The $300 Solution: How to Create Successful
Leaders By Creating Achievable Milestones

by Randolph A. Byrd -- publisher of the Upline Journal

Summary

The key to having distributors stay in your downline is to get them to the benchmark of a $300 commission check as quickly as possible -- ideally within three to six months. Your training and business-building strategies should be focused on that first all-important milestone.

"I know that in Network Marketing, 'the only way to fail is to quit.' But I'm having trouble convincing the people in my downline about that -- most seem to give up much too early. How do I get them to stay involved long enough to start seeing some success?"

This is one of those "Great Questions" that comes up again and again, and there are lots of great ways to answer it. Let's take a nuts-n-bolts, run-the-numbers, practical look at the conditions you've got to create for your people to get involved and stay involved.

Making sure your people are motivated by helping them stay clear on what their own personal goals are, making sure they have the tools they need and know how to use them, making sure their efforts are supported by three-way calls etc. -- all these are sound approaches.

But there's another answer -- one that's perhaps more basic and essential. There are two things which prevent most Network Marketers from achieving success. They don't make $300 per month quickly enough, and their downline agents don't either! Surprised? You're not alone.

But the truth is that $300 is the income-earning threshold below which there really is no Network Marketing Sales organization -- because there are simply no Networkers to make one. People who make $300 a month in this business stick around. People who don't -- don't.

Networking Enemy #1 -- Attrition

No one in this profession likes to talk about attrition. Why not? Because it undermines the profession's primary positive benefit that we recite in our prospecting routines. You know the rap: "You sponsor 10 people, and they sponsor 10 people, and they . . . and pretty soon . . ."

Now, how successful would you be as a prospector if you said instead: "You sponsor 10 people, and then nine drop out, and then the one who's left sponsors 10 people and nine of them will drop out, and then . . ." Doesn't sound like much of a positive proactive pitch does it?

Statistically, attrition rates in Network Marketing average about 80 to 90 percent per year. That means eight or nine out of every 10 distributors drop out of their organizations (and most out of Network Marketing Sales altogether) within a year or less of signing on.

Factually, that's no different than mainstream business startups, where eight or nine out of 10 new businesses fail within the first year of operation! And if a "traditional" business is lucky enough to make it through the first year, they normally won't see a profit for at least one more.

But what really hurts is that an 80-to-90 percent attrition rate means that 80-to-90 percent of all your efforts as well as all the efforts of your downline are basically wasted. As Dayle Maloney says, "The problem with most Network Marketers is that they quit before payday."

But what causes this high drop-out rate? CEOs and master distributors alike have given us all sorts of philosophies on why distributors leave our profession. I'll mention some of those reasons in a bit, but to find the empirical "truth," let's rephrase the question:

"At what point do Network Marketers NOT drop out of their organization? Specifically, how many dollars per month in compensation does a Network Marketer have to earn before a high percentage -- let's say 95 percent -- do NOT drop out?"

Just about all we spoke with answered:

"About $300 per month, sustained for at least two or three months."

And "by when" do they have to make that amount?

"Six to nine months is best, with one year being the longest time allotted."

And what if they don't?

"They leave the organization at a rate of 80 to 90 percent per year."

And if they do achieve $300 per month?

"They stay on board and usually become even more successful."

This law is true for you, the individual distributor, just as it is true for your downline agents. Have yourself -- and each one of them -- achieve $300 or more per month in commissions within six to nine months, and you and they will stay in the organization and produce!

And your downline will be certain to stay the course if you teach the truth about this business to them. This duplicatable system is as easy as distributing copies of this report to each person in your downline. So why don't most Network Marketers ever get to the $300-per-month level?

Poor prospecting/sponsoring, and lack of knowledge about this industry and how Network Marketing really works, all of which leads to unrealistic expectations. The way you prospect and sponsor each agent into your program sets up their expectations for success ... or for failure.

A common approach to sponsoring is the "get-rich-quick, let your downline do all the work while you kick back" routine. And this can set up your new agent for failure almost immediately, because the truth is that 98% of all Network Marketers do not ever reach those heights.

This creates a "lottery" mentality that creates delusional dreams about what this business has to offer. With this style of prospecting, even if a distributor did reach $300 per month, they would probably feel like a big failure, because they expected to make $30,000 -- not $300 -- a month.

We have a common misconception in this business that $300 is such small potatoes, it's not even worth mentioning. Tom "Big Al" Schreiter relates a wonderful story about a man who came into the business with the goal of making not $30,000 a month, but just $300 a month.

