How to Make $100,000 Every Year for your MLM Opportunity Using Card Deck Advertising
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
In my role as a marketing consultant, I regularly hear from
people working various MLM opportunities. Almost invariably, what
they tell me is despairing. Just this week, a man told me he'd
invested $2,200 in a full page ad in a magazine going to MLM
enthusiasts. He wanted to drum up new candidates for his organization.
Net result? 6 responses!
Another fellow just wrote me about the opportunity he's in
and all the frustration it's brought him. He got his friends involved...
culled his Rolodex... even put posters around the neighborhood.
Net result. "If I were to pull out today, I'd have lost about
$3,000 more than I've made," he bewailed.
If you're in MLM and you're not making money, you know precisely
what these people are going through... because odds are
you're going through it yourself.
BUT MUST IT BE THIS WAY? SO DIFFICULT? FRUSTRATING? UNFULFILLING?
UNPROFITABLE?
That depends on the answers to just two crucial questions:
Is the opportunity you've selected even capable of making
you $100,000 a year... or, indeed, any substantial profit at all,
and
Do you know -- and can you implement -- the kind of rigorous
marketing program that's necessary to achieve this
financial objective?
I'm not going to address the first question here; that's the
subject for another article. But I will say this: when you go
into an opportunity, one of the first things you've got to do is ask your
sponsor exactly what you've got to do to earn at least $100,000
a year. Then pay real close attention to what he says. Does it
make sense? Do you understand what he's saying? Is what he's
saying realistic? And, most important of all, can you do what's
necessary to achieve this level of financial gain?
Fact is, most people who go into MLM do so to make money...
but they never ask their sponsors searching questions about
how that money can be made. And, in truth, even if they did, they'd
still be puzzled... because the sponsors themselves have
never bothered to research this matter either. That's just downright
dumb. If you expect to make money in an MLM
opportunity... much less make an annual six-figure income... then
you'd better spend the time it takes to understand just how
that money can be made and just what you're going to have to do.
This consists of more than salivating over a faint photo-copy
of somebody's else's big monthly check!
Okay, You Know Your Opportunity Can Make Money. What Next?
Once you understand that big money can be made... and how it
can be made, the real challenge begins: developing and
implementing the marketing plan that'll bring you the right number
of people for your organization, then closing and working with
them. All three parts are mandatory.
As you consider these three critical matters, think about how
what you're doing now... think about what your friends and other
members of your downline are doing. They're approaching the business
of MLM with a "bake sale" mentality; they're spending
lots of time to raise a few pennies.
People new to MLM get all fired up, attend a few meetings...
and approach the matter of building their organizations with a
breathtaking absence of mind and thoughtful deliberation. They
take the materials produced by the MLM company, including
the stock ads and flyers, and start passing them out helter-skelter,
sink their limited marketing budgets into the smallest of ads
in a few opportunity publications... and then sit back mulling over
what to do with their sure-to-come millions. Instead of money,
of course, all they harvest is bitter regret... until they find
their next opportunity which they're sure will do better. THIS
ISN'T A
WAY TO GET RICH, PAL. IT'S A PRESCRIPTION FOR FAILURE.
Solving The First Problem: Marketing Communications That Won't
Motivate
Take a look at most MLM marketing communications. I'm talking
about ads, flyers, cover letters, brochures... and all those
expensive four-color prospect kits you've got to pay for. Virtually
all of them are trash, and the parent companies should be
drawn and quartered for producing them. Why? Because they focus
on the opportunity... on the features of what the company
is selling... and not the benefits the buyers get.
Now, when you go into MLM there are two types of people you
have to motivate: there are the people you want to motivate
to sign up for your downline, the ones that build your organization,
and there are the consumers who actually buy the products.
You need client-centered materials for both... and both are going
to be different because the objectives of both are different.
Recently, I've been systematically reviewing the marketing
communications produced by some of the most well-known MLM
companies, and I tell you this: they ought to be ashamed of themselves.
What people signing up for an MLM organization want
to know is simple: how well can I do and what do I have to do
to do that well. Therefore, they want 1) a systematic plan that
shows them, step by step, precisely what they've got to do to
make money and 2) provides them with all the client-centered
marketing communications they need to motivate others to join
their downlines and (for consumers) buy their products. These
materials should be simple, clear-cut, aggressively focused on
the benefits the targeted market gets.
Now I defy you to show me the marketing communications produced
by ANY MLM company that actually do this? Instead,
you get graphs, charts, lavish four-color printing... and a lot
of "me-centered" hyperbole about how good the company
is. In short, almost nothing that these companies produce is usable by
the very people they ought to be bending over backwards to
serve, namely those already in their organization... and those
they wish to attract to it. Much less the customers, who produce
the money that is, in the final analysis, so crucial to the overall
health of the organization.
