Pareto'sLlaw- 80/20 Rule

Courtesy Apsense-Pat DeLeonibus
Article

When joining an MLM you are coached on how to gather customers and people who may be interested in joining your team.Most people run out and start pitching their company to everyone they know. What a wonderful show of enthusiasm! You believe in your product and company and expect everyone in your warm market to feel the same. After all they know and trust you. The truth is this very rarely works. Don't get me wrong you will be able to gather customers this way, and if what you have to offer has value more often than not you will get referral customers. Getting someone to join your team is another matter. Sure you can sign up some of your buddies and family members. You can even build a huge down line this way, but is it a quality down line? How many of you have sponsored someone only to have them end up in the "I signed up but never did anything grave yard"? Most of you will be nodding your head as you read this. I understand, I made the same mistake. I was in such a rush to grow my business I wanted to sponsor as many people as possible. The more people the more customers the more everyone makes. I was so wrong! I made the mistake as so many do, of recruiting and not sponsoring. I had to rethink my game plan. Your only as good as the team you build . I had the quantity but I needed the quality.

That's where Pareto's law (also know as the 80/20 rule) came into play. For those of you who aren't familiar with this term, Vilfredo Pareto was an economist in the 1800"s. He established that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. He found that a large portion of the wealth was concentrated in a small percentage of the population. So in other words 80% of consequences flow from 20% of causes. Apply this to an MLM as 80% of good stuff (sales) comes from 20% of sources (team members). 20% of your team will generate 80% of annual results! So wouldn't it make sense to concentrate your efforts on that 20%? You have to separate the vital (your 20%) from the trivial (the wishing and not working)

Once I stopped recruiting and started sponsoring things changed. I started interviewing potential team members as opposed to just signing up who ever was willing. I wanted to know about their work ethics, their drive,ambition and motivation. I wanted to see if we had the same goal in mind. Duplication is one of the key factors with MLM's and if we were not of the same mind set we wouldn't work well together. Some meetings are done in person depending on location and some we correspond via e-mail. I've also spoken to prospective team member over the phone. After a few conversations I can usually tell if we would be a good fit and mutually beneficial to each other.

Try applying this rule to your MLM. Treat new prospects as you would anyone looking to do business with you. Interview them, get to know them and then make a decision. Be selective on who you choose to enter into business with. You choose who to let in to your team. Apply this principle and you will see results. Remember quality over quantity.

apsense-Pat DeLeonibus