Kevin and the Giant Peach

…Or Decided That I Didn’t Want to Approach The People That Were Still On It!

She came into my life through a pay-per-click ad. I’d been building my Market America “unfranchise” for about 2 years up to that point. I had recently left my full time job as the paycheck was no longer needed – or so I thought. That’s a subject of another article but let me just say that you should be making at least 3 times your full-time job’s salary before “retiring” from it.

I was searching Yahoo! and in addition to the search results, there was a ppc ad in the upper right hand corner of the screen which read, “Market America – What Your Upline Won’t Tell You” or something to that effect. Being curious, I clicked on the ad which tool me to the landing page of this woman named Ann Sieg. The message of the ad was that Ann had burned herself out in the network marketing industry by doing what the company and had trained her to do. This was no surprise to me having seen others do the same thing. Between the weekly business briefings, the endless one-on-one plan showing with prospects in coffee shops that went no where, the monthly weekend seminars, the quarterly rallies and the twice yearly national events turned what was supposed to be a 10-20 hour a week effort into another 40 hour a week job! No wonder people quit the industry.

The other reason for the drop out rate was the “cheapness” which one feels in the prospecting process. You find yourself begging people to look at the plan. You find yourself begging them to sit still and listen to it. You find yourself begging them to come to the next business briefing. You find yourself begging them schedule a follow up meeting. The begging never ends. Now imagine if you’re a doctor, lawyer, or even a lowly engineer like I was. It won’t take long for the ego to kick in and say, I’m not going to beg anymore.

So, Ann Sieg’s letter really hit home. In addition to telling her story, she described what she found was the correct, more professional way to deal with leads and prospects. In fact, the product she was offering was called, “How to Turn Cold Leads into Hot Prospects.” Again, being skeptical, I called Ann just to find out if she was a real person. To my surprise, she answered the phone and, after I asked, she said, “yes, as far as I know I’m a real person.”

My short conversation with her was enough to prompt me to buy the package which was an audio cd with a workbook. The information in there was very good. I even received a call from one of her “business partners” offering his help if I needed it. This was my first exposure to “attraction marketing” which Ann was just figuring out, as it turns out, and is now all the rage in the network marketing arena.

Here’s how it worked: Ann wrote an “attractive” pay-per-click ad which took you to a well written landing page that described in great detail not only a problem that is plaguing the network marketing industry but the solution to that problem. After reading the letter, one couldn’t help but want to learn more. In other words, it described the pain and frustration I was experiencing in growing my business and it offered a solution to resolving it.

Well, just like so many things, I began implementing the items in the workbook but slipped back into the old ways of prospecting and recruiting. Add to that the fact that I was training for another Ironman and was president of the TriWisconsin Triathlon Team and. well, let’s just say, I let it drop for awhile. My sponsoring and recruiting efforts generally waned and were limited to bringing on those who were curious about what I did and wanted to be part of it. A few of them dropped out, quicklly, because, like me, didn’t like that feeling of chasing prospects.

Ann seemed to have disappeared up until about 2 years ago when she came out with a free report called “The 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing.” This was a fantastic piece of material which highlighted the problems with the network marketing industry. She pointed out that there’s nothing wrong with network marketing. There is something wrong with the way most network marketers are trained to prospect and recruit. This free report led to the breakthrough e-book, “The Renegade Network Marketer” which was not free but upon purchasing the e-book you received a lifetime membership to the back office which contained literally a lifetime worth of material including affiliate programs in which to monetize your prospecting, tools for building an online business, advertising copy, etc.. The list is endless as I have yet to finish going through what’s there and they keep adding more. It was clear that Ann Sieg’s approach was to overdeliver to her customers. In fact “overdeliver” is an “understatement.”

What Ann was beginning to accomplish was turning non-professional marketers into professionals by providing them with access to the necessary tools for doing so.

However, there was still something missing. While all the tools for becoming a professional internet marketer were available in the “Renegade System” many found problems with a) knowing where to start and b) learning how to use the tools to grow their business.

This need was identified by an enterprising young guy living on the west coast named Mike Klingler. Mike had built a successful network marketing business over about a 14 year period. He had also been dabbling with using the internet in the lead generation and prospecting activities for that business.

Mike picked up the Renegade Network Marketer when it came out. He immediately saw that the tools were there but they needed to be organized. He also saw an opportunity to develop a training program for teaching non-technical people how to use them. A year ago, Mike came out with Renegade University which did just that. Renegade University is a series of videos in which Mike Klingler shows the student, step-by-step, how to implement the Renegade System.

This has become a wild success in the network marketing industry. And it did not pass the notice of Ann Sieg. It was a match made in internet network marketing heaven when Ann and Mike joined forces this year. Ann came out with another free report: “The Attraction Marketer’s Manifesto“. Early in April of 2009, they launched the “Renegade Professional” and the “Renegade Breakthrough Mentoring Program.” Of course, having experienced the value offered in Ann Sieg’s previous products, I did not hesitate in getting in on these.

So, now, you may be wondering what my results have been. That will be the subject of my next post. STAY TUNED!

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