Canadian Network Marketing Money » Guru Advice!

The “BEST” Referral System…

Steve — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:15:56 +0000

The “BEST” Referral System…

Entrepreneurs, home-based businesses, and independent professionals are always on the look out for systems that help them get more referrals.

After looking high and low to find a system that would help generate referrals I have finally found one.

I have finally found a system that:

Generates more referrals than you can handle!

Is extremely cost effective

Takes very little of your valuable time to use

Every small business owner, entrepreneur, and service professional knows the best way to get new customers are through referrals. Customers coming to you by a referral because someone they trusted referred them to you. Referrals will give you the biggest return over any other marketing method.

Getting referrals can be extremely difficult. Most people do not like to ask anyone for a referral. However most customers would be happy to make referrals, but if you do not keep your name in front of customers they soon forget about you.

Do You Know
A recent study found that 62% of the reasons customers fail to continue to do business with you is because of perceived indifference. It will cost you 6 times more to attract a new customer than it does to keep your customer.

How to Network Successfully

The key for networking is to have a follow-up system for every networking event you attend. Somehow you need a system to keep everything straight.

Most people attend networking meetings and never follow up with the people they meet. Here are seven simple ideas to follow up successfully:

Send an email within 24 hours whenever you meet
someone letting them know you enjoyed meeting them.
Mail a simple “nice to meet you” greeting card with 24
hours.
Call them within a week and set up a coffee, lunch, or
short meeting to learn more about their business and how you two can help each
other. This meeting is more to learn about them then you telling them about
you. Get their birthday so you can put it your system to send them a birthday
card.
If by chance you did not meet in that week, call and
set up another time to meet.
After your meeting, send a greeting card thanking them
for their time.
Give them some kind of referral within 30 days. This
does not have to be a person. This could also be an idea or a resource they
can use.
After your meeting make contact again within 30 days. You are trying to build up a network that will last a long time.

Whether you attend a networking event every week or just once in a while, the key is how you follow-up! Use this little system and you will see amazing results.

If you have not tried our greeting cards system yet, request your free Gift Account today and send a few free cards on me!

How To Get More Referrals

I have been an entrepreneur for many years. During this time I have been exposed to numerous referral programs and systems. After all these years I have concluded that the number one method of getting more referrals is to simply develop a very personal and close relationship with your customers or clients through regular contact, so that when the time is right,
they will remember you for their own needs and will also refer you their
friends, relatives, and colleagues who need your help and services.

The best way I’ve found to keep in personal touch is by sending greeting cards. I’m not the only one who has discovered this.
Joe Girard used a little-known secret to become the most successful referral marketer of all time

Joe was honored by the Guiness Book of World Records for selling more crs than any single person in history, 12 times achieving the top vehicle sales in the world. In his best year he sold 1425 units. These units were all retail sales (no fleet sales). To learn more about Joe click here.

So what did Joe do to accomplish this? Greeting Cards.

Joe so believed in the power of greeting cards he employed two assistants out of his own pocket. According to the Detroit News. “Joe sent out nearly 13,000 greeting cards a month to his customers, celebrating everything from Halloween to Groundhog day.” Joe proved without a doubt that greeting cards inspire customer loyalty and motivate customers to refer their friends.

Greeting cards are the ultimate business tool

You can use greeting cards in your business to make sure your customers remain your customers, transform casual customers into loyal customers, and to convert new business contacts into customers, clients, or patients.

Take A Look At This Unbelievable System

I was talking to a friend about different strategies to use to improve my business when he suggested I look at a greeting card system he uses. I at first didn’t even want to look at it. I have sent out thank you cards and notes in my business but I thought it was time consuming and expensive.

Being somewhat curious my friend had me sit down in front of my computer and he gave me a tour. When I saw what the system could do I got extremely excited. I saw the possibilities that this system could do for myself and for others! I couldn’t wait to get started.

How You Can Use This System To Grow Your Business

Whenever I meet someone or whenever I do business with someone. I make a point of getting their mailing address and birthdate. I then put their information into my system and a week before their birthday the system reminds me to send a birthday card to them.

