109: Terrible MLM Advice

Secret MLM Hacks Radio

Today I wanna talk about mainstream MLM advice.

This is gonna be a fun episode ;)

I went on Google and I googled…

• How do you win an MLM
• Top MLM strategies today

… Stuff like that.

I grabbed a whole bunch of blogs and I started power reading through them and finding ALL the advice they were giving.

A lot of them were like, "The Top 10 Steps To Be a Top MLMer", and stuff like that.

So I was like looking at the TOP 10 steps or the TOP 3 strategies or whatever.

As I was looking through all of them… Some of them just made me flat out laugh.

So what I’m gonna do is walk through them here…

Just in case somebody's wondering if I'm throwing rocks… I AM.

https://youtu.be/msZgv8szCEg

The purpose of it is because, a lot of people who follow this show and have been consuming my stuff or have been in Secret MLM Hacks and then become a student… What's interesting is a lot of people will be like, "How have I never known this?"

Look at the information that you have available to you. Please don't feel guilty.

Don't feel weird. I'm here to help justify that.

One of the reasons I started doing this is because I started looking to see what kind of information the MLM world has available.

A: Not much.

I was like, "Well I could probably make quite a splash" and we are.

So I'm gonna walk through some of these so-called ‘Top Tips’ that I compiled.

MLM ADVICE #1

One of the first things that people say will cause success is that you need to find a company with a product you LOVE.

I love my iPhone… But I have never in my life had this iPhone put money in my pocket.

How much you love your product has NOTHING to do with your ability to actually make it sell.

Nothing. It has ZERO to do with how well it sells.

Nothing at all.

Have you ever walked out in a room and said, "I love this product, it's just so awesome," and your true passion is what sells it?

You can get sales like that… But it’s not very likely, and usually, they don't stick very long.

Passion does not equal profits.

When I was in college and we were talking about the entrepreneurial space a lot. I took A LOT of entrepreneurship classes and they would say things like, "You need to be passionate about what you do."

Now I understand that in the long term you should feel passion around it because it gets challenging and not much else will pull you through… But passion is not a sales strategy.

Passion is not a marketing strategy.

You're NOT gonna get money just because you love the thing that much.

THAT was the #1 piece of MLM advice.

You have to find a company that you love the product…

Or you could just make an effort to share your business and product every day.

Or just build a funnel and it'll pitch every moment instead of every day.

Set a goal.

In the last month, we had 3,000 people hit one of my new funnels.

That's 100 people a day.

Physically, I wouldn't be able to keep up with that.

You can bend time with funnels.

MLM ADVICE #2

Now, these are some good ones…

Identify your target market.

At first, I was like, "Sweet," but then I kept reading and it was like, for example, "Do you only want friends and family or do you want people outside of friends and family?"

And I was like, "Crap, that started so well."

MLM ADVICE #3

Another good one was to listen and then sell the solution.

I actually wholeheartedly agree with that.

Listen to people and sell the solution.

I wish they had talked more about storytelling though.

MLM ADVICE #4

Learn how to market.

That was a good one, but then when it said to learn how to market, it was like, "Create a big list."

I was like, "NO"

MLM ADVICE #5

Figure out how to stand out from other distributors.

I really agree with that piece of MLM advice.

Figure out how to stand out from other distributors.

You know what's funny is, I actually learned this as a door-to-door sales guy. I was knocking on doors and it was sooo hot.

I was doing door-to-door sales selling pest control six years ago. It was the middle of the summer and it was sooo hot.

So one day I went over to McDonald's just to stand in the AC and funny enough, half the other sales guys were in there also trying to cool off.

We were all sitting there in this McDonald's just sucking up their AC for a little bit when this guy walks up and he goes, "Hey, I need your services. When can you come by?"

Since we were a group of salesmen, we were all looking at each other wondering who's gonna take the sale.

"No, no, you take it. No, no, you take it. You take it," until suddenly our boss pointed at somebody and they got the lucky laydown sale.

That experience didn't leave me.

We walked away and I started thinking about it. It didn't matter who that guy chose. We ALL sell the same thing with the same product, with the same fulfillment.

We had the same trucks, we had the same uniforms, we had the same pitch, we had the same cheesy jokes at the same points in the same pitch.

It did not matter to that guy who he bought from.

Now tell me how that's different from MLM distributors?

We all sell the same product with the same pitch, with the same scripts, with the same stupid jokes, with the same methods.

THIS is what I realized walking away from that McDonald's that day… The other salesmen are actually my competition.

But they were also my friends and family. Funny enough, I grew up with a good percentage of the people who were selling pest control with me that summer.

Your upline and your downline is your competition.

Finding out how to stand out from other distributors was an amazing piece of MLM advice. I wholeheartedly agree with that and that is what Secret MLM Hacks teaches.

