GUIDELINE TO RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL HOME MLM BUSINESS MEETING

Are you frustrated with the proper protocol and procedure that goes along with running your home meeting? Are you overwhelmed with your up-line not teaching you how to have a successful home meeting? Do you lack the support and knowledge to gain success from the meetings that you have at your home. Are you stuck in growing your business because you do not feel that you have a home to run your business in? This guideline should help you run your home meeting successfully for your MLM or home based business. These tips should help you avoid a lot of mistakes.

Has the Internet replaced Home MLM Meetings?

Absolutely not! Home meetings are necessary and can be very effective to teach duplication in your business. When an in-home presentation is done your team has the opportunity to have a visual to learn and is much more likely to duplicate because it is easy to do so. If you have an internet presence and a large following definitely focus on your webinars or recorded videos. However, you may have teammates that do not have that type of following therefore, you need to be mindful and considerate of those individuals and the home meeting can yield very similar results and be just as effective for growing a business without an internet presence. I use online and offline communications to serve my team and their needs.

Top 20 Instructions for Running a Home MLM Business Meeting

• FOOD. Do not go overboard. There is no need to purchase expensive food and or mixed drinks. When you put out a huge spread this is not always duplicable. There are people who do not have the money, expertise, etc. to do this and the bottom line is it will not make a difference in the number of people that you signup. If you put out something to drink and finger foods these may be fine. But you should not feel obligated to throwing a fancy shindig. This sets a bad precedent for your team that is watching your efforts.

• RESPECT YOUR GUESTS. Just like all meetings whether they are PTA, church, business, etc. you will have someone from time to time who will not be on time. If you have guests at your meeting that are on time and those that are on their way, start the meeting on time. Remember you are running a business and you must be professional. The professional thing to do is NOT punish those that are on time and reward those that are late. Show your professionalism by starting the meeting in a timely fashion. However, if you do not have any guests or prospects, waiting of course is o.k. =).

• THE OPENER AND CLOSER. The person who owns the house should always open and close the meeting. Although there may be up line present to give the presentation, the home owner should introduce the person giving the presentation as well as say the final remarks. You want to make the introduction short and concise ex: Hi, my name is William for those of you who know me. Thank you for coming to my home …First I would like to ask for everyone to either turn cells phones off or place them on vibrate. I would like to introduce (NAME) to you... (Make sure you edify that person). I am sure in your training there are sample introductions that you can go over to make them your own. The closing should be a testimony about your seriousness of building your business and it also is the time when you BOLDLY pass out applications and encourage sign ups. REMEMBER: signups belong to the homeowner, not the up line leader, unless it is an open home meeting where others brought guests. The guests that were invited sign up with the person who invited them.

• BE A GOOD TEAMMATE. We should support our teammates because it creates a great culture. When you are supporting someone else’s home meeting as a guest, always be respectful to them. A couple of quick tidbits to remember.

• If you must text or check your Facebook during a meeting, sit where no one can see you as the guests may not know you are a teammate (truthfully you should be able to hold off texting or checking Facebook until you leave the meeting because this may not be a practice you would like done at your meeting). I am just a do unto others as you would have done unto you kind of person.

• Please do not talk about how you had guests that were supposed to come but cannot make it or how upset you will be if they do not make it.

• Do not interrupt the speaker. Remember you are there for support to help with environment not hurt it.

• NEVER take phone calls while meeting is going on. Because you are a representative you should turn off your cellphone because you know how important it is to have your guest’s undivided attention.

• BE A GOOD HOST. Your excitement is vital to creating the atmosphere for others. Share your excitement for those who are in attendance and were kind enough to keep their word and be there to hear what you have to say, rather than focus your energy and talk about those who did not come. You want to make those who took time out to attend feel extremely special. Do not even talk to your up line about how you tried to get more people to come and express your disappointment in front of those that are there. You begin to make those individuals feel worthless and after all they were the ones who came.

• FIRST HOME MEETING. Your first home meeting should be referred to as a grand opening or launch. Think of it this way, you have bought a franchise (so to speak) and as a new franchise owner you would hold a grand opening and invite everyone you know, all your friends and family and warm market individuals or just like Macintosh when they are releasing a new product they have a launch.

• WEEKLY MEETINGS. It is important not to treat your business like a second rate business. When you invite people you want to inform them about the meeting that you want them to attend only. They do not need to know that you hold meetings on a weekly basis. Therefore, you never want to invite a prospect by telling them that you do the meeting every week. When a prospect knows that you have a meeting every week they will see that they have an unlimited amount of weeks to show up. Remember that every event is special because time and effort has gone into them, so market it that way.