When I see the reminder I pick out a card from over 15,000 cards to choose from that I feel is appropriate for them. I can even make card if I have a picture I want to put on the front of the card. I then write a heartfelt message, select either my own handwriting font or use different font options, click a button and the card gets mailed.

Besides birthdays you can send cards to customers, clients, prospects, and friends anytime you choose to stay in touch with them. You can send a card monthly, quarterly, or twice a year with a single click of the mouse.

Here’s How The System Works

You can choose from over 15,000 cards or you can custom design your own cards for about a dollar using some unbelievable features. You then can set up a multiple-piece mailing campaign using a combination of thank you cards, holiday cards, cards sharing suggestions or tips that showcase your expertise, requests for referrals, or anything that will keep your name in front of the people you choose every month.

Every person who does business with you or that you do business with put their name into your
system and send your cards with a single click of the mouse. It’s as simple as that! The campaign system will merge their name into the greeting, will include your personal note with your own handwriting and signature, then addresses, stuffs, licks, stamps (with a real stamp) and takes it to the post office and mails it for you whenever you want it mailed. That is cool. You customer will receive hand-written, personalized cards from you with you lifting a finger!

If you would send a monthly campaign, this entire campaign will cost you only $12 to stay in touch with them for the year, without you lifting a finger. Or if you would send cards quarterly, it would cost you only $4. You get to determind how often you want to stay in touch, and you let the system do the rest!

Studies have shown that in most industries, sales are made after 7 contacts with your prospects. Yet the vast majority of businesses have NO follow-up system in place. What if you attract a new customer? They can easily go somewhere else if they don’t feel like you care about their business of if they just forget about you. Until now, follow-up has always been expensive and time consuming.

Experience how easy it is to send a greeting card!

Contact me and I will set you up with your own trial account so you can test drive the system and see how it works. After trying it yourself, I’m sure you will agree that this is one of the most amazing productivity and relationship-building tools you’ve
ever seen. It automates your follow-up with prospects in a highly personal
way.

Yours In
Success,
Steve Jackson

How to Select a Network Marketing Company

Steve — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:10:54 +0000

How to Select a Network Marketing Company

Not all Network Marketing companies were created equal, and selecting the right one (for you!) may mean the difference between success and failure. It did for Darren Falter, and the following article is adapted from his book, How to Select a Network Marketing Company. It has sold over 40,000 copies in soft cover in 10 countries and is in its fifth revision.

Falter was introduced to Network Marketing while a full time university student in 1990. Between 1990 and 1994 he worked hard at several opportunities but failed at them all. What saved him, he said, is that he never blamed his failure on the industry. He continued to believe in Network Marketing but by 1995 he was “fed up”: “Up to that moment I had tried so many different strategies with so many different types of businesses, selling so many different kinds of products (that) I decided that if I was going to be successful, I had to select the best home-based business.”

Borrowing “quite a large space” in his parents’ basement, Falter compiled a list of over 200 top home-based business programs and amassed “files full of substantial information” on each. He eventually narrowed this list down to the five best programs and then picked one of the five and, “for the first time in my career, I launched a successful business that took me to a solid income that provided financial security for my family for years.”

To find the right company, Falter endorses two basic rules:

First, do your own research. Don’t trust someone else’s facts and figures.

Second, do not make decisions while you are in an emotional or hyped up state.

Questions we will be looking at in this article are:

Which product or service industry is the most profitable?

Should I go with a new idea, or with something tried and true?

During which phase of growth should I join a company?

Which distributor compensation plan is best?

How can I tell if a company’s management team has high integrity, and that they are experienced, competent and committed?

How can I find time to study and compare all of these companies?

And finally,

Which company is right for me?

Please bear in mind that while no scrutiny system is perfect, a good system is better than taking the first opportunity that presents itself, and certainly better than a stab in the dark. To make the task manageable, we break our quest down into four components:

Product / Industry
Timing
Compensation Plan
Company / Management

In this issue we will look at product, industry and timing. In the following issue we will examine the compensation plan, company and management.

