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The Concept of VALUE
by Kevin Vincent
Why is it that some people in this industry seem to make more money than
others? Why is it that some people flit from one company to another and
ALWAYS seem to make more money that the rest of us?
The answer is simple. It boils down to one word - VALUE.
It has NOTHING to do with the company, the products, the compensation plan,
the color of your hair, how big your family is, NOTHING to do with these
things at all.
Let me give you an example. The kid that flips burgers at McDonalds. How
much money do they make? More often than not its minimum wage. That's how
VALUABLE they are to the marketplace. The chairmen, CEOs and presidents of
large companies such as Disney, Coca-Cola and Chrysler make millions of
dollars a year. Why?
That's how VALUABLE they are to their marketplace, (vis a vis, their
shareholders).
So, how does that apply to networking? Again the answer is painfully
obvious, but one that requires a lot of self-reflection if it is ever to
apply to you.
Lets assume you're brand new to this business. Lets assume that you have no
upline, and in fact, you're the very first person to join the company.
What's your first order of business?
Well, some might say it would be to go out and find as many people as you
can and just start building an organization on hype. I beg to differ. What
company are you with? Where is their head office? How do they ship their
products? What makes their product(s) so special? How does the compensation
plan work?
If you're not ready to answer those questions, WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would
want to join that company with YOU?
Assume for a moment that the company has someone else who gets a position
right at the top of the company (just like you) and they go out into the
SAME marketplace - but this individual has a distinct advantage over you.
She's got several years of network marketing experience, she's written a
dozen articles about the business published in various magazines and
e-zines, and she has an instant downline of leaders all ready, willing and
able to join this brand new opportunity under her.
Again, truthfully ask yourself this question - Who would YOU rather join
with? the person who looks like they're in the right place at the right time
(YOU) or the skilled networker who, for some reason, has people willing to
go wherever they go?
I want to draw two pictures based on what I've shared with you so far. The
first picture pertains to a typical scenario in this industry. The second,
you could probably write on your own by now.
Scenario #1
Mary Smith is scanning the internet looking at classifieds. She's married, 3
kids, a house, a mortgage, a Visa and a Mastercard both maxed out and a
husband who is deathly afraid that a layoff notice is just around the
corner.
She finally lands on the ad she's been looking for. "NO Sales, NO Inventory,
NO Risk, documented 5 and 6-figure incomes" it says (which is the ad I
always use by the way).
She clicks on the email address or the URL, she goes to a web page, reads it
from top to bottom and decides she's going to join this one. She's just made
a $100 payment on her Visa card so she's got some room to "make some money"
with that last bit of credit.
For some reason she doesn't particularly care about the person she is just
signing up underneath. She just fills in the blanks, authorizes this person
to order a $30 starter kit on her Visa card and then waits....
The kit arrives about a week later. She opens it and she's excited as you
could possibly imagine. When her husband comes home that evening he can't
wait to to tell her how crazy she is. "You know these things don't work," he
says. "Only the guys at the top make all the money. Why did you go and sign
up?"
She tells her husband that they really need the money, and they do. He
reluctantly agrees to let her try it for a couple of months, but if they're
not making at least $500 a month in the next 90 days, then she'll have to
quit.
Mary's immediate upline was notified of her enrollment that very day. He
sent her one polite little message that said something like "Welcome to our
team - we're here to help you. Have a nice day, see you at the top!"
Now its time to test that help. Mary sends an email to her upline. A day
goes by, then a week, next thing you know its been a month and Mary has not
heard a single thing from her immediate upline.
Undaunted, she calls up her best friend Jane. She and Jane go for a coffee
and Jane tells Mary she's out of her mind.
Month two comes along and Mary is about to get her second product order. She
doesn't even know how to do a presentation. No upline support. No check. Not
a snowball's chance in Egypt of her ever staying in.
Scenario #2
Same woman. Same ad. She fills out all the information and pushes the
button. She expects to get her starter kit in about a week. About 9 o'clock
that same night however, her phone rings. "Mary Smith?" says the voice at
the other end of the line, "This is Dennis Hancock, you signed up to join
our company today on my web page. I just wanted to call and say thank you
for joining my organization. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"
"Sure, go right ahead," she says.
