uct at a stable price. Additionally, the good companies offer train-
ing and support.
Many network marketing companies immediately encourage
you to sell the business opportunity to others. Some people
succeed at this; others do not. We have worked with many clients
in network marketing who were struggling to sell the business
opportunity. In every case, when they learned to sell a low-priced
product, their sales of business opportunities took off. This was
because of the lower emotional intensity and the kiddy-pool
effect we described earlier in this chapter. So, first focus on sell-
ing a low-priced product. Your experience with this will be the
most significant contributor to success with selling the business
opportunity.
There is an infinite supply of people. Look around, they’re
everywhere. It’s actually hard to get away from them. Almost every-
one has enough money on hand to buy your low-priced item. Say-
ing “Would you like to buy one of these?” costs you nothing. Doing
so seems strange only if you have never done it before and have not
yet dealt with your terror about selling.
I (PL) quit my job in the computer business in the 1970s and
started teaching seminars. Before quitting I had had some part-time
success with the seminar business, but now that I was relying on it
for all my income, progress was very slow. My selling skills required
improvement. Realizing I needed something easier to sell (the
kiddy pool) as a training device, I hit on the idea of selling books. I
bought 10 copies each of my 5 favorite books from their respective
publishers at a discount and began offering them to my friends and
people I met. I typed up a price list of “Phil’s Favorite Books” with
descriptions.
“Here’s a list of my favorite books,” I would say. “Would you
please take a look? See if there is one that interests you.” That was
it. That was all I did at the outset. I was too scared to elaborate. Af-
ter some practice I improved. For example, I learned to offer two
books. When the customer chose one book, I would point to the
book most similar (or sometimes most different) from the one cho-
sen and say, “How about this one? I think you might like it, too. It is
about such-and-such.”
I learned two things from selling these books. First was that I
had allowed my fears to stop me from selling over and over in the
past. Second, there was really nothing to be afraid about. Some
people say yes and others say no. This realization trained my
What Will I Sell, Who Will My Customers Be? 217