JAN/FEB 2014
Lead with
CUSTOMERS
Exclusive interview with
Holton Buggs
Brazil
Land of Opportunity Get Results from Networking Groups 73 January/Feburary 2014
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CONTENTS
PERSPECTIVES 5 LEADOFF
Customers
John Fleming Whether you have a direct selling, network marketing, or party plan business, the common denominator for sustainable success is customers.
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SPECIAL SECTION Networking University Webinar Schedule - Faculty Recommends
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WORDS OF WISDOM About Customers Memorable quotes by Mark Zuckerberg, Elizabeth Arden, Mahatma Gandhi, and others.
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OUR TIMES – PART 1 Why customers? • Laura Harry, The Mortar between the Bricks • Tommy Wyatt, Common Sense Isn’t Always Common Practice • Corey Citron, The Seven Reasons • Louisa Dykstra, Appreciate Your Customers • Lisa M. Wilber, A Service and Relationship Business • Bob Quintana, The Key to Residual Income • MariaMarta Alfaro Chamberlain, Start with Customers • Ib Nielsen, Customers Create Loyalty
DEPARTMENTS 20 PROFESSIONALISM Don’t Miss Out! Michel Goldberg Some questions to ask yourself if you want to get more referrals from attending networking groups. 20
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CONTENTS
FEATURES 22
LEAD INTERVIEW Customer-Based Marketing Growing up in the projects of Tampa, Florida, Holton Buggs watched his single mother work multiple jobs to take care of him. At night she would tell him inspiring stories instilling in him the hunger and determination to soar like an eagle. Taking her message to heart, at age fourteen Holton started his first business and discovered leverage by recruiting friends to sell for him. Twenty years later, Holton is leading an international organization of well over a half a million people. In 2010 he became his company’s VP of sales, but remains a distributor at heart.
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NT INTERVIEW The Courage to Lead Mary Christensen is one of the world’s most sought-after speakers and trainers in the direct selling and network marketing space. Bestselling author of Be a Direct Selling Superstar, Mary has the credibility that comes from success in every aspect of direct sales. She left teaching to start her first direct selling business and soon after founded her own company where she sponsored a thousand people in her first year. She is a former CEO of two network marketing corporations and past president of the Direct Selling Association of New Zealand.
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MASTER NETWORKER Family, Fun, and Friendship Eugene Hong is a young network marketing leader who is one of the fastest recruiters in his company. Born in Hawaii, he moved to Los Angeles in his twenties and brought with him the aloha spirit and ’ohana culture. An entrepreneur at heart, he started a restaurant business and became successful thanks to his hard work, but the day he discovered leverage and residual income he decided to pursue a different model. Today he is fond of saying he truly found a “get-rich-quick” game.
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MASTER NETWORKER Back to Africa Originally from Kenya, Sammy and Josephine Mwedekeli were living in London when a friend introduced them to network marketing in 1997. Josephine was first to take an interest in the business, and Sammy joined her once he understood the network marketing model and its limitless income potential. Eight years later, their network marketing company called on them to open the East African market. In 2005, the Mwedekelis moved back to Nairobi, overcame major cultural challenges, and successfully launched five African countries in seven years.
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Networking Times
CONTENTS
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OUR TIMES – PART 2 Why customers? (Continued) • Wendy Livingstone, Customer Service Pays • Loren Robin, Support Everyone on Your Team • Sarah Maclsaac, Do Unto Others... • Jen Fitzgerald, Making It Fun! • Jacki Smith, An Endless Circle • Vidar Haugan, Customer Is King • Dr. Laura Aridgides, Build Relationships with Your Customers • Onyx Coale, The Lifeblood of Your Business
DEPARTMENT 66
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COUNTRY OVERVIEW Brazil: Land of Opportunity Dennis B. Tenney and J. Clovis Lemes Brazil is the third largest direct selling market in the world, with its top two companies selling several hundred million dollars of products each year.
RESOURCES
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JUST FOR FUN Word Puzzle
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LIFETIME MEMBERS Description of Lifetime Loyalty Leaders program and members list.
