Tell me 5 things
Filed under: network marketing, solving problems, talking with friends
There are two main secrets to obtaining success in network marketing: work on yourself and keep talking to people. If you haven’t a clue on what you need to work on to improve yourself, a powerful tactic is to ask 10 of your friends to tell you 5 things that you need to work on to make yourself a better person.
You could do this with an email. That approach let’s them take some time to think it through. It also gives both of you a little distance, which helps minimize any awkwardness, for them and for you.
“Tell me 5 things about me that I need to change.” It’s a very simple request, and most people will be honest and won’t mind helping you out. People like to help their friends. People like to see their friends improve themselves, whether it’s financially, socially, or personally. It makes you a better friend, so there’s something in it for them, too.
Now it might be that you read the same things from each friend, repeated 10 times, again and again. It might be that you read 97 different things, because they all see different things, and they didn’t want to stop when they got to #5. Regardless, you’re going to find out where you should start and, with introspection, you’ll have a good idea HOW to start.
AND, by working on yourself, you’ll start to feel more comfortable about talking with other people, new acquaintances as well as old friends, so you’ll be feeding two birds with the same seed. It has the element of leverage, doesn’t it? Leverage helps you get to that successful spot more quickly. So this tactic helps you move forward on several fronts.
See how it all comes together?
Learn to communicate
Filed under: MLM, building your business, finding new prospects, learning network marketing, network marketing, overcoming fear, perfect business, positive attitude, prospecting, talking with friends
With any business, you have to learn how to communicate with others. If you make fabulous jewelry, you’ll have to wear it all, unless you can tell others all about it.
There are lots of options for getting the word out, and those options exist whether you’re an artisan, a dentist, a massage therapist, a CEO, or a network marketer.
So, if you want to move from the world of employees trading their time for some money, into the world of business owners, where your time and money expand while you sit on a beach, you have to learn to communicate.
Luckily, communication is a learned skill. I know, because I used to be lousy at it. I couldn’t think of what to say after “Hi, I’m Marilyn.” Most of my mind then switched to the theme of “How do I get out of this conversation without mortifying myself.” I was wooden; I was shifty-eyed, I was shallow, I was frozen.
Now, I can pretty much chat away with anyone I choose. It’s pretty cool. And a HUGE relief.
The key is to keep the focus of the conversation on the person to whom you’re speaking. If you can keep a person talking about himself, he will come away from the conversation thinking that you are fascinating. If you can keep a person talking about himself, you will come away knowing whether or not what you have to offer is a good fit for that person. Perfect.
Most of the time, the initial conversation isn’t about your business or product at all. It’s about establishing a connection. Some people only need a slight connection before they’re ready to talk business. Other people need a long long time before they can open their ears.
Follow their lead. If their need is strong, right there on the surface, they’ll bring it up long before you have to pry it out of them. If their need is minimal or doesn’t carry a relationship to what you have to offer, then you don’t need to talk business after all. It’s not the right time yet, or it’s just not for them. Either way, you know where to go, because you’re just following along after them, asking questions that let you know what’s up with THEM.
Practice where it’s easier. Tell the cashier that you like her earrings. See if the conversation has good energy around it. Then be on your way. Ask the couple in front of you in line if they’ve ever eaten here before, what’s their favorite on the menu. See if it goes anywhere. Follow their lead.
Practice every day, in small ways. Then when the right opportunity for a business conversation comes along, you’ll be a well-oiled machine. You’ll be open to the possibilities each person presents to you, and it will all be natural and fun.
If it’s fun, you’ll do it more often. The first dozen might be awkward, but soon you’ll get to the fun level, and then you’ll be on your way. You’ll have crossed another hurdle, and you won’t need to look back.
Hurray for you!
Too busy?
Filed under: MLM, building your business, direct sales, entrepereneurs, learning network marketing, network marketing, perfect business, talking with friends, time management, women entrepreneurs
What are you doing right now, that is going to gain you more time a year from now?
Of course you’re busy; everyone is. Is that ever going to change, given the course you’re on now?
Everyone has 24 hours each and every day. Most people spend all of their time making all of their money. The treadmill loops around and around, and they can never get off.
Some people leverage their time, so that a year from now, they’re not working so hard; five years from now, they’re kicking back; ten years from now they’re sitting pretty.
If you work harder at what you’re already doing in your job, you’re just going to keep working longer and longer hours. Jobs can eat us alive, especially those of us who are motivated to do a GREAT job.
But do the GREAT job for yourself, and for your family, and for your friends. Don’t do it for some corporate board of directors, or the neighborhood hardware store. Do it for yourself and the people who are important in your life.
Network marketing lets you train yourself and learn from your leader, then train and lead others, who then train and lead others, who then train and lead others. The harder you work, the less you have to work next year or the year after that, and that trend just keeps on going.