THIS IS IDIOTIC.
Not least because it means that every individual involved
in MLM has to master marketing... instead of spending his/her
time implementing a proven marketing process. What a lot of wasted time this
is.
Thus, the first thing you've got to do is develop aggressively
client-centered documents... documents that aren't full of a lot
of windy rhetoric but real benefits for real people... and incentives
for motivating these people to act NOW!!!
Note: When you're serious about creating these kinds of client-centered
marketing communications, use my books CASH
COPY: HOW TO OFFER YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES SO YOUR PROSPECTS
BUY THEM... NOW
and NO MORE COLD CALLS: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO GENERATING -- AND
CLOSING -- ALL THE
PROSPECTS YOU NEED TO BECOME A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE BY SELLING YOUR
SERVICE
Now, Become A Master Lead Generator
Once you've developed aggressive client-centered marketing
communications, it's time to put them to work. Unfortunately,
here's another place where most MLM-ers go astray. Instead of
developing a money-making plan, they think small, indeed
infinitesimal. As a result, they get few leads... and never develop
the necessary synergy to create the $100,000 a year
organization.
Enter card-decks.
As my opening illustration shows, just because you spend big
money buying an ad in a print publication (even one exclusively
for MLM-ers) doesn't mean you're going to make any money. The
guy I told you about, for instance, took a real bath,
effectively wiping out his year's advertising budget and postponing
his dreams.
Was this necessary? It certainly was not.
Had he taken the same amount of money, $2200, and invested
in card-deck advertising he would have received at the very
least about 1,500 responses, or about 250 times what his investment
actually returned. How can I be so certain about these
numbers? Because I run such a card-deck, and I've been tracking
the returns of the MLM cards for over two years now. Not
surprisingly when I told the hapless advertiser these numbers,
he got sick.
How do you achieve these results? In just this way:
first, by wanting them. People who are satisfied getting
six new prospect leads will never do what's necessary to get
1500;
second, by understanding how the system produces them and
by following the directions so you produce them for
yourself, and
third, by implementing a lead-closing program that derives
maximum benefits from the leads you generate.
Enter Card-Decks: The Best Way For Generating Large Numbers
Of Leads Quickly
You know what card-decks are; packs of post-cards bundled and
mailed together, each post-card containing a separate offer,
which, when completed, can be returned to the advertiser for prompt
processing.
These cards work when you:
- Pack your copy with client-centered benefits, when you
tell the prospect what he's going to get from you... and when
you make an offer that induces him to take fast action to
get it..
- Minimize any discussion of the features of your program --
how it works, leaving these details for your subsequent
contact..
- Keep the message simple and motivating..
- Force the prospect to put his own stamp on and pay for any
call he has to make with you (both good qualifiers), and..
- when you tell him he's not going to get any response at all
unless he provides a phone number.
In short, the card must be heavy on both motivators... and
qualifiers.
There's one more thing to keep in mind: card-deck work when
you pay a reasonable price to participate, which means a
reasonable price for the leads generated. Unfortunately, published
card-deck prices are high, often, in fact, astronomical. Major
companies like Marketing Bulletin Board, Venture, Hughes and Doyle
Publishing charge up to 3.4 cents a card, with
substantially more for four-color. This, for most people in MLM,
is a major expense.
Fortunately, there's an alternative: my own Sales & Marketing
SuccessDek. At 1.2 cents a card, my prices are by far the
lowest in the entire card-deck industry. And while other companies
may give you a lower price than their published rate the first
time you advertise with them, you get an even lower rate with
me every time you advertise... and without having to haggle for
it! This means your per-lead costs are lower... and thus you achieve
profitability faster.
What's more, smart MLM people get the benefit of the 100,000
cards in my deck... without paying a dime! Huh? That's right
through various kinds of cooperative deals with members of their
organizations, they reserve the 100,000 cards, then sell shares
of the results. In my card-deck, for instance, many organizations
do this. Say the card gets 1000 responses and the organizer
wants to include 5 people. Each of these gets 200 leads and pays
$240 each. The organizer pays nothing... but derives
whatever benefits accrue because he is their upline! Amazing!!!
And, of course, once the downline people build their own
downline (which they should quickly be able to do with a minimum
of 200 leads every 90 days), they can do the same thing and
reap the same benefits!
Is this what you're doing now? Probably not... you're probably
still putting up posters in the neighborhood, bugging your
increasingly impatient friends and relations... and generally
getting nowhere.
