A Valuable Lesson on Mindset vs. Skill from a REAL Black Belt Master…

However, just in case you wish to have the security of a broad and powerful skill set, for only this month, Raymond and I are offering you 4 additional training bonuses, with your purchase of Black Belt Recruiting.

They include training in Google Adwords, Squidoo & Social Content Marketing, MySpace Marketing and Video Marketing from top networking leaders such as Jim Yaghi, Dennis Karganilla and others.

Head over to: www.BlackBeltRecruitingBonuses.com

The Things You can Learn From Chinese Peddlers and What That Has to Do With Your Online MLM Leads

“Fake it till you make it.”
- Your Upline

From the Hotel Room of:
Raymond Fong; Shanghai, China.
June 3, 2008 -

Oh wow, if you haven’t ever visited Shanghai, you should definitely do yourself a favor and check it out some day.

The history and culture is extensive, the food amazing and a bit “different” at times (I just had a duck and a snapping turtle in the same sitting and washed both of them down with some local beer), and the way of the people quite intriguing.

Being in the land of shopping and bargaining and being the marketer that I am, you bet I am paying close attention to the sales tactics being demonstrated here at Yu Bazaar.

What I’ve discovered is that what works for Chinese peddlers selling Gucci knock-offs will not work for you as a network marketer.

Let’s examine.

The streets of Yu Bazaar are flanked by little stalls and holes-in-the-wall stores selling everything from purses, suits, children toys, to antiques. As my girlfriend and I were walking around, taking in the bustling streets, we were approached countless number of times by peddlers selling knock-offs.

The first time it happened my girlfriend yelped and almost punched the poor guy in the face. I can’t blame her. Heck, I was about to punch the guy in the face myself. You see, the guy crept up on us out of nowhere from behind.

As we were walking from one stall to another, he somehow managed to sneak up RIGHT behind us and said “watches, sunglasses, bags***” in his broken and heavily accented English (never mind that we were not in the market for watches, sunglasses, nor bags).

We were like, “Holy gazooks where’d this guy come from?“ He could’ve just as easily have said, “Give me your money – I am robbing you.“

The Mistakes That Almost Got Him a Bloody Nose

Now you see why he almost got socked in the face? These are just a few of the mistakes he made:

Eerily Similar Isn’t It?

You might laugh but sadly, that’s very close to the same approach some network marketers take when it comes to prospecting. They are sweating bullets when it comes time to prospect. They think that if they come unnoticed on their unsuspecting prospect, it’s a good thing.

WRONG.

If you sneak up on your prospect, right away you trip your prospect’s defense mechanism and all he/she can think about are to either punch you in the face and/or start running.

Either way it’s bad business

Of course, then we come to the question of whom they tend to prospect. Whom do they target? Everyone and anyone that breathes and moves. They think that they should prospect and sponsor everyone from their mother to their neighbor’s godson’s pet parrot.

As you may know from studying Attraction Marketing Formula, that’s a huge no-no. Why waste your time on the looky-loos? Why bother with the tire-kickers? Wouldn’t it be great if there’s a way to filter them all out before you waste one breath talking to them?

Gawd, imagine if some tourists at Yu Bazaar actually wore huge tags around their necks that said “looking for watches, sunglasses, and bags“. How much easier it would’ve been for our lil’ “ninja” friend eh? Unfortunately that’s not the case for him.

But There’s Hope…

However, for you as a network marketer, that’s totally possible and realistic with the approaches we share with you in Attraction Marketing Formula.

And what about the whole concept of posture?

Obviously our ninja friend had none as not only was he muttering but he also looked obviously nervous and out of place (duh, he was selling illegal knock-offs). Again, think about how some network marketers approach their prospects. Do they talk to them with complete confidence and total composure? Do they speak as if they are the ones with something of value to offer and are the ones doing their prospects a favor?

Odds are, no.

What tends to happen more often than not is that network marketers speak with hesitation and are just shy of begging their prospects to join them. Heck, the network marketers themselves have no idea what they got into – let alone trying to explain to their prospects what they would be getting into…

And people wonder why there is a stigma surround MLMs and how they are nothing but pyramid schemes.

Wouldn’t you also wonder the same thing if some dude pulled a ninja teleporting act right to the back of your head and start muttering something about “home business opportunity” and “getting rich“?

