So, who should you work with in your MLM Team? Should you work with everyone and anyone? This seems to be a million dollar question that people ask me a lot. I’m going to do my best to answer the question objectively in the paragraphs below.
First and foremost, you should be accessible and willing to help everyone and anyone on your team, even if they are many, many levels below you and are not part of you pay structure. In addition, you should also be willing to help everyone you personally sponsor into the business.
It’s just a matter of HOW you work with and help your team that will determine if you are busy, or productive.
My philosophy is to spend most of my one-on-one time with the serious people who are actually doing the work. They are the ones who get my personal attention, regardless of where they are in my group. This group is a very small group of people. They are the leaders and doers in your organization.
Everyone else is in the second group. These are the folks who get trained in a group setting. They get access to my training calls, my weekly emails, my training manual and more. Very seldom do I work with them one-on-one.
I just don’t think it’s smart to spend much one-on-one time with people who aren’t producing. If you have a large organization and lots of people personally sponsored, you wouldn’t have a life if you gave everyone one-on-one attention. You would be on the phone 24/7 and you would get burnt out.
As my mentor Don Failla tells me, you can’t effectively work with much more than about five people, one-on-one at a time. I have found this to be very true.
In MLM, there are four types of people.
The first person is the person who gets in and does absolutely nothing, or next to nothing. They seldom order the products, they don’t sponsor anyone, and they don’t get any customers. They normally fizzle out just as quickly as they came in.
The second type of person is the person who calls you ALL of the time to ask for advice, yet never does anything you recommend. They love your ideas, but for whatever reason they are scared (or lazy) to do the work. Do you have any of these folks in your group?
The next type of person is the person who does the business part-time or some-of-the-time. They normally have a day job and work their business a few hours each week. They aren’t always consistent every single week, but they normally do something every month to grow their business. This group makes up MOST of your organization.
The last group of the people are the producers. They are the ones who go out and make things happen. This is probably no more than 10% of your group. They put in the hours, do the work and produce the results. In most cases, they don’t even need your help. They take responsibility for their business and run with it. Within this group of people you have a few select people that build MOST of your team and produce MOST of the results. These are the folks you should spend your time with.
Once again, be accessible to everyone, but be smart about how you spend your time. Spend all of your one-on-one time with your producers and train everyone else in a group setting. Your time is your most precious asset. Don’t waste it on people who aren’t producing or have no desire to do so.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.
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Out of the 4 groups of people you mentioned, I believe the ones you need to really focus on with training and helping is group 3. With group 4, you should always be accessible, but in most cases, they don’t need you. Group 3 is the ones who are working hard, and need guidance on how to keep it going. Helping them keep out of a negative zone is the key.
You should always be willing to help groups 1 and 2, but just part time. As a matter of fact, I would confront those in group 2 with a “why do you not follow what I am telling you?” If it is said in a respectful way, you should receive an answer.
No matter what, always have your door open for all of your downline.
At the end of the day you want to work with the people who deserve your time, people actually putting in the work.
This tips are useful. I agree that you should invest the most time in the people who are investing the most time in mutual goals. Yes, you should be accessible to your entire team but part of a successful business is being smart about they way you spend your time. It’s incredibly frustrating to spend time offering business advice to someone who ignores it.
Love on everyone but work with the producers.
I have a couple of people in the second category you described. Always asking for advice but never taking it, and therefore remaining in the same rut time and time again. It can be kind of frustrating offering your suggestions to someone who asks when you know they won’t take it, but I’ve learned to give those individuals a minimal amount of time because past experience has shown me that they generally drop out after while anyway.
It’s true. Ultimately, you need to spend your time with people who are willing to do the work.
Awesome points made here- thanks for passing them along to the rest of us. I really like the point you make about being on the lookout for the people who give lip service to your ideas and plans and advice but never follow through with anything. I have dealt with people like these for years- and it is no fun!
I always tell people to watch people’s actions, not their lips. What people do is what matters most.
Your points are true. If your non-producers wanted to be more successful, THEY would be searching YOU out. Some people just want to get into the business for the free or discounted product. That does not make them bad: they just have different expectations and/or needs. Figure out who on your team wants to make it a business (it won’t be too hard to spot them), and run with them.
I do my best to be supportive with everyone on my team, but I spend most of my time with the serious people who actually want to do something! That is the smartest way to spend your time. Only a really small percentage of your team is actually going to run with it.
This proves absolutely true within my organization too. I work as a leader of the forum and have a number of people working under me. Reading this article actually made me realize that I have all these people in my team too. The producers, those people always asking for suggestions but never bring out effective results, the ones who do their daily task and leave for home and likewise others too. Producers within my team are always motivated towards bringing in innovative methods and think out of the box to deliver results above my expectations. They are my true leaders…
Good leaders are hard to find, but they are worth their weight in gold. One or two producers can really make a huge difference. I am a big believer in the 10/90 Rule. Ten percent of your people do 90% of the work. Your goal is to spend 90% of your time with those 10% of the people. Most people really mess that up. They end up spending most of their time with the non-producers.
I think the 10/90 or even being a little more forgiving and saying the 20/80 rule is present in just about any market or industry, but especially in the MLM corner. I have seen so many people come and go and never really do much of anything to help further the business. It is sad and very frustrating!
These numbers are very similar in ANY type of sales business. Only a few people will really perform at a high level. Some will do a little, most will do nothing and a few will do a lot. Work with the few!