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Dr. Joe Rubino
Tools To Grow Your Business
Published: 03/23/2011 by Dr. Joe Rubino
Excerpted from Dr. Joe Rubino's best-selling book “The 7-Step System to Building a Million Dollar Network Marketing Dynasty.”
As a Networking Marketing professional, you’ll need to put into place a number of structures and necessities that will allow you to operate your business smoothly and make a professional impression on your customers and business prospects. These include:
1. Get a good, inexpensive long distance phone plan. If your company offers a plan, subscribe to it immediately. If not, look for a plan that charges less than $.05 per minute. If you plan on speaking long distance for more than 10 hours per month, an unlimited calling plan may be your best bet.
2. Call your local phone company and subscribe to 3-way calling. You’ll need this feature to connect your prospects with your upline partners who will be making your business presentations for you until you are able to make your own presentations and support your team to make theirs. Also, subscribe to your phone company’s voicemail or call answering plan. You will want to leave your prospects and team members with the most professional impression of your business and an outdated answering machine just won’t do. Record a professional and upbeat message to greet your callers with a warm, inviting communication as their first impression.
3. You’ll need a toll-free number to remove any reluctance on the part of your customers or prospects calling you back. You can decide if a toll-free number that ties into your local number and rings in your home office will serve you best or if a separate toll-free voice mail will be more convenient for you to use. Some toll-free voicemail companies now offer a follow-me service whereby you can decide if your calls will forward onto your home, office or cell phone or go directly to voicemail. Some services allow fax transmission to this same number. Others also allow you the convenience of listening to your messages or reading your faxes as email attachments.
4. If you’ll be doing business from different locations, a cell phone will come in handy. Select a plan that suits your usage needs and make sure you include voicemail and 3-way calling as parts of your service.
5. Set up a checking account that you’ll use exclusively for your Network Marketing business. Get into the habit of keeping excellent records documenting all your expenses. I suggest using an online checkbook or database software program like Money, Excel or any other record keeping system that will allow you to enter all your monthly debits and credits in columns marked to identify the nature of your expense. This will facilitate your record keeping and make for easy computations at the end of each month and at the end of each year in preparation for tax time.
6. In this modern era, if your intentions are to build a Network Marketing Dynasty, a computer is a must. Use it to communicate with your customers, prospects, team members and company via email, write your letters and organize your information. You’ll also need to send and receive faxes. You can set up your computer to do so or better yet, buy a fax/copier/scanner to handle all these functions. Online fax services such as efax.com, callwave.com and jfax.com are also a nice convenience.
7. Professionals need business cards and labels to communicate the right look and impression. If your company offers these items with their logo, order them there. If not, your local office supply store can create some attractive cards and labels. You can also purchase labels to use with your computer or a separate label maker attachment. You can create very attractive stationary right on your computer as well. If you decide to print your business cards from your computer, make sure you use quality stock and create a professional appearance.
8. If your company offers an automatic shipping program, sign up for it to not only receive your products on a regular monthly basis but to also set the proper example for your team. They will do as you do - not as you say. Auto-ship is also a great way to insure you’ll never miss a commission check because you forgot to order products that month.
9. If your company offers a duplicable website, sign up to set yours up. Your website can be a low cost way to introduce your prospects and display your company’s offerings. It also sets another duplicable example for your downline distributors.
10. For those instances when you’ll be retailing products or prospecting traditionally (not everyone quite yet is computer-literate) order your company’s catalogs, prospecting brochures, audio or video tapes. You’ll want to have packages pre-made and on hand at all times so you’ll never miss a good prospecting opportunity! Keep a stash readily available in your briefcase, carry bag, car, home and office.
11. Study all your company’s training materials. Learn the value of the compensation plan so you can share its high points enthusiastically. What makes your plan unique and attractive to prospects?
12. Commit to attending all company and upline sponsored conference calls. If your upline team or company offers a regularly scheduled opportunity call, commit to listen in and invite at least one guest to 3-way call in with you. If training calls are available, listen in while asking questions and taking notes. Your team will only attend these calls if you do!
13. If your company or upline offers a pre-recorded opportunity call, listen in and plan to 3-way your prospects. If no such call exists, work with your upline to create your own. We’ll be discussing how a brief 3 or 4 minute opportunity call can serve as a great tool to make an overview presentation about your company and products. Such a tool can be used by all, even brand new associates who do not yet know enough to make an intelligent or professional presentation themselves. By having this brief, recorded call in place, your new team members can be empowered to immediately step into prospecting action on their first day. All they need to know how to do is dial a toll-free number!
