Why Your Prospect Didn't Respond To Your First Mailing And What To Do About It!
PROFIT INTERNATIONAL
People get involved in Network Marketing and they mail this and mail that... with little to no success. The quicker you realize that MLM requires consistent and orderly follow-up work... the quicker you?ll get that commission check you so desire!
Most people fail to understand that Marketing is not a one-shot deal. Marketing is a repetitive task that requires a series of calculated steps. People don?t usually buy something the first time they see or hear about it. Especially these days with all the half-truths perpetuated through the mail and on the Internet. Your prospect is very skeptical of your offer. Aren?t you wary of money-making offers you get in the mail and online? Most people are!
Let me ask you a question: Did you go out and buy a VCR the very first time you heard about this supposedly wonderful, new invention? Probably not. Did you buy a CD player the first year they came out? Most likely not. Even the two largest soft drink companies: Coca-Cola and Pepsi still spends millions on TV, radio, newspaper, magazine and billboard advertisements each year, although they?re already a ?house-hold? name.
Pepsi and Coke want you to think about them morning, noon, and night. And you do. Their marketing message is always in your face. They know if they want to make money... a lot of money... they have to constantly remind you (their prospect) of their existence. Otherwise, you?ll forget about them. The same principle applies when you?re building your MLM business. You must be in your prospects mind on a regular basis or they?ll forget about you and they wont join you. Is your marketing message always in your prospects face? Or do you just send out one or two mailings and wait for a downline to build automatically at your door?
Remember, your prospect isn?t thinking about you constantly. THOUSANDS of other messages grace their ears and eyes every week, saying "Join me... buy me!" Yours is just one in a few thousand. What makes you think they even remember your name after they throw your postcard or package on their kitchen counters?or delete your email?
When your prospect requests your material, he/she has requested 5 or 6 others that very same day. Your prospect isn?t sitting in a room with no windows eagerly waiting for their email or regular mail everyday. You must realize that there are a hundred different reasons why your prospect didn?t respond to your first mailing. And if you look at the way your life is, you do many of the same things.
Maybe your prospect was on vacation and had too much email or regular mail when they returned, to look your package over very carefully. And if they don?t read your material in its entirety they won?t join. People are very pressed for time these days. The same way you?re probably pressed for time. Maybe the post office never delivered your package. Don?t think for a second that just because you mailed out 100 packages that ALL 100 packages reached its destination. Maybe your email never reached your prospect. Email is not 100% deliverable. It gets lost too.
The list doesn?t stop here. Maybe the recipient of your mailing just lost their job and is afraid of spending any money right now. Maybe they came home, had a big fight with their spouse, their boss embarrassed them at work and they threw all their mail in the trash and deleted all of their email messages because they were plain fed up with life. I could go on and on. But, I think you get my point. So, you?re probably wondering what you must do to get your prospects to read your material. You?re probably wondering what you must do to keep your program in your prospects thoughts, morning, noon, and night so they join you.
Well, there is a secret weapon that the pros use to build downlines in the THOUSANDS and commission checks in the TENS OF THOUSANDS. They do it by using: FOLLOW-UP! That?s right. The pros never just mail once or twice and forget about the person when they don?t join right away. Even the successful part-timer follows-up with each of their leads numerous times. Follow-up is the secret weapon you must use to build your organization.
Otherwise, it will never grow, causing you great pain and frustration. Forget about those programs that tell you their self-mailer or tape sells the program for you. It?s simply not true. YOU must sell your program. YOU must do the work required to get your prospect thinking of you constantly. You do this by developing a follow-up system. This system should be an on-going routine to connect with your prospect at least 7 times over a 3 or 4 month period.
This system should include various follow-up letters and, yes, the infamous phone call as well. This is how you build a relationship with your prospect. And building a relationship with your prospect is how you get people to join your program instead of someone else?s. Let me detail to you the follow-up system I use very successful in building my downline. Take note, and modify my system to fit your program. Now the real work begins ...
