The 7 Sponsors to Avoid Like the Plague!
One thing we can be sure of is that you are the number one variable in your business. There are lots of outside factors, but it’s your business and you must take personal responsibility for it. Now that doesn’t mean that you should discount everything else…
Like the company you choose and the sponsor you enroll with. Obviously you need to join a solid, legitimate company. For details on how to best do that, see my last book.
But that raises the next issue. Your sponsor.
Honestly too many people blame their lack of success on their sponsor. This is victim thinking and will keep you broke. At then end of the day, it is your bonus check and your business. However, there are some sponsor types that I recommend you avoid like the plague! Seven in fact. I thought it might be fun and helpful to you if we did a series on these.
So starting today, let’s look at them, beginning with number one:
“The Cult Leader”
Now what do we know about cults? They usually have a strong charismatic leader that wants to do all the thinking for the group. In fact, they are petrified of critical thinkers and remove them as soon as they appear.
They function as benevolent dictators, telling everyone they know what is best for them. And here’s the most interesting part, and the issue I think that offers the best lesson for our business…
To join the cult, you have to sever all ties with your friends and family. They don’t want you having any contact with the outside world, getting any perspective other than the cult’s. And they certainly don’t want you getting advice to quit the cult from those you love. So they drive a wedge between you and make them the enemy.
Kind of like some of the people mining the miners in our profession…
They push you not to talk to your friends and family. And there are really two reasons for this.
First, they’re pandering to you, telling you what you want to hear. If they can convince you that you shouldn’t talk to your warm market, they can make the pitch that you won’t have to face rejection. And wouldn’t we all love to hear this?
But a sponsor that really cares for you doesn’t tell you what you want to hear. They tell you what you need to hear to succeed.
The second scenario is when that person has leads or advertising systems to sell you. The less you do the warm market, the more you have to buy from them. But that’s a whole other post…
Let’s stick with your potential sponsor and how they will help or hurt your business. If your sponsor doesn’t believe in talking to their friends and family, I don’t think they even believe in the business.
Think of the analogies we’re used for years promoting MLM: Like going to a great movie or restaurant, ten telling your friends about it.
Would you go to a movie – love it – then post a review on a website but not tell your friends how much you liked it and why they should go?
If you discover a great restaurant, would you submit it to a travel guide, but not tell your best friend, sister or mother? How crazy would that be?
If you really understand our business, and know all of the benefits it provides and the good it can do – you will shout it from the rooftops to the people you care about.
If a potential sponsor told me he doesn’t believe it talking to his or her warm market, I would suggest they find a new line of work, and I’d look for a different sponsor.
So that’s my opinion on sponsor type one to avoid like the plague. What do you think? Let us know below. Then on our next post, we’ll explore type number two…
-RG
Great post as always Randy.
But I gotta tell you that after my first three crash-and-burn experiences in the industry, I vowed not to tell my warm market about my next venture whenever that was to happen.
After educating myself I got into a company I’m VERY happy with – and my upline sponsors recommended not making the proverbial List of Friends & Family. And that was OK with me.
They further advised not talking about the company until things were rolling when, if asked what I’m up to, I would share details with them. I thought it was a stroke of genius. Who needs more discouragement especially when starting out.
My warm market was toast; they threatened to stop inviting me to weddings and barbeques. So this was no red flag for me. And rather than discourage critical thinking, my entire organization ENCOURAGES & CULTIVATES it.
Thanks for the posts. I look forward to them.
Tony
This is a very interesting subject to me. I sponsor/recruit people and don’t want to be like the one you listed above. Great subject RG !!! You Rock !!
Ah ha! I LOVE this and can see that there are already someone around me doing all these. Looking forward to type number 2.
In Gratitude,
David Lee Y S
Randy;
Keep up the good work,I agree with Tony,I don’t dare talk to my,
my family and friends because,they think I’m crazy ,I’ve hit them with alot
of different Companys that I’ve been in! Now that I found the right one all we have to do is direct them too the web site & then the training room,I talk
to everyone,I like meeting new people and creating new friends
Thanks;
For your leadership!!
Doug
Thanks Randy. Looking forward to the other posts. I will share these with my team.
Nice post RG..But not all people have a courage or desire to talk to their friends and family..
Like me I do offline MLM 2 years doing all I should be doing…
My sponsor got a position but my results are too far from him..
Although we do MLM most of the time together..
Thats why I can say that only people who will succeed in traditional MLM are those people who has a very commanding presence and has a huge circle of influence..they can generate leads thru that circle of influence..
but for the most people..these tactics don’t really work for them..
that’s why as a networker. we tend not to quit easily..we tend to search and find solutions to our problems..
so for the most people they go the internet and search for something that can help them in their problems…
And for me it is ok that many people are offering a training and system on the internet..
because our industry is all about that “MARKETING”
Wow! That explained my first experience 7 years ago. He did’nt even want us to share business cards or phone numbers with crossline associates. He was always worried about us leaving and taking everyone with us.