This is What You Need to Do

See, what you need to do is not only filter out your prospects but when you do find a real prospect you also need to show some posture. You need to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the opportunity to join you, your team, and the business opportunity you have to offer is of tremendous value; and you need to communicate this clearly.

(Better yet, let a MLM capture page do this for you online.)

I do have to admit, after we finally got use to the idea of having random people pop up behind us when we aren’t looking and muttering “watches, sunglasses, bags“, curiosity got the better of us and we went for a little walk…

But that’s a whole different story with entirely different lessons for another time.

For now, all I can say is that while these Chinese peddlers may not be able to benefit from Attraction Marketing Formula and learn how to harness the internet to enhance their businesses, there is absolutely nothing that stands between you and that knowledge.

It’s time you stop risking getting a bloody nose and two black eyes, it’s time you give your prospecting strategy and business an upgrade. Take it online and let Attraction Marketing Formula help you save time and make more money!

*** China is famous (or notorious depending on how you look at it) for selling famous brand knock-offs such as Chanel sunglasses, Rolex watches (we call them “Folexes”), Gucci purses, etc. ***

To Affinity and Beyond,

Raymond Fong

When Everyone Else Is Focused on Opportunity Leads, Learn How To Sneak In Under the Radar and Generate Rabid Customer Leads

Egotist, n.:
A person of low taste, more interested in himself than me.
– Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

About a year and a half ago, Raymond and I sat in front of our Martial Arts Master (a Yellow Belt and White Belt, respectively) in his office and offered to build a funded proposal for his martial arts school for FREE.

Why?

Because we wanted to test what we had learned from Mike Dillard with a “REAL Business” and see if these techniques would work.

So after a few conversations, Master Lee agreed to this experiment and so began our internet marketing consulting careers.

The result of it I think you are already familiar with — Master Lee’s recruitment sky rocketed, he became a media mogul on YouTube (search for “Hwa Rang Do”) and the “experiment” has evolved into a business partnership with one of the world’s top martial artists.

Something important we learned out of the funded proposal “experiment” for Hwa Rang Do, was how to actually market products and services, instead of just a business opportunity like we are taught in the MLM world.

Who is Susan and Why Does She Want to Talk to Me?

I didn’t quite realize how valuable this experience for us had been until a woman named Susan sent me an email yesterday and asked to speak to me.

You see, Susan purchased tickets for our MLM Traffic Formula LIVE in Austin, TX next month.

She had some questions about the focus of the system she wants to create next month at the event, and she wanted to do some prep work before the event. She politely requested to have a brief conversation with me, because she was serious about making the most out of that weekend.

So I agreed to speak with her and scheduled a time to talk.

Trouble Recruiting for an Old MLM…

She called and told me that she wanted to create a product-based lead system for her Herbalife Business. She said she had trouble recruiting people into Herbalife, because it’s such a well recognized brand and people immediately make assumptions before she has an opportunity to present her business opportunity properly.

Therefore, she very wisely has chosen to lead with her products.

The reason this is a good idea is because most people generally want to believe that they know something about what you are talking about.

If they have any previous experience or knowledge of what you are presenting to them (no matter how inaccurate), they immediately draw from those experiences and make decisions based on that, NOT what you presented to them, (i.e. their listening is off.)

So leading with your opportunity when you are involved in older companies like Amway, Herbalife, USANA, NuSkin, etc is usually not the best approach.

Leading with Your Products

Aside from stability, the big benefit that these big MLM companies offer is that they are constantly producing new products for their distributors to sell.

So while the opportunity brand may be old and stale, you can still lead with a novel new breakthrough product.

In speaking to Susan, I suggested that she focus on one great product, with a nice profit margin and which can produce immediate effects for her customers. She immediately knew what product that would be.

I then advised her to come up with the top benefits of this product — what pain does it relieve? what problem does it solve? what immediate results can people expect? What kind of person would need this product?

She would then use this information to craft her capture page at the workshop.

Writing Newsletters that Sell Product

Next I asked her if she was knowledgable about health and wellness and if she would feel comfortable writing about it? She said yes, she was.

So I suggested she write a few newsletters providing free and valuable information on health and wellness.

But what I suggested she write her first few newsletters on was on how to solve or provide the benefits of her lead product, without them needing to buy the product.

