Savvy Sponsoring

Got a Lousy Upline?

barry — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:50:57 +0000

Got a lousy upline? Sorry. That makes building your business hard. Really hard. That’s such a bummer.

If that’s your attitude your business is probably not giving you what you want. If you are what your upline is NOT, however, you are probably building a thriving business. (You are having more fun and learning a hell of a lot!)

Your choice. Complain if you like. Chances are really good though, you won’t like your results.

Take The Sting Out of NO

barry — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:02:13 +0000

No thanks I don’t want any more coffee. No thanks I don’t need any help right now. No thanks I don’t want any dessert. No thanks I don’t want to….

We say and hear NO all day every day and get along with that just fine. It is simply the way things are. Some people want more coffee, some don’t. Some people want help when they walk into a store and some want to browse alone. Some want dessert and others don’t. NO is simply a way of clarifying where we are and what we want – or don’t want – right at this moment.

I might want coffee later. I might want dessert next time (did you say warm chocolate soufflé?). And where is the salesperson when you want them?

NO is a state of mind. If you make yourself the most important part of everything, then if you wait tables you’ll go crying from the room when someone says NO to more coffee or nix the dessert. If you work retail you’ll be depressed at the end of the day from the ‘just looking’ folks. If you’re in network marketing and take every NO personally, then you’re most likely paralyzed and not working your business.

You put the sting in NO. And you can take it out. First, don’t take it personally. It’s not about you. It’s about them. (They just don’t want coffee.) Second, be prepared. Be-oh-so-well-prepared. Be clear about what you are going to say and you’ll feel good about your presentation. That by the way is the First Savvy Sponsoring Step to Making Money In Network Marketing. That alone should take care of most of your abhorrence of NO.

Once you’ve got a professional presentation it is pretty easy to turn on a healthy perspective and stop taking everything so personally. You can bolster that by learning a good easy way to turn that NO into a ‘maybe later.’ Try this on for size: “Would it be OK for me to get back in touch with you in a few months and let you know how it’s going for me and see if things have changed for you?” How tough is that? Not so very AND it works like a charm.

NO is a part of life. Your struggle with it is a choice … or not.

Got a Mess On That Desk

barry — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:52:27 +0000

I consider myself fairly organized. I have good systems in place to keep me organized. They keep me on track. If I tell you I’ll do something, you can count on it. If I run into trouble when working on something, I’ll let you know in plenty of time to make alternate arrangements. My systems prevent damage, much better than controlling it.

And then things go to the dogs. Like they did last week. Things had been creeping up for a little bit. You know, the mail starts to hang around in all the wrong places. My desk collects ‘things I need to do or look at.’ My poor computer chugs along with 15 to 18 windows open, plus at least a dozen documents open in Word and you can throw in a couple of pdf’s for good measure. It’s working very hard and very slowly…very…

And then the knot is my stomach starts. My memory begins to fail me. My head starts to spin as fast as my computer starts to slow way down…

And yet that said, I don’t go completely to the dogs. I’m still good at getting things out on time. My chaos doesn’t usually effect others. (That’s a huge no-no in my book.)

What saves the day? The secret is in the second sentence in the opening paragraph. I have good systems in place to keep me organized. Yes, yes I know I just told you that things were stacking up in all the wrong places and going to the dogs. But that’s about me falling off the wagon. The trick is, I have a wagon to fall off!

None of us are on top of our game all the time. Certainly, I’m not, and I pretty much think that I’m just like you. My problem, probably like yours, is I’m human. I don’t always cross that “T” and dot that “i”. I get busy and drop something on my desk, then something else, and then something else… I get busy and not ‘close out’ my day and week properly. Thus the overworked computer and stomach knot.

But here’s the difference between me and someone who lives with piles of paper, computer abuse and general organizational chaos, I have systems in place to use as soon as I realize I’ve fallen off the wagon. I have is a great map, a plan that keeps me on track – most of the time – and when I fall off the wagon helps me get myself straight again.

