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Kim Klaver's Articles


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"Do You Make This Marketing Mistake?" Harvard Business Review... In a recent piece in the Harvard Business Review, the authors remind us what a normal person wants when they buy something. And no, it is NOT the thing they buy. Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt, they write, used to tell his students, "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!" (Harvard Business Review, 12.05) Think about your product. Are you selling its features, benefits, ingredients, or scientific validity? Or are yo... "Even Children's Comic Book Makers Do It..." Well, in Japan, anyway. Comic book makers for schoolgirls and boys in Japan offer different fare to boys and girls...so that BOTH groups buy those comics like crazy, not just the traditional boy market. In their June "Japanese Schoolgirl Watch," Wired magazine notes, "Anyone who thinks schoolgirls and boys enjoy the same fantasies needs to bone up on shojo manga." The Japanese comics for gals are the antitheses of typical boy titles, they write. "In the series for gu... "i Have To Start Over." During yesterday's New School Mastermind session, we polled everyone: What's your #1 biggest obstacle to moving your business ahead? We all heard each one, and then the group voted on which one to take up first. #1. "I have to start over. I need a new Rep. Someone to do things together with so the business would be more fun and less lonely." Asking around to see who had had that problem and what they'd done, one person piped up, "Well I got my most recent new Rep at ... "I Thought 'free' Would Work..." & "The 5 Worst Things" So said a gal who had a big group of folks tell her they wouldn't click on her Orange Ad (see right side of the page there on the NMC site). It said something like: Free DVD New Nutrition breakthrough product... The gal told the group she figured "free" would work. But the audience didn't agree. "I get CDs and DVDs advertising stuff free in the mail, and throw them out," said one. "I don't have time..." "Why would I stop everything I'm doing and sit and watch a... "Love Thine 'enemy! It's Good Business!" Says Tom Peters Management guru Tom Peters has been reading some of our minds. His "Love Thine 'Enemy! It's Good Business!" post is a reminder that none of us can be all things to all people. So why not acknowledge that and support the old adage, to each his/her own? Actually, the more the better. Consider the activities of 300+ members of Network Marketing Central. Networkers from 118 different companies (yikes!) are meeting each other and, yep, buying and selling their products an... "Oh I'm So Embarrassed!" She Cried... During a recent class, one gal, Trudy, said she got into the business thinking that this'd be a great way to make $10,000/mo. Afterall, she'd been a professional accountant for 20 years...why couldn't she do this? Only it wasn't happening very fast, and she'd been at it for three years now, she said. So we did a quick exercise... "If your company pays you an average of 5% of all the money you bring into the company, (through product orders of your customers, recruits... "What Makes Network Marketing Good?" #1. Terry's Story. Flexibility. E.g., A chance missed for a newly discarded gal of 63, whose story follows below, to have built up something for herself, from home. But it's never too late... Story. "I was stunned and devastated when, on our 40th wedding anniversary, my husband presented me with a divorce." In a wonderful piece entitled Paradise Lost (Domestic Division) (NY Times Jan 1, 2006) Terry Martin Hekker describes how her entire belief system came undone on that day. It was par... A Better Question? In John Battelle's searchblog blog this week, he writes that he urged the MacArthur Foundation to spend some money helping students, among other things, learn to ask better questions, rather than regurgitating answers they've been taught. "...as many wiser than I have noted through the course of history, the most creative act a human can engage in is not repeating an answer, it is forming a good question." Questions are the answer. Have you heard that too? Because your ... After I Send My Prospect To The Website, I Never Hear From Them Again. Say you're on the phone with a customer prospect, discussing a product that helped you with an achy knee, and they ask to see a website. Where are you sending them? Go visit that page yourself. Check this: Does it have information about both the business and an array of products? Is it immediately easy to see info about the product whose story you were just discussing? If you're sending them to your company home page, think again. Chances are it's way to busy for the po... Altruism, Money And Sex In Our Training Programs Have you ever wondered why so many thousands of people do things for others not so much to earn money, but because it gives them satisfaction to be able to talk about what they know or what they've learned? Sometimes they just like to be the first one who turns someone else on to something new or different. While competition and comparing oneself to others may be good and spurs some people on, collaboration is getting a lot more play as a way to learn to do things and to e... Are We Abusing Word Of Mouth? In a piece called Ponzi, Pyramids, MLM, Ads and WOM...(WOM=Word Of Mouth), Seth Godin writes: "The next kind of pyramid scheme is certain kinds of MLM (vitamins, often)... In this case...there's also an attractive side benefit. You get the energy bars or the web traffic or the perfume or the herbs. The product often hides the underlying structure of the business, but in particularly loud versions, it's pretty clear it's just a pyramid scheme... "Once again, most peop... Believe Nothing... When I first got started in network marketing some 17 years ago, my upline all ran ads that were variations of "Making $10,000/mo. Need help." So I ran them too. I didn't have any other ideas, and they said do that, and I did. I was excited. I got hundreds of people to reply. And even some good orders from potential recruits. But almost no one stuck. After almost 9 months, I finally decided maybe I should try something else. At the time, I figured it was maybe ... Buying From A Network Marketer: A Political Act? Is buying from a network marketer making a statement? A dear friend of mine just finished reading the