Experience Abroad
0 N E of our most graphic examples of the Management Trap occurred when we opened a foreign market. We sponsored one couple, taught them everything we knew, and worked
through them to build a dynasty in the new country. We developed a friendship and found that we shared many things in common, including similar life values. Prior to the official
launch, we did weekly teleconference calls, which is both a legitimate and efficient way to build a new market prior to a company’s opening. Through our mutual effort, and to our
delight and surprise, we had more than 1,500 serious prospects attend our opening day celebration at a private location hosted by us. For us personally, it was the single largest
launch of a foreign market in which we had ever participated. And yet, a year and half later, our frontline couple’s income continued to drop below their first executive check.
How was this possible after such an awesome beginning? Prior to the official launch, everything was kept to a simple system—no hotel meetings, just friends telling friends; no
literature; not even products because they weren’t allowed to be sold yet. But almost immediately after the opening, the couple we sponsored stopped building their frontline and
started managing their group. In fact, they spent the next eighteen months creating sales tools and coaching those struggling on their frontline to buy as much product as they needed
in order to meet monthly requirements for advancement. Although we translated our own
materials for their use, they were convinced that their culture required something different.
So they developed a new manual to replace ours. They developed slides for hotel meetings because they believed their compatriots would respond especially well to that kind of
presentation. They worked with flip-chart presenters and overhead projectors, and then, of course, wound up continually updating all those materials because their downline leaders were never quite satisfied. They traveled all over the country spending money they didn’t
have to speak at hotel meetings being held by their downline.
While serving as administrators to their organization, they had no time left for such mundane activities as frontline recruiting. This couple sponsored thirty-one people their first month.
They sponsored an additional nineteen people over the next four months. But both of them working full-time sponsored only six new distributors over the next fifteen months! In other words, they sponsored fifty people the first five months and then, with so much time invested in managing their organization, averaged only one new associate every two and a half
months thereafter. This couple was far more achievement-oriented than materialistic, and therefore they were more interested in setting records and receiving recognition than in
making money. Their goal was to be the first in their country to reach the maximum recognition level in our company. They achieved their goal, only temporarily, but their entrance into the Management Trap ruined what should have been our greatest income-producing leg.
The couple quit in frustration. To this day they blame it all on the compensation plan, the product pricing, and the failure of the industry in that country. They worked as hard as any two people have ever worked in network marketing. But it wasn’t the cost of merchandise that led to their failure, nor was it the company’s remuneration method or the inadequacy of network marketing in that part of the world. It was caretaking their organization combined with their futile need to be “first” that brought them down. Their downfall began their fifth month in the business when they stopped recruiting frontline.
The good news is that this is not the end of the story. Two other top leaders followed them out of the business, but at the request of some of the emerging leaders in this group, we are
continuing to work with them. They have learned the hard way this lesson of trying to watchdog their groups and have gone back to basics: building a small customer base;
prospecting; going wide on their frontlines; working a simple, easily duplicated system out of their homes. We believe in this group and in its leadership, and are convinced that this time they are on track to set both economic and industry records in their country.
It’s crucial to learn from other people’s mistakes, so pay close attention to this story. If you stop building your frontline before you have a solid income, you will fail in this business. No one can succeed by sponsoring only one new distributor every two and a half months. And
even worse, by your example you will teach your people to do the same. Full-time network marketers recruit for a minimum of two to three years before they can slow down. For part-
timers, it takes longer than that. Set your sights on the goal., strive consistently to meet the steps outlined in your business plan, and don’t look for excuses. Whatever it takes. just do it!
SIR LOFTY
0240787223
# THE MULTI- NETWORKER.
BADENYA HARRY 