Although I do (still) create this kind of mess in my life, it no longer typical behavior. And the out of control times are fewer and fewer and shorter in duration. No longer does it take me days to get back on track. I can clean my desk, organize and shut down my computer (give it a breather) and cozy up to my calendar and get back on track in a couple of hours – and that’s if it’s bad! The days of boxes of stuff to ‘file’ and piles of follow up’s to sort through are gone. Gone. Thanks to Systems.

Want some help putting systems in place to get rid of that chaotic knot in your stomach? Yours for the asking. Join us for our complimentary coaching call how you get Raving Referrals. If you don’t get Raving Referrals (what is that you’re thinking, you don’t get referrals at all!) and don’t have a system in place to get referrals, click here to register for the call. Do yourself a huge favor too. Share this with your downline. The sanity you save may well be your own not to mention your business.

Get Raving Referrals

barry — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:53:02 +0000

How’s your Business Garden?

This is the fifth year we’ve been in our home in Nahant. The first year I ripped things out of the yard. No one had done anything for years. The yard was full of old half dead juniper bushes, a haven to spiders of every kind. There was a diseased, spindly tree right in the middle of the front yard. Not a terrific centerpiece. At the end of our first full summer here, I had a yard pretty much devoid of everything except empty flower beds and lousy lawn. But it was an improvement. And I got to know the ‘lay of land’.

I put a variety of bulbs in the yard for next spring and called it a year.

It’s a big yard and although the bulbs were pretty they looked pretty lost in all that flower bed and against the green grass backdrop. I started adding perennials. I wanted some ‘residual’ benefit for the work I’d done. The bulbs were an inspiration to keep going and get ‘paid again and again’ for what I’d done the season before. I added more bulbs – it seems the squirrels liked them too. Attrition was high. I was keeping maybe 1 out of every 3. My neighbors across the street said they didn’t plant bulbs because they didn’t work, the squirrels got them all. They laughed at me (kindly!) as I kept on planting. I was new here after all, what did I know?

I knew I really wanted those daffodils and tulips. I wasn’t sure who was trying to steal my dream garden, the squirrels or the neighbors. I kept planting. Each season I planted more bulbs and more perennials.

Critical Mass

I didn’t know this, but when you plant bulbs they multiply under the ground. They move around too. Lots. This year there are enough bulbs for the squirrels and the yard. Those bulbs did their thing and multiplied just like a good, well trained and well looked after downline eventually does.

Are you willing to plant and plant again in your business even when the ‘neighbors’ laugh and tell you the squirrels will get them all? I know it works in business and now I know it works in gardens.

It’s Bad News….Why?

barry — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 21:20:12 +0000

If you were to take a survey of your customers and 94% of them were satisfied with you, your service and your product what would you focus on? It may seem silly when it’s pointed out, but most of us much more likely to focus on the dissatisfied customer than we are on the satisfied ones. Who do you focus on?

Most of us naturally want to know why the 6% weren’t happy. We want to dig deeper and see what we can learn from them and how we can improve. But if we create our reality by what we focus on, the big questions becomes, “What could you learn from the 94%?” There’s an interesting question…

The whole approach is about looking at what’s working and doing more of that instead of looking at what our problems are and where we can improve. It’s a simple concept, a subtle one that ‘turns on its head’ some accepted business practices.

We’ve long been taught to learn from our mistakes. Certainly there’s value in that, but what about learning from our successes. What can we learn from what we do right? How to do more of it and achieve greater success.

It starts with the questions we ask of ourselves and of the organizations we’re part of. What would happen if we spend most of our time looking at what we did right? If it’s true that what we focus on at e x p a n d s then it makes sense that if we were to spend our time finding out why the 94% of our customers were happy we’d learn a lot more to do RIGHT.

