Credo for Success

Success and failure are a result of action and not wealth. There are very successful people that died poor and very wealthy people that died failures. Learn from your failures and do not let them become road blocks to your success.

Forget your past and plan for your future. Focus your thoughts on where you are going and not on where you have been. The past is an unchangeable memory. The future is a yet unwritten book.

Being a leader is a matter of position not aptitude. People have been successfully led by those that never completed high school and lost their lives following the most educated in our society.

Excuses are the exchange of the poor and money is the exchange of the wealthy. Money can not buy happiness and neither can excuses.

Worry is nothing more than a repeat burglar. We do not like what is happening yet we keep the window open so it can continue to steel away our dreams and desires. Worry is a useless emotion that has no basis-in-fact so do not let it control your life.

Action invites growth, inactivity invites competition. Leaders spend 99% of their time moving forward and 1% of their time looking back. Many of the largest companies in history have been trampled by the competition because they stopped taking action. If you are not moving forward, you are falling behind.

Marketing is marketing regardless what you are marketing

Someone contacted me yesterday to tap into my years of experience in marketing as he wanted to start a business and wasn’t sure where to begin or if he should begin. He was looking to start a mobile detailing business. Although I have never been in the detailing business I know from experience the concepts are all the same and it is just a matter of applying the principles. I felt his concept was great because it would require very little investment and very little overhead. This could very easily be done right out of his home and it could even be done part time in the beginning.

Here is what I told him:

• Purchase the tools you need to get started. In our case follow the startup plan and purchase the product kit that meets your needs.
• Create flyers or business cards to introduce your business to prospects. I suggested a flyer with a special limited time offer. This keeps your flyer from being shoved to the bottom of the pile of papers because if they do not act now they will lose the deal.
• Dress for success. A neat and professional appearance when you are prospecting will make all the difference in your results.
• Identify your target market and take action. Many businesses will allow you to place your flyer in their establishments. Restaurants and walk-in businesses often usually have free magazines where people wait to be served. Check out our back office for all the different ways to meet new prospects.
• Be persistent and consistent. Success is based on continuous action. You can’t leave one set of flyers and expect immediate results. Keep track of the places that let you leave flyers and visit once a month or every other month until you start seeing results.
  Don’t take rejection personally. Stay positive when faced with negative people. There are nice people and there are rude people. Some people will want your service others will not. Handle rejection with a kind word and you will be successful. A simple “Thank you for your time” and move on works well.
• Make it easy for your customers to keep coming back. A thank you note or card goes a long way.
• Regardless of the result of your contact always ask for referrals. Also ask your customers to recommend you to their friends. Word of mouth is a great way to build.

These principles apply to every business regardless of the size. If you apply them consistently your business will continue to grow.

Tips for Making Contacts

Here are three quick tips for making contacts:

1. Persistence Pays. Do not call once and give up. Your prospect may have been out or busy when you tried to contact them.
2. Expect Objections and Excuses. Prospects have no idea what you are offering them and you are probably catching them off guard by your contact. Learn how to handle objections. Most people react with an and objection without knowing why they did it.
3. Do not try to present the business on your first contact. Plan a follow-up with your prospect on the first call. Give them a place to get more information and then set up an appointment. If the person is truly interested they will look at the information and be available for the follow-up. If they were not they won't show and you won't waste time on someone that was not interested.

Success in prospecting is about approaching it with the correct attitude. Here is my attitude on prospecting:

• Good Prospects are open minded, coachable, and follow through.
• If the prospect does not follow through on the first step they will not follow through on building the business and they are probably the wrong person.
• People that are going to be successful will follow the proven duplication model and focus on their personal success and the success of the team.
• Just because someone needs the business doesn't mean they will do the business. The reality is often the people that need the business the most are in that place because they do not feel they can succeed at anything. You may never be able to change that self defeating attitude.
• It is better to spend time with good prospects that follow through and build the business then bad prospects that do nothing.

A noted leader in this industry once said: "I would rather work with a person that is running toward the finish line then one I have to drag across it. I only have two hands but I can work with a lot of people that are running on their own no matter how fast, but with my two hands I can only work with one or two people that are waiting for me to drag them across"

Being a leader

You are experiencing the dream of building your own business and being the boss. Then you realize you have little or no background in actually owning and running a company.

