You have to have plenty of prospects to work with every week to grow your business. You can buy leads, advertise on your own, do lots of things. But what is often overlooked is an advertising budget. You need to sit down and come up with a budget that lets you to grow business. It may not be easy initially, but it is a must if you are serious about growing.

A lot of people get in this business with the idea that they can nickel and dime it. If you do you will only get nickels and dimes in return. For many, the mystery of how much to invest each month is unclear. I’ve even heard people say, “when I get to a certain level THEN I can afford to invest in my business.” That’s like telling the stove, “give me heat, then I’ll put wood in you.” It doesn’t work that way.

A great rule-of-thumb is to invest in your business NOW as if you are already at the level you want to get to. Chances are if you follow that rule, you will rise to that level. But you can’t get there without making the investment up front.

Commit in writing how much you are willing to invest to reach a certain level. Invest to get the prospects you need to grow, and when you hit that level adjust your budget even higher to get to the next level, and so on.

The investment amount should include not only things like a business system (such as what you can get through http://www.GrowthPro.com or http://www.JoinMyToolBiz.com — these offer essentially the same tools, except MyToolBiz has an affiliate program tied to it), but also other tools such as online newspaper ads, buying leads, advertising cards and more. Basically, it should provide for anything it takes to feed your business with a steady stream of prospects you can talk to.

If you need 20 prospects a week, budget for it. If you need 50 prospects, budget for that. If you are just getting started on a budget, maybe you don’t know how much it takes to create a certain number of prospects. If that’s the case, invest in whatever advertising you can right now, monitor the results, then you’ll know exactly what it takes to produce the prospects you need. Once you do, you can set a consistent budget to keep your business growing for the future.

Another great rule of thumb is: Massive action creates massive results. Minimum action creates minimum results. Advertising is simply a numbers game.

And finally, one last rule of thumb: the smart business owner tracks everything he does and knows what works and doesn’t. If you track the numbers you’ll control your future. You’ll know where to invest your money to get a return and where you are investing that doesn’t work. Simply stay focused on what works and drop the things that don’t! Once you know your ratio, then success is simply a mathematical formula. You’ll know how many prospects it takes, how much it costs and how long it takes to do it!

Your business is a numbers game that once you learn to play it well it will pay you well for a long, long time! Create the advertising budget you need to master your business and we’ll see you at the top!

By the way … if you are looking for specialty advertising cards and more, check out http://www.SizzlePrinting.com  – they’ve got some of the best rates you’ll find.

… Beatty Carmichael

It starts with what we call SuccessCards(r). SuccessCards are a special type of prospecting business cards designed to give to upscale prospects personally. They are gorgeous, create a “Wow!” response and are designed to help you get quality prospects calling your Sizzle Line(r) voicemail number. SuccessCards are different than SizzleCards(r). They are true business cards with your name contact info, but they also have your Sizzle Line number on them. They also have a beautiful life-style photo with a symbolic company name and byline that projects prestige and success, such as “Wealth Builders International … helping people build wealth and lifestyle at the same time.”

It’s professional looking, appeals to upscale folks and gets them to say, “Wow. I wonder what this is all about?”

There are a lot of ways to use these but here is a scenario of how it can work.

Let’s say you are standing in line with someone and you kick up a conversation. Let’s say this person is Jill and you start to visit with her and you both talk about mostly trivial things like the weather, news and so forth. Then you may ask, “So, Jill, what type of work do you do?”

Jill says she is an accountant. So your sensors shoot off the charts and you think to yourself, “I knew she was sharp!” So, with whatever type of work she says, you are going to lead by saying to her, “Oh really? That is great. You see I specialize in helping accountants and other professionals to increase their income without affecting the hours in their practice. I don’t know if you’d be interested and I can’t make any promises that you’d qualify, but, (You pull out your SuccessCard now) let me give you my business card and when you get a moment—you have a cell phone in your car, right?—well when you get to your car, call this number and listen to a brief overview the work we do. If it sounds interesting, just leave me a message and we’ll talk.”

