MLM and Network Marketers: can you smell the toast burning?

Guest post by David Williams

Be honest: have you ever wondered if your product

was worth the company’s suggested retail price?

Between us - network marketing leaders – there

comes a time in every distributor’s life – including

our own – when we wonder about our products’ 

suggested retail price.

That little doubt.

Like when you’re speaking to someone, say in your 

office, about your product.  A bottle of ‘X’, you rave 

about it, and then you’re asked, ‘How much?’

Do you express a subconscious pause, gulp, and say 

something like ‘Well, it’s $59.95 but I can sell it to 

you wholesale for $39.95’?

In my first year, I don’t think I sold any product at 

retail.  I was new and didn’t have solid training, 

nor did I have any sales experience, (or network 

experience).  

What does that have to do with retail pricing 

and burnt toast?

Coming to that.

Many of us join a networking company when we 

are broke.  

I was.

Anyway, even if you were not, you end up dealing 

with so many broke people, that it’s hard to not 

think about everyone being broke.

After a while, we start thinking about price, and 

not value.

That’s when we start ‘stinkin’ thinkin’ as Zig would 

say.

We start telling people the minimum amount they 

should start with, rather than the optimum amount.

I know, I was pretty guilty of that.

But we need to get our head out of the ‘poor’ 

mentality.

How?

Just by observing life.

Just the other day a story came online about a little 

coffee shop in San Francisco called Trouble.

It’s just a coffee shop.

But they sell toast.

Toast and coffee.

A single piece of toast costs $4.00

Yes, a single piece of toast.

What does a gallon of gas cost?

Think about it. 

$4 for toast.

This is a piece of toast.

It’s not gourmet toast.

It’s toast.

Yeah, just like the kind you make at home.

It’s not two pieces, it’s just one.

And people buy it.

They pay $4 for it.

The buyers are not stupid people.

They are not ‘poor’.

But they figure $4 is worth it, if that is the price 

on the menu.

So the next time you are tempted to give out a 

wholesale price for your potential retail customer, 

think about burnt toast.

Anchor that smell of burning toast into your head.

It will remind you of $4 toast.

It will remind you that people are paying big 

money for stuff that costs pennies, and has little 

value.

It will remind you that your products are very 

worthwhile.

It will remind you that you offer something 

that is valuable, and worth every penny.

That burnt toast smell will remind you that 

99% of network marketing company products 

are far better than those on store shelves,

and your personal service is worth money too.

I know you believe in your company, your 

products and yourself.

So proudly state your suggested retail price, 

by showing the value of your product.

If people will pay $4 for a single piece of toast 

you can feel really good about offering your 

product for its proper price.

If you want some more value, you can pick up a copy 

of my new book, MLM and Network Marketing 

Professionals guide to Recruiting Wellness and 

Holistic Practitioners for 2014.  

Less than ten bucks and I can tell you that just a 

single idea from that book will be worth thousands if 

you put it into practice.

Best, David Williams MLM Author

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HKLZSWW

Keep in touch.

I believe in MLM.

I believe in you.

MLM, Network Marketing and Social Media: are all distractions equal?

Guest post by David Williams

Plagiarizing my own writing…

I was working on a project yesterday, when I received an update about a site that I visit from time to time. 

This is a pretty good site for networkers, run by a veteran networker who has done fantastic numbers.  His site does 3 things: provides training for his team, provides a training site for networkers outside his team in any program, and it provides him with great exposure and branding for his recruiting.

I came across it because Wayne, the pro behind the site, read my books and started to promote them.  Never asked him to, so it was a nice complement.

I could write an article breaking down why his site as a great example for those looking to do something similar, but that’s not why I’m writing today.  

It’s about the anti-social media tirade that some MLM or network leaders are delivering to their teams.

It goes like this…

You all know the old MLM saying: ‘all distractions are equal’

Well, some leaders have been suggesting, with some vigor and logic, that social media sites – for networkers – are a distraction. 

In other words, don’t waste time on Facebook, get out there and build the business!

Of course no one says you should ever waste your time, it’s more valuable than money.

But, the real question is:

Are people who ignore social media going to succeed in building their business, or are they going to be condemned to wither away, unable to recruit in a world dominated by the Internet?

Social Media and MLM: are all distractions equal?

This is an important question. 

I can relate and understand how anyone who had built large teams in the past, PRIOR to social media, might think of Facebook, Twitter etc. as a distraction. 

I know I was one of those who felt that way when they first started appearing. 

And in fact, for the general population, they are a distraction. 

In the same way hanging out at the water cooler at work, or the lunch room, is a distraction.

But we are networkers.

We are marketers first.

We have learned to always fish where there are fish, and not where we want to fish.

