Six Figures in Six Months by Clay Stevens is the best MLM book ever written, as I see it. It’s easily a 20 out of 10. Prior to reading this book a couple of months ago, I had listed that “Guerrilla Multi-Level Marketing” by Jay Conrad Levinson as the # 1 MLM Book of all time. While that book is absolutely amazing, this book is a masterpiece.
Please don’t take that lightly. Over the past thirteen years I’ve read just about every MLM book ever written. This book is unlike all of the others. It is simple, practical, easy to follow and loaded with great success tips. I like to think of it as the ultimate blueprint to success in network marketing.
It is the only book I have ever read that really focuses on the fundamentals of network marketing and tells you EXACTLY what you must do to become successful in our great industry. It also covers the pitfalls and common mistakes that so many people make.
What I really love about the book is that it is told in a parable format. It’s a story of several different network marketers and it follows their journey from frustration to success. I’m sure you will be able to relate to at least one of the characters in this book.
What I want to do in the paragraphs below is share some of my favorite quotes from the book. Each quote is in bold and italics. At the end of each quote I will share my own thoughts about it. Enjoy.
Top 66 Clay Stevens Quotes
# 1: When you began your business, you enrolled in an intensive personal improvement course.
Network marketing is the ultimate personal development course. It is the only business model I have ever been exposed to that really focuses on helping each person reach their true potential and become a better human being.
# 2: Through this book, you will learn that success in this business comes from the effective application of correct knowledge and skills in their proper sequence within a predictable three-step success pattern: Improve Yourself, Build a Team, and Become a Leader.
This is the thesis of the book. You must first develop your own skills and mindset. Then you must build your team. Then you must become a leader. Most people who join our industry are slapped on the butt and thrown to the wolves. In order to become successful, you need to follow a proven, step by step process.
# 3: All success comes as a result of tapping into, or creating systems that have proven to predictably produce results.
The system is the secret. You need a simple, proven system that you can follow and get a predictable result. Yes, your leaders will probably do it their own way. That’s fine. But 95% or more of your new people will need intensive hand holding and help.
# 4: Starting right is always better than starting over.
It makes a lot more sense to build your business the right way, right from day one, than it does to have to start all over again, because you built it wrong the first time around.
# 5: Enroll people who want to succeed, and then teach them how to think and take appropriate action to succeed.
Find the right people to invest your time in. Once you find them, invest a lot of time training and teaching them, so they can eventually become successful and independent of you.
# 6: People will do what you reward them for.
Reward people for the activities and behaviors that you want them to have. Most people only reward people when they get good results. That is a big mistake, as I see it. Reward people for doing the right activities and they will eventually get the results they desire.
# 7: When people enrolled and then hurriedly made a list of the people they knew, followed enthusiastically or excitedly talking to those people in an attempt to enroll them, about 85 percent of the time they stayed in the business for about sixty to ninety days and then quit.
If you force your new people to start talking to people before they have developed the skills (or been trained properly), they won’t survive very long in the business. You should put all of your team members through an initial training or orientation, so they know what to do and what to say. Your goal isn’t to make them an expert, but you do want them to have basic fundamental knowledge about the business, before they burn through their warm market.
# 8: At the same time, the people who stayed in longer than ninety days always seemed to spend time in the beginning learning, studying, and practicing what they had been reading and listening to; acting in a predetermined sequential way; and doing things in a specific progression.
Don’t throw your new people to the wolves. Train them right starting on day one if you want to retain them. It makes more sense to start people out right, even if it means they start slow. You do that by training them what to do, so they have the basic skills they need to succeed.
# 9: People live for recognition.
Most people do not feel appreciated at home or in their job. Recognize them whenever you can for whatever you can. Recognize them as often as you can. It is one of your most important jobs as a mentor. People will move mountains and buildings for honest, sincere recognition and praise.
# 10: The problem with most of the established leaders is that they can’t really explain how or why they have become successful themselves.
Ask just about anyone in our industry what they did to become successful and they won’t be able to tell you the exact process they followed. You want your success to be systematic and predictable, so you can help others do the same thing that you did. To do that you need a game plan and you need to keep track of your progress and results.