witty New York Times best seller, The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. "Now is the time," she anounced. "I've been looking at empty detergent bottles for months, and this book pushed me over the edge. I'm buying it from a network marketing company that markets non-toxic environmentally friendly laundry detergent instead of Whole Foods." Instead of Whole Foods? ... Buying From Other Network Marketers Wasn't An Option That I Considered In The Past. Just in from Larry Jolly, NMC member...who bought from Ann, another member... "Hi Kim - I was on the Network Marketing Central ( http://www.networkmarketingcentral.com )conference call last Saturday and you showed Ann's profile. I had been looking for some healthy treats for my dog who needs to lose a few pounds. I hadn't really thought about looking for a Network Marketer. I could tell from Ann's profile that she was passionate about animals and she sounded li... Bye-Bye Features And Benefits; Hello Story - Your Story One of the most frequent questions people in sales ask me is: "What should I say to someone about my product?" And... "What I do say gets almost no response. They mostly look away or glaze over and that's that. Should I just talk to more people?" Everyone knows something is wrong, but no one knows what. :( I asked a group of network marketers on last Friday's call to describe the things they think they should do to "pitch" or make their product presentation to ... Can You Have Too Much Faith? Sometimes, having too much faith (i.e. not doing your due diligence) can get you into trouble. Have you ever regretted signing up with a certain company, a certain sponsor line, or buying the really big package - later admitting you must have been temporarily insane or perhaps you'd just left your brain on the train? Later comes the proverbial smack to the head and the self-flagellating scream, "Ach! I should have taken the time to look into it a bit more before I jumpe... Can You See The False Promise In This Pitch? One of the guys on the "Call for Scripts" live phone call today offered up the business script below. He said was getting people to go look at his information. He prefaced it with "Kim, you'll probably hate it..." Just before he spoke, I had read the opening paragraphs from the new book Your Call Is Important To Us by Laura Penny: "Never in the history of mankind have so many people uttered statements that they know to be untrue. Presidents, priests, politicians, lawyer... CNN Anchor Kyra Phillips Turns Bad Press Into A Win... How do you come out a winner when the bad press you get is national and it's all over the Internet in 24 hours? A winner is someone like Kyra Phillips, CNN anchor who accidentally took a microphone into the bathroom and then went on David Letterman to redeem herself. Her reaction was on a scale with the bad press she got: national. No matter where the bad press comes from, from the local paper to the national media, you can come out a winner if you adopt a transparen... Commit A Revolutionary Act. "During times of deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." George Orwell. This is a chapter heading in the wonderful new book, Naked Conversations, an eye opening discussion on how blogs (=web logs like this one) continue to change lives - business and personal. A central theme of Naked is how blogs are forcing businesses to be more transparent in the way they market and advertise. This is a good thing, because I for one never know what to believe anymore ... Craig, Stan And Karen: Shaklee Comments Clarification Hello Craig, Stan and Karen: Let me explain and clarify my remarks about Shaklee and Mr. Roger Barnett (Mr. B.), the current owner and CEO of Shaklee. The comments section doesn't take links, so I'm responding to you here. It's in three parts. Sorry, no time to make it shorter. First, know that I've worked with thousands of Shaklee reps (and Excel reps, Craig) over the last 10 years. I use Shaklee products, and have nothing but the greatest respect for the company Dr. S... Did You Ever Have Lunch With An Old Friend Who Called... And you spend a wonderful couple of hours catching up on husbands, children, the problems, the good things, like... Your friend has lost 35 pounds since you last saw her a few years ago, and she tells you how she did it with this wonderful product that finally worked for her. And you are delighted for her of course, and so on and on. At the end of the lunch, your friend tells you that she is selling the weight loss product she was chattering about. Question: How do y... Did You Hear The Story Behind The Story? Have you heard the story behind the story? Get it so you don't end up feeling like these two women... "I don't want to beat myself up because I'm not the big recruiter and didn't fly to the top of the company in 15 months..." And "I want to get my self-esteem back. I have done a real good job of beating myself up, I want to take what I need, ignore the hype, and stop listening to the big hitter hype..." The boys on stage in our business (and most everywhere else) lik... Do People With Scripts Do Better? Some people say use scripts when talking to prospects. Others say scripts make you sound stiff and well, scripted. Some say get a good ice-breaker, and you're good to go. Others say you should find out what the other person wants, and then show how your thing IS that. (That's the old 'find their hot button' strategy that most people still use.) Most industry trainers say that if you use such scripts, you won't hear "no" anymore. Here's my take. The words you use with... Do You Know Anyone Who Buys For The Reasons Companies Sell? On our Saturday call, the question was: How do I show others the value of my products? The first exercise was people listing why they thought their products were special. One gent, independent rep of Legacy for Life, said: "This product has the most patents - like 100 of them. And the most double blind studies showing it works, and the most research behind it. That's why it's the best and there's nothing else like it on the market." Others said similar things..... Do You Tell This Whopper When You Recruit People? One of my students got this call last week. "Hello is this Steve?" Yes. "I understand you might be open to making extra money from home. Is that right?" Yes, I might be. What do you have? "If I could show you a way to to make $8,000 in 30 days, would you be interested?" Maybe. Did YOU do