4 Steps To Becoming A Business Big Shot

Nothing will get you results more than activity and a mind set that if you keep at it long enough, you will make it huge.

We all see the big shots in our companies, and have been blown away by the salaries they are making. You have to understand that they all started from from the same spot you did. Sure, some people have bigger networks to start with than others, but here is the formula for your success:

1- Dream big and set goals. It takes no more energy to set a goal to make a million dollars a year than it does to make $100,000 dollars a year.

2- Remember- you can have or be anything you see anyone else have or do. We are all here on the same planet with the same resources to pull from. What you may lack in talent, you can make up with in heart and hard work.

3- Devise a plan of what activities you will do everyday to reach your goals. Don't let anything stop you. If you don't feel like doing it one day, suck it up and do it anyway. Get in the zone. Be relentless.

4- Last but not least, Never forget:

"The only difference between the big shot and the little shot is the big shot, was a little shot that just kept shooting. You can do it!!

How To Close The Sale

Before we get into the mechanics of the title, we first need to squash a couple of misconceptions popular in some Network Marketing circles.

The first one is- Close is not a dirty word! Yes we do close prospects when we are Network Marketers. I hear a lot of experienced marketers say "I don't close people" If you are selling memberships or signing people up to join your business, you most certainly do close people, and there is nothing in the world wrong with that.
The definition of close, courtesy of "The Free Online Dictionary"
Close- "To complete the final details or negotiations on: close a deal."

People close doors all the time. Detectives close cases, which means the mystery has been solved and the case does not need to be opened any more. It has been completed.

When we close prospects, they have completed their period of prospect status and are now joining our team in business. Isn't that a better place for your prospect to be? Of course it is.

The second one is this crazy notion that Network Marketing is not sales. People like to say silly things like "I am not in sales. I don't sell anything. I share information" Yeagh whatever. Keep telling yourself that, but do it at the risk of missing out on a lot of good information and training out there on how to become better at what we do everyday. That's selling. Go look in the mirror and repeat after me three times: "I am in Sales. I sell products and services." Remember- 3 times. Now wasn't that liberating?

Okay. Now that we got that out of the way, let's get into it.

First thing to remember: Although we are in sales, do not come off as Sales-ey, needy, pushy, or desperate at all. Ever. I was on the phone with a Network Marketer a couple of weeks ago who claims he's been in MLM for 13 years. He was trying to recruit me into his business for about 20 minutes. In the first 90 seconds he told me to hold on and then he started a recorded call with no warning that it was coming. He had me curious on how he was going to try to close me so I listened to the whole call anxiously awaiting for him to get back on the line. When he came back, he asked " So, what did you like best about what you heard?". I said, " Hey man, it sounds good. Really. But I'm not interested. I have a business." From there he went to straight up pushy mode. I started to ask him if that's how he always approaches prospects, but he kept trying to push his business on me. He was even bragging to me about how much money he was making. God Bless him if he is. I can't see how when he comes off as that desperate and pushy. Always be professional when you are representing your company. If you don't, it will come back to haunt you. I promise.

People like to buy, more than they like to be sold to. Always remember that. The secret to getting people to want to buy is to create a buying environment. The only way to know how to create the proper buying environment is to do a thorough assessment of your prospect to find out what problems they are currently facing, what needs they currently have, and what wants they have. Keep in mind, most people don't make it a habit of telling strangers things like that until they feel they can trust you. Once you have established trust, you can then start to explain how you can help them solve their problem, want, or need. You have to link your product or service to the specific things mentioned by your prospect though. If you did a proper job of linking the two together, ask if there are any other questions or concerns about the information you provided. If yes, answer them honestly. If no, ask for the sale. If at this point you receive an objection, find out what the problem is, address it, and ask for the sale.

Some people just have a problem pulling the trigger sometimes.

