Hi Guys, I listened to an absolutely awesome replay call this morning, from Success University.
(For those of you who are not familiar, Success University is a leading personal development company who market a variety of self improvement courses for people who want to improve their lives through changing their thinking)
As a student of SU I get to join in these Faculty calls every Wednesday. I happened to miss this week's call. What is great is that they offer a replay for all students via email.
Anyway, this week we were priveleged to hear from 20-year network marketing veteran Kim Klaver (author of the highly acclaimed book, "If my product is so great, how come I can't sell it?" - available on discount to SU students)
I listened intently as Kim as she delivered an eye-opening, hard-hitting and brutally honest call about network marketing and the direct sales industry.
She mentioned some really telling facts that brought home some of the realities facing today's marketers. I'll just mention a few here:
People today are skeptical about advertising and sales
She quoted an article in the NY Times which reported that people in the NY area alone receive on average about 5500 ads per day! People are so bombarded with false marketing they don't know what to believe anymore. The things they are being sold fall way short of delivering on what they promise. Ads are generally irrelevant - you're marketed stuff you don't need or want. Worse still if you do buy in, you get no service after the sale.
Direct Sales means dealing with real people
We know this yes, but how many times have you been sold the "I've never called a single lead and I make $1000 a day!" or, "Calling leads is for idiots" or, worse still "I never recruit or sell and I make $10000 a week!!". Uhm, excuse me. If you have no customers then you have no business, and if you never recruit then you have no team!!!
You're gonna need to talk to people!
Communicating with people is definitely a skill that you are going to need to learn and master if you want to succeed or even continue in this industry. There are those who market purely on the internet, however, for the majority of network marketers talking to people is the main mode of communication. Look at the big hitters, what are they doing?? Oh let me see, yes that's right talking to people!!! We listen to their calls, we attend their seminars and workshops, we by their MP3s and what are they doing? COMMUNICATING, and very effectively I might add!!!!
Nightingale-Conant published an apt quote from Roger Love which says "The only currency you have is influential communication".
I absolutely agree, without it you're toast.
We must understand that the level of our success is directly related to the quality of our communication.
She went on to talk about understanding your market, finding your niche market, understanding customers, and the fact that you get better odds of success focusing on repeat customers rather than recruiters (she talked about AOL having over 30M customers all paying $20/mth, and cable providers with 10M customers paying $12/mth, that's big money!)
Then she threw a curve ball, and BAM, it really hit:
"Would you use your product if you weren't selling it?"
Wow, that hit home.
That's the question right there.
How many of us would still be using our product if we weren't selling it anymore?
How man of who quit our company still use our product?
I must admit I stopped for a second to really think about this, because although SU is my primary product, I do market other products and services.
My answer, and I said it out loud even though there was no one to hear it, was a resounding YES! Absolutely! I am a customer as well as a recruiter; I absolutely believe in our product because I have first-hand experience of what it can do, and indeed did and continues to do for me.
Makes you think though, doesn't it. Would you be still using your product if you weren't selling it?
That's a telling question, with equally telling answers (if you are honest enough to answer) because it speaks to what you really believe about your product. Remember, you too were a customer before you decided to sell your chosen product or recruit anyone else to sell it.
If you don't believe in it, don't expect anyone else to.
Boy, there was just so much on this call, it would take too long to express it all here.
Suffices to say what was said inspired me to look within an examine what I am doing, why I am doing it, and how I could do better. So here I am, writing this blog to share what I learned with you.
The call was really funny too, several times when Kim un-muted the line to get responses from the students it was crazy, someone was actually burping on the call, and there were kids making noises and a fog horn (or at least that's what I think it was). Anyway, we stuck through it and all and gathered some real gems of wisdom.
My favourite part was when Kim said (about women), "Us women are left to clean up all the mess you men make when you "exploding your business"; that was gold right there.
Towards the end of the call I actually starting crying, I couldn't believe it. It was so refreshing to hear a 20-year veteran speak so openly about the realities of our industry and how we can still succeed in direct sales.
To your success,
Dora
P.S.
If you want to hear the live replay yourself or further info about SU (including the funny bits) email me at support@msi24seven.com with the subject "Kim Klaver call", and I send you the link.
