Many business ventures provide an opportunity to grow your business by adding sales representatives or marketing consultants etc.  There is much to be said about the opportunity to garner high-revenue yields when building a direct sales organization however there is a popular temptation that aims to derail the focus of a successful duplication strategy and dooms over 95% of those involved.  

Quality Over Quantity

Most of those in old school MLM and Network Marketing opportunities were (and are still) taught to over-sell potential benefits and promote inaccurate expectations of the business to anyone and everyone, regardless of ability or skill set, with the goal of purely adding numbers.  This is motivated by the erroneous belief that headcount equals growth.  A challenge quickly presents itself when they realize that an increase in organizational size through this recruiting methodology does not typically equate to an increase in organizational revenue, which after all, is truly the yardstick we use to measure the success of any organization.  It does in turn create an organization of needy underachievers that eat away at your time and suck the energy out of your ability to grow and lead.

This also rings true for any business or corporation attempting to grow its sales force.  Achieving ultimate recruiting success relies heavily on the ability to duplicate a proven, effective business system with the strategically selected high-effort entrepreneurial individuals who will drive the business as passionately as you do.  It is the only way to ensure the long-term revenue growth of your organization. 

Regain Your Leverage – Don’t Be Desperate

This can only occur if we are able to attract and then quickly evaluate a candidate’s skill and ability early on in the process.  What I am saying is that you need to become discerning about who it is you desire to bring into your organization.  Accurately doing so is vital not only to estimating how much coaching time and effort the prospective candidate will require in order to independently drive their business, but also how to best go about equipping, empowering and training them in a way that best unlocks their potential.  What we’re really vying for here is to effectively identify those high-effort individuals who can quickly assimilate and implement what has been taught. 

Effort Is The Key

When I’ve consulted with hiring managers of corporations, I would teach that they must identify each of their teams’ personality types in order to effectively communicate, instruct and empower each to get the results they desired.    However, in a direct sales model a novice really doesn’t need this tool in their tool kit to be successful because what I want my team to do is purely empower and manage effort….that’s it.   I have found that since effort is the key ingredient here, I can teach a less experienced individual how to focus on identifying and managing effort quite easily. 

In these situations, my goal is to prevent my team wasting time on those that will not provide a good ROI, which is a big complaint that I hear because it is a stumbling block for so many.  The second biggest complaint I hear is creating value for the training effort and help you provide them.  Much like a child, if value is not established for your time from the beginning they will continue with that perspective and be habitually needy. 

The other shortfall to catering to that mindset is that in the end, you will have actually robbed them of the satisfaction of  achieving independence.  Remember, we want to empower those that want to take the bull by the horns, not be lassoed to “Dr Phil” them.  Let another business opportunity take on that responsibility, but I would strongly advise against shackling yourself to those types of projects.

It All Starts In The Recruiting Process

It all starts with identifying the effort level of any viable candidate quickly and accurately.  This is essential because the pattern will be set by the time they come aboard and you will find yourself to be locked into a high-maintenance mentor rut.  Plus, the added bonus of early identification is knowing who not to actively pursue.   But how do I determine that so early in the process?

Every manager in any structure feels that the time and effort they provide is rarely valued and often taken for granted.  To correct this, there is a method I teach to achieve quick effort identification while at the same time increasing the value of the instruction you provide within the recruiting process.  I employ a technique I call an “effort pass-code” and found it to be very helpful.  It provides a platform for the candidate to earn your time, creating a partnership rather than a parent child relationship. 

Put A Pass-Code On It

“Effort Pass-Coding” involves finding out what they need from you, and then committing to meet that need on your terms once they complete a related task (earning the effort pass-code) which will allow them to become a vested partner in receiving what they request.  If I’m trying to identify a candidate’s true effort level, I will “effort pass-code” as many things as possible.  It’s pretty neat because there are so many opportunities to apply the technique. 

If for example, I am asked to spend some time to discuss the business opportunity specifics or provide answers to marketing questions, I state that I would love to, but I need them to do something to help them prepare.  I need them to gather information on the topic, take notes and be prepared to discuss them with me, which will allow our conversation to be far more productive.  I then ask them when they believe they can get that done.   I schedule a time for them to call me on the deadline they made. 

Maybe you have an application process or paperwork that needs to be completed.  This is a great way to have them complete those and find out how effort driven they are.

You can find out a lot about a person from how they handle that type of interaction.  How far out did they place the deadline?  Did they follow through on their commitment? How eager were they to get that done when you placed a little obstacle in the way?  Pay attention because this is exactly how they will deal with obstacles in the business if they come onboard.   From that information I have found that I can typically place people in one of four effort categories.