Last summer I needed a pair of new sneakers bad. I was out shopping with my wife one day when we stopped in a store and I saw a pair that caught my eye. I showed them to my wife. She told me that she liked them too. She told me to see if they had my size. They did. The price was also right in the range of money I was looking to spend. But for some reason, I told my wife to forget about it. I decided I would get a pair somewhere at another time. My wife Lori grabbed me by the arm as I was turning to leave and said "You need a pair of sneakers. You like these, they are the price you were looking to pay, they have your size and color, what are you waiting for? Just buy them. She was exactly right. There was no good reason to not just buy them. She closed me. Sometimes people need help making a buying decision. Remember this story because it will happen to you sooner or later.

There are a lot of different closing strategies and approaches. If you just remember to let the prospect do most of the talking, and you really sincerely listen, you will learn the skills to quickly decide which way you need to proceed. The more you do it, the better you will get.

My Flame Burned Out

This is dedicated to Sarah.


I turned my heat on today for the first time this Winter.
It's funny really. In my house, its like we have this game every year. I go as long as possible without turning the heat on. That is until of course my wife and son can't take it anymore in the house without it and they finally say- "That's it Dad. Give it up. You have to turn it on! So I know we've reached the point when its time.

Just like every other year, I got up off the couch and went to the thermostat. I slid the lever over to the "Heat On" position, and proceeded to set the desired temperature. Only this time unlike every other year, my wife called out to me from the other room "There's cold air coming out of the register!" I went over to where she was and she was right. Cold air. (I believed her.) Really. I just needed to verify that she wasn't suffering from a poor hand circulation condition or something.

I went down to the basement where the furnace lives and took the sheet metal cover off the side. I saw the blower there looking me in the face while hard at work. No problem there. I then took a quick glance at the filter. Nice and clean. Nothing wrong there. I then leaned in to look at the pilot flame. Bingo! There was no flame.

I then proceeded to follow the instructions for re-lighting the pilot. I shut off the main gas supply valve, turned the pilot valve to the "OFF" position, and turned the thermostat setting all the way down to the lowest setting. I waited a couple of minutes till I was sure all of the residual gas fumes had dissipated. I then turned the gas valve back on, put the pilot valve in the "Pilot Light" position, lit the pilot, turned the valve to the "On" position and set the thermostat back to the desired temperature setting. A little while later, Presto! Nice warm house.

Once this job was done, I needed a nap. Just kidding. Once this job was done, I started to reflect back on the whole process and noticed several similarities between the pilot in my furnace going out, and the pilot in some people's Network Marketing business going out.

When someone first turned us onto our Network Marketing business, we were shown the possibility and the vehicle to create wealth beyond anything we ever experienced, or in most cases, ever imagined for ourselves. Someone lit our pilot.

Once are pilot was lit, we were told to not be discouraged by the nay sayers and people who would have us believe that our new business is a pyramid scheme, ponsie scheme, or worse. We were taught to filter the fuel we would allow into our system.

We were also told to attend business meetings frequently, get on all of the training calls, read good motivational books, and listen to good tapes to make sure we were filling our lines and our minds with a good constant supply of clean, high octane fuel.

We were taught to set our thermostats for our desired results by setting long term goals. We were also told to keep our blower running and to perform the proper activities daily to help us propel our business forward.

What happens next is really a pretty common theme with most Network Marketers somewhere witin the first year of business. The pilot light gets smaller and smaller. For some it eventually goes out. Never to be lit again. So what happens to cause this? It could be a couple of different things.

For some it could be that they didn't believe that the bad, cheap, negative fuel of family and friends trying to discourage them from pursuing their dreams would clog up the filter and stop good clean oxygen from keeping the flame ignited.

For others, they may not have kept the blower running long enough by doing the daily business activities that always eventually delivers the warmth of the flame to all the registers of our lives.

Whatever the reason, did you properly troubleshoot the reason your light was dying and bring it back, or did you just let it burn out only to kill off whatever heat and energy you had generated to that point? Don't let your flame die. Keep your system running long enough to enjoy the heat of the fire of your desired setting. It takes a little while to heat a house and a life. Be patient. AS long as you keep your flame lit, it will come.