Network marketing is the PERFECT business for people who are too busy, who have no time. Because it gives you the gift of time. It gives you back your life, so you can spend it with your kids with your wife, with your husband, with your friends.
network marketing? Bah! Humbug!
Filed under: MLM, direct sales, entrepereneurs, learning network marketing, network marketing, overcoming obstacles, perfect business, talking with friends
Network marketing has changed my life. I used to think that network marketing was for the birds. I thought it was overrun with desperate people, frantically running around coercing their friends into helping them to make this month’s quota. I felt nothing but contempt and pity for people who got sucked into network marketing.
And then one of my best friends ever, asked me to buy some weight-loss shakes from her. I cringed. “Why are you doing this???” And she burbled over with enthusiasm, her face alight with hope; she was so excited that she couldn’t sit still in her chair.
So, I took her pamphlet home with me, sighing. That night I started looking through the information she had given me, and I gradually grew very still. I read on and on. I got on the internet and checked things out. I grew quietly excited because I realized that network marketing was exactly what I had been yearning for, for more years than I could bear to think about. Here it was, right here, disguised by my preconceptions and ill-informed assumptions.
If YOU think network marketing is for the birds, if you don’t get what all the fuss is about, you should look into it. It might be exactly what you’ve been hoping for, yearning for.
Network marketing has changed my life. I have come into my own. I’m a believer.
Find a business partner
Filed under: MLM, entrepereneurs, learning network marketing, network marketing, talking with friends
The one thing that can ensure success in your new venture is a business partner. Your business partner might be your spouse, or your best friend, an old school body, or the person sitting one cubicle away. What makes the person a business partner is the shared enthusiasm for your shared business.
The first thing you should do when you decide on your new venture, is to start inviting your friends out to lunch or for a cup of tea. Catch up on what they’ve been doing, and listen carefully to what they need in their lives. During that conversation, you’re going to be able to talk about what you’ve been up to lately.
That’s when you get to reveal your enthusiasm. Burble about what makes it so special for you. Then pay attention to their response. If they yawn and look at their watch, they’re not your business partner. If they sit very still and hang on your every word, that’s your business partner.
It might take a while to find your business partner, but it can be a very fun process. I mean, having lunch with friends is not a terrible way to conduct a business. If you’re careful not to put all of your hopes in one basket, and sway over that line of making the person feel trapped by your need for their interest, you’ll have fun and so will they.
Once you’ve found your business partner, you’ll have someone to brainstorm with, someone to go to conventions with, someone to share in business responsibilities, someone to bolster you when you have low energy, someone to call and talk for hours about your ideas and theirs.
Your business becomes a lot friendlier, once you’ve found that magical person who will stand by your side and never leave. NOW you can accomplish ANY thing.
The times, they are a changing. . .
Filed under: MLM, entrepereneurs, learning network marketing, network marketing, overcoming obstacles, positive attitude, solving problems, talking with friends
So much has changed since the era of pushy sales and enrolling anyone who can fog a mirror, and yet the perception lingers that network marketing is the worst thing since income tax. We have Tim Sales’ Professional Inviter and Michael Oliver’s Natural Selling, to name just two supreme examples of how to connect with people without creating awkwardness and resentment, and yet the negative perception lingers.
We have online training resources, full marketing support from our companies in the form of brochures, DVDs, slide shows. We have Web 2.0 social networking. We have strong upline, downline, crossline support. We have the freedom to work at home, on our own timeline, setting our own schedules, and yet the perception lingers.
We have more and more companies turning to network marketing as the business strategy of the future. We have icons of the business world, like Donald Trump and Bill Farley, turning to network marketing. We have websites that address people’s objections in an unbiased, undramatic, truthful, coherent style. . . . and yet the perception lingers.
Changing that perception is like pulling a nail out of a thick board. We don’t know if the nail is about to come out of the board, or if we have to pull and pull and pull to get it out. It doesn’t really matter how much nail is left in the board; our job is to pull until it comes out. And it will come out.
Public perception may be about to change. Perhaps next month the shift will start appearing here and there. Perhaps next year. It doesn’t matter how close we are to the perception change; our job is to help the change happen.
My colleagues and I just created a meetup group using meetup.com. We are moving forward with a positive attitude, determined to further the effort of changing the public’s opinion about network marketing.
Our vision is to create greater understanding by the general public of the truly amazing opportunity that is possible through network marketing, available to anyone who sincerely yearns for greater financial freedom and greater time freedom.
Our purpose is three-fold: 1) to bolster our resolve to create successful network marketing businesses by surrounding ourselves with like-minded souls; 2) to mastermind positive actions and identify resources that will help us spread the truth about the positive aspects of network marketing; 3) to invite guests who would benefit from learning more about network marketing in order to overcome their own objections.
Our goal is to help people realize their dreams, using network marketing as the vehicle to personal freedom.
