The Notification Principle
Out of every 100 people in your warm market right now, 15-20 of them are actively looking for a way to make an extra income. This short essay is for new Team Partners moving through the completely natural process of first-week nerves – especially when it comes to talking to people they know. Enjoy.
You’re ecstatic! Your ex-work colleague from 5 years ago, Sandra, has navigated our Acumen Strategic Partners’ website, taken the tour, pulled out her debit card and joined your team as an Independent Team Partner. As a professional Sponsor you’ve set up your “Getting Started” training within the first 48 hours of your new Partner’s network marketing career. You sit down at the kitchen table with your new colleague, pull out your manual and immediately turn to the “Memory Jogger” section and start reading…
Who do you know with red hair? Who do you know that drives a nice car? Who does your taxes? Who drives your taxis? Who does your hair? Who cuts your lawn? Who does your car repairs? Do you have your college directory handy? How about your pre-school yearbook?!
You keep going – you know the drill well, you’ve done it many times before. You take a moment between reading questions to breathe and look across the table at your new Team Partner’s list, and to your dismay… there are only five names on it! There should be at least fifty by now!
You look up to see fear and doubt on your new Team Partner’s face as she shrugs and says: “I really don’t know anybody else”.
Out of frustration, you ask a few more questions from your memory jogger… but still, your new Team Partner comes up blank. Your excitement fizzles fast as you think you realise that once again you’ve sponsored a “tyre-kicker”.
But did you really sponsor a tyre-kicker (no), or did something else go terribly wrong (yes)?
We lip-sync through this unnatural and uncomfortable exercise, yet we rarely take a moment to see if it actually works or not (or is even ethical or not). Why don’t we just stop for a moment and consider what’s going through your new Team Partner’s mind. Could she be thinking, “I don’t want to talk to anybody about this business until I start making money myself” or “I’m not comfortable having my Sponsor talk to my friends about this…” or maybe, “The more names I put down the more rejection I might have to face”.
Or maybe you have Team Partners who say, “Oh, I don’t want to talk to my friends and relatives. They wouldn’t understand. I couldn’t convince them to join my program. Instead, let me talk to total strangers from another part of the country. Maybe I’ll just try to sell them over the phone or by social media. Where can I run an ad or mail some postcards?”
If friends and close contacts don’t like your presentation, trust me, strangers will like your presentation even less. If we can’t enrol people we know, people with whom we already have some sort of positive relationship, what makes us think that we can enrol total strangers? Maybe we just think things will change if we find new people who don’t know us.
Let’s face it. When we decide to talk to strangers instead of our warm market contacts, we’re in essence saying to ourselves:
“I don’t believe in me; I don’t believe in my opportunity; I’m too apprehensive to talk to my friends; I’m worried about what my friends will think of me; I’m afraid that my friends will not join and that I’ll feel rejected; What if my program fails? I’d better make certain that I only sign up strangers who don’t know me; What if I fail? I wouldn’t want my friends and family to know that I even tried”.
If we decide to keep our opportunity a top secret from our friends and family, is that fair to them? No.
Our single obligation as professional network marketers…
The truth is our new Team Partners are not “tyre-kickers” (they’re generally quite the reverse), nor are they lazy. However, they are human beings and will avoid anything that involves rejection. Why not turn the exercise into something that your new Team Partner wants to do? What if you told your new Partner this…
“You don’t have to ask anyone on your list to join your network marketing business or even ask them to buy any product”
Not asking people to join your business is rejection-proof.
Even before we read our Welcome Pack, before we start improving our presentation, before we start working on ourselves, our self-image, or asking our Sponsor about Facebook ads, before anything else, we must first fulfil our one and only obligation in network marketing…
Do we have only one professional obligation in network marketing?
When you think about it, our job is to educate others about our services and about the residual income possibilities of network marketing. Once our prospective Team Partners are educated as to the facts, it is up to them to decide what is best for them.
Our job is not to convince our prospective Team Partners to buy from us or join. Acumen Strategic Partners is never about high-pressure selling, convincing, manipulating, cold calling or coercing. It’s simply giving prospective Team Partners an additional choice in their lives and allowing them to accept that choice if it helps them get what they want. That’s our job – educating our prospective Team Partners. That’s what we do as professional network marketers.
When I sponsor a new Team Partner I say the following:
“You are not obligated to harass your friends to come to opportunity meetings.” “You are not obligated to go to the company convention.” “You are not obligated to give recruiting presentations every night of the week.” “You are not even obligated to return my phone calls!”
Wow!
Now my new Team Partner is excited. He is thinking: “This is a great opportunity. I’m not obligated to do any of those things. But wait, he said there was an obligation – just one obligation”.
