When we think of personality traits we want to see in our team members we often think of the good traits.  We try to find people that personify the leadership we are looking for.

However one thing I’ve discovered is that it is a little like “Yin and Yang”.  The reverse is just as important.  It’s equally important to know what the negative traits are.  Especially when you have big teams you want to focus on working with the right people.

A few “experts” out there might not approve of my calling it like it is, but when you have a team of hundreds or even thousands or tens of thousands of team members you have to focus on the right people.  You cannot allow the bad people to drag you down.

I for example have some people who I come into contact with that are maybe overly selfish. They’re only worried about making money for themselves not helping their team make money.  Maybe they’re only focused on new people and not people who they’ve already sponsored.   Other people might talk bad about team members or cause negativity in the ranks.

A lot of times you’ll find team members that ONLY focus on the negative.  They only call with complaints.  They never do things for themselves but always call you to ask you how to do it.  You want to figure out who these people are so that you can make their contacts a low priority.  You might not want to answer their phone call but instead let it go to voicemail.  You might not want to return their phone call right away or perhaps respond via email only. Often times by forcing the negative distributor to wait they will get over their issue which was so urgent to them.  They might actually go and figure out how to do it themselves or perhaps their anger or frustration over their issue dies down and they’re able to think and react more clearly.

You have to keep your distance from the negative people so you can have more time to focus on the positive.  This is how truly successful leaders get to whether they are.

What do you think?  Am I off my rocker?  Have you had any experiences like this? Do you have any tips?

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 5% [?]

Hi readers

I have a question for you today… As a network marketer what are some of the charactertistics you look for in a leader?

Dedication?
Persistence?
Honesty?
Self Motivation?

What kinds of things do you look for in a leader?  Both someone you’d want to join and in someone on your team who stands out as a leader.  What are some of the qualities these people embody?

Leave me a comment by clicking the link on the right and let me know.

- Ben

Popularity: 4% [?]

Before joining a business opportunity, consider these things.

1. Would I join this even if it didn’t have a business opportunity associated with it?
2. Will this product be around 1 year, 5 years, or even 10 years from now?
3. Does the product risk of bring priced to zero (or close enough to not matter) like long distance has become as a result of VOIP?
4. Is your product at risk of being superseded by technology / competition?

These are some important factors I know many people are not considering when they join MLM opportunities.  I have been approached in the last 7 days with 5 different opportunities which 4 of the 5 wouldn’t even pass these 4 questions above.

Question 1: Would I join even if it didn’t have a business opportunity associated with it?

To me this is very important.  If the product is good enough people will join without an opportunity to make money.  If you’re product is this good then you’ll find it much easier to attract customers AND keep your team members involved long term.  If they are only there to make money then a lot of your team members will give up and quit, jump to the latest greatest fad, etc.

Question 2: Will this product be around 1 year, 5 years, or even 10 years from now?

Again another important item.  For example a lot of people are pitching opportunities that probably won’t even last a year, and if they are lucky might last 3 years.  However they will almost certainly not be around 10 years from now.  How can you develop true long term residual income from a business that won’t be around for 3 years?  Look at the Beatles. The Beatles catalog of music still generates millions of dollars in royalties annually but the Beatles broke up as a band in 1970.  That is true residual income.

Question 3: Does the product risk of bring priced to zero (or close enough to not matter) like long distance has become as a result of VOIP?

There is a big name company right now that has made their Billions selling technology related products like this but they are products that are becoming so cheap they are becoming commodities. This means that the quality of the product from any vendor is the same and the price gets driven lower and lower.  Take long distance as an example.  We now have VOIP based phone services that can give you an unlimited amount of calling for $20 a month.  In fact some services such as Skype for your computer or Magic Jack promise to give you an unlimited amount of calling for $20 a YEAR.  Now this company is selling video phones which require a service commitment of $20 a month for 2 years.  Meanwhile the same video phone type services can be had by software programs like Skype. Certainly within the 2 year time frame of a customer’s contract even more services are going to come up offering services for little to no cost.  Why would someone commit to $480 for video phone services when they could get similar services at little or no cost!  Now the company needs to develop another new technology or advantage to keep them ahead of the market.

Question 4: Is your product at risk of being superseded by technology / competition?

Another new fad are these web site based MLMs.  They basically buy off the shelf software and slap together an MLM.  The most recent are the ones that promise to be the next Facebook but pay you money.  Guess what?  Even Facebook probably won’t be around in 5 years.  Think about it.  5 years ago Myspace was hot.  Everyone was talking about it.  Now it’s Facebook.  In 5 years it will be something else.

First of all you’re assuming these guys have a clue at how to put together a social network.  Again most don’t. Most are buying off the shelf software to make a social network.  They are simply targetting opportunity seekers so you get a network full of MLMers.  This always fails because the MLMers just target one another.  It becomes a big spam fest.  Only a few people have ever managed to do this successfully and they haven’t done it with an opportunity. They did it around training for networkers.  The amount of content outweighed the amount of spam.

Someone just talked to me about a new social network… guess what it looks like a clone of?  Wowzza.  Wowzza is a social networking MLM I talked about in April 2008.  In the spring of 2008 it was really popular but by the end of 2008 my prediction was coming true.  The fad was over and only a few dozen people were joining a day.  In the heyday of Wowzza dozens of people were joining every minute and thousands were joining every day.  BUT the product sucked and it mostly attracted opportunity seekers.  Once they found out the product sucked and the promised spillover wasn’t what they expected they quickly dropped out.

The point of all this isn’t that every opportunity is bad. There are some good ones out there.  However if you want to build TRUE RESIDUAL INCOME then you want to make sure you are getting involved in an opportunity that is going to be around for awhile.  Take a close look at the products too, not just the opportunity.  Make sure this is something that can generate income for you 5 years, 10 years, or 20 years down the road.

If you have any questions about a specific opportunity I’d be happy to take a look at it for you.

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 4% [?]