It was 7.30pm on Thursday. I’ve to rush down to my daughter’s school for the Meet-The-Parents Session. Both my wife and daughter will be waiting for me there. During the session, the class teacher will brief us on the progress and feedback about my children’s education.

We reached the school at 8.05pm. On the ground floor, we were required to register at the temporary reception counter handled by the student. We were given queue tag number 26. “That’s it! It’s our fault. Many people have come early. Just wait for our turn.” My mind was telling me. Then we went up to the 4^th floor where my daughter’s classroom was situated. There were about 4 families seating outside the classroom waiting for their turn. The form teacher was inside the classroom conducting the session.

Weather was so hot outside, but all the ceiling fans in the classroom were switched on. We spoke to the student on duty to request permission to wait inside the room. Initially it was a ‘No’. From where we were seated, we could see that some parents were allowed to wait inside most of the classrooms. Minutes late, the female student, after asking her “peers” advice (I guess so) approached us. Our request was granted with some restriction; don’t make so much noise. We thanked and smiled at her.

We all went in. More and more people came. There was more surprise to come. We were the last family to be called even though we were here at 8.05pm. We only managed to meet the teacher at 10 pm. The family before us was holding no. 14. But, this family was exceptional. Knowing that they came late, she told us to go first. Even the class teacher was surprised because he knew we were early but when the queue number was called, 4 families that came before us get the “benefits” to meet him first.

It was revealed later that our queue number was not meant for our daughter’s classroom as only 15 families came to meet the teacher. It was number 6 when we reached the classroom. In other words each family spent a minimum of 15 minutes with the teacher.

The school has been doing the sessions every semester (4 semesters per year). They should have the experience handling the event. They should have proper planning to avoid unnecessary disappointment and unhappiness from the parents. Luckily for us, it was a fruitful session. We also make some feedbacks and suggestions to him for the school to take note.

In network marketing, time management is very important. Making appointments with prospects are your daily tasks. The more people you meet-up, the more exposure to your business.  Do take note of the following suggestions. This is for those who are doing the traditional way of network marketing. However, if you’re prospecting online, you still need to communicate with your prospects and if they are staying in your local area, the best is to meet them personally and guide them through the business.

You only have 24 hours a day. You sleep about 8 hours and left with 16 hours. You cannot read your prospects’ minds, but your prospects could sometimes able to read yours. Always tell the prospects your intention for the meeting or appointment. Please don’t tell lies! Your meeting could turn out to be a cold one, depending on how you handle the prospects.

When you arrange for appointment, give them the chance to make a choice on when and where the appointment will be held. Your prospects will always say they are busy. So the best advice is for you to prepare 2 or 3 choices for them to select rather than asking them to decide.

If your prospect is married, ask them to bring their other half (husband or wife). Try to tell them not to bring their children only during the first appointment.

Have a proper venue for the appointment. A relax and quiet environment is recommended. Try not to hold it in your prospect’s house, unless there is no other choice.

Your appearance is very important. If you treat network marketing as a business, dress professionally. If you want to talk about global business, you have to show your prospect that you mean business.

Do not be late. Always be punctual at least 15 minutes before any appointment. You must be familiar of the meeting venue. You need to prepare yourself for the meeting too.

Do not hold another meeting within 2 hours. Normally, your first appointment with new prospect should last about 1 hour. You should give them another half an hour for any question and answer session (if any), and giving them something to read before the next meeting. You should fix the next appointment date before the meeting end.

Avoid having too many appointments in a day. It will not only make you weak, you may sometimes lose your focus and objective. Having 2 to 3 well-prepared appointments are preferred.

Have some contacts or leads with you all the time. It’s useful when you need to make another appointment to replace a no-show scheduled one. Don’t worry about no-show. Treat it as another form of rejections. Call your prospects, find out the reasons, and reschedule the appointment.

Although many people lose money in the stock market, they keep on trying when they find good opportunities. So what we need to do is to convey the right concept and method of doing the business. People will regain their confidence and come back to you. You must be well-prepared on what to do during the meeting. The system will help you. Just continue to make appointments, because if you don’t have leads, your business will be stagnant. It’s all about sharing good things with people. Be confident and always be excited in the business.

Talk to you soon,

Jailani

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Yesterday, I met a prospect who wanted to know more about MLM business. At the end of the meeting, even though he did not make any decision to join me, it was a fruitful meeting after all. The fact that he personally admitted that he now understand how it works, was good news to me.

Network marketing is actually easy to execute if you understand how it works. That is the reason why any person regardless of their experience and background can do it. What it takes is the willingness to be taught and guided to duplicate the know-how to do it. You need to built relationship with your prospect and be truthful to them. Refrain from having a hidden agenda. Just tell them the truth, built the trust, and you could be heading towards a positive result in expanding your organization.

During the meeting, I managed to address all his concerns about the business. One of the questions was whether a person needs to maintain a minimum personal volumes (pv) every month in order to use the products. These are my replies to him.

Depending on the company’s policy, most of the direct selling companies will require you to join as a member first before you can buy any products from them. You need to be sponsored by the company’s independent distributor. The membership varies from one company to another. Some even will offer you a one-time membership fees. However, some company do not require you to be a member to purchase their products, but instead of getting a cheaper price, you will be charged at a higher price which is sometimes referred to as retail price.

Even if you are a member, that doesn’t mean you will have to buy the products every month or maintain a certain pv set by the company. The only benefit that you will not enjoy is that you will be charged at a higher price. However, if you feel that the products are good and effective, you may wish to sign-up for the monthly autoship program where you will enjoy the cheapest price. The monthly autoship item(s) should be equaled or more than the pv set by the company in order to get the best price. Those who have to maintain the minimum monthly pv are those who loved and believed in the products, those on monthly autoship program and business builders.

If you want to earn money from using the products, then you may wish to maintain a monthly pv or sign-up for the autoship program. But, if you want to earn “big” money, then you have no choice but to be prepared to maintain the minimum pv; as you are not only a distributor, but a business builder as well. In other words, network marketing is your business. The question that you have to ask yourself is “What is the definition of the monthly pv maintenance to you as a business builder?”. Do you define it as a business investment, or just for the sake of maintenance for the purpose of earning money?

As a business builder, you must be clear of your position in the network marketing industry. You must use all products first before you want to share with others. In fact, your monthly maintenance can never be equaled to the number of products you used or consumed every month, unless you only have a single product to market. Your monthly expenses will initially be high because you need to love the products first. It will be easier to share when the products work.

If you want to start a business, you have to invest lots of money and time. Generally, there is no big different between setting up a traditional or network marketing business; you still need money and time – either big or small. Can you find any other business that needs a low investment than network marketing business? You decide.

Network marketing is a ‘people’ business. Whether you are a consumer, a distributor or a business builder, you can still earn income by sharing or recommending the products or business opportunity to others. Even if you earn 10 cents or 10 dollars, it still money.

What is your status in the industry? Are you just a consumer who benefited from using the products; or a distributor who share the products to earn extra income, or a business builder who build a career and empire in the industry? Be clear of your position, be clear of what you want, be clear of yourself.

Talk soon,

Jailani

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