Retailing To Recruit

We're all aware of how difficult it is to find business builders.

This can be tough...Even with the best recruiting techniques.

For me one of the better ways to find business builders is to Retail to Recruit.

Personally I think your MLM business should be made up of 75% retail customers and 25% business builders.

Why?

Having more retail customers ordering from you week after week, month after month, year after year creates that residual income we all want. Plus you now have an army of customers that are spreading the word about your products. People will talk more freely about products that are doing well for them, then they will about a business opportunity.

In one case people feel they are sharing, in the other they feel like they are selling (guess which one?).

When people talk about products they're sharing an experience, when they're talking about a business opportunity they feel like they're selling.

In my company we make great money with retail sales and business builders. Personally It's easier to find retail customers than business builders, plus your income is generated faster. (of course that depends on your pay plan, for example I get paid every week with ours).

Let me ask you a question.

Do you think it's easier to introduce the idea to someone who is in love with your product/service they can have their own business or to someone who has never tried your product or service?

Kinda of a dumb question, because I know you know the answer.

Once someone has been using you product for about 30 days or so. And before I go on I trust you have been in contact with your customer to see how he/she likes using your product. More importantly have they used your product at all.

You would be surprised at how many people will buy a product and not use it.

If you do come across someone who has not used your product don't say "WHY NOT".

Tell a story.

For example, lets say you sell product XYZ and you called a customer and they have not use it yet.

Me.. "Hi Bob, this is Duffy how do you like XYZ?"

Bob.. "Oh I have not tried it yet it's still in the box, no time to busy"

Me.. "I can relate to that Bob. When I first started taking XYZ I started noticing a difference after only 3 days, I could fall asleep faster and I woke up more refreshed and with more energy and I am getting the same feedback from my other customers as well. I'll give you a call in few days and see how you're doing. Talk to you then, have a great night."

I did not challenge him, I accepted his excuse and I went on to tell him a story of how XYZ has helped me. Do you think he is going to leave your product in the box for one more day...I doubt it.

But even if he does, just keep telling stories of the things XYZ is doing for you and others

However, if your customer has not tried your product after 2 or 3 phone calls (5 or 7 days). Personally I would offer them a refund. With that the customer will either say no and try your product, or they will accept your offer. If so, great, either way it's a win-win.

If this person lived in my city I would go over and pick up the product. It`s not doing him or you any good just sitting there. It might as well be given to someone who will use the product.

Ok, it's been 30 days or so since your customer has been using your product and they love it, what now?

The next time you talk to a customer you can say something like this:

According to my records, it's time for you to reorder. How would you like to save up to $10 off your next purchase? For every name you give me of someone I can send a brochure to, I'll give you $1 off up to $10. Is that fair?

Or

If they are internet customers you would be offering them a $10 rebate after they place their next order. Simply tell them after you get the contact names and confirmation of their next order you will send them a check in the amount owing. The above is for local customers that you are personally delivering your product to.

This is a great way to get warm leads.

Then you take a flyer or brochure about your product. Put a yellow sticky note on it and say Hi "Sally" Mary Jones has been taking this product and feels great and thought you might be interested. Your name, your address your phone number.

Then, after you mail the info to the referrals, you call them in a few days. And say:

Hi Sally. This is (your Name), You don't know me but Mary Jones asked that I send you a brochure. Did you get that brochure? Listen, our product is helping a lot of people around the country--it's helped Mary.

The product is less than a dollar and a half a day and it's got 100% money back guarantee. Would you like to try it or do you know anyone who'd like to try it?

(I used what it costs to use my product each day for the above example, replace that with the break down of your products cost per day).

Now it's been about 2 months after your original customers first purchase. Depending on your products user rate you may have talked to them as little as 2 times, but that's ok.


Now say something like this:

Hello _______ How are you doing?

Have you experienced any additional positive results with your product?

Listen, I can't offer you a discount this time. "4" of the people of the "10" names you gave me are on the product and they're loving the product. They're going to reorder the product. Would you like to supply them and make the profit or would you rather I supply them?

If they say they would like to earn the profit, they have just given you permission to show them your presentation.

You're now retailing to recruit.

Until next time.

To Your MLM Success
Duffy Rogan

Profiting From Online Social Networking

This is the second in a series of articles we will be publishing relaying thoughts and ideas from the Internet Retailer Conference in Chicago, which occurred June 5th through June 7th. Peter Kosciewicz, Director of E-Commerce for the Eastwood Company, and Chris Saito, Senior Director, Shopping Products for Yahoo! Shopping, delivered a presentation entitled "Social Networking: The Peer Pursuasion Marketing Tool."

