An Easy Tip For Improved MLM Success: Think Of Every Person You Meet Online Or Off As A Filing Cabinet
Laurel my wife and business partner and I have been connected to the MLM industry for a long time either as customers as business builders or as trainers. We love the industry almost all of the products and services it offers and most of the companies in it.
But we disagree with much of the training. We think the training or lack thereof is the Achilles heel of MLM. Its why in our opinion the vast majority of the wellmeaning and hardworking distributors fail. Miserably. For one thing it doesnt teach distributors what to say and do to REALLY get peoples attention and without attention theres no interest no reaction and no action.
And weve observed their failure to communicate properly thats what it comes down to everywhere distributors market and advertise their products or opportunity: at networking events especially with their Web site their capture page business cards sizzle cards flyers ads emails etc. Everywhere.
Let me share with you the best tip we gave people when we used to do live or telephone training sessions: Imagine from now on that every person you meet online or offline is a fourdrawer filing cabinet. Your simple job we didnt say easy is to get them to open a mental drawer to take in your information in order to make a decision about your products and business opportunity with the hope that in the end they will discriminate in your favor.
The only two questions in your mind at this point should be: What does he mean by opening a mental drawer? and How do you do that?. Great questions. Lets answer them one at a time.
Imagine that everyone is a filing cabinet with legs feet arms and hands neck and head. As you probably suspect just look at your own life this filing cabinet is bombarded daily with hundreds perhaps thousands of messages from the outside come to this event register for this course buy this brand of car this house in this part of town this shampoo eat these cereals eat at this restaurant go there for your holidays send your daughter to this school use our credit card our cellphone package etc.
There are also a lot of messages coming from the inside gotta renew my membership this week gotta call the accountant gotta order more checks from the bank gotta change the batteries in the smoke detector gotta get the oil changed on the SUV gotta do this gotta go here gotta buy that
Heres what uninformed MLMers too often do: they bombard the poor soul with worthless words that just bounce off the sides of the filing cabinet and pile up at the bottom words that will never be read heard or referred to ever. Let me lift a corner of the veil and reveal why these words are worthless: these words speak of features and particulars. Ill elaborate on this in a minute.
Let me share with you a very wise observation from a marketing genius named Michel Neray: If youre like most people you try to tell as much as you can as quickly as you can in order to give your prospect as much information as possible in the hopes that something will trigger some interest. After all youve got excellent credentials to describe great case studies impressive expertise and a gazillion years of experience and you really really know what youre talking about right? If you never seem to get people as interested as you had hoped they would be heres why: the person youre talking to simply cant process all the information youre overwhelming him with and consequently he just tunes out.
They tune out. They tune out because you give them too much information yes but more important they tune out because you give them the WRONG information. Ill address that in the answer to your second question.
Your mission when you are marketing and advertising your wonderful MLM opportunity and your fantastic products or services is to get the person you are communicating with to pull open one of the drawers to receive and store your information the information theyll need later to make a decision.
Bluntly put if you dont get them interested enough if you dont get their ATTENTION for them to open that mental drawer you are SOL. Finished. Kaput. Sayonara. Va con dios amigo!
If they dont open the drawer they will NOT visit your Web site they will NOT keep your business card or sizzle card they will NOT read your flyer ad or email. Consequently they will NOT buy your amazing products and will certainly NOT join your business opportunity. EVER!
Now your second question was should have been How do you do that? Heres how: first you start my remembering that the most listenedto radio station anywhere on the planet is WIIIFM What Is In It For Me. Then you tell the person what is in it for him or her if they buy your products or join your business.
Give them the BENEFITS first. Not the features not the particulars not how many years the company has been around the fact that theyre in 12 countries already that your upline makes 10 grand a month that youve signed up 16 people in the last week that if they buy now they get two for one and free shipping or the fact that you can reinsert yourself in your own leg by buying extra positions. WHO CARES?
Ill tell you who cares: someone who has just taken in tasted chewed and digested a fantastic benefit for them. Someone who has asked verbally or in their head the question How do you do that? or maybe Can you tell me more? When they ask one of those two questions consciously or subconsciously theyve now open a drawer and they are ready and willing eager even if the benefit is huge to take in your info and read it watch it listen to it ponder it study it attentively later. Youre in! Youre on first base!
Features tell benefits sell! Features make the filing cabinet airtight benefits open up drawers. Dont get me wrong people will need the features the particulars the details to make a decision LATER! But they FIRST need to see the benefits or all the other stuff will be of no interest no value. And what do people do what do YOU do? with things that are valueless? You discard them.
One more thing about benefits and features: you need to know the difference.
This is a serious problem I observe daily in MLM campaigns everywhere: most MLMers it seems dont know the difference between the two. Let me shed some light on this. A feature is what something IS or HAS a compensation plan with an autoship while a benefit is what something DOES it guarantees your income from month to month. And even better if you can express the benefits in terms of what that thing does FOR me the prospect What Is In It For ME!!!.
For example which one of the following two approaches do you think has a better chance of enticing Bob to open up a drawer and store your information for future consideration?:
One thing I like about our comp plan Bob is that the customers get their products via autoship. Bob thinking: Who cares?
You know Bob because your customers get their product via autoship your income is guaranteed every month even if you spend half the time away from the office doing what you really like to do
Bob dreaming: like flyfishing playing golf building the cottage
In conclusion people lead busy lives. They pay attention only to things that they consider of value to THEM WIIIFM. Benefits represent value features dont not until there is a benefit. If you want to get peoples attention give them a good reason for action aka the right information. Thats the only way to get them to open their mental drawer. When you get enough people to do that skys the limit.
I wish you ALL the business success you desire and deserve. Just remember thatwhat you desire is a function of your ambition what you deserve is a function of your ACTIONSAre the two aligned?
Daniel G. StJean BB IMA AMA FBMI SEM
BizzBooster Internet Marketing Advisor ArticleMarketing Alchemist
FirmBase Marketing Instructor Successerenity Exponent Mentor
About the writer: On the topic of Filing Cabinets know that our breakthrough Special eReport entitled Marketing In The KnowZone http://www.MarketingInTheKnowZone.com explains WHY people do what they do while our remarkable Special eReport on FirmBase Marketing http://www.FirmBaseMarketing.com explains HOW to make people do what you want them to. I recommend my very helpful 18page MiniReport entitled Get on First Base by Design! which you can get for FREE at http://www.FirstBaseByDesign.com.
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