You may have had a piece of the pie but someone else may have been responsible for:

• Marketing and sales
• Recruiting
• Advertising
• Project management

All of these are now up to you as the leader of your business. Are you ready to take on all of these new steps as the leader of your business? One of the things that is great about direct sales is the business blueprint is already set in place by leaders of the company so it is just a matter of using the materials and prospecting tools. This makes it easier to bring people to the business either as a new representative or customer and more of your time can be focused on building instead of coming up with ways to build. When I opened my own businesses these were all up to me and I had to plan to introduce people to the business, create the materials and then somehow find the time to actually distribute the materials or I would have to pay other people to do it for me.

You may be reading this and now questioning if you even want to be a leader. Being a leader encompasses different tasks depending on where you are within your business. Being a leader relates more to taking action and setting an example. People you involve in your business will do what you do. If you are making contacts introducing people to your business and continuing to build you are setting a positive example your team will follow. If you are sitting back waiting for people to call you and you are only supporting your existing network your team will also follow that example and switch into support mode. They are looking to you to support them and set the pace.

Why direct sales is expanding and replacing traditional marketing models

If you have not noticed more products and services are being introduced to consumers by direct sales. Just a few years ago there was a hand full of products that were introduced by direct sales. The model was very effective for introducing products to consumers in competitive markets that offered a something different. This track record of bringing new products to consumers quickly for less money has captured the eyes of companies in almost every sector. Initially this model was very effective for introducing personal care and nutritional products. Recently this was expanded to include finance, telecom and technology.

Direct sales is truly a love hate industry but an industry that is quickly capturing the attention of companies struggling to compete in a world economy. Because many new products are being delivered by this model consumers are adjusting to the concept of being introduced to new products in this format almost without knowing its happening. I predict that over the next 5 years a significant portion of our spending habits will be dependant on direct sales and here is why.

Companies are adopting this model for three major reasons:

• Advertising is a significant expense to the bottom line. Companies spend millions of dollars each year promoting their products over traditional media outlets like TV, Radio, and in print. With the introduction of Internet they are directing some of their advertising dollars into this new format which includes lower cost pay-per-impression model and email advertising.
• Product competition from foreign markets is eating into profits. World markets are creating competing products in almost every industry and it is becoming difficult to compete. When products are placed back to back on the same shelf, brand recognition becomes more important. At the same time sales are lost to less expensive generic brands placed strategically next to traditional brands.
• Brand recognition sometimes makes it impossible to compete against higher end products. Years of advertising and brand recognition of products make it difficult to introduce a new product regardless how much better or different it is. Especially when it is placed on the shelf right next to the well known brand.

Direct sales provides companies the ability to deliver products with very little spent on advertising and the money paid to the distribution channel and retailer is then paid to the direct sales network in the form of commissions. This allows companies to quickly spread the story of their product and a shortened marketing timeline. Marketing teaches us that consumers need to hear and or see a product 20-30 times before they recognize the product or why they need it. Introduction by word of mouth advertising drastically reduces this lead time.

This is a win-win business model.

It is staggering how quickly a new product can be introduced by this business model. I have witnessed many product sales exceeding over 1 million dollars per month from inception to initial launch. Only huge distribution companies and channels can launch products that quickly and this is after spending millions on advertising and sampling.

Make no mistake about it, direct sales is here to stay and it will continue to expand into other industries over the next few years as more companies adopt the business model. The question is who will be smart enough to position themselves in front of this opportunity and who will wait until the industry is saturated to jump on board. The winners are the people that recognize an opportunity when it is fresh and new. The 5% that make things happen.

10 Simple Steps to Success

1. Recruit Yourself: The most important person you will ever recruit is YOU. Once you have that done, then you won't have a problem talking to, or recruiting ANYONE else! Set your goals, know WHY you are doing this business, and stay focused.

2. Be Coachable: Even though you may have been very successful in another profession, you are starting with a new product, team, and business model. Follow the steps outlined and do not try to reinvent it.

