Use No Hook

0 Comments Saturday, September 20, 2014 | @ 8:11 PM
My friend Tony Rush shared this enlightening piece on a Forum we both frequent. If it doesn't get you thinking...you might need to check your brain wave activity. ;)

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Get Rich Quick?

"Get Rich Quick" -- that's a funny phrase.

When someone says "get rich quick", most of us react as if the person said "scam" or "scheme". And usually, that's the context that's being used when someone says the phrase.

So, why is the phrase funny?

Because, if you completely clear your mind from any preconceived ideas or feelings about that phrase....you'd probably find that most people who are interested in money DO want to "get rich quick"! Even the ones who use the phrase disparagingly.

Look at the phrase in its basic components (again, with no preconceived feelings or prejudices) and ask the following questions:

1. Do you want to be wealthy? Most people (at least those without a lack mentality) will say yes.

2. And, if you had the option of receiving this wealth in 5 years or FORTY years, which would you choose? Five, right? What about if your choice was between 1

Seems fairly straightforward. Most people would love to be rich. And, as long as they can achieve that goal without infringing on the rights of others, they would prefer to reach their financial goals as quickly as possible.

In other words, they want to get rich quick! But, because of the stigma attached to that phrase, they won't express their desires in those terms. They're more comfortable with a softer language (like I've used above). And that's ok. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Randy Gage has a similar perspective on this issue. When someone asks "Is this a get-rich-quick deal", he turns the question on them. When he illustrates that a person can become wealthy in 1-5 years instead of 30-40....he's definitely selling an idea that you can get rich quickER.

And isn't that true? We hear, all the time, that the average 65 year old has almost no money after working for 40+ years. So, if someone can become wealthy by working from home.....even if it took them 10 years....isn't that "getting rich quick" compared to the 40-year plan which provides riches for almost no one?

Or, put another way, if the overwhelming majority of Americans can't get rich AT ALL with the 40 year plan......isn't it "get rich quick" if a home business will allow them to do that in, say, 10 years' time?

Absolutely.

Funny. The phrase "get rich quick" doesn't seem so offensive now, does it? Because if you're offering your prospects a business opportunity where they can create a six-figure income in the next 1-5 years of working from home......well, you're selling "get rich quick". Or at least "get rich quickER".

But, of course, we can't use that language. The stigma on that phrase is too strong. So, I would never advocate that you tell your prospects that they can "get rich quick". But....just between us.......they CAN.

I'm always a little amused when networkers talk among themselves (like on this forum) and one of them uses the phrase "get rich quick" in its negative tone. A day or two later, I can ask this same person if it's possible for someone to earn a six-figure income in their business in the first year.....they'll almost always say 'yes'! Go figure.

So, is "get rich quick" a bad concept? Not really. Not if you're earning your money at the SERVICE of others, not at their EXPENSE. In my opinion, if you're not infringing on the rights of others or sacrificing your ethics and integrity, there is no reason in the world why someone shouldn't seek to be as wealthy as they want to be and to do it as quickly as they can.

Is it possible to get rich quick? Absolutely. It happens all the time. But, only for people who aren't programmed to believe that wealth is supposed to take years to accumulate. Sometimes it does. But it doesn't have to!

Tony Rush

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0 Comments Friday, September 19, 2014 | @ 8:09 PM
Hey...you know me. I don't mess around with hype, smoke, pressure tactics, the big pitch, oogley googley rah rah, that airy fairy stuff, and so on. Just give it to me straight baby. Honest and to the point.

So...here's something by Len Clements I could have wrote. If I was smart enough (careful....I heard that). Anyway...ahhh what he said.

Enjoy......

MLM GIMMICKS: The Truth Behind All Those Screwy Deals
by Leonard W. Clements

Network marketing is a very perception oriented business. To compete for distributors you must somehow create the perception, or in most cases the illusion, that your opportunity will make your prospect richer, faster, easier. Instead of emphasizing a strong work ethic, loyalty and commitment to one MLM program, and an honest, moral approach to recruiting, it seems many, way too many, MLM programs today are offering the proverbial "magic bullet". They claim to have discovered some "revolutionary" new product, concept, or system that no one (out of tens of millions of people over half-a-century) have ever thought of before. Have they? Let's take a closer look...

