94: How To Rate Your Business (Part 1)

Secret MLM Hacks Radio

Let’s talk about HOW to judge if you're own MLM position is performing how it should...

First of all, I'm not talking about rating the company that you've chosen to be a distributor for.

What I'm saying is...

How do you rate your MLM position?

I want to teach you a really cool model that you can use to see how you're doing in business.

One of the biggest questions I get is, “Stephen, I've built this thing and I don't know what to focus on next”.

In order to know what you need to do, you need to know where you currently are. This is a rating system that is used in real businesses.

• Major businesses
• Multi-million dollar companies

I'm gonna teach you how to do it for your specific MLM position inside of your company.

RATE YOUR CURRENT MLM POSITION

This will help you go in and say, “Okay, here's my current place and where I am” and it'll be very obvious to you where you're weak.

I'm gonna teach you how to go through and rate your current MLM position.

This will help you create a roadmap.

I recommend that you take out a piece of paper.

This is literally how I go through and do this with my own business on a routine basis. And I know it's one of the reasons why we have such focused action inside of my company.

Because I take a moment to figure out where we are and where we're trying to go in relation to those two things.

It's very easy for me to see where we're weak. I sell my strengths, but I still need to go in and fix the weak spots, as far as the systems go and I'm gonna explain that to you moving forward.

One of the biggest things I run into inside of MLM is that people don't treat it like a business, and I know I've said that on this show.

“But Stephen, how do I treat it like a business?”

You need to know why it hasn't felt like a business and why you have not been treating it like one.

This episode will teach you the systems needed so you can treat it like a business, so that you're not the business. So that you're not treating like a hobby and so that you have something that's measurable.

You need to know if your business is actually growing and THIS will teach you that framework.

WHAT IS A BUSINESS?

When I was in college they would ask questions like, “What is a business?”.

We had to write a paper about what a business is…

At the beginning of my entrepreneurship classes there were some specific books that I was told to read.

I'd read the book and the first half of the book was great but the second half of the book was really awkward.

The reason it was so awkward is because they would say things like...

• “The business has a soul”
• “The business wants to expand”
• “It's ready to grow and it's ready to breathe”

… and it got fluffy.

And I gotta tell you guys… I'm not into that type of business belief AT ALL.

I don't believe in business WOO WOO.

What I practice is measurable activities that will guide me to success.

I don't care about ART.

I'm not saying ART ART…

I love art but art by definition is sometimes hard to define…

And because it's not to define-able, it's hard to design ahead of times. There's things in this life that you have to design. There's things you have to discover.

I want to know, in business, what I can design ahead of time.

I want to know that when I do A + B I get C

This is how I KNOW what to do next in my business. It is a way to rate how you're doing in whatever business you're in.

I'm not trying to say how to rate your MLM business as a whole. What I'm saying is how to rate your performance in your MLM position in your business.

How do I rate it and how do I know what to do next?

WHAT TO DO NEXT IN YOUR BUSINESS

THIS IS POWERFUL STUFF.

This is this is one of the coolest ways to know what to do next.

I had to do redesign what a business was in my head.

You might know this story... But one of the first funnels that I ever built was for a company that wasn't an MLM but they had a two tiered affiliate system. Sometimes they were mistaken for an MLM.

It was the first major success I ever had on my own while I was still in college. And it was for this water company. They're selling water machines and wateriners, water ionizers, Kangen Water, stuff like that.

I did all this marketing research and I did a bunch of Ask campaigns. And I found a whole bunch of people who had a lot of questions. They wanted MORE from the company.

Since they already had an existing customer base, I dropped a question out to their people. “What are you still struggling with?” and I got 157 responses.

What happened next was shocking. I spent the next week reading those. It took me three different tries to get through them because they were so intense.

The topic was intense as I asked people, “What are you guys struggling with your health? We're trying how to figure out how we can serve you guys better”.

People were saying things like, “Hey, I'm sitting here next to my spouse who's supposed to die any day. We're in the hospital and I'm responding to this. I really wish that I knew about your stuff sooner”.

I was like, “Oh, I thought we were marketing hard enough”, and I it got so heavy because some of these people were telling their life story... Which is kind of what you want in an Ask campaign.

MLM BUSINESS MARKETING

But the topic was so heavy for me and I remember sitting back and just thinking, “Oh my gosh this is intense”.

And I come back the next day and someone would be like, “Hey, I'm sitting here and I just was diagnosed with cancer. Why did you not tell us about this sooner?”

Again, I was like, “We're not marketing hard enough!”

So I went back and we started looking at the products that we're being sold in this company. I launched a funnel and designed it all out and it was a big success.

They made great money from it and it was the first big huge win that I had for a client and something interesting happened though...