STEP 1:
First you need to brainstorm all the benefits of your program (I'll get more into the step-by-step process for creating benefits in a later lesson). Write them down, one by one. Try to concentrate on the various ways you and your upline team helps new members in recruiting their new members. Such as: your co-op advertising program, your monthly newsletter, your postcard system, 3-way calls, your online recruiting system, etc. This area is the most important. Then list all the ways your company's products will improve the lives of your prospect.
Save the details of the compensation plan for your company brochure. No one really cares about the compensation plan until they know how you?ll be helping them and how your products will improve their lives.
STEP 2:
Next you need to develop at least 3 follow-up letters using the benefits you?ve brainstormed above. Each letter should have its own "benefit-theme." The reason each letter needs to have its own "benefit-theme" is because no prospect is exactly alike. They each have their own hot-buttons that motivates them to take action. Each "benefit-theme" of your letter should revolve around the letters headline.
Your follow-up letters should restate your offer to your prospect. Just like a good sales letter, you should be striving to solve your prospects? problems, generate excitement, and get them to respond NOW. But, remember, the most important product you?re selling is yourself. You?re inviting your prospect to be a partner in your business. Make sure you use a benefit rich headline, sub-heads, and pile on benefit after benefit.
If you mail out 100 postcards for every new person who joins, don?t be shy about telling them! If you send out a monthly newsletter to your group, let them know this. If you help your members work with their leads, let them know this. If you train your new members by using 3-way phone calls, again, let them know this. If you have an online recruiting system, tell them about it. They want to know these things. Leave the hype of your marvelous pay-plan to your company brochure.
In short, TELL them what 95% of your competition never tell them. Namely why you are the sponsor of their dreams. Give them your phone number and urge them to call you. And when they do, you better make darn sure you know the details of your program so you can properly answer their questions. Otherwise, they?ll lose faith in you and join with someone else.
STEP 3:
Now that you have your 3 powerful follow-up letters, you need to integrate them with a few follow-up phone calls to make a complete follow-up system. Here?s what your follow-up system should look like, if you were using the regular mail:
Contact #1--
You mail out your lead-generating postcard or letter. If you don't have one, go upline in your organization until you find someone who does. If you don't strike any oil upline, then you will have to either develop your own postcard or letter (I'll show you how in a later chapter) -- or have it done by a professional copywriter.
Contact #2--
When you get responses from your postcard mailing, you follow-up with your first letter, and company brochure within 24-hours of receiving the initial request. Your prospect is now eagerly awaiting the material they asked for. Right now they're HOT. Don't let them cool off by waiting a week or heavens forbid, a month, before you send out your material. By that time they will forgot about you and may just toss your material in the trash as junk mail once they get it.
Contact #3--
After about 7-days give your prospect a call to see if they received the material and to answer any of their questions. People need to hear your voice to lower their anxieties about you and your money-making promises. They need to know that there really is a human behind all the paper. When you call just find out if they received your material and ask when they would like to get started. This is an easy way to start off the discussion without sounding pushy.
Contact #4--
If they haven?t joined in 30-days, send your second letter along with another application. They may have misplaced or lost the first application. Don't leave anything to chance when prospecting via mail. If your prospect is ready to join because they were excited by your second mailing and they can't easily find your application from the first mailing, it's a good chance they won't join.
Contact #5--
After about 7-days give your prospect a call to see if they received the material and to answer any of their questions. At this point your prospect is saying to themselves,
"Wow, I can't believe she's still trying. She most really be serious about this business opportunity."
Most others at this point have dropped off the face of the map. But you haven't. They see you as more professional and the serious ones are seriously considering your opportunity now.
Contact #6--
If they haven?t joined after 30 more days, send your third letter along with company brochure. You may also want to include a copy of your newsletter or your upline's? newsletter to prove to them the type of support you give in your group. Now you have pulled out all stops. You have shown that you're serious about your business opportunity and you're in it for the long haul.
