Efficiency Can Make or Break Your Business

Approximately 85% of network marketers work their business part time.

Because of this, efficiency becomes extremely important. The more efficient we are the more productive we become, and hence the better we become at creating wealth.

The best way to become more efficient is to improve your processes.

What’s a process? It’s a series of steps intended to achieve a particular result. Everything you do is a process.

The Best in the World Use Standard Processes

I was recently reminded about the importance of having well-defined process while having dinner with a former Thunderbirds pilot. He explained to me how there is constant and predictable communication that occurs while they are flying their shows (e.g., “thrust up 10%”).

Because of this, they are able to quickly tell if something is not quite right — such as if something is said out of order — alerting them to take corrective action.

Write Down the Steps

In network marketing, there are certain processes that you do again and again. When we take the time to write out the steps of our processes and do them repeatedly, we become much more efficient and thus more effective at these processes.

For example, I follow the same process every time I write a blog post: Write the title, write the body, write section headings, add keywords, upload image, create a short-cut link, post to Facebook, etc.

I follow the same (written out) sequence of steps every time. And because I do this, I never forget steps, I can jump right back in if I get distracted, and, most importantly, I get more efficient at the process (aka “The Slight Edge”!!).

What are the processes you perform regularly to build your MLM business? Are they repeatable and efficient?

I recently observed a powerful demonstration of the need for standard tools in your network marketing business.

The Experiment

During my company convention, a single word was spoken into the ear of the person on the front row of both the left and right side of the conference hall. Each of the original people passed the single word along to their neighbor, who in turned passed it along to the next person, and the next, etc.

A hundred people after the original two that started, the process stopped and the person at the end of the chain said what was passed along to them.

The Result

The last person on the left side of the conference rooms reported that they had heard Vile Linda. On the right side, it was Hope and Money.

Can you guess what the original word was (which was the same when it started on each side of the room)?

The word was banana!

That’s right. The word “Banana” changed to “Vile Linda” and “Hope and Money” after passing 100 people.

Use Standard Tools

If a group of people can’t pass along a single word correctly when they’re all sitting together in the same room together, how can we expect our distributors to transfer important information throughout their organization without losing the original message?

Experience tells us that they can’t.

That’s why it is critical to have good standardized tools that anyone in the organization can use and point people to rather than relying on themselves.

If you’re not using standard tools, you’re putting your business at a significant disadvantage.

If you’re like most people in network marketing, your level of activity probably decreased significantly after the first 3 months of you starting your business.

It’s not that your goals, dreams, and aspirations of financial freedom suddenly changed. It’s not that you no longer had a WHY.

If you’re like most people, you found having a home business harder than you initially thought. But why do some people keep going while some people slow down or quit?

The “Carrot Model” of Motivation is Dead

The following video by Dan Pink shares some surprising science behind motivation. It turns out, the “carrot model” of motivation, i.e., dangling a reward in front of someone, only works for simple, mechanical tasks. For just about every other type of activity, incentive rewards actually decrease performance!

What motivates people, then? What drives people to keep going even when things are extremely difficult? Is it some sort of MLM success secret? Some training system they’re in?

It turns out that most people have a very deep urge to direct their own lives (autonomy), to get better and better at something that matters (mastery), and to do things that are in the service of something larger than themselves (purpose). This is what motivates people to do things a carrot reward can’t.

In other words, intrinsic motivation is far more powerful than extrinsic motivation.

Find Your Motivation from Within

People who approach network marketing as a way to fulfilling their yearning of autonomy, mastery, and purpose are far more likely to stick with it and find success.

If the idea of creating wealth isn’t as motivating to you as it once was, perhaps it’s time to stop focusing on the carrot, and start focusing on what motivates you internally.

Here’s the very informative and entertaining video by Dan Pink. It’s worth the time.

I believe very strongly that every person in Network Marketing should have a written list of 25-100 things would like to do or accomplish while they’re building their business.

Creating this list helps remind us of what we’re working towards, and it is highly motivating when we are able to check off items along the way.

Yesterday I got to check off a long-standing item on my list: See Dream Theater in concert

Dream Theater is an extremely talented progressive rock band. Last night I saw them in Milwaukee with my daughter Emily. It was a amazing show and we had a blast.

Here’s The Best Part

Dream Theater’s drummer, Mike Portnoy, is one of the best in the world. During the concert, Emily had gone up to the front of the stage to take pictures. Mike saw Emily standing in front, winked at her, and tossed one of his drumsticks to her! It was the only stick he threw to the audience then entire show, and Emily was the one who got it. We were both super excited.

