Trust and Loyalty

This morning I was cleaning out some of my office folders that have notes in them from conferences and conventions that I have attended over the past months. I came across some notes from senior executives of a couple of billion dollar direct selling company’s.

 

The theme of the conference talks must have been trust and loyalty because all my notes have to do with reflecting on, thinking about, and remembering people in your life who you trusted and/or company’s you were loyal to.

 

As I reviewed my notes and contemplated their relevance to my life, months after the conference, there are a couple of seemingly important ideas that were shared, and so I will pass them along in hopes that someone else will benefit along with me.

 

Insight #1 – No matter whether it’s personal or corporate trust and loyalty, one important aspect of trust and loyalty seems to include the emotion of feeling. My notes refer to the words “I feel” over and over again. Statements like I feel like they know me, I feel like they care about me, I feel like I’m important to them, I feel like I’m special to them are repeated in almost every sessions notes.

 

So if we want to create trust with our friends, neighbors, colleagues, spouse, or anyone else it seems paramount to create a feeling of good will and that we are really there for them. This is very true from my personal experience coaching high school sports. Kids would do almost anything for me, because they knew that no matter what I cared for them, and always had their back.

 

Insight #2 – Listening and understanding are the key elements to building trust and loyalty. There is an interesting statement in my notes that says “focus on being interested, not interesting”. I can immediately tell when someone is interested in what I am saying or for that matter even hearing what I am saying.

 

The fastest turn off for me in any interaction is when I know that the other person is forming their response while I am talking. However, I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to talk to ANYONE who appears to be really listening to me.

 

So many people seem to have the need to be heard, or have the upper hand in a conversation, or be more knowledgeable, or be right that they seem to click on their auto-responder and either talk about themselves or spew some trite quip they heard or read in the media.

 

So I guess that my allegiance to people, community organizations, and the corporate world comes down to a few really basic things: being listened to with the intent to understand me, and to feel like I matter to the person I’m interacting with.

 

As the new year dawns, it has become my goal to engage others using the age old golden rule. The only way I will ever be listened to and understood, is if I listen and understand. So with only 50 weeks left in the year, I am committed to make a difference to the world by making others feel like they matter.

 

 