# 11: It’s about personal effectiveness and doing things on purpose, with purpose, and doing those things in their proper sequence aimed at creating specific results, including duplication and predictability, residual income, and generational wealth.
I couldn’t say it better myself. Do the right thing, the right way, in the right sequence, at the right time.
# 12: Your journey to becoming a professional school teacher started in college, not the first day of school as the teacher.
All professionals, in all industries, had to go through some type of education before they could start earning money. Network marketing is no different. You will have to go to MLM School for a few months to a few years UNTIL you develop the required skills you need to become successful. It’s no different from any other profession.
# 13: True residual income comes from getting and keeping customers and associates. The glue in your business is your ability to teach others to create success so they can build and maintain their own businesses with or without you.
Recruiting will make you money, but retention is what will make you rich. Anyone can recruit someone, but it takes a true leader to have a game plan and a system to follow so they can retain people on their team.
# 14: People will do what you reward them for, and you can teach people to do anything if you know the process of success and can effectively teach others how to do it.
Reward people for doing the right activities, even if they aren’t getting the results they desire.
# 15: Glenna told me how important events were; when people learn how to promote them effectively, others can begin to build their business with or without you. She told me there was a perfect correlation between event attendance and residual income…that people who have the best event attendance, make the most money… If I wanted my team to grow by 50 to 100 percent every month, and if I wanted my income to grow by at least 50 percent each month, then I needed to increase my PEPs in event promotion.
The bottom line is that you need to get your team members to attend events. They are the spring-board for your business. Attend all events yourself and do what you can to get all of your team members to go to all of the events.
# 16: Step one, she told us, consists of uncovering your prospects’ discomfort and dissatisfaction with some aspect of their life.
Before you ever show the plan to someone, make sure you find out what your prospect wants out of life, what their desires are.
# 17: Keep your business presentation informative, yet simple.
Never take more than 20 to 30 minutes to show the plan. Keep it caveman simple so anyone can do it.
# 18: We qualify for success in life through a process of learning, practicing, and applying correct principles in their proper sequence.
Do things in the right order.
# 19: Successful people are always committed and willing to do what the unsuccessful are unwilling to do.
Nothing in life worth accomplishing is fast, free or easy. Good things take time. Commitment is vital.
# 20: The farthest distance you will ever have to travel in this business is the eighteen inches from your head to your heart.
Once this business gets in your heart you will be unstoppable.
# 21: Conversion ratios are much more important than the raw numbers being produced, like total contact or total presentations.
Keep close track of your conversion rates and develop your skills so you can improve those conversion rates.
# 22: One other thing I noticed from most team members is that almost all of them recruit people to become product users or customers only.
You need customers and product users, but your primary goal is to find leaders.
# 23: It doesn’t seem that success is determined by how much a person does, but by how effective they are at doing what they do.
This business is partially a numbers game, but it’s more important to develop your skills so you can increase your conversions and work through smaller numbers of people.
# 24: She also told me not to listen to anyone who isn’t responsible for paying my bills and caring for my family.
Be careful who you take advice from. You might end up just like them. Find a qualified mentor and follow their lead.
# 25: The temptation for everyone is to go out and start blabbing to his or her family and friends. When they don’t enroll, the conclusion is that the business doesn’t work and the people quit. It’s not the business that fails. It’s people’s lack of skill and knowledge that fails.
Before you throw your new team members to the wolves (the warm market) spend some time to teach and train them what to do and what to say.
# 26: This business is about helping people whether or not you have a vested interest in them.
Help everyone on your team, even if they are outside of your pay level. Helping people in depth helps everyone above them, even you. Light a fire in the basement to keep everyone on your team excited.
# 27: Starting right is always better than starting over.
You can always start over if you need to, but it makes more sense to get started right.
# 28: Build personal effectiveness before building the team.
Work on yourself before you go out and try to recruit a bunch of people. Spend one to three months to sharpen your skills first, so you know what to say and what to do.
# 29: Think of the untold millions of dollars that could be made just by teaching 80 percent of the new associates how to get their products for free!