The Point

When you make your list of 25-100 items, make sure you include plenty of items that can be accomplished and enjoyed along the way. Review your list on a regular basis and jump at the chance to make any of the items happen.

If everything on your list is only obtainable far out into the future, how will you ever know if you’re truly making progress on the life you want to live? Remember, the dream is more than just a destination, it’s a journey to be enjoyed. So start enjoying it!

In the mean time, it’s also okay to have some items that might take awhile!

If you work the phone a lot, you’ve probably heard your fair share of voice mail messages.

Hi, this is so and so. I’m either on the phone or away from my desk. Blah Blah Blah. If you’d like to leave a message, please blah blah blah.

Or …

Hi! You’ve reached the Robinsons, Timmy, Bob, Michelle, Mark, and fluffy (woof, woof). We’re sorry we missed your call. But if you’ll leave your name, number, and a detailed message, we’ll be sure to call you right back!

You can save yourself a lot of time by learning a shortcut that takes you directly into a person’s voice mail (i.e., the beep), without having to listen all the way through.

• For most land lines, push #
• For most cell phones, push 1 or *

This recent Lifehacker post suggests the order “one star pound” if you’re unsure if the number is a land line or cell phone. That combination will almost always get you to the beep!

Give it a try. The time you’ll be saving will add up!

When you meet someone for the first time, there are many simple things you can do that will increase the chance they will like you almost immediately.

Jason Jacobsohn provides a list in his post 10 Ways to Get People to Like You From the First Encounter.

My personal favorite is at the top of his list — SMILE!

A relaxed, warm smile is one of the greatest ways to instantly connect with someone. When I meet someone new, I try to smile as if I was reconnecting with a great friend I hadn’t seen in years. It’s a simple thing to do, but it works great.

Try it and see how easy and effective it is!

The following is a true story:

“In 1995, McArthur Wheeler walked into two Pittsburgh banks and robbed them in broad daylight, with no visible attempt at disguise. He was arrested later that night after videotapes of him taken from surveillance cameras were broadcast on the 11 o’clock news. When police later showed him the tapes, Mr Wheeler stared in incredulity. ‘But I wore the juice,’ he mumbled. Apparently, Wheeler was under the impression that rubbing one’s face with lemon juice rendered it invisible to videotape cameras.”

This story illustrates a very common problem:

The less we know about something, the more we over-estimate our abilities in that area.

Unfortunately for Mr. Wheeler, he didn’t know enough to know he didn’t know enough to rob a bank.

This tendency has been scientifically demonstrated numerous times; and, it turns out, people in the top 10% for a particular skill are the only ones who don’t over-estimate their ability in that area.

This is one of the reasons people on your team continue to struggle without asking for help. It just never occurs to them that they are personally deficient in a skill. They just assume it “doesn’t work.”

So, how do you get out of this Catch-22? As has been documented through numerous studies, you have to have someone evaluate your skills … someone who actually has the skills you are looking for and who can do it in a non-biased way.

For someone building a home business, I know of only one place they can get that type of coaching for free. (That is, if they’re not already getting that support from their sponsor!)

If you would like help with any particular skill for building your business, I invite you to contact our network of coaches who can help you on your path to success.

Most people who do so are glad they did.

After taking an (announced) 100-day break from blogging which included two summer vacation trips and significant work on a soon-to-be-launched side project, I’m back to this blog.

Taking some time off provides a great opportunity to reflect. I’ve decided to make a few incrementally positive changes to this blog.

First, I’m going to incorporate style I’ve enjoyed from a completely unrelated blog. What I like is the author’s personal touch, which include commentary, musings, observations, as well as lots of useful information.

Second, I’m going to stop strictly focusing on “Slight Edge” topics. Of course, I will continue to include those items, but I’ll be posting a lot more items that deal with the experiences and challenges I encounter as I build my network marketing business.

Thanks for participating in my journey!

Last week, my wife Julie and I reached a significant milestone in our network marketing company. A number of people who have seen us struggle for some time have asked, “What did you do to get there?”

Here are the five things that helped us get the traction we needed.

There was a time in our network marketing career when we worked with a leader who was very particular about how things were to be done. There was One Way, and One Way only, to build a network marketing business. The problem was, the “One Way” did not work very well for us, and we didn’t enjoy it very much. Doing the activities felt laborious, and thus we avoided doing them.