Let's start with "infinity" bonuses. This is a form of commission that pays on a certain percentage of volume per level down to the next distributor in the leg who also qualifies for this bonus. At that point the bonus can be all or partially blocked. In other words, it pays down to a certain point and then stops. Mr. Webster and I have a very different definition of "infinity"; I find it rather amusing to listen to the various pitches some distributors offer when presenting their "infinity" bonus. They emphasize how easy it is to qualify for the bonus (usually there is only a small recruiting quota). But, of course, this advantage is solely based on the illusion that you are the only one that has this advantage! If it's so easy for you to qualify for this bonus, then it's just as easy for all those in your downline to block your infinity bonus. In a worst case, if everyone qualified for it, no one would earn anything from it!

I've heard many people claim that it is possible to earn an "infinity" bonus on people over 100 levels deep in their organization. Think about what that implies. This would mean that you would have to have someone on your second level with a downline over 99 levels deep who has not qualified for the maximum infinity bonus! I suppose it is possible -- theoretically.

Recently there has been a flurry of two and three level pay plans (usually employing an "infinity" bonus on the third level). While they may have noble intentions (more up front money for the "little guy"), they are entirely deceptive in their claim that better-than-average earnings per distributor ratio will last more than a few short months. These deals love to compare the earnings potential compared to a list of their competitors based on a two or three level downline. That's because this would likely be the only scenario in which their plans would pay more!

There are only two possible paths a 2-3 level program can take. They get really big, or they don't. If they don't, that's not good. If they do, then it is inevitable that their leading distributors will develop large downlines. And what do you think happens when the top distributors look at their genealogy of 10,000 people and realize that 9,500 of them are completely out of their pay range. What happens when their $30 per distributor earnings ratio drops to under a buck, and they figure out that if they had the same group in a six or seven level plan they'd be making three or four times the income? What happens is exactly what has happened to literally every 2-3 level plan in MLM history over one year old -- their leaders leave and the program crumbles, or they add more depth to their pay out! (Voyager, Changes, Outback Secrets, and Personal Wealth Systems are just a few recent examples of one outcome or the other).

What about programs that claim to have little, or even no personal volume requirement? Isn't that great? You don't have to buy anything as long as your downline does! But again, this is based on the illusion that you are the only one with this advantage. Isn't your downline being told they don't have to order anything too! So now everyone sits around waiting for everyone else to order something.

Another great example of this same kind of illusion are programs that allow you to enroll yourself or a spouse on your own first level. They tell you all about how you can now build under the second level position and earn from both positions on the same downline. What they don't tell you is that everyone in your downline gets to do the same thing! Now your six level plan just became a three level plan! As everyone else double-dips, just like you, they are forcing potentially huge amounts of sales volume out of your pay range. Sure, you get paid on two positions -- but on about half the volume!

(Note: due to the irrelevance of levels in determining commissions, the binary plan is exempt from this discussion -- although most binary plans have a myriad of other illusionary advantages, but that's another article).

Speaking of binaries, there is one recently popular gimmick that's worthy of discussion and that's this "daily pay out" nonsense. My main peeve is that many such deals are actually claiming that getting paid three or four times a week means you are going to get paid three or four times more than a weekly paying plan. A few years ago, this same baloney used to be said about weekly paying binaries compared to monthly paying traditional plans. Once it became obvious to so many that you were really getting paid the same amount monthly, only divided up into smaller, weekly chunks, this absurdity ended. Now we're being told daily pay-outs result in more income than weekly due to the same ridiculous logic. In fact, the more likely effect of a significant increase in administrative expense on the part of the company -- thus the very real possibility of "lower" actual pay outs!

