Usually the reason why people quit, is because they simply don’t have a good enough reason for continuing on.
Doug Firebaugh Shares Ideas on How to Speak with Business Owners About Your Opportunity
Doug Firebaugh posted this the other day on his Facebook profile. I feel this is the single most helpful post to create ideas on how to talk with people who are in the business world about your new venture and opportunity with a direct selling business, mlm, or network marketing business.
You can never go wrong showing people how to increase revenue and put your products as the focal point and not the business. The business supports the opportunity in the market place for your products. Always lead with the products.
Enjoy!
What do you say to a small business owner? How do you talk to them about your Network marketing business? Many people have tried, and totally failed.
Why?
They simply do not understand that small business owners do not talk "mlm-ease." They do not know what a "downline" or "upline" is, and most don't really want to know.
INFERNO Secret:
Business owners want to know one thing: What is going to increase their profits and productivity.
We recruited hundreds of small business owners in our group when we were active, and all were pretty much recruited the same way and with the same type of words and power phrases.
There are 2 things that you must understand about recruiting business professionals into Network Marketing and MLM:
1) They have their own CULTURE, and they stay within that culture. They have a culture of professionalism for the most part, and integrity.
2) They are used to a particular language and verbiage, that they expect, and you must speak at least some of that language in your conversation with them.
Here are just a few of the ways you can approach small business professionals and here are some KEY words and Phrases:
1)"Secondary revenue source" - great wayt to describe income.
2)"Introducing into the business community"- focus on new idea as well.
3) "Run across an idea"
4) " I am a small business owner like you" - establish connection.
5) "I Need your input(insight)"
6) "Increase your revenue stream" - revenues stream every owner understands.
7) "Expand your potential market base" - who does not want to increase customers?
8) "Increase market value of your contacts" - THIS one gets their attention.
9) " I am new in the business community, and introducing myself" - great way to intro you.
10) "I have an idea that I would like to run past you on increasing revenues."
11) " Revenue Option" - another way to speak about income and profits.
12) " Market Expansion Tool" - another way to show how they can expand business.
13) "An idea that has impact on the bottom line" --says it all.
14) " A value based idea that can improve revenues"
15) " From one professional to Another." -this establishes you as a professional as well.
These work very well, as they have the terminology that a lot of business professionals can relate to. Come up with some of your own. But make sure they are all "non-mlm." You can eventually use network marketing language, but not at first, unless you want to turn them off.
And yes, you may get some questions. And yes, you may get some objections. And yes you may get some negative responses.
Just understand that small business owners have a business to run, and many will make great customers, but will not be interested in your home business or products.
Success Secret:
All it takes is ONE small business professional to explode your business. One business owner brought in over 500 people in less than 4 months in our group, and built a group that was in all 50 states, and eventually had over 8,000 people in his Network Marketing group. And he did it part time.
Small business owners can be an absolute GOLD MINE, but you have to do some digging in your MLM and Network Marketing business.
Blessings...Doug
What are your thoughts about Doug Firebaugh's posting?
Does Selling on Social Media Work?
It's a well known fact that blatant promoting and selling of any form of goods or service does not work on Social Media, because Social Media is about networking much like you would do at a Chamber of Commerce event or at a social gathering.
People do not go to Social Media sites like Facebook or MySpace to buy. They go there to interact with friends and post interesting events they either stumbled upon, share with people what they have been up to or even discuss controversial opinions to current affairs.
The best way you can think of is as if you were out hanging with friends at a dinner party. What would you do there? Would be selling or sharing? What's even the difference between the two?
Selling is blatant promotion of good or services with the intent to convert a prospect into a customer. Sharing is about inclusion. Sharing is about telling people what you're up to and in an indirect, or direct, way in asking for support.
What does work is providing valuable information to targeted niche groups of people and giving them a no cost entry point while bringing information that is relevant to their interests.
Seth Godin in his book called "Tribes" put best when he discussed about finding disconnected sets of people who have a like common interest and discovering ways to connect them. When you become the facilitator of valuable information it puts you in the expert level. You don't need to BE and expert just have to allow people a way to interact and engage in conversation.
What about those who claim they have made millions on Social Media?
