MLM TRAINING : A LESSON FROM A KISWAHILI PARABLE (2143 hits)
My name is Graham Odenyo , I was born in Kenya some 33 years ago. I live in Atlanta Georgia rumored to be " the new African American Mecca " I love Atlanta because there is such diversity represented here. You can find virtually everyone from all sorts of places from all over the world. The subject matter I will be talking to you about may or may not make sense to you. I hope it does, however if it doesn't then I am glad to share a parable I learnt as a child growing up many years ago.
Growing up in Nairobi , I remember to listening to the local radio station VOK .( Voice of Kenya ) The radio station played local music most of the time and this music wes heavily fused with local parables and folkore lyrically. I was raised on parables. In the African society many life lessons are passed down using parables. You have heard of phrases like " It takes a village to raise a child " , that's one of the many parables I learnt in my younger days. Okay pay attention here is the parable.
Mtoto si nguo utaomba mtu.
Translation :
A child is not an item of clothing that you can borrow from someone for a specific event that you will be attending, that will be returned to the owner once the event is over.
Meditate on that one for a minute. Don't worry I know you are still trying to figure out what I am trying to say , and whether It has any relevance to you as a network marketer. The fact of the matter is that the parable has nothing to do with an item of clothing anymore than it has to do with children's issues. That parable has everything to do with your attitude towards life issues and the consequences experienced , as a result of decisions made based on ignorance , for not taking the time to evaluate situations thoroughly. In other words the real meaning of that parable is about not making stupid choices thereby avoiding a lot of pain and agony. To be more relevant with regards to network marketing the parables ultimately is trying to admonish us to think things through before we make binding decisions which affect us negatively later, that cannot be reversed in some cases.
Did you get it yet? What I have just talked about or attempted to identify is " buyers remorse " One of the biggest causes of failure in network marketing is that Many network marketers have a lack of appreciation for the Network Marketing industry and their attitudes towards network marketing is negative if they have one. They got involved in network marketing without evaluating the opportunity fully. They never took time to make an informed and educated decision. They didn't do their homework, they did not take the time to ask the person who recruited them any questions about the opportunity. Now they have a garage full of merchandise that they cannot get rid of and no one is lining up buy their so called " revolutionary " portions. They never talked it over with their spouse to see what they thought about it . They never consulted their checkbook to see whether they would have enough money left over to make the monthly autoship, once they finished balancing their checkbook. They never considered that their spouse will not take to the idea of having too many strangers in and out of the family home, every other week in the name of hosting a candle party.
The real reason why the song was written was to serve as a warning to young people to abstain from pre marital s*x. It was designed to let the children know that there would be consequences for engaging in premarital s*x. The price would be paid for a few fleeting minutes of pleasure would be too much. Once the child was born, that was it. You couldn't take it back. In other words "you make your bed hard, you lay in it " . In that situation you are forced to accept the consequences of your own decisions. Look at yourself in your own mirror and come to grips with the fact that you and only you were responsible for the decision that you made. If you were the man who made the girl pregnant, cases you were forced to marry the girl. If you were the girl who got pregnant the problem just got double, now you have a baby and a husband to attend to.
Most network marketers find themselves in almost similar positions with their recruits. The sponsor resents the prospect for not taking the opportunity seriously. You hear them making statements like " why does this person keep calling me ? Can't they just go out there and get customers? Nobody helped me when I started doing this business , why should I baby him/her? When the recruit can't come up with 100 names of people to contact , they get frustrated because that's the only method of lead generation that they know of. They don't take the time to become students of the industry , nor do they wish to learn other ways to generate leads. They don't realize that there are other ways to generate leads for their business without asking the recruit to manufacture 100 contacts from thin air. (No more broken family ties and lost friends because of the gather 100 names technique click this link http://theminiurl.com/di20 )
These network marketers have not discovered that the art of recruiting is not an event , it's a process. ( Find out what this process is about by clicking here http://theminiurl.com/bh81 ) They have no clue how to talk to prospects over the phone. Yet they are training their team on how to talk to prospects over the phone. They have no idea how to promote their business, and do not realize the negative impact that it is causing to their business. Do not teach your team members wrong phone etiquette, this is one of the major reasons of failure in recruiting. Avoid these mistakes costly mistakes today
The recruits are not so innocent either, it's tough to try teaching people who do not want to be taught. You provide them with a professional script to use when talking to prospects over the phone but they don't use it. They do not attend the free weekly training sessions that they company provides, only to ask you questions that would have been answered at the training sessions. These are the same team members who are quick to complain that they can't recruit others into the business, but they are not prepared to invite others to attend a free weekly conference call. These are the same team members who would like to reinvent the wheel by reproducing the proven marketing brochures provided by the company. They think they know how to market the business opportunity more than the company that approved the brochures. These are the very same team members who do not want to take initiative, they want to hold meeting before knowing what they will say at the meeting. They do not want to take the time to learn about the company, its products or services so that they can be able to explain them to people posing questions to them at the meeting. These are the very same team members who are constantly interrupting their team leader who is trying to help them on a three way call.
As you can see no one is perfect. We all have room to grow. You have a decision to make. If you are a team member, become a student of the industry. Determine that you will make it in the business with or without your Team Leaders help. It's not that difficult, you can do it if you get the right information and use it the way it was intended to be used.
For the Team Leader you determine what your income will be. The speed of the leader is the speed of the pack. If you are ill equipped it will show. Your team members will drop off from your team like pledged delegates switching loyalties to another political opponent. Don't wait till all your team members have left to realize that if you had been a little bit more proactive, you would have done some damage control. Keep communicating with your team regularly just to see whether they need help, and if they need help, then help them.
Graham Odenyo is a successful network marketer with a desire to help others succeed.
