Don't even think of going into MLM unless you're prepared to do... THE 10 THINGS THAT WILL MAKE YOUR EXPERIENCE IN MLM PROFITABLE Part 1 by Dr. Jeffrey Lant How many people do you know who fit this description? One day they're hotter than hot about some great new MLM opportunity? Talk to them a month or two later and they're hotter than hot -- about ANOTHER MLM opportunity? But, you sputter, what happened to that first opportunity, the one you were so keen to get me into? "Well," they respond weakly, "it collapsed..." Or, "I couldn't recruit anyone into it..." Or "I didn't get any upline support... But this time..." Yea, we've all heard this before time and time again. Sickening, isn't it? Fortunately, there are things you can do before you sign to ensure that your time in any MLM opportunity is going to profitable, instead of yet another exercise in futility. These things consist of a series of assessments -- of you and your situation, the company and its situation, and of the necessary components of sales success. Because of what these assessments discover, you're going to have a very good idea in advance of your systematic involvement about whether such involvement makes sense. Note: Make these assessments as hard-headed as possible. It's amazing to me how many people in MLM continally fall prey to self delusion and hype. As a result, they are constantly disappointed. But this disappointment, take note, is their own fault. The fact that the wrong people constantly get into MLM, that there are worthless programs in the land, that marketing communications are lousy and upline support nonexistent -- these are not the problems. No, the problem is that you didn't do your homework in advance and so avoid them. In short, caveat emptor. Assess Your Temperament When you go into MLM on even the tiniest scale, you're becoming an independent consultant, and succeeding as a consultant demands a certain temperament. Of course, you're beguiled by the lure of the riches... but do you have what's necessary -- both in terms of skills and attributes -- to get them. Personally, I've been a consultant now for nearly 15 years -- a large chunk of my adult life. And I have no hesitation telling you what you need to succeed. ## Self-starter. Are you capable of getting up in the morning, setting your objectives for the day and pushing yourself to achieve them? If not, MLM isn't for you. The people who succeed in MLM -- and there are such people -- are their own strictest taskmasters. They know just how much -- or how little -- success they get is largely due to their own efforts. Personally, I like this sense of unlimited horizons. In a world of increasingly narrow limits, MLM remains popular because of the promise of its lack of limits. But unless you're a self-started, you're not going to benefit from this promise. ## Joy in motivating and moving people. Consultants are change agents. We never accept the world as it is; we're always striving to change it... and we'd like to benefit through the change process. Is this you? Just yesterday a fellow thinking about joining an MLM program told me he felt uncomfortable intruding into the lives of others. I told him MLM would be a hard road for him... because when you're in MLM you're necessarily intervening in the lives of LOTS of other people... and doing what's necessary to MOVE them. Can you do this? Personally, when after I've done my research into an opportunity and learned that it will really make people's lives better I'm delighted at the opportunity to share it with people... to improve their lives. Indeed, I feel it would be irresponsible of me to withhold the sharing. Thus, it's not a question of "intruding" into other people's lives.. it's a question of doing what's necessary to improve them! ## Willing to work "unorthodox" working hours. When you're in MLM, you have to put in time not only during "regular" working hours... but also in the evenings, on week-ends, etc. If you consider this time sacrosanct, you'd better look for a more traditional job. ## Won't take no for an answer. Lots of people in MLM get discouraged when they hear that a prospect won't join them. Not me! I want to know why. I don't consider an encounter with a prospect finished until the prospect either says yes or produces an iron-clad "reason" why he can't join (like, "I'm terminally ill and have only twenty minutes to live.") A no, to me, is just a milestone on the way to a yes. I don't expect a prospect to say yes immediately (it's always more fun to be courted, after all, than to be married). But I do expect to find out just what kind of a no I've been given. Note: when a prospect says no to you try this. "I hear you. But what I want to know is, what's it's going to take for us to do business today?" Then list to see if you're dealing with someone who has a real reason for saying no... or who just says no out of force of habit. In short, don't take rejection personally in any way; see it as a means of assessing the real likelihood of recruiting this prospect. Note: a good many people in my own MLM organization said no to me initially. Nothing daunted, I kept after those who had not provided me with real reasons for declining to be recruited. And after them... and after them... until, as one "heavy hitter" said to me in finally joining, "I knew it would be easier for me to come in than to stay out." Indeed. Assess Your Resources When you go into MLM, you're a business owner. And making any business work takes bucks. Just how many, of course, depends on your own situation, including: your objective, your own ability to generate leads, how good you are at closing leads and retaining people in