The whole idea with a SuccessCard is that you aren’t approaching them, which means they can’t reject you. You aren’t asking for their business card so it’s not an awkward situation. You are merely offering them an opportunity to learn about what you do that might help them make more money. And they can contact you if they are interested.

Here are a couple of tips in making this work great…

First, don’t make this approach and give her the card until you are about to part company. You don’t want to be standing in a question-and-answer session as she picks your brain. So make this the last thing before you separate from each other.

Second, always prompt them for when they should pick up the phone and call. You do that by saying something like, “Jill do you have a cell phone in your car? Great! As soon as you get to the car, pick up the phone and call this number.” In marketing this is planting the seed for action. By giving them a specific time to call, when Jill gets to her car she is more likely to pick up the phone and make the call.

And third, be the person people want to be around. Dress nice, be confident, be excited and have a smile. More than half the success you’ll have in using this method will be how you present yourself. After all, they aren’t calling because of what the card says; they are calling because you impressed them and they want to find out what you do.

This is a great way to get top prospects. Do it … and we’ll definitely see you at the top!

… Beatty Carmichael

At the end of business presentations have you had people say, “It sounds good, but…”.

Don’t you hate it — because you know that whatever that but is, it is just like someone sticking in a knife and twisting it. It hurts and you think to yourself, “Oh no! I’m gonna lose another prospect … again!”

So how do you handle it when someone gives you an objection — especially when you know they really need your business. Your business can help them but yet they say, “I don’t have the money, I don’t have the time, I don’t have the skill, or I don’t have enough contacts.”

The best thing you can do when you are handling objections is to always, always bring it back to their hot button. It’s their hot button that is WHY they ought to do the business in the first place, but they have lost sight of it.

See, what happens is this: Self doubt begins to slip in. They start looking at the reasons why they can’t do the business and forget the reasons why they should. So it’s your job as a professional networker to remind them why they should!

It goes something like this. Let’s say Jill tells you, “Yeah, it sounds great but I don’t have the money!”

How do you handle it?

“I understand Jill, but let me ask you, were you sincere about wanting to come home and be a full-time Mom to your kids?” … and you focus them back on the hot button. When you do, it immediately brings a different light to the issue. You see, money may be tight. It’s a good reason not to spend any more money. However, when put beside the desire of being a full-time mom, not having enough money starts to lose it strength. Does this make sense?

How do you take from there? Well, in this example, it might go like this… Jill says, “Yes, I really want to be a full-time mom, but I just don’t have the money right now.” And you reply, “Jill, I know how you feel. I felt the same way when I first looked at this. Our expenses were in a shamble. But what I realized is nothing was going to change unless I made a change first. And when we decided that, we found there were options that helped with the finances. Let me ask you, Jill. Is being a full-time mom to your kids important enough to you to make a decision to change … and then look at ways to handle the money issue?”

At that point, because we’re tying it all back to her hot button, there’s not much more that Jill can say except “yes, it is important enough to change.” And from there, you can begin working with Jill on how to handle her money issue.

The key is making it clear that if they say “no” they aren’t saying “no” to you — they are saying “no” to their dream. And when they understand that, they are open to looking at ways to say “yes”!

I hope this helps. Until next time, stay focused on prospects hot buttons. And as Dale Carnegie wrote in his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, if you help others get what they want, you’ll always get what you want!

… Beatty Carmichael

Let me start by asking, have you ever gone through a business presentation but for some reason, at the end of the process you just couldn’t get your prospects signing up?

Were they not really interested? Did they just not have the time?

What I’ve found when people don’t sign up is it’s usually because they don’t want to make a decision. To make a decision means they run the risk of making a bad decision, so they usually make no decision at all.

We see this playing all around us. When you go to a restaurant and see a couple sitting there looking at the menu, if you listened closely here’s what you’ll hear: “I don’t know Jean, what are you going to get?” “I don’t know, Tom. What are you going to get?” What’s going on is neither of them wants to make a decision because it may be a wrong one. When the waiter comes up Jean says, “what do you recommend?” And the waiter says, “I recommend such and such. That seems to be a hot item with our customers.” So that’s what they order!