Retention

Have you ever seen someone get into networking with massive anticipation and excitement, only to have their un-realistic expectations dashed and then they quit? Let me tell you that this is more common than anyone would care to admit.Here is a classic example of what happens. Johnny calls his up-line and says, “I’m not going to the functions anymore,” which is code for I’m about to quit. Then the up-line whips out a whole list of questions to interrogate Johnny… you know… to find out what THEY are doing wrong. There are many ways to save people who are trying to quit. The most popular is the most ineffective. You can call the person and try to find out what they are discontented with. If they tell the truth you can begin to try to help them see the world in a different way.You can go through the list of all the things that they are supposed to be doing and point out the ones they are not doing and tell them that if they would just follow the program they would become successful. This has all the effectiveness of teaching a pig to sing. It frustrates the teacher and makes the pig mad. In the end you will not be one ounce closer to saving this person. Here’s why!There are at least three major problems with this approach, 1st) They probably won’t tell you the real reason they are dis-satisfied. What you are going to get is a set of excuses for why IT not THEM is not working and so they will not be open to your solutions no matter how much sense they might make, 2nd) They have spent significant time gathering evidence to support their position, and so they will have convinced themselves that based on experiences and facts that they are justified in quitting, and 3rd) And most importantly, they are in scarcity, negative conditioning, self doubt, dependence, expense, and fear rule. There is no way you can get them to be open to possibilities, recall and rededicate themselves to a life with purpose and abundance from scarcity, lack and want; it just can’t happen.These three perspectives carry massive negative emotional momentum. And in order to stem the tide, you need to move them to Bountiful. They need to experience success, experience goal achievement, experience job dropping income, experience abundance, and the only way you are going to get them there is by playing the game.During the game all of their concerns will come out. All of there reasons they are not succeeding will come to the surface and you won’t have to be the bad guy. The game will bring this right out. The game will help them connect the dots between their lack of success (no matter what it is) and what the problem is. And the best news of all is that the game will help them self correct at the same time it rewards them for doing the right things; at the same time it lets them experience success and emotional movement to a place of abundance.For you, the all knowing, all powerful OZ up-line, the teaching moment will be ever present. The game will give you the opportunity to teach at the appropriate times during the game. Remember, when you are playing a game, real conversation will occur, and all communication barriers go to zero. They will be open to discuss their experience of the business, and open to your teaching, open for real solutions that will not only keep them in the business, but get them on their feet again so that they can build the business with effectiveness.Using the Residual Income™ Game, the up-line could invite Johnny over to play the game and could have played for a few minutes and what ever his concerns were, what ever his questions or doubts were would have come out and he could have handled them and he would have been freed to begin again the journey to job dropping income!So lets recap quickly – You can go down the list of things they are supposed to be doing which will take about 45 minutes and never works but it makes the up-line guy feel better about having tried – Or – You can play the game and have a realistic chance of helping them to recover and succeed.If they have lost their focus, playing the game will help re-enroll them their dream and help them actually experience achieving it. If they don’t think they are making progress, the game will help them understand where they are in the success pattern.If they are having difficulty getting people in the business, playing the game will help them learn how to get people to a place of abundance so that they will make appropriate decisions.If they are having trouble setting goals, playing the game will help them make and achieve goals.Playing the game will help you create a success plan for achieving their goals. Only 3% of the population has a written set of goals. And of the 3% only a few have an actual plan of action to accomplish these goals. It is interesting that every successful person has written goals and a specific plan to reach them.Any concerns or problems that are keeping them from succeeding will come out during the game and the teaching moment will appear for you.Playing the game will allow them to associate with people who are accomplishing their dreams. Achieving some success.Most importantly, playing the game will re-establish your love and care for them. It will re-establish your relationship with them and after all is said and done it is this relationship that will keep them in and keep them going.INVITING SCRIPT
I would recommend that you invite them over to play the game just so you can re-kindle your relationship with them. I would call and ask them: “Do you remember the game we played when you first got in? I would like you to come over to play again this Saturday morning. We are going to have fun and prizes and I would really like to see you again. Can you come or would it be better to come to your house on another day?”Let the game do the work. Let the game do the teaching. Let the game help them to get it again. You will be the hero, and the game can introduce the challenging areas not you.

 

The Importance of Tools

The right tool at the right time is crucial to expanding your ability to reach more people faster.Teaching your group to use tools correctly is an accelerator to duplication. Remember that we never answer questions with answers, we answer questions with the means to get the answer. I.E. A web page, a tele-conference, a CD, or the Residual Income Game.Correctly using tools allows you to be in many places at once. Tools also remove you as the expert, with will give you the ability to stay out of the information path.The best possible tool that you could use would create an invironment where you build relationships with people, help understand their concerns/objections and at the same time help them make the connections between what they are already doing and what they would need to do to be successful in Networking.The Residual Income Game is the absolute best tool for this purpose. It will allow you to really talk to prospects about your products and services, explain your experience in your company, and help you prescribe the right book, CD, function, web site, or upline mentor to send them to if they still have some questions.If you sick and tired of being sick and tired. And you want your group to begin to take on some responsibility and get real results, then you must begin using the tools to the trade to make your life easier.Working hard is of course important. But working smart is much more effective.