The man achieved that goal fairly easily and stayed at that $300 per month income level for a number of years. That didn't seem very ambitious to Tom -- especially for such an obviously gifted and capable guy -- so, he asked the fellow about it.

The man told Tom that he took his initial $300 and accelerated the mortgage payment on his home, paying it off in record time. He then used his free and clear equity to buy a second property, rented it out, and applied the $300 in the same manner he had with his own house.

In less than five years, he ended up owning five income properties and was virtually financially set for the rest of his life. All by virtue of the $300 a month in commissions he earned through Network Marketing. Remember, some people are just looking for a little extra spendable cash.

What other common mistakes do prospectors make? "You won't have to work for a living" . . . "You can become a millionaire like my upline. . ." (flash upline's mega-check here) . . . "Network Marketing is the answer to all your financial woes" . . .

While none of these statements are lies, and all actually quite often are true for a few distributors, they do set up false expectations for the novice. Try instead statements like, "Network Marketing offers you greater freedom as you can work this business anywhere, anytime you choose."

Or, "You can achieve a part-time or full-time income that can supplement or replace your current source of income, making enough in a few hours a week to pay for your car loan, a college education . . ." etc. Be honest and realistic above everything else.

When linked to the prospect's "why," these statements set up value in the opportunity and yet don't create unrealistic expectations for what this business has to offer. Even if you earn money for recruiting people, don't tell them what you think they want to hear just so they will signup.

Enter The $300 Solution

Now, what would happen if you told your downline (or told yourself!) that the first step to Network Marketing success is to get to that $300 a month level within six to nine months -- or maybe even a year? What happens to their expectations now?

What would happen if you told them the real truth about this business: When a distributor reaches a monthly compensation bonus of $300 per month he/she will not drop out! This is a point of no return! There is no turning back!

When they get to that $300 level, you and/or your organization must recognize and acknowledge their level of achievement. After all, in this recognition business, $300 a month is a "rite of passage." Call it a coming of age and celebrate it like a bar or bas mitzvah.

When you celebrate this coming of age, you set up a great expectation for your entire group. Imagine for a moment that you told your downline that the amount necessary to achieve the no-going-back level was $2,000 instead of the real $300 level?

The $300 milestone would go by unnoticed, as their expectation is $2,000 for the first level of achievement and success. But share the $300 Solution with them and make a public celebration out of every distributor achieving this level, and they will not drop out!

Once they learn the truth about this business, they will operate within that truth because they know that agents earning $300 a month will not quit. It will become a law of Network Marketing Sales nature. Note also the difference in their attitude when they achieve only $150 per month.

Within the old paradigm of "getting rich," $150 would have left them feeling like (and therefore, being!) a failure. Now, when they reach $150, they'll say, "I'm halfway home!" What a difference! So, how do we get to that magical $300-per-month benchmark?

You and your downline are halfway there already, because you are now armed with the knowledge of the $300 Solution. Since most new Network Marketers haven't a clue as to how this profession works, they usually just don't know what's expected of them.

They have no realistic and specific goal. But now, they can have a realistic goal that's achievable, and backed up with research about this business. They now can have realistic expectations for themselves, and for their future downline, too!

As for the specifics of how to get them to the $300 level in your organization, that depends somewhat on your products and your compensation plan. So, do a little research on your own program and establish several scenarios and teach them how to get to $300 a month ASAP!

Note: Simply review your own program's Marketing Plan and also the page titled Setting Goals And The First Big Step. Create a plan of action for your program and follow it so that you'll be earning at least $300 within the "acceptable" timeframe according to this article.

Help your downline members get to this level by prospecting and sponsoring distributors with them. Partnership is the key. Three-way calling and three-way sponsoring interviews are two powerful partnering tools you can use to have virtually anybody at $300 in very quick time.

What's more, if they use three-ways with all their people the way you did with them, imagine the dependability and duplicatability of that! If you want more of your people to stick with it -- and with you, too -- inject the $300 Solution into your teaching and training routine.

Don't be afraid that you scare off those "heavy hitters" with an eye to more sky-high incomes. Those folks will clearly and quickly see the virtue of a system that has hundreds and hundreds of part-time Networkers (potentially in their organization) all earning enough to stay in business.

And just for fun, take out your calculator and crunch some numbers to see what would happen if you were to diminish your own organization's attrition rate by, say, 10 or 20 percent. I think that you'll find what you've got there, in terms of your own check, is a lot more than $300.

<-- Prev | Back To The Outline | Next -->