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DEPARTMENT SUMMARIES Overview of articles in this issue.
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THE CLOSE Hear Me! Hakki Ozmorali Many people who join network marketing companies simply like the products and have no intention to build a business. Pay attention to them.
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Cofounders Dr. Josephine Gross Chris Gross Publisher Bob Proctor Publisher Emeritus Frank J. Keefer Founding Editor John Milton Fogg Consulting Editor John David Mann Editor in Chief Dr. Josephine Gross Design Editor Yan Z. Hughes Contributing Writers Dr. Laura Aridgides, Kody Bateman, MariaMarta Alfaro Chamberlain, Corey Citron, Onyx Coale, Louisa Dykstra, Jen Fitzgerald, John Fleming, Michael Goldberg, Laura Harry, Vidar Haugan, Clovis Lemes, Wendy Livingstone, Sarah MacIsaac, Ib Nielsen, Hakki Ozmorali, Bob Quintana, Loren Robin, Jacki Smith, Dennis Tenney, Lisa Wilbur, Tommy Wyatt
Give the Gift of Education, the Gift that Keeps on Giving
Web Services Lyman Benton, Yan Z. Hughes,
Global Prosperity through a Philanthropic Economy® Gabriel Media Group, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Chris Gross Controller Yan Teng Board of Directors Michael Cunningham Chris Gross (Chairman) Dr. Josephine Gross Glenn Head Don Karn Bob Proctor George Shaw Networking Times is published six times a year by Gabriel Media Group, Inc. Copyright © 2014 Gabriel Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
www.networkingtimes.com Toll Free: 866-343-4005 Int’l: 818-727-2000 editors@networkingtimes.com
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LEAD INTERVIEW
Customer-Based Marketing Holton Buggs: Creating a Unified Culture By Dr. Josephine Gross
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ou may remember Holton Buggs being featured as a Rising Star in the Mar/Apr 2005 issue of Networking Times. Almost a decade later, we felt it was time to share part two of his extraordinary journey that led him to become a legend in the network marketing profession. Growing up in the projects of Tampa, Florida, Holton watched his single mother work multiple jobs to take care of him. At night she would tell him inspiring stories instilling in him the hunger and determination to soar like an eagle. Taking her message to heart, at age fourteen Holton started cutting hair to make money, then saw the limitation of doing all the work himself and discovered leverage by buying candy in bulk and recruiting others to sell it for him. One of the people he recruited was Earlene, who is now his wife and best friend. Holton went to college to get an engineering degree, but quickly realized that working for a salary would not afford him the lifestyle and financial freedom he desired. At age twenty-one, he and Earlene started their first of many businesses. Although they were successful and made money quickly, they were time poor, because no one else could do what Holton needed done. Realizing he had to do something different, Holton remembered being introduced to network marketing in college, and how the business model had inspired him. He joined a company and had a difficult start, but kept studying with his mentors and applying himself to master the success principles of the business. Twenty years later, Holton is leading an international organization of well over a half a million people. When his company founder offered him the position of executive VP of sales, Holton took on the challenge as he saw it as an opportunity to earn a voice at the corporate level to protect the field. No matter his title, Holton remains a distributor at heart. “I am a business man who simply uses network marketing as a platform to distribute products,” he says. “I love the new experiences and the ability I have to create and innovate. Having the best of both worlds, I feel I’m one of the most fortunate distributors in our profession.”—J.G.
How did you get started in network mar- while driving home his point. I liked him and imketing? mediately decided this was going to be my profesWhen I was in college, one of my dorm mates invited me to a meeting. I had never heard of multilevel marketing and didn’t know what it meant. I was focused on becoming the best engineer I could become. But I had the entrepreneurial spirit in me so I didn’t give him any hassles whatsoever. I was open so I went, and as I walked in, I saw a couple hundred people all dressed up professionally. I was already sold because I had never seen that many people, specifically from my community, dressed up in business attire. The presenter, a retired pharmacist, was absolutely hilarious
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sion. I continued with my studies as I built my business. I started in 1990 and until 1997, I never made more than $500 a month. But I studied amongst the best and learned the culture. I never missed an event I qualified to attend and I fell in love with the business. I just didn’t understand how to make it work for me at the time.
