Recruiting For Your MLM
Alright, today I want to have some fun, and this topic is going to be fun. This topic for today is called Recruiting for your MLM. Multi-Level Marketing. I want to start talking about the Dos and Don’ts when it comes to recruiting for whatever industry you’re in. When you’re looking in a direct sales network where you have to build a team and you participate in some extent to the efforts of what we call a downline.
There’s plenty of them out there and there’s always going to be another one because it’s an effective way to get product put into the hands of people around. But I also wanted to tell you that it’s going to require a lot of work and it’s going to require you recruiting for this team. Otherwise, it’s a job. If you’re just going to do is sell products, then great. Sell products. We’re all about sales in this podcast so it’s not a bad thing to say I’m in it to sell. So go for it and let’s sell.
But let’s talk about recruiting for your MLM and I’m going to start talking because personal experience, I’ve done it a lot. I will tell you that I was Amway distributor when I was 19 years old. So I got brought into it with via neighbor, dear friends of ours, for my spouse and I. And we got in, we recruited, we built a team, we move product. I will tell you it was by far hands down, the best sales education I could have ever gotten. I will tell you that it is responsible for over my lifetime. I will tell you millions of dollars made. What I learned from them.
But I will also tell you that it was awkward recruiting and it’s so funny because we don’t have an issue with telling somebody about a movie we just saw or about a drink that we like. So I do the Keedo Diet for myself and I found a bear power food which was a Keedo friendly power shake. I don’t have an issue with it. I jumped on social media, I popped out a video, I mixed it up, I drank it right there, live on there and told anybody that was in my circle that does Keedo that this is a good thing for them. Did I get paid anything? No. And for some reason we find it easier if we’re not getting compensated for something to go out and share with everybody that we’re on.
I also laugh every time that if you go out and you started your business, you found this out from the people you started talking to. They would much rather recommend Netflix shows, put Hooloo shows up there. They will do what I did which was jump on to social media and recommend a product that there’s no financial gain for them. There’s not even emotional gain for them but they do it and they put it out there. you join something, you talk to them about it. They look at you like you have a third eye that’s much bigger in the center of your head, and you’re going, I don’t understand, why don’t you support me? Why don’t you just listen to me? I will tell you I had a buddy of mine that I hired at one job, left, went to another job. Hired him and promoted him, ran him up the ranks.
We were friends for years and then when I joined my second MLM, he said hey if you’re trying to get me into something, then don’t even bother. And it was very difficult for me to understand that. You could also listen to a lot of the people that will be your up line and things like that. I will tell you, well then just kick that person to the curb, don’t ever talk to them again. I will tell you right now we’re still friends today. I just realized that he had gone through some bad stuff and some people doing some shady things like, hey come over for dinner and here’s some guy in a suit with a whiteboard who’s trying to teach you now how to make some money, and all you thought you were coming over for dinner. So let’s not mislead anybody when it comes to recruiting. Let’s not mislead anybody, period. This is all about you as a person and let’s be good people. If you’re a good person and you run into another good person, they’ll hear you out and they’ll listen to you. I just want you to remember that the first step is to not change who you are. You found something because someone shared it with you.
So we’re recruiting for your MLM right now. You found something that shows you what? Somebody referred you to it or somebody reached out to you and ask you if you’re looking for other ways to make some money. Which is a big red flag for everybody that’s out there. As soon as you use that lingo and you’re being coached to do it, I’m sorry but as soon as you’re taught to say that, it screams multi-level, marketing and stop that. So do you keep your income opportunities open? Are you making enough money? If you come at it this way for one it’s not how you normally talk, and so the people around you know that. You want a cold prospect? Go for that. But you need to flat out understand that you need to stay in who you are, the person that you are. Because somebody talked to you, you said yeah I’m looking for something. And they said I found something, let’s have a conversation. You said, okay let’s have a conversation.
So you have a conversation with that person, they showed you something that you said number one, it seems legit. Number two, seems I can make some money. Number three, you said I can see myself doing this. And then you said yes. So give the same benefit to the people you’re talking to. Talk to them like a human being. Let’s go sit down and have a cup of coffee. I will tell you right now, too many times we just walk out to people that we know and we put on a pitch. I don’t pitch anything. I always present. But if you’re going to go present to somebody, it’s a big red flag to them because they don’t present to you and you don’t ever present to them.
