Great classic country music lyric: “What part of ‘No’ don’t you understand?”

Here’s one answer–and it’s critical to understanding your network marketing business and the people who get in… and stay in… and the people who quit.

“No,” is pervasive. It’s everywhere. And it’s powerful.

It means many things, amongst them: “Not possible… forget it… go away… leave me alone… you’re crazy… [and] I hate you…”

“No”, sucks the excitement and enthusiasm out of your most promising prospects. It destroys new distributors faster than a $13,219.00 monthly PV qualification. “No” is Public Enemy #1 in the previously undetected world-wide conspiracy to render 90 percent of all network marketing hopefuls, loser-quitter-failures who drop out before payday.

Do you think the failure rate and turnover in network marketing is due to a flaw in the business model… or the absence of a duplicatable business building system?

Perhaps you blame:
Lack of training? Lackluster products? Dysfunctional comp plan? Gypsies, tramps and thieves in the corporate office?

(And by the way, one or all of those could be true.)

Or are you so enlightened as to realize that the real reason so many people quit is it’s so easy to get in… and even easier to get out… that people come and go because they have nothing at stake… because quitting is cheap and easy to do?

The real reason people quit their businesses is that they cannot stand hearing the word “No.” And they WILL hear “No” more than any other word in the language (no matter what language they’re speaking).

Check this out: It’s excerpted from The Poundstone Report: Educating Madam Justice, taken off the MOJO wire from Mother Jones magazine on the Internet (http://www.mojones.com). Paula Poundstone is a nationally known stand-up comic who can think and write as well.

“I am learning a lot about children. I’m required to take 12 hours of continuing education in order to maintain my foster parent certification. The last lecture I attended was by Dr. Charlotte Reznick, a child and educational psychologist.

She said there had been some study that followed mothers with 2-year-olds for a day and recorded the number of negative and positive comments the mothers made. Not surprisingly, with all the things there are to tell a 2-year-old no about, the negative comments outweighed the positive. What’s startling is that they outweighed them 13 to 1…”

13 to 1: Yeses to Nos.

Try this one: In Word-of-Mouth Marketing, (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York) author Jerry Wilson tells of how he sent out hundreds of requests for person-to-person business experiences for his book. He requested both positive and negative stories.

“…we received only a handful of positive stories. But we got stacks of horror tales. By a ratio of 100 to 1…”

From Wilson’s research came his Rule Two:

The rule of 3-33. For every three people willing to tell a positive story about an experience with your company, there are 33 others who will tell a horror story.

The part of “No” that most of us don’t understand is that “No” is the way it is. It’s what you and I are “thrown” to. Majority rule. “No” is what we expect, and you know you always get what you expect. (it’s not “The Secret” anymore.)

“Don’t talk to strangers. Don’t touch that. Don’t do this. NO, you cannot have cake and ice cream for breakfast. No, no, no (no… NO!)…” since we were babies. “Can I have $20?” “No!” “Can I borrow the car?” “No!” Can I succeed in my own network marketing business? No!

And 95 percent of all the people you know–whether they are aware of it or not–just can’t take it anymore! They have been “No-ed” to death. Their spirit has been shot. (So the fact that 90 percent of the people attrit’ in network marketing means we’re five percent ahead of the average!)

How would you like to increase your income five times… decrease the attrition rate in your business by 25 percent or even cut it in half… and literally, personally, transform the lives (through duplication) of thousands and thousands of human beings?

Teach your people how to hear the word “No,” and forget about it!

Train your people to understand that “No” is normal. “No,” is the status quo.

Show your people how to be Yesmen and Yeswomen and that one thing alone will empower your networking business to awesome new heights–guaranteed!

Learn to listen behind the “No” for what is really there, and then teach your people to do the same thing.

Ask and keep on asking past the “No’s.”

Look at this…really look at this:

Did you know that 50 percent of all salespeople–professionals who are in sales to earn their living–quit after they receive their first “No?”

But if they’d simply keep asking, politely and in a sensitive and respectful way, they’d find out that…
20 percent of their prospects will say “Yes” after being asked for the fourth time. 50 percent will say “Yes” after being asked the eighth time. 70 percent will say “Yes” after being asked the 12th time. 90 percent will say “Yes” after being asked the 15th time. And 10 percent will never say “Yes” no matter how many times you ask.

And finally, research has shown that when people say “No,” 50 percent of them do not understand what you are offering, and the other half are having trouble making a decision.

Train the truth about “No” and teach your people how to ask questions to get to respectful “Yes.” This is the single most important and empowering prospecting lesson to master.

Thanks.

I Appreciate You.

– John

By: John Milton Fogg