The 4 Effort Level Categories

The 4 main effort level categories are:

The four main effort level categories are:

1. The All Star – High effort, high achiever.  Self motivated and desires to be independent.

2. The Talent Tease – Masquerades as if they are an All-Star in order to gain leverage and have you come after them.   You chase after their potential but realize that they are not self-driven and in the end, realize that you want success for them more than they want it for themselves.

3. The Jogger – This is more of an analytical person.  It’s not bad to have joggers on your team because of their consistency.  Their analytical nature makes their sales process longer but they respond to “effort pass-coding” but will typically set the deadlines farther out to make sure they do a good job.  They are information gatherers so give them assignments and point them in the right direction.  Have a fear of failure so they desire to do it right and their perfectionist nature makes their pace slower.

4. The Eeyore – Yes from Winnie The Pooh.  They’ll make you want to rescue them.  Don’t do it – just stay away.

So when recruiting, your immediate focus should be to quickly identify the effort level of your candidate or prospective addition to your organization through “effort pass-coding”.  Remember that it is not quantity but rather the quality of the individuals added which will drive your revenue.  Another added benefit is if your organization has an internal training program and coaching system, which will take a lot of the “heavy lifting” off of you and free you to continue to grow your business.  Additionally beneficial is a business, which is positioned where prospects are pursuing you to earn the opportunity to be a part of the organization.  This totally alters the scale and gives you the leverage to be more discerning about who you will bring into your sales organization and spend time training. 

Conclusion

Most business opportunity processes can be easily tweaked to incorporate these strategies.  If not, there are enough good business opportunities out there that have a system and culture that gives you the freedom to determine who you want to work with.  As a resource to provide information about identifying the right opportunity for you; read the article “From The Business Chiropractor: Getting Your Business Spine in Line” in the BizCoachBlog.  You can also review “Cash For Clunkers: A Business Perspective” where I discuss the commitment to your goals, and not to get too hung up on the vehicle you’ve chosen because it can be traded in.  Both were written purely for the purpose of prioritizing your life goals and identifying and determining if a business opportunity is the ideal fit for you.

Written by:
R. Patrick Daugherty
The Biz Coach

For more information on Patrick feel free to visit:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickdaugherty

http://learn2earnitnow.biz

http://learn2earnitnow.com

Effectively using social media is becoming increasingly vital for any online business marketing and branding.  Simple tips that are (what I call) “effort-efficient” to communicate with your network in order to move them to action is paramount to accomplishing aggressive marketing goals for your online business. Sending mass e-mails using Facebook is of course easier and faster than sending separate e-mails to all of your Facebook friends yet many do not know how to do so.

It’s important to learn how to use this feature to simplify your life and save your time. It’s quite easy to learn, and takes only a few minutes to execute, even for the initial setup.

Step 1

Sign into your Facebook account, using the user name and password.

Step 2

From your dashboard, find the ‘”Friends” link on the left side of your computer screen. When you’re taken to the next page, look to the left of your screen again and you’ll see a link titled “Lists.” If you’ve never created lists in Facebook, you’ll have to create them in order to send mass e-mails.

This is where I emphasize that you create and maintain a list of your Facebook friends.  If you haven’t done this before then you might want to start by making a list that includes all of your friends.  This is the only real “donkey work” that you’ll have to do in the front end. There are many justifications for multiple lists to organize your business friends, such as if you have certain competitors that you don’t want taking your ideas or if you have both friends & business relationships using the same page. 

I typically suggest that there be 2 different accounts that are applicable to both but there are arguments on either side of that issue. You will also want to create a list if you start a “group” as well in order to have a list of those that have joined and communicate with them separately.

Step 3

 After creating your lists, visit your inbox using the link at the top of your screen. You’ll see to the right a link which will allow you to “Compose a New Message.” Click that link, and an option will come up, allowing you to e-mail a list or individual friends. Enter the list that you’d like to mass e-mail.

NOTE: New to Facebook is a requirement that each list can only be 20 people or less. This basically means that you need to make a list for every 20 then put all those lists in the email “To:” section.  This adds a little more donkey work in the front end however it is still just as easy to execute once set up.

Step 4

Paste the pre-written message into the text box, and create a title for the message so your friends will know what you’re writing to them about. When you’re sure that the message is pasted just proof it and correct. I typically write it in Word and then paste so that I can use the editor and auto spell-check.

Step 5

Click the send button below the text box.