Alright. Let's take a look at those people. If you study what they are doing they already have a some what already established rapport with an existing list and Social Media becomes another creative extension for the distribution of information. Key point here is "already existing list of people."
They leverage their existing customers by asking them to pass on the information and this is what helps them gain new customers or leads.
Another way of making money through Social Media comes from having a well known brand. Very few people have this so pretty much only the big dogs can use this tactic.
Since you're not a big dog you'll have to go by the first route of finding niche groups of people with your target market and then build a sense of community, contribution, and conversation with those people. In short, build rapport before you sell.
When people like, love, and trust you they will buy what you have to offer.
Fears that Hold You Back from Success
Eating ice cream and drinking a few sodas I recently had a great conversation with my dad the other day on the subject of what keeps people from moving forward with their business, be it home based business, network marketing, multi-level marketing, or any other type of business.
Most people in the business world tend to either use the Fear of Rejection or the Fear of the Unknown as an explanation why people do not move forward. Is one perspective more true than the other? Let's take a look at each of these briefly and compare to find the truth.
Fear of Rejection. I think I'm safe to say this is the defacto standard most people quote as the reason why people don't move forward. It's been drilled into our heads how the fear of rejection is what keeps people from going out there and getting customers and recruiting business associates.
We hear this "fear of rejection" being preached from the hilltops about how people are deathly afraid to speak with people they may or may not know. The fear is based upon when a prospect says no to what they are offering, they are somehow a bad person and are then cast out of society never to be looked upon as a respectable member of our beloved society.
When you sit down with many of the top leaders they can recount time after time how their new "hopefuls" would always be waiting for that one piece of information that would evolve them into a superior salesman able to overcome any objection. Their "hopeful" would spend time going to trainings, learning new techniques, able to quote the compensation plan inside and out, yet never doing a thing to actually build their business.
Asking anyone who feels strongly that this is what keeps people back you'll quickly hear them outline their remedy. Simple actions + easy wins = belief. Take Immediate action to build belief.
I'm not completely sold this is the single reason why people do not move forward. If fear of rejection is what kept people back from success then no one would have a job. Part of the job application process is being turned down or rejected. No one would be married.
Fear of the Unknown. A professor of mine in college reminded us that fear only has its place where knowledge is not present. You can relate this to the child who sees someone wearing a scary mask. Upon first encounter it's a scary monster ready to take the little life they do have away. As the child matures and gains knowledge the child learns it's just a mask. Confidence is built upon knowledge and fear is no longer present. Simply put, fear of the unknown.
This type of fear is typically rooted in not knowing what to do next. Common question asked when someone starts out is, "What do I say?" or "How do I get customers?"
Many of the leaders on this end will tell you to build a system so easy anyone can follow. They tell the story of McDonalds and how Ray Croc changed the way we experience the dining experience in our fast paced world. Their remedy is to give people a full blown system, scripts, and a step 1-2-3 action plan.
I'm also not sure fear of the unknown is what keeps people from moving forward either. There are plenty of scripts, plenty of different system out there to help them overcome this fear. With all the amount of stuff out there you would think everyone would be rock stars.
So what really does keep people from moving forward? Looking at both fears there is one root fear. Fear of looking stupid.
That's right! You read that statement correctly. It's the fear of the looking stupid that holds people back.
It's not rejection we fear, it's looking stupid for falling for "one of those things" as if we were so stupid that we didn't see it was a scam. Or fear of looking stupid because we didn't know what to say so we spoke like an idiot who's trying to pick up the "hot girl" tripping over all our words.
My dad really brought this into perspective. He said, "Tony, why is it that a bum on the street has more boldness to come walking up to you asking for money and when you tell him you don't have any instead of walking away he says, 'at least give me a few cents.' The answer is simple. They are used to being seen as stupid and have nothing to lose. So what if you tell them no how will that make their life any different? It won't. And that's why they have no problem asking for money. They don't care if they look stupid."
Ask a kid to dance and they will twirl, jump, laugh, and get down with it. Ask an adult and they will reply, "I can't dance!" The adult will give you a thousand other reasons. Flat out... they don't want to look stupid. Ask a kid to sing and they will sing the cutest song ever.
Ask an adult to dance and you'll get a thousand excuses all rooted in the feeling of looking stupid. Ask an adult to sing and you'll see the look of fright, embarrassment, and disbelief grip them.
