Andy Acciaioli
Your phone rings, you answer it and one of your new team members excitedly informs you: “I can’t believe it. The mail just arrived and I have a check. My first one. You said it would happen and here it is. Man, I’m so excited. I can’t wait to show my wife. Wow. Fifty bucks.”
Or…
Your phone rings, you answer it and one of your new team members dejectedly informs you: “Listen, I’ve been at this network marketing thing for the past month or two and nothing’s happening. No one will get in. All I’m doing is wasting my money on autoships plus all the other expenses. It’s never going to work so I’m getting out now before spending any more money.”
Obviously we would all prefer the first conversation. But the reality is we hear the second far more often than the first.
When a new representative or distributor joins our network marketing business, studies have shown we have 63 days to prove to that newbie that our system not only works but it works for him/her. And what greater proof do we have that our business works than getting a check into their hands? After all, is that not the magnet that attracts our prospects to our business: the anticipation of making money?
As long as you have a new rep who is coachable (and if you have one that is not coachable, what is he/she doing in your business in the first place?), your complete focus has to be getting some cash back into that rep’s hands pronto. Until you have a way for a slight stream of money flowing to that representative, he/she is relying on your credibility that they will soon be in a positive cash flow situation.
At the very moment they sign up into your business, have a discussion and have a step-by-step plan ready as to how you both will work toward generating that very first check.
After a few weeks or a month, with each passing day without a check from their new business, their disbelief increases as your credibility decreases in their eyes.At this point, communication breaks down between you. Phone calls go unreturned and that recruit who you thought would be a superstar has quit.
(What prompted my writing this article was an excited phone call I received today from a gentleman who recently joined our business. 26 days ago to be exact. His first check arrived and he was even more pumped THAN USUAL…never thought that would be possible. I always end these “got my first check calls” with “I’ll be waiting for your call the first time that check has a comma on it.” And, it has been my experience that those calls also come in.)
Andy,
In reading your article, I do believe that I am the person that you were referring to (the upbeat caller). Your article is to the point and I did indeed make the call out of joy. It was pure instinct that made me pick up the telephone to call you. You are also right that it is important to show the “newbie” some glimmer of hope that they will be receiving some compensation in the beginning. Of course, there is work involved and I would say that there is a certain percentage of “newbies” that jump in Network Marketing, only to be in “awe” after they are in. These actions do not warrant compensation, but what they do warrant is nurturing to a point. After all, you have to say to yourself, “I did recruit them in”.
As for me Andy, I am fine and anyone I get in under me will also be fine (I better say hopefully). I will take a vested interest in them and I also realize that we are going to be so big one day that I can not do it all myself. That’s why when you get that big you need to delegate leaders and have duplication. The duplication should be taught from the beginning really. I believe that we have to let the new reps work their own business. I have seen where too many times uplines tell reps that they shouldn’t do this or shouldn’t do that. There is still a certain amount of trial and error that the “newbie” has to encounter…just like any of us. Thanks for your leadership Andy…let me close by saying that Andy and I will SEE YOU AT THE TOP!