 MLM
Woman Issue 124
May 2007
From the Desk of the Editor
Welcome to the 124th edition of the MLM Woman Newsletter! This
month we feature 5 more articles from successful and savvy women
entrepreneurs who generously share their knowledge with you.
If you enjoy this month's issue, please be sure to let your
friends know about it too and invite them to come and visit us.
Also, if you have comments, questions or something to share
after reading this month's articles, please visit our MLMTalk
Discussion Forum and join in the lively conversation!
And also be sure to check out our new MLM
Marketing Blog for lots of additional tips and resources which
are added throughout the month.
Yours in Success!
Linda Locke, Editor MLM Woman
 10
Commitments for Your MLM Business
By Jackie Ulmer
1. Have Fun! This is seldom mentioned
in your business but let’s face it – this is a volunteer
business. In the beginning, you get paid very little for putting
in lots of effort. Over time, you get paid a tremendous amount
for not so much time. At all times, and especially in those
early days, make sure you are in a business you can have fun
with. Have fun with the Product; Have fun with the People
and Have Fun Growing Yourself.
2. Be Your Own Best Customer. Be a product
of your product and know it inside and out. Develop a story
to share with others on the your personal product use. Instill
confidence in your customers and potential business partners
through your product knowledge and passion. Buy everything
you possibly can from your own “store.” Replace
any competing products in your home with your own product
line.
3. Understand the personal growth curve.
Personal growth comes in many forms in this business. It can
be in developing belief in yourself that you can do it. It
can also be developing belief in the Network Marketing industry.
Consult with your upline on steps you might take to develop
yourself. Ask for a recommended reading list. Also, understand
that there is often a growth curve in simply growing your
income beyond whatever your highest income level achieved
previously might be. Go with the flow and allow the process
to unfold.
4. Take on some form of weekly accountability,
whether with yourself, your sponsor or someone you can relate
to. Set your goals at the beginning of the week around
action steps you can take to move forward in your business.
Use a chart to set the goals and then mark off accomplished
steps. At the end of the week, match up your steps with your
goals. Reward yourself for all of the positives and revisit
the negatives and decide on some methods for improvement.
5. Be aware of obstacles that you create.
These may include – Fear, Procrastination, “Busy”
work. Instead of pretending these don’t exist, take a
look at them. When a feeling creeps in that is unwanted, instead
of brushing it off, have a conversation with it. Silly though
it may sound, being lighthearted about it can put you in a
place of feeling empowered instead of disempowered. Ask the
feeling to go away if it has no intention of moving you forward.
6. Find some mentors. These can be upline,
crossline or in a completely different company. There are
many great leaders in the industry who started out just like
you and are happy to share some tips and ideas. Just look
around. Find someone who has like values as you, and a similar
style of working the business. Model their action steps and
watch what happens.
7. Write down your goals. Yes, this means
YOU! Success starts with first seeing it in your mind, then
on paper and then making it a reality. Start with goals that
you can control such as action steps you will commit to taking
daily and weekly. It can be challenging to set income goals
in the very beginning, so set goals that are realistic and
that you can control. Accomplish those and then write down
some more!
8. Commit to a schedule for working your
business. Yes, I know this can be challenging with work,
family, and the many other commitments that consume our time.
But, if you don’t make time for your business, how is
the business ever going to really work and create what you
really want? It won’t happen without your commitment
to it. Again, be realistic. If you have only 5 hours, make
the most of those 5 hours and don’t concern yourself
with the fact that it isn’t 10. Create some success and
you’ll be amazed at how more time will open up.
9. Tune out negative outside influences.
Just like those obstacles mentioned above, these do nothing
to serve you positively. Some people are not going to be interested
in your product or your business, and still others are going
to tell you that you are crazy for doing this. Sometimes,
it may be the person closest to you. Decide right now if you
are truly committed to your own success in this endeavor and
then refuse to listen to what anyone else feels compelled
to say or share. Pretend that it is none of your business!
Because, it isn’t!
10. Have belief in YOU. YOU are the most
positive asset you have in this business. And, you control
YOU. Decide to be the type of person others attract to and
want to work with. Decide to be the best you can be each day
in your business and decide that each day you will get better
and better. Believe that if it has happened for one, it can
happen for you. Just as you believe that the sun that is setting
today is going to rise again tomorrow, shining a bright light
on you and your journey!
