduced into the cold-market where they find themselves cold calling, door-knocking, stood alongside a stand in a field approaching perfect strangers or, even worse, paying out not insignificant sums of money to advertise in newspapers and online pay-per-click campaigns… then they quit anyway!

Yet, MLM guru Dr Tom Barrett put it so succinctly when he said, “We are paid for access to our lists.”

If companies wanted you to approach the cold-market, they’d miss you out completely and go there directly themselves. Your relationships with people and the trust that you’ve built up over the years is what they are paying you for.

Before any other skills, new distributors MUST first be taught the skills of how to approach their warm list to minimise resistance, suspicion and ridicule - which brings us to the whole purpose of this book:

How to get appointments with the people you already know.

By reading this book, you will learn a system that teaches you:

• How, when it comes to prospecting scripts, one size does not fit all
• How to prospect everyone on your contact list using an approach that is based upon your existing relationshipwith them
• How to overcome the mental brick wall that many distributors hit when deciding who to contact first
• How to go back to people who you’ve already ‘blown out’!
• How to reframe your thinking about your contact list before blowing them out!
• How to approach your closest family and friends and avoid coming across as ‘salesy’ or weird, given that ‘you only get one chance to make a first impression’
• How to overcome the fear of making the initial contact with people on your list
• How to clear the fog of who to approach first - and why
• How to identify and maximise prospecting opportunities that arise within your everyday life
• How to develop relationships with people, over time, that will make it feel completely natural to share your business opportunity with them
• How to get prospects to ask you about your business
• How to successfully approach thoseintimidating people on your chicken list
• How to get your new team members into action and off to a resistance-free start
• How to reduce the chances of new team members quitting by teaching them skills that will get them off to the best possible start
• How to embrace rejection by building an effective ‘No For Now’
• How to duplicate these philosophies and skills through your team
• How to minimiseresistance, suspicion and ridicule from the people who know you best
• How to combat the fear of approaching people with the help of helium balloons!

It is our sincere belief that:

The key to significantly improving the chances of getting our information in front of a prospect is in understanding that the language and script we use should be relative to the existing relationship we have with the prospect.

And that statement is precisely what this book is written to address. It isn’t about leadership, or the customer presentation or how you should react when your ‘next superstar’ suddenly quits and joins another company. They’re hurdles further down the track and are the job of your company’s training. The aim of this book is simply to help you make sense of your warm list, to see your relationships with people for what they are – varying in their formality – and, as a result, so should your approach be.

Using ‘The 5 Levels of Formality List Profiling System’ we’ll be distinguishing the differences in approach when prospecting your brother, that friend you’ve not seen for more than a year, the mother of your child’s friend that you see at school every day, the guy who delivers your parcels and your intimidating ex-boss – and we’ll be giving you the skills to get in front of those people with your business presentation.

Written as a story, based on real-life events, we follow the transformation of Sam Hirst on his rollercoaster journey - from the highs of being an excited new distributor, to the lows of personal rejection, disillusionment and frustration - and finally through to becoming an accomplished and successful Network Marketer.

Remember:

“He or she who shows the most business presentations, wins.”

Danny Rich & Paul Robinson, February 2016.