If you can show your team members how to make enough to get their products for free each month, you won’t have to worry about them quitting.
# 30: People seem to have unrealistic expectations. For some reason new people seem to think they can succeed in this business without any specific skills or knowledge.
Just like any other business, network marketing requires specialized knowledge. It can take months or years to develop this knowledge. Most new reps do not have this knowledge when they first get started in the business. Sadly, most reps don’t stick around long enough to develop it either.
# 31: Those who are really good at building the business are generally professional business builders, not professional trainers.
Trainers tell them their team what to do. Builders show them what to do by leading by example.
# 32: If recruiting is your focus, retention will be your problem because you will always be looking for the next recruit, instead of training the ones you have, to be successful.
Make sure you spend even more time with your new recruit AFTER you have sponsored them. Your real job as a sponsor begins once you sign someone up.
# 33: Those who retain the most, make the most.
The real money is in the retention, your ability to keep people on your team and on auto-ship.
# 34: People quit because they fail to quickly learn basic fundamental skills that keep them from being able to contact, present, follow-up, ask for the business, build relationships, or help anyone to take advantage of the business.
If you can teach people what to do, what to say, and how to talk to others, there is a good chance they will stick around longer and build a successful business of their own.
# 35: It’s what you do with your recruits after they enroll that makes the long-term difference.
Once again, recruiting people is just the first step. It’s your ability to train and retain them that makes all the difference.
# 36: Curiosity is the foundation of your business.
Your primary objective is to arouse other people’s curiosity, so they ask you questions and want to learn more about what you do.
# 37: For every person there is a need, a specific need they have that they can’t meet doing what they are doing now.
Find out what other people want and show them how network marketing can help them get it.
# 38: True victory or residual income can come only if there is a team of effective leaders helping to develop an even bigger team of effective leaders.
The ultimate measuring stick in your business is the number of leaders that you have on your team.
# 39: Once they had been properly trained they could plan, play, and win, with or without me.
Once people know what to do (and they have the motivation) they will build the business with or without you.
# 40: Most associates don’t know or understand what the predictable process for success is, nor do they know how to work their way through it. Most everyone has unrealistic expectations of the time and work required to succeed, and lastly, they lack confidence in their abilities to do the things necessary to build a strong and profitable business.
It’s your job to give every team member realistic expectations and show them what they need to do to be successful.
# 41: The number one most important skill to acquire and teach is relationship building.
This is the ultimate relationship business. The only way people will stay with you is if they know you, like you and trust you.
# 42: Every deck of cards holds four aces.
For every 52 people you sponsor you should find four quality people. FYI, you’ll also find a couple jokers.
# 43: Everyone who is focused solely on recruiting is struggling with retention and auto-ship orders.
Recruiting is just the starting point in your business. It’s even more important to train your new team members and build a relationship with them so you can retain your people.
# 44: Recruiting is, of course, important and you’re good at it, but most new people need some training to do it.
A few people are naturally good at recruiting. Most aren’t. Train your team how to prospect, show the plan, and follow-up, so they can be good recruiters themselves.
# 45: Even if you offer exactly what people are looking for, it’s actually quite rare that someone will buy from you or sign up the very first time you present to them.
Most people take at least 7 to 20 exposures before they will join your team, if not more!
# 46: To build a large and profitable business, you need to become a master at following-up.
The big money is in the follow-up. Most people need multiple exposures before they will ever join or get started. Most people I sponsor take 60 to 90 days to join my team from the time they start. During that time they get anywhere from seven to twenty follow ups.
# 47: People seldom take action if they are not directly asked to do so.
Most people on your team have never owned a business before, so if left up to their own vices they won’t know what to do. As a result, they won’t do anything at all. You’re no one’s boss, but you should give your team members step by step instructions and little homework assignments to do, just to give them that added push.
# 48: Make it a point to continue to recruit new people each month.
Never stop personally enrolling people. EVER.
# 49: You can make excuses or you can make money, but you can’t make both.
There are no successful victims in life. You have to man up or woman up and take 100% responsibility for your own actions.
# 50: If you can understand what drives and motivates people, you can help fulfill their needs and they will take the action you suggest.