“Huh?”

This might seem a bit counterintuitive, but that is exactly what I told her to do.

I explained that her email newsletters and lead system need to stand alone as valuable content and information. If you do this you’ll accomplish three things:

When you deliver on your promises and blow people away with the value you have provided them, you become their new best friend and they will be more open than ever to any product recommendations you will make.

So the newsletter format I advised her to use for all her emails is as follows:

Some MLM companies may prohibit you from having sales copy or links on any website or email promoting a product (especially a nutritional product), so in that case, you may want to skip #2 and make product recommendations part of your personal health consultation.

The important thing to remember here is that your goal is to become an authority/expert first! Avoid the temptation to pitch your product right off the bat.

Ideally, what you want to do is create a business relationship with them even before they’ve purchased any of your MLM products. This could be some kind of info product or affiliate promotion.

If someone is willing to give you money for advice, then they will definitely be willing to give you money for a product you recommend, which can potentially solve their problems.

I expect big things out of Susan and I want the same for you.

The Truth About Why Lead Generation Systems
are No Longer Working in Today’s Saturated Market…

“Many of these theories have been killed off only when some decisive experiment
exposed their incorrectness… Thus the yeoman work in any science… is done by
the experimentalist, who must keep the theoreticians honest.”
- Michio Kaku, Theoretical Physicist

Hopefully, I won’t anger too many of you, but I think the writing is on the wall and this needs to be said.

Over the past couple of years, ‘automated MLM systems’ have taken the MLM industry by storm. Initially, what made a ‘funded proposal’ so attractive was that it offered us a much easier and better alternative to the “traditional prospecting” methods.

Finally! No more “3 foot rule”, cold calling, buying leads, home meetings, hotel meetings, and everything else that our uplines said was part of their “system”.

We were watching guys like Mike Dillard, Daegan Smith, Ty Coughlin, Jay Kubassek, among others, growing massive downlines almost overnight, without needing to talk to a single person.

In fact, Daegan Smith even gave himself the title of “The King of Never Calling a Single Lead”.

Ah, those were the good ol’ days…

Since then, the online MLM market has become saturated with systems promising things like:

• “No selling”

• “The system does the work for you”

• “We close sales for you”

• “No phone skills, needed”

• “No prospecting”

• “Build your downline on autopilot”

I have to admit, I was sold on ‘attraction marketing’ for these same reasons. I was tired of coaching and wasting my time with people who had no business, being in business for themselves.  I needed to figure out a way to filter through the “losers” and “tire-kickers” to get to the real leaders who were going to build this thing.

Then Magnetic Sponsoring walked into my life and forever transformed my business and life. Raymond and I went on to create the ‘Attraction Marketing Formula’ based on the teachings from Magnetic Sponsoring, but geared towards Google Marketing and some of the “techie” stuff.

But then we started noticing something…

The MLM Pendulum is Swinging Back the Other Way

Recently, I had some pretty eye-opening conversations with fellow networkers involved with some of the most popular “turn-key” systems out there.  (You’d recognize these systems immediately if I mentioned them by name.)  And I have to admit, it was ‘deja-vu’ as I was listening to them.

It was as if I had gone back in time 3 years, before Magnetic Sponsoring was released, and I was listening to the struggles, trials and tribulations of your “Uncle Bob’s MLM”.

“I’m not making any money…”
“No one is joining my team…”
“I’ve lost all my savings…”
“I’m not getting any upline support…”

These conversations confirmed the suspicions I’ve had floating around my head for a long time…

Traditional Methods are Making a Comeback

Now, before you get upset and start sending me hate mail, allow me to explain exactly what is happening.

First of all, NO you DON’T have to go back to cold-calling or prospecting at Starbucks and frisking people for a “dream”. We already know that’s not going to work.

But there’s a subtle trend I’ve been watching happen over the past year.

The systems who were promising “turn-key” businesses, with “no selling” started having live training calls on…

PROSPECTING OVER THE PHONE?

Huh?

What are guys like Todd Falcone, Joe LoBalsamo, and Mark Wieser doing on these live training calls for “automated systems”?

These guys are old school.  These guys make like 40 dials per day to grow their businesses.  What do we need them for?

This is the Internet Age, baby! Prospecting calls are like soooo 1980’s…

…or are they?

