How many of you have bought over 100 copies of any single book and given it to your clients?

No? None? Hmm…I’m sorry, I thought you were in NETWORK marketing? I am not involved with an MLM at this point in my life, but when I was, I was encouraged to read a NEW book every single month. In fact, many of the books I read were promoted from my upline so that I could become a better husband, father, business person, communicator, leader and networker. One of these books was so useful in my MLM business that I actually applied about ½ of the principles to my day job (which I have since retired from) and became extremely successful. You see, about 11 years ago, I was in the cellular phone industry focusing on corporate clients. I moved up the ranks from a standard account rep. to regional and then national sales. Interestingly, during the late 90’s, the Nextel system was still in its infancy and the walkie-talkie feature was so revolutionary, they hired us to explain it to businesses and create a more productive communication for our clients. The work was, like any sales job, full of cold calls, meetings, rejection and occasional sales. Does that sound familiar?

As a new employee I was trained to “dial for dollars” every day regardless of the appointments I had set up. Like your business, leads are the life blood of any business. (Which is why I strongly encourage you to register for MLM Lead Spot’s FREE lead generation newsletter..register on the left)

Bob Burg Endless Referrals Review

After about a month of cold calling, I pulled out one of the books given to me by my upline titled, Endless Referrals, by Bob Burg. For the next 2 and ½ years at Nextel I never made a cold call again…ever.

I could end the story there and let that be the lesson. However, you may need some additional encouragement to go out and buy this book right now. After utilizing only about ½ of Bob’s techniques, I became the #2 guy at the company. (The #1 guy had ALSO read the book!) And for over 2 years I won numerous awards, trips and made a decent living using the Endless Referral system to create not just new customers, but fans! I was so enthralled with my success, that after I left my MLM company and started my own real estate investor academy, I purchased over 200 copies of the book, gave it to my students and tested them to make sure they read it!

If you love stalking strangers at fast food restaurants looking for leads, or think the idea of building a business is setting up a booth at a trade show, welcome to a painfully long process to build your business. All successful leaders in MLM or any business know that word of mouth is the best form of advertising. This moniker has been around for decades. However, does ANYONE actually teach, monitor, measure and improve upon their word of mouth campaign?

Bob does.

When you read this book, you will learn:

• How to be the center of attention at every networking event
• How to get THOUSANDS of referrals without asking
• How sending a single article can make you hundreds of thousands of dollars
• Why your business card is useless
• How to follow up and remember everyone you meet.

There are dozens of practical and extremely useful strategies and techniques to put you in the top 1% of your industry. Applying even half of Bob’s strategies can make your marketing initiatives as effortless as breathing. Do yourself a huge favor and get a copy of his book today. Do yourself an even bigger favor by reading and applying everything he teaches.

Mike Dillard Magnetic Sponsoring Review

I just completed reading a copy of Mike Dillard’s “Magnetic Sponsoring” and I can confidently tell you that if you were to read only ONE book to catapult your MLM business this would be in the top 3 to insure your success in any business…especially network marketing. (My other choices would be “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie and “People Skills” by Les Giblin)

The reason this book is so topical and on the spot is because Mike not only has experience in the industry, he has good and bad experience in the industry. There is an abundance of successful distributors that share their cars, homes and money but rarely talk about their struggles. If they do, they mention how they pushed through with sheer determination…wow. Big deal.

What is truly relevant in this book is Mike’s psychological analysis and direction on how to model ONLY the top 1% of the successful people in MLM are making any money. We all read these statistics and believe that we are the chose ones. How arrogant. Think about it; if you and I put 100 people in a room and said, “Who here plans on making six figures or more of residual income in the next year?” nearly all 100 would raise their hands. Reality check, people. What would these people think or do if they were told that all 100 of them are invited to play, but only 1 or 2 would actually make it? Moreover, wouldn’t it be interesting to ask half of them to just leave? “Listen folks, those of you who are truly motivated…I mean motivation like there’s no tomorrow. Let me lay it out for you. I only want 2 of you so we are going to test your motivation. Everybody stay standing, don’t talk, you’ll have no food or water for 72 hours and the last 2 people standing are my winners. There are no bathroom breaks, and you’ll receive no help or encouragement from anyone at anytime. The winners are guaranteed to create a six or seven figure lifestyle for the rest of their lives, the remaining people…I have no idea what is going to happen to you. Who wants to start?”

