Common Sense MLM Rant # 2? Yes to PPPPP

Irony

We really appreciate the longtime readers, commenter and critics alike, of this blog.  They know I love irony.

So let me begin this, rant #2, with irony.

I think…check that…I know, believe is probably the correct word…that people join to make money.

We know to make money, we need to hear the word ‘yes’ a lot.

The conventional wisdom that states:

1. “Every ‘no’ gets you closer to a yes.”
2. “Got 3 ‘no’s’?  Go get 97 more!” (why would anyone in their right mind believe that 🙂 )
3. And…the grand-daddy of them all.  ‘Whoever hears the most ‘no’s’ wins.‘

And that conventional wisdom contains so much sheer stupidity (it’s a rant, I’m allowed), it’s mind-boggling.

Really.

And don’t feel bad or defensive.  I used to chat that garbage too.  (Hey, it’s a rant and I’m ranting on me too).

Ironic…every ‘no’ does not get you closer to a ‘yes’.   Not when what you are offering is more money, more time and fewer taxes.  AND…everyone on the planet wants those 3 things.

If everyone wants what we are offering and we are hearing ‘no’ all the time, we are doing something wrong.  The one thing we need to do, develop networking skills, to improve is prevented by this idiotic statement.

Where’s the Logic?

Ironic?  Telling people to go get more ‘no’s’ to succeed defies logic, common sense and there is no word in the English language to describe how dumb this is.  Shouldn’t we be teaching them how to get a ‘yes‘ 80+% of the time and then telling new ‘peeps’ to go get ‘yes’…not ‘no’?  What is ironic is we think we are helping.

And it’s fascinatingly ironic we tell people that whoever hears the most ‘no’s’ wins.   Obviously, just the opposite is true.

Wonder why they look at us like we are nuts?

We not only listen, we repeat, with good intention, because we don’t want them to quit, the same idiotic things.

What’s my Rant?

Yes.

The word yes.

We want people to say ‘yes’ to looking, joining, working, yes?

Well, the best way to get a ‘yes’ is to start saying ‘yes’ to the one thing that, without question, makes us better.

Practice.

We’ve got to say ‘yes’ to practice.  Uplines don’t practice, sponsors don’t practice…so new people don’t practice.

Do you understand the value of your teammates seeing you get better?  Sharper?  More skilled at talking to people?

Feel good crap like, “The Secret” (read the Master Key System instead…it’s free and it actually works.  No sales page or offers, just click on the book ‘Master Key System‘) and chit-chat about relationship marketing and attraction marketing .s just way not to practice.

Night after night after night I used a thrown away whiteboard, all dull, dingy and dinged and did the marketing plan 3x every night.  My 17-year-old son would critique me.  I recorded myself, and when we won awards, when everyone wanted to tell us how great we were at it, we’d tell them, “We’re not talented, we just practiced.”  And…they would not practice.

Yesterday’s post was rant #3 and the theme was ‘common sense’.  Not what some people thought, an attack on BIG TICKET peddlers.

Can you explain to me, when we give people a set of 2 simple skills, that people will not practice, out loud for a couple of hours and then daily for a few minutes to stay sharp?

There is not a day that has gone by since 1993 that I have not practiced.

I preach PPPPP…Perfect Practice Prevents Poor Performance.

People always want to know ‘what did you do to get what you got, to live your dream’?

Carnegie Hall?

It’s simple common sense we tell them.   We’ve even created a little riddle for them.

“How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” I ask.

Most of the time I need to tell them…some get it right.

So how do you get to Carnegie Hall?   “Practice, Practice, Practice.”

Roy Halladay, Phillies great pitcher, practices daily.  So did the greatest hitter who ever lived. Ted Williams, practiced, played then practiced again.

Everyday.

Nero, Yanni – the list is endless.

Fabled basketball coach, John Wooden, said when we see greatness and admire it, most people are just stunned but the trained eye knows.  Let me quote Wooden here, “Most of it is practice, the rest of it is work.”

The common sense part

We are talking about making a destiny-changing, for generations, business where nothing existed.

Everybody knows if we are going to make some money, we need to talk to people.   People that make that kind of money, life-changing money in any venture, expect to have to learn some skills, practice them and master them.

We’ve proven, as it was proved to us.  You can easily get a ‘yes’ to looking at what you have to offer 80% of the time.

So Joanne calls and says she is discouraged…frustrated.  I used to have a Think and Grow Rich pep talk with her.   Or a ‘vision for her’ talk.

No more.

It goes like this these days.

“I understand Joanne.  Let’s do this.  Let’s pretend you had called me, to prospect me, OK? ”  They always say OK.

“Great,” I say.  “And let’s say you got my answering machine and I was calling you back…(don’t hesitate) “so Joanne, you called me, I am returning your call, what’s up?”

Joanne stammers, every time.  Usually wants to change the subject.

I don’t let her.

“Hey Joanne, it’s Mark, returning your call, what’s up? What can I do for you?”

Now it’s time to have the adult conversation.  And role play for 15 minutes with the 4 sentences in-front of her.  And tell her to practice for an hour then 15 minutes a day, every day…while driving, showering, etc.

Why don’t people practice?  Why do they think they can build a residual income in the 1000s without learning, practicing and mastering the skills of talking to people.  Isn’t that what we do?

Talk to people?

Why doesn’t Joanne go over these 2 simple skills 2-3 times each, study, learn, practice and master 4 simple sentences?

Because we don’t hold her feet to the fire.  Because we miss the point of our role.  She is calling for help…so help her.   See, my real beef is not with Joanne, it’s with reps (gotcha 🙂 ), who lose reps because they want to talk about visions, goals, company market share.  Because they don’t want to fill the role that Joanne is asking them to.

And why don’t they?  Why don’t people, being trusted with someone’s feelings and dreams, get right to the core issue?

They don’t practice either.

We simple cannot teach what we do not know and we cannot lead where we will not go.

Go practice.

Is that a ‘yes’?

believe

mark januszewski

World’s Laziest Networker