that? (Question he learned to ask in class of all business opportunity recruiters pitching him) "No, actually. I'm new to mlm and hate making these calls, but this is wha... Does This Mindset Lead To The High Pressure Sales So Many Of Us Hate.. On my newsletter sign-up at my Banana Marketing website, I pose this question: What's the # 1 thing you wish you could offer a customer or recruit? Here's a response I got two days ago. "I want them to really get how great our products and business opportunity are." - Melanie K. This is understandable, right? What sales person who loves her products and business opportunity doesn't want everyone to "get" how great they are? This attitude though, when it's activ... Don't Take My Word For It... When a new sales rep talks to someone about their product, invariably what comes out of their mouth is: "These are the best candles..." "This is a one-of-a-kind nutritional product..." "This is based on the best research anywhere..." "This is the greatest, the next iPod, the next Google (for the business), etc." While the rep may believe that and while she feels a tremendous urge to repeat that as often as possible to anyone who will listen, such self serving p... Everyone Will Want This Product - It Sells Itself Have you ever heard that line? When you do, you'll know the speaker is either ignorant or fibbing. So you're being fooled, at best. THERE IS NO PRODUCT FOR EVERYONE. We have choices about what to buy and not to buy, and then of the things we choose to buy, what brand, style, color, size and type. People tell you things about themselves when they make product choices. A woman who shops at Whole Foods, for example, tells you you something about her values. One who driv... Find The Bug And Start A Revolution In the delightful "Idea book" Fredrik Haren has a page called: Find the bug: Identify what irritates you. He describes how the inventor of Linux, the world class computer operating system, came to develop it. This gent named Linus Torvald was completely bugged one day that an operating system he had bought, wouldn't work. Even after he wrote some code. He was so sure his code was right, he decided the system he bought MUST be wrong, and set about to disassemble it a... Guess Who Ford Motor Just Quit Selling To... One of the very hardest things for a marketer of any kind to accept is that not everyone will buy their product, no matter how great they think it is. And even if someone else believes it's fabulous too, that doesn't mean they'll buy. I play tennis not golf. So no matter how stunning the new clubs are that Tiger himself uses, I won't buy. I don't do golf. So you're better off to save your energy and find someone who DOES love golf. As obvious as this sounds, it's almost im... Have You Discovered The Five Hidden Costs Of Network Marketing? When someone is looking to recruit another person into their network marketing business, they offer some variation of one big promise: Financial independence, big income or whatever money can buy, e.g. the mansion on the hill, the fancy belts cars, etc. That's the promise. However, no one, at least not on their websites or in their standard presentations that I have ever seen, tells anyone the hidden costs associated with the business of network marketing. Five hidden c... Herbalife Loves Shaklee Loves Nuskin Loves Prepaid Legal Loves Arbonne... Like Annabelle, many people doing network marketing feel alone and want someone to work with that is not their upline. If they don't find anyone they'll just become another NM statistic. Crazy idea: Find a cross-company buddy. After all, aren't we all really in the same boat? We experimented with this in the New School program. Cross-company people did calls together - someone from Herbalife buddied up with someone from Shaklee. Someone from Arbonne teamed up with so... Honestly...i Never Know What To Say. 6. What do you say now when someone asks you: "What do you do?" That's from the questionnaire all my students send in right after they sign up for my 3 Scripts (100 customers 100 days) telecourse. Here's a typical answer from a gent, a veteran in the business: "Honestly...I never know what to say. The "Health Consultant" line bores me. "I'm a Network Marketer" line turns my stomach. "I'm a National Director with MY COMPANY NAME" line is responded to by yawns, mine inclu... How $150 From 5 Customers Turned Into $15 Million This is a story about an entrepreneurial woman - an old friend of mine who 19 years ago was just another soul looking for something of her own. It all started with her first 5 customers... "You know Kim, when I was first approached about this business, I had been looking for something of my own for a few years already. Back then, my husband was a carpenter, and I wanted to do something, too. I had started an aerobics studio, a hair salon, and then a dog grooming kennel. Th... How To Talk To A Woman How many of you have been urged to bring your prospects to events so the top bananas can "close" them for you? Does your company have a national tour coming up where they've pleaded with you to bring your best people, so the CEO or other electrifying top banana can explain everything once and for all, show them the vision, and then CLOSE all those skeptical prospects for you once and for all? Close. Close. Close. And we all learn that the closers are the most valuabl... How To Turn Off Someone With Your First 10 Words... Here are a few openers reps gave us in class. No results so far, they reported. "Would you like to know about the dangers of EMFs?" "My Arbonne products are just amazing! Can I show them to you?" "I have just found this unbelievable Enfuselle, and you really must try it!" Anyone going, "Oh wow, I'd like to hear more!" yet? Other people do not care about our the names of our company, our products, or our fancy scientific techno-babble. They want to hear words sp... I Didn't Mean To Lie... In today's New School session we were discussing how much you earn on your customers - what the company pays you for customer orders. "I've been telling prospects and my own people for years that I make up to 50% on customer orders. But today I realized that that is not true. I only make 25% at most. I will never say 50% again and will correct this wrong impression with everyone in my group, so they don't say that anymore either." -twenty-year vet in the business, eight... I Don't Need Anything That Good... On a recent call discussing how to show