Again, organizing and maintaining your lists are important and more laborious to do if you wait till your over 1000 friends.  The better your lists are maintained the more effective you will be at moving your network to action.

Good luck & happy Social Marketing!

Your Coach & Biggest Fan

Patrick Daugherty

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Many of you have at least heard about how Google has tightened the reigns on internet advertising.  Well for some they’ve come down hard, “big time” since the end of August 09 with little warning or explanation.  The background is pretty interesting regarding what motivated this change and how it came about.  If you’ve been affected then understanding why  and how to react accordingly definitely will help your business marketing effectiveness.

Google was backed into a corner and the changes were made as a direct result of pressure put on by the FTC.  Pressure specifically brought to bear by David C. Vladeck who was appointed by Barrack Obama to head up the Bureau of Consumer Protection within the FTC.

One thing to remember is that the FTC approved Google’s acquisition of Double-Click last year which many argued was a clear tossing aside of anti-trust laws in vertical market mergers.  It has appeared that they are far more aware of ramifications born from that controversial decision; seemingly recognizing that it essentially created a big advertising gorilla that didn’t effectively police itself.   So, much like when baseball enjoyed so many HGH induced homeruns while MLB turned a blind eye; the government felt they needed to flex their lawmaking muscle a bit.  With that being the case and with a new sheriff Vladeck in town, the stage was set for some major changes to be made.

The concern stems from the far-reaching freedom of any company or individual to make any claims based on their product or service they wanted to as long as they had a disclaimer at the bottom of their site.  Such disclaimers would routinely begin with such verbiage as “The claims made on this site do not guarantee that you will experience the same results.   Individual results will vary greatly and in accordance to….”.  The truth is that this does not protect the potential customer and actually allows the advertiser to essentially have a green light to use unverifiable claims – especially when used in business or business opportunity advertising.

In his first 90 days Vladeck had gone on record as saying that the industry’s attempts to police itself were not good enough and met with industry execs to talk about the issue.  In fact in his first six weeks on the job, he asked Congress for a bigger budget and for a streamlined way to create regulations.  He also stated that he would hire technologists to help analyze online marketers’ tracking.

The end result was the FTC brandishing their big “whooping stick” to put pressure on Google to reign in their biggest moneymaker. Given the fact that approximately 95% of Google’s revenue comes from advertising, it says a lot about the leverage they feel they have (ie we made you a Goliath by approving the merger and we can take you out).

So what does that mean to all of us in the advertising community?  Well, if you are advertising a business opportunity that uses large or (what appears to be) unsubstantiated compensation claims, a website template hosted by such a business opportunity without original content you are getting flagged, slapped or suspended all together (aka The Google Slap).  The problem is that there are legitimate companies that are being drastically affected because they are being misidentified as being the same business opportunity animal.  I know of several affiliate marketers that were spending over $100,000 a month on Google Adwords advertising whose accounts are presently suspended altogether.  Ouch!

From what I hear, if it happens to you you’ll find the quality score of your keywords will immediately drop from good or excellent (7+/10) to poor (1/10) due solely to being determined to have low website/landing page quality.  Your ads will then rarely be shown if at all.

Personally, I think Google is taking a hard swing to show they are taking the FTC bullying seriously and then as dad has his back turned, focusing on other troubled children in the business playground, they will then slowly ease off.  But make no mistake, I believe these restrictions are here to stay they just wont be as militant about it.  The famed Google Algorithms will balance out and find a happy medium but still keep out those that might give internet marketing a bad reputation.

The bottom line is that even though I abhor government intrusion, the original motivation was to keep out many of those in our industry who muddy the waters and which my friends, is actually a good thing.  The problem is that it has been poorly executed creating collateral damage.

Those that have been “’flagged or slapped” need to retool their marketing strategy.  If you’ve been drastically affected then you don’t need anyone to tell you that you’ve put too many eggs in the Google Adwords basket.  You have to diversify your marketing methods!  They must also closely examine their site content, where the site forwards too, who hosts it (ie web templates provided by their business opportunity).  This will force many to rethink their business relationships and chosen business opportunities, especially if it is MLM or Network Marketing in nature.

Change ALWAYS presents opportunity.  If you can retool, regroup and adapt you will be positioned properly to capitalize on that opportunity because unfortunately most become discouraged, lose heart and do not. For ideas on diversifying your advertising strategies, review my article “Hit Your Target When Advertising Your Business Online”.  There you’ll find 11 options available for you to take advantage of that will allow you to better diversify your marketing strategy.

Written by:

Patrick Daugherty

The Biz Coach

www.Learn2earnitnow.biz