One of the first places I was introduced to when I moved to Chicago 30 years ago was the Maxwell Street Market. The place was an open-air flea market, with vendors lining the streets in a few square blocks of the South Side. It was raw and exotic, compared to what I was used to in Boston. And it was colorful, too, with blues musicians performing in vacant lots, greasy food touching flames in 55 gallon steel drums, and a United-Nations cast of characters roaming the streets. You may have seen a glimpse of this in the “Blues Brothers” movie.
With all of that raw commerce and entertainment, one thing I remember quite clearly, and often, is a chant that permeated every visit. It turns out to be one of my first lessons in marketing, and it came from a very unlikely source.
Wandering among the throng, there were several “independent operators” who hauled loads of almost anything saleable, approaching buyers with lines like “need a watch?” and “Tube socks here.” Some were shy, others brazen, but one tall black man had his whole act together. Over his shoulders was a load of bright white cloth, and in both hands he hand he held aloft a full-size draw-string heavy-duty brand-new laundry bag.
With a gleaming smile he called out, over and over, the one line which still shapes my copywriting: “You KNOW you NEED a LAUNDRY BAG!”
The line is pure music. It is direct, and speaks to a hungry crowd. It asks a question, but it’s a command which makes you think. Every time I heard him, I wondered, “Do I? Could I use one of those?” and then realized that he was selling those things all day long because everyone else was wondering if they needed a bag, too!
The experience stuck with me, and yesterday I remembered it as I was writing headlines for some new ads. You KNOW you NEED a NEW BUSINESS!
Scams, Schemes, Systems, Fraud and Pyramids! Anyone who has been in the network marketing industry for longer than a day has most likely run into an accusation of having been suckered into a scam. Defense against such claims of fraud and gullibility is useless, and can make the new recruit seem like he has joined a cult.
Network marketing scams and underhanded schemes are something I have not thought about much lately. When I started paying my bills with my commission checks, people suddenly stopped mentioning the word in my presence.
But a few days ago something happened which made me realize why the general populace have such a fun time throwing rotten eggs at our industry. Here’s what happened:
It was past lunch time. I was hungry. A buddy and I were driving past a little restaurant. Before I knew what I was doing, I said to my friend, “You hungry? Let’s stop for a burrito.”
His reaction, which was a little stronger than “No Way! That place stinks!” took me by surprise. He smirked and gave the place what we call a “Chicago Salute” as we drove on by.
I should have known better. You see, we had eaten there only a few weeks ago, and I thought it was Okay. Not great, but not exactly worthy of being black-listed. But I remembered that we were both disappointed by the place, and we each knew why.
Then I realized what the problem really was, and in a flash I saw an instant parallel to some people’s perception that the Network Marketing/MLM industry is full of schemes and scams. You see, when we had eaten there before, it was at the suggestion of a mutual friend.
Well, maybe suggestion is too weak a word to use here. Our friend gave the place a totally over-the top, glowing review. He painted an aromatic, three dimensional picture of the place. “The owners are friendly, the wait staff is hip and gorgeous, the furniture is all designer-made in high Spanish-Modern fashion, and the food is bountiful — presented in exotic arrangements worthy of an Iron-Chef rerun.” Oh yes, and “The burritos are as tender as cake, with the most delicious combination of ingredients to be found West of the Atlantic Ocean. All for Ten Dollars!”
Do you get my drift? We’re talking about burritos here. Even so, my buddy and I entered the establishment ready for a culinary treat. What we found, though, didn’t quite match up. The place was way too bright, with IKEA knock-off furniture and staff who seemed worn down from being perky. The food was a good value, but nothing “special.”
We left there with the realization that out mutual friend suffered from very limited dining experience, and poor taste buds, to boot.
As my buddy’s salute was lowered, I saw quite clearly why so many people have latched onto the MLM/Network Marketing Scam bandwagon. It is because the reality of working in the industry never matches the expectations of those who are introduced to it.