"Well, first off, let me tell you a little about myself. I've been involved
in network marketing for the past three years and I've just decided to do
this business full-time. I can't begin to tell you what its like to be able
to walk away from a job you hate and divorce the banks!"
"Tell me about it," says Mary, "It seems like me and my husband are
constantly busting our butts just to make the banker happy."
"Well, Mary, WHY are you doing this business anyway?" says Dennis. "I just
thought it was time to take that leap of faith and really do something for
ourselves instead of someone else. Our daughter is a terrific dancer and we
want to be able to send her to private dance lessons next year but they're
really expensive. Our son is a terrific hockey player but we're constantly
buying used equipment because we can't afford new equipment," she says with
a hint of sadness in her voice.
"Sounds like you have two lovely children..." says Dennis before
he's interrupted by Mary who continues with her thought pattern..."And we need a
new car, the '85 Chevv is about to fall apart..."
After about 5 minutes of this, Dennis realizes instinctively
that Mary and her husband are just like millions of North Americans who just
want a little control over the lives.
"Mary, let me ask you this, are you willing to listen to everything I have to
say and do exactly what I tell you to do to become successful in this business?"
"Absolutely!" she says.
Dennis then has Mary write down her top 15 REASONS for doing
this business. he tells her up front that its going to take 6 months of
education to get her up to speed on what she needs to know to become successful.
He STRONGLY recommends a book to her called "Wave 3, The New Era in Network
Marketing" as something she should get from her local book store or library to
boost her nonexistent understanding of network marketing.
He tells her that she needs to pour over her starter kit at
least 5 times so she knows it inside out in the space of a month.
He checks back with her DAILY to see how things are coming along. After 30 days
he does a check on her TO MEASURE HER BELIEF LEVELS. He does the same thing at
the 60-day mark and the 90-day mark.
Within 6 months she's making money.
She'll never, ever quit.
This isn't a story about Mary - its a story about YOU. YOU can become wildly
successful in this business ... if you're prepared to become incredibly VALUABLE
to your personal recruits and to your downline partners.
Here's the key point in this message:
Invest in yourself first so you can invest in others later.
READ the starter kit.
KNOW the compensation plan.
HAVE the answers to typical questions.
CONTACT your enrollees EVERY DAY.
STUDY this industry.
SUBSCRIBE to all the ezines and READ them.
In short BECOME MORE VALUABLE. If you've been doing this business for several
months and you don't have an income yet that you want, then be brutally honest
with yourself.
ASK YOURSELF THESE THREE QUESTIONS?
1. Do I have COMPELLING REASONS to be doing this?
2. What have I done to DEVELOP UNSHAKABLE BELIEF in the company, the products,
the industry and myself?
3. Am I a VALUABLE PERSON to be doing business with?
Now here's the neat thing about those questions - EVERYONE has reasons -
everyone CAN develop unshakable belief - and everyone CAN become more VALUABLE
..
If.......................they WANT to.
If.......................they're interested.
If.......................they simply try.
If you haven't heard from your upline since joining, go above his head to look
for some value. And if that person isn't valuable, go above him. Keep moving up
until you reach an upline partner who has a genuine interest in YOUR success.
Trust me, successful networkers already have it figured out.
They spend 80% of their time with the 20% that WANT to do this. They will GLADLY
spend time with YOU, by INVESTING what they KNOW based on YOUR thirst for
information.
The more you KNOW - the more you MAKE.
Here's the other thing about investing in others. Lets assume for a minute that
the company you're involved with goes out of business tomorrow. Its not your
fault, but the company got hit by a scud missile or something.
If your REASONS for doing the business still apply, if your BELIEF levels are
UNSHAKABLE, if you are VALUABLE to your downline partners, here's what will
happen: Your phone will ring, and it will ring often. Your business partners
will say to you "So, where are WE going? What company do you want to rebuild an
organization with? LET'S go do it!"
Compare that to the person who never reads a book, never listens to a tape,
never contacts their downline and in fact never even opens their starter kit.
Its ALL about value.
Copyright 1998 Kevin Vincent [email protected]
About the author. Kevin Vincent is a veteran investigative journalist, newspaper
owner, turned full-time networker. he lives in Timmins, Ontario, Canada with his
wife and two sons. At present he is a Director IV with Melaleuca Inc., and a
marketing executive with ProStep. Email: [email protected].
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