It’s easy to do, and you can do it wherever you are. Check out meetup.com. It is powerful.
Two ways to ask the question
Filed under: MLM, entrepereneurs, how do you learn to do network marketing, learning network marketing, network marketing, positive attitude, solving problems, talking with friends
Pay attention to the way that you ask a question. There are two ways, using exactly the same words, which carry completely different motives. By paying attention to the way you ask the question, you can double check your motives, which helps keep you on the right track.
Why are there only men at the upper levels of my company!!!
Why are there only men at the upper levels of my company???
The first question demonstrates frustration and anger, foot stamping at the way things are. Whenever you ask a question with this motive, perhaps you’re not really looking for an answer. Perhaps your main motive is to rale against the world, shaking your virtual fists at invisible enemies. It doesn’t get you very far.
The second question, however, demonstrates a genuine curiosity, a thoughtful wonder at the way things are. Whenever you ask a question with this motive, you are actually asking for an answer. If you ask the second question of another person, you might gain some insight. If you ask the second question thoughtfully, inwardly, you might gain some insight as well, from your intuition.
Intuition comes to you through your heart. Ideas occur, fully formed. It may take some time to put words around the idea, to explore the nuances, but it’s all there, ready for your contemplation.
Are there mostly men at the top levels of your company? Why do you think that might be?
I’ve pondered this question, and the answer that comes to me is that men do business differently than women. Or to put that another way, women do business differently than men.
Network marketing is a field predominately composed of women. Look around at any of your conventions or training meetings; are there mostly men or women sitting around you? And then looking up at the stage, are there mostly men or women sitting up there?
The techniques that we learn in network marketing are changing; the industry is becoming more and more solidly structured around relationships. Rather than handing out 20 brochures to strangers every day and hoping someone will call you back, we’re finding that what really works is to call up a friend and sit down and have chat over a cup of tea. Relationships.
So why are there more men at the top levels of your company? Because women are starting to come into our own, and we’re doing it by discovering what works for us. We’re changing the structure of network marketing a step at a time, which is our nature. Because we’re gentle and caring and nurturing; because we include others in our success; because we embrace a balanced life.
We’re getting to the top levels of our companies. Things are changing. Look how much things have changed in the last 20 years. Think about how much things will change in the next 20 years.
None of that would have occurred to me if I had demanded Why are there so many men at the top levels of these companies!!! I would have continued on, frustrated and angry, never getting any answers.
I know a lot more now, because my motive has shifted. I’m happier now, not because I’ve learned to be content with what I have, but because I’m content with the journey that is taking me where I want to go. It’s all about the journey; the goal is simply what happens along the way.
Three Steps to Handling Objections
Filed under: MLM, entrepereneurs, handling objections, how do you learn to do network marketing, talking with friends
It can be hard to know what objection a friend is going to raise when you start to talk with her about network marketing. You can know a lot about the people with whom you spend time, but you probably don’t know everything.
Perhaps you have a clue as to why she might think it’s a bad idea, so you can be better prepared, but she still might surprise you with something that’s stirring around deeper in her gut.
And, you’re going to want to talk to a lot of people, not just those few people that you know really, really well.
So, the point is, how can you possibly have a ready reply for the dozens of possible objections that your friend might raise during your chat over tea?
Well, you could memorize a bunch of responses that you heard that made sense to you and then go into jukebox mode with the correct replay when your friend pushes one of the prepared key combinations. But there’s an easier way, a way that is natural and stress free.
Open your heart and really listen to what your friend is saying. Let her say it all. Once it’s spilled out of her mouth, it won’t be bouncing around on the inside of her skull, bashing up her dreams of what could be. Listening also gives her the chance to get to her true objection, so you’ll be able to talk about what’s really going on underneath.
Once you know her real objection, you simply follow three easy steps:
1. I know how you feel.
2. I used to feel that way too.
3. This is what I found out.
So simple.
What you’re really doing is:
1. You connect with her.
2. You stand on her side of the argument, shoulder to shoulder.
3. You point out an alternative based on your own experience.
“I hate everything about network marketing.”
“I know, I know. I used to hate it, too. But a friend that I really trusted told me some things that I hadn’t known before, and I decided to research it a little bit. What I learned is that network marketing is the best business, ever, for women like you and me.”
Match her energy. If she speaks softly and off-handedly throws it off, then you speak softly and set it gently back on the table. If she glares at you and throws words at you, widen your eyes and grin hugely, while you enthusiastically tell her “I know!!! I know!!! I used to hate it, too!!! But I couldn’t BELIEVE it when a friend that I really trusted. . . .”
It’s simple. Open your heart, listen, 1,2,3, match her energy.
Then your jukebox can sit there and softly hum the background music, which is what it’s there for anyway.
I hope you’re having an amazing day.
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