The $300 Solution
How to create successful leaders by creating
achievable milestones
Randolph Byrd
I know that in Network Marketing Sales, "the only way to
fail is to quit." But I'm having trouble convincing the people in my Network
about that. How do I get them to stay involved long enough to start seeing some
success?
This is one of those truly great "Great Questions" that
comes up again and again, and there are lots of great ways to answer it.
Making sure your people are motivated by helping them stay clear on what their own
personal goals are . . . making sure they have the tools they need and
know how to use them . . . making sure their efforts are supported by
three-way calls and meetings until they've got their "sea legs" securely under
them--all these are sound approaches.
But there's another answer--one that's perhaps more basic
and essential. Let's take a nuts-'n'-bolts, run-the-numbers, practical
look at the conditions you've got to create for your people to get involved and
stay involved.
There are two things which prevent most Network Marketers
from achieving success: (1) They don't make $300 per month quickly
enough, and (2) their downline distributors don't either!
Surprised? You're not alone.
But the truth is that $300 is the income-earning threshold
below which there is no Network Marketing Sales organization--because there
are simply no Networkers to make one.
People who make $300 a month in this business stick
around. People who don't--don't. It's that simple.
Networking Enemy #1--Attrition
No one in this profession likes to talk about attrition.
Why not? Because it undermines the profession's primary positive benefit that
we recite in our prospecting routines. You know the rap:
"You sponsor 10 people, and they sponsor 10 people,
and they . .. and pretty soon . . ."
Now, how successful would you be as a prospector if you
said instead:
"You sponsor 10 people, and then nine drop out, and
then the one who's left sponsors 10 people and nine of them
will drop out, and then . . ."
Doesn't sound like much of a positive proactive pitch,
now, does it? But it is the truth--or at least, it has been for most Network
Marketers.
Please note that when we say "attrition," we're not just
talking about the downline, that impersonal genealogy of all the
distributors in your organization. We're talking about you--one individual
Network Marketer.
Statistically, attrition rates in Network Marketing
average about 80 to 90 percent per year. That means eight or nine out of every 10
distributors drop out of their organizations (and most out of Network
Marketing Sales altogether) within a year or less of signing on.
Factually, that's no different than mainstream business startups, where eight or nine out
of 10 new businesses fail within the first year of operation!
But what really hurts is that an 80-to-90 percent
attrition rate means that 80-to-90 percent of all your efforts as well as all the
efforts of your downline organization are lost in spinning your wheels, i.e.,
sponsoring numbers of folks into your organization only to have them leave before
they've had the chance to be successful! As Dayle Maloney says, "The problem with
most Network Marketers is that they quit before payday."
But what causes this high drop-out rate? And what can we
do about it?
Ask open-ended questions like those above and you're bound
to get long, equally open-ended answers.
CEOs and master distributors alike have given us all sorts
of philosophies on why distributors leave our profession. I'll mention some
of those reasons in a bit, but to find the empirical "truth," let's rephrase the
question:
At what point do Network Marketers NOT drop out of
their organization?
Specifically, how many dollars per month in compensation
does an network marketer have to earn before a high percentage (let's say,
95 percent) do NOT drop out?
Just about all we spoke with answered: "$300 to $400 per
month, sustained for at least two or three months."
And "by when" do they have to make that amount?
Six to nine months is best, with one year being the
longest time allotted.
And what if they don't?
They leave the organization at a rate of 80 to 90 percent
per year.
And if they do achieve $300 per month?
They stay on board and usually become even more
successful.
This law is true for you, the individual distributor, just as it is true for your
downline, a group of individual distributors just like you. Have yourself--and
have each of your downline--achieve $300 or more per month
in bonus compensation within six to nine months, and you and they
will stay in the organization and produce! And by the way, retail profits
don't count in this scenario, because the whole point is residual income.
And your downline will be certain to stay the course if
you teach the truth about this business to them. This duplicatable system is
as easy as distributing copies of this Report to each person in your
downline.
So what? Ahh . . . now the 213.33-distributor (at $300 per
distributor, that's $64,000) question:
So why don't most Network Marketers ever get to the
$300-per-month level?
Answer: Poor prospecting/sponsoring, and lack of knowledge
about this profession and how Network Marketing Sales really works,
all of which leads to unrealistic expectations.
The way you prospect and sponsor each individual into your
program sets up their expectations for success . . . or for failure.
A common approach to prospecting/sponsoring is the
"pie-in-the-sky, get-rich-quick, let your downline do the work while you
stroll the beaches of the world" routine. This method can set up your new
distributor for failure almost immediately, because the truth is that 98 percent
of all Network Marketers DO NOT EVER reach those heights--and most
certainly do not do so within just a year.
This creates a "lottery" mentality that in turn creates
delusional dreams about what this business has to offer. . . and then dashes them.
With this style of prospecting/sponsoring, even if a distributor did reach
$300 per month, they'd probably feel like a big failure, because they were set up
to make $30,000--NOT $300--a month.
We have a common misconception in this business that $300
is such small potatoes, it's not even worth mentioning--just so much
chopped liver.
Tom "Big Al" Schreiter relates a wonderful story about a
man who came into the business with the goal of making $300 a month. Not
$10,000 or $20,000. Just $300 a month.
The man achieved that goal fairly easily and stayed at
that $300 income level for a number of years. That didn't seem very ambitious to
Tom--especially for such an obviously gifted and capable guy--so, he asked the
fellow about it.
The man told Tom that he took his initial $300 and
accelerated the mortgage payment on his home, paying it off in record time. He then
used his owned-free-an'-clear equity to buy a second property,
rented it out, and applied the "extra" $300 in the same manner he had with
his own house.