Once you can show someone how to get what they want, they will listen to you.
# 51: Speaking to people in the way they like to communicate and using terms they know and understand gives you credibility and builds trust quickly.
Talk to your prospects and team members in a style they can relate to and understand. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes.
# 52: When you are contacting people, the main thing to keep in mind is that you are looking for people who are dissatisfied with something.
Look for folks who are sick and tired of being sick and tired and want to make changes in their lives. These folks make great prospects.
# 53: Two purposes to contacting: (1) to find out why our prospects are dissatisfied, and (2) to set an appointment.
Your goal when you meet someone new isn’t to show them the plan right then and there. Instead, ask a few questions to pre-qualify them and then set an appointment to show them the plan at a future time.
# 54: People are your greatest asset – your prospects, customers, associates, upline, and downline!
This is the ultimate people business. It’s the relationship you have with others that matters most. Relationships are the glue that keeps your business together.
# 55: Success happens when you focus on the needs of others, not yourself.
If you help other people get what they want you will get what you want.
# 56: Make friends and become more likable. The number one reason anyone buys from you or enrolls in your business is that they like, trust, or believe in you.
People like to do business with people they know, like and trust. Make sure that you can get along with different types of people.
# 57: Make sure to love the people on your team – all of them, even the ones who aren’t loveable.
Work on your people skills. Treat everyone with respect. Make sure everyone on your team knows that you appreciate them.
# 58: I would always lead by example. And this example meant that I needed to continue to enroll new people.
Set the pace for your group and never stop enrolling. Lead from the front. Spend a lot of time helping people and building depth, but always bring in at least 1-2 new people every month yourself. New blood is vital!
# 59: You never learn anything when you are talking.
Great network marketers are great listeners, not great talkers. Ask questions. Be quiet. Listen. That is what the successful people in our industry do.
# 60: If you approach your prospects with the fact that your products and services gave you more of what you wanted, but exclude how the benefits will help them get what they want, they will not engage, either as customers or as associates on your team.
Show your prospects what is in it for them. People only care about themselves. Take your eyes off yourself and help other people get what they want. If you do that with enough people you will naturally get what you want.
# 61: Ask, listen, and repeat.
Get good at asking questions and listening. The person who asks questions is in control of the conversation. You can learn a lot more about someone else by listening than by talking. You have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Use them in that proportion.
# 62: People don’t buy your product or service; they buy what the product will do. They buy the product of the product.
Features tell but benefits sell. Realize that people are emotional creatures and you must appeal to their emotions to sell them things. People buy a drill because they want a hole, not because they want a drill.
# 63: The main purpose of business is to get and keep customers.
Customers are the lifeblood of any business. Your real goal is to create volume, people who use the products each month because they want to, not because they are trying to qualify for a commission check.
# 64: You shouldn’t start counting success based on bottom-line results, like enrollments and paychecks, until you have the ability to create those results.
In all businesses, you must go through a learning period before you can become successful. Your time in the business doesn’t start until you have been trained properly and know what you are doing.
# 65: The glue that keeps customers and associates in your business is your ability to teach others to create success so they can build and maintain their own businesses with or without you.
Your ultimate goal is to get your team independent of you as quickly as possible. If you have to personally manage several hundred or several thousand people in your business, you won’t make it very long in the business.
# 66: Long-term success is built on developing leaders, not just associates. So even if you were able to use your mentor to enroll a few people in the beginning, it is your growth, example, and personal development that attracts and inspires others to grow and succeed with you.
To succeed in MLM you have to become a leader and develop other leaders. Distributors come and go, but leaders are the ones who will truly help you build a big business.
Why You Should Read the Book
You should read this book if you want to have a system you can follow (for you and your team) to build your network marketing business. If you want to know why your business isn’t growing the way it should be growing, read this book. If you want your team to understand what they SHOULD be doing to grow their business (and themselves), give them a copy of this book. If you want to make more money in your business, read this book. If you seek knowledge about MLM, read this book.
About the Book
The book was published in January 2011. It comes in paperback format and has 245 pages. The ISBN is 978-0980093056. It has over 60 reviews on Amazon with a 4.5 star average rating. To the best of my knowledge the book was self published. You can order a copy on Amazon by clicking on the image below.