This has happened THREE times now…

DAY 1: The launch happens and everyone's like, “Oh my gosh, this is so freaking cool. This is so awesome. Steven this is so much money. I can't believe how much money this is. This is amazing!”

I'd be like, “Yeah what's up?”, I'm on the phone with the CEO, “What's up? Oh, I told you it would work” and it was really validating for me at the time.

DAY 2: They called me and said, “Wow, this is a lot of sales… Oh my gosh” and I'd be like, “Yeah, what's up? I told you it's gonna be super cool! It's gonna elevate everything.”

DAY 3: They called and they'd be like, “Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn the funnel off!” and I'd be like, “Who wants less sales?” and I'd hang up.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A FUNNEL AND A BUSINESS

And I remember the first time that happened with that first water company. I was like, “You psycho, who wants less sales? You're crazy, you're insane. Who wants less sales?”

About two weeks later I just stopped answering my phone altogether. He would call in a desperate frenzy and he goes, “Stephen, turn it off!” and I was fed up.

I go, “Dude, why would you want less sales? I don't know anyone else on this planet who wants less sales.”

He goes, “Stephen, you are going to bankrupt us.”

I said, “That doesn't even make any sense. I don't get it. That doesn't make any sense. You're making more money”

And he goes, “No dude, you don't get it. You're selling so fast that you're sucking all the cash out of the business just to fulfill in the product. I can't pay my people. We have a serious cashflow issue going on. You're selling too quickly. TURN IT OFF!”

I was like, “OH MY GOSH!”

Iit was the first time in my entire life that I ever realized that there is a massive difference between a FUNNEL and a BUSINESS.

HUGE DIFFERENCE!

“Stephen, how does this relate to MLM?”

That’s a MASSIVE reason why most people don't have success in MLM. They go out and they don't realize that there's two different parts of this.

YOU DON’T OWN ANYTHING IN YOUR MLM POSITION

You're gonna go ahead and design the business that you own... And we've gone over this in the past.

You don't own anything in MLM.

• The products
• The position you're in
• Those that you're getting inside your downline

I'm not saying this to freak you out... It's the truth.

At any moment, stuff can change... So what do you have control over?

You have control over a few things:

1. The WAY that you approach people
2. The audience that you approach
3. The training you give your downline

This is a lot of what Secret MLM Hacks is about. It's about how to create a message that you can go and approach the market with your dream person.

Inside of the message that you approach them with is that unique offer. That unique recruiting offer, that you developed… A self-liquidating offer.

The third thing you can control inside of your downline is the TRAINING you give them after they join you.

I didn't get a lot of training in the first time MLM I joined. You have probably been in one like that and it's frustrating.

They're like, “Just go talk to your friends and family”, I'm like, “Alright, if that's what you're supposed to do…”

The reason I'm going over this is because, first of all, you control these three things. But on top of that, I want to give you a way to rate where you are.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR CURRENT MLM POSITION

It's very hard for Google Maps to tell you where to go when they don't know where you're starting.

This is to help you understand where you currently are and the MLM position that you're in

The first time I ever saw this, someone was teaching me how to rate my own business.

This doesn't come from me. It comes from some specific people mixed with a lot of different books... A lot of time and experience for sure.

A great book that'll walk through some of these concepts is it book called Clockwork.

Anyway, here's how to rate the business.

The reason I told that story as well is because a lot of people get obsessed with the funnel. The purpose of the funnel is very finite and a funnel is not the same thing as a business.

A funnel is not the same thing as a business.

A FUNNEL generates the revenue.

The BUSINESS fulfills on the revenue.

Let's define what a business is.

A BUSINESS is a series of systems that generate a lead, then convert that lead, then deliver what the lead was sold.

There's a lot of consensus that THIS is what a business systems are.

After this, there's a lot of varying opinions. For me I look to see how well I UPSELL them after this.

Second money is ALWAYS easier than first money... Which is one of the reasons why you create a self-liquidating offer in your MLM.

Once you've created that, it's very easy for them to go and buy from you and your downline, whatever you're selling. Your product, your opportunity. Because you've already warmed the mind with a first sale.

MAJOR FUNCTIONS OF A BUSINESS

What is a funnel responsible for? Technically you can have a funnel that generates a lead, converts that lead, delivers what they bought and upsells them. That's why a funnel is so powerful.

If you design it the right way, a funnel can perform some of the major functions of a business.

I like to look at these as independent systems because technically a funnel can fit inside all those.

I'm gonna design the funnel into ONE specific function of business.

HOW TO RATE YOUR MLM POSITION

How well do you generate a lead?

If you're scoring yourself on your ability to generate a lead as a 3, you have more leads coming in than you can handle. If you score yourself as a 1, you're not getting enough leads to fuel the other functions.