Isn’t that hysterical? If people can’t even decide what to eat at lunch because of a fear of making a wrong decision, how much greater the problem we face when we try to get them to make a decision to join a business.

Does this make sense?

I’ve found the best recruiters have learned to LEAD a prospect in such a way that the prospect doesn’t have to make a decision … they just follow the lead of the recruiter. So they take a first, little step. Then another, then another …and eventually they are in — and excited about it too!

So let’s talk about how we lead a prospect. You can do this best if you follow some simple suggestions.

First, make sure you know their hot button; their WHY they would want to sign up and do your business.

John and Sue, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being most interested, where would you rate your excitement with our business in terms of helping you get the money to buy a new house? (or whatever got them excited earlier)

If they say a 9 or a 10, you say, “Great! Let’s get you registered so you can start making the money for your new home. Do you have access to being online right now? Great. Let’s go online and get you registered with our company.”

Boom! Just lead them. They’ll tell you if they are not yet ready and, if they aren’t, you can handle it then.

If they say, “6″ or “7″ or “8″, they are telling you they aren’t at the point of getting started yet. Something is holding them back. It’s either confusion, a fear they don’t have the time, money or skill to do it, or something else. At that point, find out what the issue is, then lead them in the direction of solving it.

The key is YOU have to lead THEM — they won’t make a decision on their own.

Until next time, happy recruiting!

… Beatty Carmichael

Ouch! How do you handle it? Let’s face it, unless you already make a lot of money, you hate that question. So how do you handle it?

My best advice is: Don’t get that question asked. I know what you are thinking: how in the world can I keep someone from asking that question?

It’s quite simple if you break it down. Here’s a rule you can bank on:

** People always ask questions that you prompt them to ask. **

For example, I used to get that question thrown at me all the time. But it was because of HOW I set it up. I’d say, “John and Susan, do you realize that in 6 months you could be earning $2,000 per month with this?”

So naturally, what are they going to do? Yep. Verify it. They wanted to know if I was telling the truth, so they asked me right back, “Well, you’ve been doing this for a couple of years now. How much are you making?”

So, once I realized I was prompting them to ask me the question I decided to change what I was saying. Instead of saying emphatically, “do you realize that in 6 months you could be earning $2,000 a month with this?” I changed it to something less emphatic, such as: “John and Susan, do you realize that if you do this business well and work it hard and are good at doing it, within 6 months you could be earning as much as $2,000 a month. Now a lot of people don’t do it that quickly, but the opportunity is there.”

Once I phrased it that way, they hardly ever asked me again how much money I made.

So if you are getting that question, first find out what you are saying that’s prompting them and then change what you say.

However, if you do still get that question, here’s a great response you can use. Just say, “you know, my wife and I made a decision a while back that we don’t discuss our finances with anyone except with our accountant. I’m sure you understand. However, one of our team members does discuss his finances and I can share with you what he’s done.”

Here’s one final tip on handling any question. The good news is there are only a handful of questions you’ll ever be asked. Just grab a few 3×5 cards and jot down the questions on one side and the answers on the other. Them use them as flashcards and drill yourself until you have a good response memorized for any question they ask. This keeps you flowing in your conversations confidently and automatically.

Hope this seals up yet one more hole to help you grow your business. See you at the top!

… Beatty Carmichael

One important key in building a big business is connecting immediately with prospects on the phone. If you don’t connect them — make them like you and feel comfortable talking with you — you’ll get a stiff response. They’ll have their guard up, they won’t trust you and you’ll hardly get anywhere with them.

So today I want to share 3 tips on connecting with people immediately and getting them comfortable with you.

First, put a big smile on your face when talking on the phone. Did you know people can hear a smile over the phone? If you are smiling, you sound friendly and trustworthy. If you aren’t smiling, you sound serious, business-like, and maybe someone I shouldn’t trust.

Say the following with a smile then without — see if you can tell the difference.