someone the value of one's products, everyone listed the things they thought made their products special. See previous post here. Everyone's biggest challenge seems to be: How to show customers how great their products are, to encourage them to buy. They tell about as many virtues as possible, to avoid hearing the dreaded "That's too expensive." Or worse, "I can get the same thing at Wal-Mart or GNC, etc." After people liste... I Don't Want To Make Money Off My Friends... Are you someone who grew up during the hippie days, and you still feel guilty about making money off your friends? Did you ever worry about being perceived as exploiting others, just to make money? Many women tell me that when they've started to imagine making good money and having some of the things they've always wanted, like their own garden and time to work in it, or a housekeeper, or regular facials or spa vacations, they're ashamed because they're taking from thei... I Lose Them After They Go To The Company Site... Networkers send prospects to their company sites in the hopes that someone will order online. Or get interested in their business. But people tell me everyday that after they send a prospect to their company site, they never hear from them again. One reason might be that YOU are not there. Actually, there are usually no real humans on any corporate sites - no real person to engage with. It's just a big sales pitch for themselves. No biggie. That's just what they do. ... I Never Really Realized Our Opportunity Is Not The Only One... "I learned a thing or two about some new great products, too." That's from Connelly after he buddied up with someone from another company to do calls to prospects. Cindi reports on her experience: "I (Infinity2) teamed up with a Melaleuca rep (Pat) and it was fun. She and I have different angles, asked for different people and it didn't feel like we were competing for the small tiny little pie. It's good to work with people you don't have a financial stake in success wi... I Spent 30 Hours Talking To The Guy And At The Last Minute... "...at the last minute, his wife said 'no.' I've spent over $10,000 on leads and trainings this year, and this is the last investment I am making in the business." So lamented Frank Z., a gent on yesterday's conference call with a group of us. Everyone felt sorry for him. After all, 30 hours IS a lot of time to spend with someone, and then have the wife apparently pull the rug out at the last minute is not a good feeling. Here's the exchange that followed between Fra... I Want To Have A Place To Go For Christmas Dinner Next Year.. That's the question Lilly posed: "I'm going to visit my family this Christmas, and they all know I'm in this business. How can I talk to them about these life-changing products and get them to LISTEN to me? And - still have a place to go for Christmas dinner next year?" Two things: 1. Do not lecture them how great the company or product is or use lots of impressive (to you) scientific technobabble no one cares about. Remember, you are selling it, everyone kn... I'm Looking For Effective "Pique" Phrases... That's what the ACN gal's email said today: "I'm looking for effective 'pique' phrases to pique the person to attend a one-on-one, or evening events." Pique=arouse, as in, arouse someone's interest. Here's what I told the gal. What piques YOUR interest about this business? Why did YOU decide to do it? 1. You've always been a closet entrepreneur and this was your chance to come out? 2. You've always wanted something you could get behind, something you could b... I'm Not Interested... This is the title of a recent piece by one of the industry trainers, Wendy Weiss. In her article, Wendy suggests getting an "I'm not interested" is because your script or its delivery isn't good enough. While that may be partly true, it's not the biggest reason for that reaction. She writes: "If you have a compelling script with stellar delivery, you will hardly ever hear the words, 'I'm not interested.' That's because you will actually be saying something interestin... If I Were Starting A Network Marketing Company, Continued "If I were starting a Network Marketing company, I would say, what's a different group of people that want to hear a story about how to succeed with network selling? What words, phrases and images do I use to help them understand what it is I have to offer?" (posed by Seth Godin) People in the new group I'm proposing - amateurs and hobbyists doing network selling - have a different worldview about other practices too. For years we've been admonished to "Treat it like a ... If I Were Starting A Network Marketing Company... "If I were starting a Network Marketing company, I would say, what's a different group of people that want to hear a story about how to succeed with network selling? What words, phrases and images do I use to help them understand what it is I have to offer?" So opined our friend Seth Godin in an interview with John Fogg this past December (and thanks, gulliver, for bringing this comment to my attention.) Why a "different" group (than those we have now)? For one, too ... If It Quacks Like A Pyramid... Who gets the Pyramid Quack award? On our conference call the other day, people wondered how to talk and act so that people would stop asking "Is this a pyramid/one of those things?" One way is to stop, forever, saying and doing the things that evoke this image in the minds of others - i.e. people "who abuse their friends and try to sell them stuff, and get them to sell and take a percent." For years, it's been all about getting people to sell and recruit. That's the ... If Only You Weren't Selling It... If only you weren't selling it, you could go on and on about how you love it madly. But who wants to listen to anyone go on about how great something is when you know they're also selling it? In our society, what you're allowed to say about something you like (and get an open and unsuspecting mind at the other end) depends on whether you're selling it or not. Pretend you just got the new Power Mac. Of course you're supposed to show and tell your friends. And if you j... Is NM Slipping Because Our Values Are Slipping? Do you think it's OK for someone to repeat untrue things to get someone into their business? For example, "This is easy. Anyone can do it." Or “Everyone wants this product. It sells itself.” If those two things haven't been true for the person saying it, would you, knowing that, want