MLM ADVICE #6

Another great one was to develop a system for follow-up.

I was like YES, absolutely.

If you heard my last episode, I just talked about that.

You need a system for follow-up. It's typically where you'll make most of your money, both in selling products and recruiting.

MLM ADVICE #7

Here are some other weird bits of MLM advice that I don't agree with at all…

Lead with the product, not the biz.

Some people are looking for the business. I actually started that way.

I don't lead with the product right now. But I know that I'll move that way at some point, but we just passed 1800 people asking to join my downline, who I've never met.

And I'm leading with the business first, then the product.

That's not a set-in-stone thing that that person is talking about.

MLM ADVICE #

I think this one actually from entrepreneur.com. I think it was the second piece of advice… Bullet point number two on “How to be successful in MLM”.

Take massive action.

THAT was the strategy. The strategy was MASSIVE action.

What don't you have to do that on?

Are you serious? That's the big secret?

MLM ADVICE #9

This next one I heard when I was at an event.

Everyone there was super excited like, “We can't wait till this guy shows up. He's gonna drop some amazing stuff on you about how he's been able to blow up so big,"

I was actually with Colton and the time comes… The guy stands up, and he goes, "Guys, here's the big secret on how I've grown my downline so big. When I'm at a restaurant,"

And everyone starts writing, "R-E-S-T-A-U-R-A-N-T"

“When I'm at a restaurant and I see somebody eating alone, I sit down at the table."

… And I was waiting…

But that was the strategy.

Like what kind of hot garbage? Are you serious?

MLM ADVICE #10

Here’s another piece of MLM advice that I heard from a huge, famous blogger in MLM space…

One of his favorite strategies is to leave business cards on windshields.

I was like, "That's your strategy?"

No wonder my stuff looks so crazy!

MLM ADVICE #11

Another bit of MLM advice was to become a life coach.

I don't want to become a life coach.

I'm building a business, I'm building an asset, I'm building something that's actually sustainable.

I am NOT recruiting anything that has a heartbeat.

If I start recruiting people who need the opportunity, I am required to become a life coach.

If I start recruiting people who are dying for the opportunity and are begging to be in my downline… They're messaging me, they're the ones that reach back out over Messenger saying, "Hey, let me in."

Guess who I don't have to become a life coach for? That person. It's not that I'm NOT willing to help… But if I have to be a life coach for thousands of people, that is not a duplicatable thing.

I remember one guy in one of the first MLMs I was a part of. He was like, "This is a passive asset."

I was like, "Dude, you're working 80 hours a week. There's nothing passive about it."

He was making a lot of money. He was making a good chunk of change every month.

He's like, "Yeah, but it's passive."

I was like, "There's nothing passive about the way you're doing it, man."

It is because of the types of individuals he's bringing in.

• Not to judge
• Not to compare
• I’m not saying anyone's better than anybody else

… But some people are just in a better spot in life to take action than others.

We all know that's true.

MLM ADVICE #12

Here's some great piece of MLM advice. Somebody was like, "You should get on YouTube. You should have a newsletter."

YES. "You should blog."

… But then they botched it.

• Having a newsletter
• Being a podcaster
• Being a YouTuber
• A blogger

… The reason that's so powerful is that it extends your reach.

It creates more noise.

It helps people say, "Oh my gosh, have you seen this guy?"

I will never, in my entire life ever have to do this episode again.

By the time I die, there will probably be tens of thousands of people who have heard this episode.

That's the whole point.

I'm bending time, baby.

That's why publishing's such a big deal.

Q: You wanna attract people to you?

A: Start something like this.

This is one of the easiest ways to do it. You don't even need to have a great offer or a great business, and you'll recruit more people.

Make more noise and more people will see you.

I publish a lot. I'm very, very, very cutting.

MLM ADVICE #13

The next bit of MLM advice: Evaluate the higher-ups.

And I was like, "Yeah, totally evaluate the higher-ups."

If you wanna see how to have success with what kind of company you're trying to be, definitely evaluate the higher-ups.

And he was like, "Are they as committed to your success as you are?”

I was like, "No. I'm not responsible for anybody's success."

I'm gonna help:

1. Answer questions
2. Solve problems

… But the best way for me to be successful is to focus on my success.

That's one of the greatest fallacies of the MLM space: You'll get more successful the more people you recruit.

The best way for you to be successful is for you to focus on YOU, and make you better.

Are they as committed to your success as you are?

That's like saying in a marriage that you're gonna focus on changing the other person.

If YOU get better, you start healing the relationship a lot faster.

That's why I'm so focused on who I want and don't.

I require input. I require effort from those I recruit. This isn’t an offer, it is a relationship.

