CHILD ANSWERS: Ha-woh?
EVELYN: Hi there. This is Evelyn, is you mommy home?
CHILD: Mom-me?
EVELYN: Yes, your mommy. May I speak with her?
CHILD: O-tay. (Child heard running through house screaming “Mom-me! Mom-me! Phone!”… to which mom replies.. “Who the heck is calling now? This phone drives me crazy! I told you to tell them I am not home!)
Mom: Hello???
EVELYN: Hi Sally. This is Evelyn. I just realized I had not heard from you in a while and I am wondering how you are doing?
SALLY: I would be doing fine if my husband would help me watch after the kids.
EVELYN: I want to check to see how you are doing marketing your business, and see if there is anything I can do to help you.
SALLY: I am doing fine. I spoke with one lady this week about it.
EVELYN: One lady?
SALLY: Yes, I met her at the package store. She was talking about needing a job. But, she said she needed regular income.
EVELYN: That is the way it goes sometimes. What else have you done?
SALLY: I have been working on my web pages.
EVELYN: You was doing that last month when we spoke. Those must be some web pages!
SALLY: Yeah, they are. I have 47 of them now, including my AOL home page, one on Yahoo, and a bunch of other free places.
EVELYN: How are you driving traffic to those sites?
SALLY: I tell people I chat with on-line about them and people will find them in the search engines.
EVELYN: Oh, so you tell a lot of people about them?
SALLY: Yeah, at least one or two every day.
EVELYN: Have you tried placing any on-line classifieds?
SALLY: Yeah, I placed three last month. They don’t work. I didn’t get a single recruit.
EVELYN: What else are you doing to market your business?
SALLY: I designed a great flier.
EVELYN: Really? Where have you been distributing it at?
SALLY: I haven’t yet. It is going to cost about $20 to get them printed. I was going to do it this week, but my husband Frank and I was tired, and decided to rent some movies instead. We needed the break.
EVELYN: So you are going to print and distribute them next week?
SALLY: Our bills are due next week, and Wal-Mart is having a big sale on candles. So it will probably be the week after next. Frank is talking about going fishing that weekend, and if he does he will take our extra money. But I think it is going to rain. It just feels like rain to me.
EVELYN: Have you been handing out your drop cards and business cards?
SALLY: Sometimes. I keep leaving them in the car. But when I remember I take them in stores and other places and leave them, or hand them to people.
EVELYN: How many of them have you given out or put out in the last week?
SALLY: At least 4 or 5.
EVELYN: Well, that is a good start.
SALLY: Evelyn, pushing this network marketing stuff ain’t easy. I just can’t seem to find anyone interested. I ain’t making any money at all. Nothing I do seems to work.
EVELYN: Sally, it sounds to me like you just haven’t told enough people about the products or the opportunity. Are you a member of any groups, civic clubs or churches?
SALLY: Yeah, I take the children to church every Sunday, and I am a member of the homeowner’s association for our neighborhood. The association meets once a month.
EVELYN: Have you told your friends at your church and at the association about the business?
SALLY: No. I don’t feel right pushing my friends to do business with me.
EVELYN: Have you tried to cold-call people from the phone book or yellow pages?
SALLY: No. I am not good on the phone. Besides, nobody buys from telephone solicitors.
EVELYN: Who is your long distance service with?
SALLY: Some company out of Atlanta.
EVELYN: How did you find them?
SALLY: They called me one day with a great deal. But that is different.
EVELYN: How so?
SALLY: They are telephone people. It would be a little silly for them to send you mail.
EVELYN: Have you approached people in your community that meet a lot of people everyday and asked them to help you promote your business? People like cashiers at convenience stores and such?
SALLY: No. I don’t know what to say. Besides, them people don’t speak very good English. They can’t sell to people if they can’t talk to them.
EVELYN: They work at a store, don’t they?
SALLY: Well.. yes. But they don’t talk to people. They just take your money. I was talking with one the other day. He told me that many of his customers come in and buy stuff without ever saying a word to him.
EVELYN: Did you tell him about your business?
SALLY: No. When he told me that, I knew it would be a waste of time.
EVELYN: Have you tried teaming up with Jane and you two working the business together? She lives in your area and is doing very well. She was the top distributor for our organization last quarter and she loves to mentor people.
SALLY: I spoke with Jane, but she is too pushy. I was at one of the little league games the other day and she was trying to push everyone into joining her business. She was handing out cards… leaving them on the benches… just all kinds of stuff. You just don’t do that at little league games. It is embarrassing. She even told the coach for the other team that he would be good at her business. Imagine that! Trying to get the coach from the other team to join your business! To me, she seems like a traitor or something!
EVELYN: If what she does works, isn’t it worth considering?
SALLY: You just don’t do business that way. It is not right.
People are there to spend time with their children, not to have someone try to push them into joining their business.
EVELYN: I see. Have you considered running a classified advertisement in your local paper?
SALLY: Our local paper is too expensive.
EVELYN: Really? How much do they charge for a classified ad?
SALLY: I am not sure, but I know they are expensive. All newspapers are expensive.
EVELYN: Do they have an ad mag in your area, like a Thrifty Nickle or Penny Saver? They are often much less expensive.
SALLY: Yes. But nobody reads them things.
EVELYN: Well, it seems to me that you are doing everything you can. Even though you have no distributors yet, I want you to know I do appreciate you as a customer.
SALLY: Thank you. I just love the products. That new cream the company has really makes me look years younger. All my friends have commented about how much better I look, but I wont tell them my secret.
EVELYN: Maybe you should.
SALLY: Why? And have them looking better than me? Besides, they will just think I am trying to sell them something.
EVELYN: I see.
SALLY: Evelyn, I appreciate you calling. Believe me, I am going to really get busy building this business. I need the money. Frank and I want to take a cruise next summer, and we want to pay off our credit cards first. If you can think of anything at all to help me build my business, please let me know. I would do anything.
EVELYN: Sally, just keep plugging away. I will let you know if I come up with anything that might help you. Bye, bye.
SALLY: Bye, bye.
Now for the $60,000 question…..
Are YOU Sally?
Brande and Chris Bradford are active participants in a home based business opportunity and are the publishers of GREAT HEIGHTS, a monthly newsletter focused on home based business issues. To subscribe to their newsletter, send a blank e-mail to: Great-Heights-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com or visit: http://www.brandebradford.com