to come into the business with her? What about this: "If I could show you a way to make $8,000 in your first 30 days, would you be interested?" Or "If we could show you a way to make $5-... Is The Business Really For You? The path to personal and financial success is never straightforward, no matter how easy the people selling either one make it look. Network marketing's no different. It's not an easy path. And most certainly not the easiest way to make quick income. An hourly job at $10/hour will get that needed $500 much faster than any networking opportunity for someone with little business experience. But for that longer term success, for those who want to build up something that wil... Is This Any Way To Win Friends And Influence People? We've all heard the ravings and rantings about how important it is in direct sales, to "relate" - that success must be built on starting and building relationships. Sometimes they call what we do "relationship marketing." Some say that's why network marketing is a natural thing for women to do. Yet, the things people are taught to say to others about their products appear to do the opposite - they tend to drive the other woman away - glazed eyes and all - even one who migh... Is This Sales? Has this happened to you? You're discussing what you do with another woman, and how much you enjoy it. Then she asks "Is this sales?" Uh oh. What now? Are you someone who maybe blurts out, "Well it's not sales. It's sharing." Perfectly understandable a woman should feel like that. According to recent market research on women's buying habits, "Women constantly complain that many sales people are too aggressive and 'hard-sell." -"Marketing to Women" What woman... Is Your Company Woman Friendly? Woman Friendly Test #1. Do they pay you good money for finding customers for the products? Are you a woman who has some trouble relating to the "recruit recruit recruit" model, with the constant emphasis on "closing" someone or on finding "big hitters"? So do hundreds and hundreds of other women. They've told me over the years that they would really like to focus on getting steady customers for their business, at least right now. And THEN maybe, later, think about th... It Must Be Me, She Said. In the last 15 years of working with women in direct sales and network marketing, I've met thousands of them who decided to sell a product or service because they love it. Yet they struggle with their little business, and often it's been a long struggle over many years. Most tell me how a health supplement or a new service has changed their lives forever, and they cannot fathom why everyone isn't falling over themselves to buy it, if not sell it too. Lamentations abound: "... It's The Gory Story Why does prospecting seem to be so hard in our business today? A skeptical market place is one thing. And that's partly the result of marketers everywhere making promises and more promises that they don't keep. See, for example "Consumers Wary about Believing Us Anymore" posted here July 28, 2005.( http://kimklaverblogs.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_kimklaverblogs_archive.html Add to an already jaded market place the gory story. Yep. One very big reason you have trouble getti... It's Too Expensive! "I can get the same thing at GNC or WalMart..." Who hasn't cringed at hearing that? And sometimes, even reps have told me THEY think their product is kind of expensive. What to do? Instead of trying to justify the price at that moment, ask yourself this: Are speaking to the right person? They might not be a member of the niche. "It's too expensive" is a completely subjective assessment. Depends 100% on the values and priorities of the person speaking. And we... Kim Klaver First "Call For Scripts" "How do I market my product?" "What should I say so they say yes?" Those seem to be everyone's favorite questions. I even have a 3-Day course and a book to help people answer it. And there are many more marketing professionals trying to help out. Still they keep coming from all over with the same urgent question, "Why do they say 'no' when it's such a good product?" Hmm. Since you ask, let's answer. Assuming the product being offered is making someone's life better s... Movie "believe" Boring, Disappointing I knew this flick ( http://believethemovie.com )would dump on mlm, and I went to see it with high hopes because I figured if nothing else, we'd promote it to all New Schoolers as a way to tell their prospects: This is how we do NOT do this business. But alas, the old style revival meetings depicted in the movie, based on the director's Amway experiences years ago, were so dated - they represent a bygone era. No doubt some people still act this way, but we are no longer the... My Upline Says Our Products Are Too Expensive... and that the only way a customer will stay a customer is if they invest in the business. That's what the upline of my friend Rani, a member of Network Marketing Central, told her. "And that's why," the upline continued, "getting customers is not duplicatable." Well now Houston, we have a problem. With an attitude like that, how can you go after customers? Here's another point of view from someone else in that same company. "The products are NOT TOO EXPENSIVE for s... Network Marketing For Women Here's my take how women would like to be taught to do the "approach" part of network marketing. And, how we'd like to be treated at the other end of a mini sales "pitch". It's from the new intro to my experimental Squidoo site... Delighted to hear your reactions in "Comments" below. (Coming next: The first 7 days in a Woman's Network Marketing Business.) Network Marketing for Women is for someone who wants to market their products without hype or gimmicks. And without ... Network Marketing: Word Of Mouth Marketing? Have you heard that network marketing is word of mouth marketing? If so, you may have heard wrong. On the surface though, it sounds right. NM isn't pure word of mouth marketing in the way professionals use the term. According to WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association): Word of mouth: The act of consumers providing information to other consumers. But WOMMA warns about 'unethical word of mouth marketing': Shilling: Paying people to talk about (or promote) ... NM Sense: Tip #1 "where Do I Find Good Professional People... & "NM Sense Tip #2: Cold Cadaver Calling New little series of these Network Marketing Sense