About the Author
Jackie Ulmer, a veteran Home Based Business Owner, has coached
and trained thousands of representatives both inside and outside
of her sales organization. One of her primary goals is to
help others succeed. She can be reached through her web site
at: http://www.streetsmartwealth.com/
 Follow
Up Focus
By Diane Helbig
How effective
is your follow up? Do you follow up? So many businesspeople
and salespeople fail to follow up with prospects, clients,
and associates. However, follow up is a critical part of business
existence and growth.
Many people tell me they just don’t have
time to follow up. I submit they don’t have time not
to follow up! The key to successful follow up is developing
a tracking system. Decide what methods you want to use for
touching the contact. This depends on results and desired
outcomes.
The Sales Process:
When you are selling, your follow up can be
the difference between getting the sale or not. Think about
it – what is the point of making the initial contact
(cold call or introductory letter) if you aren’t going
to follow up with a phone call? Why bother? Do you really
think the prospect is going to call you? Sometimes they do.
More often than not, they don’t. You’re the salesperson.
It’s up to you to show the prospect that their business
is important to you. There are several ways you can stay in
contact with prospects: calling, emailing, sending snippets
of information you think might be of interest to them. Establish
a program and stick to it. Like any habit, it gets easier
once fully adopted.
New acquaintances:
When you meet someone at a networking event,
luncheon, seminar, etc., ask them for their business card
and follow up with them. Sometimes just a handwritten note
is sufficient. Depending on who they are and the conversation
you had with them, you might want to drop them a note and
suggest a future meeting. Once again, you’ll have to
follow up on the suggestion. Don’t wait for them to call
you up. They might, but if it’s important to you to develop
a relationship with them – prove it. Call them.
Old acquaintances:
Have you ever run into someone you knew in the
past but for some reason you had lost contact with them? Whether
they are someone you want to establish a current relationship
with or not, send them a handwritten note telling them how
nice it was to see them. If you have no interest in pursuing
a relationship, wish them well. If you do want to keep in
touch, suggest a meeting. And again, follow up on the suggestion.
Clients:
Some people are in constant contact with their
clients so follow up may seem unnecessary. I submit that everyone
should be following up with their clients on a regular basis.
This can take the form of a survey, a drop-in, a note thanking
them for their continued business and support, a small gift,
and so on. Choose one or more methods depending on your client
base, and establish the routine to make sure it happens.
Everyone likes to feel appreciated and important.
By taking the time to follow up, you are letting the people
you know and meet, that you value them. It’s so simple
and yet can yield huge results.
Copyright © 2007 Seize This
Day Coaching
About the Author
Diane Helbig is a Professional Coach, and the president
of Seize This Day Coaching. She works one-on-one and in groups
with small business owners, entrepreneurs, and salespeople
to help them create successful business development strategies.
As a team, they embrace the possibilities. Visit Diane's website
at http://www.seizethisdaycoaching.com
and her blog at http://www.seizethisdaycoaching.blogspot.com
 How
to Master the
Art of Self Promotion
By Liz Pabon
You simply have to have the will to do it--the
will to self promote!
Over the years coaching with small business
entrepreneurs, I find they often come to me with innate skills
and ability, a vision of what they want, and a fairly clear
picture of whom they will serve.
Some succeed, but for many their dream business
seems to lose steam and die on the vine.
Why?
Failure to launch!
Follow these three tips to help you kick your
self-promotion into high gear. If you're already a great self-promoter,
take these as reminders of the basics to follow:
1. Before any meeting, networking event, or
before you prepare any new Marketing collateral answer these
questions:
* Why me? In other words, why should someone
choose you over the many other options in your category?
* Why now? Are you providing a compelling reason
to have your audience take action today? If not, what is a
good reason for them to engage with you now.
2. Call everyone you know:
Share with them what you're doing and your value
proposition (your unique selling point). Don't be shy. Leveraging
the relationships you already have is an effective way to
get your promotional ball rolling.
Self-promotion is not obnoxious or rude - it
is all in your delivery. It is however a NECESSITY in business.
If you are on the shy side and don't want to
pick up the phone, zip off a quick letter describing your
unique selling point. In that letter you'll want to:
* Ask if they have any need for your product
or service.
* Get referrals! Ask who they know that has
a need for your product or service.