It’s kind of funny looking back at those years in the begining, because a few years later, that’s what he did!……..Took everyone to 2 more companies.
Thanks for all of your Wisdom Randy!
That’s great Randy. How do you get around them not being blown out of the water before they know enough not to throw in the towel?
Mike
It’s very important that people are no making presentations themselves at the early stages, only using 3rd party tools. That’s where duplication lives.
-RG
oops i missed this comment… sorry… yikes biting my tongue now… been a crazy day… babies everywhere… family members freaking out over a double fatal car accident… and me trying to blog, post and baby sit.. its not working out i think… lol…. sorry didnt mean to step all over your blogs please forgive me… :o)
luv ya
Dear Randy,
Great post as always! Looking forward to know the next 6 sponsors we should think of.
Regards —– K
I had so many things to say about this post, but I am so busy right now trying to build my business, that I will only make a small note:
Talking to people about something you use and like, it’s not the same thing as promoting something you use and like, but have a vested interest in.
And this might be a good post for you to discuss about, right?
Love you all
Alfredo Rodrigues
That is a very accurate point. In people’s minds bragging up a restaurant that they get no commission from is easy…….it is when that restaurant will pay you for every customer that one starts to second guess. There is a deep “mind” think going on. Love to see Randy go into that further…….
Great thoughts!
Never trust anything that seems too good-it probably is!
M
Hi Guy’s
Asking a new distributor to write a list before they are aware of how you “both” will be talking to their friends is just mlm suicide. New distributors need to be shown the list is a mechanism to find people to talk to. Its not a one off exercise, its dynamic. It is also a great confidence builder if done properly. As a sponsor I need to do show them how and work with them. But not do it for them! Hope that helps.
Mike.
in my opinion, warm market, or should i say warmer market? initially is for you and your upline to approach, this way you don’t get blown out of the water.
it is scary to talk to your warm(er) market because they know you, they are aware of all your past failures and successes, and they are the ones you want to impress the most, so telling them about your new business is scary because if it doesn’t workout they will be watching and ridiculing. That is when you have to suck-it-up!
I have seen so many close friends and family members that mean well destroy the new distributors dreams, hopes and desires, and many times i don’t see them recover from this.
Here in Southeast Asia the situation is more complicated than that, loosing face for some is too much of a burden and can turn a family against the offending family member for life. Here close family ties could quite literally mean the difference between life and death.
In America, it is not as big a deal, we think, “So what, it doesn’t really matter what other people think of you, what matters most is what you think of yourself.” That is not always the case in other countries.
I truly believe warm market marketing is indeed the most powerful, and most advantageous, and best if approached in the right way. Might we might want to get clear on what a warm market is. These are the people closest to you, not just your hairstylist, these are your secondary or tertiary warm markets, not your inner circle of warm market contacts. Secondary and tertiary markets i recommend you can approach anytime, its the inner circle, the ones closest to you that you have to approach as a team. although it is always best to use third party as often as possible especially in the beginning.
When approaching your warm market, do it as a team, and if you should do it alone do it with passion, enthusiasm, and excitement. let them know you don’t have all the answers and what harm could the initial start up cause? it is a drop in the bucket as far as money goes. Equinox is out of business now, so front loading is GONE so no worries, if it fails pick up the tiny pieces and move on, and if it succeeds then we can all succeed together.
I have seen in many network marketing companies over the last 20 plus years so many people talk talk talk talk about what is good for THEM the me, me, me, me attitude. only the top performers, the very top income earners ever talk about what is good for the team. Why more families are not banning together as a TEAM in this business i have no idea!
like in the movie with Russell Crowe A Beautiful Mind;the Nash Equilibrium “Adam Smith said the best result comes from everyone in the group doing what’s best for the himself, right? That’s what he said. Right? Incomplete. Incomplete. Because the best result will come from everyone in the group doing what’s best for himself and for the group. Governing dynamics, gentlemen. Governing dynamics. Adam Smith was wrong.”
The best result is where every entrepreneur creates wealth for themselves as well as the group – but not in that order. The best result comes when the individual entrepreneur creates wealth for the group first and then, for themselves.
I have seen families across America banning together to buy lottery tickets, $50, $150, $250, $500 a week and more. They ban together as a family and if any one number hits they split the jackpot. That’s over $2,000 a month to play the loto?
What could that family do together as a network marketing team? How often do you actually see a family doing network marketing together? Other than husband and wife? Hardly ever!
i have seen distributors become successful and get all teary eyed when they were able to finally retire their parents. That is great and i applaud them and their success, they are making enough money to now retire and support their parents. Why not sign the parents up and build an organization with them? Then the parents have their own income, and you build as a team. NOPE don’t see it happening.