Ask any rags to riches millionaire and each one of them will tell you a story about how they lost it all and you'll hear them tell you how determined they were to succeed no matter how stupid they looked doing it. You see, once we get over the feeling of looking stupid we can grow as people.
In short, to get over looking stupid it's rather simple. Stop caring what people think of you and start caring about what you think of yourself. Put your dreams, desires, and aspirations in front of your mind.
What you think upon will decide how you shape your perception of your opportunity. When you build up confidence in yourself and your opportunity then you will take action out of that confidence.
In my next posting I'll discuss more about the fear of looking stupid and how to overcome that fear.
Good Morning! These Clouds Are Amazing!
Waking up this morning some how I stumbled upon this article in Wired Magazine with a picture of tube clouds. Simply amazing! You can read the full article over at Wired Magazine - Mysterious Tubular Clouds Defy Explanation
Enjoy!
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions! Posterous and Tumblr
What a tough decision this has been. Let me tell you what! Trying to figure out which micro blogging platform to call my home. My choices were clearly either Tumblr or Posterous.
I have to admit it's been a very tough decision on which to choose. Both have their pros and cons. Where Tumblr shines in its user interface and how easily it makes it to post various types of content. Where Posterous shines is in its ability to post once publish everywhere. Both allow you to post a myriad of content types. I do think Tumblr's user experience is much easier to understand and cleaner. However, Posterous' robust ability to handle incoming emails is unmatched, plus it allows you to publish everywhere from one platform.
Bottom line... in this day and age our social life exists in multiple locations. The further down the road we travel in this new way of interacting with the Internet it will become clear us users will need a way to manage content to and from multiple locations from one central location. Tumblr does connect with Facebook and Twitter, but Posterous plays well with everyone. The choice is clear. Go with the account that creates content syndication. In layman terms it means you can share your life in once place and have it published to multiple locations.
Who am I deciding to go with? Great question! I decided to go with Posterous simply because I can post to my Tumblr account using Posterous.
Let's back up a bit. Posterous isn't about just being a micro-blog, it's more of a content syndication blog. I see a lot of bright possibilities for this ambitious startup. Both Tumblr and Posterous are out to duke it out! Who will win? Personally I think Posterous has more potential. They seems a lot more hungry as developers, it's a young company with a lot of potential due to their business model. The sky is the limit and they started out with their best foot forward.
These days flexibility and syndication / synchronization is the name of the game. Are you ready to play too?
Listening to Datarock, Fa-Fa-Fa... Great song. The beat is catchy.
Gotta love the 80's action show recipe.
- Jump from tall buildings on to the "bad guy" tackeling him to the ground.
- When punching the opponent they do not block thus you keep on striking each other until someone gets knocked out.
- No one can aim their guns, so don't worry. The bullets will only land in front or to the side of you.
- In car chases drive fast enough and your pursuent will accidently drive their car on top of another car thus causing it to flip.
If you do all these things you will have an 80s box office action flick smash. OH! Wait... I almost forgot... you need a good looking woman with big hair.
Watching "The Seeker" on Hulu. Next up the A-Team... Watcha talking about fool?! Mr. T rocks!!!
I'm a Lover of All Things Marketing and Web
I'm a marketing and web technologies junkie. Social media? I have an account everywhere. Programming? I'm in a love triangle with Ruby, Python, and PHP. Although Ruby is my favorite... what can I say it's just sexy. Now Python is looking pretty hot these days too.
Now marketing... oh yeah baby. I love to see how things tick. Marketing is really the playground of sales and psychology. I could lose myself in hours of marketing videos online and blogs. I think Internet Marketing is so facinating because you instantly know what works and doesn't.
Go ahead and read my Official Marketing Blog of Veloce Media. You might learn a few things or too... heck comment on it and I'd love to hear from you.
Yay! Microblogging!
Oh how fun micro blogging! Between this and twitter I'm not sure how much I will get done. Lots of random thoughts will be going here. A bunch of one liners like a cheap pickup artist and who knows what else.
I called myself Mr. Awesomeman one day and it just caught on with my wife and I. What started out as a joke is becoming a funny identity.
You can catch me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tony_bianco