For me to say I'm as committed to your success as I am mine…

I understand the warm fuzzies it brings, but in my very strong opinion, that is a fallacy that has you recruit people that are probably not a good fit.

STEVE LARSEN TOP MLM STRATEGIES

Here's what I do believe you should go and evaluate opportunities on.

If you're trying to find…

• A company to go join
• The success strategies

… One of the things that you have to evaluate a company or opportunity on is your ability to market it.

Not sell it, market it.

• How can you rank the product?
• Can you rank your ability to bring it to market?

You can have all the passion in the world but not have a freaking clue how to market, and you're not gonna make any money.

It could be the exact opposite. You could have lots of ability to market and have no passion BUT you'll make a lot of money.

You need to have a strategy before you join ANY opportunity. How will you market that product? And if you don't know what marketing is...

Marketing is how you get people to your face.

Sales is what happens when they're in front of your face.

My definition of marketing: Marketing is changing somebody's beliefs and prepping them so they can buy.

Sales is presenting the offer and overcoming objections.

That's what they are. And if you don't have a plan on how you're gonna get more leads, you're gonna die.

Q: What does every business need more of, always?

A: Cash flow and leads.

You have got to have a strategy put in place for those.

HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN MLM

Next thing, I would evaluate companies and opportunities based on their ability to fulfill.

I don't wanna spend all this time putting a marketing strategy together and executing it if the company has a hard time fulfilling.

If they can't box up the thing and ship it, I don't care how good I can market, I'm gonna have a lot of people who are mad.

I wanna evaluate a company and an opportunity based on how well I'm paid.

If I'm not allowed to market a product that has an incredible compensation plan on the internet, I'm still gonna make no money.

If I have not as amazing a comp plan but I am allowed to…

• Put this thing on the internet
• Say the name
• Create my own front ends
• Create funnels
• Make things that attract people to me

… I'm gonna make a ton of money regardless of how amazing or not amazing the comp plan is.

The whole point of this is that cash is the byproduct of marketing and marketing alone.

Cash is the byproduct of marketing.

LEARN HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN MLM

DON’T MAKE A…

• Business card
• Logo
• Slogan
• Cute saying
• Facebook group that has some alliteration about you being some kind of successful MLM thing

The only thing you need to focus on is sustainable marketing strategies.

That's why I can walk into any company and help them increase their sales.

I know what causes cash.

When I walk into any business, including MLM, it's the same stuff.

To be an entrepreneur is to be a problem solver.

To be an entrepreneur is to know what the marketing strategy is that sells your thing.

If you don't know what that is, that's likely the reason why you might not be where you wanna be right now.

I largely automated most of my businesses… I'm not taking massive action in certain things anymore.

It's because I have systems.

1. Find a company with a product you love. It helps, but it's not required.
2. Identify your target market. YES
3. Listen and then sell the solution. YES
4. Learn how to market. YES 100%
5. Figure out how to stand out from other distributors. YES
6. Develop a system for follow-up. YES, absolutely.
7. Lead with the product, not the biz. That depends, this is not set in stone
8. Take massive action. Not necessarily… I don’t.
9. Sit next to lonely people in restaurants. NO.
10. Leave business cards on windshields. Are you kidding me?!
11. Become a life coach. I don’t wanna be a life coach!
12. Publish. YES! Publish, publish, publish!
13. Evaluate the higher-ups. YES

HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN MLM WITH SECRET MLM HACKS

Probably the biggest question I get is: “Steve, how are you using the internet for your personal MLM today?”

To be clear, I am, but it's HOW that matters, and it's HOW that you're probably interested in.

Facebook doesn't easily let you drive ads to MLM, and most MLMs won't even let you say their name on the internet, which is stupid.

Despite those and other forces, I am using the internet to grow my personal downline and sell products.

MLM is changing, and you're probably feeling that, right? It's why I created a little mini-course in a bundle… To show you HOW I'm doing this all today.

It's called The MLM Funnel and you can get it at themlmfunnel.com.

I'm doing this because you might not know WHERE to start in all of this and, secondly, because there's a cool new book by Russell Brunson called Network Marketing Secrets that I want you to go get.

He's a cool guy, so I'm talking about this book a lot lately. I'm also going to give you a little bribe so you go get the book through my link.

How evil of me.

When you go to themlmfunnel.com and get Russell's new book, Network Marketing Secrets, I'm going to give you my Pre-built Recruiting Funnel Template, the Hack MLM Downline Onboarding Course, which is how I auto-train my downline when they join my team.

ALSO, a discount ticket to my next event called OfferMind so that you can learn to outvalue your upline and downline.

If you want all this for FREE, just go to themlmfunnel.com now and get a crash course into prebuilt funnel templates that I'm using with my own downline now.