The faulty assumption we were being taught was that utilizing our unique skills would ultimately hurt our business, since it wouldn’t be duplicatable. About a year ago, we made the decision that if we were to stay in network marketing, we were going to do it in a way we enjoyed, and accept whatever consequences came of that.

A few months later we started working with a different leader who encouraged people to be who they were while building their business. This was incredibly energizing for us, and for the first time since we started network marketing, we build a strategy that aligned to our strengths. Even further, Julie and I divided the work between the two of us to further maximize our individual strengths. The net result? Network marketing was no longer a burden. We love it, and it has become a natural part of our daily life.

With that said, I need to clarify two things. This does not mean we only do things that are easy. We both push ourselves, improve ourselves, and try to keep just outside of our comfort zones. The difference, though, is that the hard things make up 20% of what we do, rather than 80%.

This also doesn’t mean we invented a new system. We follow the same system our upline uses. The only difference is the way we work within that system aligns to our strengths.

The next important thing Julie and I did was break down our strategy into activities and tasks that we perform every day. These are specific items that are discrete and actionable. Hare are a few things that aren’t specific enough: market online, do some writing, follow-ups, personal development, etc. How do you know when you’ve completed those things? You don’t. That means every day you’re going to have to decide what is requred to check the box.

Instead, we write things like: Review goals, connect with 15 people on Facebook, process all new messages, create a list of people that need to have follow-up today, write a blog post, Read chapter 5 of Success in 10 Steps, etc. Notice there is no ambiguity in these. We either did them or we didn’t.

Julie has a white board she uses, and I print off a 3x5 card for each day (that I carry in my pocket). When we wake up, we know exactly what we need to do, and in what sequence.

While the first two items helped us develop a stable cadence of daily activities, they did not get us the results we wanted. Our next step was to apply the Plan-Do-Check-Adjust process to see where we were getting hung up. (Note, until you have a stable cadence of daily activities, this step is almost impossible to do. You have to have a stable process before you can improve it.)

Once we identified the where the “log jam” was occurring, we did something that DOES NOT come easy for us — we asked for help. We called upline and sideline leaders to get coaching and to get unstuck. Of course, once the logs started moving, we would find they piled up somewhere else. So we made another call. And another.

We still don’t ask for help as much as we should. We’d like to think we’re smart enough to figure these things out on our own. The fallacy with that is success has nothing to do with how smart someone is. No one has all the skills and experience necessary to be successful in network marketing on their own. Okay, maybe 1 in 10,000. Think you are one of them? If you were, you wouldn’t be reading this post.

Swallow your pride. Get on the phone.

This would be an easy one to miss, but upon reflection, it has been important.

Here’s a little secret: Julie and I have spent most of our network marketing careers feeling inadequate. Do you know how hard it is to step out in front when you feel inadequate? (I’m guessing you know.)

You want to know another secret? There ARE NO SECRETS! I’ll bet you already know 90% of what you need to know to be a leader. The other 10% only comes by doing. But people are always looking for that last 10% to come in the form of a magic bullet. That’s why so many people continue to spend vast amounts of money joining affiliate programs that are supposedly the next best thing.

Leadership does not equal knowing everything. Leadership is being comfortable NOT knowing everything.

Julie and I have mentors who believe in us more than we believe in ourselves. This allows us to step forward in the dark.We believe in our team members more than many believe in themselves. We are there for them when they take those steps forward in the dark. Feeling uneasy about taking those steps does not mean you are doing something wrong. Relax, and know there is nothing you can do that is wrong.

And lastly, we’re fortunate enough to be in a network marketing company that continues to enhance its compensation plan as the company grows. Every year, for the last 5 years, it has made enhancements that put more money in the pockets if its distributors. The last round of enhancements made it possible for us to qualify for this level sooner rather than later. We sincerely appreciate being in a company where the compensation plan is working for distributors, rather than against them.

Yesterday, the excellent Twitter blog TwiTip posted some excellent branding insight in the post, “10 Reasons To Use Your Real Name As Your Twitter @Name.”

It reinforced that concept that, if you are not using your name to brand yourself, you are making a HUGE mistake.

The reason is simple: People don’t join companies, products, or compensation plans.

They join people.

Failing to brand yourself and your name is both short sighted and a fragile foundation on which to build your success.

Think of any highly successful networker in the industry — Tom “Big Al” Schreiter, Art Jonak, Michael Dlouhy — and what do they all have in common? Name recognition.

If you have already gone down that road of using part of your company name, product, or service in your username, you may want to consider changing it to your real name, right now.

Finally, namechk is a great resource for quickly finding out which social media sites still have your name (or any other username) available for registration.