According to Kosciewicz, the Web today has grown into an "architecture of participation" that facilitates social networking through devices such as blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasts, and more. Forrester Research has published studies that show that traditional marketing is continuing to lose credibility. For example, in 2002, 78% of respondents in a survey said that ads are a good way to learn about a new product. In 2004, that number had dropped to 46%. In 2002, 14% of respondents agrees that companies generally tell the trust. As pathetic as 14% is, in 2004, it had declined even further - down to 7%. Social networking as a means of marketing overcomes this lack of consumer trust because it relies on the word of the consumer rather than the word of the producer. Research from Datamonitor reported that 85% of repondents in a survey indicated that word-of-mouth from friends, family, or colleagues is more trustworthy than corporate-generated content.

So how do you take advantage of social networking to sell more product? Simple - you open yourself up. You plant the seeds of a community to grow up around your site by using devices such as blogs, customer reviews, and forums to give a voice to your customers or prospective customers. The caveat is that you must be high quality. You must have high quality service and a high quality product. If not, avoid this marketing method.

Kosciewicz outlined four important rules for using social networking on your web site:

1. Guide but don't control.
2. Never censor.
3. Don't be afraid of the negative.
4. Don't be paranoid.

If you open up a forum on your site but then restrict what people are allowed to say, such as removing posts that are negative toward your company or that mention your competitors, then you will do more damage than good to your reputation. Use negativity as a way to improve your business. If people are negative, look at that as feedback and act on it. Make changes, and then let your community know about it. Don't worry about your community talking about your competition. Your attitude has to be that you are the best, so why worry about it?

As a community develops around your web site, certain members will establish themselves as more influential than others. They will be more outspoken, and will be the ones who often respond to others. Cultivate these members, because they can be powerful allies. Once you have identified the more influential members of your community, contact them regularly, give them free product, become their friend. Feed your influencers information, and they will distribute it for you. But do not make it appear that you are only interested in them because they can help you sell stuff. You need to be genuine.

Measuring the impact of social networking is difficult. Unlike other forms of marketing, there is no direct connect between social networking activity and sells. What you will want to do is track traffic to pages such as customer reviews, referral links, etc.

Social networking can be a powerful marketing tool, if you have a high quality product and are not afraid of an open dialogue with your customers.

ProBuilderPlus Review Ц A Venture Into World Of MLM

I want to start with simple statement Ц I have always told myself that I will never fall for Multi Level Marketing or as it`s called most often MLM. I have always believed that most MLM business opportunities are nothing more than glorified pyramid scheme brought online. So what changed my mind? How did I, a self taught Internet Infopreneur got sucked into it? Read on Е to learn how, why, get the skinny on the latest hottest MLM opportunity and see my real day-by-day experience.

So, lets start with why. I run a website dedicated to affiliate marketing and home based business. I investigate and share my experiences with anyone willing to read my articles and make recommendations on what I consider a solid opportunity. I make my money on Yahoo ads and on multiple affiliate sales I get, when people do follow my recommendations. In last two month I have gotten at least 10 emails from my visitors asking me about different MLM programs and my personal opinion. Since I have only had experienced myself only with SFI, a known affiliate MLM I could only answer based on that, which wasn`t enough Е So here I was. I have picked the hottest MLM I could find currently running and one of the youngest with low membership fees Ц ProBuilderPlus. This review is dedicated to my readers and hopefully my experience will help you make your decision.

Now to the how part we move Е How do you make money using ProBuilderPlus business opportunity? It`s really a quite simple forced matrix with 3 levels of payoff but quite a bit more intricate system of payments. Once you build a matrix of 9 people in your downline, doesn`t matter how far, you guaranteed a weekly check of $30. But it doesn`t stop there. You also get $10 for each paying member you personally refer and then $3 for second level from that member and $2 for 3rd level. All this in addition to payments based on maintaining your minimum matrix. As your matrix grows, so does your weekly income.

The system is quite simple but let`s have a look at how effective it is and what does it takes to recruit new membersЕActually this is the part that surprised me most and quite pleasant surprise it was. It was designed to be used by anyone, with no marketing experience and no prior knowledge and recruiting is a lot easier than I thought was possible. I have joined this system for free, while doing evaluation of multiple MLM programs about 7 or 10 days ago. As soon as I did I started receiving emails with interesting subjects:

"Here you go Alex, we put Kathy under you..."
"Here you go Alex, we put James under you..."
"Another One Alex - Joseph just joined YOUR Powerline..."
"Alex - AWESOME Mark just Upgraded to Member in YOUR DOWNLINE..."

And they just kept on pouring in. Before I knew it I had 587 pre-enrolled members, free members but all interested to learn how to make money, all with an open mindset and just waiting for a push to be converted. And believe you me, emails with subjects like I shown above was powerful push even for a skeptic like me, so I decided to join, reasoning that I can always cancel.