tips. Reactions welcome. Network Marketing Sense: Tip #1 "Where do I find good professional people to talk to about my product and business without spending more than I can afford? And local people would be great." Here's a way to find naturopaths, massage therapists, alternative health pracitioners, hair color specialists, and such, locally and around the world, at no cost. LEVEL: Easy WHERE: Web (Internet) COS... Nm Tip #4: How To Make A Good First Impression Online.. "When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions...I think those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important and, occasionally, really good." - Malcolm Gladwell Whether the conclusions are good or not, those instant first impressions are how we judge - and it's also how others judge us. Kno... No More Guilt... "Every time I come home from the gym, my husband is waiting for me and goes, 'Well did you talk to anyone about the business?' It's getting to the point where I don't want to go to the gym anymore. I don't want to accost people there, I just want to work out. I don't know what to do, really. I've told him I don't want to talk about the business at the gym, but he's waiting to ask me each time I come home. I'm thinking of just quitting the business. I hate this. What sho... No One--wants To Be Covertly Marketed To... So writes Jason Calacanis in this post ( http://www.calacanis.com/2006/10/07/why-payperpost-their-investors-and-their-advertisers-should-be) about the evils of the new Payperpost blog service that pays bloggers to promote stuff on their blogs - but without having to reveal that they're being paid to promote the products. ( http://www.calacanis.com/2006/10/05/mike-arringtons-best-moment-making-payperpost-look-like-the-lo /) covert. adj. concealed; secret; disguised. Blog... Omigawd, What Did I Just Say?! Have you ever been surprised when you're telling about the business, and suddenly the other person asks you, "Is this one of those things?" Or "Is this a pyramid?" Did you know it's probably something you said or showed them that triggered that image for them? Here's a way to avoid tripping yourself up with the words you use (or show) when you're talking about the business or product. According to linguist and now political consultant George Lakoff, all words evoke cert... One Technique To Prevent Premature Drop-outs Have you signed up a recruit with great anticipation, then the person talks to one or two people they know, and next thing you know, they quit the business? To help prevent this, try the following in the first week after the person buys in (after they've been on the product and love it, preferably): 1. Tell the recruit that learning what to say to prospects changes everything. That the words they use will determine whether they'll be perceived as a blowhard seller type,... One Thing To Know When You're Recruiting A Woman... Over the years, most sales people approach men and women the same way -whether they're marketing a product, service or a business. But research has shown this is a mistake. If a female prospect says yes, she's interested in making some extra income from home, the guy will typically launch into how much he's made, how great the company is, generally strutting his stuff. Kind of like a peacock displaying his feathers. This might work with another guy, but not with a woman... Peddlers, Strawberries And Motives... Most everyone earns a living doing something - working for an organization or peddling something. We are the peddlers. That is, all of us who have something remarkable (we hope) for others. Something we believe in - products, services, ideas and programs - that we hope a few people like us will try, buy, and be happy they did. Now there are all sorts of peddlers. There is the peddler who shows the fat red strawberries at the top of the basket. You get wide-eyed when ... Pet Products And Skin Care Don't Seem To Match... There's a gal names Frances, who loves her dogs and wanted higher quality food then what she could get at the regular store. So she went shopping at Network Marketing Central. (Register and take the oath first, to see the goodies.) After she'd cruised around the site searching for someone who marketed healthy pet products, she emailed Ann, a member of the NMC community. (To do that yourself, go to the site here ( http://www.networkmarketingcentral.com ) and enter pet... Please Don't Drag Me Into The Backseat On The First Date, She Pleaded... So say the ladies (and even a few gents) when the salesman comes calling or makes the pitch - be it for that wonderful product, or a new business opportunity. It might be worth listening - Women are 80% of everyone our industry. Is anyone in the front of the room listening? Hello..!!??? Research on how women buy tells us this very thing...and we must be the last to know, think? According to Martha Barletta, researcher and writer on women's buying habits, "Sales... Sales Is Like Flirting: Open The Kimono Just A Little, Then... "Sales is like flirting: open the kimono just a little, then walk away. Let the ones who would, hanker for more." - Kim Klaver 1996 Do you agree with that? What if you saw your initial customer approach as more like flirting than scoring - i.e. open the kimono just a little, then step back? The right prospects don't need anything more than a peek at first - for anything. Isn't that true for you, too? It's thumbs up or down within seconds. OK ladies, if you buy tha... Sales Pitch Relief Bill, Anyone? Sales pitch: Ranting and raving about the wonders of your product, and predicting what it will do for the other person, plus a little techno babble, like cellular level enzymatic functioning. Rattled off by the person selling it, non-stop, in a hyperventilated state. Sales pitch relief: Relieving the consumer of the endless barrage of sales pitches about products and opportunities, which they can't stand to hear anymore (think Do Not Call List). Stamp out the sales pitch f... Shall We Dump The "Fake It Till You Make It" Recruiting Routine? How often have we heard it spouted from the front of the room? "Fake it till you make it." Over the last 15 years, I've known countless guys who, upon hearing this mantra, have begged, borrowed and stolen money to buy their Armani suits, shoes and belts (whose expensive buckles they are often seen fondling in front of the room). Some have bought cars totally outside their budgets so they could be seen arriving in style. And of