You are, aren't you?
If they don't join at this point, it's safe to assume they either found another opportunity, your timing was bad, or they were never really serious from the beginning. But life goes on. There's plenty of other fish in the sea eagerly awaiting a professional like you!
Contact #7--
After about 7-days give your prospect a call to see if they received the material and to answer any of their questions. This is how you get your prospects to join you as opposed to your competition. All this may seem like a lot of work and it costs a little more money to implement, but it?s better than doing one shot mailings and having no one join you.
Think about it!
a sight variation?
If you really despise using the phone to follow-up with prospects, you can just mail your follow-up letters. But you must mail them every month for a whole year. So with your 3 follow-up letters, after you send out your third letter, you start form letter #1 all over again. Repeat this process for 1 year to get them to join. If your prospect calls you to ask more questions, you definitely have a hot prospect.
Send them more information like a recruiting tape your group uses or invite them to your company's next conference call if one is available.
end of slight variation?
If you are building your MLM business online (the way I currently do) ? following up becomes a breeze. You would use what I call a "smart auto-responder." A "smart auto-responder" is a specialized tool that automatically sends out personalized email messages to your prospects over a 90 day period. You simply give the tool your follow-up messages, and the name and email address of each prospect ? and the tool does the follow-up work for you. I?ll tell you more about how to properly use "smart auto-responders" later in this book when we get to the chapters on using the Internet to build your MLM business.
Remember, your prospect IS NOT thinking about you night and day. You must make them think of you constantly by following-up with each and every prospect. Now that you know why your prospect didn?t respond to your first mailing and how to create a proper follow-up system, you have no excuse for not connecting with them again and again. Let me inform you of a little secret. Training and education will be your keys to success in MLM. So get as much of the two as you can.
People get involved in Network Marketing and they mail this and mail that... with little to no success. The quicker you realize that MLM requires consistent and orderly follow-up work... the quicker you?ll get that commission check you so desire!
Most people fail to understand that Marketing is not a one-shot deal. Marketing is a repetitive task that requires a series of calculated steps. People don?t usually buy something the first time they see or hear about it. Especially these days with all the half-truths perpetuated through the mail and on the Internet. Your prospect is very skeptical of your offer. Aren?t you wary of money-making offers you get in the mail and online? Most people are!
Let me ask you a question: Did you go out and buy a VCR the very first time you heard about this supposedly wonderful, new invention? Probably not. Did you buy a CD player the first year they came out? Most likely not. Even the two largest soft drink companies: Coca-Cola and Pepsi still spends millions on TV, radio, newspaper, magazine and billboard advertisements each year, although they?re already a ?house-hold? name.
Pepsi and Coke want you to think about them morning, noon, and night. And you do. Their marketing message is always in your face. They know if they want to make money... a lot of money... they have to constantly remind you (their prospect) of their existence. Otherwise, you?ll forget about them. The same principle applies when you?re building your MLM business. You must be in your prospects mind on a regular basis or they?ll forget about you and they wont join you. Is your marketing message always in your prospects face? Or do you just send out one or two mailings and wait for a downline to build automatically at your door?
Remember, your prospect isn?t thinking about you constantly. THOUSANDS of other messages grace their ears and eyes every week, saying "Join me... buy me!" Yours is just one in a few thousand. What makes you think they even remember your name after they throw your postcard or package on their kitchen counters?or delete your email?
When your prospect requests your material, he/she has requested 5 or 6 others that very same day. Your prospect isn?t sitting in a room with no windows eagerly waiting for their email or regular mail everyday. You must realize that there are a hundred different reasons why your prospect didn?t respond to your first mailing. And if you look at the way your life is, you do many of the same things.
