Imagine signing up a new distributor for your home business organization. You’ve put her through whatever process you have in place.  She has seen the company presentation.  She got to know you, and you her.  She’s nice.  She laughs easily, and she seems to have real desire to do well.  Forms are signed and a business kit is purchased.

A couple of days passes by and you get a phone call.  She’s got just a few questions she’d like to ask you; do you have a few minutes.  “Sure,” you say.

Five minutes turns into half an hour.  You cover things she’s already seen in the presentation, as well as things that were on the first training module she was supposed to watch.

Same thing happens next day, this time you hear a twinge of buyer’s remorse in her voice.  What if she can’t do it?

Sound familiar?  Every person in network marketing finds this person in his or her organization if they stay around long enough.  There’s a good chance you WERE this person at one point.

There are always three things at work:

1. Your desire to genuinely help someone.

2. Your desire to work with someone who has a lot of potential: to add that “stud” to your organization.

3. Your frustration with putting time and effort into someone who is starting to look like the wrong person.

And let’s add a fourth: your not wanting to feel like someone who “dumps” people after bringing them into a business.

They’re all valid and understandable issues.  In 12 years as a marketer and trainer, I can tell you there are surprisingly few unethical people in the industry.  We all set out wanting to do good.  It’s just a fact that home business – including affiliate marketing and someone who markets their own product or service – attracts all kinds of people, including those who have a hard time keeping up.

So back to the original point of this article.  When should you give up on people who don’t get it?

The answer: Never.

You never want to give up on anyone, because you never know when it will be someone’s time.  When they will have enough desire to overcome the obstacles they have (including their own drama) and break through.

And of course this doesn’t mean you allow yourself to be a sitting duck for a thousand questions and complaints.  In this day and age if you aren’t running a new person through a training process that has them learning on their own, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.  And you’re doing the same for everyone else in your organization by your example.

Anyone who has been around already knows this.  The people who are in profit spend their time and energy with people moving forward.  They give group time and encouragement (from a distance) to people who aren’t progressing for whatever reason.

But emotionally, you keep a space of encouragement and positive energy for everyone in your group, and even the industry as a whole.  It’s the kind of mojo you want around you.

And remember your own beginning.  How long did it take you to “get it?”

And look where you are now!

Who’s to say the next superstar isn’t following that same path?

SUMMARY:  Using the phone to prospect for your business is fine.  Just don’t sound like someone who gets hung up on right away.  Here are two simple steps to improve your marketing efforts.

***   ***

When prospecting for your home business – once you get the leads – there’s only one thing you need to do…

Talk to a whole bunch of people and make each of them feel like an individual you personally care about.

If you’ve been in MLM or affiliate marketing for any length of time you already know this.  The successful people design campaigns around making what they’re doing seem very attractive, then inviting you to be a part of it.  The good ones make you feel like you would be an important part of it.

The best ones really DO make you an important part of it.  That, and what they have really is attractive and beneficial to a lot of people.

There is one thing that is an instant turn off.  And even if you’ve never been involved in home business, you know what it is…

Your phone rings.  You pick it up.  It’s that guy or woman who’s been sending you autoresponder emails.  A smiling voice, usually sounding like they’re trying too hard…

“Hello, (insert your name here)!  This is (insert their name here) calling from (insert location they’re calling from).  I got your name as someone who is looking for a way to make money from home.  Do you have a few minutes to talk?”

There is nothing wrong with contacting people who are interested in building an income from home.  Of course there are different levels of interest in those leads.  It might be someone who just played around on the Internet and entered their name on a website. Could be someone who put their name down on something that has nothing to do with it (like when we called that poor girl who just entered her name on a college scholarship matching site).

And it could be someone who went through a long pre-screening process and jumped through plenty of hoops.  That is a strong prospect!

The problem comes when that call comes from the initial phone contact.  The lead generation process can be great.  But at the end of it, people will make choices about signing up with you based on the company, and the product, and the marketing plan.

And more than anything else,  they’ll make that choice based on that first contact…how they feel about YOU!

So if you contact people as if you’re reading a script – that you aren’t treating them like someone important or you are the thousandth call they made that day – how confident do you think they will be.