Product / Industry

This includes Buying Clubs, Catalog Shopping, Household Products, Lead Generation Programs, Jewelery, Gold, Silver and Collectibles, Legal Services, Nutritional Supplements and Health Products, Personal Care Products, Telecommunication Services, Water Filters, Travel Programs and others. After reviewing over 200 Network Marketing companies, Falter found that the overwhelming majority fell into four categories:

Nutritional Supplements 71%
Personal Care / Skin Care 14%
Household Products 6%
Telecommunications 5%

This gives a good idea of the trends in Network Marketing. To further evaluate an opportunity, goods and services can be checked against the following seven criteria:

Emotional, Ideally the product or service should trigger an emotional reaction, which in turn creates an emotional bond to the product. It is easy to see how nutritional and skin care products may do this, if they make you feel better and look better. Telecommunications would however have limited emotional appeal.
Consumable, The product or service should be used regularly and replaced on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis. Vacations, exercise equipment and such are not “consumed” on a weekly or monthly basis and so do not generate residual income. Falter considers this to be the most important of the seven qualities.
Unique, The product or service should have a unique twist, something that the competition doesn’t have or can’t get.
Traditional, Although a product should be unique, it must not be so unique that people cannot recognize it or identify with it. Once you have to explain what it is, you are edging into dangerous territory.
Valuable, The product or service must be worth its price, yet allow for a healthy profit margin. If everyone (distributor, company, customer) benefits, you’ve got a winner.
Timely, The product or service must be in high demand, RIGHT NOW.
Stable, The product or service must also be in high demand LATER. Will the product or service be in high demand in 20 years? If the answer is yes, you have a winner. If demand increases with time, all the better.

Now check the product you are considering against these seven characteristics. Your objective is to get seven yeses.

Finally, keep your focus and don’t get sidetracked by personal biases, personal likes and dislikes; in the end what matters is what other people want.

Now double check your research results:

Make a list of the top twenty most successful companies and find out which products they are marketing.

Make a list of the top twenty income earners in Network Marketing and find out in which industries they are earning their millions.

This should give you a good idea of what works well in MLM. (This sort of information can be found in MLM books and trade journals.)

Timing is Everything
According to Dr King, professor of marketing at the University of Illinois and co-author of The New Professionals (about the rise of Network Marketing as the next major profession), a company goes through several major growth phases as it matures into a stable, long term opportunity. The first growth stage is known as the “formulation stage”. This is the start-up phase when companies are most vulnerable and over 90% go out of business within 12-24 months.

The second phase of growth is referred to as the “concentration phase”. During concentration, the company is getting its ducks in a row and working out the bugs. Similar to the formulation phase, the concentration phase is still considered a start-up phase and it is a risky time to get involved. These two phases are often referred to as the “pioneering phase” and most experts agree that the risk to reward ratio is too high to consider getting involved.

If and when a company reaches around $50 million in annual sales, the company experiences a phenomenon known as “critical mass”. This figure should not be taken too literally but it is a real phenomenon and will occur slightly before or slightly after the first $50 million, bringing with it the beginning of the company’s “momentum growth phase”. During this phase, if the foundation was properly laid, a company can go from obscurity to becoming a household name with 4-6 years.

According to Bruce Hedges, (Who Stole the American Dream? Pp131,132), when critical mass hits, suddenly everyone wants what you’ve got, growth goes into overdrive and sales begin to explode!

The last stage of a company’s growth is the “stability” or “maturity” phase. This is a great time to have a large downline but a tough time to build one. Growth in the stability phase is significant, but slower. However, it is now clear that many companies have learned how to maintain healthy growth during the stability phase.

One way they do this is by continuing to diversify the product line. Sometimes companies will go through second, third, and fourth momentum cycles as a result of this type of innovative marketing. Also, entering new international markets every year can keep a company profitable for decades. When a mature company expands into a new country, this creates a true ground floor opportunity without the risk associated with start-up programs.

As Network Marketing continues to evolve, distributors will realize that getting in early will become less and less important. An entrepreneur’s primary concern will be selecting a company that has long term stability, not short term “flash-in-the-pan” profits. But although selecting a company in the stability phase will be a much more inviting option than it once was, there is still no better time to build a Network Marketing business than during the “hypergrowth” momentum phase.