In the old days employees spent their work breaks in a lunch room or break room – however today many use that time just to update their ‘timeline’ while scarfing down a sandwich at their desk.

The biggest lesson to uncover as a networker is this: ‘Times change, people don’t.’

So while in the past you could put an ad into the ‘help wanted’ section in the city paper, and prospect all day long, but you can’t now. 

Times have changed, people don’t advertise jobs in ‘newspapers’ any more. Today there are sites – Monster, Workopolis, etc. where people post their resumes.

People still need a place to find jobs, but the media/method has changed.

Times change, people don’t.

People always will want to socialize, chat, recommend stuff, condemn things, laugh at themselves and giggle at others. 

They did it in ancient Rome, and they still do today. 

2000 years ago it was at the forum, 100 years ago the town square, yesterday the mall, but today it’s Facebook.

Times change, people don’t.

So, if you want to prospect, be seen, brand yourself, interact, or as I like to call it: Recruit – you need to be where there are eyeballs.

There are millions of them on YouTube, Facebook etc.  

Hourly.

Does that mean you should be watching ‘skateboard fails’ or ‘liking’ every picture of cute kittens you see? 

No, it means that you must systematically use these communication tools to plant seeds and or brand yourself.

Every post, comment, image you upload, video you subscribe to, comment on, etc. is a seed you are planting. 

Planting seeds is prospecting.

The more seeds you plant, the more you harvest. 

Planting seeds is work. 

If you plant seeds on social media sites, you are working.

If you chat with your downline, you are not.

For a networker, using social media right is prospecting.

Prospecting is doing that basic of all human functions: connecting.

This is the reason we believe in networking. 

We believe in the power of person to person connecting.

Today, people connect on social media.

If you feel social media is not part of your network strategy, you are saying connecting is not part of your strategy.

And by that you are saying ‘no’ to networking.

Times change, people don’t.

So from time to time we have no choice but to change our connecting methods, but we don’t stop connecting.

So find someone you respect and learn the art of prospecting and connecting using social media and plant some seeds.

A question you may ask me:

“David, if you promote offline prospecting, why are you supporting social media?”

Good question.

I have a number of books on Amazon showing offline prospecting, like How to use Postcards, and How to Recruit Doctors, (both are offline methods). 

You can prospect on or offline. 

BUT you MUST keep the process going with online support.

I like to suggest people prospect offline, because there is no competition, but once you have a prospect, use email, social media, YouTube, and the rest, to keep the prospect in the process. 

And also use the phone, which these days is often VOIP and could be considered online too.

A good friend of mine, who I’ll take credit training years ago, until she got so good she didn’t need me anymore, does all of her recruiting on LinkedIn, and follows up with YouTube and email.  She has used it to brand herself too.  

But once they say ‘yes, I’m in’ she meets up with them in person.  She lives in a big city and does everything locally, and is making big bucks. 

So it’s not all black and white.

No matter whether or not you prospect on or offline, you need to use social media to follow up/keep your prospect in the look AND to brand yourself.

Take a look at my original post – where I plagiarized myself, if you want to see a good training/branding site and hear more about thesocial media debate.

Then get out there and prospect and connect!

David Williams MLM Author

A tale of two networkers...

Guest post by David Williams....

On a beautiful spring evening 2 years ago, two young men sat down beside
each other at their very first network marketing opportunity meeting.  They
began chatting, and found that they both had attended the same college,
graduated the same year, but in different disciplines.  Both were personable,
outgoing, and both were saddled with debt from their university education.

As you can imagine, this being their first opportunity meeting, both of these
young men were pretty excited at what they heard.  By the end of the evening
each signed up.  They had the same sponsor, a young woman who had put
up a tear away flyer in their college. 

By chance, each of these young men had called the number, heard the recorded
message, and arrived at the meeting.

Three months later, they met up again at a big regional training event held by
the company.

They managed to visit a bit at the event.

“Hey man, it’s great to see you, I thought you dropped out… you’re never at
any of our weekly meetings?”

“No way.  Meetings are so old school.  My way is ‘go big or go home’ and I
work exclusively at home, on the Internet, I’ve recruited 5 people, in 3
different time zones, and I’m totally pumped!”

“WOW!  That’s amazing!  I wonder what I’m doing wrong?  I’ve just got a team
of four, all here in town.  In fact they’re here today, with guests.  But gee, I’d love
to do it all over the Internet; how do you find people?”

“Simple, I hooked up with an ex-distributor turned lead generator, who I buy leads
from.  These are all pre-qualified people – they each filled out a survey on the
Internet so I know they are interested.  This guy is training me on how to call
these people, and I just lay on a recorded webinar for them to see.  Meetings are
so yesterday, who wants to get all dolled out and deal with parking.”