3. Make a List: Start out by making a list of as many people as possible, we recommend 200 friends, family, or associates. Think about everyone you know - even those you only know a little. Once completed, put a "*" by your top 30 contacts - those who not only would most likely be interested, but those who can become leaders in your organization.

4. Start IMMEDIATELY to call your Top "Executive" Prospects: Start with your top 30 contacts first - your "chicken" list. Ask them what they are doing with their photographs. After they tell you, ask them how that plan is working for them so far. Then introduce them to a PhotoMax presentation, show them your own Movie Magic DVD, and get them on a 3-way call with your business coach. Do not try to present the business over the phone, use the presentations.

5. Keep your prospect list full: Follow BusinessMax Keep your contact pipeline full of prospects, who are at some stage in the recruiting process. BusinessMax will teach you how to fast track to Executive by committing to the right activities.

6. Always Know Your Next Step: Continually look to the next step for you in building the business, for your customers in getting hooked on PhotoMax, and for your business prospects joining you in the PhotoMax business opportunity.

7. Stay Informed and Trained Participate in weekly training calls: Be familiar with the most current sales aids via the internet, phone recordings, and print media. Regularly visit "My Office" on the corporate website to get up-to-date information.

8. Get Your Own PhotoMax Testimonial and Use it to Gather Customers: Ask people, "What are you doing with your photographs?" You'll find it is so easy to get people to talk about their photos. Then ask them how that plan is working for them. Tell them about PhotoMax and give them your testimonial or show them your Movie Magic DVD.

9. Build to the Weekly Meeting, Next Event, or Conference: The excitement and credibility that come from attending a Corporate, Regional, or even Local Event is something you cannot re-create on your own. Use these events to set deadlines for yourself and exponentially multiply your business. Never attend alone. Learn the “Art of Inviting” and get a minimum of 5 to 10 guests to attend with you.

10. Be a Great Leader - Duplication is the Key This is YOUR business: Take responsibility for your own CONSISTENCY and for the MOMENTUM in your group. Train each person you sponsor to follow these guiding principles and commit them to training each person they sponsor, and so on. Duplication is the Key

It All Begins with You!

The Art of Inviting

The 4-C’s of Inviting - Each of these principles is important in the inviting process. Don’t leave any of these steps out. If you do, your success will be compromised! Master each and every step:

Compliment with Confidence - Always open with a sincere compliment, and tie that to why you thought of them:-“John, I’ve always admired what you do, and your success, which is why I thought of you…”-“Jane, I’ve always loved your outgoing personality and I thought of you when I found this new tech…”-“Jim, your success is followed by your incredible drive and I thought of you when I saw this new tech….”If you can’t be sincere, don’t give them a compliment, or you will lose credibility with your prospect!

Create Curiosity with Confidence - Your job of inviting is to create enough curiosity to make them WANT to know more information. “What are you doing with your photographs?... Have you gone digital?... What are you doing with your digital pictures? How is that plan working for you? I can show you a plan that is easy, fun, and is also a great business opportunity. You can learn all about this at my home on Thursday night. Will you be there?” Once you have peaked their interest, don’t say anything else!

Control Yourself with Confidence - Control Yourself, Control Yourself! Make them show up for more information. You only want to create curiosity. Once you have done your job, SAY NO MORE! Because you have created curiosity, they WILL ask questions. Do not answer any questions! If you answer their questions, they will think they know, and they won’t show up! Just tell them you would rather they see “The Big Picture” before you answer any questions. This call should only be three minutes long, max. IF YOU SATISFY THEIR CURIOSITY, THEY WONT COME!

Commit with Confidence - Commit, Commit, Commit! You need to really get a strong commitment that they will attend. Your confidence will make a huge difference in their desire to actually come.-“John, I only have 10 seats for this meeting. I need to know if you are 100% there or I have to give your seat to someone else” (no one wants to lose their seat) Only 50% of those who totally commit will actually show so don’t be surprised.. The percentage only drops with those who are weak on their commitment: “I will try to come”: 25% chance. “I will probably come”: 35% chance. “I will definitely be there”: 50% chance! If they don’t show, don’t be wimpy - let them know they missed out, but that you will give them one more chance to check out PhotoMax.

