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MLM Woman Issue 112 May 2006 From the Desk of the Editor Welcome to the 112th issue of the MLM Woman Newsletter. This month we feature five fantastic articles to expand your mind and your business. If you enjoy this month's issue, please be sure to let your friends know about it too and invite them to come and visit us. Also, if you have comments, questions or something to share after reading this month's issue, please visit our MLMTalk Discussion Forum and join in the lively conversation! And don't forget to check out our MLMTalk Blog for lots of additional tips, articles and resources. Enjoy! Linda Locke, Editor MLM Woman MLM - It's Opening Outlets By Jackie Ulmer It's true in this business like any other. It's the number of outlets that you open that generate your success. Let's look at why this is - First, leaders show up at all different times and on all different levels. When I look at my own report, I see leaders on just about every level. Some I sponsored, some I obviously didn't. That means that some who I sponsored ultimately led me to leaders somewhere. Or, rather, led leaders to me. Some people need to sponsor 5 people to have a leader show up. For others, it is 50. That reality doesn't need to discourage you. The bigger your numbers grow, the closer you are, really! And, with a solid, equitable pay plan, it doesn't matter where they show up! In my first company, my biggest leader came early on. Because of the way that pay plan was structured, my upline made hundreds of thousands of dollars. I made thousands on that leg. Big disparity. And, certainly not what I would call equitable. But, that experience became invaluable because it taught me to closely evaluate pay plans and understand the good, bad and ugly. Believe me, there is a lot of "ugly" in MLM Pay Plans. You may think yours is great. Don't be afraid to play devil's advocate with all aspects of it to be sure. You may be struggling with the "when is it going to happen for me" syndrome. I know how you feel, I've been there myself. And, it's hard to hear - "Oh, just go sponsor another rep." But, it's true. If you don't feel you have yet landed someone on your team who shares your same drive and passion. That's okay. They are on their own agenda and that is fine. Your agenda, however, is to keep uncovering stones until you find one, or two, or twelve. Or, until they lead you to someone. It's tempting to think - "I must be doing something wrong, or I am not doing enough." Nope, not true. It's not you. How do I know this? Well, there are some on the team who have a large team growing and really don't provide anything in terms of support or coaching. I recently contacted one of my frontline people, who had dropped to inactive. She has a LARGE organization developing under her. I asked her if she realized what she was missing now, and what she would miss potentially by not getting back involved. She is now on board again and we'll see what happens. I don't know if she is ready to build a business, seriously, yet, but I did want to point out what can happen. That growth happened without any effort on her part. A leader was there and took action. So, as long as you are directing people to the tools and support they need, and fulfilling your end of the bargain, relax. It's not you. It's not anything you are doing or not doing. Keep turning over stones and keep adding to your frontline. Don't be tempted to "stack in people" for growth. Go wide, wide, wider until you can't control the explosion. Start that snowball rolling! About the Author Jackie Ulmer, a veteran Network Marketer, has coached and trained thousands of representatives both inside and outside of her sales organization. Her passion is inspiring others to succeed in their own dream. Contact her or sign up for her newsletter through her website: http://www.streetsmartwealth.com Make the Most of Networking Events By Debra Fine Do you dread receptions, banquets, and other business-related social events? Does attending another open house make you want to run inside your own and lock the door? You’re not alone. Many of us are apprehensive about these situations, because most of us either hate entering rooms where we don’t know anyone or hate spending time with people we don’t know well. Keeping a conversation going during such occasions is an ordeal. Everyone learns the technical skills required for their jobs, but not everyone places importance on conversational skills. The ability to talk easily with anyone is a learned skill, not a personality trait. Acquiring it will help you develop rapport with people and leave a positive impression that lasts longer than an exchange of business cards. Here are a few tips business professionals can use to improve their small-talk skills: • Be the first to say hello! • Introduce yourself. Act as if you’re the host and introduce new arrivals to your conversational partner or partners. • Smile first and always shake hands when you meet anyone. • Take your time during introductions! Make an extra effort to remember names, and use them frequently in the conversation. • Maintain eye contact in any conversation. Many people in a group of three or more people look around in the hope that others will maintain eye contact on our behalf. But people don’t feel listened to if you’re not looking at them. • Get somebody to talk about why they’re attending the event, and you are on your way to engaging them in conversation. • Show an interest in every person. The more interest you show the wiser and attractive you become to others. • Listen carefully for information that can keep the conversation going. • Remember: People want to be with people who make them feel special, not people who are “special”. Take responsibility to help people you talk to feel as if they’re the only person in the room. • Play the conversation game. When someone asks, “How’s business?” and “What’s going on?” Answer