 

Habits

Habits are the #1 difference between success and failure! Successful people are simply willing to do the things un-successful people are not willing to do.The first thing to do with respect to getting on the success path is to determine what you are and are not. You can do this by taking the PEP test (contact the author for a copy of this test). The test will help you to determine what YOU need to be successful: More: time, money, better: skills, attitude, knowledge, understanding of the tools at your disposal, or higher PEP’s?Once you have determined what you are lacking, DO THESE TWO THINGS:1) De-junk – Get rid of the messiness in your life. This can mean cleaning out the garage, car, bedroom, living room, den, or any other part of your physical life that is simply messy and un-organized.It also means that you need to get rid of things that distract from your goal of becoming successful. Successful people don’t let in-significant/non-productive things get in the way of their success.Turn off the T.V. temporarily retire from the softball/bowling/knitting league. “Emphasis” on the temporarily part of this sentence. When he leads his group to their greater causes and higher purposes then he can join softball, bowling, knitting or any other group or club he wants. Because he can!2) Create a few simple habits that will improve your skill, attitude, beliefs and knowledge. This is a three part process.A) Find a mentor and hitch your wagon to them and thier advise.B) Create a schedule that will support your goals. You need some time in your schedule each day to:
*read from a positive book,
*listen to an educational CD,
*meet someone new each day for the next 90 days
*show the business presentation 30 times each month
*get 3 new people to function each month
*Play Residual Income Game each week
*get rid of all the names on your current names list in the next 60 days

C) Create measurable milestones, and then take accountable action. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.

 The first milestones in any networking business are:*Get your products for free – this will usually require you to have 3-6 other people faithfully  using your products.
*Take the stage each month – make sure you know what you need to do each month to qualify to  go across the stage. This builds your confidence, and shows your team that you are doing what   it takes to lead the team & you are making progress.
*In 3 months get at least 1 new person on the stage and keep them there each month*In 3 months get 3 people getting their products for free and just like shampoo
  - repeat often for best results. 

 

Closing

The most important thing to remember in asking for thier business (CLOSING) is to let them tell you what their dissatisfied about. Get them talking. Get them to tell you about what their needs are.Stay in control of the conversation by asking questions. Don’t go into long features and benefits discussions about why you think the business is great for you OR why you think the business would be great for them. They will tell you exactly what to do and say to close them.Here is the success pattern for closing:
1) What did you like best about what you saw/heard
2) Tell me about that
3) How serious are you
4) What are you willing to do
5) This is what you gotta do in order to make the changes you talked about So John, what do like best about the business idea we just showed you?No matter what they say, ask them to elaborate. Say tell me more about that, or why does that excite you. For example: if they say – I love the way you can order products online and you don’t have to go to the store to get them – You say why does that excite you so much? What ever they say will give you the exact close.Don’t continue to sell them. They are already sold on the thing or things they just told you. Stay focused on the prospect – Ask them – How serious are you about that? Or how serious are you about changing your current circumstances? No matter what they say ask them to tell you more about that or ask them why they are serious about that. This allows you to evaluate whether you want to work with them and most of all, they are selling themselves. You are not the one doing the selling.When they get done telling you how and why they are serious – Say Okay John, this is how you can get started. You need to make your first order, sign up on autoship and get on the educational system which includes a business development seminar this weekend at the south town expo center here in SLC. The cost of the seminar is $20. You also will need to reserve a seat at the next training function. It costs $129 and will be in Reno NV. A bunch of us are traveling together, and if you would like to go with us your welcome to do so.If they object – Well that’s a lot of money or a lot of time or what ever. Ask them why they feel that way.If their push back is significant, then make sure that they get BDS tickets, get them on product autoship and the CD system. This allows them to buy from the top down. That is to say you have a place to back up to if they begin to object. If you start with well you need to go to the BDS and its $20 and they object, there really isn’t a place for you to go.If they object with how much time does it take. If it takes a lot of time, I don’t know whether I can do it or not. Answer with a question – how much time would be a lot of time to you john? Or how much time would you like to put in to this? LET THEM GIVE YOU THE AMOUNT OF TIME THEY FEEL THEY CAN SPEND. Then ask them if they are ready to make a commitment for that amount of time each week.No matter what their objection is, ask them what they mean by the objection. & follow up with how much or if they are ready to commit to doing that. This way its their idea, not yours!If all else fails ask them again – what they liked about the business.If they are a bit negative about the business, then ask them what they like most about the products and get them signed up as a customer with the idea that you can convert them to an associate later on.So john there are three different ways you can get the product, you can buy it from me tonight at a retail price, or you can get it from the company at a wholesale price or you can get it from the company at a wholesale price on a scheduled basis so that you wont have to worry about running out of it. Which is best for you?Recap:
1)What did you like best about what you saw/heard
2)Tell me about that
3)How serious are you
4)What are you willing to do
5)This is what you gotta do in order to make the changes you talked about Function promotion – John could I come to your job tomorrow and do it as well as you do? In order for you to become a professional in this business you need to learn from professionals. Don’t ever be afraid to help people know what they have to do to be successful.

