Wednesday, April 2, 2008

How to gain credibility as a sponsor to motivate affiliates to upgrade?

SFI UPLINE TEAM LEADERS - The Roc Group

Many affiliates write us all the time asking how to get people in their downlines motivated to upgrade to an
Executive Affiliate.

This is not a simple proposition. Think about it this way. If someone approached you on a street corner in New York City and told you they would give you $10,000 if you would find 1000 people to voluntarily give you their name and email address, what would your first reaction be?

Your response to that question will give you the answer to why people do not join and upgrade to EA in SFI, right away. It's like this. If you have credibility, their belief level will go up exponentially.
Imagine if the person who was making the offer was a bummy lo0king individual. The prospective affiliate's first thought would be...why haven't you done it, if it works so great?

Now, imagine if that person was Donald Trump, one of the richest men in America? The belief level of the average person will go straight up...knowing Donald's back ground as a money-maker!

Everyone you see and meet is skeptical about "money making" offers. They see them as just another "money taking" offer. Everyone knows someone who has lost money trying to make money on and offline. They don't want to be the next victim. The more credibility you have, the more likely that your prospective EA will be to follow your lead to spend their hard earned money trying to earn more money.

How Do You Gain Credibility Prospecting Offline?

Years ago, at a time when the founders of The Roc Group were looking for a solid opportunity to create an offline business, we were introduced to a new telecommunications business opportunity called Excel Communications.

They were holding opportunity meetings in an upscale hotel in our city. After several invitation, we finally decided to go and check this "business opportunity" out. We were so impressed, we all signed up the same night, paying $125 each!

(After building his company to 2 billion-dollars in revenue in 8 years and going public, Excel shareholders agreed to sell us out to a competitior 3 years after we joined...who chose traditional advertising over network marketing.)

How did those presentors gain immediate credibility with us so much so that we chose to part with our hard earned money, on the spot?

First of all, they chose a really swanky hotel meeting room. Someone had to be making money to afford that place, right? The real truth was, they took up a collection from the reps every week to pay for the meeting room.

Secondly, they had a large audience. Certainly all these smart looking business people had to think this was a good and viable business plan, and were making money already, right? The real truth was, the opportunity was brand new in our city, so very few reps were earning money yet, and they were all in the "honeymoon period" in network marketing.

That's the first few months, just before affiliates/reps realize that the money will not come as easy as the presentors suggested. Its kind of like the first few months of marriage, for those who are, or were married.

Thirdly, they showed us how big money could be easily be earned within 60 to 90 days. The real truth about the marketing plan was, you would earn some money right away, but to earn "big" money like they suggested, it would take the "customary" 1 to 2 years of consistent word of mouth advertising efforts, as with any other viable network marketing opportunity. In other words, big money when you are earning enough to say you can quit your day job, if you wish!

Gaining credibility offline is much easier, then online. All you need is is an "image of success". Most people are instantly impressed when they see a guy driving around town in a new, shiny 740 BMW. Wow! He must be making money, right? The truth might be that he is renting the BMW with money he just gained in a slip and fall accident lawsuit.

However, if he can get enough people to believe he is already successful and earning his money from this business plan, then over time he will eventually get enough people to join so that he will become a success! That's really how every business work. Every McDonald's Franchise business-owner starts out with a business loan, right?

No one starts out in a franchise with net profits in the bank, the very first day! But, with a proven business plan, over time the franchisee will get in profit, without a doubt. Its the same principle in network marketing.

How to gain credibility online?

Now that's a tougher proposition. Anyone, can put together a website with few pictures of a big house, fancy cars, and exotic vacations, right? They can even put themselves in the pictures. Or should I say, put a good looking model type in the picture and claim to be that person. Any reasonably smart person should know that.

To gain credibility with your prospective EAs online is a process. First of all to be credible, you must first be an Executive Affiliate, yourself. You should also have advertised enough to have some FREE affiliates in your downline, and preferably a few other EAs.