Maybe your prospect was on vacation and had too much email or regular mail when they returned, to look your package over very carefully. And if they don?t read your material in its entirety they won?t join. People are very pressed for time these days. The same way you?re probably pressed for time. Maybe the post office never delivered your package. Don?t think for a second that just because you mailed out 100 packages that ALL 100 packages reached its destination. Maybe your email never reached your prospect. Email is not 100% deliverable. It gets lost too.
The list doesn?t stop here. Maybe the recipient of your mailing just lost their job and is afraid of spending any money right now. Maybe they came home, had a big fight with their spouse, their boss embarrassed them at work and they threw all their mail in the trash and deleted all of their email messages because they were plain fed up with life. I could go on and on. But, I think you get my point. So, you?re probably wondering what you must do to get your prospects to read your material. You?re probably wondering what you must do to keep your program in your prospects thoughts, morning, noon, and night so they join you.
Well, there is a secret weapon that the pros use to build downlines in the THOUSANDS and commission checks in the TENS OF THOUSANDS. They do it by using: FOLLOW-UP! That?s right. The pros never just mail once or twice and forget about the person when they don?t join right away. Even the successful part-timer follows-up with each of their leads numerous times. Follow-up is the secret weapon you must use to build your organization.
Otherwise, it will never grow, causing you great pain and frustration. Forget about those programs that tell you their self-mailer or tape sells the program for you. It?s simply not true. YOU must sell your program. YOU must do the work required to get your prospect thinking of you constantly. You do this by developing a follow-up system. This system should be an on-going routine to connect with your prospect at least 7 times over a 3 or 4 month period.
This system should include various follow-up letters and, yes, the infamous phone call as well. This is how you build a relationship with your prospect. And building a relationship with your prospect is how you get people to join your program instead of someone else?s. Let me detail to you the follow-up system I use very successful in building my downline. Take note, and modify my system to fit your program. Now the real work begins ...
STEP 1:
First you need to brainstorm all the benefits of your program (I'll get more into the step-by-step process for creating benefits in a later lesson). Write them down, one by one. Try to concentrate on the various ways you and your upline team helps new members in recruiting their new members. Such as: your co-op advertising program, your monthly newsletter, your postcard system, 3-way calls, your online recruiting system, etc. This area is the most important. Then list all the ways your company's products will improve the lives of your prospect.
Save the details of the compensation plan for your company brochure. No one really cares about the compensation plan until they know how you?ll be helping them and how your products will improve their lives.
STEP 2:
Next you need to develop at least 3 follow-up letters using the benefits you?ve brainstormed above. Each letter should have its own "benefit-theme." The reason each letter needs to have its own "benefit-theme" is because no prospect is exactly alike. They each have their own hot-buttons that motivates them to take action. Each "benefit-theme" of your letter should revolve around the letters headline.
Your follow-up letters should restate your offer to your prospect. Just like a good sales letter, you should be striving to solve your prospects? problems, generate excitement, and get them to respond NOW. But, remember, the most important product you?re selling is yourself. You?re inviting your prospect to be a partner in your business. Make sure you use a benefit rich headline, sub-heads, and pile on benefit after benefit.
If you mail out 100 postcards for every new person who joins, don?t be shy about telling them! If you send out a monthly newsletter to your group, let them know this. If you help your members work with their leads, let them know this. If you train your new members by using 3-way phone calls, again, let them know this. If you have an online recruiting system, tell them about it. They want to know these things. Leave the hype of your marvelous pay-plan to your company brochure.
In short, TELL them what 95% of your competition never tell them. Namely why you are the sponsor of their dreams. Give them your phone number and urge them to call you. And when they do, you better make darn sure you know the details of your program so you can properly answer their questions. Otherwise, they?ll lose faith in you and join with someone else.