“Hi Julie, this is John, getting back with you. Did I catch you at a bad time?”

Did you hear the smile? Did it sound friendlier, like someone you would like to talk to? It makes a big difference when doing phone calls, so always put on a big smile! If you have trouble smiling naturally you may need to practice smiling in front of a mirror. Learn what it feels like to smile a big, natural smile … then make sure you do it when making calls!

Second, be excited. No one wants to get in business with a bore. If you aren’t excited when you call prospects back, how can you expect them to get excited about what you’re doing? Remember, excitement is contagious … and so it depression. By all means, do whatever it takes to get excited before making your phone calls. Put in some upbeat music. Jump up and down and get your blood flowing. Speak positive affirmations of how excited you are. All of these will help put you in the right mood to make a great phone call.

And third, be relaxed. Be excited, but be relaxed. What I mean is don’t be too stiff trying to follow a script and mess up on being real. Listen to your prospects, talk with them as if you are talking to a friend, and be relaxed. The best way to be relaxed is to be confident of what you are doing. And the best way to be confident is practice what you are saying so that it comes out naturally.

As we talk to folks all over we find that making a great phone call is one of their biggest weaknesses. It takes time to learn to do it well. So take the time to become an expert with it. If you do, it will pay huge dividends in growing a huge business. You’ll find very specific information on how to become a great phone person in the training center.

Until next time again, we’ll see you at the top!

… Beatty Carmichael

While there are a lot of places to put out cards I’d like to share those places that seem to crank out the most consistent returns, month after month.

Those places that consistently get great results are what I call high-traffic public equipment. Let me explain what I mean…

High traffic public equipment is machinery that people use out in the marketplace and lots and lots of people come by all of the time.

This would include places like fuel pumps at a convenience store. ATM machines, countertops near cash registers, newspaper machines, fast food restaurant rest rooms, and more.

When you put cards on fuel pumps, use a ziplock snack baggie to hold the cards. Tape the baggie to the pump or, if the pump has one of those billboard signs just on top of it that is usually a great place to put them as well. In fact, you may find the employees don’t take the cards off the billboards and much as they may take the cards off the fuel pumps. Put in just enough cards to last the day … depending on the volume of business the place you may put 5 or 10 cards on each pump. The best time to get the cards out are usually in the morning when the pumps are busy and at lunchtime/quitting time when the pumps are busy again.

ATM machines are a little different. The ones that work best are those where people go during the lunch hour. You’ll usually find these machines where you’ll find all the fast food places as well. The best time to get cards out on ATM machines is just before the lunch rush but AFTER the employee has serviced the machine.

Other good places are countertops and cash registers inside stores, newspaper machines in the early morning before people go to work — and use the snack baggie again to tape cards to the machines, high-traffic public restrooms in places like McDonalds or Wendy’s, and more. Another place that can work well is coke and snack machines outside large stores such as a large grocery store, a Walmart store or others. You’ll always find a steady stream of traffic passing these machines and being able to see your cards.

Last thing to think about when placing SizzleCards is the day of the week. Generally speaking, you’ll get more results earlier in the week than later in the week. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday usually produces more prospects then Friday through Sunday. The reason seems to be that on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, people are going to work, hate their jobs and they’re frustrated. On Friday, they can’t wait for the weekend. So they put their frustrations behind them. In the Bible areas of the country Sunday usually produces poor results. People are taking their day of rest. However, in other areas where people don’t pay much attention to religion, such as California and others, you’ll find Sunday can produce great results.

Until next time … I’ll see you at the top!

… Beatty Carmichael

I was speaking with a lady named Linda who had just recruited 5 people in her first 2 weeks with our system and she was all excited. As I spoke with her about what she did to get the results, one of the 3 things she was doing was running a newspaper ad that generated half of those recruits.

So I asked her if she had ever run newspaper ads in the past BEFORE the training she got with our system. She had, but had failed miserably with them.

What changed her results? She followed our training … and it worked!

While I can’t share everything about running newspaper ads here, I can share the top 3 things that make successful newspaper ads work. If you want additional information … and you are one of our users … check out your training center and click on Newspaper ads.