What happened after seven years? When I graduated from college, I became an inactive member in my network marketing company and started a furniture business which became
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NT INTERVIEW
The Courage to Lead Mary Christensen: How to Be a Superstar By Dr. Josephine Gross
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ary Christensen is one of the world’s most sought-after speakers and trainers in the direct selling and network marketing space. She is the bestselling author of Be a Network Marketing Superstar, Be a Direct Selling Superstar, Be a Recruiting Superstar, Be a Party Plan Superstar, and Make Your First Million in Network Marketing. Her books have been translated into many languages. Mary has the credibility that comes from success in every aspect of direct sales. She left teaching to start her first direct selling business and soon after founded her own company where she sponsored a thousand people in her first year. She is a former CEO of two network marketing corporations and past president of the Direct Selling Association of New Zealand. Through her books, keynotes, and leadership workshops Mary empowers direct sellers worldwide to create wealth by becoming an inspiring leader and positive influence in the lives of their customers and team members.—J.G.
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What brought you to the work you do Some network marketers may shy away from today? that term because they want to see themselves as I was a teacher by profession but I gave up teaching to raise my family. Then at age twenty-four, I became the sole provider for my kids. I needed to find away to be the mom my kids deserved and support them financially at the same time. That’s when I stumbled into direct selling, although I had no idea of the incredible potential that came with my starter kit. I was narrowly focused on making enough money to pay the bills. But it didn’t take long to realize that my business gave me the opportunity to control my income. And when you control your income, you control your life. Ultimately I made enough money from my direct selling business to become financially free, so I stopped working and fulfilled my dream of traveling the world. While touring America I fell in love with the country and decided I wanted to live here permanently. After five years of not working I was ready for a new challenge. That’s when I decided to write a book to help others live their dreams through direct selling. I started writing, found a publisher, and the first book came out. Then I realized how much I had to offer from my experiences so I wrote another, then another, and kept writing. Direct selling companies started asking me, “Do you also speak?” That’s how I became a speaker.
business builders. But the reality is, the two have more similarities than differences. In my presentations to network marketing audiences, I bring together the best of both worlds, teaching them to build product sales alongside recruiting. The more people you have using and benefiting from your products, the easier it’s going to be to find distributors. It seems obvious but some network marketers lose sight of this. The growth of your business is in recruiting, but the money comes from selling, because nobody gets paid until somebody buys something. Think of it this way: sales generate my income today, but recruiting could generate my income forever. All I have to do is learn how to become an inspiring, influential leader. And anyone who is willing to work and learn can do that. All it takes is what I describe in my books as triple-A attributes: an optimistic Attitude, consistent Action, and a flexible Approach.
In many countries the term direct selling is more accepted than multilevel marketing, because the former implies a product and customers, while the latter refers to building a network of recruiters. European law considers a business an illegal pyramid if sales come primarily from a distributor network, rather than from customers.
To clarify terminology, when you say direct It’s also an issue in the U.S., and rightly so. There selling, do you consider that different from are two parts to our business: selling products network marketing? and recruiting others to sell products. There was a No, it’s all direct selling, and it’s mostly network marketing. Even party plan companies are network or multilevel marketing companies. The perception of party plan in the U.S. is changing, as many moms who started out with small financial goals have become highly successful entrepreneurs making six-figure incomes.
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period when some slick operators took advantage of our business model and got masses of people to sign on as distributors and buy a bunch of product they realistically were not going to use or sell. But there has been a huge culture shift. The top earners realize the importance of building a strong customer base.
