Networking – Non-Fee Based Group, and They Said it Wouldn’t Work
I have owned my own Multilevel Marketing Business for 28 years. Yes 28 years with the same MLM company. There are well over 2200 MLM companies in the world. The statistics show that the average person who becomes involved in a MLM company stays approximately nine months, and the majority of those involved in MLM companies today have been associated with three, four, even five different companies.
Just as in any sales job, it is important to take care of your existing clients. However, more importantly, finding new blood for your business, and your client base is essential in any business. After all, in business if you aren’t growing, you are shrinking. Rarely do you remain the same.
More than 20 years ago, I was invited to a group dedicated to helping others in growing their businesses. What a great concept I thought. I stayed involved in that organization for eight years. The cost was $35 a month and after eight years, money spent was $3,300 over that period of time, plus breakfast once a week at an average cost of five dollars a week. As I look back, I really hadn’t recouped the money spent, but I had gained so much more as far as intangible benefits.
Now, when someone asked me what I did, I actually knew exactly what to say. I had developed a thirty-second promotional. Until then, when someone asked what I did, I never had a straight answer. As a matter of fact, I would say uh-uh-uh. I learned how to take a thirty-minute talk and reduce it to eight minutes with a two-minute close. I learned what networking really meant. I understood how important it was to listen in order to help the people sitting around the table as well as helping my closest friends and clients. I saw the benefit of referring my friends, family and clients to people that knew me and had a sincere interest in helping. I learned that referrals also had my name attached to it and one of the benefits of using a close referral ring is that I knew they would go that extra mile. Probably one of the biggest skills that developed is “leadership”.
Over the eight years, I was asked to be a Leader in a FEE BASED Group for a FREE space at the meeting. I actually started 3 different groups and thus, I belonged to three different groups. Each of them were pretty separate from the other. Why three different groups? Location, Day, and Time of Day were all important, and because they changed Leadership every 6 months , they would eventually have low attendance because of poor leadership, lack of interest, or too much business. If the Leader isn’t passionate for the concept, the group usually doesn’t work at it’s optimal level. A great group size is a least 10 people but no more than 30 because of time constraints.
Ten years ago, after I had not been in a networking group for a year, a friend and I decided to start a ” Breakfast Club”. We started with just the two of us, and met for breakfast at Denny’s. We would spend the hour finding out about each other’s business, and eventually started talking about different people we knew and different categories that would enhance our business. It took about three weeks, and we eventually had four people at a table. We shared our enthusiasm and what we wanted to do in setting up a networking business. We asked if they knew someone who would be interested in joining our group. We picked the categories that would enhance each other’s business, talked about if we knew anyone in those categories, and all left with the intent to invite more people for the next week’s meeting. We even found cards on bulletin boards in coffee shops that fit the categories we needed and invited them to check us out. One gentleman who was our insurance person for at least three years, over- heard us at our meeting, and after it was over, came and asked if we were a Leads club and did we have an insurance person. He was most excited when he heard it was a NO FEE organization
In three months we had 12 members and five months later we were up to 24 and needed to find a larger location.
Networking and networking organizations are one of the most economical forms of promoting you and your business. NO, you don’t need to be in MLM to get one of these types of organizations started. You can be any kind of a businessperson, dedicated to growing your business, and understanding that the average person knows 250 people who you can meet. It’s about connecting people you know, with people who you meet.
