Recruiting vs Selling Part 2

As I said in the last post, I believe when starting your business you should focus on building your customer base. The bulk of the customers that you gain will most likely be your friends and family. These are the people that you should have written down for your list of coffee drinkers. Since these people already know you, it shouldn't be too hard to do business with them. Because these people are around you, they'll always be able to get to you when they want more product.

After you get through the warm market and enter the cold market, things get a lot more tricky when it comes to managing customers. Someone in the cold market is a person who does not know who you are. I myself still continue to build customers in the cold market, but I gotta tell you it is tough. The hard part isn't finding people who enjoy the coffee and want to buy, it's maintaining them over the long term.

Because the customers from your cold market aren't exposed to you on a regular basis, they may not think to purchase more product from you when they need it. There have been plenty of times where I've called up a cold market customer to say "hi" and they start telling me how they've been wanting to talk to me about buying more coffee. Or there's the case's where I've had customers say "Hey Chris, I've been looking for you everywhere, I want more of that coffee". "Looking for me?" I ask "You could have just called me or ordered from my OG website". They than tell me how they keep forgetting to call or they don't feel comfortable about placing orders online and would rather buy directly through me. This is where recruiting becomes helpful.

I think of my recruits not just as people who are in my downline, but as an extension of me. They are a way to reach customers of mine, who don't come into contact with me. With this understanding, I've developed my own strategy for finding recruits. What I'll do is ask a friend if they will do me the favor of passing out some coffee samples to their friends and family. In most cases they have no problem doing this because they see it as just doing me a favor.

In most cases they get back to me and tell me how a few of their friends and family loved the coffee. However, I've found that very rarely will these people make an actual purchase simply because they don't have a clue who I am. I ask my friend how they would feel about collecting the money for the coffee themselves vs me making the sale and getting the money. At that point I take them through the steps of getting signed up. I've helped them develop a customer base before even getting into the business.

That is the advantage of recruiting to me, reaching more customers in the cold market.

Recruiting vs Selling

When it comes to network marketing in general, there is usually great debate on whether you should focus on product sales or on bringing new people into your business. This is a very common conversation I have gone over with my fellow Organo Gold distributors. I have become well aware of the fact that there are distributors who focus solely on recruiting people to their team and put little to no effort into getting customers. While there are others who focus on building their customer base and moving greater amounts of product and don't recruit anyone. So which is more important?

My views on this question has fluctuated constantly and each activity has it's pros and cons over the other. I believe that the answer depends on what stage you are at in your Organo Gold business. My opinion is that the first thing you should focus on is building a customer base. I have various reasons for this, but the most important is that you need to show your new recruits that the coffee is sellable. If you just go around recruiting people, but aren't moving any product, than no money is being made. You must be able to move product in order to make money.

In my case, once I sold two or three boxes of coffee I moved on to the recruiting part. After those first couple of boxes I knew this was a product that people wanted and enjoyed. That gave me much more confidence inviting people into the business. This also helps because when you invite someone that knows you into the business, they aren't shy about asking you if you sold any or if you made any money. So it's good if you have some level of success, even if it's minor, before inviting people to join the business.

The other benefit is that the average customer will make you more money than the average distributor you bring into the business and over a longer period of time. Why is that you ask? Because most of the people you bring into the business will not do anything with the gift you have given them. Sure they're pumped about the money that can be earned, but they aren't willing to put in the effort that is required to be successful.

Even more detrimental to their success is the fear of investing their money into product and not being able to sell it. I've been involved in various business ventures and investments before I joined Organo Gold. So I've gotten used to putting my money on the line with the only hope of it's return lying with my ability to succeed at a project. Most people aren't willing to work for free to make themselves a success, now they need to put up their own money too? Forget it. For most the transition into the world of an entrepreneur is just too much. Even if there is a lot of money to be made.

On the other hand a customer doesn't purchase product cause they need to, they do it because they want to. They will also come back over and over again making you money each time they buy from you. This is why I believe at the start, customers can be more valuable than distributors. In my next post I will focus on the benefit of recruiting.

Meeting Mr. Brown

I must admit that I was a bit anxious about meeting Mr. Brown. On the phone he had a very deep voice and tended to talk slowly. I imagined him to be tall and built, with years of wisdom behind his old age. So I was a bit shocked when this skinny guy about my height, who appeared to be in his early thirties, came walking up to me. "Hey Chris, how's it going?" he said.

I reached out my hand to shake his, as Angela explained that this was Mr. Brown. He congratulated me on my early success and welcomed me to the Organo Gold community. We chatted for a while and talked about how our day was going. I don't remember what we specifically talked about, just that we weren't able to do it for long. He explained to me that he had other places to be and left after saying goodbye.

 After he left, Angela walked me outside. We talked a bit longer about the event and what the speaker had to say. She than introduced me to a few more people as they left the building. After that was done she gave me a hug and told me to contact her later on. I said goodbye and left with a friend who was meeting up with me in the area.

On my way home I felt that my faith in Organo Gold had been reinforced. I had met good people at the meeting, some of which who were reaping great financial rewards from business. I wanted to be one of the people that were making a living running the Organo Gold business. That new surge of energy gave me the drive to push even harder.

The following weeks I would put even more effort into building my Organo Gold business. I researched information to see how others were finding success. I knew the four steps to success, but I wanted peoples personal stories. I have a folder of articles that I have saved on my computer and in a binder, with tips on how to succeed with Organo Gold. I have found that while there are various strategies you can use, at the core you need to focus on two things: sampling people and following up with them. That is the foundation of building your Organo Gold business.

My First OG Meeting

The following two weeks after my launch call, I spent my time delivering coffee and collecting money. I delivered boxes to my grandparents, I delivered boxes to my aunts and uncles, I also delivered boxes to my cousins. It was a very profitable time in more Organo Gold venture. Eventually I got a call from Angela again. She told me that she wanted me to attend an OG meeting that was taking place in Philadelphia. I agreed and looked forward to finally meeting Angela in person.

The day I headed to Philly I was pretty excited. I finally get to meet some more members of the Organo Gold community. Angela told me that there was even the chance I would be able to meet the famous Mr. Brown there. I arrived at the event and waited for Angela in an outside room. There were quite a few prospects that were there. People who were considering whether to join the business or not. I ease dropped on there conversation till Angela arrived.

She greeted me with a hug and led me to the waiting room just outside the event. After a brief chat about how I was doing and what she was up to, she started introducing me to some of the other people. Her introduction went like this "I'd like you to meet Chris, he's only been with Organo Gold for a month and already has his duel team". I didn't get why that was such a big deal. According to the info I'd read online, a person should be able to get there duel team in their first week.

Apparently this wasn't the case with most people. Angela explained to me that many of the people she'd introduced me to had been in Organo Gold for months yet have been able to recruit a single person, let alone two. She told me that I had accomplished a lot in very little time. Once she was done showing me off, we waited for the doors to open.

Eventually the meeting started and we all moved into the event room. We all sat down as one of the Organo Gold members went to the front of the room and started speaking. I don't recall his name, just that he was a very good speaker. He talked about why he got into the business, why the business works, and how we can make it work for us. When he was done Angela took me to the front of the room to meet him.

Again she started bragging about me and what I had done within the company and how focused I was on the business. He in return gave me some helpful pointers about what I could do to better my odds of success in the company. When we were done talking I thanked him for speaking and Angela took me to the back of the room. She informed me that Mr. Brown had arrived and was on his way up the stairs.