Dear Reader-
This morning, I was listening to a very rare recording with Joe Polish and the late Gary Halbert called “Gary Halbert XXX”.
This is a recording of an audio session where Joe paid in the ballpark of $20,000 to hire Gary for 2 days to consult he and a couple friends in a hotel in Denver Colorado about their businesses. The audio is appropriatly named “XXX” due to the uncensored nature of the recording (those of you who know Gary know he uses a LOT of profanity and is not looking for peoples approval).
For those of you who don’t know Gary Halbert, he is one of THE most influentail people in direct response marketing and copywriting, having helped his clients rake in MEGA MILLIONS of dollars with the power of the written word. Joe Polish, president of Pirranah Marketing (another big name in direct response marketing) asked Gary why he was so negative about Network Marketing, and Gary shot back: “Because it’s so damn inefficient”.
He went on to say that if he or anyone had such a good product, and people really wanted it, why would he spend the time to build a downline, when he could just use good marketing and make millions of dollars!
His answer is actually spot on, and pin points one of the major issues that people in MLM/Networking struggle with.
Most distributors in MLM, assume that their company (better referred to as “The Manufacturer in my eyes) knows how to train them on the strategies for accquiring new customers and how to train their team, when in truth, if the “manufacturer” really knew how to do this, they would not have gone out and recruited a bunch of independant distributors to do their marketing in the first place!
In my 11 years of direct experience with this industry, I can clearly state that the above point is why MLM has such a bad name and why so many get hurt.
Yeah there are factors such as most comp plans are designed to pay the majority of commissions to the very few at the top, and teaching people to front load a lot of product and/or there are often times corrupt leaders who see starting an MLM as a quick and easy way to make a fortune and then bail out and these things do happen, but the main problem is that people are brought on as independent marketing reps, but then are not taught real marketing strategies.
In fact some companies go so far as to restrict their reps creativity by forcing them to only use pre-established ads and/or promo materials “passed” off by them as being proper representation, even though when a new distributor signs up, they are technically an independant rep who ownes their own business and legally CAN market the products in what ever way they want to as long as they don’t improperly misrepresent the manufacturer which can be avoided 100% of the time by simply being a “nutritional consultant” or a “travel consultant” etc. who markets a particular product to a niche target audience who needs the benefits of a particular product but who could really care less who ships or created the product as long as it can alleviate or get rid of their pain/problem, be it needing a discount travel service or weight loss or whatever.
As long as the distributor learns how to position themsleves as an expert and can attract a needy audience who wants to learn from them as the expert to reduce or eliminate their problem, the only time the need to mention the manufacturer comes up is at the time of filling out the final paperwork AFTER the client has mentally “bought” the product/service at which time the manufacturer is really irrelevant and won’t lend credence one way or the other at that point, becasue people will ALWAYS buy in the presense of expertise and leadership and simply just want their problem solved.
Marketing is all about human psychology (how to target the right group who is already seeking what you have), and statistics (the simple art of tracking a few key indicators to pinpoint what’s working and what’s not working).
For many people who aren’t taught this “positioning” strategy, they will spend months if not years (like I did) and put themselves through a series of unnecessary experiences that can cause them to loose relationships with loved ones and go very deeply into debt “buying in” to the old ways of thinking about the way they share their products with the marketplace.
In closing I want to reiterate once again the hard facts that companies and leaders in this industry know well:
Over 95% of distributors will do the following:
a) Spend between $100 and $400 to get “signed up”
b) Sponsor an average of 2.5 distributors that do the same
c) Quit within 90 to 120 days
d) Are 16.27% likely to remain using the product or service
I hope by you reading and understanding this information, you can begin to empower yourself with the tools and knowledge that can teach you how to take back control of your marketing and in turn your business and it’s profitablility.
For a copy of my Free Report entitled: “Behind The MLM Curtain: The Deeper Truth”, please visit http://www.RetainReps.com.
Until next time, keep expanding your awareness so you can make better choices and in turn get better results.
Sincerely,
-Kraig Ward
Kraig Ward
International Trainer
Business Growth Specialist
RetainReps.com