And speaking of pay outs, I've noticed the Australian 2-up compensation plan is back for another round of resounding failures. This plan, which seems to make a resurgence about every three or four years, is the epitome of the word "gimmick." It's a classic example of a plan that looks great on paper, but actually pays very little to very few. Yes, the percentages are bigger, but what they don't tell you is that you are actually getting paid those whopping pay outs on a small fraction of your total downline. The rest you earn nothing on, making it, over all, the worst paying plan in history. Which explains its literally 100% failure rate. But, alas, yet another group of "visionaries" have recently come along claiming they've discovered the secret to making the 2-up work (or, in one case, they just gave it a big fancy name and then flat out lied about the plan's true identity).

There are gimmicks within the product category as well. How many times does the "smoking cure" fad have to make its loop though this industry before people realize it's a gimmick! Think, people! If there really was an herbal substance that permanently cured people of their smoking habit, it would be front page news all over the world, the FDA surely would be trying to classify it as a drug (so the drug manufacturers could make a killing off of it), the tobacco industry would be spending billions to destroy its credibility, and every MLM company in existence would be knocking it off! Not to mention all the brand name versions of it that would be flooding the store shelves.

Same goes for baldness cures, anti-aging creams, libido increasing oat pills, IQ enhancers, and other such bunk. I'm still waiting for some MLM company to offer X-ray glasses!

Another marketing gimmick that is at least original (I never saw this one much before last winter) is the "guaranteed income" or the "reward" for finding a better MLM program. These offers have more catches than Willie Mays. For example, one scheme currently operating claims they will guarantee you an income of $5,000 within 120 days or they will "continue to execute our program on your behalf, at our expense, until you do earn $5,000."; What does that mean? It means that if they fail miserably and don't earn you a dime, they'll just keep on trying. Think about it, folks. For a company to guarantee an income to every distributor that ever joins, they are in essence guaranteeing a downline to every distributor. This is, obviously, a mathematical impossibility.

One company is now offering a "$10,000 Reward" to the first person who can show them a pay plan that pays better than theirs. What is so ironic is that their plan is a classic Australian 2-up, which means that almost every plan pays better than theirs!

Portfolio programs are one of the most amazing phenomenons to ever cycle through this industry. This is where someone tries to get everyone into a group of MLM programs, either all at once or in a series. No matter how many of these schemes fail, over and over and over, all for the exact same set of reasons, people will still go out and try it again. And again, and again. Do you want to know how I know that no portfolio scheme has ever worked. Well, for the same reason I'm pretty sure dinosaurs are actually extinct -- because there aren't any! Other than the most recent batch of start-ups, show me one that is working. There have been dozens, perhaps hundreds, that have come and gone.

The primary reason portfolio deals don't work is that each program they place you into either requires a product purchase to qualify for a check in that program -- or they don't. It's got to be one of the other, right? So, if each program requires, let's say, $100 per month, and they place you into ten programs, you have to spend $1,000 per month to earn a check from each one! Now, if they don't require a monthly purchase, then everyone sits around waiting for everyone else to order something -- and no one orders anything. No sales volume, no income. One hot portfolio scheme is distributing a cassette tape where one of the founders admits to all the reasons why these deals have never worked before, then rather than explaining how they corrected those challenges he describes the exact same system as all those who have failed!

Show me a list of professional network marketers who have focused on one MLM opportunity for more than ten years and I'll show you a list of millionaires. Show me a list of MLM portfolio participants who've earned even a modest full-time income for more than even one year and I'll show you a blank sheet of paper.

In next months issue... The biggest, nastiest, MLM gimmick of all time -- the downline building scheme! (This one deserves a whole article to itself!)

Folks, there have been professional gamblers who have spent their entire lifetime trying to perfect the perfect "system" -- and failing at it -- for as long as there has been gambling. There have been those who market get-rich-quick schemes through the mail claiming to have discovered an easy, sure-fire way to wealth for as long as there has been mail. And, there have been MLMers claiming to have found the perfect income building system, concept, or product for as long as there have been MLMers. If there was such a thing, we'd all be obscenely rich and the entire Earth would be saturated with 6.5 billion MLMers.

