Over the last few months I’ve run across hundreds of people in this industry who are still confused about the issue of “Do I lead with the product or the opportunity?” OR “Should I focus on recruiting customers or business builders?”
Ask around and you’ll find different opinions from many of the top guns in this industry. This debate has been going on for quite a while (far to long in my opinion). In this newsletter my intention is to plant a seed in you, so do your best to proceed with an open mind.
One of my personal missions in life is to help this entire industry evolve out of the old paradigm of “greed based” mentality, and move towards providing real sustainable value and benefit to hard working people. To accomplish this, it is crucial for each person to begin to truly understand the “Art and Science of Marketing”.
Think about this scenario for just a moment:
You’ve been in your business now for 3+ months, you’ve already burned through your list of friends, family and co-workers, and now you’ve resorted to buying leads. On average you find yourself spending between $1 and $10 dollars per lead and you hit the phone promoting financial independence, residual income, and growing a business successfully from home. Your prospect on the other end of the phone picks up and the conversation goes something like this…
“Hello _____,
Hi this is ______ and I’m giving you a call because I see here that you recently requested information on starting a home business…”
Your hope is to ask them a few additional questions, and eventually invite them to watch a video, go to a website or attend a meeting of some kind that tells the story of your amazing opportunity. Not a bad idea. But here’s where the problem lies.
People make decisions only in the presence of “Expertise and/or Leadership”. This is the reason why leaders and companies teach you to do 3-way calls or invite people to a meeting where someone making a ton of money will be presenting the business.
THE BIG PROBLEM- Unless you’re making a bunch of money and have a track record of helping others do the same, you really have no right in promoting these things! “Fake it until you make” it is a fatal flaw.
I know this won’t make me popular with many of you reading this, but in your heart of hearts, you and I both know that this is one of the main reasons why 95% of people quit.
If you were able to go behind the scenes with some of the top leaders in your companies (which I have done many times), you’ll see a tremendous amount of stress and loss of hair due to the fact that often times people are falling out of their business as fast as they are coming in.
Look back over the last few conventions or in your company’s recognition magazine or newsletter. What you’ll find is that many of the so called “power players” have “disappeared” over the months and years.
Ok, so let me give you the REAL solution for you in the form of a question:
What is the one thing that you CAN be an expert in (if “making a bunch of money” hasn’t happened for you yet)?
I hope all of you answer: “THE PRODUCT”.
Yes, the product. This is the ONLY way to level the playing field with those who have already made their millions. Once again, unless YOU are an expert in making money, you need to find something that you CAN become an expert in.
By becoming an expert with the product/service, you will be able to go out and “position” yourself in the path of thousands of “hot prospects” who are already looking for leadership and expertise based on the solution that your products/services (And YOUR leadership) can provide!
Ok, I know some of you are thinking: “We’ll if I just recruit customers, then how will I ever build a HUGE business? My comp plan isn’t really structured to pay the big commissions unless I recruit builders?”
Nothing could be further from the truth!
I can assure you that there is an art and a science to this process. It’s one of the most amazing and most powerful skills to master!
When you have a huge group of devoted consumers who are happily taking your product, day in and day out, week in and week out, not only will you be making a nice residual income, but there are specific tools that you can put in place that will inspire your most devoted customers to become your VERY BEST BUSINESS BUILDERS!
Most people are almost never taught how to put 20 to 50 new product users in their organizations every week. Believe me it’s very easy to do when you are using the right tools and techniques. Instead, every new distributor is out there chasing down the magic “business builder”. Your business builders will be right under your nose and they’ll come to you if you plant the right seed at the right time and do it with the right people.
Imagine what it would be like to have hundreds even thousands of people happily consuming your products and then having dozens of them each month asking you how they can share the products and create an income.
You need to keep this in mind. This strategy is how many of the top players (the real players) in this industry are creating wealth. The key here is what can you legitimately establish expertise with? Your personal experience that you can share with others as to how the product or service has benefited you? Hmm… Interesting. This is only scratching the surface to putting this whole puzzle together, but it’s the foundation for the whole thing to work.