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MASTER NETWORKER
Family, Fun, and Friendship Eugene Hong: Celeberating the Hawaiian Spirit 40 40
By Dr. Josephine Gross
Networking Networking Times Times
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ugene Hong is a young network marketing leader who is one of the fastest recruiters in his company. Born and raised in Hawaii, he moved to Los Angeles in the mid-nineties and brought with him the aloha spirit and ’ohana (family) culture. An entrepreneur at heart, Eugene started a restaurant and catering business and became successful thanks to his hard work, but the day he discovered the concept of leverage and residual income he decided to pursue a different model. In college a friend had tried to enroll Eugene into network marketing but the manipulative sales approach he experienced turned him off. Today he has found a way to build business partnerships based on friendship and a no-pressure prospecting environment. Eugene believes in multiple streams of income, so he still owns his traditional business even though he is a full-time network marketer. He says applying his network marketing skills to his restaurant business made it even more successful. Looking back Eugene marvels at the speed with which he was able to build a multiple-six-figure income through network marketing compared to how long it took him to see financial returns in his traditional business. He is fond of saying he truly found a “get-rich-quick” game.
Discovering the Business Eugene was exposed to direct selling at an early age because his mom used to do home parties for neighbors and friends. “I would play outside with their kids,” he says, “thinking it was just a big powwow where everyone had a good time.” In 1992, when Eugene was in college, one of his high school buddies invited him to a “party,” which turned out to be an opportunity meeting. “It wasn’t something I was expecting,” he says, “and it left a bad taste in my mouth. Even though he was an old friend, I decided it wasn’t something I wanted to get involved in, and I certainly didn’t want to do what he did to me to others.” In 2006 Eugene was working his catering business at a farmer’s market, when one of his regular customers casually mentioned a business opportunity. “He hinted it was network marketing and I didn’t want to hear about it because of my past ex-
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perience,” says Eugene. “He kept on asking about my business and if I enjoyed what I did. I avoided his questions and just talked about our food or whatever. This went on for a period of four months.” At one point the customer started calling the phone number on Eugene’s banner ad. As soon as Eugene identified the customer’s number, he started screening his calls. “Seeing him became increasingly uncomfortable,” says Eugene, “because he was continuously trying to pitch me. I was fully involved in my own business and thought, ‘How can I do another business when I’m still trying to build this business, which is my bread and butter?” Finally the customer said, “Eugene, do me a favor. If you come to this one meeting, I promise I will never bother you again.” Seeing a way out, Eugene agreed. The customer gave him a date and a time, and as Eugene was driving to Santa Monica where the appointment was taking place, he was trying to figure
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MASTER NETWORKER
Back to Africa Sammy and Josephine Mwedekeli: Awakening the Entrepreneurial Spirit By Dr. Josephine Gross
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ammy and Josephine Mwedekeli were busy parents and full-time professionals when a friend introduced them to network marketing in 1997. Originally from Kenya, they were living on the outskirts of London and feeling financial pressure to accommodate the needs of their growing family. Josephine was first to take an interest in the business, and Sammy joined her once he understood the network marketing model and its limitless income potential. Together they joined forces, their eyes riveted on their vision of creating time and financial freedom. Once they achieved their dream and quit their jobs, their network marketing company called on them to open the East African market. In 2005, the Mwedekelis moved back to Nairobi, Kenya, and seven years later they had successfully launched five African countries. Having been in the business for sixteen years, eight of which were spent in the U.K and the other eight in Kenya, the Mwedekelis have a unique perspective on the extraordinary challenges network marketing faces on the African continent, as well as the mind-boggling opportunities available to those who can see into the future.
Discovering the Business In the mid-nineties Josephine was suffering from a health condition that could not be helped with conventional medication. One day her friend Birgitta came to visit and offered her some natural products to see if they might help her. Josephine reluctantly tried them for a few months, and her health greatly improved. Birgitta advised her to register with the company so she could buy the products wholesale. Josephine became a fervent user of the products and shared them with her family and friends. Birgitta noticed consumption going up and told the Mwedekelis, “You guys are doing great, you’re moving lots of products. Have you considered running a business?” Josephine was working full time heading up a laboratory at a hospital and couldn’t see herself taking on anything else. Sammy didn’t want to go door to door or look for sick people to tell them about this product. Trained as a navigator on merchant ships, he had abandoned his first profession which he found to be incompatible with married life. He had gone back to college to study international trade and finance, and was now working for a multinational.