This is common sense.  But good, smart people still make these calls and sound like minimum wage telemarketers.  What’s up with that?

There is a solution to this.  It’s called POSTURE.

It’s very simple.  Two steps.

First, make sure you are giving your telephone time only to qualified leads.  Yes, I know a lot of people choose to market by slamming the phones.  If you’re one of them, you can use an autodialer to do the heavy lifting.  Record a good, strong, friendly but confident message, and give them something to do.  Don’t pick up the phone until they do it.

Second, make sure you are coming from a position of strength.  Rather than thinking of what you’re doing as prospecting, think of it as interviewing.  You are looking for the right person for something that can have a life changing effect on people.  You know there’s a learning curve, and you know it will take a while for people to start making money.  You also know there is an investment to get started.  So you’re looking for someone who is the right fit.  That’s not going to everyone.  In fact, it will be fewer than half of the people you talk with.

People are hungry for a good thing. They are hungry for leadership.  And whether you’re a beginner or seasoned professional, you can provide it.  If you have confidence in what you’re doing, you can be friendly but strong.  Real and assertive.  You can be exactly the kind of person you would want to hear from when you pick up the phone.

Diane Hochman Training

It’s interesting that I’m writing this, because I’ve always written and talked about how it’s unethical, and just plain bad business to steal someone else’s prospect.

It’s interesting, because in this true story, I am the one who did the stealing.

It was eight or nine years ago.  My husband and I were just hitting our stride in terms of building an organization.  We were in the middle of a heavy duty advertising campaign…mostly offline.

Our efforts involved a lot of local advertising.  We concentrated most of our energy close to our home.  But I also became well known for my product results…I had gotten some great weight loss and health results from this company’s products.

My husband was never shy about letting his colleagues know I had entered the home business world.  One day, one of them called and told him she was contemplating getting involved with the company, but with a sponsor who lived about 100 miles away.  She had sent her a sample of the product, as well as an application to join the company.

This lady was not getting the product results she wanted, and told my husband.  He invited her to call me and review her use of the products, without any mention of the business.

The call happened a couple of days later.  I got her straightened out with her product usage.  It turned out she had contacted the woman who had sent her the products.  She guided her incorrectly.  We spoke about my story and the company itself.  At no point did I mention her working with me.  The company made it very clear they frowned on that kind of activity, and I try not to do things to people I wouldn’t want done to myself.

After a few days the woman called again and said she was ready to start the business…with me as her sponsor.  I discouraged her, and suggested she go back to the person who sent her the original materials.  She said she didn’t have confidence in this woman, and wouldn’t enter the business with her, even if I hadn’t shown up.

After thinking about it for a short while, I decided to accept her into my organization.  The other woman did not take the news well.  From what I understand, she left the company shortly thereafter.

This lady wound up staying with us for more than five years.  She maintained great products results, and although she didn’t become a significant earner, she did supplement her income and was introduced to a whole new world of prosperity consciousness.

Is this “stealing?”  Or is this positioning oneself in a place of authority and integrity, compared to someone else’s weakness?

Yes, we should always play fair.  But when a quality person is asking you work with them after making an informed choice, it’s the right thing for everyone involved to welcome them into your organization.

Play fair. Always.

And become the person others seek out.

Yup.. It’s true…

After years of training and consulting I am ready to build a downline again

and on September 1st I will be officially out “out of the closet”

but I wanted to give my loyal readers a chance to get on the inside and to

grab one of my top spots.

I am looking to begin with a VERY specific type of group.

If you know me at all…

I am not one to go for the QUICK BANG…

I am in everything I do for the LONG HAUL so building

a strong foundation team is what I am all about.

If you want to take a peek inside the mind of Hochman as she conjures up

her systems…

Go visit Work With Diane to check it out.

Who knows..this may be EXACTLY what you are looking for.

All I can say is that is is a pretty hot set up and if you can follow my thought process you are gonna come to see just how many paychecks you can be getting in a single month.

I am all about the cash register singing!!!

How bout you?

I was asked to participate as a mentor in this new program and I thought to myself…

This is PRETTY COOL!