Overcoming Fear and why people just quit

After a number of years in business you develop a sense of who will quit before they get started. There are a lot of reasons why people quit, but most common reason is fear. The fear of starting something new and different overcomes them and they begin questioning their reasons. Then there is the initial contact of new prospects and the fear of saying something wrong or the fear of rejection. Fear is a very powerful emotion that can easily control our lives if we let it.

I was in the car with my 14 year old yesterday when he let me know he is interested in trying sky diving. We discussed the thrill of risk and the potential dangers of jumping. He is a very bright 14 and he announced “It is more dangerous driving on the highway right now then it would be for me to jump out of a plane, right?” I chucked a little and agreed with him. He has never been a fan of flying so I was a little surprised when he announced this. But he is maturing and overcoming his childhood fears and I always try to avoid pointing out the negative and suppressing his dreams.

It is funny what comes out of the mouth of our young and how we often miss the connection with other things in life. Driving is without question one of the most dangerous things we do, yet we think nothing of jumping in the car for almost no reason and risking our lives. The same people that will risk their lives and their very expensive vehicle racing down the road are often the first to avoid the risk of making changes in other areas of their lives where the only risk is rejection or failure.

If you to listen to self improvement recordings one of the things you will learn is that most people fear change or they fear rejection. You also learn that fear is natural but we have to learn to feel the fear and work past it if we are ever going to make changes.

So why do people fear change where there is no risk of injury and seem to have no fear of doing things which has a huge risk of injury? The answer: necessity. If we can not drive it creates a hardship. The necessity that we drive forces us to overcome the fear of injury.

The same relates to our source of income and every other aspect of our life. The fear of being hungry or living in the street forces us to find a way to generate income. Without the demand there is no need and we start to question our motives.

My first mentor in this business taught me to find my “WHY”. Why was I starting this business and write down a list. Then form that list into goals and put them in order from things I needed right away to things I wanted in the next 3 to 5 years. Then let that list drive my need to succeed.

If you are making changes out of necessity, chances are your drive to succeed will force you to act beyond your fears of failure and rejection. Sit down today and put together a list of reasons why you need to improve your life. Whatever the reason put it down and then prioritize that list in order of importance and put a time frame next to each item. If you need to get pictures of the things you want if it is a home, vacation or car get a brochure and clip out pictures. Keep reminding yourself why you are trying to make changes. It is amazing how when something becomes important we can make it happen.

Missed Opportunities

When people I have involved in my business come back and tell me that they can not get customers or they can not find people to get started I always asked this question:

“How many opportunities did you miss this week?”

We all miss opportunities to share our story, our company and our products to others. Just yesterday I missed a perfect opportunity to capture some business. I happened to be in a super WalMart with my family and there were two people standing in front of a self service station trying to print photographs. What seemed like an easy system to me was a very complicated stressful situation for the person trying to get their prints and the person behind them waiting. I looked over interested that Kodak was able to sell prints for 28 cents per print on a self service machine when we sell the same print for 14 cents and that people actually stand in line and get frustrated instead of doing them from home. I was busy trying to get checked out and keep my grandson entertained that I never thought about the opportunity right in front of me. I left the store and kicked myself for not at least giving them my business card. It was a missed opportunity to meet two new people and share my business.

If you are feeling that your business is not building fast enough then start to recognize opportunities. For example I look for anyone that is talking about or showing a photograph. If someone pulls out a picture it is a perfect time to share a story about my business. Once you start to recognize opportunities you will begin to recognize opportunities you have missed and you will be unconsciously training yourself. Then you will be better at recognizing opportunities as they are occurring so they are not missed.

Remember “Opportunities are never lost they are taken by others.”

A lesson from science class

Science teaches us that it is harder to get something started than it is to keep it moving once it is rolling.

"An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force." Newton’s First Law of Motion.

The same is true with our actions. Once we get home and hit the couch, turn on the TV and rest it is difficult to get rolling again. This is like pushing a bolder up a hill. It is difficult to get the bolder up to the peak, an up hill battle. Once the bolder hits the peak it starts rolling down hill pretty much on its own but you have to continue to give it a push here and direct it to keep it rolling past the obstacles like trees and other stones. It is much easier to keep it rolling at that point with just a little effort on your part.