 

Leroy Lee

Hey Clay! This information is very helpful to me. I hope it will cure my problems in successful contacting. i am going to share this information with my down line.
Thank you ever so much!!

ENTHUSIASTICALLY YOURS!!

LEROY LEE

 

Contacting

Everyone needs to be able to meet new people and start a conversation. Here are a couple of easy to use – universal scripts that you can use at the gas station, check-out line, restaurants, car lot or anywhere else you might be within 3 feet of someone else.First find out what the persons name is. I do this by introducing myself and saying I didn’t get thier name. “Hi my name is Clay, I didn’t get your name”.Script #1a – “Joe maybe you can help me, do you ever look at different ways of making or saving money”?Script #1b – “Joe I need your help, do you ever look at different ways of making or saving money”?The only difference in these two scripts is the introduction – I need your help and/or Maybe you can help me?Script #2 – “Joe maybe you can help me” or “Joe I need your help” and then continue with “I am expanding a business in this area and I am looking for a few people to put into leadership positions. Do you know anyone who is looking for a change or would like to make more money”?
90% of the time they will volunteer themselves as the person you are looking for. Tell them that you need about 30 minutes to talk to them. And make an appointment.8% of the time they will refer someone they know. Then you simply call the person they referred and tell them that you are expanding a business in this area and you were talking to Joe, and he said you might be interested. Make and appointment with them and go to work.About %2 of the time they will not have a clue what you have asked or are talking about. They will not recognize that opportunity has just knocked for them or their friends, family or colleagues. Quickly move on to another person, because this kind of person is
sucking the oxygen out of the room.

 

Wes Thompson

It is so true that answers are not usually duplicatable. It is always better to steer a question to a tool. Tools always give the same information and any person, no matter how new to the business, has access to the tool with the answer. The secret to this working is being sure that new people have access to the tools and that they realize how important they are for his or her success and how important it is for them to know which tool they should recommend.
Wes Thompson

 

Answering Questions

How do you answer any question you may be asked? First of all most people don’t really want to know what the answer is. They simply want to know that there IS an answer.Point 1: Don’t answer questions – If you answer questions, you put yourself in the flow of information. If you answer questions, you must teach your group to answer questions or you must be the source of information yourself. Either way, you build dependency on you as the fountain of information. If you are the source of information, you can never become free. Your team will only ever be able to grow as large as you can personally touch: About 150 people. Point 2: Ask high yielding questions like – That’s a great question Bob, tell me more about what you are looking for? or That’s a great question Mary, It so happens that Dr. Jones will be on a 20 minute conference call tomorrow night and will be talking about this very issue.Point 3: Direct people to information sources that make them responsible to get the information they are seeking. Tell them that a very clear explanation is on the web site, or in an on-line video. Make sure to tell them most people need about 15 minutes to read article or watch the video. And tell them you will call back in about 30 minutes to make sure that they were able to get the answer to their question.In each case you will want to make sure to follow-up with them to make sure that they were able to get the answer. Its very important to make sure that everyone in your group feels like they can do what you are doing.If you answer questions, you answer questions, people will feel like they will have to learn how to answer questions. And most people don’t want or like to answer questions.

