Four Enemies
OK…today’s topic is going to be a fun one I hope! The topic is four words: rejection, deception, apathy and attrition. Now, most of you are thinking that I am crazy! How could those four words be fun? When people are newer in this business, these four words (actually the actions of others) can derail their business and quickly. Maybe you have heard the story of the FOUR MAJOR ENEMIES before and maybe you haven’t. Either way, we are going to go through it this morning with some added commentary.
I am going to tell you about the Four Major Enemies in a story form and then stop every now and then to add my comments and observations.
The story is about a man named Dean and believe it or not, it is a true story. I’m not going to bog you down with his real name—I just want you to listen to the story and take in the lessons. It will help you understand what it takes to make it in the industry of social marketing. All too often, people give up their hopes and dreams for their future because they don’t know about or perhaps just don’t understand the FOUR MAJOR ENEMIES that EVERYONE will face as they build this business.
Dean was from a small town in Wisconsin. He was financially stressed; on the verge of losing his job, car and home. One day, he had someone share social marketing with him. Dean’s sponsor told him the following, “This business can set you financially free in 5-7 years. However, to succeed, you will have to face and accept the four enemies.” Dean agreed and wanted to start quickly so that he could get out of the financial situation he was in.
Doing as he was told, Dean quickly make a list of names of 200 people he knew that he would invite to his home to watch a video. Dean called every single name on his list. He shared his excitement and passion to invite these people. Out of 200 calls, 90 said NO; I’m not interested.
Dean encountered ENEMY #1: REJECTION! While Dean could not understand how they would not be interested, he was ok because his sponsor warned him about that. He still had 110 people who were going to come over.
Now, here is some of my commentary: most new people don’t put enough names on their list to begin with. Dean was very coachable and got a large list together. When that close family member or good friend says no thanks, a lot of people are stunned. They are hurt and often times will quit. ESPECIALLY if they are not prepared for NO’s. We want to make sure that all of our new people know that some people will tell them NO. That is part of the business. And, we need to have a big enough list that we never run out of names!
Ok, back to our story.
Out of the 110 people that say they would come over to watch the video, guess what? 40 didn’t show up! Dean had just encountered ENEMY #2: DECEPTION! Again Dean, thought, no problem. My sponsor warned me about that, too. I still have 70 people that have now watched the video. I’ll have lots of people that will be ready to join me and build the business now that they have seen this fantastic opportunity.
I have a couple of comments here, too. A new person in this industry is always on fire about their first event. The Grand Opening of their business. If the sponsor is not careful, they can get discouraged. Having people say no thanks and then not show up can play a head game on people Instead of focusing on who doesn’t show up, we need to focus on who DOES show up. Give our attention to them!
Once again, back to our story.
OK…guess what happened next? 52 of the 70 people who watched the presentation, still were not interested in the fantastic opportunity Dean was showing them. Dean encountered ENEMY #3: APATHY! Again, this did not upset Dean. His sponsor told him that this, too, was part of the process. Dean was excited because 18 people DID join and now he had 18 new business builders. Or did he?
As Dean began to follow up with his new business builders, he discovered one by one for various reasons, his new builders were not really building—they were not contacting and inviting, they were not having meetings and weren’t coming to meetings. One by one his business builders dropped out. Dean had finally encountered ENEMY #4: ATTRITION! Guess what? Dean was prepared by his sponsor for this enemy as well.
From his 18 business builders, Dean had 1 serious business partner. Dean went to work with that person and taught him how to build the business. Dean led by example. Dean showed his serious builder how to plug into the system and use the duplicatable tools that his team had in place and, YES, he taught his builder about the FOUR MAJOR ENEMIES.
This one builder went on to build a huge organization of sales leaders and Dean ended up earning over $40,000/month in leadership bonuses on that single organization.
Dean’s odds were 1 out of 200! Were those good odds? Absolutely! Chances are that your odds may be better than that—at least we will work to help you increase those odds. The exciting thing here, though, is that this industry offers amazing rewards for being successful. But, to do so, we have to play the numbers game. We have to conquer the four enemies and get out there and share the FULL Shaklee picture: the company, the products and the opportunity.
Here is the lesson : Your success is directly related to the degree to which you are willing to work to find others like yourself who are committed to succeed. Will that be everyone you talk to??? NO!
Because Shaklee has a fantastic product line, you will get a large chunk of the people who are not interested in the business who are interested in the products. We don’t mind that! That works, too! If those people have a life change or circumstance change or they just get sick and tired of being sick and tired, they might upgrade from product user to business partner.
When you are who YOU WANT to be and your face and conquer the FOUR MAJOR ENEMIES, you CAN do this business. You will succeed in ways you never imagined. I want each of you to visualize being Dean—at the beginning of his journey with his list of 200 names and at the end of the story when he is earning $50,000/month off of one leg in his organization. THAT can be you. YOU CAN DO IT! It is entirely up to you and your decision to get out there and do the activities you need to do.