The same is true with your business. It seems like an uphill battle getting a business rolling. It takes time, patience, and persistence to get things rolling. Then it seems like out of no where the business starts growing on its own with a lot less effort on your part.

Many businesses fail because it can take 1 to 3 years before a business just grows on its own. There is a higher failure rate in direct sales and network marketing because there is little cash outlay to get started and it does not hurt as much if you just quit. Typically people that purchase less than the large starter kit will probably quit within the first two weeks. Someone that spends over $1,000 will give it an effort because they do not want to lose that start up investment.

The sad thing is once momentum takes over you are looking around and trying to figure where the money is coming from. At this point it is important to keep active and keep building even though it seems you can step back and watch it grow. During this period you will be able to continue to grow the business with much less effort. This isn’t a product of greed; it is planning for the reality that something outside your control will affect your business and the larger it is the less effect this unplanned event will have on your growth. Products become obsolete, competition may grab some of your market share, or any number of things can affect your growth. If you stay in the game and stay active you will be able to prepare for this change and adjust as needed.

Remember that it takes a lot more effort to start something new then it does to keep doing what you are doing. Once you start something new continue to be committed to making it successful and never quit. A persistent effort will keep your business on a positive track, even on days it may seem impossible. Once you get over the last hurtle the business will seem to be unstoppable. Just continue your efforts as your business grows and you will be an unstoppable force.

The only time you fail is when you stop trying.

What are you doing to improve your life?

How many people you know leave high school or college and then stop educating themselves. Some spend a significant amount of time reading books, but none are for self improvement. Others watch TV instead of motivational or occupational videos. Reality TV and the evening news are more fiction than fact and neither will help you improve your life. If you want to do better you have to be better. Replace fiction with fact. Replace entertainment with truth.

By this point we all realized that school provided the basics and beyond that it is really up to us to continue our education in the direction of choice. If one of your directions is to become wealthy then you need to become educated in the mechanics of wealth. If your choice is to be a successful business person then you must become educated on the mechanics of your type of business.

Successful people never stop finding ways to learn more. If you read two books make one of them on self improvement or motivation. If you watch two hours of entertainment replace one with a educational material.

There is only one person in charge of your destiny. Your success or failure is completely up to you.

Taking advantage of viral marketing

Until recently most people had no idea what viral marketing meant. The concept is easy to understand but making it happen is a lot more complicated. Viral marketing is a technique where new customers purchase products or services but they were referred by existing customers. Probably one of the best forms of viral marketing was the explosion of mail services like HotMail.com a free mail service offered by Microsoft. To market their email companies like Yahoo, Microsoft and others automatically added an advertisement on the bottom of messages before they were sent. As chain email containing jokes, prayers, and luck charms were quickly forwarded around the net the viewers were unknowingly spreading the advertisement about how to get free mail.

Businesses everywhere were looking for ways to spread the message by viral or customer to customer to duplicate the model. Our company uses a technique of sharing photographs by email to friends and family to take advantage of viral marketing.

Here is how ours works:

A customer loads up their photographs to our website for free, they then select an album or individual photographs and click on the share button which allows them to send the photographs to one person or an entire group. Once the email recipient opens the photographs they also have an opportunity to create their own account and upload photographs. As an incentive we give them 20 free prints and a free space. The new customer was never contacted by the company, never saw a paid advertisement, and probably did not even know the service existed before they received the email.

This is so effective that on average each new customer will bring in 20 new customers by way of viral marketing . Our service which was launched in April now hosts 9 million photographs. This is a very powerful method of advertising and it is basically free.

It is easy to get started creating a viral message by adding a signature at the bottom of all of your emails. Simply adding a tag line to the bottom of your email like:

Get 20 free 4” x 6” prints and a free website. Visit yoursitename.myphotomax.com

Every joke you forward and every email you originate will have this signature line. Funny emails travel state lines very quickly and have been tracked around the world. Take advantage of this free form of advertising.