Brother and sister joining with you? not hardly. Even the top industry experts have the hardest time getting their closest friends and family to jump on board.
Me personally i am a coach, i became a success coach long before it was the latest fad for out of work execs, and stay at home lazy slobs who don’t want to work. Back when people had no idea what a success coach was. i have built a very lucrative career on my skills and abilities and have yet to have a single family member ask for my coaching, and not one accepted my offers to help them in their careers, family, or business, not to mention making more money.
I surround myself with successful people, people that know, understand and support me. people that appreciate who i am and what i do, so it is easy to bounce back when my own family acts as though i don’t exist. And still that causes emotional pain. the average person without that support group might not recover from such emotional hardships.
As for the types of sponsors to avoid i totally agree the cultist is one of the worst, i know of many companies that utilize this tactic both in MLM and in the personal development arena. And NO Tony Robbins is not one of them… lol… it is another example of network marketing business black eyes, but nothing we can’t overcome and rise above.
I really enjoyed your comment Chip as it reflected a lot of what I have experienced over the years trying to work my warm market. It’s reassuring to know that I am not the only one out here who is scratching my head trying to understand why families don’t pull together and build a business as a team.
Every person has to take responsiblity for their own actions a concept to often absent in today’s culture. I have sponsored so many people that I should be wealthy beyond my wildest dreams however that is not the case. Looking back I have wasted a great deal of time trying to get people to do things they have absolutely no intention of doing (although they will tell you how successful they want to be) I have also gone the route of doing the work for them hoping that if I spent enough time running them around, giving them members for their own team and a lot of handholding they would be successful. I have recently come to the REALIZATION that if YOU don’t have the drive, passion or desire to be all you can be, I can’t do it for you. WOW what a wake-up call!
So my whole take on this cult leader things is this. There are a group of people who can only function in this type of environment. They don’t have to think for themselves and more importantly, if they fail don’t have to take responsiblity for thier own actions. If they don’t or won’t see what is going on they are probably not destined for fame or fortune. I don’t know about others but as a sponsor I have no time or desire to control others. I want independent thinkers and doers who are interested in promoting themselves within their warm, warmer and cold markets. I view myself as a mentor and trainer I have learned the hard way to help but not dictate to them or do it for them.
All prospects are not created equally, some want success without hard work and diligence. These people are not willing to put forth the effort or sacrifice needed to become successful. Others have the drive but not the skills, these are the people we are searching for, the proverbial diamonds in the rough. Give them hope, give them help, give them encouragement, give them training and they will give you untold success.
Your comment sums it up masterly. Can you email this to me so I can enlarge it and send it to my associates as well?
I look forward to hearing about the other “sponsors”
M.HallSr.
Great post Randy. Greetings from Brazil!
Friends and family are the ones that we love, so I call warm market as my “dear people”.
I want the best for my dear people, and I think anyone who is sane do it too.
If I do not consider my business the best to my dear people, I must reevaluate what I have.
What you described is just like a chief that won’t promote the restaurant he cooks to his dear people.
Ricardo Guimarães
I agree with you Randy and have been victim of the wrong sponsor. I once had a fellow from a company approach me, tell me he was a multi millionaire of his company and that he would personally mentor me. He was arrogant and enjoyed talking more than listening. Shortly after I sigend up with him I realized how much of what he told me was hot air and all he cared about was himself. As we all know, once you sign up under someone, you are stuck with that sponsor. Companies typically have a grace period of months if you decided to leave and come back with another sponsor. I decided to leave the company, learned from my experience and found another opportunity.
Randy, in my first MLM experience when I approached my family with information on what I was doing, some of them remarked “why don’t you quit that B.S. and get a real job.” That didn’t stop me from promoting my products and sharing with others how the products had changed my life.
Since that time back in 1999 or 2000, I have joined with other MLM businesses and my family still doesn’t want to hear about them. It’s as if they have turned a deaf ear to me! 🙂 It’s their loss, not mine!
You’re the greatest, Randy! and don’t you forget it!!!
Chris
I totally agree with Randy on the “The Cult Leader”. Coming from a biggie in the industry, this comes as a pleasant surprise. The funny thing is, I am currently involved (from the inside) with a company that “utilizes” such methods- perhaps in ignorance, since the owners came from an MLM company that’s REALLY using cult tactics.
Dear Randy,
Thanks for this valuable information about sponsors. I had a sponsor just like the one you describe here. I’ve been working in my company using my sponsor’s techniques and I haven’t succeeded.
When I joined my MLM company I was so excited that I told my warm market about it. I affiliated a few people but I didn’t know how to sponsor them, how to teach them or help them, I didn’t know how to build a business. It feels like failing to the people you care about, so I stop doing it.