Your perception creates your reality. How nice would your reality be if you were focusing on what you did right and did more if it? Wouldn’t you feel better about you and your business. Awareness is your friend. Really listen (really) to the questions you ask and the judgments you make. If you’re looking at what doesn’t work, what you perceive as wrong, or incorrect, or disagreeable, ask yourself what’s RIGHT in the situation. Can you find anything? What benefit(s) do you get from focusing on ‘right’ stuff rather than the wrong. How does it change the situation? Does it matter?

We think it matters if it facilitates you doing more right in your business for you and others. We think it matters if it just flat-out makes you feel better.

Harsh realities and what you can do

barry — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 22:48:32 +0000

Did you know that your focus actually creates your reality? Think about it for a minute. Let’s say you’re having a tough time recruiting. Where do you put your focus? Do you look for what’s wrong? What am I not doing. Do you place blame, “no one wants to work.” What happens when we do that? Often we make things (look) bigger. You know, making a mountain out of a mole hill. It seems that if we look at something long enough we actually can make it insurmountable, or at least it will feel that way. Is that the kind of reality you want to live with. Not me.

It isn’t surprising we do this. Historically the business approach is all about identifying what’s not working, analyzing it and then going after it to find a solution.

There is another way. What we focus on creates our reality (which is nothing more than how we feel about something). So why not focus on what we are doing RIGHT. Rather than looking for the problem and focusing our attention on that, why not look for what’s right (you’ll find that too if you look hard enough) and EXPAND it.

If someone comes on your team but doesn’t stay do you lament about what you did wrong? Do you want to know why they didn’t stay and work? Do you pay as much attention to those who are working? Probably not. Do you find out what you are doing right for them, or what they are doing right that enables them to stay in the game? We almost never ask them why they keep building. Surely they have run into some of the same kinds of issues the person who didn’t stay ran into. How come they are still on board?

Doesn’t it make better sense to look at what is working and do more of it? Imagine yourself in that kind of space right now. Think about how your reality feels if you’re focused on what’s working. If you’re working with and expanding things that do work, are you full of anxiety and worry? Probably not.

This is not about being Pollyanna-ish. But why not be grounded in things that are working and expand them rather than stuck in problems that inhibit forward movement? Take a moment to think about your team culture. What would it look like if this was the way you ran your network marketing business? Thinking about that for a bit ought to make for a nice day. How’s that for creating a pleasant reality?

Here’s a laugh at our expense

barry — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:40:42 +0000

Balance is something we strive for here at Savvy Sponsoring and coach that it’s a necessary ingredient to staying sane. When we say balance we are not conjuring up scales of equal times or ingredients throughout your day. We see balance being more about harmony, and flow. There are times however, when some areas of your business (and life) require more of a white water rush rather than flow.

How do you stay sane when your business simply requires a heartfelt, time intensive push? Clearly there is no way to change the entire direction of your day, focus your time on your business and stay sane if you ‘pretend’ that you’ll be able to get everything else done too.

Here’s what we do at Savvy:

(1) Decide how many days you need to focus fairly exclusively on the task at hand. It may be finishing up a promotion by your target date. Always a good thing to focus on. It may be getting a project completed that will serve your business really well.

That’s what prompted our push at Savvy. We’re coming to the end of completing our new website. It’s exciting and we’re ready (more than ready) to have it completed.

(2) Clear the decks so everyone knows that’s what you’re doing. If you ‘pull the plug’ on your typical day and not let everyone who is going to be affected know, you are courting chaos and potentially some hurt feelings.

(3) Get your calendar out and make sure you have your project laid out in front of you so you know exactly what you’re going to do during the time you have allotted. When you immerse yourself into a challenging calendar to get something accomplished, you are pushing yourself. You will get tired. You better have GREAT instructions for you to follow to keep yourself on track.