Beyond your warm market, keeping your business rolling

If you are new to marketing there are two types of prospects what is termed warm and cold. Warm contacts are people we know personally typically friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, etc. Cold contacts are people we never spoke to before the initial contact.

Most of us contact our warm market first to find interested people in our products or the business. After all we are very excited about the prospect of starting our own business and the impending success of course we want to share that excitement with the people close to us.

So once we have burned through our warm market we can not stop there. We still need to find new contacts. The next step is tapping into the cold market. In today’s high tech environment there are a lot of options for getting cold contacts and here are a few examples:

• Person to person situational prospecting. This is where you start a conversation with people you run into during the normal course of your day.
• Lead Programs. Using online and offline lead generation companies who target people looking for your product or a business opportunity.
• Referrals. Obtaining new contacts by asking existing contact who they might know that would be interested in your product or business.
• Viral Leads. These leads are person to person leads generated by people outside your network. Email chain letters are a type of viral lead.

It makes sense to incorporate some or all of these different lead sources as well as about 40 other forms we teach when building the business. Success in the business is possible by keeping a constant stream of fresh people looking at the business. You should have people looking at the business, some deciding on the business, and others getting started in the business. If you keep a constant stream of people at various stages of getting started you will never run out of qualified people joining your business.

How to work with scripts

You launched your business and your coach gave you a few scripts which outline what you should say to someone about the business. The script sounded great when you read them to yourself, but when you try to use them you get tongue tied and sound like a robot.

You should treat a script like it was a blue print for building a house. It tells you what material to use and where to put it, but it doesn’t tell you how to put it there. You are probably really confused now.

Let us get started with the basics of a contact. You probably started the business because you got excited about the product and you trust the person who introduced you to the business. What got you excited was how the person presented the business and the products. Trust was built by your interaction with the person. It is going to be very difficult to get someone excited about you, your products or the business if it sounds like you are reading from a piece of paper. This immediately tells this new prospect that you are new to the business and it will discount your ability to teach or lead. Teachers and leaders are prepared, before they present their material they create a lesson plan and they already know the material.

In our business people invest in you, they do not invest in the business. Yes we sell them a product or we get them started with a product kit but that isn’t an investment. They truly invest in you. So you want your new prospect to know from the start that you are sincere, prepared, and ready to help them achieve their goals.

Here are a couple of tips for working with scripts that need to be acomplished before you make the first phone call or make your first face to face contact:

• Read the script until it is memorized. Some people can do this in one read. It takes me about an hour to get it down.
• Add your own gestures and flair to the script. If the script isn’t written the way you speak then make some changes. As long as the facts remain the same as originally written you can add your own flair.
• Practice in front of the mirror, family, or a friend until you are comfortable that you are speaking from your heart not reporting the news.

Stick with it until your presentation is down. Always smile before you make your first presentation, even if you are doing so over the phone. People are looking to work with happy, excited, and motivated. If your first few contacts are not that great because you are nervous, stick with it. You will get better. When I get nervous on a contact with a new product I always apologize and say “I am sorry I am a little nervous because this is very exciting and I do not want to mess this up for you”. You would be amazed what that does to turn around the call.

Do you believe in luck?

Do you believe in luck and feel you are just unlucky? When you see someone that is successful on TV or read about them in the paper do you feel they got that way by luck? Of course we hear stories about how someone happened to be in the right place at the correct time and obtained something we wished we had, but often when you dig into the story you find out that there is something much deeper that actually happened.

I have a friend that I have known for years who promoted his band to the point of national and probably international fame. I became is friend because when he was little more than a local act I allowed his band to rent out my facility to put on concerts. I saw what he had to do to promote his band and how his efforts differed from other bands who also performed in our facility. The difference was he wasn't afraid to approach bigger bands and use their fame to promote his events. He convinced younger bands to open for him to attract attendance and make his act the headliner. He did what it took to promote his product. First locally, then they toured in the north east, then on tour around the country. While I saw better acts, his band became more popular because of his efforts. Was he lucky? – no but other bands who were just doing what it took to get into a place and play thought so.