They both looked out over the crowd, glued to their seats by the special guest
trainer.  Suddenly there was a great cheer and then a standing ovation.

“Well, catch you later, I’ve got to get back to my people and my own two guests,
but hey, thanks for telling me about those leads you’re doing.”

They lost track of each other, as the one using Internet leads got a job offer in a
city 300 miles away. 

It was 2 years later when they met again.

It was at a big regional event again, only this time in the town 300 miles away.

It was very crowded, lots more people than that regional event where they last
met two years ago.

One of the young men, the one who focused on Internet leads, was outside the
room, sipping coffee.  He only came to the event because it was in his new town,
and for some reason he hoped there would be a lot less people. 

Suddenly, he heard his name being called, and felt a friendly clap on the back. 

He turned to see that fellow distributor who set next to him at this very first
opportunity meeting.  It seemed so long ago.

“How are you doing?  Hey, it’s great to see you, I wondered what you have been
up to, I keep figuring to see you up on stage one of these days… I keep reading
that the Internet is where it’s at…”

Before there was a chance to reply, he went on…

“Guys, this fellow and I started up the same day,” he said turning to a group of
people who had been following him, “…sat next to each other at our first meeting,
and had the same sponsor.  He’s big into Internet sponsoring… hey how is that
working out for you?”

Everyone was silent waiting to hear.  Internet leads were a buzz phrase, but you
never saw anyone who did them at meetings.  It was like some kind of legend. 
Finally they had a chance to meet one of them in the flesh.

“Well, it’s not as easy as I thought.  I found out that the guy I was buying them from
was just a re-seller, and the leads I was getting were going to lots of different
people, so I dumped him and bought better leads that were pretty expensive.  I
have a couple of people going, but they seem more interested in emailing me about
the next latest deal or Internet rumor.  Frankly, I’m broke from buying online MLM
leads.” 

It was then that he noticed the diamond pin his friend was wearing.  That meant he
had hit the second highest position in the pay plan, and had to be earning at least 6
figures a year.

“Well, all I can say is its too bad.  I found my way into this company by an offline
recruiting method, and I studied more ways to prospect that way.  Now my team are
building with postcards - among other offline ways, and it works for us.  We use the
Internet daily of course, once someone is in the loop, but for prospecting, well, my
money is offline.  It’s less expensive, and it works.  I’d love to chat more, but we all
want to hear the next speaker, come back inside, you won’t make any money in
the hall!”

---

If you’re looking to get off the online lead buying addiction, try my proven Postcard
method. 

How to Prospect and Recruit using Postcards for your MLM or Network Marketing
Business The Low cost Prospecting and Recruiting Tool that Out Performs Online
Methods

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EVZG8R4

Best, David Williams

Postcards work!

How to recruit Holistic practitioners and what NOT to say to them - for MLM and Network Marketing

Guest Post by David Williams

Hi friends

As you know, I hate fluff training. 

I hated sitting in trainings when some fluff trainer got on the podium and bored the life away from me. 

“I could have been prospecting!” I’d think. 

Usually I’d go over call lists, prospect lists, or try and write up some new ads or scripts while listening to him drone on and on. 

By now you’ll have figured out that I don’t do fluff. 

Some of you noticed the ‘sneak’ peek in my last couple of emails, about a new book I co-authored with Brian Kelly. 

It’s called…drum roll please…

MLM and Network Marketing Professionals Guide to Recruiting Wellness and Holistic Practitioners for 2014

So what will you find in our new book?

Just about everything you need to know about the wellness market and how to ride its coming momentum over the next 25 years. 

Yes, 25 years!

What else?

How to poach in each segment of this huge market

How to use facts and stats to eliminate prospect objections

How to find AND create Product Zealots 

How to recruit Holistic practitioners and what NOT to say to them

How to brand yourself on the net with small amounts of info

Where to find Boomers 

9 Reasons Why Obesity will create Wealth for you

Why Leading with the Product is Insanely Bad advice 

Plus much more….

By now you know that you won’t get rich in MLM with just your upline’s training.

Or just your company’s training.

If that were true, well you’d all be successful.

All successful Networkers had to learn from outside ‘the ranks’ and take action outside ‘the box’.

For less than the price of a decent pizza you can learn more about how to succeed in 2014 than in a zillion upline training calls. 

Stop trying to guess what to do next.

This book was written for you because of what is about to happen.

You need to take advantage of 2014/15 – two special years where there will be a MAJOR jump forward in the Wellness MLM industry. 

But if that was not enough:

You will also learn how to ‘Brand Yourself on the Net’:

This book will provide you with lots of great material for making YouTube videos, social media posts, Facebook messages, info graphics, all that will link back to you for self-branding and wellness. 

