The Hierarchy of Opportunity in MLM

If you are a top leader, scratching your head at the ineffectiveness of your new distributors --- if you're an MLMer, who has never really made money in the industry in spite of "working" several programs --- if you're on a plateau, unable to drive your income above that glass ceiling --- this one's for you.

It cost me well over $30,000 in business-consulting fees and seminar costs to really comprehend this life-changing insight. (It's amazing how much more insightful you get when you've paid a lot of money.) The good news is . . . you've got a shot at collecting this information for the price of the time it takes you to read this article.

The insight is that perhaps the biggest difference-maker between the industry icons and the unsuccessful is that icons avoid wasting time on "low-level" activities if "higher level" activities can be accomplished instead, thus they utilize the hierarchy of opportunity to help them make the best use of time.

Let me explain: distributors in MLM become successful ultimately by "talking with people."

 Generally, when they begin to work their businesses, they may experience little or no success. If and when they return to you for guidance, you might say, "Talk to more people."

However, if the distributor does not have an effective story in place, if the distributor has not been trained in how to properly "language" people in the conversation, then most likely more will not be better . . . it will just be more.

What needs to happen in that case is that the new distributor needs to spend some time instead, having YOU pitch the prospect so that he or she can see some effective modeling of better techniques.

Instead of spending so much time looking for fresh prospects, your distributors need to understand the hierarchy of opportunity and utilize the probability of expanding market patterns by contacting current customers/distributors and selling them additional products.

If they already like your products, chances are they will be receptive to products they haven't tried yet. Obviously, one of the best and highest uses of time would be to get them enrolled in your automatic shipment program so that they have no product-purchase interruption and they continuously create a volume stream.

It is obviously everyone's highest best use of time to build attendance at events and to put a lot of strategy into how to create new attendance records at every event. We have always said that decisions are made at events, and each person in attendance at a major event could easily be worth $1000 a piece to you.

Of course, when people go to events, the "hierarchy of opportunity" plays a large factor. It is vital that distributors (and leaders, of course) place top priority on being early to all segments of the program, "circ and perk" to do nugget-sharing or gleaning, and tuck themselves in early (instead of partying all night) so that they will be fresh, attentive, and energetic for the next day's business.

Many MLMers spend a great deal of time out in the hall at events --- definitely the wrong message to send new distributors. Either you need the meeting . . . or the meeting needs you. There is never an excuse that justifies your missing a presentation, no matter how many times you have heard it. Furthermore, the hierarchy of opportunity definitely requires you to re-evaluate how much time you spend with which people.

Some people are time vampires. They call frequently and take up hours talking about virtually nothing. Stop meeting with them every time they want to get together, but rather ask them what the purpose of a meeting would be, and if it sounds important enough, then make it a phone meeting so that you can better manage the clock.

Doing something with one person that you could do with several simultaneously is a poor use of your time. Instead you might set up a 12-week group internship conference call. It is possible to train 4 dozen people simultaneously who are each duplicating those training procedures with 3-6+ people. In essence, you could be "training" over 240 people with such massive duplication potential . . . and in only about an hour a week.

The best news about that is . . .the potential of this internship program is that it could at least double the income of every participant. A significant number of participants could even double their incomes in the very first month!I think you can see the value of making the best use of your time vs. working harder instead of smarter. I suggest that you take an honest look at how fruitful your activities really have been, and ask yourself how you can produce more in less time.

Prioritize the importance of every thing you do, then systematize it whenever possible. I promise you that this will increase your income dramatically, while decreasing your frustration.

You CAN make big money in MLM. Some havemade almost seven million dollars while others in the same company have failed completely. Look for a proven track record of building significant new-distributor incomes within the first month or two by utilizing these principles.

Not everyone is going to make the over $10,000 his first month that Billy Banks made . . . or the over $16,000 her first 60 days that Karen Imhoff made . . . or the over $6000 her first month that Andrea Dudley made. Nevertheless, everyone can at least replace an income, and everyone can follow a proven plan to utilize the highest, best yield for time invested. My wish for you is that you can accomplish your dream and your vision for your future through the financial and time freedom that our industry allows. Good luck in re-structuring the way you are using your time to make the most of your MLM opportunity.