The ABCs of Effective MLM Follow-Up That Will Increase Your Sales (PDF Version 1.0)
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The document outlines the importance of follow-up in network marketing, highlighting that 70% of prospects often take time to decide whether to join, which can be prolonged. Effective follow-up strategies involve systematic, timely communication with prospects using various methods like phone calls, emails, and social media, while adhering to persuasive techniques. The text emphasizes establishing deadlines for decisions and maintaining engagement without overwhelming the prospects, ultimately aiming to convert them into team members.
The ABCs of Effective MLM Follow-Up That Will Increase Your Sales (PDF Version 1.0)
- 1. After a network marketing business presentation, about 70% of prospects will say they will think about it overnight if they will join the business. In reality, that “overnight” can mean a week or two or even months. That’s why there’s a step in the MLM sales process called MLM follow-up or network marketing follow-through to ensure your prospects will not go cold during the stale time allotted waiting, and they will still be excited and optimistic about the business opportunity. The MLM follow-up stage can be the potential turning point in the sales process because if you lose your prospect that has been oriented with the
- 2. fundamentals of the business, you will start on MLM prospecting all over again. According to a study, it takes at least five continuous network marketing follow-up efforts after the initial sales contact before the prospect says “yes.” Remember that following-up in MLM must be systematic. You can’t just send a network marketing follow-up call or message without integrating psychological and scientific factors like when is the best time for you to call, message, or send an e-mail to your prospect and what mental power words to use when performing MLM follow-up. You’ll learn all about this in the succeeding section. Like from the previous prospecting guide, the pronoun “he” will be used all throughout the guide. Using a single pronoun such as “he” is better and more streamlined to read compared to using slashes in-between pronouns like “he/she” or “him/her.”
- 3. There are two classes or prospects you’ll perform network marketing follow-up to depending on the outcome of your business presentation. Some prospects are (1) committed to joining but don’t have the resources (money or time, but most of the time it’s money) and there are prospects (2) who haven’t decided if they will join or not. Though there is a third one, the ones who said “no” when you asked the big question, this guide will focus on the two mentioned. Depending on them, they may dictate a date when they will invest or when they will give a decision. If they didn’t dictate one, you need to ask the prospect a concrete date when he will invest or when he will make a decision to join or not. In this guide, it is called the “deadline.” If the prospect expresses his intention to join and sets a date when he will join, you mill most likely meet with him on this specified date to guide him through the sign-up process.
- 4. You may use persuasion tactics listed in the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini such as the rule scarcity to entice your prospect to set an earlier timeframe of setting the deadline. Look at your prospect at the eye before parting from your meeting and dictate to him this script: “Time is wasted if we just keep sitting still and not taking action. Who knows, maybe best friend or neighbor took action first and decided to join before you. You don’t want one less signup in the world, do you?”
- 5. The rule of thumb is to perform MLM follow-up with prospects within 48 hours (two days) since your last meeting with them whether they are decided in joining or just deciding to join or not. This is called the 48- hour rule. 48 hours is the optimal time for network marketing follow-up because the business presentation is still fresh in their head and you gave ample time for them to process what you’ve just presented. Aside from sales, the 48-hour rule is also used by businesses, the police, and even when you’re dating someone! If the prospect does not reply to your messages when you perform the 48- hour MLM follow-up rule to him, don’t mind it and let it go. You’ll have more network marketing follow-up opportunities in the future. After the 48-hour rule, you need to perform MLM follow-up with your prospect at least once a week until the deadline. It can be a maximum of three times a week, but you need to perform network marketing follow-up at least once.
- 6. Refrain from doing MLM follow-up to your prospect, after the 48-hour rule, during Mondays, Fridays, and Sundays because that’s when people are super busy since it’s the start of the work week, because all people can think of to this day are rest and relaxation, and because this is a family’s day off and worship day for the lot of us respectively. When the date of the deadline nears, you need to perform an MLM follow- up with the prospect regarding your meeting two days prior, a day prior, and the day itself while disregarding the set weekly network marketing follow-up schedule. Two days prior the deadline, you need to remind the prospect that within two days he will invest in agreement with the set date, and you two will meet for the sign-up process, or he will need to make a decision to join or not. Note that when you do this, some prospects who haven’t made up their mind will feel pressured and back out in the meeting with you or making a decision. When this happens, dictate to your prospects in a conversational manner that you’re not pressuring him, and you’re just reminding him to take action. Also, some undecided prospects will give their decision when you do this. Almost all of the negative prospects will show up at this point and express
- 7. their intentions not to join. Don’t be depressed when this happens because all is not lost, and there are still chances to revive this prospect’s interest in the business opportunity sometime in the future. A day prior the deadline, dictate to your prospect that you’re excited meeting him again, you’re excited that he will be a part of your team, or you are pumped up about his decision to join. This is done to show your optimism nearing the deadline. On the big day itself, you need to perform MLM follow-up or remind him again during the morning about the time of your meeting, if the prospect decides to join. Most likely, undecided prospects who lasted up to this point are mostly positive on joining, and there are also chances that he will invest on the day itself. What you need to do is ask him if he will join you and your team today (coupled with the persuasive power words discussed below). You can also throw in some freebies so that he will be persuaded to join at that date. Otherwise, if the prospect will not join at that time, you need to ask a date when he will invest in the business opportunity, and you will repeat the network marketing follow-up process again with that prospect starting with the initial 48-hour rule.