Over zealous presentations and slick, hyped-up marketing materials usually underplay the fact that success is achieved by both learning new skills and applying them daily. Couple that with the reality that most new recruits are not born entrepreneurs, and a situation is created where recruits claim the “business” does not “work” and that they were “duped” and “scammed.”
I will not defend recruiting tactics here. It is obvious that without a fresh supply of warm bodies the MLM industry would perish. However, I do fault anyone claiming “scam” when they should simply be admitting having made a business decision based on hope instead of reality, and that they failed at transitioning from a consumer (opportunity buyer) to an entrepreneur. And this fault is double when they justify their innocence by broadcasting a story of scam and fraud. Misery loves company, as they say.
After all, a burrito is a burrito, unless you were expecting it to be a cake. There’s no need to shoot the chef.
Sign in on this page to see a business which is not a piece of cake.
Have you ever wondered why so many people drop out of network marketing? I think I know the answer, and it may not be what you expect.
If you have engaged in prospecting and recruiting for an MLM/network marketing business, why did you do it? Was it for immediate profit from signing up new bodies, or to build a team so you could get residual income?
What happened to your downline? How many people dropped out once they got a whiff of work?
Did you ever get the residual income and stability you expected? Do you wonder why?
When prospecting, did you present materials (websites, DVDs, CDs, brochures, etc.) provided by your company? Did you give an exciting version of what it is like to be associated with the company, highlighting all the glowing benefits of distributorship? Was your pitch worthy of an infomercial?
Most companies give their representatives slick, commercial materials, and advise that the reps maintain an upbeat energy level when introducing the company. Newbies usually go too far in that aspect, and it’s easy for them to mask their inexperience by slipping into excited obnoxiousness.
Very few companies give realistic, behind-the-scene views of what it actually means to market their businesses effectively and succeed. And who can blame them? For MLMs to survive as businesses, there must be volume in both the numbers of representatives, and in product sales.
It is little wonder that network marketing companies mask the facts, and rely on constant recruitment rather than seeking out quality recruits. Since “populating the grid” is usually the goal, they appeal to everyone in an idealistic way, expecting that dropouts and attrition will be overcome by massive signups.
So why do new representatives drop out? I believe it is because of the unrealistic expectations set up by the companies and their sponsors.
Consider this: When was the last time you recruited a business professional or small business owner? Here I am talking about someone who has achieved success in a profession or small business, and is looking for another venture. Did any of them comment on the “hype” presented in your corporate materials? Did you adjust your presentation to talk about what it takes to actually operate in your business? Did you find that these prospects were less interested fancy lifestyle claims, and more interested in the security of operating a viable business?
Compare that presentation to the average one which tries to recruit people who have never before experienced either success or their own business. These prospects are presented with glitz and glam, and glowing reports of success. They are encouraged to see themselves reaping the benefits of operating a successful business, and that vision is never balanced with the less glamorous picture of the work it takes to get there. They are not sold a business. They are sold endorphins, emotions and dreams.
Given the two types of prospect, which one would you expect to drop out?
You most likely understand this point intuitively. MLM/network marketing reps drop out because they started in a business with unrealistic expectations.
It is a sinking feeling to watch your hard-built downline disintegrate. But what are you to do, if you absolutely need hundreds of signups to make a check? Your choices are simple: Either become a master recruiter and perfect your ability to appeal to peoples hopes and dreams, develop a way of signing up fewer but targeted leads, or find a new company which you can promote in a realistic fashion and does not require heavy recruiting.
“Under-promise and over-deliver” is a great motto to keep in mind when recruiting.
Jim Rohn, a motivational speaker whom I admired, died today.
His insights have inspired and guided generations of entrepreneurs.
Luckily for us, his words live on in recordings like the ones below.
Making money on the internet is an enigma to many newbie internet marketers. It has also proved difficult for seasoned business owners who attempt to apply their offline marketing experience to the new online media.
