Are you using an automatic phone dialer, yet?

If not you should be!

A few years ago my friend Dean Mitzel introduced me to the concept. I had sort of heard of phone burners and voicemail broadcasts.  I wasn’t really a fan because I got so many of those automated voicemails calling me and trying to pitch me on the latest MLM.

What  I didn’t realize was a phone dialer can be much more than just a voicemail broadcast system!

As my business grew and I began to have more and more and more prospects (as well as distributors and customers) in my system. I wanted an easier way. I don’t like wasting time leaving messages. I prefer to speak to people. I like to do it in batches and make a bunch of calls at once. So this system sounded perfect for me.

I decided to try the FastDialing (Citalink) phone dialer.  It’s not really a phone burner. It doesn’t just leave voicemails.  It’s much more than that. FastDialing calls it a “Live Caller”.

Here is how the system works.

• You upload a list of contacts into the system. My buddy Dean (the guy that does the tutorials) recommends you batch them into groups of 250 contacts.
• You configure the dialer with your caller id number… an email address if you want to send email followup… and preconfigure up to two pre-recorded voicemail messages.
• Then you star the dialer. You pick the list you want to dial. You pick the voicemail you want to leave. You set how many seconds to ring before answering. All that stuff.
• The system then calls you. You stay on the phone while the system dials. When it reaches a person the name and contact info pops up on your computer screen. If you got a voicemail you can either click a button to leave an automated message or leave a personal message, then click the hangup button.
• When you hang up you have 10 seconds to respond and tell the system the “disposition” of the call. Was it a wrong number? Did you leave a voicemail? Do they want more info? Did you setup a follow up appointment?

So basically I started the automatic phone dialer dialing two lines at once… and waited.

Within a few seconds I had my first voicemail. I waited for the tone and clicked the button to leave my pre-recorded voicemail. Next.

10-15 seconds later I had another voicemail… this went on while I watched the system dial. After about 10 I got my first person.

I spent 55 minutes in total in my first session and dialed 55 people.  I spoke to a half dozen. The rest were mostly voicemails and one wrong number.

Now if i was sitting at home dialing 55 numbers it would probably take me at least twice as long. I would have to leave all those voicemail messages. With the Fast Dialing Live Caller I’m just dialing. When someone answers it puts them on the phone with me.  When I get a voicemail i can leave the automated message (or record a personal message if I want.) So much easier.

Tomorrow (or maybe even tonight) I’m going to be calling a list of 240. We’ll see how it goes, but so far I’m really impressed.

- Ben Fitts

PS. A couple questions about pricing.

You get 8 hours of calling with rollover for $49.95 a month. If you only use 6 hours 2 rollover…

You get 20 hours of calling with rollover for $99 a month.

You get unlimited calling for $135 a month.  And you can try Fast Dialing Live Caller for free!

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MLM Training > prospecting

Dear readers,

I find that we can occasionally learn about network marketing and social media marketing from traditional media.  This week I’m going to share some great network marketing lessons I picked up while watching American Pickers on the History Channel.

I’ve written in the past on social media marketing lessons we can get from professional poker players, Major League Baseball, and the Voice on NBC.

This time we’re going to take a totally different course. We’re going to talk about the tv show, American Pickers and how Frank & Mike would make great network marketers.

I’m visiting my parents for a few weeks because my dad had surgery and my business allows me to take time off and travel as need be.  Thank goodness I’m a full time network marketer and don’t have a J.O.B.  My dad and I were watching the History Channel today and one of our favorite shows, American Pickers came on.

American Pickers is a tv show about Frank & Mike who are “pickers”. They basically pick through what most people consider junk . Frank & Mike find antiques and collectibles that they buy and resell.  They help people who have amassed too much stuff get rid of some of their extra stuff Sometimes the people are emotionally attached and don’t want to sell.

In the episode I saw today Frank & Mike bought an old Phillip Morris tobacco sign. It is a massive sign with the Phillips Morris boy on it, and had a waving automatic arm.  One of the things that Frank & Mike said was people often ask them how they got the people to sell these outrageous collectible items.  Mike’s response was “We ask”.

That’s a great network marketing lesson so let me repeat it for you.  When asked how they get people to sell the items Frank & Mike said they simply ask the people if they’d be willing to sell.

How often in our business are we too afraid of someone saying no to ask them if they want to join our business.  That’s a great tip from American Pickers.