- 8. Now, the best time of the day to perform MLM follow-up to your prospects, like on cold calls, are during the “dead hours” of the day like employee’s lunch breaks and around 10 in the evening. This applies to all network marketing follow-up methods to be discussed later on. Don’t just perform MLM follow-up on the prospects whenever you want because most of the time their attention is diverted to something like work or their family. You want to contact them at their most relaxed time without them doing anything important. When performing network marketing follow-up, there are 189 power words like easy, hurry, now, and quick that you can use in your MLM follow-up messages to inspire prospects to take action and seemingly keep their optimism on the business opportunity. According to the blog post by Buffer and quoting, the difference between “joining” and “signing up” is the difference between fellowship and enlisting. A word changes the meaning, the mood, and the motivation. Take note though to use these power words in the right context and if possible, use them sparingly especially when you’re performing network marketing follow-up through e-mail because some of these words are considered spam flags by some e-mail clients.
- 9. Below are sample scripts and templates you can use for the 48-hour rule and the weekly MLM follow-up schedule. The sample prospect’s name is “Bob” while the sample company’s name is XYZ. Consecutively, the 24th is the expected date when Bob will make a decision, and the 24th falls on Wednesday. You can also add some personal touch on these scripts and templates to tailor-fit your message to the prospect. “Hello, Bob! I’m (calling/e-mailing/messaging/texting) you today to remind you of (our meeting on the 24th/your decision on the 24th) because I’m just so excited on you joining our team/on your affirmative decision on joining us here at XYZ!” You can use the script above to perform network marketing follow-up to your prospect three or two days before your set initial meeting or the set date when he will make a decision. By saying that you are excited, you are an optimist, and this increases the chance that the prospect will indeed fulfill his decision of signing-up or will give an affirmative decision.
- 10. “Hi, Bob! How are you doing? I’m just calling to remind you that me and my team are excited with the thought of you joining us. We’ll help you attain what you want to achieve by joining us in XYZ. You’ll (join us/will make a decision) on the 24th, right?” Likewise, you can also use the script above to perform MLM follow-up to your prospect three or two days before your set initial meeting or the set date when he will make a decision. By asking a question, you are giving a call-to-action to make him or reply to your message. “Bob! Just checking what’s up and I’m (calling/e- mailing/messaging/texting) you today because I have great news. There will be a free new distributor’s training program this Thursday, you’ll join us in XYZ on Wednesday, right?” Additionally, the script above can also be used to perform network marketing follow-up three or two days before your set initial meeting or set date when he will make a decision. When you said that there will be something of value that the prospect will get the next day he will join you in your business opportunity, you are presenting something scarce and according to Robert Cialdini, the less or limited something is, the more valuable it is and the more people want it.
- 11. “What’s up, Bob? My team and I decided that we will be giving out freebies to new members that will join until the 25th and that includes you! You’ll join us on the 24th, right? I’m so hyped on seeing you in our team!” You can use the script above as a general MLM follow-up message. As the same with the previous script, this exhibits Cialdini’s scarcity principle of persuasion. “Hi, Bob! I just learned that my mentor is free on the 24th. We’re meeting on that day because you’ll join our team, right? I’ll bring my mentor along with me when we meet so you could meet (him/her). (He/she) is my inspiration that keeps me going in network marketing, I’m sure that (he/she) will inspire you also when you join us in XYZ!” You can also use the script above as a general network marketing follow- up message. The script above shows another principle of persuasion – authority. People will listen more to someone who is of higher power or is more knowledgeable about something thus, by bringing your mentor and letting him or her “close the sale”, your prospect will most likely heed to the command of your mentor to go and join the team. On the other hand, you can also send to your prospects for MLM follow- up some motivational quotes to inspire them to take action. Also, you can
- 12. also send to your prospect messages that are intended for your team like company and team announcements so they will feel that they are part of the team already. Take note that when you promise something, be sure to fulfill it! Don’t give empty promises because you will only damage your reputation, the team’s and the company’s.
- 13. There are three network marketing follow-up or MLM follow-through methods that we’ll be using in this guide. Other guides on the Internet will just introduce one or two methods mainly through the phone and e-mail, but on this guide, we’ll be adding one more – through social media platforms. You can use one, a combination of two, or all of the methods to perform network marketing follow-up your prospect. All in all, the three MLM follow-up methods are social media, mobile phones, and e-mail.