You get daily SMS text messages from the top people in the industry with little snippets of marketing mindset and wisdom sent straight to your phone!

It’s a great product to KEEP IN THE GAME

PLUS

You can earn some extra income with it…

It’s free to sign up this week to poke around and then it turns into a paid program on the 26th.

You get to learn from ME plus…

Jonathan Budd

Katie Freiling

Cedrick Harris

Mia Davies

Daegan Smith

Aaron rashkin

Jeff Long

Ray Higdon

JC West

Tim Berger

Franco Gonzalez all for pennies a day.

It’s like having us in your head helping you along!

So Check out SMSDAILYS and get our spot now.

SUMMARY:  Being successful in MLM or affiliate marketing takes a lot of energy.  None of us have it all the time.  Here are some suggestions for being successful even when your energy level is low.

***   ***

We all get them.  Those days when we’re dragging ourselves around, dreading the next thing we have to do to manage our home business.  Particularly true for those who work in MLM.  After all, even with all the technology, it’s still a business of talking with and listening to people.

It’s comforting to know that like our business itself, we move in cycles.  There are times when our energy is sky high, especially at the beginning of  a new project.  Joining a new company, or being part of a product launch, or running a conference call…these are things that wind us up.

So naturally there is a rhythm that brings us back down to earth after a while.

I’ve spent many days conducting business in my pajamas.  And when I say business, I’m talking all the different aspects of it.  I’ve managed my autoresponder lists, ordered products, done three ways calls, even  cut an occasional video in my sleep wear.

The first thing you need to know about running your business when your energy level is low is that there are different aspects to it.  It’s perfectly fine to do the management type stuff when you don’t want to interact with people.  If you have a healthy business, there will be other stuff to do.

And it’s perfectly OK to walk away from your business for a while for a battery recharge.  I’ll take a walk around the block, or do some stretching, or listen to something wonderful, or even take in half an hour or sappy daytime television.

But the single best suggestion I have for running your business when your energy is low is this… Remember WHY you’re doing it.

There was something you wanted at the beginning.  Security, recognition, extra money for a vacation.  That thing is still alive in you.

Make it real. If you ever wrote down a statement of your goals or your dreams, take it out and look at it.

And if you didn’t, this would be a great time to make one.

So let’s just wrap this up in list form.  When your energy is low…

1. Give yourself permission to goof off for a short period of time, with a promise to come back to it soon.

2. Work on the management parts of the business…the ones that don’t need you to interact with prospects, downline or upline people.

3. Take yourself back to the reason why you started your business.  Make it big and bright.

One final thought: if your energy is low too much of the time (and you’ve rule out any medical reasons), your inner-self may be trying to tell you you’re in the wrong place, or you’re too far outside your comfort zone.  That’s the time to talk to someone you trust: a coach or mentor, and see if you’re in the right place for the right reasons.  If you’re not loving your business, it may be time to work on something new.

Video of me teaching LIVE at a recent event.

Most network marketers don’t even realize they are MARKETERS and spend their days engaged in activities they truly do not enjoy.

Learning the concepts of Attraction Marketing can make your life much easier.

Leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts.

If you’d like to check out the Attraction Marketing Training Community that I participate in check it out HERE

Picture yourself having a great conversation with a prospect for your business. They came in through your advertising, or responded to an article you wrote. You built a “long distance relationship” because they grew to know you through your online presence.

Then you finally spoke on the phone. You put them through your presentation, both the online and offline version.

You answered their questions. Maybe you even had a three way phone call with another member of your team.

Everything is great.

It’s time to take the next step. Now comes the part where you close them. Are you feeling any emotions while you read this? Are you a little nervous? A little uncomfortable?

If you are, your prospects can sense it. And it creates doubt in their mind. Doubt about whether or now you are the right person to lead them to the success they’re looking for as they start their business.

Let’s back up for a second. If you’ve built your marketing strategy correctly, you are only having in depth conversations with people who are serious about working with you. Everyone else has been sorted elsewhere. They’re either getting automated response materials from you (autoresponder), or they’re scratched off you list altogether. Or they might be consumers of your product or service without an intention to build a business.

