Brian's TIP OF THE WEEK
Know your ratios & set proper expectations
One thing I had to learn when I began calling opportunity leads is that, no matter how great my opportunity is, only a small few of the prospects I talk to would be interested (for varying reasons). It is easy to get frustrated when you call 100 leads and only recruit ONE person. You might be tempted to think this lead calling thing doesn't work. Well, let's stop and explore this. I would usually recruit 1 out of 100 in the first run through the calls over the first few days. Then with proper, consistent follow up I would usually pull one more. So that's 2 out of 100. Let's do the math. In the typical comp plan, two recruits (also becoming a customer) should generate at least $200-300. Not to mention the limitless future overrides on sales those recruits will make and the teams they might build. So in this case, only recruiting 2 gets me to break even on the front end, and sets me up with new recruits to build a business with and generate tons of overrides and residuals. That to me is a winning scenario. Then if you teach others on your team to copy you, now you have got a machine that's duplicating and scaling to larger numbers with nobody having to increase their lead generation spend. If each person spends $100-200 a month, and sees that money come back plus some (assuming even only recruiting 2 people from a batch of 100 leads) - you've got a formula for success.
Remember, you have to recruit a bunch to find a stud. I have seen a few people who were a lead who have become millionaire club members. So good recruits can be found this way. Also, ever dud knows a stud. Just because the person you recruit isn't a super star, you can network through their contacts to find sharper people.
Rules of thumb that will help you:
- Set realistic, conservative expectations up front
- With proper, continuous follow up, you can recruit even more than 2%
- Go into every lead call with positive expectations they will be excited about the business
- When a lead says No, let it roll off your back
- Many leads will sound pretty lousy, but you're just looking for the diamonds in the rough
Brian Carruthers
301-343-9179< Back to BC's Prospecting Tips