It's not because there isn't!

What there is is an industry with many, albeit a minority, of hard working, devoted, loyal, professional network marketers who have earned their incomes with sweat, honesty, and a lot of patience.

We need more of them, not more games and gimmicks.

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0 Comments Thursday, September 18, 2014 | @ 8:07 PM
My friend Mike Michelozzi of Reliv is quite a remarkable fella. I've stopped being amazed at his wit and talent for putting word to paper....probably related to his being a former school teacher. But it's more the words Mike chooses and what images they frame in your mind after reading them.

Practical...thoughtful...enlightening...I could go on.

Here's a recent contribution from Mike you should find helpful in your MLM journey.....

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MLM Qualities

They all read like cliches: persistence, determination, vision, patience, motivation - MLM qualities aren't any different than what it takes to be successful in anything.

Successful people work in systems, they are disciplined and work to master what they do, they are life long learners committed to their success, and they are just as committed to the success of others.

Everything is about networks, relationships, and serious intent - AND successful people are high achiever, they find energy in what they do, they're people who have fun and get the most out of their lives.

We look for people of good character who are also committed to the success of other people and take pride in a job well done.

MLM qualities are the same as all good life qualities - improving one's self, lending a hand, opening doors for other people, and forming a fellowship with people create bonds and purpose to achieve things together.

Being friendly in a sincere and genuine way, taking care of little things that everyone else neglects, and offering support without being asked are success in themselves - real wealth and riches are in the way we lead our lives.

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0 Comments Wednesday, September 17, 2014 | @ 8:08 PM
My friend Doug Firebaugh of PassionFire has a knack for getting to the heart of things. Here's a nice practical check list new MLM distributors can use to help them get started....and organize their efforts right from the beginning. Might not fit every company business model so feel free to modify accordingly for yours....

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The New Network Marketing Distributor's Getting Started Checklist

A List for MLM Success.

That is what I am talking about here. Every new mlm distributor needs a checklist when they get started to create a "map" of what the need to do to get started.

Why?

Simple.

Duplication.

If you have a checklist that a new network marketing distributor can follow and check off what he/she has done, then you have created a system that can not only be duplicated, but also taught.

By virtually anyone.

A checklist also will provide another thing besides duplication.

Accountability.

If a new MLM distributor knows that he/she will be asked about completing part of a checklist, then the odds of them doing it just went up a lot!

It simply shows the new Network Marketing distributor tasks that need to be done, and a good checklist will even have the date the task was done.

INFERNO Secret:

If a new mlm distributor has a list of things that they must do, the seriousness of the focus they have will increase significantly.

You, as a sponsor, must provide a PATH to success in the beginning that WALKS the new distributor through the first tasks that need to be done.

And it must be a step by step path.

Your checklist must have some form of direction to it and purpose. It cannot be just a list of tasks that are meaningless. They must be what will get the new mlm distributor prepared for the initial launch of their new MLM business.

There are many forms and kinds of checklists. I have seen many out in the industry, and all of them differed in some way.

It's not the list itself that is important as the fact that there is a track to follow and a path that you can access as you get started in this business.

A list should contain 3 things:

1) Tasks that Set up the new distributor with the MLM company.

This part of the list should contain what is needed to get the new distributor in the computer and inventory ordered, and anything else your company requires you to so.

2) A list of what needs to be done to set up and engage the MLM business.

This can be as simple as a warm market list and a time to start calling the names.

3) Target Dates to accomplish the tasks in Network Marketing.

Make the dates have a sense of urgency but not intimidating to the new person…

And a list should always be "user friendly -- easy to follow ad not complicated as this will expedite the new mlm distributor's willingness to get it done quicker.

Here is checklist that will work for any new distributor and get them focused and on track for Network Marketing success:

Steps to MLM Success for a New MLM Distributor:

1) Make sure all the paperwork is in and Product ordered.