(4)Keep a sense of humor. Things will not go exactly as planned. You can either get upset or laugh out loud at whatever it is that thwarts your plans. If you keep your sense of humor it will be a lot easier to work around the issue. A lot easier. The video clip you watched .. we were filming that segment yet again, when the wind picked up the umbrella and gave it wings. It was laugh or cry.

Finally, at the end of your push, make sure you give yourself time to recover. Don’t think you’ll step right back into your regular routine when you’re finished. You’ve been burning the candle at both ends and now you deserve a break to refuel. Plan an easy day to recover, doing only what is absolutely necessary. That deserves repeating, only necessary, not what you’d like to accomplish. Giving yourself a break – just one day – will make a huge difference. You’ll come back to work ready to work and delighted with how you moved your project forward.

Put Your Heart on the Line

barry — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 03:48:23 +0000

This week I’ve been reminded over and over again where so many people get into trouble in the business presentation process. I know you’ve probably heard this many times before, but you really DO need to make your network marketing business presentation about them. All about them. Totally about them.
You do not need to bowl them over with your incredible success. If that were true, none of us would ever be able to build a business. None of us were making money when we first started. None of us.You do NOT need to bowl them over with the brilliance of your company, or your company’s product. That is not why they are in front of you.

They are in front of you to solve their issue, to get what they want – and they want you to assure them what you have can make that happen. Telling them about your company or your product is not going to assure them of anything.

How do you assure them?

You address their issue head-on. Network Marketing is all about you bridging your company’s opportunity to their reason for looking. You need to be driving your presentation to their need.

Working with a client (he’s a very successful entrepreneur, but relatively new to MLM) over just this issue, I asked him, “Why did you get involved in your network marketing company?” He told me he was an entrepreneur and driven by money and he wanted to create wealth. I don’t doubt these reasons, but I wanted to get to the emotional reason behind these desires.

I asked him, “What does ‘creating wealth’ look like for you, because it’s different for everybody.” (I didn’t in this conversation with my client, but I could also take the opportunity at this moment to share what ‘creating wealth’ might look like for me in a BRIEF two or three sentences and then ask the question again, “What does it look like for you?” That’s what conversations do, each person shares – there’s reciprocity.)

His answer was multifaceted but I thought this particular piece beautiful. It gave me huge insight into him and his heart. He said, “I want to be able to take care of my family in Africa.”

I asked him to ‘pretend’ for a moment that I was following up with him. I wanted him to see himself on the phone with me. In this scenario he is the potential business partner and has just looked at the company’s videos. Now I’m calling to follow up. Compare these two conversations. Which do you think resonates more deeply?

Hi Person-I’m-Following-Up-With, how are you this evening? Great. What did you enjoy about the presentation? Or… what did you think about the presentation? Or… What do you see for yourself? (These are typical default questions when following up.)

OK let’s change things up a bit. What do you think of this follow up scenario? You can listen to this short 30 second audio HERE if you want to hear what it sounds like.

Hi Person-I’m-Following-Up-With, how are you this evening. Great. Listen now that you’ve had a chance to watch the short video, I have a couple of questions for you. Now that you’ve seen the company is solid, you’ve seen how the pay plan works, and that there’s lots of money on the table. You’ve also had a chance to get to know me a bit. Can you see if the two of us put our heads together that you will be able to change the lives of every member of your family in Africa? Can you see if we work this together, the potential is there? That whatever the ticket is that you’d like to write for them you can. Are you ready to work with me?

Why does this scenario resonate more than the first one? Because it is completely directed to his desire.

Your Network Marketing business opportunity is all about helping someone reach a goal, solve an issue in short, make their lives better in some way. Speak to what it is that they want and offer your mentoring and your support to help them get there. If you do, you’ll build a team of excited, motivated entrepreneurs on the move to make changes in their lives and the lives of others.

Can You Cold Flow?

barry — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 03:03:40 +0000

If you’ve seen the Grand Canyon you’ve marveled at the power of moving water. It’s hard to imagine something you can run your hands through being able to carve away a solid rock. But it does.