So what is that obligation?
Yes, we have only a single obligation to fulfil. Everything else in network marketing is optional. So what is that obligation in our business?
We must notify our friends, relatives, neighbours and co-workers that we have decided to start our own part-time marketing business.
That’s it. No fanfare, no gimmicks, no pressure, no blue highlighting (well, not much). There’s nothing more to our obligation. You see, we don’t have to sell our friends on our products, services or business opportunity. We don’t have to sponsor our neighbours into our network marketing business. We don’t have to invite our relatives or colleagues to watch the Company Presentation if they don’t ask us for more information.
I repeat:
Our only obligation is to notify our friends, relatives, neighbours and co-workers that we have decided to start our own part-time marketing business.
You mean we don’t have to constantly try to show our program to unwilling friends and relatives?
That’s right!
This is great news for beginner network marketers. We don’t have to make uncomfortable approaches to the people we know unless they specifically ask us to expand upon our simple notification. We don’t have to push or sell products upon the unwilling. We don’t need to make intrusive sales pitches during wedding receptions. Uplifting isn’t it? Network marketing isn’t so complicated or unnatural after all. Our part-time business revolves mainly around educating prospective Team Partners and (shock / horror) leaving them in peace to make their own decision in their own time. This is great news for our prospective Team Partners, and let’s face it, it’s nice to get that burden off our shoulders from the outset isn’t it?
Why is informing our contacts that we have started our own networking marketing business so important? Because we never want them to say:
“You never told me about your business.”
If we simply notify them that we’ve started a part-time business and we are looking for new Partners, many of our warm market contacts will simply nod their heads and say, “that’s nice” and continue reading page 3 of the Daily Star – and that’s okay. If they’re interested at any point they know they need only ask. If they are not interested then we can go on with our lives knowing that they were given the opportunity to get the full story – just by asking us for it.
Some of our contacts will say: “Hey, I’m not excited about my job either. I want a little more time with my family too. Tell me a little bit about this business would you?” And that’s okay. We can then give them as much information as they wish
KEY POINT: This is where we “make a sale” in the network marketing business – much gentler and much further upstream than most folks imagine. A simple request for more information from our prospective Team Partner is where a key part of the process unfolds.
The dreadful consequences of neglecting to notify:
If you don’t fulfil your obligation to notify your personal contacts ghastly things could happen! Imagine that you have been a part-time network marketer for the past six months. Your regular job paid your monthly expenses, so you were able to save all the extra income and now have enough money to take that dream holiday to the French Riviera.
As you enter the Air France 747 you think, “It was a great decision to do a little network marketing on the side. If my business continues to improve our family will be taking one of these nice holidays once every three months! Thank goodness my buddy told me about this network marketing opportunity.”
When you arrive in San Tropez, you’re taken to its glamorous beach. Gentle ocean waves help you relax in your hammock as the resort’s helpful staff serve your favourite beverage. The music is soothing. The wind is refreshing. The sunshine is a pleasant change from Old Blighty in August.
Aaaah… It doesn’t get any better than this.
But wait! You catch a glimpse of a small dot on the horizon – and it appears to be moving. The dot continues to grow. It’s moving towards you. You realise that the dot is actually a person dragging a smelly old blanket behind him. Soon that person walks right up to your spot on the beach, spreads his old blanket on the sand and plops down to catch some sun-rays. You look down at the figure on the blanket and suddenly realise you recognise this person. It’s your next door neighbour!
What a coincidence! You’re both surprised to see each other. You ask, “How come you’re here enjoying a nice holiday?” Your next door neighbour’s face droops. His brow wrinkles and he sadly mumbles, “Well, you know I live a miserable life. I have to keep three jobs going just to pay the rent for our family. I’m in debt up to my ears. My car loan is overdue. There is no chance to advance in my job. I don’t have a penny to my name. I’m doomed! So I thought I might as well take a three-day holiday just once in my life in order to have that single pleasant memory before I die. To get here I maxed out all five of my credit cards, but what the heck, you only live once.
What about you? How come you’re here?”
Now comes the moment of truth. You say, “I got started in my own part time network marketing business about six months ago. It’s really great. I get paid for just letting people know about it. I saved up quite easily and here we are. This part-time business is so good, we’re thinking about taking another weeks holiday here in three months. I tell you, this business is more than great! It’s awesome. In fact, it’s so wonderful that I… uh, uh… uh, I forgot to tell you about this, didn’t I?”
