Suzy B Software 2/Suzy B Software CD-ROM 2 (1994).iso/extras/textfile/mlmsuc1/mlmsuc1.txt

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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 [phone] or at JLA Publications,
50 Follen St., suite 507, Cambridge, MA 02138.