In both cases the confusion is rooted in the dominance of print media and television over the last half of the Twentieth Century. Offline media is dominated by advertising, and advertising has been the method of choice for disseminating marketing messages.
When the same messages are conveyed via Internet marketing, the effect is often less than desirable. Rather than attracting qualified customers, online advertising can become a source of “repulsion” marketing. As an example, one very effective albeit dubious advertising technique rampant among online network marketers is the use of the word “scam” coupled with the name of competitors. Similarly, many ads feature negative or sensational messages in an effort to draw attention.
Attraction marketing aficionados generally abhor the word “scam,” since it attracts paranoid and skeptical customers. Attraction Marketers also seldom use paid advertising at all, since its messages are often ignored by jaded online surfers. They have learned that it is difficult to make money on the Internet when customers pay no attention to the ads, and when the only prospects drawn to the ads are afraid or reluctant to spend the money they have.
As an alternative to online advertising, these Attraction Marketers have learned to harness the power of the information super-highway, using everything from videos to forums and a myriad of social media sites like Twitter and Face Book to get their marketing message across.
So what is an Attraction Marketing message? The very nature of the message is as exotic as the concept. Each marketer first defines who their ideal customer is, and then crafts an internet presence to attract that customer. As you can see from this definition, crafting an internet presence would be very difficult to achieve through advertising alone. That is why Attraction Marketers rely on other, more fluid messages which can be constructed via social media.
For example, an Attraction Marketer may decide that his ideal customer is a baby-boomer professional with a high income. To attract such professionals, the marketer could make videos on subjects which appeal to the target group, and also make a Face Book profile showing how the marketer himself has an affinity for the same things which his target group likes.
The secret to making money on the internet with attraction marketing techniques is to very subtly ask for the sale. This is what separates it from blatant advertising. Ninety-nine percent of attraction marketing efforts involve building rapport with the customer, and demonstrating that the marketer is worthy of respect. The other one percent is asking for the sale.
An attraction marketing training program for network marketers who want to make money on the Internet can be found at http://www.PrimaryBusinesses.Net
I just returned from two back-to-back marketing and financial education events at the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The first was an elite four-day, all inclusive wealth conference hosted by Wealth Masters International for their M2 members. It was four days of intense education on the economy and how we can amass wealth while most people are going down the tubes. And it had NOTHING to do with picking stocks or opening a brokerage account. Refreshing stuff, considering that I’m totally burned out on mainstream investing and following the greedy wall street deceivers.
Okay. Off the soapbox. Let’s just say that I know something you don’t know, unless you were there… or you have some very savvy connections.
The next event was a one day Internet marketing event for Carbon Copy Pro members. CCPro is an educational program which focuses on teaching small business owners how to market any product or company online. They are turning out some of the world’s best Internet marketers, including yours truly. (I am both a perpetual student of marketing and a trainer.)
Lena Bjorna is a member of my mastermind group. She has great style online and in person!
The information at these events was totally outstanding, but the best part of attending is getting to meet new associates, and being able to connect with old ones. Those of us who work online look forward to these events as a counterpoint to what can be a very solitary occupation, no matter how many tweets and phone calls we make throughout the day. Let’s face it, the energy of being face-to-face with someone is totally different than an instant message!
That said, here’s some photos of me and the people I spend the most “electronic” time with, masterminding on the phone and emailing and webinaring, etc. It’s always fabulous to be with them. If you’re an Internet marketer, I hope you have such a great group, too!
Justin Woolf, Anthony Busciglio are part of my mastermind group and Greg McMahon is a great buddy.
Todd and Cheryl Davis and Tom Johnson are new members of my WMI/CCPro team.
It's great to get together with Gregg Davison, but impossible to keep up with his hair style!
Brian Fanale is my best artist-friend in the group.
Kirk Patterson is a fun member of my mastermind group. We compared marketing techniques and tequila.
James Hickey is one of the first people I met at a CCPro event in Dallas. It's great to stay in touch!