Don’t you think it is a little bit unfair not to tell your personal contacts about this great business? How would you feel if your neighbour quit his job, took family holidays every three months and never told you about his secret good fortune – while you slave away at a job you despise with a passion and for a boss you dislike even more?
Here’s another unfortunate scenario you could face if you fail to notify:
You’re at your second cousin’s third wedding. That evening, you find yourself sitting at one of the dinner tables with about twelve other guests. You notice your aunt, who at this point has had a bit too much free champagne, sitting at the same table. She’s dominating the conversation and to your surprise, one of the first things out of her mouth as she sits down is: “I’ve just joined this great home-based business last month called Acumen Strategic Partners and I’m doing great!” You can’t believe it! You joined Acumen Strategic Partners over a year ago and never once asked your aunt to join or even let her know that you got involved!
But it gets worse…
She then proceeds to go around the table asking each person if they’ve heard of Acumen Strategic Partners. She’s prospecting your warm market! You begin to sweat – not only are you angry about the fact that she could’ve been in your group had you only notified her when you got involved, but what are you going to say when she asks you if you’ve heard of Acumen Strategic Partners?! Are you going to say, “Yes, I’ve heard of Acumen Strategic Partners, actually I joined over a year ago but I didn’t think you would ever do the business, so I never let you know about it”.
If that wasn’t bad enough, three months later you’re at the company national convention. With each passing hour you get more and more excited about all the new announcements. The Team Partner recognition event begins. The higher the level of achievement, the more admiration you feel for those walking across the stage. All of sudden you hear your aunt’s name over the convention sound system. Could it be your aunt? Nah, must be someone else with the same name. Francesca P. Carbunkle is pretty common after all. You look up on stage and… it is your aunt, in all her pomp and glory walking proudly across the stage to accept her latest achievement award. As you stare at her in awe, you notice her wink directly at you!
Life’s not fair! You’ve been in the business a year longer, yet she’s the one on stage! Why is she on stage while you’re sitting in the nose-bleed section struggling just to get off the ground? For the next hour you zone out and make up dozens of different reasons justifying to yourself why she’s on stage and you’re not. “She got lucky and probably signed up three leaders in her first month! She has more time to build her business… She must have a better Sponsor than I do… It’s easier to build the business once you are at the higher levels… The people at the Corporate Office like her more than me… She’s more outgoing than I am… It’s okay if it takes me ten years longer than my aunt to get to the top – after all I’m at least ten years younger so we’ll be even… She’s got a better house for home meetings and a better laptop to show the company videos on”.
But we know the truth don’t we?
The bottom line is she notified and you didn’t. She also makes absolutely sure every Partner in her group graduates through The Notification Principle – and you don’t. No matter what else you do in your business, if you aren’t using The Notification Principle, the odds are your business isn’t growing as fast as you’d like it to.
Like I said – if you don’t fulfil your obligation to inform your personal contacts… ghastly things could happen!
Remember, we must give our personal contacts the opportunity to ask us for more information. We don’t have to (and shouldn’t) force our presentation upon them. We don’t have to high-pressure them to become our Team Partner. We only work with the willing, after all. All we have to do is give them additional information if they ask for it.
Now let’s take a look at notification from another perspective…
Picture this: Let’s imagine you opened a shoe shop in your local shopping centre. Wouldn’t you notify everyone you know that you’ve opened your own shoe shop? Of course you would.
You wouldn’t pressure them to come and buy shoes that day. You wouldn’t take some boxes of shoes with you to sell at the family Christmas dinner and you wouldn’t be passing out shoe samples at funeral receptions would you? You’d simply notify everyone you know that you’ve opened your own shoe shop. Then, when the time was right for them to purchase a pair of shoes, there’s a good chance they’d contact you.
It’s the same way in our business. Not everyone is ready to start their own part-time business today. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next year, but for most of your contacts today is not the day and that’s okay. Out of every 100 people in your warm market right now 15-20 are seriously looking for an additional way to make an extra income.
However, in most cases you never get those 15-20 people to raise their hand to let you know they’re a hot prospective Team Partner! Why? Because in most cases, new Team Partners will only contact the first 5-10 people on their list. By that point, if they’re approaching in the wrong way, they’ve already gotten enough rejection to last them the next twenty-five years. They will never get through their entire list to find the 15-20 excited prospective Team Partners that are ready right now.
So, when you sit down to ask your new Team Partners to write down the names of everyone in their warm market, share The Notification Principle with them first. And share with them the ghastly things that could happen if they don’t simply notify everyone in their warm market! That way, instead of having them lean backwards fighting you every step of the way, they will lean forward and be eager to write down the names of everyone they know.
Adapted by Phil Col-Cluff from an original work by Art Jonak.