If you ever wondered what to say and how to sound informed this book will provide you with lots of material.

Lastly, the book will provide you with Action Steps of what to do to ride the wave of wellness. 

1) Create your Internet content with information from this book to brand yourself 

2) Use this information to educate & excite your prospects and new distributors 

3) Find product zealots by the methods shown here 

4) Recruit Holistic practitioners – people already committed to Wellness 

This is an invitation to wealth. You can’t help but get rich if you take action now and build in 2014. 

Order your copy of our MLM and Network Marketing professionals guide to Recruiting Wellness and Holistic Practitioners for 2014 and get started TODAY! 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HKLZSWW

Best,

David Williams MLM Author Amazon

They laughed when I said I was switching to off-line recruiting…

I’ll never forget that team ‘pep talk’ conference call.

It was not long ago…

We were all on a conference call, my upline and all his team, about 130 people - and a good number were in my downline.

“You guys need lead prosperity,” droned Greg, our upline guru, “…the person with the most leads wins, and that means buying more leads.  Let’s hear from some of our top producers, to see what they are doing to bring about lead prosperity… Dave, let’s start with you…”

Yeah Dave.  Greg’s number one lap dog.  Greg brought Dave over with him and built under his position.  Dave used to be Greg’s upline in their old company.

“That’s great advice Greg,” praised Dave, “you have to spend good money to make good money, and buying these online Internet leads is state-of-the-art.  I’m mean, that’s where all the action is.”

After the chorus of ‘Amen’s’ from most of the flock, one of the newbies who didn’t not know any better, said, ‘Can I ask a question Greg?’

And before Greg could cut him off, this new guy went on, “Is it just me, or is anyone else struggling with these Internet leads?  I mean hardly any one answers the phone, and those that do - no one remembers filling out a form, or seems to have the slightest interest in Network Marketing – and some are downright rude with me for calling them.  Is it just me, or is everyone having this problem?”

Boy, did I know how true that was.

Greg decided to avoid the issue and solved it by asking me to respond, so I would look like the bad guy.

I hadn’t expected to be called out on a call, it was my first time being asked my opinion.

“Well, Well, I stammered,”

What would I do, curry favor with Greg… or tell the truth?

While I was thinking, Greg said “Come on Andy, you’ve been doing really great in the last 30 days, 9 new distributors and a lot of qualifying volume, you’re having a great month.”

Greg knew I was really doing well in the last 30 days by reading his backoffice stats.

He figured I was doing what he preached, buying those so-called leads.

Those really were crap leads.

“Well to be honest Greg, I gave up on those ‘so-called’ leads two months ago, and started focusing on recruiting offline, and it’s really working great.”

Greg and Dave started to snicker and giggle.

As soon as I heard their laughter I shut up.  I figured I better stop now, and not get into any more trouble, but all of a sudden everyone else was talking!

“How did you do it?”

“What are you doing?”

“Offline, what is it?”

“Is it expensive?”

“Can anyone do it?”

“Andy, you’ve got to share, what’s your secret?”

“Come on and tell us!”

I forgot all about my upline and his buddy and started to explain.

“You see, like most of you I had reached the end of my patience and had given up on buying leads, nothing that came from the internet seemed to work for me.”

"A few months ago," I continued, "I saw an interesting ad for a book on Amazon.com written by David Williams – a new method of prospecting using real everyday tourist postcards that cost peanuts.  I read up about it and learned of a guy who started recruiting INTERESTED prospects, which actually called him after getting his card.”

 

“The book was called How to Prospect and Recruit using Postcards for your MLM or NetworkMarketing Business The Low cost Prospecting and Recruiting Tool that OutPerforms Online Methods.  It was less than $20, and it showed step by step how to prospect for those who were actually INTERESTED in a business by simply mailing postcards.”

Dave jumped in ‘Look we all know about those glossy MLM hype cards, they are much more expensive than our online leads!”

“That’s just it Dave, these aren’t those ugly glossy pre-printed expensive cards, nor are they those ugly ‘print yourself all text’ cards.  The author, David Williams shows you a special way for anyone to create personalized postcards, but in a mostly automated way – it’s frankly amazing.”

“Putting the system together was as simple as the book said it would be, and after a short time was altogether too easy.  Best of all the people who are recruited by postcard prospecting all want to use them too because they know it works – in fact most had quit other MLMs because they had no methods to prospect.  I sponsored 9 new people and 3 more are signing up tomorrow.  And all of this success came from a little book I bought on Amazon.”

You can order your copy of How to Prospect and Recruit using Postcardsfor your MLM or Network Marketing Business from Amazon too, and start prospecting right away.  Order now.

Order now and get started right away!

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