But there was more.  Another great MLM tip was when Frank & Mike found a lead. The guy’s name was “Bear” and he was an old carnival guy that had a bunch of stuff they’d love to buy. However he wasn’t willing to sell anything to Frank & Mike on that trip.  So what did Frank & Mike do?

They wrote Bear’s name and telephone number on the chalkboard back in the office.  You see they have a hot prospects chalk board in their office. Every time they’re back in the office they see the names on the chalkboard and it gives them motivation to call their prospects back.  They said they call their prospects back, every week, until the prospect tells them to stop calling.

That’s another great network marketing lesson.  Put your hot prospects on a list where you can see them daily. Then use that list as a reminder to call your prospects back EVERY WEEK until they tell you to stop calling them or join your business.

I think Frank & Mike would be great network marketers.  They understand that the first step is to ask for the sale. The second step is persistence.

What other traditional media do you get network marketing lessons and MLM tips from?

- Ben Fitts

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MLM Training > prospecting

Dear readers,

After a month long vacation my 40 Ways to Grow Your Business webinars are back!

This week’s topic is: Prospecting for Customers

Wednesday September 7th
9 PM Eastern / 8 PM Central / 7 PM Mountain / 6 PM Pacific

Register for the webinars online at:

http://www.40waystousecards.com/ben

This week we’re talking about prospecting for customers:

• Building Your Mailing List
• Making Cold Calls Warm
• Expanding Your Network
• Growing Your Customer Base
• Getting Past the Gatekeeper
• and more…

You’ll probably want to take notes as some of these strategies are very unusual and creative:

Join me Wed. Sept. 7th at 9 PM Eastern / 6 PM Pacific.

Register for the webinar here and I’ll send you email reminders each week so you don’t miss it!

- Ben Fittsикони

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MLM Training > prospecting

This applies to every one of us no matter what MLM business we are in.

What is the WORST thing you can say to a prospect?

After someone takes a look at your web site or your DVD what is the one wrong thing we all say, that instantly takes your prospect out of action.

Your prospect could be pulling out his credit card to sign up. You say this one phrase and suddenly your prospect puts his credit card back in his wallet.

This is part of a training series I put together for my team which gives them exact phrases to use (or not use) when speaking about our business to prospects.

What did you like best about the video?

- Ben Fitts

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MLM Training > prospecting

Dear Readers,

Do you make cold calls?

Or do you have prospects calling you first?

Yesterday I get a phone call early in the morning. I actually woke up to take the call (I work for myself from home so I don’t use an alarm clock unless I have a meeting or am traveling.)

I answer the phone and it is a guy cold calling me to sell me some social media system.

Hello? Really?

He’s selling a social media system but he is calling me on the old fashioned telephone to prospect me?

Ironic.

I won’t go into too much detail about the call. I don’t want to offend anyone but it was really funny to me that someone cold calls me offline to sell me a system to market using social media online.

• Why isn’t he using the system he is trying to sell me?
• If he was doing so well in social media, wouldn’t he be able to attract people to him?
• Wouldn’t he be connecting to prospects on social media platforms?
• Wouldn’t other prospects be seeing his success and willingly calling him first to find out how he is doing it?

Be wary of gurus selling you a system they aren’t even using!

You see this guy was a smoke and mirrors guy. He sells you a system for social media because he knows social media is hot. He actually doesn’t understand social media and doesn’t know how to market on social media.  This is also why he is selling this system.  He may not even know if it works. He just knows this is a hot topic and even a bad salesman can find a few gullible people to buy a system from him because social media is hot.

What I teach in my Nichework Marketing webinars (there is a webinar today at 1 PM Eastern.) is to get prospects calling you.  It starts with finding your niche.

This guy’s niche was social media but he had less than 500 followers on Twitter. I couldn’t even find a Facebook fan page for the guy. (And he’s selling a social media course!)

If he picked a niche and did a better job of positioning himself as an expert, he’d have had a lot of people calling him.

He approached me by claiming to be a distributor in my company… yet I never heard of him. You see I AM one of the top distributors in my company. I knew he was lying.

If he was telling the truth… If he was a top distributor in our company… He would have a lot of people asking him how he did it.  People would call him and ask to learn his secrets.

If you’d like to know more about finding your network marketing niche, and positioning yourself as an expert so prospects call  you first…. Join me for a free webinar, every Wednesday where I teach the basics of “Nichework Marketing”.

- Ben Fitts

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MLM Training > prospecting