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“When our friend offered us the business opportunity, I didn’t see the bigger picture,” he says. “But she kept telling stories of people who were living a great lifestyle.” Birgitta kept asking Josephine to take a look at business, until one day she agreed to attend a meeting. Sammy took her there and waited in the car listening to music. “The presenters at the meeting spoke about many issues that were affecting my life,” says Josephine. “Lack of financial freedom was one of them that hit home. At the time, we were living in a small house that could hardly fit a growing family, and we had no plan for being able to afford better housing. “That night I decided to do the business with or without my husband. I started the next day, and several months later I had a small team and lots of customers. I was earning $200 to $300 a month and saved everything I earned.” One day a relative who had financial challenges came to see Sammy and Josephine to ask for their help. They told her about the business and connected her with Birgitta, who invited all of them to an event in Birmingham, 250 kilometers from where they lived.
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DEPARTMENT SUMMARIES
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LEADOFF Customers
PROFESSIONALISM Don’t Miss Out
John Fleming At Direct Selling News we recognize the top 100 direct selling companies in the world annually and compile them in the most credible list in the industry, the DSN Global 100. In doing so, we are not attempting to measure which form of direct selling is faster growing than any other relative to labels being used. We simply assert: Real customer acquisition is the common denominator and the essential ingredient to long-term sustainable success. What are your priorities and how do you incorporate them into the way you teach, train, and coach? Your decisions, principles, and values are not only important to your personal growth and success, but also to the growth and success of our business model.
Michael Goldberg If you’re a part of a business networking group, Chamber of Commerce, or other type of professional association, and are not getting the results you were hoping for, ask yourself the following questions: - Are you attending every meeting? - Are you paying attention to other members of the group when they are speaking? - Are fellow members paying attention to you? - Are you meeting with other members one on one or in small groups? - Are you generating referral business to other members? - Are you likeable and do other members like you? - Are you clearly communicating the type of business you’re after? - Do other members come in contact with the type of business you want to do?
COUNTRY OVERVIEW Brazil: Land of Opportunity
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Dennis B. Tenney and J. Clovis Lemes Brazil is the third largest direct selling market in the world after the U.S. and Japan. It’s also one of the most mature direct selling markets, with its top two companies selling several hundred million dollars of their products each year. Nonetheless, for direct selling companies willing to invest in this market, abide by the rules and regulations, exercise patience and creativity, and commit to corporate social responsibility, the opportunities are virtually limitless. Brazil is an amazing country that provides an incredible opportunity to be successful if you’re willing to play by the rules, have sufficiently deep pockets, and pay the price.
Networking Times
DEPARTMENT SUMMARIES
Answers to the Word Puzzle Page 72
THE CLOSE
Hear Me! Hakki Ozmorali One of the world’s largest network marketing firms reported that in 2012, 88 percent of its organization members did not receive any commissions from the company. Moreover, 71 percent of the members did not sponsor another person. The situation is not much different in most network marketing companies. This means most people joined simply because they liked the products and did not have any intention to build a business. There is a huge crowd out there with entirely different motivations than what compensation plans aim at. Wouldn’t it be worthwhile to show a little more attention to this field of your business?
(Over, Down, Direction) 1. DSN (10, 18, NE) 2. TRANSPARENCY (15, 12, NW) 3. ALLIES (7, 14, SE) 4. AFRICAN (14, 18, N) 5. ALOHA (8, 17, W) 6. EXCUSES (5, 7, NE) 7. TEAM CULTURE (15, 19, N) 8. SPIRITUAL (9, 1, SW) 9. REGIME (12, 3, S) 10. NEW ZEALAND (2, 1, SE) 11. PROUD (11, 6, NW) 12. OVERSELL (11, 11, W) 13. RAMBLE (7, 1, SW) 14. MIDDLE CLASSES (13, 13, W) 15. LEARNING (9, 10, NW) 16. DEPARTMENT (14, 1, S) 17. DUPLICATING (3, 11, NE) 18. JAPAN (15, 5, N) 19. SPONSOR (1, 15, E) 20. COMPLAINING (2, 14, E)
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