* Ask them to make an introduction on your
behalf before you get in touch with their referrals to you.
3. Network with a clear purpose:
There are many ways to look at networking. My
hope for you is that you choose to view networking as a simple,
cost-effective way to promote your unique brand!
While we generally think of networking as it
relates to our business, it is also a great way to make personal
connections and grow your sphere of influence in general.
You can network at targeted associations and
lead groups, or network with or through contacts and raving
fans. Just get out there and network and remember:
* Dress to impress - what you put on your back
is your personal packaging so give it some thought.
* Have a compelling elevator speech - if you
can't articulate what you do then who can?
* Ask LOTS of questions and LISTEN for the
answers - this is the starting point for establishing relationships.
* Follow proper networking etiquette - handing
out your business card or promotional items without being
asked makes you appear self-serving. Savvy networkers know
that it's not about you...it's all about them.
* Include a personal touch by hand writing
thank-you cards to everyone you meet within five days of meeting
them - while you are still fresh in their minds.
* Be FEARLESS!
If you're wondering if the ability to self-promote
is something you're born with the answer is NO!
The skills towards becoming a master self-promoter
is learned, the "will" to achieve wild success however,
is quite another thing.
Not everyone has the "will," the ability
to "focus," and the "desire" to do what
it takes to create opportunities where business can boom.
It's just that simple. But by following some simple steps,
you can take a great number of steps down the path to successful
self- promotion.
©2007, Liz Pabon. All rights
reserved.
About the Author
Liz Pabon, “The Branding Maven,” is inspiring, motivating
and empowering - but most importantly, she’s effective.
A speaker and author on the topic of personal branding, Liz
delivers insights and principles that are proven to achieve
WILD SUCCESS. Liz publishes the weekly Keys 2 Wild Success!
ezine. If you're ready to ATTRACT amazing clients, set yourself
APART from the pack, make a lot more MONEY, and have a lot
more FUN in your small business, get Liz’s FREE WEEKLY
TIPS by going NOW to http://www.thebrandingmaven.com!
 Network
Marketing Business -
What's Your Color?
By Brenda Bunney
In the network marketing
business, all colors are awesome! Most of us will be a blend of
two or more personality colors, but one will be dominant. I have
learned that it is great to have multiple personalities, so to
speak. We are a little more balanced when working our network
marketing business.
Do you want to be sure you are having fun working
in your network marketing business? Is it easy for you to make
friends and are you the life of the party? You may be predominately
Blue.
Maybe you are a Green.
If you were looking at a new network marketing company, would
you insist on reading all their product literature and figuring
out how many people you will need to make $10,000 per month before
making any decisions?
Business is business. A red does not want to spend
valuable time visiting about John’s personal life. Time is
money! Making small chit chat about the family is not your cup
of tea. There might be some Red in your blood.
You want to send your parents on a dream vacation.
There are three kittens and two puppies living with you now because
they have no home. One of your goals is to be able to give to
your favorite orphanage. You’re probably a Yellow.
Learning to recognize the color personality quickly
is essential in creating a strong relationship with your prospect.
You may have only one chance to create a bond with a new prospect.
When the Green hears the Blue’s lively tale
of how much fun they are having, the only thing the Green wants
are the product ingredients, product benefits, and facts and figures
to back everything up.
The Red’s will aggressively pursue their chosen
network marketing business with gusto and will not stop until
they succeed or die trying.
Have you found your color personality yet? Recognizing
the color personality quickly is essential in creating a strong
relationship with your prospect. Gain insight to the network marketing
business through the simple use of colors.
About The Author
Brenda Bunney is married with two children. She is a successful
network marketer who believes anyone can be successful with the
proper tools and mentoring. She enjoys helping others empower
themselves with the network marketing skills they need to build
a successful business. Visit Brenda's web sites at: http://MLMSuccessBunney.com
and http://BrendaBunneyMLM.com
 Watch
Your Language or You'll Be Watching Your Customers' Backs as They
Walk Away!
By Christine Anne Sutherland
Linguistic Giveaways!
We experience the world only through our senses. If we didn’t
see, hear, taste, smell, touch or feel any physical sensation, we
would have 100% sensory deprivation and would have no experience
of the world whatsoever. In fact we would probably die, because
there would be no physical feedback telling our brain to make our
heart beat with a certain rhythm, or telling our lungs that they
needed to fill.