So when you act contrary to who you have been up to this point, it will stop your recruiting efforts because your friends are going to just go, something is wrong with you. You change all of a sudden. And we’re told, well if they say you’re changed and that you’re not… oh there’s something wrong with you. Then run from those people and isolate them from your life. Don’t do that. Stop being a jerk. If they were crappy people, you shouldn’t have been friends with them to begin with. So just be real, let’s have a conversation with somebody. I will tell you I recruited a lot of people through even at the age of 19, knowing I had no credibility with people. So I leverage other people that had credibility.
I couldn’t talk to a 40-year old and I will tell you all right now your sweet spot is between 40 and 50 years old for the people to put in to your business. You’re going to need the guys. They’re young and hungry to bring them on up. You’re going to need the people in their 30s too that are there, but they got to be really desperate looking for something. Between the 40s and 50s, these individuals are sitting back saying I can see where I want to go. I can see where I want to be as far as retirement wise. But I don’t see myself getting there.
So if you can show them the way to make some additional money to get them there, then you should. If they’re in your inner circle then the answer is, look man, hey I found something. Can we have a conversation? Let’s go grab a cup of coffee and have a conversation. You tell me what you think about something. Okay I want your opinion, let’s roll it out. And they go, is this an MLM? Is this this? Do you want me to go do this? And I’ll say, look doing or doing not have enough credibility for you and I to sit down. If they say no then I go great, I’ll wait till I do and I move on. If you could get rich off of your inner circle, wouldn’t you be rich already? Man this is about going out and prospecting to somebody. Go out talk to people. Talk to everybody no matter where you’re at, have conversations, real conversations with them. Think about it, if somebody walk up to you, a stranger you didn’t know and said hey you want to make some extra money? Aren’t you looking for the cop to see if this is some kind of drugs thing or something like that that’s out there? No. Don’t be thirsty, don’t chase after people.
The answer is keep your composure, based all of your experience off of where your life right now. Don’t hype it up, don’t make up the BS because the only person who’s not going to care that you represented yourself, is someone who’s going to go misrepresent themselves. So let’s be real, let’s just sit back, have conversations with human beings. I sat down with a buddy of mine and said hey man, I think I got a way to make some money. I can’t really explain to you but the guy who explain it to me said enough that it triggered something in me that I think I can do it. Let’s go have a conversation. You, me and if you want I’ll bring him. If not, I’ll just take my way through it. And those people, I recruited out of the fact that I had credibility with them.
Now I prospected a bunch of people and the last one I think my group, I put in like 30 personal directs to myself when I got in there. But what did I do with that? The people that did the most we’re the people I didn’t know ahead of time. So I started talking to people, I started listening to them. I would sit there and just talk to people. A stranger walks in and starts talking to you, and then I ask them okay do the normal things. People always say what do you do for a living? What do you do for fun? Things like that. I didn’t do that. I was always one of these guys because remember me and my hashtag, never be normal. Normal people get normal paychecks. So if my moto is that, I would sit down and a buddy of mine always said, Bob [inaudible – 0:10:33.1] told me countless times, that the quality of your life is dependent upon the quality of questions you ask. Whether it’s of yourself or other people.
So I always look at people, they sit down and go hey, so what did you do? What did you… and I said well and I always open it up because they’ll ask what you do and I go, I do a couple of things. I have a side hustle, I have a main hustle and I’m always looking for something else to hustle. Because why? There’s never enough money to make me happy. So I want to get as much as I can so that… here’s my line all the time, I told them look, I’m willing to be temporarily ambitious so that I can be lazy first class later. And when you say that to somebody, they stop and go yeah me too. And I don’t pounts, I never pounts. I stop and I talk to them and then wait till they ask you something.
So what do you do for the side hustle? I say I have a couple of business partners. We work together, we put together some plans for people for them to make money, as well as for them to whether they feel like selling, they feel like being a partner, a manager, stuff like that. It’s entirely up to you but how serious are you about the side hustle and let them start talking to you. But I think the thing that burned us the most is that we either try to talk outside of ourselves which is you come off instantly as somebody who’s no longer authentic. Have we all sat there? Have you all sat with somebody? And they’re like, oh man I know, yeah we should grab a beer, we should do that. Oh yeah, you know what, I had some great time with the ball park the other day and it’s too bad you weren’t there man. But do you ever look at other opportunities in which for you to make additional income because of your age and where you want to go when it comes to retirement? And you’re like, what? What just happened to my friend? What just happened to this person? Even if he’s not a friend, all of a sudden you went, whoa what happened?