Date:______________________________

2) Schedule the first MLM Training Session and Kick off Meeting

Date:________________________________

Kick Off Meeting Agenda for New MLM Distributor:

3) Go over the New distributor Manual-Section by Section

Date:_________________________________

4) Call and get 3 way calling set up on their phone

Date:__________________________________

5) Go through the tools and brochures and answer any questions

Date:__________________________________

6) Start the warm market and "Hello it's Me" letter list (Memory Jogger)

Date:___________________________________

7) Go through Fast Start Training (If applicable)

Date: ___________________________________

8) Role Play with new distributor approach and 3 way script

Date:_______________________________________

9) Set time to start 3 way calls

Date:_________________________________________

10) Plan First Exposure Meeting with warm market

Date:_________________________________________


As you can see, the first part is to get the paperwork out of the way, and then you do what I call a "Kick Off Meeting". This is a meeting that is set to train and officially "kick off" the business of the new mlm distributor.

INFERNO Secret:

Every new network marketing distributor needs an "Official Start" to their mlm business, and a Kick Off meeting accomplishes that. It is the starting point of where the new network marketing distributor starts working their business.

Follow the steps to the Kick off meeting and if there is a Fast Start training from your company, go over that with them. PassionFire has a Fast Start Training as well if your mlm company does not have one.

The tools are VERY important. Go over all the tools with the new mlm distributor, and make sure they have an understanding of them.

Role play with the new mlm distributor with 3 way calling. This is a MUST! It will help create confidence in them and also show them the power in the 3 way..

Then plan their first exposure meeting, usually in their home, or a luncheon, or just setting appointments with the new distributor to go see people.

Go over this checklist with the new mlm distributor, and START THEM OFF RIGHT for MLM Success in Network Marketing.

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0 Comments Tuesday, September 16, 2014 | @ 8:05 PM
Catchy little phrase isn't it?

That's the title of the latest online prospecting presentation tool from Tim Sales...originator of "Brilliant Compensation" (I know you've heard of THAT one...everyone in network marketing has).

You can watch a preview of both "Brilliant Compensation" and "What The Wealthy Buy On Payday" at MLMBrilliance. [scroll toward the bottom of this website and you'll see the links] Just so you know....these are sample videos for preview only. You will be able to view approximately half of each video, enough for you to see how you can use them to educate your prospects and build your network marketing business. Then decide if you want to order a copy for yourself.

If you do happen to order these presentations from Tim....good for you. They're phenominal. In my humble opinion they're the best prospecting tools in the industry....hands down.

Now here's a tip....with every order of these presenation tools Tim is also giving you his file of 70 proven, easy-to-learn scripts of what to say in any prospecting situation:

* Step by step instructions on how to get referrals and exactly what to say when you call them.

* What to say to rude people to regain your posture, but not lose the prospect.

* Scripts for any type of promotion you do including: one-on-one presentations, luncheon meetings, residential meetings, and recorded voice mail messages.
How to deal with people who've had a bad experience with network marketing.

You won't likely find a single source anywhere with this kind of ready made script guideline. It's pretty neat that Tim actually gives these away with Brilliant Compensation and What The Wealthy Buy On Payday.

All in all...this a nice little self-contained package for you to apply to your business building effort. Pretty easy to duplicate with your organization too....just share where you got it and show them how you use it. That simple.

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0 Comments Monday, September 15, 2014 | @ 8:05 PM
Well...I know this already. Hopefully you should too. But just in case you need a reminder...my buddy Mike Michelozzi puts it in short, simple, easy to understand terms.

"Not only network marketing, but Internet sales, conventional business of any kind - or everything else we do that involves other people, it's always been true: when you help enough people get what they want you'll be taken care of over and over again.

That's it. A cliche from many sources and true."

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0 Comments Sunday, September 14, 2014 | @ 8:03 PM
How would you like a really cool way to send just the right message to someone in your organization? Whether it's for a welcome to the Team, thank you, encouragement, praise, or whatever the purpose......MLMHelp.com has a nice little selection of online greeting cards to pick from. They offer a very easy online "point and click" set-up too. Adding a personal touch to your Team communication that's this easy to do...will make you stand out and your Team take notice.

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