STEP 3:
Now that you have your 3 powerful follow-up letters, you need to integrate them with a few follow-up phone calls to make a complete follow-up system. Here?s what your follow-up system should look like, if you were using the regular mail:
Contact #1--
You mail out your lead-generating postcard or letter. If you don't have one, go upline in your organization until you find someone who does. If you don't strike any oil upline, then you will have to either develop your own postcard or letter (I'll show you how in a later chapter) -- or have it done by a professional copywriter.
Contact #2--
When you get responses from your postcard mailing, you follow-up with your first letter, and company brochure within 24-hours of receiving the initial request. Your prospect is now eagerly awaiting the material they asked for. Right now they're HOT. Don't let them cool off by waiting a week or heavens forbid, a month, before you send out your material. By that time they will forgot about you and may just toss your material in the trash as junk mail once they get it.
Contact #3--
After about 7-days give your prospect a call to see if they received the material and to answer any of their questions. People need to hear your voice to lower their anxieties about you and your money-making promises. They need to know that there really is a human behind all the paper. When you call just find out if they received your material and ask when they would like to get started. This is an easy way to start off the discussion without sounding pushy.
Contact #4--
If they haven?t joined in 30-days, send your second letter along with another application. They may have misplaced or lost the first application. Don't leave anything to chance when prospecting via mail. If your prospect is ready to join because they were excited by your second mailing and they can't easily find your application from the first mailing, it's a good chance they won't join.
Contact #5--
After about 7-days give your prospect a call to see if they received the material and to answer any of their questions. At this point your prospect is saying to themselves,
"Wow, I can't believe she's still trying. She most really be serious about this business opportunity."
Most others at this point have dropped off the face of the map. But you haven't. They see you as more professional and the serious ones are seriously considering your opportunity now.
Contact #6--
If they haven?t joined after 30 more days, send your third letter along with company brochure. You may also want to include a copy of your newsletter or your upline's? newsletter to prove to them the type of support you give in your group. Now you have pulled out all stops. You have shown that you're serious about your business opportunity and you're in it for the long haul.
You are, aren't you?
If they don't join at this point, it's safe to assume they either found another opportunity, your timing was bad, or they were never really serious from the beginning. But life goes on. There's plenty of other fish in the sea eagerly awaiting a professional like you!
Contact #7--
After about 7-days give your prospect a call to see if they received the material and to answer any of their questions. This is how you get your prospects to join you as opposed to your competition. All this may seem like a lot of work and it costs a little more money to implement, but it?s better than doing one shot mailings and having no one join you.
Think about it!
a sight variation?
If you really despise using the phone to follow-up with prospects, you can just mail your follow-up letters. But you must mail them every month for a whole year. So with your 3 follow-up letters, after you send out your third letter, you start form letter #1 all over again. Repeat this process for 1 year to get them to join. If your prospect calls you to ask more questions, you definitely have a hot prospect.
Send them more information like a recruiting tape your group uses or invite them to your company's next conference call if one is available.
end of slight variation?
If you are building your MLM business online (the way I currently do) ? following up becomes a breeze. You would use what I call a "smart auto-responder." A "smart auto-responder" is a specialized tool that automatically sends out personalized email messages to your prospects over a 90 day period. You simply give the tool your follow-up messages, and the name and email address of each prospect ? and the tool does the follow-up work for you. I?ll tell you more about how to properly use "smart auto-responders" later in this book when we get to the chapters on using the Internet to build your MLM business.
Remember, your prospect IS NOT thinking about you night and day. You must make them think of you constantly by following-up with each and every prospect. Now that you know why your prospect didn?t respond to your first mailing and how to create a proper follow-up system, you have no excuse for not connecting with them again and again. Let me inform you of a little secret. Training and education will be your keys to success in MLM. So get as much of the two as you can.
All articles by Christopher Sewell
Big MLM Blunders: 5 Reasons People Don't Make Money In Network Marketing!
Why You Must Promote Your MLM Business On The Internet If You Want To Make Money In MLM!
Why Your Prospect Didn't Respond To Your First Mailing And What To Do About It!
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