We all know this because there’s times we tell ourselves we have to go into sales mode. Guess what, you’re not selling when you’re in sales mode. When you’re authentically you and keeping it real, that’s when we go ahead and make real deals. So that’s what I want to try to get you to understand. Stay as clear as you can. I will you that the most success that I ever had was one on one conversation. It’s knowing my business, knowing what I’m doing, knowing how money gets made. So sit down, grab your up line, grab whoever you can grab. If there’s a corporate trainer for your piece then go ahead and grab that person. But you need to be able to do a presentation in under five minutes that explains how money is made and how this person can make it. And give them options.
You’re either going to give them option of moving product or of building a team that moves product. That’s what you’re going to do. Present them the two options, sit down and say this is what it is. But until you can do it yourself, you are limited by somebody else’s belief. Because you can’t convey the belief because you don’t have it yet. So as soon as you can do it, so I mean seriously, take full days with somebody who brought you in the business or somebody you’re partnered up with and learn how to present that.
For anybody who’s up line, figure out the easiest way for your team to get themselves where they need to get so that they can present themselves. I will tell you your next thing, is you’ve got to be able to do that one on one so that no matter where you’re at, you can control your income by recruiting somebody one on one. Then the next step is to do your big presentation meetings where somebody with a lot more successes there. That is designed for two people. One, somebody that you already done a presentation with that needs a big push over the other side. You need to leverage somebody else’s success that will come from your friends and immediate people you meet. The second one is somebody who’s on your chicken list, somebody that’s out there that’s more successful than you that you know you don’t have.
Look at it this way and I want you to really really dig deep. When I go and I hire employees to work for me, I always grade them A through F. But here’s what I understand, if I hire a manager that is a B manager. B as in Boy. That B manager will never ever hire me in A employee. Do you know why? Because they’re intimidated by an A employee because they’re a B level manager and an A can always pass a B. So they won’t because they feel threatened that person could push them out of the way. So when you stop and realize that you, where you’re at, whatever you are. When you start this MLM you’re like a C or D player.
If you have a huge identity as a person, then you could immediately push yourself to maybe a B. But what will you do as a B, I go in and I bring in possibly other Bs but more than likely Cs and Ds. Because why? I don’t know how to identify an A yet and I’m sure as heck am not an A yet. But do you see how a C person? A c level agent or a C level downline? Doesn’t have the ability to recruit an A person because they’re two different kinds of people. They’re two different levels of human beings within that category of downline or agent or a product seller or whatever is out there. I don’t care what the MLM is. I don’t care if it’s insurance, I don’t care if it’s soap, I don’t care if it’s CBD oil, I don’t care what it is. You can only recruit at your level and below and it takes leveraging your up line to get the A players. The people above you. When you become an A player, that means you’ve made money. You’ve got a team and you’ve made money. I will tell you that I’ve seen A player product sellers that can’t recruit to save their life.
So again, they’re A players in their role. I’ve had recruiters, I will tell you right now, I was a fantastic recruiter. I know how to talk to people’s hot buttons. I know how to figure out who they are and I recruited a lot of people. But my passion wasn’t in selling the product that we had. So it was like, okay great, I wasn’t there so that was my wife’s responsibility in the group. I told her, your job is to move product because her answer was I don’t want to recruit people. I’d rather sell stuff. I’m a seller and I was like, great, go for it. And then again, so that was a good combination but I need you to understand that you got a B part of the team. So if it’s you flying solo and you’re good at product, then you need to match yourself up with the recruiter. Somebody who can jump in with people you meet at that time. But the first step is learn how to do an immediate presentation that shows some value to somebody that you meet. And then leverage those other people. But please speak into your own wheelhouse.
It’s not about learning all of the… there is no magic one word script that’s going to get you there. When I go into companies, I will put together a script of what you should say and how you should say it, and there have been times that I had to sit down and tweak that script to be written in the words of the person who’s saying it. I’ll tell you, had a fantastic person that could get on the phone and recruit and set up appointments for a sales team. But I had to write it. Her name was Vicky. So I had to write my script that I had eight people dialing, eight people in a team, seven of them used the script. One person I had to write the script in Vicky. So I had to go rewrite the words, put the right words with the NLP and the outcomes, all of them had to be written but I had to write it in her verbiage so in a way than what she speaks. Then what happened? She took off and she became very successful.