So for us, “reality” is based firmly on what our physical
senses tell us because we can only know the world through the senses
we use to experience it. Whenever we attempt to describe our reality
(i.e., communicate, even to ourselves) we display the senses we
have used to process our experience, via the very words we select.
These words are called predicates, and are the linguistic cues
which alert us to which representational system someone is using.
It can be most helpful to recognise and pace these in order to build
and maintain rapport, and in fact if you do not pace these you may
find your client or colleague has difficulty in trusting you or
even understanding you.
Take a look at the lists of predicates below and notice how easily
you can now understand how language betrays someone’s internal
processing!
Visual Predicates: see, look, appear, view, show, illuminate,
clear, focus, imagine, picture, catch a glimpse of, dim view, get
a perspective on, eye to eye, in light of, make a scene, mind's
eye, pretty as a picture, showing off, take a peek, well defined,
vivid clarity
Auditory Predicates: hear, listen, sound, make music, tell,
harmonise, tune in/out, be all ears, rings a bell, silence, resonate,
deaf, overtones, attune, outspoken, clear as a bell, call on, clearly
expressed, describe in detail, earful, give me your ear, word for
word, orchestrate
Kinaesthetic Predicates: feel, touch, grasp, get hold of,
slip through, catch on, tap into, make contact, throw out, turn
around, hard, concrete, get a handle on, touch base, boils down
to, come to grips with, connect with, cool/calm/collected, firm
foundations, get a load of this, get in touch with, slipped my mind,
hand in hand
You might also from time to time hear some predicates which could
be described as gustatory or olfactory: yummy, leaves a bad taste,
tasteful, tasteless, stinks, soft buttery fabric, peachy! Most NLPers
tend to lump these together with kinaesthetic predicates.
Some words don’t seem to be attributable to any particular
representational system: consider, think about, believe, calculate
etc. This type of language is often used in technical or academic
reporting and is considered to be “auditory digital”.
Clash of the Predicates
Because we generally have a preference for using one particular
sensory system to process our “reality” it logically follows
that our language predicates will be from that same sensory system.
Thus someone might have a preponderance of visual predicates, while
someone else might have mostly auditory predicates.
If we fail to recognise that, and fail to adapt our own language
to suit the person we’re communicating with, we risk not being
understood, but more importantly, we risk that person feeling that
we don’t understand them!
Check this scenario:
Customer: I can see difficulties with this. I just can’t
picture it working.
Salesperson: Let's walk through the specifications again
and maybe you can get a better handle on the way it would work.
Compared with this scenario:
Customer: I can see difficulties with this. I just can’t
picture it working.
Salesperson: Let’s take a look at the specifications
again and see if we can get some clarity on how it would look to
you if it did work.
The following exercises are designed to help build an awareness
of the language predicates that people use, as well as a high level
of skill in adapting your own language to theirs.
Exercise - Heightened Awareness of Predicates and Breathing
Cues
Breathing cues can alert us to the type of sensory representational
systems (V, A, K: visual, auditory, kinaesthetic) a person is using.
When a person is breathing high in the chest (see shoulders moving)
then they may be processing pictorially. When a person is breathing
mid chest (abdomen not moving) they may be processing auditorially.
When a person is breathing fully (abdomen moving in and out) they
may be processing kinaesthetically.
In groups of 3 or more, A talks to B about a situation, and every
time A uses a predicate, B raises his/her hand, breathes in a V,
A or K way, and names the word to which he/she was responding and
which representational system he/she was modelling. C observes and
comments on accuracy.
Exercise - Gaining Facility in Switching to Other People’s
Language
In writing, describe the same sales proposal 3 times, using first
visual, then auditory, then kinaesthetic predicates. Take about
4 lines of writing each time.
What sensory preference do you think you have? Hint: In
the sentence work above, one of the sentences may have seemed very
easy, and the others more difficult.
Be more aware of your clients’ language, and adapt your own
appropriately, and you’ll greatly influence the quality of
the connections that you make.
About the Author
Christine Sutherland is the author of "Take Your Team to
the Top" and the founder of My Speed Business Network, a free
Web 2.0 community which helps business and sales professionals to
develop better business development strategies. You can read more
of Christine's articles on http://www.speedbusinessnetworking.com
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Copyright 2007,
Regent Press
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