- 14. It’s the 21st century, people will now be using social media platforms more than electronic mail, and they’ll be using social messaging platforms like Line or Viber rather text messaging or calling on their mobile phones because it’s free. That’s why our focus for this guide is network marketing follow-up through social media and social messaging platforms. The most likely scenario is that you added or followed the prospect in social media when you were just prospecting him, or you asked for his social media accounts for MLM follow-up purposes after presenting the business to him. You will perform network marketing follow-up with the prospect using the messaging feature of the social media platform. For example, Facebook has Messenger while Twitter enables its users to send private messages via the Direct Messages feature. You will only publicly post or tweet something if the prospect does not reply to your messages within a three-day grace period to get his attention. But as long as the prospect is responding, keep conversations private.
- 15. When performing MLM follow-up through social media, the technique here is to lessen the serious tone of the conversation. You want to converse with the prospect like a friend. Don’t be afraid to use emoticons or smileys when conversing to lessen the seriousness. Start with building rapport with the prospect again within the messaging feature of a social media platform. Say “hi” and use the FORM method (see Cold Marketing). Remember that FORM stands for Family, Occupation, Recreation, and Money. Ask about what’s going on with his life nowadays and before ending your conversation, make him remember the deadline he set upon to invest or make a decision regarding your business opportunity.
- 16. Subsequently, there is the network marketing follow-up method of using mobile phones (we’ll just shorten it to “phones” in this guide) to deliver your message. Out of the three MLM follow-up methods, using phones is the most optimal because people always have their phones beside them! By using phones for follow-up in network marketing, you lessen the chance of your MLM follow-up being ignored, especially when you call them because calling requires prompt action on the receiver’s end. But as a general network marketing follow-up rule, you shouldn’t just call or text the prospect anytime you want because there are optimal times of doing it like on employee’s lunch breaks and around 10 PM before people go to sleep. Out of the two and the most obvious one, calling your prospect will yield the greatest response and success rates while text messaging them will yield response and success rates below par.
- 17. Start with a brief opener using the FORM method. Ask how they’re doing using FORM and what they said to fortify your MLM follow-up message. For example, if they said that just yesterday, he was fired from his job, you can use that data to enhance your network marketing follow-up message even more. When performing MLM follow-up to your prospect by calling him rather than text messaging, the intonation and tone of your voice matter. Converse with your normal conversational intonation and tone and not like a robot. Don’t be rude and let your prospect finish what he is saying. Also, don’t be afraid to laugh when appropriate. Remember that following-up in network marketing must be friendly in nature.
- 18. As the site Life-Long Learner puts is, knowing how to write an effective MLM follow-up e-mail effectively is probably the easiest way to increase your response rate if you aren’t already doing it. Network marketing follow-up through e-mail is no different from MLM follow-up through social media because you also need to lessen the seriousness tone of your message when you do it. A pro tip is to do not capitalize first letters of the subject line. For example, when your intended subject for a network marketing follow-up e-mail is “Just Checking”, you can un-capitalize the first letters of the word to “just checking”. Think of it as e-mailing a friend rather than a prospect. Be straight to the point when performing MLM follow-up using the e-mail method. Of course, you need to build rapport first using the FORM method so you won’t sound pushy when you’re performing network
- 19. marketing following-up. Perform your rapport using a one line question like “how’s it going?” or “busy with your job lately?” After building your rapport in the first paragraph of the e-mail. Explicitly lay down your MLM follow-up message in the shortest way as possible and indicate a call-to-action at the end like “please reply if you acknowledged this e-mail” or a more subtle approach is the call-to-action “hoping to hear from you soon”. Also, as the same with other network marketing follow-up methods, don’t be afraid to use emoticons to add some emotions to the e-mail and also to alleviate that seriousness aura that comes with performing MLM follow- up. Additionally, there are two tools that can be of great use when you’re performing network marketing follow-up on e-mail: Boomerang for Gmail and Yesware. Boomerang is the scheduling application for Gmail. It allows you to schedule e-mails at your own preferred time, even when you are asleep! Think of it as the Buffer for electronic mail. Subsequently, Yesware is the tracker of open rates for Gmail. It allows e-mail senders to know if the receiving end of the e-mail has indeed opened or read the e- mail you send them.
- 20. After a successful MLM follow-up, you can pat yourself on the back because it’s now, as salespeople say, a “closed deal” and your prospect is now a team member. But your job is not yet done because you still have to perform the last step of the process – Training. Remember that you’re missing out the whole point of network marketing if you’re not duplicating yourself. Duplication is the only way you can achieve leverage so your network will run on autopilot mode even when you’re asleep, and a way to duplication is through the proper training of team members. Take me to the next (and the latest) guide in the MLM Sales Process: The 4Ws and 1H of MLM Training: The One Guide Professionals Read