with more than “Pretty good” or “Not much”. Tell more about yourself so that others can learn more about you. • Be careful with business acquaintances. You wouldn’t want to open a conversation with: “How’s your job at ________?” What if that person just got fired or laid off? Be careful when you’re asking about an acquaintance’s spouse or special friend; you could regret it. • Don’t act like you’re an FBI agent. Questions like “What do you do?”, “Are you married?”, “Do you have children?”, and “Where are you from?” lead to dead-end conversations. • Be aware of body language. Nervous or ill-at-ease people make others uncomfortable. Act confident and comfortable, even when you’re not. • Be prepared. Spend a few minutes before an anticipated event preparing to talk easily about three topics. They will come in handy when you find yourself in the middle of an awkward moment... or while seated at a table of eight where everyone is playing with their food. • Show an interest in your conversational partner’s opinion, too. You’re not the only person who has opinions about funding the space program or what will happen to the stock market. • Stop conversation monopolists in their tracks. If possible, wait for the person to take a breath or to pause, then break in with a comment about their topic. Immediately redirect the conversation in the direction you wish it to go. • Be prepared with exit lines. You need to move around and meet others. • Don’t melt from conversations. Make a positive impression by shaking hands and saying goodbye as you leave. With practice, you can learn how to make the most of meetings, interviews, and networking events or of entertaining clients at conventions, trade shows, and other work-related functions. You’ll learn to appreciate, rather than dread, networking events. About the Author Debra Fine is a former engineer living in Denver who works nationwide as a speaker and trainer presenting “The Fine Art of Small Talk”. She is the author of The Fine Art of Small Talk (Hyperion October 2005). Visit www.DebraFine.com or call 303-721-8266 for additional information. Stop and Go Home. By Motivational Speaker Gregory Scott Reid How many of us are in our present circumstances based on things we were taught as children? Some of those things might have been ingrained into our mind for a reason, such as safety. But, now that we're adults, are any of the old rules subconsciously holding us back? I know a woman who had a little girl named Heather, a blonde haired, blue eyed exuberant child who pushed her limits. Now, a mother's job is to protect her daughter from injury and danger. Boundaries were set, as they should be. When Heather turned five, she wanted to ride her bike out of the driveway. They lived in a small subdivision with no sidewalks, and mom wanted to be able to see her at all times. She told her she could go as far as the stop sign, which was two houses away. The rule was when Heather saw the stop sign, she would "Stop and Go Home". The rule worked great; Heather always turned around at the stop sign and came back home. About a year later, they were headed on a trip - packed the suitcases, buckled the kids in, and took off. An hour into their travels, they stopped at an intersection. As they were waiting for their turn to go, Heather said, "Oh no! Now we gotta go home". She'd seen the stop sign, and it had been ingrained into her head that it really meant "STOP and go home"! Now, the word Stop means do not go progress - do not move forward - immediately discontinue the action at hand. When we were children, "stops" were given to us for our safety and well being. But, now that we're grown up, how many of us still use "stops" as a safety net? What devices that were used to keep us safely within our boundaries are we hanging on to that prevents us from advancing? How often do people begin to get close to realizing their dreams, to changing their lives, and they hit a "stop sign"? Maybe they "stop" because there isn't enough money to take the next step, or they are afraid to leave the certain safety and security of their current job to change careers - the fear of the unknown. What will happen when you cross the boundaries that have been ingrained into your thinking? When you hit a stop, you have two choices: One: Stop, do not move forward, do not pass go. Stay with the familiar and remain at status quo. Two: Find that little nudge, that hand in the small of your back, which gently pushes you to take the first step beyond your present boundaries, for with each step you take, you are that much closer to achieving your goals and the realizing your dreams. Try to look at all the stop signs, and obstacles in your life as positives. They are opportunities to push your limits, and find a way to move forward. They are momentary pauses on the path to success! Keep movin', and keep smilin'.. About the Author Gregory Scott Reid, #1 best selling author The Millionaire Mentor, Positive Impact, and co-author Wake up…Live the life you Love http://www.motivational-speaker-gregory-scott-reid.com 8 Dynamic Marketing Tips Copyright 2006 Bob Leduc Here are 8 dynamic marketing tips to help you increase your sales and profits fast. 1. Don't Just Sell Benefits Don't just tell prospects what they gain when they buy your product or service. Tell them what they lose if they do not buy it. Most people fear loss more than they desire gain. Customers want your product or service to enjoy the benefits it provides. They will want it even more when you remind them of what they lose by not buying it. 2. Use Pleasant Surprises to Close Sales An unpleasant surprise can kill a sale. But a pleasant surprise can help close a sale. For example, adding an unexpected bonus immediately before your prospect takes the last action to complete a sale will eliminate any last minute hesitation. 