Are You The Owner Of A Small Business? What happened when you last advertized in a newspaper? Did it get the results you expected, or not?
In many households, including mine (and maybe yours), newspapers are subscribed to out of habit and embedded tradition. However, most of the editions stack up unread and end up in the recycle bin, or in the fireplace.
There is no way, if you have been in business longer than a week, that you do not know about internet advertising. Have you ever tried it? Got any results?
As owner of several stores, my original thoughts on internet marketing all centered around having a great website. Eventually I had several. The shops had websites, but it seemed that only our existing customers visited them.
I had no idea how to drive traffic to the sites, and the professionals I consulted with only knew about web site design and advertising, not marketing.
You see, there is a huge difference between advertising and marketing.
What I learned is that having a great web site is a form of advertising. But it’s like advertising in the middle of a newspaper which is never opened. If no one goes there, what’s the sense?
It takes marketing to get new customers to your website.
If you advertise, and the business traffic doesn’t pick up, it’s time to learn about marketing or to hire an agency to handle the problem.
How’s traffic on your websites? Is anyone finding them? Have you considered hiring a professional internet marketing company to help out?
Before You Hire A Marketing Company To Handle Your Online Presence,
Ask Yourself A Few Questions:
1. How many thousands of dollars will you spend on marketing each year if you contract with an agency? (Not advertising, just marketing)
2. Do you know the difference between marketing and advertising?
3. Are you willing to trust the future growth of your business to “professionals” who are not specialists in your industry?
4. If you do not market your business, what will happen?
5. How can you grow your business on a tight budget?
6. Are you willing to learn a new skill set which can easily save you thousands of dollars and get new customers for your business?
Internet marketing can be easily learned. It is not rocket science, and several online training courses are available for small business owners who want a do-it-yourself solution to promoting their businesses.
Why are many network marketers afraid of the internet? Working online could make their teams grow, right? So what’s the problem?
There are many network marketing companies to choose from. Most follow a multi-tiered compensation program, and are commonly referred to as MLMs. And, the majority build their teams using traditional methods, offline.
The reason for the focus on traditional prospecting techniques is obvious. The people who started the companies modeled them after companies which were already successful. It is the business model they are familiar with. It is their strength.
Until recently, there was no alternative to the tried-and-true traditional methods. There were no companies formed by internet marketers, simply because there was not a precedent.
However, that situation has now changed. Several new MLM companies have sprung up which operate exclusively on the internet. They are mavericks, but their training programs usually range from rudimentary to excellent. They are mostly strong on product, and weak on internet savvy.
But where does that leave network marketers who do not want to jump ship and join one of the newer online opportunities? Many of them are totally intimidated by online technology, so if they are looking for a change, it will most likely be a lateral shift into another traditional MLM. Others who are trying to find a way to market their traditional companies online, really have very few options.
The proliferation of self-professed gurus also confuses their choices for learning online marketing. Usually the gurus have set up shop, it seems, as a ruse to lure unsuspecting followers into a network marketing company they covertly endorse.
On the surface, the only choice for network marketers to succeed online is to jump ship and start over. However, a handful of new companies have emerged which provide expert online marketing training and a generic platform which can be adapted to any marketing company.
The new training-oriented generic marketing systems can remove the fear of online marketing. The best programs explain every step in terms which newcomers to online marketing can easily understand. They offer video tutorials, live training, and in-depth instructions.
The new training sites are a major opportunity for traditional network marketers to expand their lead generation efforts and move their team-building efforts to a new level in their current company.
Have you noticed that gold has been charting new territory, pushing to new heights in the past week?
This is happening while TV commentators are reporting that the recession is ending, the rain clouds are clearing, and we should be chilling the champagne for a happy days party. But as (Rich Dad ) Robert Kiyosaki’s Advisor Mike Maloney sees it, (and I agree) we should be out buying rain slickers, because the storm is only beginning to brew.
