Tim Melanson

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If you are as frustrated with SPAM as I am, then you might be able to relate to this post.

I’ve been moderating a myspace forum for quite some time now, and I am constantly being bombarded by various spam messages. Most of them are just flat out “best opportunity in the world, act now!” spam. However, every once in a while I get some very bizarre stuff. The forum is pro-MLM and is a training forum to help people build their Network Marketing business… so you can imagine my surprise when I get a message claiming that their “opportunity” is not MLM.

Here’s how I responded:

I’m always amazed by the scripts that people use to promote their deals.“No Selling”, “No Hype”, “Not MLM”, “Not a pyramid”.

Come on people, who are you targeting? Are you seriously looking for people who are into that kind of pitch? What are they going to bring to your business?

How do you expect to succeed if you are recruiting people who;
- Don’t want to Sell
- Don’t want to invest anything
- Think everything is “Too Good to be True”
- Aren’t educated enough to know the difference between a legitimate MLM and a pyramid

If you want to make money in your deal, you really need to seek help. Find someone who knows what they are doing and allow them to teach you how to market for people who are LOOKING FOR YOU!!!!

There are plenty of people who are interested in what you have to offer (assuming it’s legit), so stop trying to recruit the deadbeats and look for some serious people!

If you are using a similar script to promote your business, you might want to reconsider. The idea is to find qualified people… or better yet, to allow qualified people to find you.

Just something to think about.

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I recently attended a local presentation for my Network Marketing business. I’d been to dozens of these events before, and I knew the speakers very well. I had no doubt that it would be a great presentation. They were informative and entertaining and, on more than one occasion, the entire room erupted in laughter. Of course at the end of the event, the speaker said, “Don’t you wish you had invited more people to this presentation?”

I was one of the few people in the room who had actually invited a guest to this presentation… Actually, let me clarify. I was one of the only people in the room who’s guest actually showed up for the presentation. After the presentation was done, my guest spent the entire ride home thanking me for inviting him. He told me that throughout the presentation his mind was just racing. Thinking about all the possibilities for him. I knew that he’d react that way… After all…. That’s why I invited him.

While speaking with some of those in the room who were unable to successfully bring a guest to the presentation, it dawned on me what was going wrong.

People weren’t selling the event! They were trying to sell the product/business opportunity.

The proper way to sell anything is to get all the information in front of your prospect or don’t give any information at all. That way your prospect can make an informed decision. It doesn’t matter what you are selling, this rule rings true. If a prospect only has part of the story they will not be properly equipped to make a decision and everyone loses.

The reason that Network Marketing works so well (when it is done right) is because the duplication systems require that a prospect get the information from a sales tool instead of from the distributor. This takes the pressure off of the distributor and allows the prospect to make an informed decision.

The problem is that distributors don’t do it right. They get on the phone and start blabbing about all the features of the program and talk themselves right out of the sale.

Consider this:

The objective of your call is to invite them to a presentation. If the presentation is the objective, then what are you doing talking about your product or business? You need to be talking about the presentation!

When I invited my guest to our recent event, I didn’t talk to him about our product. I didn’t talk about how much money he could make. I simply told him that I thought he could learn something from the event. I told him that we had a great trainer from out of town and that there would be a training session as well. I sold the EVENT!

So then… How do you sell an event?

Always keep this in mind whenever you are selling anything. People DO NOT CARE about features. All they care about is benefits.

Before you pick up the phone to call anyone and invite them to your presentation you must find out how it will benefit them. Here are possible benefits.

• What will they learn?
• Will it be entertaining?
• Can they meet someone there that will be useful to them?
• Are they interested in knowing what you are working on?

When I invited my guest, I knew that he was interested in starting a business. I knew that he was interested in meeting entrepreneurial people. However, most importantly, I knew that he’d be entertained! So that’s what I told him. The invitation lasted no longer that 1 minute.

One last closing note. If you don’t know how this presentation would benefit your prospect, then either you need to spend more time getting to know your prospect, or you need to find a better presentation. After all, if you can’t think of a reason why anyone would want to see your presentation then how can you sell its benefits.

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I was telling this story to a friend of mine last night about when my Dad first got started as a Distributor in my current Network Marketing company and he encouraged me to put it up here for your entertainment.

