1. Get Happy

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (don’t ask) wrote a wonderful book called, “FLOW.” The book is based on a 12-year worldwide study on what people have in common when they are in their happiest state of mind. 

Never mind how they conducted the study, the secret to happiness is simply: being involved in a complex activity (like recruiting) and having the skills to match that activity (like a good presentation).

This, of course, does not mean that you have to be in network marketing to be happy. Happiness is exercising your skills to match ANY complex activity. Network marketing is just one of those activities.

So, what’s the point?

Find the best prospecting and recruiting presentation you can find and then learn it backwards and forwards. It will motivate you to get out and start playing the network marketing game. Why? Because when you know how to play the game, you can’t wait to get out and have some fun with it.

2. Make One Call

As soon as you sit down in the morning to start work, make a single warm call. Don’t worry about making another one, just commit and focus on the one call you have decided to make.

Take the prospecting pressure off of yourself by understanding that one single warm call a day (where you actually speak to someone) is progress.

What you will find is that many times, the first call will be a pleasant experience for you. And that will usually motivate you to make another call. (After all, if that felt pretty good, why not do it again.) If the first call doesn’t turn out to be a good experience, so what. You have a whole day before you have to do it again.

Anybody can make one call a day.

3. Get Field Trained

Back when I sold door-to-door (something I don’t recommend), I would often get frustrated and unmotivated. I found that in those situations it always helped me to watch another salesperson get shot down for a while. I would request to be field trained--to go with another salesperson and watch him/her in action. He/She would do all of the talking. I would keep my big mouth shut.

Invariably, one of two things would occur while watching someone else give a presentation: One, I would see this other person make the sale and I would say to myself, “Gee, I could’ve done that.” Or two, he/she would not make the sale and I would think, “Hey, this rejection thing is not so bad, it happens to everybody. I feel better already!”

Ask someone in your business (preferably a superstar) if you can be his/her personal assistant for a day. Carry her briefcase; chauffeur her around. Whatever she wants you to do, you do. See her prospect and give a presentation. At the least, you’ll be entertained and you’ll probably get motivated. You might just learn something too.

4.  Get Rid of Some Friends

Yeah, you heard me right.

Although most of your friends are probably well meaning, many can be a detriment to you when it comes to the network marketing profession. Let me explain.

Most people (including your friends) hate selling and/or network marketing and they’ll be quick to tell you so. When you’re in a rut and feeling down and disgusted, your friends will be more than happy to remind you, “I told you so.” (This in itself can be a motivator, but that’s another story.)

Another thing for you to consider is that having a lot of friends will make it difficult for you to stay professionally motivated. The reason is that there will always be more fun things to do with friends than making prospecting calls to people who would like to see you get a bad case of lockjaw.

Here’s the solution:

 

Stay away from most of your friends as much as possible until you have achieved a level of success where they can’t possibly shoot you down. Make new friends in your business who are successful business builders and who will encourage and help you to be successful. Those kinds of friends are more fun anyway.

5. Work for a MEAN Upline Sponsor

A sponsor or trainer who scares the hell out of you can be a tremendous source of motivation. This type of motivation works better if you would like for the mean person to be your mentor. At the very least, you have to respect the accomplishments of this person. Before he/she can talk the talk, he/she must have walked the walk.

Call this the mentor system, personal coach system or whatever. A high-powered, intimidating, ball-of-fire upline person can change your life in terms of motivation. This type of person sure changed mine.

6. Choose a High-Energy Environment

Have you ever been around a group of people that were absolutely on fire about what they were doing? Perhaps it was a sporting event, a high school play or musical group you were involved in. Maybe it was another job you had.

What was that like for you?

I have seen network marketers who had lost all hope and were ready to quit the business literally transform overnight into powerful, successful top leaders by simply hanging around a group of motivated leaders. 

Find yourself a group of high-energy, top producing network marketers. Then do whatever you have to do (within reason) to get in with this group. The resulting motivation for you can be astounding. The sense of community these groups develop sometimes takes on a spiritual-like fervor.

We are truly, products of our environment.

7. “Oh Yeah? WATCH THIS!”

My first professional sales experience was a door-to-door selling job. I was 17 years old. When I explained to my mother what I would be doing, you would have thought that I had just won first prize at a local stupid contest. (Thanks Mom.)

Had it not been for my mother’s negative reaction, I don’t think I would have stayed in sales. I HAD to prove her wrong, and of course, I did. (Funny, some years later when I won worldwide sales contests with that company, my mother didn’t remember discouraging me.)

What’s the moral of this story? I don’t know. But it sure motivates me when someone tells me I can’t do something. How about you? Is someone telling you that you’ll never make it in network marketing? If it’s someone you care about, it can be a great motivator to prove him/her wrong. The only thing is, they probably won’t care when you do.

Hilton Johnson, MLM Coach®

Copyright MLMU®

Hilton Johnson is the founder of MLMU, a virtual sales training and coaching organization for "Network Marketers Who Hate Selling"(tm). Their simple but groundbreaking coaching and sales skills have set the standard for how today's network marketer can approach, present and develop relationships with prospects without ever coming across as pushy or aggressive.

For FREE coaching, training, marketing tools and other resources, go to http://www.mlmu.com.