And now I move to the tools that system provides, and their quality. It comes pretty much with everything one might require:
1. An autoresponder follow-up system that makes you want to upgrade.
2. A matrix structure and pay plan that almost guarantees you make money.
3. Lead capture pages that get the job done.
4. A traffic rotator that allows you to funnel traffic to your downline.
5. Online training that highlights simple steps to success.
6. A Contact Manager that allows to to stay in touch with people you personally sponsor.
7. A tool that allows you to send a voice message to thousands of people per MINUTE.
Quality design shows in every tool and all of them quite compelling as far as MLM goes.

Day 1-3.
All we are left with is my personal experience. I have had accounts already with several traffic exchange programs that require members to click on your add and actually look at page. I have found them quite effective for building my mailing lists, so I figured I would just add my link from ProBuilderPlus to rotation and see what it brings. Completion of that part only took me a few minutes and once done I had a chance to have a closer look at all tools I described above and specifically training. Nice day of work, if I can say so myself Е

Day two went pretty much on autopilot, due to my preoccupation with regularly scheduled job and I only had an opportunity to check my stats on third day. To my surprise I had over 530 views of my signup page and one paying member! That is $10 back to my pocket, 2 more and I will return my investment. Not bad, not bad at all.

To do a quick summary Ц I don`t know if you can become filthy rich using this system or not but looking at weekly leaderboard I can see people with over 414 paying members enrolled, and that is for one week. So what I will do is continue to investigate this opportunity and post updates on my regular site, so feel free to visit and read them if you liked this article or just want to learn more from a person who is doing it and honestly sharing. No hype, no fuss, just an honest opinion.

Plant a Seed and Watch Your Business Grow

Do you have all the business you could possibly want or need? If you're like me, you're still growing your business. Marketing is an ongoing item on my agenda, and I'm always looking for new ways to market my services. Where do you begin the process of attracting more business? How do you get the ball rolling in the direction you want your business to be heading? Well, it's really simple. Start planting seeds! If you can start your garden growing this spring, why not start your business growing too?

You can start by telling everyone what you do, including those people in your life you see every day. Talk to your hairdresser, dentist, financial advisor, or babysitter. You just never know who they might know who may want or need your products or services. Leave business cards with those people, so they can hand them out to others who may be interested in contacting you. That old saying that includes the line "the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker" may just ring true after all.

Plant seeds everywhere you go. Typical ways to market your business are fine, but the best way is by simply using word-of-mouth. "Who do you know..." can be a very powerful statement when you are talking to others about what you do or what you sell. Let your presence be known. Be creative! I have a Team 100 list of the top professionals I know. When someone either in my professional circle or my personal circle is looking for a particular service, I'm able to refer them to someone I know and trust. All of the professionals on my list are able to refer me to those they know as well. It's a win/win situation. My name is on their list, their name is on mine, so the seed has been planted, and keeps growing.

These are just a couple of great ideas to help you get started in growing your business (if you want more business that is!). Taking some small action every day is better than doing nothing at all. Following a simple action plan consistently will most likely lead to several great opportunities down the road. Who knows? If you put in the effort, you just may find new business knocking on your door instead of the other way around.

Spring into action...and watch your business grow by leaps and bounds!

On Networking Groups ( Part Three )

I am about to share with you something that I talk to people about a lot. It is focused networking.

In each business, we have a target market or the perfect prospect. If you have been in a particular business for any length of time, you should know what type of person or business owner falls into this category for you. If not, it is time to figure out who this might be.

In networking for business it is important to have a well rounded networking schedule. You should attend many different types of groups in order to reach a broad spectrum of people. If you only attend a business after hours, you may run into several people who provide the same product or service as you. In this environment, it is important to know what makes you different from them. In most cases this is not a company thing, but a personal thing. When you have reached the point that you can relate what makes you different, you will do very well in a competitive environment.

One of the groups that you are likely to attend is a trade association. In my first exposure to networking many years ago, I attended meetings for a group that specialized in the creation of multimedia. I went to the meetings each month in the hope of building a relationship with others who might be able to help me find some work in the field. The opposite happened. I found myself in the ultimate competition. I should have been there to learn about trends in the industry and to get background information of my competitors, there was literally no work to be had in an environment with all of my competition!

What happens if you attend the trade association meeting of your target prospect? It is likely that you may be the only person in the room selling your product or service. If you do your homework before you go and discover the mission of the group, it is easier to prepare for that kind of opportunity.

In this environment, you may be sitting through a presentation by a speaker that you know nothing about, so to maximize your networking opportunity, arrive early and leave late. Talk to as many people as you can in the time that you have to network before the presentation begins. If you see someone in the group that you know, approach them and ask them to introduce you around in the room. This will help you to shortcut the process of meeting people. It also gives a friend an opportunity to refer you personally in a group of their peers.

