How do I motivate my
M.L.M downline?
"What can I do to get them to produce more?"
Does anything
work?
Historically people have tried the most asinine things in an
attempt to "motivate" human beings. Slavery and threatening of life, rallies and
hype-driven events, even people running across hot coals. The US Navy has done
many different experiments to try to get men to produce more. They've tested
whether men who go out drinking together produce more. They've put men who hated
each other together and men who were best friends together to see which would
produce more.
None of these have
worked...for very long. People can come out of a Tony Robbins event super
excited and "motivated." But after a day or two - maybe even a week - they're
back to their previous production level.
I might as well go ahead
and let the cat out of the bag because he's practically ripping the bag open at
this point. YOU CAN'T MOTIVATE YOUR M.L.M DOWNLINE! But you can get them to
produce more. Which is what you really want FOR them and FROM them
anyway.
To get your downline to
DO more, to get them to exhibit confidence, cheerfulness, and discipline
requires you to do two things...GET THEM EFFECTIVE AT WHAT THEY DO with good
M.L.M training and make it in their interest to do it. The US Navy concluded
that when production was high, more production occurred.
Effective M.L.M training
is the only thing that truly works
So for you - trying to get your downline
to produce more - or produce anything - you must train them. You might be
saying, "But I train my people every Saturday! I give them a training manual. I
do conference calls." I realize you may have been working very hard at training
your downline. But, the test of effective M.L.M training is not whether you
conduct training. It's whether the student can do it! NOTHING ELSE.
List of what to train
your downline
Here's how and what I recommend you train your downline
on.
• How to establish goals
• How and what to know to be effective (most
of which is on this list)
• How to promote
• What to say to people when
they make phone calls
• How to set appointments
• How to present the M.L.M
business or products
• How to sell the M.L.M business or products
• How to
sponsor people (the correct procedures and sequence)
• How to train new
distributors
To get your downline to
produce and produce more, you need to get them effective in each one of these
areas. When they can do each of these things, they will be motivated because
they are effective. They WILL produce because they feel ABLE to
produce.
Bomb squad trained
me
I did not just come up with this M.L.M success system overnight. I worked
it up and down until it worked. I got the concept from something I learned in
the bomb squad.
Before my network
marketing career, I was in the US Navy Underwater Bomb Squad. Only one man is
allowed to go work on a live bomb. No sense in blowing two bomb-techs up because
of one man's mistake! When we headed down to work on the bomb, we took a piece
of plexiglass and a grease pencil. When we were getting ready to do the first
step of defusing the bomb we would:
a) Write what we were
going to do.
b) Do the item.
c) Check it off as being done.
Then go to step two.
Write it down, do it, then check it off. The reason we did this exact sequence
is because if the bomb blew up, the other bomb squad techs knew that very
valuable information was written on that piece of plexiglass. When they
retrieved the plexiglass they would see that item 1 and 2 were okay to do. But
item 3 upset the bomb - don't do that step!
The items written on
that Plexiglas became our "Standard Operating Procedures." Obviously leaving out
that last step that upset the bomb! It was our sequence of defusing that bomb
when we faced it again. I applied the same principles to network marketing and
the above list of activities. These activities are the only activities that make
money in network marketing.
Be a great coach
As a
coach, if you have your distributor keep a record of how many times he/she does
each activity you can coach the exact item that THAT distributor is having a
problem with. If you don't use this list and try to coach - you're coaching on
what you think the group needs. Or you're coaching a "pet" category of your own.
I've observed closely new distributors. They don't "engage" into the business
until they feel confident in what to say to their prospects. Therefore, they
need to know how to do items 1-5 before you have them on the phone. See, it
doesn't make sense to know how to do New Distributor Training before they know
how to set appointments. I've known lots of distributors who've quit that still
know the compensation plan. I know plenty of failed distributors who know how to
train a new distributor who have never sponsored anyone.
I don't know a lot of
distributors who have quit who can set appointments and have the prospect show
up. My point is, to really have M.L.M success you need to first train your
distributors to be able to invite, and then train them how to present, and then
train them how to train.
Other items important in
getting your downline to produce:
1. Ethical behavior.
People will not follow (or produce for) someone who is unethical or
dishonest.
2. Boldness. People will
follow boldness because they like following in the footsteps of a bold leader.
What does it take to be bold? You must be productive yourself. Let your MLM
downline see you face your fears. Let them see you make phone calls, let them
see you do presentations, let them see you standing there waiting for your
guests.
3. Be interested in
them. Show your people that you are interested in their goals. Put your front
line's goals on your refrigerator. Talk to them about their goals. This is where
the "make it in their interest to do it" comes in.
4. Be the source of
information. Always be up-to-date on the latest information. This means you stay
connected to the company's source of information. Also, teach your downline
where your sources are - otherwise you will always be stuck with the
job.
I think you can tell
that I don’t agree with the philosophy of "leaders are found not made." Train
your M.L.M distributors to be effective and they will be self-motivated. This is
very different from you trying to "pump them up," which doesn’t work.