In less than five years, he ended up owning five income
properties and was virtually financially set for the rest of his life. All by
virtue of the $300 a month he earned through Network Marketing Sales.
What other common misstatements do prospectors often make?
"You won't have to work for a living" . . . "You can
become a millionaire like my upline. . ." (flash upline's
mega-check here... NOT!) . . . "Network Marketing is the answer to all
your financial woes" . . . "Network Marketing can fulfill all your dreams."
While none of these statements are outright lies, and all
actually quite often are true for a few leadership distributors, they do set up
false expectations for the novice Networker.
Try instead statements like, "Network Marketing Sales can
offer you greater time freedom as you can work this business anywhere,
anytime you choose."
Or, "You can achieve a part-time or full-time income that
can supplement or replace your current source of income, making enough in a
few hours a week to pay for your car loan, a college education . . ." etc.
When linked to the prospect's "why," these statements set
up value in the opportunity and yet don't create unrealistic expectations
for what this business has to offer.
Enter The $300 Solution
Now, what would happen if you told your downline (or told
yourself!) that the first step to network marketing success is to get to that
$300 a month level within six to nine months--or maybe even a year? What
happens to their expectations now?
What would happen if you told them the real truth about
this business: When a distributor reaches a monthly compensation bonus of $300
per month he/she will not drop out! This is a point of no return!
There is no turning back!
When they get to that $300 level, you and/or your
organization MUST recognize and acknowledge their level of achievement.
After all, in this recognition business, $300 a month is a "rite of passage."
Call it a coming of age and celebrate it like a bar or bas mitzvah. Like
puberty, it becomes a point of no return! It is a bridge into adulthood where
one may not ever return to being a child!
When you celebrate this coming of age, you set up a great
expectation for your entire group.
Imagine for a moment that you told your downline that the
amount necessary to achieve the no-going-back level was $2,000 instead of
the real $300 level? The $300 milestone would go by unnoticed, as their
expectation is $2,000 for the first level of real achievement and success. But share
the $300 Solution with them and make a public celebration out of every
distributor achieving this level, and they will not drop out, because they've
learned to expect that distributors earning $300 monthly do not quit! Once they
learn the truth about this business, they will operate within that truth!
It will become a law of Network Marketing Sales nature.
Note also the difference in their attitude when they
achieve only $150 per month.
Within the old paradigm of "getting rich," $150 would have
left them feeling like (and therefore, being!) a failure.
Now, when they reach $150, they'll say, "I'm halfway
home!" What a difference!
So, how do we get to that magical $300-per-month
benchmark?
You and your downline are halfway there already, because
you are now armed with the knowledge of the $300 Solution.
Since most new Network Marketers haven't a clue as to how
this profession works, they usually don't know what's expected of them.
They have no realistic goal. Perhaps their goal is not specific, and
probably has no basis in fact even if they do have one.
But now, they can have a realistic goal that's achievable,
and backed up with research about this business. They now can have realistic
expectations for themselves, and for their future downline, too!
As for the specifics of how to get them to the $300 level
in your organization, that depends somewhat on your products and your
compensation plan. So, do a little research on your own program and establish
several scenarios for your distributor group and teach them how to get to $300 a
month as soon as possible!
Help your downline members get to this level by
prospecting and sponsoring distributors WITH THEM.
Partnership is the key. Three-way calling and three-way
sponsoring interviews are two powerful partnering tools you can use to have
virtually anybody at $300 in very quick time. What's more, if they use
three-ways with all their people the way you did with them, imagine the
dependability and duplicatability of that!
If you want more of your people to stick with it--and with
you, too--inject the $300 Solution into your teaching and training routine.
Don't be afraid that you scare off those mlm "heavy hitters" with an eye to more
sky-high incomes. Those folks will clearly and quickly see the virtue of a
system that has hundreds and hundreds of part-time Networkers (potentially
in their organization) all earning enough to stay in business.
And just for fun--and for the present and future
possibilities of profit--take out your calculator and crunch some numbers to see what
would happen if you were to merely diminish your own organization's
attrition rate by, say, 10 or 20 percent. I think that you'll find what you've got
there, in terms of your own check, is a good deal more than $300.
Learning From the Water Hyacinth Many people in our business become discouraged
because they do not see themselves progressing as quickly as they
want--or even feel they should.
Of course, we're prone to comparing ourselves with others, and we
usually manage to select "others" who are extraordinarily successful.
We have a different suggestion.
If you must compare yourself to someone or something, try this
one on for size: the water hyacinth. The water hyacinth is an aquatic
plant, a delightful bluish-purple water lily-like flower found in the
tropical areas of the Americas.
It grows by doubling itself. When allowed to grow
uninhibited, it can easily cover an entire pond in 30 days.
On the first day, you won't even notice it. You will have to search
with painstaking attention for several days just to catch a glimpse
of it over in the corner behind the tall grasses and reeds at the
pond's edge. By the 15th day, it will probably cover a square foot or
so of the pond at the very most.
On the 20th day, two-thirds of the way to covering
the entire pond, you'll see the dense island of water hyacinth
floating around about the size of a small raft.
On the 28th day, two days before the entire pond is completely
covered, three quarters of the surface of the pond will be open
water.
On the 29th day, half the entire pond will be
empty.
Finally, on the 30th, the pond will be completely covered with a
dense blanket of water hyacinth. You will not see
any water at all.
That's the way your business is growing, too. It will be a long time
before you'll be able to notice just how big it has become.
Even one day before it takes over completely--being at last all you
ever hoped it would be--it will only seem to be half of what you wanted. -
Randolph A. Byrd (randolph@networkingtimes.com) is an
esteemed member of the Network Marketing Press.
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