I’ve been doing Network Marketing for a few years now, and Freelife is not my first company.  When I first got started in the industry, my parents where extremely skeptical.  I got them to try lots of my products, but I don’t remember them buying anything.  Well, that all changed when I joined Freelife.  Himalayan Goji has a great reputation, and the story is quite remarkable, so they decided to try the “90 Day Challenge” (a 3 month 100% money back guarantee).  They got started with one of our free customer accounts and started drinking the recommended amount of Himalayan Goji Juice.

It didn’t take long before my Dad was noticing some very good results.  He was feeling much more energetic and he even mentioned that his knee pain was gone.  So a few months into it, my Dad was on a trip with some guys from work and somehow (he doesn’t quite remember how) Goji came up in conversation.  Well, I guess his friends were quite interested in how he was getting these results and were asking lots of questions.  Can you believe that my Dad actually just got all nervous and tried to change the subject?  Lol.

I can remember my reaction when he told me the story… I couldn’t believe that he had interested people asking questions and actually changed the subject.

Well… long story short, this same scenario happened with my Mom as well, and they eventually upgraded their free customer account to the “Marketing Executive” account for the $40 marketing kit fee.  They ended up enrolling 3 customers that month and earning an $80 check.

Just goes to show that when people really enjoy a product, you can’t help but tell others about it.

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I don’t know if you have heard the term “Diversify, Diversify, Diversify” as many times as I have, but I’ve been noticing more and more that diversification is not necessarily a good idea. I know that if we are talking about money and investing the financial planners of the world are always suggesting that we diversify our portfolios.

What is diversification and why are people suggesting it?
In the financial world we are encouraged to diversify in order to reduce the risk involved in building a portfolio. This is because not all classes of assets go up or down in value at the same time or at the same rate. By investing in different industries/companies we can reduce the likelihood of experiencing significant losses. In other words, we balance a portfolio so that the rises in one asset will cover the drops of the other.

At first I thought that this made perfect sense. I could insulate myself from market conditions by choosing a variety of industries in which to invest. Notice the word “insulate”. I’m basically just choosing a strategy that will work on it’s own over the long term and requires little knowledge of the financial markets, and absolutely no focus. I can just put my money there and it will most likely grow over the long term.

I use the money example to make a point. Diversification is a way to control a situation that you maintain little control over. It’s a way to reduce risk.

In marketing and business there’s a saying that I’ve heard used a number of times.

“When you try and be everything to everyone, you spread yourself so thin, that you end up being, nothing to no-one.”

In my humble opinion those who ask us to diversify our time and/or our money are interested in one thing. Our business.

People ask us to partner with them in their business to “diversify your income streams”. I’m not saying this is always a bad idea, but I do believe that it is something that we should all be aware of.

As a Network Marketer, I can’t count how many people have tried to recruit me into their deal by saying that “You don’t have to quit your current company, you are simply adding this to your portfolio.” I’m not so certain that they have my best interest in mind. Sure there can be times when another business could compliment what I’m already doing… However, we should not be adding new programs to diversify. We should be adding new programs in order to maintain and enhance our focus.

The truth of the matter is that what we focus on expands. What we take our focus away from will ultimately die.

Athletes know this, musicians know this, successful business people know this.

If you want to be average, then diversify. If you want to be extraordinary then focus!

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I can’t believe it. I was pleasantly surprised when Goji from the Himalayas was mentioned on Oprah the first time, so you can imagine my excitement when it happened for a second time (that I know of).

I was doing some work in my home office when my wife Michelle called out to me and said, “They just said Goji again.”

Very exciting news. This time Dr. Oz mentions Mangosteen as well. I really do think that proper nutrition is an important. Freelife and Xango are both excellent companies that each have a very high quality product containing Himalayan Goji and Mangosteen. Freelife promotes Himalayan Goji Juice and Xango promotes Mangosteen juice. Shaklee was also featured on Oprah very recently.

Here’s the link on Oprah.com.

Powered by ScribeFire.

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I’ve been doing a ton of research lately on newsletter campaigns and email marketing. One of the hot topics is “How to avoid the spam filters.” I’ve just recently found a great resource at Frugal Marketing.

I’m working very hard on creating a regular newsletter that I would like to link into my blog and I’m interested in the “etiquette” with respect to my current list of contacts.

The Frugal Marketing site states that you should NEVER send a newsletter out unsolicited, and suggests that you send a personal email up front to ask them to subscribe. I’d like to know if anyone has experience in transitioning contacts from one purpose/campaign to another.

One very interesting thing I found at that site is that subscribe and unsubscribe instructions actually lower your spam score. This means that you can increase your chances of getting past the spam filters and having your email read.