• HELP YOUR NEW TEAMMATES. When you sign someone up at a meeting and you have the opportunity, schedule their home meeting right then. The best time to get a rep to catch a blazing fire is at initial signup. If you, get them going immediately they are more likely to keep that excitement.

• SEATING. Guests should always have a great view of the presenter. Make sure if you are already a member that you sit further to the back and give the guests a great overall experience.

• ASK FOR THE BUSINESS. You should never have to wonder whether someone will sign up or not. You want to always have clarity as soon as the presentation is complete ask your guests directly if they wish to enroll and get started. Do not ask them what they think, ask for the business. There are so many people who fail to ask and want to leave it up to chance. I am a believer that you have not because you ask not and once a person leaves your chance of enrolling decreases by 10-30%.

• KEEP INVITING. Some people do not invite or do not have home meetings because of the size of their home. Do not fear, having a small home can be a great thing. If you have 8 confirmed guests, invite 8 more because on average about half will attend. What you wind up doing is having a packed house and standing room is great because it tells people that something hot is happening.

• NO NO NEGATIVITY. NEVER be negative. If you are the home owner or an existing rep of the company, a home meeting is NOT the place to talk about anything negative. There is plenty of time later to discuss important issues. You are a professional and professional business people know when and where to have certain conversations. You should address issues that you are having but do them on the phone with your up line later after the meeting or the next day but NEVER in front of guests. You would never air your “dirty laundry” to guests so let us not do it in our business.

• FOLLOW UP. For the people that did not show there is an approach that I use check it out – What to say when they don’t show

• THE POWER OF LEVERAGE. When you have someone who is on the fence leverage is a powerful tool. It depends on your compensation plan, but when you have someone who is indecisive encourage them to join prior to your home meeting as anyone that joins in the meeting will be placed under them. I have seen people sit on the fence forever, unless they have a reason to make a decision quicker. Sometimes people need help making the decision.

• FURTHER FOLLOW UP. Make sure you give customer service. Customer service in your MLM business is called Follow up. Make sure that you follow up with every guest. Make sure you note or write down every guest that attends and follow up with them the NEXT DAY. Ask them what they liked most about what they saw and if they are positive, say “sounds to me like you are ready to join!” and be quiet. If they respond positively, take their application over the phone. If not, thank them for their time; keep them in your database for maybe a later time.

• WHY A HOME MEETING. You are more likely to get people to come to your home than to a hotel. So having a home meeting can do wonders for your business’ growth. Understand that more of the people you know would rather come to YOUR house than to a hotel or someone else’s house.

• TOOLS. MLM businesses normally have tools that assist you in running your business, so use them. If you have no up line around you do not use that as an excuse not to conduct the meeting. Do not be afraid to play a video. Keep in mind that network marketing is NOT really about selling the startup package, it is about selling the idea that that person can do the business and if all you do is press play, and your guests will certainly believe they can do the same.

• BE PROFESSIONAL. You will encounter negative people and when you do, do not spend your time trying to convince them of signing up. YOU ARE NOT IN THE CONVINCING BUSINESS. YOU ARE IN THE PRESENTING BUSINESS. Your only job is to present the information professionally and succinctly to your guest and they will decide if it is a fit for them. Otherwise you will draw attention to the negative individuals which can and often times will affect others negatively. Therefore, simply reply o.k. this is not a fit for you but I appreciate you coming. Be Blessed.

• DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED. All business owners no matter what kind of business you own face disappointment. Business owners face spending money on marketing that did not work, theft, customers not returning, and retaining customers, among a whole host of other disappointing occurrences which again is common to everyone in business. You will have meetings where there is a NO SHOW. Sure you can quit. However, if you have not done multiple meetings with hardly anyone showing, you simply have not done enough of them. =) Keep the faith it is business.

• CHANGE LOCATIONS. You may find that your meetings have grown stagnant. If so, change where you meet. Find a new location, add a lunch or go to someone else’s home or have a different speaker.

Home meetings are a great tool to have in running your business. These guidelines can easily be added to help with duplication and running a successful MLM business. If you have grown a successful business without using home meetings by all means continue. However, adding home meetings could not hurt. =)Have PURPOSE DIRECTED SUCCESS in your business today!

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PS: You can get updates like this and others by emailing me at wharper@cwilliamharper.com or visiting me at www.cwilliamharper.com.

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Original post date: Septeber 13, 2013

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