course, they imply clearly that these wo... Shall We Follow Google? Google has gone from being the #1 online search service to becoming a giant, wildly successful advertising company. Who hasn't seen the little "Ads by Gooogle" text ads on any website page? What Google brought the online world that has made them so insanely popular: contextually relevant ads. Translation: ads that go with stuff people are already interested in - e.g. what they are already reading about. Visiting a travel site? The little Google ads you'll see offer l... Should I Lead With The Product Or The Business? She Asked It depends entirely on you and what YOU feel the most confident doing. Do NOT decide this based on what you think will bring you the most money, or what your sponsor is telling you to do. Do what goes with you. And that will change as you begin to succeed. If you really like the products, and you are leaning towards getting new customers, start there. Figure out how much they'll pay you for each steady customer you bring in (of course that depends on her order - which p... Should I Sell The Dream? This is the question a group of us discussed in a live conference call today, with reps from some 35 companies participating. Some had been in the business 30 years, others less than a year... "Should I sell the dream, when my company and upline keep telling me to do that, even though I am not making it yet? Aren't we just telling them stuff that isn't really true?" To get to the answer, here are 3 questions we asked and answered: 1. What is the "dream" anyway? And w... Should I Tell Her How Many Miles She'll Have To Drive? Two nights ago I did a teleconference, "Can honesty bring back respect to Network Marketing?" I described 5 half-truths people use to entice (too many wrong) people into the business. Here's one: Omitting how much it really costs to make a go of the business. THEY TELL: For $19.95 you can have the amazing opportunity to get financial freedom! BUT DON'T TELL: After the $19.95 (or whatever the sign-up fee is), the person must first buy product, and enough of it t... So Why Do They Stay? In a business where we have a 95% drop out rate, it's interesting why those who stay, do so. I can assure you it is not the money. When Excel Communications went bankrupt in November, 2004, the company reported to the court that as of October, 2004, Excel had 106,426 U.S. representatives eligible to earn commissions. 64,967 actually earned commissions. Of those, 98.1 percent earned $100 or less. Only 99 of them, or 0.2 percent, earned more than $1,000 for the month." More ... So, What Do You Call Consumers Who Are Not Interested In Your Products Or Business? Readers here know that everyone will not buy your product. There is no product for that elusive everyone. I'm happy to report that at least ONE major company in the US, Ford Motor, has just discovered this. Most companies have this dreamy belief that everyone would buy their products, if they could just come up with the right words, the right ads, MORE ads, more gimmicks, more hypnotic and mind control persuasion techniques, and louder and bigger advertising campaigns. ... The Buddha Antidote To Hype And Hustle Marketing Are you as sick as I am of the marketing hype and hustle that comes from promoters of books, CDs, seminars and courses, to network marketing programs? The Hype: E.g. “I just finished reading a great book that you absolutely must have. It's called blah blah.” Or “'I've read every book on marketing printed in the last 150 years. This is the first breakthrough in over 50 years.' “Kim, this business is going to EXPLODE! Get in early and with YOUR contacts, you can ... The Elephant Method - Have You Heard Of It? There's something new you'd like to try. But you're scared to do it because you might make a fool of yourself, or heaven forbid, people will belittle you and you'll know you should never have tried it in the first place. And you don't have a 5-hour block of quiet time to study it. So on the back burner it goes. But somewhere inside, you DO want to try it even though it makes you a little nervous. Time for the elephant method. Have you heard of it? "When a wild elepha... The Gaping Gap In Network Marketing Do you think there's a bit of an integrity crisis in Network Marketing? Hmm. Phone rings. The gent on the line asks my student if he's open to making some extra income. "What do you have?" "If I could show you a way to make $8,000 in your first 30 days, would you be interested? "Are you doing that?" "Err, no. Actually, I'm new to MLM and I hate making calls, but this is what my sponsor told me to do." A gent sitting in one of my classes said he was runnin... The Good Stuff Is In The Tail... So says the author of best-selling business book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of business is selling less of more. In the image, basic 'for everyone' stuff is on the left, and the specialty goods peter off to the right - into a long tail. Here's why should you care about this. Do you have any special interest? Are you an audiophile, or you love tennis, are you a pianist, or is your health your number one priority? Would you, as an audio nut, buy your audio equip... The Narrower, The Potentially Bigger... In a succinct piece, the guy who helped build Google's current Blogger program (which I'm using here) and which Google bought from his previous company, offers up "Ten Rules for Web Startups." While many of you don't consider yourself a "web" start up, you ARE a business start up, regardless of where you do your business, including one-on-one, on the phone, etc. The FIRST Rule: "#1. Be narrow Focus on the smallest possible problem you could solve that would potenti... The Skeptical Market Recruiter... If you think recruiting is harder today, it is. The marketplace is a much more skeptical place than it was even 5 years ago. And it's not just us. The sheer deluge of screaming ads everywhere is one reason. Who could watch TV without their remote and TIVO? How many of you paid for cable TV to get fewer ads interrupting your programs? Who here subscribes to XM radio or Sirius to get away from the barrage of ads and lame programming? Are you on the Do Not Call li... Three Tips From The Field... Title: Three tips from the field... Article: I put out the word yesterday that I'll report little (or big) things people do that are working for them...Send your tips in and who knows...you might appear right here. 1. From