your organization as well as, of course, the actual cost of participating in this opportunity. Are you up to all this? Just the other day I talked to a fellow who was thinking about joining the Personal Wealth Systems MLM I promote. He and his wife had just had a new child and -- in the same month -- declared personal bankruptcy and lost their home. (No, I'm not making this up!) Yet, without any successful experience in MLM, he was thinking of this as his prime way of making an income! As politely as possible, I advised him to get a real job first... save a little money (his "seed capital") and then get back to me and let me help him. Most MLM hucksters, of course, would have taken him (on the "any warm body" theory of recruitment)... letting the chips fall where they may. Lucky for him, I didn't, but he should have been more responsible for himself instead of relying, a la Tennessee Williams, on the kindness of strangers. As everyone in business knows, the cost of producing or buying the product or service is the least of one's expenses. The real cost is in ongoing marketing and general overhead. Thus, in MLM, no matter how much you're paying to be in the opportunity, you're going to pay a lot more to market the opportunity and sustain your organization. Are you prepared for this? The sad fact is not only that most MLM companies are egregiously undercapitalized but those who are recruited into them haven't got a clue how much it's going to take to run their shop. Ridiculous! Assess The Company I: Can You Make Any Money? Most people go into MLM for one major reason: to make money. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. There are, to be sure, some MLM zealots who joined (so they say) to improve the moral fiber of America; I, however, am not one of them. I went into MLM because it was a way of diversifying my already extensive product and service line and because I knew (I'd done my assessing after all) I could make a heap of money through it. One key constituent of this is making sure the company you select can deliver the lucre. Most companies can't. Look real hard at how money is made through the MLM opportunity you're considering. Let's say you've chosen one of the ubiquitous companies that forces you to sell diet powders, personal care products or some kind of health device. Just what do you have to do to make the income objective you've set for yourself? Don't just guesstimate the process, either: write it down, step by step until you see how money is made. If the company tells you you can make an annual six-figure income with their opportunity, find out exactly how they're figured this out. What are the assumptions they're using to compute this return? Are these assumptions reasonable given your circumstances? In other words, can YOU achieve the level of financial success you want? In most cases, you're going to find out you cannot. Towards this end I'd like to share where I'm coming from on this point. I don't think it's possible to make real money in an MLM unless you have to pay at least a moderate monthly fee (that is over $40) for belonging, unless a substantial portion of this gets paid out to the members based on the size and productivity of their organizations, and if the amount you get is predicated on substantial product sales. In other words, if you're even thinking about joining a company that sells personal care items and where your income is based on how many units of potions and lotions you sell, forget it. Unless you already have a proven buying network in place and unless you're adding this opportunity to your line (and not promoting it solo), run -- don't walk -- from this "opportunity." The same holds true for most of the other so-called "ooportunities" available today. Assess The Company II: What About Their Customer Skills And Ability To Provide You With Technical Assistance I talked to an MLM drop-out the other day who had stayed with an opportunity for 8 months, pumping in money and time the while, but never made a dime. During this period he kept trying to get the assistance of the company but was continually put off ("We'll call you back.") I couldn't figure out why the guy hadn't chucked the "opportunity" long before he did. "They told me it would take time," he said ruefully, "but they never said how much and so I just kept hanging on." Yikes! Dear reader, the way a company treats you from Day 1 is the way they're always going to treat you. If their technical assistance is bad at the beginning, it'll be worse later; if you can't get phone calls returned right away, you'll never get them returned. If the people you talk to are disorganized, rude, inefficient, pre-occupied now... they'll be that way in spades afterwards. Thus, ask for references from regular people in the company's organization... not the stars... but the trench troops, people who are like you. Find out if they're happy; find out if they're making it. And find out what they have to say about the company. And always beware what company officials have to say... if they can even be bothered to tell you. Personally, I know one company where the creature in charge of marketing is a blowhard of mammoth proportions. Uttering one meaningless word after another, he spends the majority of his day telling people how much he "appreciates" them... but is so disorganized he can never deliver on the overblown promises he makes. To get him to return a phone call, respond to a fax -- or, even more importantly, think through what needs to be done and to do it is near impossible. Yet he'll tell you at the drop of a hat what a great marketer he is, usually moments after he'd made yet another elementary