A couple of weeks ago, Greg sent me a link to this video. As soon as I finished it, I sent the link out on twitter. Then I went to Amazon and ordered a copy of Erik Qualman’s Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business for myself.

There’s a lot of buzz out there about social media. A few people still poo poo it as “more of the same.” While others try to use it as a giant free classified newspaper. I think they’re all missing the point.  Social media is transforming our lives because it creates both transparency and accountability.

Your whole life is now a potentially open book and this is changing the way people behave away from their computers. People are living up to their own standards again.  We are living our own lives instead of watching other people live theirs.  Who wants to admit that you’re sitting in front of the TV when you could be rock climbing?  Social media strongly encourages us to be interesting to ourselves.

At the same time, our customers have as much control over our brand as we do (sometimes more.)  Do something right, get glowing reviews.  Do it wrong, the twitterverse knows in 140 characters or less. Whether you choose to engage in social media or not, your business success will be impacted by it.

In order to succeed in this new social media world, we must be in integrity and congruence within our businesses. (Something that according to the research has been sadly illusive in business as well as other facets of our lives.) That’s good news for everyone.  Those who embrace the new social media world will thrive and those who continue to play by the old rules will become extinct.

Great Book - Thanks Equalman.

How has social media changed the way you do business?  Share Your Thoughts.

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During the Great Depression of the last century, there was as huge shift in wealth globally.  Though some lost entire fortunes, others took advantage of the opportunity presented by these dramatic changes, building empires and securing the futures of their families for generations.  (Do you recognize the name Kennedy?)

During periods of turmoil, people are doing the exact same thing they are always doing - Seeking Security - We’re wired to do it.  What is new is that because of all the changes going on around them, they are willing to look for security in new places because the old places are clearly insecure.

Over the past year we’ve seen millions of people lose their jobs.  So, it’s obvious that a job no longer equals security.  At the same time, there are a growing number of influential voices including Robert Kiyosaki, Donald Trump, T. Harv Ecker, and Loral Langemeier to name only a few, who are actively educating people about the security to be found in owning your own business.

But most employees have no idea how to create a successful business from the ground up.  When they try, they discover that building a business is a lot more complicated than it looks like from an employees point of view.  Even successful high level corporate executives often have difficulty when they first become entrepreneurs.

The best network marketers are strategically positioned like a bridge on the journey from employee to entrepreneur.  But with all the hype and hoopla out there, what can you offer that will make you stand out to your ideal prospect?

1. Be honest with yourself about the income potential of you business.  While some network marketing businesses really do offer executive levels of income within the first few months, others are really designed to  provide only a few hundred dollars each month for the first few years of business growth.  Once you understand the real income potential your opportunity offers, you can match your opportunity to the prospects who are looking for what you have to offer.

2. Be honest with yourself about the investment of money, time and effort required to create success using your business structure.  There is no free lunch.  There are two ways to learn what you need to know to build a successful business.  You can learn from your own trial and error or you can pay someone for the benefit of their experience.  Though the latter may first appear more expensive, in the long run the investment in expertise saves more than time and effort, it saves money.  Make sure you are talking to people who understand this.  People who have to figure everything out for themselves aren’t going to benefit from these changes anyway.  They simply won’t be able to learn everything fast enough through trial and error.

3. Be honest with yourself about the uniqueness of your product or service and what that means in real business terms.  Prior to entering this industry, I was a physical therapist.  Though patients may have preferences about who treats them, insurance companies do not.  They see all therapy as being equal, so they only want to consider price.  Make sure you know whether your product or service is considered unique or a commodity by the marketplace.  It doesn’t matter how special it is, if the market considers it a commodity, you’ll have to compete on price and Joe’s burgers will never be able to hold their own against McDonalds on price alone.  It doesn’t matter how unique your offering actually is, what matters is whether anyone outside your business can tell the difference between you and your competition.

Once you understand where your business fits, create marketing messages that appeal to the people who can really benefit from what you have to offer.  Craft messages that will speak directly to the frustrations they are dealing with or the solutions they are looking for.  Despite what some industry leaders say, you, your product or service and your opportunity are not needed or even wanted by everyone.

To really take advantage of the current economic circumstances make sure you have the education you need to market your business to a select group.  If you try to offer it to everyone, you’ll discover that it’s like trying to drink from a fire hose - painful and not very effective.

To learn more about standing out in the current economy, Click Here.

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How to build a downline that doesn’t evaporate is one of the crucial skills that any new Multi Level Marketer must learn.  As with any valuable skill, it requires a critical change in thinking as well as perseverance and hard work, but it can be done.

First, let’s look at the scope of the challenge.  Imagine that you have a downline of 1000 people and consider the following:  According to the most optimistic opinion I have been able to find, at least 90% (the “realists” say 97%) of the average downline will never make more than they spend on products and company marketing materials.