It is important to be creative when looking for meetings to attend. Attend many, and you will have more opportunities to work with. Set a goal to visit all the types of groups at least once a month for maximum exposure and optimum contacts.

On Networking Groups ( Part Four )

What is a leads group? Leads groups seem to be the most popular form of networking judging that comment by the fact that there are more leads groups in existence that have been around for a long time than most other types of groups.

Leads groups are often referred to as closed groups. This means that there can only be one type of a business represented in a group. Lets say that I am a web designer. In a closed group I would be the only web designer represented in the group. Other web designers would be allowed to visit, but if they wanted to join the organization they would have to find a group that did not have a web designer. If there was no opening in an existing group for a web designer, the person would have to go on a waiting list until an opening became available, or a new group was formed.

Most leads groups meet once a week. There are some that only meet once a month. Leads groups offer something that a lot of people need. Structure and discipline. What do I mean by this?

Structure - In a leads group you do not have to be a master net worker. As a matter of fact, you can be a shy person and still have success in a leads group. Most leads groups allow a given amount of time to tell other members about your business. This usually ranges from one to five minutes. In this allotted amount of time you can go into great detail about your business including describing what type of leads you are looking for. The format is usually accomplished by sitting around a large table, and a leader moderates the time and asks questions. The meetings are generally held early in the morning or at lunchtime.

Discipline - In a leads group you are expected to show up for the meetings. Theoretically, if a leads group had only 15 members and several people did not show up, it would be difficult to have a reasonable meeting. To insure against this happening most groups require that you assign a substitute when you can not attend. This substitute should be a person in the same industry as you so that the balance of the group is not affected. In this situation, if you have a tendency to miss a lot of meetings, it would not be good to join a leads group. If you miss a lot of meetings without a sub, you will be ejected from the group.

The upside? In a leads group you will get to know people very well over time and get an idea of their abilities to fulfill the needs of a referral. This is good if you do not have time during the week to meet with people one-on-one in order to get to know them. A dedicated group will provide you with a steady stream of leads that you can utilize to expand your business.

The downside? Well, sometimes the leads become a paramount obligation and people feel pressured to pass them. If they are passing leads that are just names and numbers without a true expressed need, the leads generally lead you nowhere. Another issue is a member of the group whose quality of product or service does not meet the standards that you would want to refer to someone. It is difficult to pass a solid qualified lead to someone who will not provide the kind of service that you would expect them to.

There are also a few groups in existence that are in essence leads groups. They allow freedom to go to any meeting you wish as long as you are a member. The format is the same, seated at a table, and there is usually a time limit. The problem with these groups is that people wander in and out and without a lot of time to talk individually, you still have to set appointments outside of the group to really get to know someone. Without the discipline, the freeform leads group usually does not last for a long period of time. Often these groups open and close with great regularity leaving the members to search for another meeting to attend.

In closing, I would like to add that there is no wrong or right group to belong to. Visit groups and you will find the ones that are right for you. It is often beneficial to belong to three types of groups to get the most out of your networking efforts.

On Networking Groups ( Part Five )

Online networking web sites. Are they really networking and are they really working?

They have been springing up all over. They are based on contact management. They are direct in messaging, emailing, and even in the six degrees of separation. They go by many different names and have various methods of finding people. The problem with these sites is that they are not really networking. Do you disagree?

To be effective in networking requires building a relationship with another person. This is difficult to do through messages and email. If you have ever had a discussion with a person through email or instant messaging, I would like to ask if you ever found yourself in a situation where you had to actually pick up the phone to find out what a person was really talking about?

In relationships conversation is extremely important. The communication is key. The thing that we may not really pay attention to is the importance of tonal inflection in the voice and the added benefits of body language in expressing ourselves. These are the things that online networking is lacking.

Since the most important aspect of having a relationship with another person is based in trust, it is difficult to develop trust in someone that you have never seen nor heard. It is even more difficult to get a person to do business with you without some type of face to face contact.

With this in mind, will these web sites last or are they merely a passing craze? Are they popular simply because we are looking for success in any way that it might come to us? Time will tell.

It is my advice that if you are looking for new contacts, step away from the desk and out into the community. Online networking is less effective for getting business than it is putting your resume online to get a job. All of the people are faceless and voiceless and no one really wants to do business with an email. Or do they? With the thousands of people out there who are selling what you need, including those in your own community, how do you decide what to buy? My guess is that you end up buying most premium products and services from someone that you have met in person, even if it is just a clerk in a store. I am of course excluding buying products through an online store.

So then what is the future of online networking? You are in control of it. Please take a moment and send me your opinion of online networking. Please be sure to tell me if you have ever gotten any business from it exclusively. I am guessing that you probably haven't and you probably won't.