3. Provide Fast Delivery - Even When You Can't The faster you can deliver your product or service the more sales you will get. If you cannot deliver all or part of your product immediately, add something to the purchase that you CAN deliver immediately. It could be as simple as a series of helpful tips related to your product posted on your web site ...available only to new customers. 4. Make Buying Easier Every non-essential action in the buying process is an opportunity for customers to reverse their decision to buy. Look for ways you can make your buying procedure easier and faster. For example, many marketers use a multi-step shopping cart to get online orders when a simple online order form would do the job with just 1 or 2 quick clicks. 5. Improve Your Offers without Lowering Your Price You don't have to reduce your price to improve your offer. Instead, simply load it up with bonuses. Make sure your bonuses have a high perceived value to your customers - even if they cost you little or nothing. 6. Keep Your Advertising Up to Date If you never make any changes in your advertising, your sales will eventually decline. Don't abandon advertising that's working - but do keep trying to improve it. And regularly test new advertising to see how it works for you. 7. Outsmart Your Competitors with Alternative Marketing Look for some alternative marketing methods your competitors are overlooking. That's how one internet marketer discovered direct mail postcards. They proved to be a highly effective and very low-cost way to generate traffic to her web site ...while concealing her marketing activity from competitors. 8. Neutralize Customer Complaints Quickly Handle customer complaints quickly and with a positive attitude. Strive to preserve your relationship with the customer instead of your immediate profit from them. They will reward you with repeat sales and referrals instead of punishing you by telling everybody they know about their unhappy experience ...causing you to lose future customers. Each of these 8 marketing tips reveals a proven low-cost marketing tactic many other small businesses have used to boost their sales and profits. Integrate them into your marketing program now and you'll quickly start enjoying the same results too. About the Author Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards ...and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. You'll find his low-cost marketing methods at: http://BobLeduc.com or call: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV Power Words By Wendy Weiss I conducted a teleconference a few weeks ago with people who were new in sales and new to prospecting. The focus of the call was to help participants get beyond fear and understand their prospecting process. One of the participants on the call told me that she had been given the telephone prospecting script that her team leader uses to set appointments. The team leader was a highly successful sales professional who had been in the business for many years and made quite a lot of money. The participant, who had been in the business for approximately a week, told me that she was going to work with the script and “make it her own.” “No!” I cried out. “Don’t do that! Don’t make it your own!” My reasoning? This participant was a beginner. She knew nothing about sales or prospecting. She had a script that was crafted by someone who was highly successful on the telephone. This particular participant did not know enough to make it her own. More than likely, in making the script her own she would eliminate all of the powerful, persuasive and motivating language used by the sales super star who had given her the script. Some words are better than others. Some words are stronger and more evocative than others. When you are on the phone with a prospect, you have about 10 seconds to grab and hold your prospect’s attention. If you do not do that within that first 10 seconds, your call is more than likely over. If you get through that first 10 seconds, that buys you another 10 seconds. If you get through that 10 seconds it buys you yet another...and so on...10 seconds is not a lot of time. To get through those 10-second increments, you want to use the most powerful words that you have at your disposal. If you are a beginner it is entirely possible, indeed even likely, that you may not be comfortable with certain powerful words or phrases. They may be very unlike your usual way of speaking. Even if you’ve been in sales for a while you might be set in your ways, accustomed to a certain delivery, and changing that might feel uncomfortable. I’ve met many people who say they do not want to work with scripts because then they “cannot be themselves.” Remembering that your prospecting call happens in 10-second increments, you want to be the very best self that you can be, every time. That requires preparation. One of the things that I’ve always loved about being in sales is that it is crystal clear. You always know exactly where you are. You are either scheduling appointments, or you’re not. You are either closing, or you’re not. If you are new to sales and a successful professional gives you their script—don’t change a word. That script will be your gold mine. If you’ve been in sales for a while and want to try out a new script, test it first. Your old script becomes your baseline. For example, make 30 prospecting calls using your usual script and keep track of the number of appointments that you schedule. Then make 30 more prospecting calls using your new script exactly as written. Keep track of the number of appointments that you schedule. At the end of those 60 calls you will know which script works better. That becomes your new baseline. Copyright 2006, Wendy Weiss About the Author Visit http://www.wendyweiss.com today to learn more about our services and read testimonials from clients. Call 212-463-8212 or e-mail wendy@wendyweiss.com for a complimentary consultation. Back to the MLM Woman Newsletter Index We want your feedback! Send e-mail comments to Linda at: regent@west.net Copyright 2006, Regent Press