error. That the company keeps him in such an important position is beyond understanding, for the harm he does them is enormous. Unfortunately, such people are rampant in this "say anything, do nothing" industry. Before joining a company make sure: ## there's someone available within the company to answer your technical questions; ## their customer service system actually delivers. Call it before you join... and see what happens; ## the times they're available are convenient. One company I know shuts down at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, just about the time people in the West Coast are getting back from lunch! ## there are set procedures for handling such common problems as delays in getting materials to members of your organization, handling payment issues, and generally being of use to you and your team. All companies have problems. What distinguishes the good ones from the bad ones is how adept and prompt they are at solving them. Assess Their Marketing Materials One major reason why so many people fail in MLM is because the marketing communications they're provided by the company make failure inevitable. Unfortunately, most people -- not being experts in client-centered marketing -- are not in a position to determine if what the company provides them is sufficient to achieve success. They get their marketing communications. They believe the nonsense the company dishes out. They use the inadequate materials. They fail... while the company, content to milk the rubes of their monthly fees, tells them to be "patient." Dear reader, let me share a marketing truth with you: either the marketing communications you use work right away... or they don't. It isn't a question of "patience"; it's a question of effectiveness. Given the fact that most individuals -- even those with significant business experience, much less ingenues -- are not going to become marketing specialists, it is therefore the company's responsibility to work hard to produce client-centered marketing communications. These are communications that hammer home benefits... and make an unanswerable case for taking prompt action. Sadly, even the best MLM companies do not produce such communications. Instead, they specialize in gloating "me-centered" documents full of unsubstantiated adjectives. You can tell such communications right away. They start with things like the company's name, motto, logo, some nonsense about the fact that the opportunity is "revolutionary," "world-class", etc. In other words, a lot of stuff about them -- not you. These, of course, won't work. The best documents, on the other hand, are directed at one of two people: either the person who is still a prospect... or the person who has already joined who must still regularly be reminded of the benefits of belonging. Either way, the structure of the marketing communications they get is the same, full of lines that go something like this: ## You get... (benefit #1) ## You get... (benefit #2) ## You get... (benefit #3) Here's our special offer... call to get it NOW! Do your marketing communications look like this? I doubt it. Note: I'm such a fanatic about client-centered marketing and the importance of such documents to organization building and retention that I junked all the company's marketing materials for the opportunity I'm promoted and created my own set of unrelenting materials. Because I knew every Tom, Dick and Harry in MLM would want this set, I put them under copyright protection and strictly limited their use to members of my organization. Not even others in the company generally get to use them. No wonder! If you had to buy these materials from a copywriter, they'd cost $5000+. You bet I'm keen to protect their use! Conclusion In another report, I shall go on to provide you with five more areas you must assess before joining any MLM opportunity. As you can already see, however, conscientiously assessing any opportunity you're considering will spare you a lot of grief and lost resources later. All MLM programs are not bad as some shallow people think. There have been many reputable money- making programs over the years... and many exist now. But it is your responsibility to put the opportunity you are considering to sustained scrutiny and decide carefully if it provides the vehicle you need to give you what you want. If the company is good, it will not mind this scrutiny. Indeed, it will invite it. If it's not... why that's yet another sign that you really should carry on your researches elsewhere. End of Part 1 *************************************************************************** *** Dr. Jeffrey Lant has brought more people into Personal Wealth Systems, Inc. in the shortest period of time than anyone else in this MLM company's eight- year history. The people he recruits become members of his elite Wealth Team and work directly with Jeffrey to earn lucrative monthly income. Each is provided with his copyright marketing system and given ongoing information on how to close and retain members of their organizations and so achieve wealth faster. Jeffrey is also well-known as author of CASH COPY: HOW TO OFFER YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES SO YOUR PROSPECTS BUY THEM... NOW! (480 pages, $38.50 postpaid) and NO MORE COLD CALLS: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO GENERATING -- AND CLOSING -- ALL THE PROSPECTS YOU NEED TO BECOME A MULTI- MILLIONAIRE BY SELLING YOUR SERVICE (680 pages, $44.95 postpaid). To get order these resources and get detailed information on joining Jeffrey's elite PWS Wealth Team, contact him at (617) 547-6372 or at JLA Publications, 50 Follen St., suite 507, Cambridge, MA 02138.