So, at best, 100 members of your downline will get any positive results from a business perspective.  By positive results, I don’t mean they retired to the Cayman Islands or even met their business income goals.  I mean they have made at least $1 more than they have spent on products and company marketing materials.

Some portion of the remaining 900, let’s say half or 450, doesn’t care about that.  They’re happy product consumers. They buy the products because they enjoy using them. They aren’t interested in the business.  They’ll continue to buy the products until they (1)find something they like better, (2)find something they like just as well that is less expensive or (3) find something they like just as well that is more conveniently available.

Industry wide, the average “stick rate” for customers like this is 3 months.  So, in order to maintain your downline, you and your team have two choices.  You can either replace 150 of your product customers every month just to stay even.  (That’s not growth, that’s just maintaining.)  Or you can increase your stick rate.  If you can add just two months to the “life” of your average consumer, then you’ll only have to replace 90 product consumers each month to stay even.

Now let’s look at the remaining 450.  These are people who are buying the product because they like it and they think they can make money in the business.  These people are opportunity seekers.  They may have a lottery mentality and think that you are going to build the business for them.  They likely have no marketing skills, no sales skills and no business skills, but they still think they’re going to vacation in Tahiti next year.

These members are very vulnerable to the next opportunity they encounter, whether it is on or offline, because they think the opportunity is the key.  They don’t yet realize that the only way for an opportunity to work is for them to work.

So you have a total of 550 people who believe they are building a business.  Only about 100 of these members actually have the desire, ambition, drive, and persistence to eventually make at least $1 in the industry, but the large majority does not.

Be aware that no matter what your approach, you will never retain your entire downline.  You will always have to be recruiting and replacing lost members.  But even a small improvement could make a significant difference in your business.

So, here is the solution.  Engage your entire downline.  Create gatherings.  These can be physical or virtual.  They can be hotel meetings or they can be conference calls.  Give consumers a reason to attend by offering them things they want, like free or discounted products.  Give business builders a reason to attend by offering them what they want, like inspiration and social proof.

By engaging your downline routinely and consistently, you build a community.  Since people do business with people they know, like and trust, the stronger their bond to you, the stronger the likelihood that they will continue to do business with you rather than wondering off after the next attractive alternative they see.

Obviously, this will take a significant amount of effort and planning on your part, but there is a solution to that as well.  Plug your team into a system that provides this infrastructure for you.  Encourage them to engage with the larger community and build the bond with other organizational leaders.  They will still give you the credit for connecting them with the community, so you get the benefit of engagement without all the logistical effort.

What does a system like this look like? Click Here to find out.

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The End Of The Three Foot Rule?

I’ve never used the three foot rule.  Even thinking about using it made me feel like a stalker.  Fairly early in my Network Marketing career I learned about another way to build a business.  A way to systematically create success for myself and my team.  But I’m getting ahead of myself…

My first sponsors in MLM were a dedicated couple, who were committed to building a downline, supporting their team and creating success for themselves and for us.  They strongly believed in the product.  They used all the company endorsed brochures and presentation materials.

They even arranged for a local sales consultant to teach us how to use the “three foot rule” in the grocery store to get “targeted” strangers to try our products.  (We were supposed to look in the carts of our fellow shoppers and offer to share our products if they were buying things that seemed to be meeting the same need.)

My sponsors hosted tasting parties at their house every week and team training sessions at least twice a month.  These included how to get more people “flipping the chart” and “tasting the juice.”  They taught us how to get involved in BNI and other networking events.  The list goes on.

I just want to be clear that my sponsors worked hard, they were dedicated and they did mostly exactly what their upline told them to do for nine months.  At that point, after spending thousands more than they had made, they left the industry, going back to build a business where they had previously experienced success.

They took responsibility for their failure, never blaming the company, the pay plan or us for their results.  And they never questioned the system of which they were a part.

They completely believed the message that has permeates MLM - “Anyone can do this, all you have to do is share.”  They made their warm market list (theirs wasn’t the 100 recommended by their upline, it was over 400 and always growing),  they consistently shared the juice, flipped the chart.  And they failed.

They are part of the tragedy of this industry.  The completely avoidable tragedy that makes their story more tragic still.  Their failure was unnecessary.  It was the clear result of using outdated thinking to build a modern business.

The tragedy is that modern ideas and strategies are readily available.  But you have to take the next step.  You have to seek them out, because it is very unlikely that your sponsor is any more successful than mine was.

And it doesn’t matter how wellmeaning and dedicated they are.  If they don’t have what you want, then they can’t teach you how to have it either.

You’ve already taken the first step.  You’re here looking for ways to create the success that you haven’t found elsewhere.

To learn what I learned, take the next step.  Click here.

You are Awesome!

MLM Success Sponsor