 

How to Get People to Say Yes Every time.

Success is the progressive realization of a worth while dream! Everyone wants to be successful. Everyone wants to associate with successful people. People want to be around winners.

People will want to talk to you if it APPEARS that you are on a mission. That you really have something that could help them get where they want to be.People will pay attention to a boat, train or plane that is purposefully moving towards a specific destination. No matter how cool your product or service is, people don’t care about it. I know this might sound like blasphemy, but people really only want to know that it works and that it will work for them. And if its soaps, potions, lotions, juices or justice they don’t care and they will do it. However they need to know that you are dedicated enough to your passion that by following you they will get what they want.People don’t get into the biz for the products, they get in because of you! Because of who you are and where you are going, and your commitment to get there.SO – How do you get this kind of passion, and commitment. So much so that people get it without you even saying anything? Start living with real intent. Don’t say your committed to your business and future and then show up at the city softball league on Tuesday nights or the Wednesday night bowling league, or the weekly quilting and stamping gathering.Can you imagine Donald Trump or Bill Gates doing any of these things?
Here are some suggestions for you to consider:
• Be in business on purpose – what are your higher causes and greater purposes? What are you passionate about? You must learn to talk about it in detail in 30 seconds or less.
• Act like an investor not a parent – if you had investors in your business would you be doing the things you do each evening to build your business?
• Be income focused – At the end of your engagement, your prospect essentially has 3 choices. A) to do nothing, B) to become a customer, and C) to get in as an associate and build the biz with your assistance.2. You must become a student of the industry and your company. You must be able to talk about 3 features and/or benefits of your company or product in 30 seconds or less.
•Read at least 20 minutes each day
•Listen to a CD each and every day
•Attend your company’s functions – local, regional, national
•Study your company’s web-site and tool selection so that you will know where to guide people to when they begin to ask questions.3. You must learn to talk to people. You must become interested in them and listen to what they want.
• Meet at least 2 new people each day. Even if you don’t approach them about your business directly. Often they will ask you about what you do. Here is your chance to tell them in 20 seconds or less what you do.
• Ask people questions about themselves. They don’t care about you. They only really care about themselves. And they are dying to tell someone about how bad some circumstance in their life is – USE FORM to get people talking and then listen for what they are disgruntled about.
For example – I ask john at the gas station, what he does for a living “O”. He tells me that he works at the grocery store. I ask him how long he has worked there. He tells me for 3 years. I say wow you must really like it. He tells me yea he does but he doesn’t’ make enough money. I ask him what he would do if he had more money. He tells me, pay off bills, fix his truck, go on vacation, and take his wife out to a fancy restaurant. I ask him, how much would all that cost? He replies with only a few hundred dollars.He has told me exactly how to invite him to a meeting, or what to use to make an appointment with him personally, or what CD to hand him or what part of the web-site to send him to.Most people will tell you in some form or another – that ye don’t have enough time or money to do the things they want. At the end of the 2 minute conversation make sure you have the next steps confirmed and verified. And then follow-up. Make sure the whole conversation lasts less than 3 minutes. They must believe that they can do what you are doing.*Make sure that you make notes on your conversation so that you can refer to them before your next meeting.*Here are some conversation starting ideas using FORM:
    $How many children do you have
    $We are expanding a business in this area and we are looking for a few key people that we can put into leadership positions – do you know anyone who might be looking to make more money or take control of their professional life?
    $What do you do for entertainment here in [YOUR TOWN NAME]?
    $Are you making all the money you need to doing this job?4. Follow-up with everyone. Even if you don’t think they will be interested.
Remember, that at the end of your encounter, people only really have 3 choices, nothing, customer, associate.You can practice all of these skills in the Residual Income Game. Ask your up-line about the game.