Amy Posner coaches that if you make small efforts, but make them consistently over time, you can build a solid network marketing business. The key words are ‘consistent’ and ‘time.’ That’s what water has on its side when it carves away at the rock. It’s consistent and keeps going over time.

Recently I reached for my late Dad’s leather jacket. It was cold and I wanted comfort as well as warmth as I was taking Sami out for his evening walk. I was surprised when I touched the jacket and it just slid off the hanger. I was shocked at what the plastic hanger looked like.

This isn’t one of those flimsy thin round plastic hangers. It has weight, heft. This is a solid stocky plastic hanger molded into the shape of a suite jacket wooden hanger. Well it was once the shape of a wooden jacket hanger. The leather jacket had completely changed the shape of the hanger. Cold Flow, my engineer husband Tom called it. Here’s the definition of Cold Flow: Consistent “load” over time at temperatures within range.

If you’ve been around Savvy much you’ve heard Amy Posner talk about how consistent action over time is the way to build your business. Here’s the deal: the money making action you take in your business is the ‘load.’ The ‘temperature within range’ is your will as evidenced by your attitude and professionalism that you bring to your business.

Now, you know, you can bend your business to your will; apply the cold flow principles to your business and bend and shape your future!

Get Them to Call You

barry — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 01:47:25 +0000

Are you contacting a stranger every time you pick up the phone to call someone, regardless of how many times you’ve talked to them?

At the core of your business is the ability to follow up on the interest you’ve generated during your last conversation. If you begin anew in each conversation you are starting over each time. You are not directing your conversations. You are not building on them. What’s more, you’re not creating any depth in the relationship.

In short, every time you pick up the phone, you’re contacting a stranger regardless of how many times you’ve spoken (or calls you’ve made). You have nothing to build on.

Here’s the really sad sad news, your potential business partner or customer has nothing to build upon either. If they feel like a stranger to you, you feel like a stranger to them. People don’t do business with strangers.

People Don’t do Business with Strangers.

Taking good, no great, notes when you talk to someone and USING them to start off your next conversation makes everyone feel more comfortable. If they don’t answer the phone, a well directed reminder of WHY they were interested in your business opportunity on their voice mail can often bring someone back into the game.

On our call The Fortune is in the Follow Up, Mario asked, “Why should we call someone back if they don’t keep their appointment with us, after all we have a Million Dollar Business? Great question. No one wants to waste time.

However, follow up is a process not an event. Often it can take 3, 4 or 5 conversations before someone makes up their mind. It takes patience and strategy to create a working relationship with someone. If they’re not there when you call back but you’ve begun to build that relationship here’s what you’ve got.

You know something about them and why they are interested in your biz opportunity.
You now have the ‘emotional fuel’ to bring their attention back to what’s important to them in your quick and well structured voice mail.

Often someone isn’t there to answer the phone because they’ve forgotten, they’ve scared themselves or someone else has scared them. But if you feed back to them what they told you they wanted before they were focused on their fear, there is a great possibility you can reconnect the dots for them.

Yes, we do have a million dollar business opportunity. They don’t know that. Regardless of what you’ve told them, they don’t know that, not yet.

None of us choose to be afraid. We would all like to move past our fear and get on with our lives. A strategic follow up system geared toward learning about your person’s favorite subject, themselves, will give you the emotional fuel that may stop their fear cycle and restart their dream cycle.

An excellent follow up system ultimately benefits both you and the person you’re talking to. If you want to make your follow up easier on both you and them, strategically build your relationship with them. Be patient, and remember that follow up is a process not an event.

If you would like help and ideas to strength your follow up system, check out the Circle of Network Marketing Success: Module 3 – The Fortune is in the Follow UP. You’ll learn how to put 780 people in your pipeline, how to create an easy fool proof follow up system and with a Game Changer question how to turn every NO into a MAYBE. Plus much much more.