Has it really been easy? Is it easy today? Have you found that “anyone”
can do it?
Did you make big money immediately?
Did the products/services really sell themselves?
Is it really the best company for everyone? Or maybe just for someone
with your values? (Compare those who prefer the adventure of a start-up to
someone who prefers a more conservative, established company.)
And last, have you found any truth to the fifth statement—that all you
have to do to become a success is talk to people you know?
Many people have told me that going to people they know has been
the very worst thing they ever did—for their network marketing career and
their personal relationships. (No place to go for Christmas dinner.) Bottom
line, I think we all know none of these promises are true. But my students,
who agreed, they told me they said those things because they didn’t know
what else to say—and that anyway, that’s what their upline said and told
them to say.
That is a big problem, because here’s who these five promises doat-
tract: the desperados—those who are hoping for a quick financial or per-
sonal fix. Since there is no business without obstacles, they drop out at the
first sign of trouble, adding to the dropout statistics that make us look so bad
to some people.
Now ask yourself this question: Whose fault was it that they dropped
out, as so many seem to do? Shall we blame the recruit who’s “just lazy” and
not committed or can’t see the big picture? Or might it be the pitch itself that
draws in precisely the kinds of people who can be goaded into thinking it will
be a piece of cake to succeed? Could that be the reason that the dropout rate
is so high? That we’re unwittingly asking for entirely the wrong ones with the
“five worst things” programming?
I, for one, vote to stamp out the constant and pathetic repeating of the
“Five Worst Things to Say to a Good Prospect” from all company literature
and trainings, in meeting rooms, and on leader-led telephone conference calls
around the country. Read: Let’s stop attracting the wrong people to our pro-
fession. It is noteasy, and not everyone can do it. Do you think that’s how
Google and Apple and Microsoft attract their people? By advertising that
their job opportunities are easy and for anyone? No wonder the dropout rates
are so unbelievably high in our field. We’re attracting mostly wrong ones with
our recruiting verbiage.
Why not start asking for the best ones, and have fewer of them? In this
case, less may indeed be more. Wouldn’t fewer people drop out if they were
more qualified in the first place, because we start askingfor people who know
it is noteasy to succeed in a business of one’s own? People who stop asking
“How fast can I make money?” and instead ask: “What does it take to be-
come successful in this business?”
106 THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO NETWORK MARKETING