I’ve recently set up a GetResponse account. This is a fantastic contact management and email marketing tool. It has all the subscribe and unsubscribe instructions built in and it complies with all anti-spam laws. I think this is a really useful tool in order to ensure that your email achieves it’s purpose. They also have several newsletter templates that you can make use of and has built in “branding” features.

I’m interested in your feedback. Please comment if you have suggestions.

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Think about a few of the purchases that you’ve been most excited about. Let me ask you a question. Did you have to be sold on those purchases? Of course not. I remember when I bought my electric guitar. I knew exactly what I wanted. I had done the research, and I knew what I was looking for.

The truth is that people love to buy, but they hate to be sold. When a person gets “sold” they know it and it makes them feel horrible. Do you think that this new distributor is going to be effective under these conditions…. Of course not. The last thing they want is to make others feel that way as well.

It is clear to me that there is great confusion around the term “Marketing”. It’s not only people who are new to the Network Marketing industry that are confused, but even many experienced professionals.

I know you’ve heard it before… “Join now, no selling involved!”

Of course that’s not true… How can you generate any income if you aren’t selling anything?

Let me attempt to clarify what is meant by this… and how the majority of the people who are using this line, don’t even follow their own advice.

There is a major difference between Marketing and Selling. Marketing is the process of getting yourself out there. It’s about letting customers know that you have something to offer. I’ve seen it described as “relationship building”. I really like that description, because that is truly the best way to build a Network Marketing business. If you have a solid marketing plan then you should have people coming to you. Remember that you are only looking for people who are looking for your help. Now your objective is to show them how they can use your marketing plan to solve their problem… and they don’t even have to hound their friends and family to do it.

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I got published!!!

I’m extremely excited about this. I wrote an article on procrastination… just based on some of my experiences.

Check it out!

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I realize that this might go right over some people’s heads, but for those with experience in the industry of Direct Selling/Network Marketing you might be able to identify with this.

Really, I’m all about abundance. I want a company who’s product provides results quickly and is money back guaranteed. I’m looking for a company that is strong, stable and built to last. I want a compensation plan that is balanced with great up front income and plenty of residual income as well… and most importantly I want to work with top income earners.  Is that really too much to ask?

I’ve found all of those components in Freelife International.
1. 90 day 100% money back guarantee… try it for 3 months and return the empty bottles for a full refund minus the shipping cost. 69% of the sales of the product go to customers who do not promote the product. (Customer accounts are free and you get the product at the same price as distributors, Distributor accounts are $39.95 USD one time for your marketing kit)

2. The company is over 10 years old, debt free and is doubling in size every year. We operate in 24 countries and we are expanding into Germany, UK and Austria. The primary investor is investment banker guru from Morgan & Stanley, Anson Beard. All billion dollar Direct Selling companies have one thing in common. They are founded by former distributors. Both the co-founders of Freelife are former distributors, and Ray Faltinsky graduated second in his class from Yale Law School and wrote his thesis on the Direct Selling industry.

3. The compensation plan offers Customer Rebates, Fast Start Bonuses and Advancement Bonuses that provide tons of up front cash, as well as Matching Bonuses, 10-Level residual boneses, and Infinity bonuses that provide very substantial residual income. The company does a fantastic job at recognition including picture recognition, congratulations letters, pins, watches, contests and several free trips per year that can be earned. When you hit the Royal Ambassador title, you get to attend 6 trips per year, as well as you receive $5k per month to conduct training events (which are completely free to all distributors).

4. All 10 levels of my upline (including my sponsor) are Ambassador or above including 3 Royal Ambassadors. According to the published Freelife income statistics an Ambassador moves at least 200 cases per month and earns an average full time income of over $62,000 per year. A Royal Ambassador moves at least 1500 cases per month and earns an average of almost $600,000 per year. Talk about quality support for 3-way calls and presentations.

That’s why I’m excited, and I’ve just started to build another leg so I’m looking for some key people to help.

To Your Success!

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Those of you who follow my blog should know that I’m always looking for new income streams. The majority of my income (so far) comes from high tech, but I’m steadily increasing my other income streams and working to create passive income greater than my current expenses.

Something that I’ve been spending more and more time on is Internet Marketing. I recently came across a great free course that teaches some great techniques for email marketing. I highly suggest that you take this 7 lesson course for FREE! You just might learn something

You can subscribe right here.

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