One further note: just as companies have momentum phases, so can entire industries, and indications are that the Network Marketing industry as a whole is entering a momentum phase (but now is not the time to elaborate on this).

Cheers,

Steve

You Might Be a Networkaholic If…

Steve — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:19:24 +0000

I think you’ll get a kick out of this!

You Might Be a Networkaholic If…

… you have a “Networkers Do it By Referral” bumper sticker.
… you ask the cop writing you a ticket for his card and offer to refer other speeders to him.
… your cat/dog/orangutan’s collar is made of business cards when you let him run at the park.
… all trick-or-treaters that come to your house receive candy with a full color brochure stapled to it.
… your neighbors all bring their out-of-town relatives in the back door… at 3 a.m.
… your car’s license plate reads TALK2ME.
… you bring waterproof laminated business cards to the beach.
… you meet your blind date with your day planner in hand.
… you insist that your spouse/significant other help you practice your handshake each morning.
… you start a “power snack” meeting group.
… you continue to “interface” with the doctors and operating room staff right up to surgery AND… the first words you say when you wake up from anesthesia are “Now where were we?”
… you borrow or rent a cute little dog so that unsuspecting strangers will say something or approach you AND… your attempt to rent a kid for the same reason leads to an awkward explanation to the police.
… you stuff your stadium horn with business cards and BLOW.
… you press the emergency stop button when the elevator is full.
… you send thank-you cards to the tax office.
… your child’s birthday party includes “List Your Family Members and Their Phone Numbers” placemats.

By Dan Reinhold of WAHumor.com

Napoleon Hill Rarely Seen Video

Steve — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:43:22 +0000

Napoleon Hill Rarely Seen Video

Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, shares his words of wisdom in this rare video footage. Have your pen and paper ready as he shares his life-changing wisdom.

Regards,
Steve Jackson

Art Williams – Gives Ultimate Speech – To Succeed In Business!

Steve — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:08:06 +0000

In the mega-bestseller All You Can Do is All You Can Do, A.L. Williams, Georgia’s former winning high school football coach, has taken the fervent and evangelical style that urged his teams on to victory and translated it into a program for personal and professional success – one that he utilized to build a multi-million dollar insurance company in only ten years.

According to Williams, anyone can change from ordinary to extraordinary by developing and harnessing the will to win. Follow his six-point plan and achieve success:

1) Become a dreamer again,
2) Have a crusade,
3) Dream big-but keep it simple,
4) Always be positive,
5) Treat people “good”,
6) Never give up!

The enthusiastic and inspiring delivery of A. L. Williams will make you believe in yourself and understand why “all you can do is enough:”

BEST SPEECH EVER !

Art Williams of A.L. Williams Insurance gives the ultimate speech on what it takes to succeed in business. Click play below.

Your Friend Along the Way,

Steve

50 Ways To Promote Your Website…

Steve — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:54:47 +0000

50 Ways To Promote Your Website…

Although I’m unable to to give credit where credit is due and acknowledge the originator of this list, I would like to make it available to those of you who are looking for ways to increase website traffic. Enjoy…