Note: don't think you can produce the kind of client-centered
marketing copy I'm advocating for your card? No problem... I
know that everyone's not going to turn into a superior client-centered
marketer. Thus, we help produce the copy... show you
samples of cards that have done well... and generally guide you
in the right direction. WITHOUT CHARGE. Now, reread this
sentence and make sure you understand it!
Developing An Effective Lead-Closing Program
Another thing to keep in mind about card-deck advertising is
that you get your leads FAST. Within four to five days after the
deck is mailed, you start getting a response. Within fourteen
days of the deck's mailing... you're getting inundated. The trick
is
to know you'll be inundated... and to be ready to cope with the
tidal wave.
This means, first, getting your response packets prepared.
These packets, like all other marketing communications, need to
be
aggressively client-centered. They've got to be simple, packed
with benefits, and graced with a motivating offer. By this
standard, most MLM response packets are far too complicated and
unnecessarily expensive. Personally, I've just finished
developing a response package for an Images representative. He
presented me with the materials he'd worked on for months
and into which he'd invested thousands of dollars. As I was able
to show him in just a few minutes, they were all about him...
about Images... and didn't have the kinds of benefits the prospects
would want. Net result? He had to junk his response
package and, with my help, start again.
But while the first set
took him months and a heap of toil, we generated completely new
-- and infinitely simpler and yet more compelling, client-centered
materials -- in just a few days. He fought me every inch of the
way as I tried to reorient his thinking towards a complete focus
on his prospects. (He hated giving up his golden but
unworkable words.) Net result: he's closing a far higher percentage
of the far greater number of leads he's getting from the card
deck than he ever did from the more expensive ads he previously
used and the fewer respondents to whom he sent those far
more expensive response packages. Learn, reader, learn.
Once you've developed truly client-centered marketing communications,
you approach the entire business of lead-closing in an
entirely different way. Since you've worked hard to present the
major benefits and fashion a motivating offer, you don't have
to
be tentative any more about the prospects you deal with. Since
your benefits are so clear... since your offer is so motivating...
you can be entirely straight forward and candid. "Here's
what you get, bub," you say. "Do you want it? Yes or
no? If you want
it, here's what you need to do to get it." If the prospect
is real -- that is truly looking for the benefits you have available
and truly
willing to do what's necessary to get them, you can close him
easier... because you've worked hard in advance to fashion the
truly beneficial case. And if he doesn't want the benefits you've
got, won't tell you why, won't give you the information you
need, won't return your call... and in general won't act in his
own responsible interest by working responsibly with you why,
then, you can with a light heart toss the wasteful flat worm in
the trash.
Why so lightly? Because with the huge response you've got coming
in from your deck card, your next good lead is already on
its way; the lead who won't waste your time and money. Moral?
When you have few leads, you spend time and money on
them whether they're good or not. When you have hundreds pouring
in, you work the ones that promise the best results... and
get rid of the rest as quickly as possible!
Conclusion
I pity most people in MLM. They're involved in a losing proposition.
They don't understand if their opportunity can make
money and haven't figured out yet what they've got to do to generate
the number of leads they need... and to work these leads
as effectively as possible to build the downlines they need to
generate the necessary sales volume to achieve their objective.
Fortunately, that's not you. If you've selected your opportunity
wisely, now you know how card-decks will help you generate
the number of leads you need (and, indeed, how to get these leads
without paying a cent for them!)... and what to do when you
get them. You, therefore, are going to be one of the relatively
few people who make any real money in MLM. Congratulations!
Dr. Jeffrey Lant is one of America's best-known marketers.
His money-making marketing methods are used by every kind of
business including thousands of people striving to build profitable
MLM organizations. Now you can profit faster by using his
books
CASH COPY: HOW TO OFFER YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES SO YOUR
PROSPECTS BUY THEM... NOW! (480 pages, $38.50 postpaid);
THE UNABASHED SELF-PROMOTER'S GUIDE: WHAT EVERY MAN, WOMAN, CHILD AND ORGANIZATION IN AMERICA NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT GETTING AHEAD BY EXPLOITING THE MEDIA (366 pages, $39.50 postpaid)
NO MORE COLD CALLS: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO GENERATING AND CLOSING ALL THE PROSPECTS YOU NEED
TO BECOME A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE BY SELLING YOUR SERVICE (600 pages, $39.50 postpaid).
Get these resources, a free year's subscription to his quarterly Sure-Fire Business Success Catalog, and details on his quarterly 100,000 circulation Sales & Marketing Success Card Deck by contacting JLA Publications, 50 Follen St., Suite 507, Cambridge, MA 02138 or calling (617) 547-6372 with MC/VISA.
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