The Ultimate MLM Advantage

The bad news is that if you are expecting to build your business from your computer without talking to anyone, you’re screwed.

The good news is that if you are willing to pick up the phone and talk to people, it will give you the ultimate competitive advantage in today’s saturated “mlm systems” market.

The reason these “old school” trainers are watching a rise in their businesses, is because at the end of the day, people want to talk to people.  If they are going to join a business with a $2000 entry point or buy a high-end information product for $500, they want to know there’s a real person behind the system and someone there to help them.

*********Ad: Learn How To Sponsor and Prospect Online*********
My buddy Joe LoBalsamo has agreed to do a FREE live training call on how to use ‘traditional’ phone skills with a ‘funded proposal’ for maximu profits and results. Learn more: http://attractionmarketingformula.com/prospecting
*************************************************************

That’s the whole reason why Web 2.0 is so huge now.  People want to interact with other people, especially when it involves taking out their wallet.

The fact of the matter is, if you are interacting with your customers or prospects via chat, email, forums or by phone, you have a much, much, much higher chance of getting them to buy or join your business.

It’s that simple.

But there are also some very crucial things you should be doing to ensure your success in a web 2.0 world.

Traditional Prospecting 2.0

First, you want to create as many opportunities for your prospects to contact you for support.  Here are a few simple things you can do:

• Put your phone number on all your capture pages, emails and sales pages.
  To protect your privacy, I recommend you use a Business Voicemail service, where calls are forwarded to you via an 800 number and only after the caller has identified themself.  (If you want to learn more about this, call me at 866-834-3625 so you can see it in action and I can give you the purchase details.)

• Use a real email address when delivering your autoresponder messages.

• Provide AIM, Google chat or Skype details, so people can send you messages.

• Have an “Ask Us” form on your website, which allows people to submit questions via your website.

• Have a guestbook form on your website, where prospects can say “I was here”.  Have them provide an email address when they sign.  This gives you an opportunity to start a conversation by emailing them.

• Send personal emails to as many of your leads as you can, every day.  People know the difference between automated emails and real emails. Take 20 minutes a day to start a dialogue with new subscribers.

• Here’s the scary one – have your prospects provide their phone numbers when they opt in and CALL YOUR PROSPECTS!

Now that last one is probably not making your feel warm and fuzzy, but it’s actually the most important one.  This is where the training from guys like Todd Falcone, Joe LoBalsamo and Mark Wieser come in.

The great thing about using your own ‘funded proposal’ is that the prospects on your list requested information from you first.  Your calls will be primarily consultative in nature.  You are not calling them to pitch your business, but just to help with what they requested information on.

However, it is inevitable that people will eventually ask about your business with questions like:

“What company are you with?”
“How much money are you making?”
“How do you market?”

Your answers to these questions will be the difference between having ZERO success and growing a huge and profitable business.  That’s why investing in courses like Blackbelt Recruiting will make a huge impact in your business, but also on you personally and how people view you through your everyday interactions.

The Inner Game of MLM

Finally, as you start to develop your phone skills, and prospecting skills, you’ll start noticing that you’ll start attracting leaders to you.  All forms of your communication (email, copywriting and speaking) will start exuding this ‘mystical’ magnetism and people will be naturally drawn to you.

And the real kicker is that you’ll start attracting leads to you in the OFFLINE world, as a result of your new magnetic personality!

As you start seeing the cost of PPC and advertising rise, your ability to acquire a lead using more “traditional” means, will be very easy and FREE.  It’s the most ironic thing I’ve experienced since I took my business online.

So the truth about all these “automated turn-key” systems, is that they are not what they initially claim to be.  The system can be a very powerful tool, but it’s not your entire business – unless you happen to own the system.

At the end of the day, the advantage that you can have over another rep using the same “automated system” will be YOU, INC.

They already know what the system can do for them.  Now they are going to want to know what YOU can do for them — that’s the difference maker.

To help you get through this process, my buddy Joe is an expert on internet prospecting and figuring out, which people on your list are most likely to join your business. He’ll be doing a FREE LIVE training call, exclusively for AMF subscribers on Monday, March 17th.

Go here to register for FREE:
http://attractionmarketingformula.com/prospecting

To Your Success,

Ferny Ceballos