Kari... who tells how she markets her show, tell and smell type product line... "My sponsor in Scent-sations, Inc. is Jackie Ulmer and she taught me your principles from day one about no hype and letting the customers and the prospects do the... Top 40 Start-Up Network Marketing Companies NEW LIST. The current Top 50 Network Marketing Companies represents the most highly trafficked companies online, as rated each day and updated each week by Alexa. To make it onto that list, companies must be 1) highest ranked (most visitors) AND 2) five years old or more as of the day of the update. That leaves out all the start-ups - my personal favorites. So here is the Top 40 Start-Ups list: Network Marketing companies with 1) the highest internet traffic as ra... Top 50 Network Marketing Companies: Week 15 Just updated five days ago by Alexa. The Top 50 Network Marketing Companies are ranked by Internet popularity – number of visitors to the company websites averaged over 3 months. The numbers are compiled by Alexa.com, the most widely used tracking service for website rankings since 1996. Alexa ranks millions of websites. Rank 1 is the highest; Rank 10 million the lowest. Alexa updates weekly. This week, Yahoo.com is No. 1; FedEx is No. 426; GNC is No. 12,081. In the ... We Haven't Used Those People Up Yet... "The challenge of success in the network marketing world is not about 'how do I change the worldview of people who are biased against me?' it's 'how do I find the people who are biased for me?' because we haven't used those people up yet." So said Seth Godin to John Fogg in an interview last December. Let's divide people up into three groups: 1. Biased against network marketing (mlm - multilevel marketing) 2. Biased for network marketing 3. Open, no opinion about n... What 'job' Did Your Product Do For You? As someone whose job is sales, and maybe marketing, it's quite natural to want to believe that your product is for "everyone" and so should be marketed to everyone. Network marketing companies tell their recruits, "This product is for everyone - it sells itself. Everyone will want it." Of course every new recruit discovers that "everyone" does not want it. This creates quite a shock, and often people quit, thinking THEY were the problem somehow, because they said "every... What Does Someone Earning $400,000/mo Worry About? New series: Profile of a leader who's building long term, not short term: #1 - Donna Johnson, Arbonne's top banana. Last month, I did an interview with Donna Larson Johnson, the top earner at Arbonne International. Many people know that Arbonne has been growing by leaps and bounds for the past couple of years. So what's to worry about? Donna (and corporate) were worried about a few loud and visible recruiter types who had invaded the distributor ranks to ride the compa... What Makes Network Marketing Good? #2 Something Of My Own. Yes, something of my own. That's what I have always looked for, no matter what I did. Network Marketing provided that option, and without nearly the investment that a franchise or setting up a traditional business required. If you're like me, you thrive when you can rely on your own talents, ability and efforts and would rather get paid on that than the other alternatives, even if it doesn't make you rich. For me, it beats stressing out at a corporate job full of office... What P&G Can Learn From Network Marketing's Biggest Mistake As a fan of P&G and someone who's been educating the Network Marketing industry for 17 years, my heart sank when I read about P&G's latest marketing tactic - bribing women to use their friendships to sell soap. NM has created an image of an industry whose people use and abuse their friends for personal gain. P&G has just created an army of 600,000 women who are using their friends in exchange for soap and coupons. The NM recruiters' pitch: Make money doing what you do e... What To Say To, "Is This A Pyramid Scheme?" On a call yesterday following the pyramid post, people wanted to know what to say if, they're presenting the business or product, someone pops the question, "Is this a pyramid?" Before you brainstorm over your winning comeback, how about a quick check to see whether 1) your company acts like one or not, or 2) if you are acting like one (without realizing it, of course)? Here's the question we discussed: 1. Is your business all about recruiting? If so, you are a... What's Bias Got To Do With It? Interesting people have opinions and beliefs that they they feel strongly about. Let's call these biases, especially when talking about theirs. Hehe. Bias: A preference or an inclination, especially one that inhibits impartial judgment. What does this mean for you marketing a product you love? 1. Everyone doesn't have the same biases you do. And they like their biases just as much as you like yours. 2. If you continue to try to force everyone to convert to your... Where All Think Alike, No One Thinks Very Much. Wonderful reminder from Walter Lippmann. That said, here's my question: Why don't we promote cross-company customers? That is, why couldn't a rep from say, PrePaid Legal, and one from Shaklee, Isagenix or LifeWave, be each other's customers, without the paranoia of someone stealing them? I mean be customers of more than one company's products, like we are in the real world? Some years ago, Paul Zane Pilzner asked me why it was that people recommended representing ... Which Dance Do You Do? When someone asks a network marketer, "So, how do you make money?" or "What do you do?" the dancing begins. Have you noticed that? They waltz, they do the funky chicken, they shuffle and jump every which way just way just to avoid saying they’re selling something. We've all come to distrust sales people. Who wants to be identified with the smarmy sales person who, as the villain in the musical My Fair Lady, “oiled his way around the floor, oozing charm from every pore.”... Who Said Anything About Rejection? On today's call, I asked: "After you started the business, what's a hidden cost you discovered?" "REJECTION! REJECTION!" responded several people at once. Hear hear. But who said anything about rejection when we signed up? "It's easy, anyone can do it. The product sells itself." Isn't that what you heard? Maybe THAT'S what makes rejection so hard on someone like Julie, with no previous business background. It's so unexpected. Unexpected because she truste...
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