You’ve got the people who are ready. They proved themselves worthy and ready for your business.

Now sign them up.

If you’re having a hard time with this, one of the best things you can do is make sure the process we just described really is in place. A lot of people have a hard time closing because they fear rejection.

And it’s a valid fear. If you’re talking to the wrong people, there is a good chance you are going to be rejected. That’s no fun.

If you do find yourself talking to qualified, serious people, then recognize you are a powerful person in the home business industry. You have a skill most others don’t have.

That alone should be a good start in helping you to feel powerful…powerful enough to close a transaction.

But if you are still struggling, here are two things you can do…

1. Get a more skilled person in your organization to close for you. This is almost always an upline person, in your MLM or affiliate program. They have an interest in your success. And hanging around a strong person tends to help that strength rub off on you.

2. Send them to some automated process where they are entering their credit card number on line. Remember though…people ultimately do not sign up with systems. They sign up with other people.

The long term solution: find ways to grow your confidence and assertiveness. It doesn’t have to happen overnight. So long as you are moving in the right direction, your success is “closed.”

If you are buying leads for your home business, do you know where they come from? Really?

I haven’t purchased leads for business in years. The skills I have in attraction marketing are strong enough so that I have plenty of people coming to me, wanting to know what I do. It’s a wonderful feeling.

But several years ago, at the beginning stage of my business, one of the main sources of people to prospect was purchased leads.

It seemed pretty straightforward. I would contact a lead broker, hand over my credit card number, and within a few hours I had a new batch of leads in my email inbox.

They were all organized nicely in an Excel Spreadsheet. I had their names, email addresses and phone numbers. I would load their emails into the autoresponder and my husband would spend a couple of hours a day calling the phone numbers and prospecting.

Very often the leads would ask where we got their information. The truth was, at first we didn’t know. We were told by an upline sponsor to invest in this lead program. And being good little team members, that’s just what we did.

What got me curious about where the leads were coming from was one month, when the leads arrived. I started to load them into the system when I noticed they looked familiar. It turns out they were the same names we got the previous month.

I called the broker. Of course he apologized and sent us a new batch.

It got us wondering. If these leads were ours, how many other people were getting the same leads?

How many times were these people being called.

Now and again we get calls from people prospecting us. They go in cycles. We’ll get nothing for months at a time, then twenty five calls in a week.

And of course that’s because the lead brokers are selling our information multiple times to multiple people.

That in itself doesn’t make a purchased lead bad.

But you do need to know where your leads come from.

Here are some questions to ask: both yourself and whoever you’re looking to buy leads from…

1. How recently were the prospects information captured?

2. Where did they come from? (We figured out several of our old leads entered information on a college scholarship service…not the strongest prospect for a home business.)

3. How often are leads being sold?

4. Ask yourself: Am I satisfied with the results I’m getting compared to the price I’m paying for the leads? Have I given it enough time to work? Do I have a strong sales system to plug my leads into? Are my presentation skills good enough to make the investment worthwhile?

Leads you get from outside sources can be a good part of an overall marketing campaign. But like anything else, you have to know the right questions to ask.

And you have to be willing to make changes based on the answers you get.

Here’s a VERY REPUTABLE Lead Source that I do business with ..

Or…

If you’d like to learn all about generating your own leads via ATTRACTION MARKETING  check out the system that

I use to get training every single week.

I’ve been at this for 12 years and I will tell you that knowing how to use leads and generate leads is the most important skill you can possess.

Here’s an audio from 4 years ago where I discuss what went on in the early days of my business.

I was fat, I was scared and I was so in debt that my bills had bills!

Fear was about to take me over and in this recording I describe how I got past it.

If you are still paralyzed by FEAR you need to listen to this quick audio.

Special thanks to my mentor Joe Schroeder who’s tapes I mentioned on this call.

Today the attraction marketing concepts he introduced me to have become the cornerstone of the industry.

If you would like to know more about attraction marketing shoot me an email at Diane@DianeHochman.com and I’ll get you out the most current info.

And if you would like to have “increase” spoken into you…be sure you are registered on the right for all my live calls.

Put in your name and email and I will be sure to out an invite to everything we do.