In our Network Marketing, what if we took the emphasis away from "show the plan, show the plan, show the plan," and instead invested our money and time into the reps that we have right now?
What if we focused on developing the skills and talents of our existing members? What if our meetings were designed around their needs? What if we mobilized our efforts around ensuring that each business partner traverse the promotional path, one step at a time? We would make sure they understood the products and compensation plan, got the points they needed at just the right time, received professional and personal development advice from true subject matter experts.
What if we operated with an accurate understanding of the pulse of our entire team? Are the leaders truly respected? Are we putting our best presenters on the platform? Are the meetings designed so that Joe Average would want to be there, even on a bad day?
What is our value proposition? Do our business partners feel valued and respected?
There is a gigantic income side to the Network Marketing business. But there is also a huge cost side, that rarely gets addressed. One of the major costs in this business, is that of what we call training. The average people in Network Marketing do not have enough money, yet, to take all the "training" that is offered to the reps. And there are many built-in costs that we do not even think about.
In Smart Business magazine, May 2002, pp 64 - 70, Eamon Hickey shares some information about the smart use of the Internet in employee training (New Tricks).
Looking at the costs of training 500 employees at a two-day off-site workshop, versus using the Web smartly to achieve the same results, Hickey estimates a $4 million savings when using the Web. Thats right, four million dollars. (Email me if you would like to see the itemized breakdown).
His figures include $500 for the design and development of the course content. I can assure you that I have never, in thirty years of experience with MLMs, ever, received training that was worth $500.
Hickey lists five reasons to use "E-learning":
1) Slash costs mostly on travel and lost productivity.
2) Shorten the learning process, with travel and scheduling conflicts removed from the equation.
3) Extend your reach. You can make sure that more people receive the training (especially those that cannot afford to travel), and they all get the same training.
4) Train more, more often. We can develop training on any topic, and deliver it real-time, when the reps need it. (How about a curriculum that includes separate modules on prospecting, effective teamwork, leadership development, how to close, presentation skills, time management, competitive selling, continuous improvement, product knowledge, understanding the compensation plan, etc., etc.?)
5) Make money. Of course, a good program, developed expertly and with identifiable business-oriented outcomes, will be of great value to others.
Now, notice that we will not charge our own team for this training. We will use revenues from selling the program to other teams, to continue building our team.
The paradox is, that a team of people that are receiving continuous investment in time and dollars, to develop their skills in a wide array of areas, will be more loyal to their team. Their enthusiasm would be genuine, not forced or phony. They would have something to show for their membership in our MLM, before they make one cent in it.
The long run benefits are incalculable. We are building a world-class organization, that others will want to be a part of.
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2 comments:
One of the things that is missing from the current plan is some kind of "calculator" that can provide various options for earning some dollar figure per month.
I have to admit that I was very uneasy when no one could answer the question: "what would I need to do to make $1000 per month?" When no one could provide that information, I thought "OK, this is the scam part of it; it is really hard to earn even $1000 per month."
If we want to use technology, we should have something like a calculator to put in front of people instead of these silly DVDs.
Good point. You may be talking about providing what is called a "Payoff Analysis" for people. People want to know what they are buying. Professional investors will spend years studying the market, and trends. We can provide a graph that shows an expected income per total number of reps. Or another one that shows expected growth of your business, based on how many hours you put into it.
There are many excellent decision models out there, that we could use to give people some clear indication of what expected outputs in terms of money, given various levels of inputs (time, money, etc.)
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