If you don't have any affiliates, and even if you do, you should always recruit to your upline. In other words, talk about your upline's success in your writings. That's why having a successful upline leader is like starting a franchise with big business loan.
If you started the first McDonald's resturant in 1958, and you had THE big idea with a little store front resturant on a back street, you probably would have very few people who would be willing to try out your hamburger.
But, with a big loan and over 40+ years of business success, today you can put out the golden arches, and a fancy building on the main street and sha-zam...INSTANT CREDIBILITY! People would flood your resturant on opening day!

Your upline gives you this same type instant credibility on a smaller scale.
How big is your upline's organization? How long has he been in business promoting SFI? Where is his blog? What type of support does he give to FREE affiliates in his group to help them reach their goals. Does he have a system of doing business that can be easily duplicated? Does he have intro webpages to the SFI sponsoring site that new affilates can duplicate?

All this gives YOU credibility that YOU were smart enough to join such a successful business group. If your affiliates upgrade to EA, they will feel they have a good chance at the same, or greater success. Why keep searching for some other business opportunity that is not proven? Between SFI's 20+ years of success, their proven system of doing things, and an upline that is "responsive" and "supportive", what else would a sincere hard-working individual need to succeed?

You see, there are over 10,000,000 affiliates in SFI, why too many fail?
They all joined and had the exact same opportunity, and information, right? Why is it then, that 90% do not net one red penny? The plain truth is, the sincere, hardworking ones do not have upline support, and guidance.

The 10% of the affiliates that upgrade and reach a profit, all are following a system of doing business that has been proven. They execute either their upline's system or blindly follow SFI's proven system. You gain credibility you must regularly contact each affiliate with a system of doing business that yields measurable results over time.

Sure your successful upline will have a system to regularly contact your downline for you, but they were sponsored directly by you. You will get paid the lion's share for their success. Why not do your part for the team, and keep them up on your business building efforts and successes.

Everyone has joined programs online, only to get totally ignored by their sponsor. Most uplines, even in SFI, will not even write you back when you write them with a question or ask for information.

When you do not write your affiliates or prospects back, that DESTROYS YOUR CREDIBILITY.....instantly!

Who wants to spend their hard earn money joining a program, only to be ignored by the person who will financially benefit for their hard work? Set your mind to write everyone who writes you back within 48 hours or less. That builds credibility for upgrading!
Not everyone that you write initially will respond, but do your part, just in case this person is a real diamond in the rough that only will be revealed after some vigorus sifting over time.
Many affiliates join lots of different programs, and think this is the route to success. When they keep getting disappointed over and over, and you keep writing them over the years, demonstrating YOUR SUCCESS in one program, they will eventually "see" the BIG picture!

The bottom line is this:

Building a network marketing business is all about building trust and consistency within the individuals you sponsor. When your FREE affiliates continue to see you build your business over the years, and making progress up through the ranks in SFI, that will motivate some of them to follow your lead. Anounce every promotion you get, announce every qualification, announce when you reach milestone totals like the # of EA, or TLs or total affiliates in your downline.

It will all start with your hard work and remaining steadfast in your advertising efforts. Since the internet is the great equalizer, anyone, any where in the world can join your downline group.
Its not like you are limited to working your business building efforts in a small town of say 2000 people, unless you are able to travel a lot. Its not like you have to spend half off your free time making hundreds of phone calls to people who don't want to hear from you.
That was what network marketing used to be like in the pre-internet days, and lot of people still earned millions!

As an SFI affiliate you can build a large downline in over 200 countries. You should always think to yourself, "It's not about the land, its all about the man or woman. If it is to be, its totally up to me!"
Just have fun with it! Write us soon: admin@the-roc-group.com


Best Regards,

The Roc Group
www.eye-earn.biz
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The Roc Group's downline numbers as of this date.
It all started with a dream to have 10,000 affiliates in our downline in 12 months. It took us 14 months, but when SFI started, it took them 7 months to reach 10,000 affiliates . Now 9 years later, SFI has over 10,000,000 affiliates:
Gen 1 Affiliates: 668
Gen 2 Affiliates: 1409
Gen 3 Affiliates: 1112
Gen 4 Affiliates: 2467
Gen 5 Affiliates: 1857
Gen 6 Affiliates: 2114
Gen 7 Affiliates: 1276
Total for first 7 levels: 11,411
Total for all levels: 14,212
Our next goal now is to reach 25,000 by the end of our 2nd year! Group, can we do it?