1. Write and submit articles to the article directories.

2. Leave comments on other people’s blogs with a backlink to your site.

3. Answer people’s questions on www.answers.yahoo.com.

4. Post in forums and have a link to your site in your signature.

5. Write a press release and submit it to www.PRWeb.com.

6. Advertise your website in the appropriate category on www.CraigsList.com.

7. Give an unbiased testimonial on a product/service that you have used in exchange for a backlink to your site.

8. Start a blog and submit it to the 100’s of free blog directories.

9. Manually submit your website to the major search engines.

10. Optimize each page of your website for a particular keyword or search phrase.

11. Add a link in your email signature to your website. It’s a free and easy way to get a little more traffic.

12. Make a custom 404 error page for your website redirecting people to your home page.

13. Use PPC search engine advertising.

14. Add a “bookmark this site” link to your webpages.

15. Have a tell-a-friend form on your site.

16. Send articles to ezine publishers that includes a link to your website.

17. Hold a crazy content and make it go viral.

18. Give away a freebie (ebook, report, e-course) to keep people coming back to your site.

19. Add an RSS feed to your blog.

20. Submit your site to any related niche directories on the net.

21. Participate in a banner or link exchange program.

22. Create a software program and give it away for free.

23. Purchase the misspellings or variations of your domain name, or those of your competitors.

24. Buy a domain name related to your niche that is already receiving traffic and forward it to your site.

25. Pass out business cards with your domain on them everywhere you go.

26. Start and affiliate program and let your affiliates send you visitors.

27. Start a page on social networking sites such as www.facebook.com.

28. Submit a viral video to www.YouTube.com

29. Conduct and publish surveys to your website.

30. Find joint venture partners that will send you traffic.

31. Start your own newsletter or ezine.

32. Use a autoresponder or email campaign to keep people coming back to your site.

33. Purchase ads on other sites.

34. Send a free copy of your product to other site owners in exchange for a product review.

35. Sell or place classified ads on www.eBay.com with a link to your site.

36. Post free classified ads on any of the sites that allow them with a link to your site.

37. Exchange reciprocal links with other related websites.

38. Network with other people at seminars or other live events.

39. Purchase advertising in popular newsletters or ezines.

40. Advertise on other product’s “thank you” pages.

41. Create a free ebook and list in on the “free ebook” sites.

42. Buy and use a memorable domain name.

43. Do something controversial.

44. Create an Amazon profile and submit reviews for books and other products that you have read.

45. Start a lens on www.Squidoo.com.

46. Use a traffic exchange (low quality traffic, but can sometimes be worthwhile).

47. Get referrals form similar but non-competing sites.

48. Create and sell a product with resell or giveaway rights and include a link to your site in it o others pass it around for you.

49. Email your list. If you don’t have one, get one.

50. Buy a pair of sandals; get your website engraved on the bottom and walk on the beach, stomp in the mud or play in the snow.

Your Friend Along the Way,
Steve

Just 5 More Minutes…

Steve — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:26:41 +0000

Just 5 More Minutes…

Author Unknown

While at the park one day, a woman sat down next to a man on a bench near a playground.

“That’s my son over there,” she said, pointing to a little boy in a red sweater who was gliding down the slide.

“He’s a fine looking boy” the man said. “That’s my daughter on the bike in the white dress.”

Then, looking at his watch, he called to his daughter. “What do you say we go, Melissa?”

Melissa pleaded, “Just five more minutes, Dad. Please? Just five more minutes.”

The man nodded and Melissa continued to ride her bike to her heart’s content. Minutes passed and the father stood and called again to his daughter. “Time to go now?”

Again Melissa pleaded, “Five more minutes, Dad. Just five more minutes.”

The man smiled and said, “OK.”

“My, you certainly are a patient father,” the woman responded.

The man smiled and then said, “Her older brother Tommy was killed by a drunk driver last year while he was riding his bike near here. I never spent much time with Tommy and now I’d give anything for just five more minutes with him. I’ve vowed not to make the same mistake with Melissa.

She thinks she has five more minutes to ride her bike. The truth is, I get Five more minutes to watch her play.”

Life is all about making priorities, what are your priorities?
Give someone you love 5 more minutes of your time today!

Regards,
Steve Jackson

Oprius – Sales Contact Management Software – Review

Steve — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 22:24:42 +0000

Oprius – Sales Contact Management Software – Review

I’d like to review a new website and service I have found and been using – Oprius.com

Manage your daily tasks, build your relationships, and turn contacts into customers; all in one place, available all the time and from anywhere you want to work.

Oprius allows independent sales people to import data and get to work immediately. The service is designed for ease-of-use, so anyone with basic computer skills can quickly learn the intuitive navigation.

The subscription-based internet service was created especially for independent sales people and uses the same secure technology as online banking, making your information safe at all times.

About the Product:
Oprius is comprised of 7 modules that work together to provide you with the most effective and easiest to use sales system available, period.

CONTACTS
Automatically stores a record of all Activities you’ve had with a Contact.
Instantly pull up a Contact’s information from any screen.
No limit to the amount of information you can store about your Contacts.