By the way, you will likely not meet these distributors at your conventions or hotel meetings. Once you understand the real art of “Positioning” that we mentioned earlier, you’ll realize that we are quietly utilizing modern tools and systems for building massive businesses from the comfort of our offices, (sometimes from our bedrooms) and may find it more efficient not to join in the Ra Ra and hype of it all. Whether we do or don’t, the best part is we don’t HAVE to if we don’t want to. That’s what being a business owner and having a self sustaining organization is all about!
I hope you’ll let this information sink in, and let the seeds I’ve planted in your mind take root. My hope is that you’ll begin to realize that there is a new and better way to do things in this modern age.
We’ve just begun to scratch the surface and I can assure you this is only tip of the iceberg.
More to come in a future post.
Kraig Ward
RetainReps.com
3 Comments
July 17, 2007 at 9:49 pm
As mentioned in my other comment, this is also a great post. I am going to link back to it from my blog at http://TerryDeanGroup.com/blog
Keep up the good (an informative) work!
February 10, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Hi,
I have just gotten into Melaleuca, $350 Career Pack, have not even received it yet. I’m totally pumped; this is the vision of self employment I have been seeking for years.
I am currently in Marketing and Advertising and completely agree with you methods. I’ll need to create a “make the complex simple” and “call to action” web site; I’ll need to find my niche market and use positioning on the internet to make it happen. Since I am in this business I have these contacts to help me get this aspect of the business going (although I’m still going to get your package too)….
Ultimate question, can I make this work with the Mela. products? I WILL become the product expert–is this the right product for me to be selling? Has it worked for others with Mela.?
Thanks Kraig and I look forward to meeting you.
February 11, 2009 at 12:21 am
Hi Tara-
Thanks for writing in.
Melaleuca or not, you need to learn how to market. You need to learn how to find a need and fulfill that need out in the market place in order to “give” before you can expect a return of compensation.
Positive aspects of Melaleuca:
- They’ve been around a LONG time
- They’ve got a lot of very high quality and earth friendly products (I was raised on them ironically)
Negative aspects of Melaleuca:
I’ll skip this section. Why? Because you can find negatives on ANYTHING you look for.
Will this be your long term business? Only time will tell. Can you make it work if you master marketing and you learn how to “position yourself” and learn how to lead with the product? I believe it will up your chances considerably, especially if you utilize the internet as a tool.
All I can say is this.
FOCUS ON MARKETING. Focus on PERMISSION marketing, and NOT INTERRUPTION marketing. Focus on educating people about things they are looking for help to understand, and learn the art of mixing “you” and your “solutions” into the education process so that they can “discover” you, but allow you not to have to SELL.
When they learn from you as the expert they will naturally want to take things further and you’ll be the obvious choice as a guide to help them reduce or eliminate their issue.
Marketing is NOT a business card, a flier, a product sample, a home party, a 3-way phone call with your mentor, a replicated website from your company, nor is it calling biz opp seekers pitching them on a business that isn’t making you any money.
Marketing IS, learning how to help people who are experience a pain or a frustration that you know from experience that your product/service can help reduce or eliminate, educating them about their issue and why it occurs and presenting your option along with some other alternatives so they can become more informed about what you have, thereby helping them to get clear, and be better informed to make an educated decision on what they need to do. If your Call To Action is strong and relevant to their needs you should be bombarded with people wanting your help.
You can do it
Study the product, focus on one particular product as your “lead” product, and then start learning how to attract people that want the education that will help them understand their needs better and then introduce your products with a “product comparison” of your competition and let your customer decide what is best for them.
Yes you need to have leadership, and confidence and a good marketing system set up, but marketing is NOT selling, arm twisting, or trying to get people to do things that they don’t already want to do.
If you master “Marketing” you’ll never have to sell another day in your life. Marketing will pre-sort, pre-sell and have people be pre-disposed to want to buy from you and you alone if it’s treated as the “art and science” that marketing is.
Thanks again, and keep me posted of your progress.
-Kraig