The Lighthouse Campaign:Are you a laser of light that stands for your MLM opportunity? by Richard Brookes
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
I am constantly struck hard with how often even those who could be (and should be) the best evangelists of our MLM industry are out sold by the skeptics. You have probably heard the quote: “When two people come into conversation, one always buys and one always sells.” This is often – if not always – true.
Prospects develop deep convictions based on a lifetime of “affirmations” and experience. Most of the time, those convictions stem from a lack of result; or their perception that what we do doesn’t work, doesn’t work well enough to be worth the effort, or is just plain no fun.
Prospects express these convictions with common objections like:
- “I don’t have time.”
- “I don’t have the money to get started.”
- “I don’t know anyone.”
- “I don’t like to sell.” (Oh yeah … keep selling me on that one.)
If you think about it, even most of our distributors are nothing more than prospects who signed up. They aren’t really doing any more than the prospect who didn’t sign up. If they are not in massive action … they are still just a prospect.
Too often we fall into the trap of arguing, kind of like the following dialogue from the video clip of the lighthouse. Click here to watch and listen: Uss Montana and a Lighthouse
SOMEWHERE IN THE IRISH SEA
USS Montana: Again, this is the USS Montana, requesting that you immediately divert your course 15 degrees to the north to avoid a collision … Over.
Response: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid collision.
Captain Hancock of the USS Montana: This is Captain Hancock, you will divert your course … Over.
Response: Negative Captain, I am not moving anything … Change your course … Over.
Captain Hancock of the USS Montana: Sir, this is the USS Montana, the second largest vessel in the North Atlantic fleet. You will change course 15 degrees north, or I will be forced to take measures to ensure the safety of this ship … Over!
Response: This is a lighthouse, mate! It’s your call. Hello?
Although I would never endorse arguing as a method of selling, the point of the lighthouse video is all about conviction. Notice the conviction of your prospects. Notice your own conviction. Whose is really rooted the deepest? Who believes in theirs the most? Who is the lighthouse and who is the ship?
Remember the cliché that goes: “If you were arrested for being a customer and leader in your Network Marketing company, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
Would there be?
We have to believe in what we are doing, and how we are doing it, so deeply that we are at total peace with our choices.
That is integrity … and from our integrity flows confidence … lighthouse-quality confidence. People are attracted to others who are at peace; those who exude integrity and confidence. Attraction is what we are after. If our prospects are attracted to who we are – who we are being – then they will also be attracted to what we are doing.
Do you know the history of our industry? Do you know how many decades it has been flourishing? Do you know which company invented Network Marketing? Do you know the top ten or twenty companies; the number of new people who join us every week? Do you know technically why and how Network Marketing is legal? Do you know the names of business superstars who endorse our industry? Do you have their quotes memorized?
You must be able to tell the story as if you wrote it.
Decades ago I had a breakthrough in my business. I dropped myself into the place of being a lighthouse for the MLM industry. I love what we do. I love what it can create for people who may never have found a way to get it done without us. I love the relationships built, and the fun along the way.
Do I always love how we do it? No. Do I love everyone I meet in it? No. Could our percentages of success be better? MUCH, but then it would be over wouldn’t it?
It’s like the saturation issue. If our opportunity were so easy and so appealing that everyone got in and everyone was successful, it would have been over a very long time ago for most people. Everyone would already be in, and you would likely be at the bottom half of the “pyramid.”
The challenge and the persistence required are what create the MLM opportunity. We get paid the big bucks to create the breakthroughs to make it better.
This is not a mission for the faint of heart, the confused or easily distracted. This is a mission for clear-headed, clear-minded, “my aliveness depends on it” warriors … peaceful, spiritual warriors.
The real opportunity in Network Marketing is not the $500 a month (or more) that can be earned. You can do that working at McDonald’s part time. The real opportunity is wealth building … millionaire making, life saving, protect our country kind of stuff. Wimps need not apply.
If you only earn $5,000 a month and it is real residual income, tested by the ravages of time, then your income has an asset value of over one million dollars. That is how much real estate or cash you would have to acquire in order to earn the same $5,000 a month. What about $50,000 a month?
Do you think we deserve to have $1,000,000 handed to us for playing small, scared, confused, distracted or for “trying?” Are we kidding?
Drop in. Drop in today. Go pro. Be worth the multimillion dollar gift. Be the lighthouse, because we need one on every rock.
Test the Try
Stuck Distributor: I can’t get anyone to come to the call. I can’t get anyone to watch the DVD. I can’t find any prospects. I am trying, really I am.
Leader: Ok. What if I gave you $100 cash for everyone you got to the call this week and you can’t give any of it to them as a bribe? And you have to get five minimum or you get nothing. Could you get five on the call?
Stuck Distributor: Yes, of course!
Leader: Case closed.
Trying was invented eons ago as a way for girls and boys to avoid the wrath of their parents for not doing what they were told to do … like get good grades or getting their chores done. Parents bought it. Trying was established as a legitimate performance standard, when in fact it is nothing at all.
There are two options: Getting it done because you really do believe; or there is trying, working on it, getting around to it, learning, clearing the deck, etc., etc. – all of which falls under the label of Not Doing It.
If you want to learn the Spiritual Warrior way to move through objections … study and practice listening through them. Listening Through Objections.
Richard Bliss Brooke has led, coached and trained leaders – from high school sophomore to multimillionaire business builders – for over 20 years. He is the author of Mach II: The Art of Vision and Self Motivation and Mailbox Money: The Promise of Network Marketing, and co-author of The New Entrepreneurs … Business Visionaries for the 21st Century. To learn more visit RichardBrooke.com.