Most people do not realize how much time is wasted doing just enough to get by. Doing just enough to get by usually translates into:

• Missing opportunities
• Doing things over because something was missed.
• Losing time, money and productivity

Doing just enough to get by opens the door to the competition. People that are successful get that way by doing things better than the competition. When the competition moves ahead this is what most people call "luck". "Luck" is one of the excuses we use to justify doing just enough to get by while someone else put in the effort to do a little more and succeed. What is interesting is the people that did put in the effort probably didn't do much more work they were just consistent and did not quit when faced with obstacles.

As you become more successful you are forced to take a look at just how much time is wasted doing just enough to get by. I am as guilty as some people when it comes to doing just enough to get by, but I am less guilty then most people. Several years ago I started taking risks and looking for opportunities to improve my financial and personal life.

Before you can become "lucky" you have to take control of your life and take responsibility for your actions. You can't replace consistent effort with excuses and ever expect to be "lucky" or successful.

Ever have someone stand you up?

Do not get angry by missed appointments and no answers, just plan ahead. If you are setting only one appointment for a time slot you are setting yourself up for failure. You should be scheduling half hour to one hour slots for contacts and planning that some people will not be available when you call.

If you plan ahead you will have a couple of people in a time slot instead of just one. The best way to do this is set aside blocks of times just for follow-ups. For example Tuesdays and Thursday from 6 to 7 PM. During these time periods plan at least 4 contacts. Not 1 or 2. I figure 2 contacts for each half hour. Then tell your prospect that you will contact them between 6 PM and 7 PM. One way to do this is as follows:

"Ok ______________ I have time on Tuesday or Thursday between 6:00 PM and 7:00 PM. Which day works best for you? " When they answer say. "Ok great I have a couple of other people to contact that day as well, but I will contact you between 6 and 7 PM."

This will do two things: First it will set up the fact that other people are looking at the business so you may not be on the call exactly at the start of the time slot and second it will create excitement over the fact that other people are interested too.

Your time is your most valuable asset do not waste it waiting on people that do not value you or your business. If the person misses your appointment always follow-up with a call and let them know you do not have time to waste. I like to say something like:

Hello __________ this is _______________. We had an appointment for ___________. I know things can come up at the last minute but with a business opportunity that is exploding like this I have a lot of other people that are interested. Give me a call when you get free, I have some openings two weeks from today or if you like you can give me a couple of times you are free and if someone else cancels I will call you from my waiting list.

Remember you are holding all the cards and you have the business opportunity not the other way around.

You only need one person in your business

I get to talk to new people every week as a result of this business. After a while I got a real sense of who will and will not get started and how far will go to achieve their dreams. As I said in a previous blog entry there is no real secret to business, any business, it only takes desire to achieve success.

So are you involved in your business? I am amazed how many people start a business and then look to others to make it successful. The reason one out of three business fail each year is not because of demand, there will always be demand for any product. It is not because of money; you can start part time from home with many businesses. It is because the person starting the business never got involved.

Oh sure they put up the money for the marketing kit and they went through the training, but they never got involved. In the beginning I did the same thing more than once so this comes from experience.

Getting involved translates into grabbing the steering wheel, hitting the gas pedal, and never looking behind you. It means running out of gas and begging or borrowing more to get that vehicle running again. It is a no way back, I am doing this or else proposition.

No one will ever be more interested in your success than you are. Your road to success is already paved and just waiting for you to travel it. Plan on there being a few boulders and pot holes that you will have to get past because anything worth having does not come easily.

How to turn one prospect into up to 10 leads

This is a tip that will keep your contact list full of fresh leads. When your prospect says “No Thanks” do you end that contact by asking if they know anyone that may be interested?

It’s as simple as saying: “I can tell that you are not at a place in your life right now to join our business. You can see that this is a very exciting opportunity do you know anyone that is business minded or may have told you they need to generate extra income? I can assure you they will be treated as professionally as you did and will probably thank you for my contacting them”

Each referral provides you with an opportunity to contact someone that you would probably never have met or had the opportunity to introduce to your business.

Always ask for referrals!

The heart of a leader

Most people inspire to be more but something gets in the way. For many of use it is perception which translates into unfounded beliefs or a fictional reality.

