Achieving financial freedom with Network Marketing on The Internet - Part 18 - Time to take action – The Follow-up method
By Tasos Vasilopoulos
Posted Saturday, August 21, 2004
Introduction
This article makes part of a series of 20 articles. The subject of this series is the creation and promotion of a website as a cost-effective method to establish a profitable home based business on the Internet. In my previous article, “Achieving financial freedom with Network Marketing on The Internet – Part 17 – Your first visitors - Where do they come from?”, I have presented to you a few important issues to take in consideration regarding your first visitors. In this article I will teach you how to follow-up with them effectively.
The “Follow-up” method
Personal contact with your new affiliates is the best method to start your relation with them, but this is not always possible. Network Marketing on the Internet has its particularities. I refer more than 40 people daily from all over the world. I cannot communicate directly or by phone with all of them. I do not even speak English fluently. Communicating by phone with your co-workers is very important, if you are able to do that. Because it makes them understand that you exist, that you are a real person and they are important for you and that you really want to work along with them. So, if you can communicate with them by phone or in personal, do it. It will bring you results. But, since this business is conducted mostly online, most of your communication with your group will be held through email.
There are some rules you must have in mind in the “follow-up” part of your job.
When people communicate with you asking questions, they want answers and they want them fast.
Also they are different persons and they want to be treated as it. They do not want to start receiving series of messages from auto responders. They want personal communication. They want to know that there is a really person behind all these. Many of them are disappointed from a previous experience with another online or offline Network Marketing opportunity. So they want to be treated fairly and with respect. What you have to do is to present them things as they really are, not make any fake promises, be real right from the beginning and be a real human being.
I have come up with a follow-up method, which I use it for the last 24 months and it brings me good results with SFI Marketing Group. People in my group, who decided to use it, are also getting good results and started building their personal group of effective network marketers. You can find a sample of my follow-up letters in Appendix D of my ebook, which is available at (http://www.netincome.gr/nm-ebook/ebook.htm).
Here it is my follow-up method:
1. I sent one welcome message to all new affiliates in my group.
I send this message twice, one in the same day they joined my group and a copy in the next day. I do this to be sure that they have received it (I am mentioning this in the beginning of the second message). In this small welcome message:
· I make clear to them that my job is to help them, so they can communicate with me any time they want to ask something.
· I let them know that they will receive two more emails from me with instructions as how to proceed in their first days with the company.
· I let them know that they will be also getting messages from the company regarding their new home business and how to proceed.
· Finally I especially point one issue to them. I strongly suggest them to do their homework and study the educational procedure of the company (in SFI it is called Smart Start).
This message is not longer than 10 lines.
2. After two days I send them the second message. It contains:
· A reminder to go through the education procedure of the company
· A recap about the affiliate program this Network Marketing company offer (the way it operates on the Internet)
· A description of their every day work
· Suggestions on how to start promoting their new home business and where to find useful information about it
3. After two days I send them my third message follow-up message. It contains:
· Recommendations on resources about their job
· Essential comments about their every day work
· A description of my every day work and my duties in order to help them make a good start with their new home business
· The start-up packet. This packet consists of two parts:
o The business plan
I suggest them to follow my plan of work. It is the way I find new co-workers. I suggest them to develop and promote their own website with my help and under my instructions. I present them the advantages (no money investment, very good results) and the disadvantages (education about Internet and every day personal effort).
o The rewards schedule
this “rewards schedule” will keep them motivated and also will help them start building their group of personal affiliates quickly. For every step they make I reward them by assigning new co-workers to their personal group. This way I keep them enthusiastic, motivated and I help them understand how the system works. Having people in their group forces them to get educated on the system, so they can answer their questions and support them. The more they try, the more are rewarded in their first months.
In these first 7 days of my new affiliates I do not give long and descriptive answers to their questions. I just refer them to my three letters and the letters that the company sends to them. Most of the letters I receive are from people who do not read my emails or the emails of the company. Or they do not have the patience to follow my instructions and get educated about this home business opportunity. So I do not spend my time on these people, because they do not have many chances to continue and become successful co-workers.
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Next article in the series “Achieving financial freedom with Network Marketing on The Internet” :
Part 19 – Become a teacher, a co-worker, a mentor
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About the author:
Tasos Vasilopoulos is a successful Network Marketer on the Internet as Group Leader of SFI Marketing Group. His main method to promote his home business on the Internet is websites properly optimized to obtain a good rank in the listings of the major Search Engines. Get his ebook with an in depth analysis of all the steps of his method and find more resources on proper domain registration, effective website design and search engines optimization in his website at (http://www.netincome.gr).