14. Get the names and phone numbers of all your upline leaders. Take the initiative by calling each one to introduce yourself so that you can begin to create a powerful partnership with them. Get to know their strengths and areas of expertise. Request their permission to call on them for support in building your business. Create a partnership agreement with your upline that you can also use with each of your downline leaders. See the text box for a sample of such an agreement.
15. Create your own story letter, introducing others to your company, products and opportunity. Your story letter will tell your story regarding how you were introduced and why you decided to become involved with your company and pursue a residual income opportunity. It will speak to the quality of the products, the integrity and stability of the company and the exciting income opportunity available for those who decide to share in the company’s profits and growth. See below for an outline of a sample story letter.
Partnership Agreement
Sponsor’s Commitment
As your sponsor, I commit to the following:
1. To train you and mentor you, in partnership with my upline, to achieve whatever level of success you desire.
2. To speak with as many prospects as you can introduce me to, until such time as you are competent to make your own prospecting presentations.
3. To use all the company’s products, be on auto-ship, and follow company policies and training suggestions when possible.
4. To stay in action myself, prospecting and setting an example for my team.
5. To make myself available to train, coach and lead you and your team, always championing you to step into leadership of your own as soon as possible.
New Team Member’s Commitment
As your new team member, I commit to the following:
1.To use all the company’s products, be on auto-ship, and follow company policies and training suggestions when possible.
2.To make myself available for training, coaching and other calls so that I can best learn to be effective in building my business.
3.To prospect on a regular daily basis and set an example for my own team, until I am earning my desired level of residual income.
Sponsor’s signature ___________________________________________
New Team member’s signature __________________________________
Sample Story Letter
Dear Friend,
I am writing to share with you an exciting income possibility. I have recently established my own home-based business with the ABC Company. (Tell your company’s story) ABC is a ____________ company that has supported thousands of people just like you and me to build wealth from home. I was first introduced to the ABC Company by ________________ when ______________________. I was attracted to _______________ and saw how I could create an income that would allow me to ______________ (speak your vision).
I’m writing because I thought of you and respect your business savvy. I would love to explore the possibilities of working with you in partnership to reach your own income goals and the dreams that a significant additional royalty-type income can make possible.
I’m enclosing a brochure and CD that explain the concept of how our company rewards us to recommend their products and the income opportunity they make possible. I’ll call you within the next few days to explain more about this, answer your questions and explore how this opportunity might contribute to your life. Or, feel free to call me at 978-555-5555 at your earliest convenience. I’ll look forward to speaking with you soon.
16.Create your notification names list. These are the people you will want to notify that you are now in business. Some will become your customers. Others will become your business partners. Others will refer you to new customers and business partners. For whatever reason, others will not be interested in becoming either a customer or a business partner. This list consists of anyone and everyone you know or know of.
Do not rule anyone out or prejudge that they would not be interested. You will never know who will be and who will not be open to your offer.
Allow me to share a personal experience about prejudging prospects with you. When I first began prospecting, I decided to contact all my former classmates, the majority of whom I had not spoken to in 10 years. I prioritized my list with those who I thought would be more interested as better prospects at the top. Being an introvert, without great communication skills at the time, this was a daunting assignment. But I believed in what I was doing and decided to persevere, in spite of my discomfort in making the calls. I called on my top 60 prospects.
Many purchased products and became long-term customers. Many were not interested in becoming a customer or building a business. Out of the first 60, 4 individuals expressed an interest in the income opportunity. All tried briefly and quit. I became discouraged and considered not calling the C names at the bottom of my list. However, my sponsor reminded me of the fact that I was not psychic and couldn’t possibly know who my next great leader might be. I accepted his logic and challenge to continue with my calls.
The 72nd person I called was a person I considered to be even quieter and more introverted than myself. His name is Bill DiPietro. To my great surprise, he was open to meeting my business partner and me for dinner. Bill shared that his wife was soon expecting their first child and they were actually looking for a way to replace her full-time income so that she could stay home with their son. Bill purchased $300 worth of products that night and made an appointment to get started in learning about our business. What I didn’t know was that Bill was an absolute master at creating rapport one on one. Much to my surprise, he became an enrollment machine, signing up leader after new leader. In only a couple of years, Bill built a sizable 6-figure residual yearly income by creating a growing and dynamic organization for himself and for us, his sponsors.
But the story gets better. One of the first people that Bill prospected was a good friend and former school roommate. When Bill called to notify his old friend that he had just joined our company, his friend said “Oh, I joined that company about 18 months ago. I just assumed you would not have been interested, so I never called you about it.”
That assumption probably cost his friend close to $2 million dollars so far. Of course, when Bill told me, was I thankful his friend had prejudged his interest! So, please do not prejudge anyone. You owe it to them to make their own decision.