Perception is very powerful and for many of us the perception that wealth was linked almost exclusively to luck began with our parents. I know my parents worked very hard and they earned enough to pay for a house, cars and put food on the table. We were a typical middle class family. Never traveled much or had fancy things. I was always taught that if you wanted those things you had to go to college and become a doctor or lawyer, otherwise you had to be really lucky. Luck? My parents played the lottery just about every week and we weren’t getting rich that way either, so I guess luck was out.

It wasn’t until years later that I realized that most of the very successful people in our country had minimal college or never finished it. Most of the doctors and lawyers had a nice house and nice things but they weren’t really rich. Worst they had no life outside of the office and their living expenses were in line with their income so if they stopped working they were in the same boat as I was.

So what made these people successful if it wasn’t years of education or the lottery? The answer is drive and determination. They made a goal and they stuck with it until they were successful.

Refocusing your resolve starts with changing your perception. Now that you understand that education alone is not the determining factor in wealth or success you can begin to refocus your goals.

Since most people need to make a paycheck to survive the best first step is to look at your schedule and plan out what hours during the week you have to devote to your goals. It is better to devote 3 or 4 hours in one day then 1 hour over 4 days. Set aside this time like it was an appointment that can’t be canceled. Nothing should invade this time. If you can’t find 3 or 4 hours to devote then you need to take a hard look at your schedule and compress or remove things that steal your time. Time is truly the only thing we have that is more valuable then anything we can own or purchase and most of us waste it like it is in unlimited supply.

Once you have decided when, next you have to decide what. There are thousands of opportunities to choose from. Pick something that you are interested in personally.

The last and most important task is to write down a list of why you are making this change. If your why is to get a house, car, vacation or to do better for your family. You need to write these things down and read them every time you sit down to start work. Some people get sample prints for their dream house or a brochure of the car or vacation they want. Anything to keep reminding yourself why you are taking these new steps.

Don’t ever quit on your dreams!

10 excuses only 1 reason

Here are 10 excuses people give for not starting their own business:

• I am too busy
• I can not afford it
• My spouse will not let me
• I am not interested
• I tried something else and failed
• I do not want to contact people
• This is too complicated
• I will miss my TV Shows
• This must be a pyramid
• Multilevel Marketing does not work

There is only one reason they give those 10 excuses: fear.

Just about everyone I contact is the result of a lead. The person requesting the information clicked on a link on the internet, read a bunch of information about our business and actually entered their contact information requesting more information about getting involved in a business. The only thing keeping them back was a four letter word FEAR.

There are a number of things that create the fear response and they all happen subconsciously. Clearly these people want to get started in a business and they want to do better, why else would they click on the link and request information?

Fear is the result of something that pushes us out of our comfort zone. Before the contact they read some information that got them excited and they were looking to get started. Then the dreaded phone call from a stranger, the first hit to the fear factory. Next some more exciting information and thoughts that you may actually have to get started in something new and different, strike two on the fear engine. Strike three comes somewhere around the second or third day, if the person even got far enough to ask you to get started. You can hear the umpire scream “strike three” and all the negative thoughts start racing around your head telling yourself why this is not a good idea and out comes the excuse. Then for about 1 second after the call you are relived.

What happens next for most people is the reverse or the fear of not starting. You were clearly interested that is why you clicked on the link. You probably needed a change and were looking for something better and you let it pass you by. Next are thoughts of remorse for being a coward and not jumping at the chance to better yourself and better your family.

Fortunately it is never too late to take the next step. There are hundreds of opportunities to better your life. As with anything some are better then others. If you speak to almost anyone that has been successful you will find a history of past failure. The important thing is to learn from the past and keep stepping up to the plate. Failure teaches us two things, the first is what not to do and the second is what we need to do better next time. It took over 2000 experiments before Thomas Edison found the correct carbon thread to make the light bulb work. When asked about his efforts he replied:

"The electric light has caused me the greatest amount of study and has required the most elaborate experiments. I was never myself discouraged, or inclined to be hopeless of success. I cannot say the same for all my associates." - Thomas Alva Edison

His message was clear, it did not matter what anyone else had done, that others had failed, or how long it took. He was resolved to find the solution to the problem and thankfully he was successful.