Network marketing is perhaps the only business where one has to justify
going after customers.
In every other business, customers are sacred. Companies do everything
they can to woo and keep them. Nordstrom, for example, has built their
entire business by offering outrageously good customer service.
But, how often have you heard, especially from people at the top of
your heap, that it's a waste of time to go after customers? That the
money is in recruiting business builders? Hmm.
What's the story here? Why are customers at the low end of everyone's
totem pole in the network marketing business?
For some it's because income from customers looks like small potatoes
compared to the big money a business builder might bring. And the
few people who get builders in their organizations are the ones showcased
in front of the room.
These big earners are the ones who have been fortunate enough to stumble
upon a business builder or two, who bring in a whole organization
of aspiring builders. Soon there are thousands of people selling the
dream to others, and everybody is buying product regularly so that
they can be a "product of the product". And this rare top
banana, at the top of the heap, gets a percent of most all of it.
That's why the income gets so big.
Nice work if you can get it.
However, everyone who's been in the business for a year or more knows
the downside: the odds of getting an entrepreneur who really does
something and stays with it until, are almost as small as winning
the lottery.
How many of you have succeeded in finding those entrepreneurs? And
in keeping them?
For years, when I was building my various network marketing businesses,
I too focused on finding aspiring marketers. I used to call them "turbos"
because they started with the larger volumes of product ($2,000 to
$25,000), so that they could instantly achieve a higher commission
level. These initial purchases gave my income a turbo boost.
So, I went after them with a vengeance, enjoying the "big money"
for a good while. But I had to work10- to 12- hour days to sustain
the income because most of the turbos lasted less than three months.
They'd sign up, buy the quota and were gone in a couple of months.
Some would disappear in a week.
Most really weren't business builders. They were mesmerized by the
financial promise of the circles on the wall and my success. They
forgot that I had been working at it relentlessly for five years previously,
plus, I had finally "won the lottery". I had stumbled across
an extraordinary business builder within the first three months of
starting my fifth network marketing business.
The starry eyed "turbos" I signed up would use the product
themselves, and sit on the rest. They discovered they really didn't
enjoy selling, and their initial enthusiasm disappeared in the face
of the unresponsive or unexpected pukey treatment they got from their
friends, family, and the general marketplace.
So, I often ended up moving the product for them, so they wouldn't
be "garage qualified" or have to send it back. To speed
up moving product, we started an "automatic reorder" program
in our organization, so that customers could commit to using the product
every month, at a preferred price.
In hindsight, 97% of the people I signed up ended up being just customers.
And I was getting them the hard way - by leading with the business.
There are way fewer people who sell a product than use it. Data from
several large network companies show that for every 100 people who
regularly order a product or service for their own use, only two or
three also sell the product. Around 97 are just customers, not distributors,
even though they were signed up as distributors. So, why not woo customers
to begin with? It's a less stressful and more predictable way to build
significant income. At the end of the Chapter 1 "Take Off",
you'll run through a little exercise that causes many of my students
to gasp with delight. It demonstrates just how much income you can
make from regular monthly customers. Certainly enough to provide some
necessary insurance against the possibility that it might take longer
than you expect to find that Ace.
Something in the bank for those rainy times...
Kim
Mill Valley, California
In the Spring of 2004
Buy
Now
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