Unemployment is at its highest in nearly 30 years, and stocks, despite a bear market rally, are still sitting below what they were 10 years ago. Our budget deficits are at unbearable levels, and the government continues to write checks with your dollars.
And speaking of dollars, the dollar is nearing its lowest level ever, and the Federal Reserve Bank is doing its best to make sure that it continues going down.
Consider this: Dollars were once valued by gold. As a matter of fact, almost everything was once valued by gold, and correlations between gold and the value of a dollar still exist. As the value of dollars decline, the value of gold, and every other physical commodity, rises. That includes the value of stocks. If a stock is priced at $1000, and an ounce of Gold is at $1000, then gold increases by 10%, the stock should rise proportionately (assuming that nothing has changed in the underlying company).
So in this scenario, stocks could continue to rise in their dollar value, but in fact be worth exactly the same in terms of gold. Those who point to rising stocks as a sign of recovery may be missing the real reason stocks are going up. That reason is the declining dollar.
This is not a good thing for people who own neither gold nor stocks, and of the two, only gold will remain constant. As the dollar weakens, it will affect the underlying fundamentals of companies and industries. This will be the case as gold rises faster than stocks, or when it rises as stocks retreat.
The Dollar Is Near Historic Lows.
Mike Maloney reports: “With foreign governments clamoring for the end of the dollar as the de-facto world reserve currency, we have a currency crisis in the making. As a monetary historian, none of this surprises me. The US dollar is no different from any other fiat currency in history, and will continue plummeting until it reaches its intrinsic value—zero. And with so many economies attached to the US dollar and the US economy, this will be a global crisis. I have been predicting this since I began studying the markets in 2003, when I fired my family’s financial advisor and invested our net worth in gold and silver.”
Gold Rises as the Dollar Weakens
Be prepared for what is coming. Educate yourself now on how to best protect yourself and your family.
If you would like to know about Mike Maloney and learn about investing in gold and silver, CLICK HERE
For seventeen years I owned stores in the Chicago area. They were upscale home furnishing stores and art galleries.
You know, having businesses like that, I got used to selling things that cost a lot of money. The paintings I exhibited in the galleries sold for thousands of dollars. The furniture in my stores had high tickets, too.
I was used to getting money in larger chunks coming in every day of the week.
Have you gone on the internet looking for a high ticket program, or a high ticket business?
Are you looking for a business that you can do without having to amass inventory as with the furniture stores — where I had to warehouse it all?
How about a high-ticket business you can operate without employees? If so, reading to the end of this article can save you a lot of time.
Not only will you find a business which can be started for the price of a couch and two chairs, but you will find a business which can provide you with residual income, which is something which most brick-and-mortar stores never have.
This could be the answer to what you have been looking for, as it was for me.
When I first went online I was looking for something legitimate, as you are. I wanted something that could replace the income I had gotten used to from my stores, when they were operating at full strength.
Are you trying to find an online opportunity which can replace your income? How has the search been going?
I didn’t find it right away. Hours and days were spent stuck examining low-end deals which seemed tenuous at best. They were all flashy and aimed at unrefined first-timers. Quite frankly, they were hard to take seriously, since I thought they were trying to attract weak-minded simpletons. They didn’t hold any attraction for me at all.
Then eventually I found it. A sophisticated high end product line, no-nonsense training, and residual income to boot.
When you sign in below you will see how you can get residual income in a business online where you will not have to inventory product, entrust your sales to employees, pay exorbitant rents, or suffer from territorial restrictions.
You will be taught to market your new business to a geographic area which includes the entire English-speaking world! And best of all, if you have already experienced the heavy capital investment needed in most traditional businesses, you will find this high-ticket program refreshingly light on your wallet.
Sign in below to see the preliminary business presentation.
My time is very limited and I only work with a select group of people. To make sure I only work with people who are serious about their financial future, I only answer questions from applicants. Please fill out the application to work with me.