So I need you to understand sit down and know your products so well. Know your product so well that you understand how to sell it and how to provide value with it so that if you could do it it’s fine. But if you’re going to just walk up and play a numbers game with people, and go, hi you can do this, go to the swap meet, walk up another swap meet. Every person you passed by will go, hey you making enough money or are you looking for other opportunities? Somebody is going to say yes, but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be that A player. Because that A player is going to look at you and go that’s a really uncouth way of trying to prospect somebody.
They may give you credit just for being lazy, but more often than that, they’re just going to go, okay that’s a crazy person and I don’t want to be around that person. Somebody who’s afraid to be outgoing and talk to people were like, wow, yeah I am and I really like the way you did that but they can never deliver it. Extroverts recruit, introverts and vice versa, and then they decide they can’t get along. So how do you recruit for your MLN? Let’s just review what we’re going to do. We’re going to keep our words as real and as true as we can to ourselves. We’re going to go out and we’re going to learn as quickly as possible how to present the two different options within what I’m doing. I’m going to either show them how to move product or I’m going to show them how to recruit a team to overwrite and make money. But I have to be able to do that as quickly as possible. To my inner circle and the people around me I will ask those that would give up the time, if they don’t, great, I’ll come back to you later. Some of them just need you to make money and be successful first so they can see that they can do it.
The next thing I’m going to do is sit down anybody that’s higher up to me. All I want to do is attach, connect those two people. Connect those two people being somebody more successful up line and the actual person that you’re talking to. And you need to ask your up line how you want to be introduced, what it is you can say to somebody about them, because meeting a stranger and going I have this really great guy you got to meet. Yeah it’s great. And I will tell right now, any up line listening to this, you need to sit down and explain to somebody and work with them enough to get what I call the marbles out of their mouth.
I say any time I try to get you to learn a new way to say something, I say we’re going to go ahead and actually take a handful of marbles, drop them in our mouth and we say something. Can you understand when there’s a stack of marbles in my mouth? No. So I say one thing, I start to practice what you want me to say and I spit out the marble. And then I practice it again, I spit another one. Again and again and again until eventually, I can say it, you can understand me and there’s no more marbles and it’s all figuratively. Don’t grab your downline and show bunch or marbles in their mouth and end up in a lawsuit. What I want you to do is sit down with them and explain how they should talk about you to someone else.
So if they meet somebody impressive, they need to look and say, you know what, you remind me of a business partner of mine. I swear if the two of you got together, I think it be magic. I get told this all the time from other people that do sales training and do other stuff. I have people that come and go and hey, I met this guy and he reminded me so much of you. I need to connect the two of you. And I go, great, connect a way. I have a bunch of friends that are in multilevel. I’m not in their multilevel but we respect each other. We challenge each other on who’s making more money and what business we’re doing back and forth. I train multi levels. I teach their people how to talk and what to go through that. That’s part of sales training which is what I like to do.
And so I’m telling you, you need to get with your up line and figure out how you can talk to me about products, talk to me about recruiting, what can I say one on one to somebody and how can I introduce you to somebody else what are the topic points that I need to address so that I can get you in front of the right person. And then what I want you to do is write down who your ideal candidate is to be prospected. For every one of us it’s different, for every group it’s different. I will tell you I’ve been a part of multi levels that were all young people. So you can’t go grab a 45 or 50-year old. They’re not going to feel in place with your group. If everybody in your group is between 19 and 25, and now we’re going to bring in dad into a meeting, dad’s going to feel out of place just inherently based on the age group. I’ve had it sat down where the entire base shop of a team was all one nationality. You’re limiting yourself.
You’re limiting yourself to go after people because they’re going to feel uncomfortable especially if that nationality speaks a different language, and so 90% of the room can be talking in one language and isolating the other people that come in. And then they wonder why they’re the only ones that stick or the one of the same nationality. Because we tend to drift and grab people like ourselves. And so I’m going to tell you there’s a lot more people out there that are not like me that I need to get in to actually build the business with. And there’s a lot more people out there that I don’t know compared to the ones I know.
So we need to focus on doing that. Remember, your business presentation meeting is for what? Is for people that you don’t know and second look people. Otherwise get yourself out there and talk to people like you normally talk to people and then get that steps done. I hope that helps. As always I appreciate you checking out what we’re doing and if you’re going to play numbers game, at least get educated on the numbers so it becomes better. I appreciate you all. Look forward to talking to you again. Bye, bye.
Joe Ingram Speaks 