About Clay Stevens
Clay Stevens is a top author, coach and consultant in the network marketing industry. He is the founder or Ri Training. He lives in Utah. You can visit his website to learn more about him or connect with him on Facebook.
Final Thoughts
The bottom line is that Six Figures in Six Months by Clay Stevens is my second favorite MLM Book of all time. To call it a masterpiece would be an understatement. It is fun, easy to read and loaded with so many life changing principles that can help you transform your business and become the person you need to become in order to reach your goals.
If you’ve ever read “Six Figures in Six Months” before I would love to hear from you. Please tell us what you liked about the book and how it helped you in your network marketing business. Just leave a comment below to share your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Chuck Holmes
Network Marketing Professional (21+ years)
Top Recruiter & Top Rep
mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
Great advice all the way around. So often people want to get started and are so excited that they “jump in with both feet” before they learn the ropes. Like the book says they start talking before they even know about the business, products or whatever they have to offer. Having little knowledge will turn people away especially if you can’t answer their questions.
Often I hear people in an MLM say that they spent more money then they made. Could it be because they didn’t take the time to learn the business or because they spent their money in the wrong place, possibly both?
Learning the ropes yourself and teaching others to take the steps will keep the business growing.
Yes, you want to start right so you don’t need to start over. Go through the initial training, get your questions answered, be coachable, and follow the system and you will improve your likelihood of success significantly.
Great review Chuck. I wish I read your review instead of the book itself. It is an interesting read, and will definitely get you thinking about how you are building your business.
However, there is a lot of ambiguity and endless referrals to other training materials sold by the author, without which you are left with more questions than answers after you are done reading (e.g new recruits/old members being asked to take/retake the PEPprofile test, inviting prospects to play the residual income game as a 1st exposure, the aha moments of team members whilst playing the game, various characters who kept referring team members to the “million dollar earners” audio cds etc.).
In my opinion, it’s a glorified version of the typical online sales pitches you find for various products. It tells you there is something you need to know, but doesn’t tell you what it is. Chuck I wonder if you agree?
Josh,
I think the whole premise of the book, and why I love it, is that it focuses on what you can do for the 95% of the people on your team. Sure, your leaders will just run with it, but those folks are few and far between. The other 95% need intensive hand holding and guidance.
I like the idea of starting out team members slowly but getting them trained right and plugged in to meetings and your system. I think that is paramount to long term success in this industry.
As far as him selling tools, most authors do. I don’t personally use his tools, but I think they could provide a lot of folks a good value.
I still love the book and think it focuses on the details that most authors never talk about.
Thanks for the comment, Josh.
Chuck
As I was reading this post again, I really zoomed in on #59-You never learn anything when you are talking. This is so true. Sometimes our mouths overrun our brains. I often catch myself in this position.
If we listen more than we talk, we can learn more about the customer or prospect. We were given 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason. I have been learning to shut up more and let others do the talking; it seems to make a huge difference.
#61 also goes right along with listening. Yes, we ask questions, but we also must listen for the answers.
Learning how to listen is very important. Most people aren’t very good at listening. When you give your prospect your undivided attention you really stand out, because so few people are good at listening.
Great book review, Chuck! I had not heard of this book yet, so I will definitely have to add it to the top of my list to check out! My favorite quote you quoted was, ” Starting right is better than starting over”. So true! If people knew how to start up their marketing business and team the right way, there wouldn’t be as much failure and burn out.
Good point. It’s much better to start right than start over.
Wow Chuck, just from all the quotes here, a person can learn a lot. I have to read this book. If what you have put here in quotes is just a part of this book, It must be amazing reading.
Some of the quotes that grabbed me were #17. Some people think they need to carry out their presentation for a long period. People like for you to get to the point.
#29 is so true. Just showing people how they can get their items for free will keep them in the business. Everyone likes free.
All of these quotes are great. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, one of the keys to building a big team is to help hundreds of people earn enough money each month to cover the cost of their order. If these folks really love the products, they will stay with the business because their products are free each month.