These all feed into each other.

Lead → Convert → Deliver → Upsell

This is not stuff that an upline teaches you. What you're taught inside of an MLM is to be the lead gen for your upline.

Which means go get my friends and family. I am their system for leadgen. That's why that's taught.

I am my upline's system around lead creation

They convert them. The company delivers and upsells all for me. It's literally out of my control after the lead.

There's two things I can do with this…

#1: Create a self-liquidating offer then I gain control back on ALL of these functions. I create my own offer in front, which Secret MLM Hacks really is for me.

I don't pitch you guys on my MLM or my down line. Most of you don't even know what I'm in.

It allows me to gain control back on gaining leads, converting leads, getting cash in hand that gets me more leads. All this money dumps back into ads and then I deliver what I said I would deliver. Then I upsell later on.

That's exactly what I've created here, and what I'm teaching you to create. You don't have to make something to the magnitude of Secret MLM Hacks.

YOUR MLM POSITION AND SECRET MLM HACKS

A major purpose of this course is to teach the market, that we're using very old systems. This puts POWER back in the hands of the MLMer.

When you learn to create something in the front, it lets you gain control over it.

You're not usually given that much control over converting. Definitely not on product because it's not your product.

YOU DON’T OWN ANY OF IT.

To get power back into your hands, what you do is create an SLO, which is what Secret MLM Hacks teaches you how to do.

There's multiple ways to pull that off.

I want you to RANK where you currently are. What this becomes is a MAP.

You have to decide whether to rank yourself in terms of your ability, in terms of your MLM position. How well do you generate a lead?

We’re talking about BUSINESS. Business systems, business structure that frees YOU from being THE business.

If you handle every...

• Support ticket differently
• Lead different and there is no system
• Conversation when someone is interested in your downline

… YOU’RE THE BUSINESS

I'm recruiting a lot of people DAILY and I'm not talking to any of them.

The knee-jerk reaction people have had when I say that is. “Well Steven, you just took the human element out of this game”.

No I didn't. I have a system that…

• Generates leads
• Converts them
• Delivers what they bought from me (including MLM training which is what hackMLM.com is for my team).
• Upsells people to gain back cash and cash flow hard

...All I did was create systems around it.

RANK YOUR MLM POSITION

I didn’t take the human element out of it... I just treat it like an actual company instead of a freaking hobby.

In terms of my MLM position, let's also rank it on the SLO that you've created. This is why we're doing what we are here, this is why it's so powerful.

There's only so many things you control in your MLM position. What I do have control over is getting more leads than I can handle.

That's good, that's awesome, that's a sign of massive strength.

I don't really have control over the MLM position delivery itself. I don't control the fulfillment that my MLM has.

I want you to rank where you currently are in terms of the self-liquidating offer that fuels this but then also where you are in terms of the position your MLM has handed you.

On a scale of 1 - 3 (3 being AMAZING!) rate the following:

MLM POSITION

LEAD:

CONVERT:DELIVER:

UPSELL:

For me personally I'm gonna rank LEAD a three because we got a butt ton of leads.

We're about to pass 1,400 people asking to join my personal down line, not including all the people who joined my MLM and get the same systems and all the people asking to join theirs.

IT’S INSANE!

WHAT TO DO NEXT WITH A LEAD

As far as converting them, I'm gonna rank myself a two. We give them personal phone calls. I have people in my downline who I've deemed as being good phone closers and people who can answer questions about the MLM.

They give personal phone calls to those who asks to be in our downline. I think it could be better. We're still trying to figure out a few gravy train changes that we could switch and I think we know what it is.

Delivery... I don't really have control over that because my MLM does that. They’re the ones packaging up our product and shipping it out to them and giving them more training. I'm gonna put an X here.

What's interesting is, I created an entire program to train them on how to be successful. There is a training on our back-office for just our team. Here's a training on some cool lead strategies for just our team.

No one else gets it. That adds value for when they join me. Do the same thing in yours. I'm NOT pitching you, I'm telling you to do the same thing in yours.

As far as upselling goes, there's not a ton that I have in place for upselling. Although some of it is in Hack MLM.

I don’t have control over the THING itself… Delivery, fulfillment, I don't have control over that.

What I do have is this program that will teach them about it and in doing so, they have more success with it.

Hack MLM is both delivery and upsell.

RANK YOUR MLM POSITION - WHAT TO DO NEXT?

In terms of how I'm doing in my MLM position, I've rated myself pretty high. THIS is how I RANK it but then what do I do with it after I rank it?

That's where I'm really taking us ;)

Now let's think in terms of your self-liquidating offer. Let's say you're, gonna go create a product.

Say you’re selling a protein supplement...