Looking for an alternative to warm market I found a lot of people that say you don’t need to tell your friend and family about your opportunity, use internet marketing instead, and then they sell you their own systems, programs, books, etc. They seem to be good but some of them could be “Cult Leaders” using cult tactics. I didn’t know about it, so I’ll be careful.
My final decision was this: I’m going to learn how to build a MLM business and sell my products and services to consumers before I approach my warm market again, so I can give them some value and good help.
This reminds me of a story that I heard about this woman went to her company confrence and here is her son in law she asked why are you here? he said I belong to this company. If you don’t say anything to your friends and family they might join the same company under someone else.
This also happened in my own family my daughter Cindys husband Chuck was selling products that my daughter Lindy uses Chuck never said a word to her so he lost a steady customer but thats not all. He quit that business. And now my daughter Lindy is selling the same products that he did but of course under someone else.
Get on with it, Randy…what are the other 6?
hmmm…. 7 seems to be a magic number.
Now, where have I seen that in the title of a major negativity campaign before?
Some free ebook that was offered to anything that smelled mlm….
Very good. I am glad my sponser isn’t like that. I am very curios about the other 6 types.
I love the way you go straight for the throat! You are so good at shaking things up.
I think that we can happily do warm market quickly and painlessly with 3rd party tools as you have taught us.
If however it means someone quitting or not joining because they are on their 3rd MLM and can’t face it then I have no problem with that. There are millions of people we can talk to so they can easily go back to their family and friends when they have something tangible to show.
Anyway its a long discussion and we will never all agree on it as Network Marketing is evolving so fast.
Keep on shaking us up! 🙂
Great article. As a chiropractor with a successful practice for the past 11 years, I have been approached north of a 100 times by my patients about every network marketing company around. However, they never asked me questions to find out what my “Why” would be. They just barfed all over me about how succeessful i’d be with all my contacts. So when I joined a company for the first time 10 months ago, I finally had someone ask my why! This is how I have approached my family, friends, and business associates. I now am in a second company that is also growing quickly, where I went back and re-approached my contacts who said yes now because of a different product and company. I finally had something that fit their why!
People can start with warm market, but, if they aren’t the right type to get past the ‘no’ you can burn through a couple hundred over the years-really quickly.
Attitude is No#1 and what takes the most practice to perfect, regardless of the sponsor type. Its the inner game ” embrace the struggle”.
I completely agree if we like what we experience
we should share with our closest member of our family and friends if we don’t feel
like it well maybe we are not in the company who really fit us.
Sergio
Thanks for this. It ensures that I would not be like that and to be aware of that type of sponsor. I know the type.
You really have this nailed.
Randy, it all comes down to what type of personality you are, and of course you will talk about your business with your friends and family, if you like doing that.
But you, of all people, know that many people don’t like doing that, and if you – as you do – tell people to do that, and they don’t like doing it, the they leave the business.
-RG,
I agree “The Cult Leader” just reinforces the “Creepy MLM Guy” stereotype.
-djm
Sooner or later you will have to face rejection. The thing is be ready to do it. A cult to a lider is not duplicable. period.
Hey Randy,
I’ve followed your work for a long time. I do agree with taking total responsibility for what I do or do not become in my MLM business. However, I respectfully disagree with you about sharing my business opportunity with my warm market and it’s not because I’m afraid of rejection.
I prefer to share my business opportunity with others who are already predisposed to NM. If I get rejected there so what.
I love your contrarian view but I don’t agree with the entire post.
Rick
Great article. I believe it’s all a process. A process that will help you grows mentally tough.
Thanks for your thoughts about this!
Some sponsors seem to live from selling there books and materials to the people of there downline.
Have a nice day
Volky
I disagree with a small part of the warm market approach. I don’t believe that you should contact your warm market as soon as you join or get involved with a new opportunity. i think that you should work your program first and if it does work…then you should “shout” from the roof tops to your warm market.
However, I think that to approach family and friends with any opportunity that’s not based on your first hand knowledge that it will work is not the responsible thing to do.
Further, in my opinion, it’s important that any business opportunity be able to bring success without depending on your warm market.
Randy,
My sense is that although we don’t want to purposely exclude talking to your warm market (my mom signed up just to support me and has benefitted tremendously from using the products), many people in MY warm market are not necessarily who I want on my team of business builders. In other words, although I love my family and friends, my abundance/money mindset is SO different now from theirs that it would be a lot of work to “pull them up”.
On the other hand, taking advantage of systems such as social networking and the internet to attract likeminded networkers has been much more rewarding and fun. There is a learning curve, of course, but the people I want on my team are those that have a passion for personal growth, and that’s what I’m attracting.
The best thing for family and friends is to say less and listen for a need. Most people bludgeon their warm market to death and that’s no fun for anyone.
Dr. Karen