I would guess that if THOSE were the rules, over half of the people wouldn’t even begin the process. Does that mean the perseverance is the foundation for success? Yes. It is one of them. There are others Mike discusses at length in the book. But it is not the foundational character trait. Perseverance, patience and knowledge are all important. However, the TRUE nature of a successful business person in the MLM field is easily understood.

When you meet, speak with or associate with a seven-figure MLM business person what do you feel? What qualities does THAT person have that most of your downline does not? Is it charm, luck, perseverance, or experience? “We call can’t be like Bo Short,” you might say. No. You are unique and you should NEVER try to be somebody you are not. It is always better to be the best YOU possible. The single most valuable and foundational quality of an MLM leader is leadership.

Now, leadership is one of the most over-used and misunderstood words in business. In short, an MLM leader IS charismatic and people want to follow HIM. It doesn’t matter about the product, company or compensation structure. People follow Alpha leaders. You may have heard of “Alpha males” in wolf packs or prides of lions. Well, since we are animals as well, there are clear examples of human beings being attracted to and responding to the Alpha male in our group. You can see it in the passion of a high school teacher or the silence in a church as your pastor speaks. You may have heard it at a rock concert or business rally. The bottom line is this…

1. People follow Alpha leaders
2. You are either a Beta person, pre-alpha or alpha
3. If you are a Beta, get out of MLM unless you are comfortable simply selling products.

If you are a pre-alpha or alpha leader…lead.

Is Mike Dillard a Scam?

People who talk about their product, the benefits, or the system at length are incredibly boring or irritating. You know exactly who I am talking about. They don’t engage their followers, they are a walking brochure, and they annoy their friends and family or hang out at McDonald’s looking for single moms to prospect. What a joke.

You should definitely read Mike’s book. If you can develop a single concept that will turn your business around for the long haul, this is it. Be a leader. Study leadership. Become a person of influence. Another author I will review later is John Maxwell, perhaps the #1 author on leadership in modern times.

You can find a link to purchase this book under the resources tab on this website.

Get your head around the fact that you must become a leader and encourage similar leadership qualities in your downline (A true leader creates other leaders; and never has just a flock of followers). Of course, you’ll need people to lead, so be sure to register for our FREE newsletter from MLM Lead Spot where you can learn how to create a steady stream of leads for yourself forever!

So often in our industry the leaders have previously moved from one MLM opportunity to another bringing their “flock” along for a new ride with a new system. It’s often that feeling of new and better opportunity that builds the initial momentum. There is nothing inherently wrong with that as long as each move improves your situation, compensation or stability.

Bo Short was previously a Diamond distributor in the Amway organization, arguably one of the largest and longest-lasting MLM opportunities in the world. As a professional speaker, Bo quickly built a large and strong following in this organization and created a significant income from his business. Amway, like many companies, has had its ups and downs. It was during one of these massive downturns that Bo’s character would be put to the test.

Bo Short’s Dateline NBC interview

Amway had a clear separation between the products they manufactured and the business training system provided by the upper level distributors. Amway had no interest influence on the training system. This separation was always made clear to distributors regardless of which organization you were involved with. In one particular distributor organization, the business training system was about to cross the line and create a ripple in the company like none it had ever seen.

One of the largest distributor organizations for Amway created their own system of books, tapes and seminars to train their downline. The cost for an independent distributor to “plug into” this training system was optional. However, it was strongly encouraged by the leadership and created a significant ongoing investment for the independent distributor that lined the pockets of a few select diamond distributors. In fact, a handful of these diamond level distributors would earn significantly more money from the sales of their training materials than from the movement of Amway’s products. Bo Short’s upline had not established their training program revenue according to standard business practices. When Bo Short questioned the accounting of his leaders training system he was given a choice. He could continue to flourish in this flawed system and make close to 7 figures a year or he could quit, giving up millions in income.

He chose the latter.

When you review the principles behind a leader, we are rarely afforded the opportunity to know he/she is truly made of. Behind closed doors, how do you know a person’s true character? It is only during a scandal or investigation that a person’s character is revealed to the public. It is only then a person’s character is called out in public that we truly know who we are aligned with.

Bo Short relinquished millions of dollars in income in order to look his downline in the eye and say, “This is wrong and I’m leaving.” Giving up millions of dollars in exchange for giving your downline bad news wouldn’t be an easy decision for most people. After the scandal broke Bo told me, “There wasn’t even a question about what I was going to do. My only question was how I was going to let my downline know about it and do it in a manner that wouldn’t defame anyone.” You don’t need much more information than that to know you are blessed to be working with a person of impeccable integrity. Aligning yourself with Bo Short puts you in an entirely new class of business…one of unquestionable integrity.