You're like, “Stephen, I really want my downline to be filled with people who are very scientific in terms of their understanding about the supplement. They understand protein synthesis, they know what's going on a molecular level.”

“Stephen, I'm a nerd. I love our supplement to a huge scientific molecular level. I want my downline to be full of those people.”

Great! So then what kind of product would attract a whole bunch of people, who are scientific about your thing? A product that's scientific about the thing!

You just create the same SLO as the type of person you're attracting.

The reason I created Secret MLM Hacks with a lot of awesome funnels in there is because I targeted it at the funnel community. They see that as extremely valuable.

I'll charge $50,000 to $100,000 to build one funnel for somebody and you get eight. It's pretty awesome.

RANK YOUR BUSINESS SLO

That's who I'm targeting therefore that's how I designed this self liquidating offer.

I'm gonna rank mine.

YOUR SLO:

LEAD:

CONVERT:DELIVER:

UPSELL:

Our self-liquidating offer gets a lot of leads but I'm not gonna give it a three. I do think there's a few things we could do to make it even better. There's a book that we're writing.

I own bigMLMsummit.com. That's a cool way I know I want to create more leads.

As far as converting them, we actually have a pretty good conversion rate but there's a lot that I want to go update in the webinar. More things that I want to give to HELP you guys. Emphasis on help. I don't want to give more for the sake of giving more.

I think the last thing anyone needs is another video course.

There's a few ideas I have that could improve Secret MLM Hacks. I'm gonna give that a two because we still convert.

We still deliver really well.

Upsell? There's no upsell. I'm gonna say one because there's not really an upsell to Secret MLM Hacks.

The only upsell from here in the value ladder is if you want to join my downline.

People reach out and they ask and we tell them where to go, we give them a phone call.

RANK YOUR SLO - WHAT TO DO NEXT?

What I do then is THIS:

I look to see what I'm ranking the lowest on, and that becomes the focus for my next month or two.

The next logical thing for me to do would be to create something specifically to upsell my existing buyers, because there really isn't one.

Then after that I would choose the next lowest one. This becomes my to-do list. The number ones literally become the first thing I do. Number twos are the next thing I do. Number three is the next thing you do.

Then I just go back and re-rank it. I'm making sure to develop a system that gets leads. That’s why I tell you to publish so much. It's the easiest thing to do, to get a bunch of really warm and hot leads AND it converts them for you.

You can suck at sales messages and just be podcasting your journey in MLM and what you're learning and you will attract true believers into your life.

They'll just buy from you, because they've been listening to you. Because they love you and they love your stories.

Delivering. If you're doing info products, it's as simple as a freaking email with login access.

We ship you out cool boxes and packages and stuff like that but anyway…

Upsell. I don't really have an upsell. I SHOULD have an upsell and this tells me I should probably go make one.

WHAT DO YOU CONTROL IN YOUR MLM POSITION?

That's just the stuff that I control in my MLM position. I don't control that much. There's tons of rules, there's lots of red tape in MLM which is understandable.

You know where you're trying to go. You're trying to get to a spot where you have a well-oiled machine like we've built.

• I have leads and they convert pretty much on their own because of the systems I've built
• They get delivered on by the MLM
• They’re up sold by the MLM

I can facilitate that better by creating a program that trains them on the MLM, which is what I did with hackMLM.com.

Focus on the next major to do list in terms of your MLM position. In order to fuel THIS, you need to start looking at THIS side. What can I go create? What is the status of where things are currently?

I'll do this periodically for anything that I sell.

I ask myself, am I building a business?

I challenge you to:

• NOT launch funnels

• Launch businesses

A funnel is just an arm for these things. What are the system that you have created? Do you have a system?

If there's no established way, I become the system.

I'm NOT the system, I am NOT the funnel, I am NOT the business.

I OWN the business, I BUILT the funnel, I CREATED the system.

You gotta treat it this way or it's a hobby.

WHAT TO DO NEXT - JOIN SECRET MLM HACKS

I know it's tough to find people to pitch after your warm market dries up, right?

That moment when you finally run out of family and friends to pitch. I don't see many up lines teaching legitimate lead strategies today.

After years of being a lead funnel builder online I got sick of the garbage strategies most MLMs have been teaching their recruits for decades.

Whether you simply want more leads to pitch or an automated MLM funnel, head over to secretmlmhacks.com and join the next FREE training.

There you're gonna learn the hidden revenue model that only the top MLMers have been using to get paid regardless if you join them.

Learn the 3-step system I use to auto recruit my downline of big producers WITHOUT friends or family even knowing that I'm in MLM.

If you want to do the same for yourself, head over to secretmlmhacks.com.

Again that’s secretmlmhacks.com.