RELATIONSHIP BUILDER
Build a simple Plan for your leads and customers to make sure no one slips through the cracks.
Automatically schedule Emails to be sent or any other type of Activity to be created.
Relationship Builder, you can create and schedule sales campaigns that address whole groups of customers in a pre-defined, step-by-step process.
Contacts automatically progress through your Plans as each Step is completed.

PHONE
The Phone Assistant gives an overview of your up-coming calls from which you can focus in on each contact and the next steps you want to take. It allows you to schedule phone appointments — using your calendar — and shows each contact’s details and call history. In addition, pre-defined and proven call scripts — all part of the package — can be associated with any selected contact, which can help greatly in closing your sales.
Take the pressure and unknowns about calling away with the built in and customizable phone scripts.

EMAIL
Send and receive Emails from any of your Email addresses.
Send Emails to Groups of Contacts and include a personalized message to each
Stores an Email history as part of each Contact’s information.

TASKS
Make a list of all your tasks and check them off as you complete them.
View a record of all your pending and completed Tasks.
Assign and sort your tasks by priority.

CALENDAR
Use your calendar and define the tasks you need to accomplish.
Review your contacts, assign them to groups, and make them an integral part of your sales process.

HOME
Plan your whole day’s Activities from one screen.
View recent Emails, upcoming Tasks, Calls and Appointments.
Quickly jump to any other area of your application.

Price:
You have to pay monthly subscription-only plan for the Oprius service, though it’s a low price.

Conclusion:
I highly recommend Oprius for any kind of business where your bottom line depends on quality customer communication.

So test drive a free 30 day trial now!

Regards,
Steve Jackson

Donald Trump said if he had to start all over…

Steve — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:45:54 +0000

Donald Trump said if he had to start all over…
… he’d get in a network marketing company and “go to work”.

Then, when some folks in the audience grimaced and groaned like someone was holding something stinky under their noses, Trump replied, “That’s why I’m up here and you’re out there!”

What a great story and testament for network marketing. Too bad it never happened.

I’ve been looking for a film clip of Trump saying that for YEARS. I’ve never seen it. You would think that somebody at the TV network would have at least HEARD about it. There seem to be no confirmations of that happening whatsoever. No film ANYWHERE. For example, it would certainly be on You Tube if you typed in “Donald Trump network marketing”.

No such video. So I believe it’s a FALSE urban legend.

Trump DID say some good things about network marketing in the book he did with Robert Kiyosaki, “Why We Want You To Be Rich“. I have printed proof of his endorsement there. (Hardcover, pages 310-311.)

And some people believe he has some kind of marketing agreement with at least one particular MLM company, where they can apparently use his name. But I’m sure that ALL of us have to build a network marketing business totally differently than the way he would do it.

Unfortunately, I’ve heard that “I’d get in a network marketing business and go to work” story many times over the years. I’ve been trying to either CONFIRM it or STOP it— so far I’ve been able to do neither.

If anyone has that videotape, I encourage them to “roll that beautiful bean footage”. It would be INVALUABLE. Otherwise, it’s one of those MLM hype catastrophes that we should all avoid.

From Blog – The Blue Collar MLM Guy
Thoughts,
Steve

Bloggers… Super Affiliate WordPress Blogger Theme is HERE!

Steve — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:08:33 +0000

Hey fellow Bloggers,

I’ve been talking about this all week, and it’s finally here!

Gobala Krishnan’s “Super Affiliate Blogger” is creating a wave of excitement on the Internet as you’re reading this, so stop everything you’re doing right now and go to this page:

Get Super Affiliate Blogger Now!

I can honestly say that I’ve never been this excited over a product launch in a long time!

It’s simple to understand why:

- It’s a completely original product
- It’s super-easy to implement and…
- It really works out-of-the-box

I strongly recommend that you get a copy of “Super Affiliate Blogger” using the link below:

Super Affiliate Blogger – WordPress Affiliate Marketing Solution

Go ahead and get your copy, NOW!

Get Super Affiliate Blogger Now!

Cheers,
Steve Jackson