Let me tell you a marketing story from my MLM days in 1998.
This was when the internet was still but a wee infant tugging on the teat of various tech companies. And while the company I shilled for sold various genuinely high-quality health products, they told us to only sell the opportunity-side, with little emphasis on the legitimate retail side.
The result?
For me the result was running to & fro, constantly pressuring family & friends about something they had zero interest in… and where the more I talked about it, the more they backed away physically, emotionally, and socially.
And who could blame them?
I made quite the arse of myself, to say the least.
And I would not be surprised one bit if many of those very same people would shun me as figurative leper to this day if I still lived in the quaint Midwest town I grew up in, as literal pariah and Persona non-grata.
Anyway, I got to thinking about how I’d do it different knowing what I do now.
And instead of chasing, hounding, pressuring, and begging people to buy a solution looking for a problem… I’d do the exact opposite.
For example:
I’d find a specific health problem I was passionate about solving, that I had genuine empathy for those suffering from, that one of the products in the company could help with.
Take low energy levels, for example.
I talked to my mom about this last time she visited.
And I was a very low energy teenager and, later, adult. I used to wonder how people had so much energy most of my life, while I slogged, yawned, and struggled to move and get work done at the various retail store, factory, and warehouse jobs I held down.
Not to mention when I was in high school sports, etc.
She wishes I’d said something back then, but I thought it was normal.
Back then (80’s & 90’s) they didn’t check young peoples’ thyroids which is a family curse, it turns out.
And so I had no idea, I just knew I was always tired.
But let’s say there was a product at the MLM I was that helped with this.
And let’s further say it legitimately worked.
Instead of sounding like an idiot talking to everyone within 3-feet asking if they keep their options open for ways to make money (literally what the trainers told us to do) and leading with the business opportunity while mindlessly citing benefits, statistics, testimonials, etc… what if I’d taken an Experience & Service-approach like I do with everything in my businesses today?
In this case:
Talking to people I saw and knew also had low energy?
Not “pitching” them.
Not trying to sell them or mentioning any products.
Just talking to them, in their Worlds, about THEM.
i.e., about their fears, worries, frustrations, insecurities.
Letting them vent, just listening, and having a discussion.
Then sharing the product, that I’d have been using myself of course, to help with that problem. And whether they bought or wanted it or not… becoming a resource about that problem, and inviting them to join an email list. And in that list, writing daily emails about low energy problems, low energy solutions, and, of course, plugging products about low energy.
And doing it all at their own pace, in their Worlds, about their misery.
And then:
ONLY when I got people letting me know the product had been working, and they were emotionally invested in it, and excited about it (and having better energy levels is extremely exciting if you have ever suffered low energy levels)… would I tell them about the business opportunity side.
And then:
What if I started creating a private email list and community just for them?
And if I was really gung-ho?
What if I also had local mixers, events, & networking meetings – including paid training, destination events, country club-style masterminds with other wealth, health, marketing, and selling-related training and experts invited… to make them better at building their own mini empires via the opportunity side?
Even becoming lifelong customers who go where I go.
And if the MLM itself was to dissolve, as many do?
Wouldn’t matter – I’d have a list of leads, buyers, associates, etc.
From there, I could create or find new, even better offers and Experiences for them unrestrained by the idiotic rules a lot of MLM companies impose upon people about marketing, advertising, and promotion outside of their limp, flaccid, corporate websites.
I think you can see where this is going.
And do you think the chances of someone getting in to that MLM, under those circumstances, AFTER going through that exact kind of Experience would make a difference not only in how many people I sponsored, but who came in correct, eager to sell the retail side, and then recruit from their own happy customers… would make a difference in ALL our successes?
You bet that sweet & sour gluteus assimus of yours it would.
But not just their buying Experience, though.
But also my own Experience selling in MLM vs all the depressed-off-their-asses sad sacks (I was one of those) MLM distributors getting shunned by friends, family, peers, and co-workers?
Do you think it’t have led to strong, lifetime relationships – business and personal?
Do you think it would have led to a much bigger email-driven business, about a topic that’d be as much fun for me to write about and sell as others to buy from due to that all-powerful and impossible-to-forget Experience?
All right, ’nuff said on that.
Here’s the point I want to make:
Business, marketing, copywriting is ultimately ALL about the Experience.
And I used the MLM story as example to show how this can make even something people normally back away from hearing about to want to eagerly chase you instead, if done right – by focusing not so much on force (persuasion, copywriting, sales tactics, whatever), but the LEVERAGE of buying Experience.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t be good at force, too.
Obviously I use and teach force (email, sales copy, marketing, persuasion, etc).
But this Leverage-side of things is where the real money is.
Where the real business growth is.
And, I argue, where all the real fun, peace of mind, and long term success is.
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Ben Settle