First, your ad must create curiosity. Don’t try to explain your business in an ad because you can’t. Instead, create curiosity and give prospects your Sizzle Line® voicemail number to call to learn more. The key is to drive prospects to your voicemail so they can hear a perfect sales pitch every time and determine if they are ready to learn more or not.

The second key is if you are running ads in the daily newspaper. As with all advertising, one key is exposure. If you get a lot of people seeing your ad, you are more likely to succeed than if you get only a few people seeing it. That’s why when you run ads you want to run them only in the employment section of your daily newspaper. The salesperson will try to get your ad in the business opportunity section because that’s what you are. But don’t fall for that. Virtually no one looks in the business opportunity section. Everyone who is looking to get ahead and make more money are looking in the employment section, so that’s where you want to be.

Also, be smart with your money. The salesperson again will try to get you to run your ad every day of the week. Why? Because it gets you better results? Nope. It’s because they can take more of your money. So be smart. Run your on Sunday only. Everyone looking in the employment section will always look in the Sunday paper. Not only that, when you run your ad ONE day, most papers place it online for 7 to 14 days … and that’s where most people look these days — online.

And third, to get your ad in the employment section it must sound similar to a real, employment ad, not a business opportunity ad. This takes a little finesse, but it’s actually pretty easy to do. You see, the newspaper doesn’t want a business opportunity ad in the employment section because it doesn’t fit their “square peg in a square hole” mentality. So you have to modify your ad to get it where you want it. You’ll see a number of successful ads you can use in our training section if you are one of our users.

If you are running ads in a weekly newspaper, these tips change completely. So before advertising in weekly papers be sure to check out the training center for more details.

Until next time, have a great day. And don’t forget, success is forged by lots of little blows, not just one big one. So stay the course, learn it step by step, and become a master of your business. If you do, we’ll definitely see you at the top!

… Beatty Carmichael

You can’t exactly say, “hang on while I call my upline — ‘Hey Joe, I finally got one! Now what?’”

So, today’s tip is how to get someone started … and started fast! Other than getting registered with your company, we want them to see that getting off to a fast start is NOT a difficult task. So I tell them, “Bill and Sue, we really only need to focus on three simple things to get you off to a fast start. Here’s what we are going to do…” And right then they are thinking, “Wow, only three things. I can do that!”

Well here are the three things I recommend you focus on: first, get them using your product. Second, get them calling their warm market family and friends. And third, get them advertising to find cold market leads too! Isn’t that an easy formula? Let’s go into a bit more detail now on each step…

As a preface to the three steps, I’m not going to go into much detail on getting them registered with your company except to say, if they have the internet available at your meeting, log in and get it done on the spot. The sooner the better. It is easy to do when you say, “Let’s get you registered so you can start making money towards your goal of [BLANK]” — and that BLANK is whatever their hot button is.

The very first thing you want to do is to get them on the products or services immediately. You want them to experience first hand the benefits your products have to offer. So always begin there. And let’s face it, enthusiasm sells! They will be so much more enthusiastic about their new business if they can share personally about how great the products and services are. And, don’t forget, that’s how you get paid — when people use the products!

The second step is getting them to contact their warm market of family and friends. This is a critical step so it is important that you LEAD them through this. They are usually timid about making the first phone call so what we want to do is help them through it and have immediate success to help solidify in their mind, “I made the right choice. I really can do this!”

One effective way to contact warm market folks is what we call GAPping. There is great training available in our Online Business Manager on this, but for now all you want to do is get them to agree to call. Here’s a simple way to do it… “Sue, remember that voicemail message you listened to about our business? Was there anything in it that offended you?” She says, “of course not.” So you reply, “would you be embarrassed for any of your friends to listen to it?” And she says, “of course not.” So you continue, “Then, let me ask you a question. I know you’ve been thinking of people that would be good with this business. Let’s call a few and here’s all you have to say: “Mary, do you have a pen? Great! Write this number down — [then you give her your voicemail number with the Sizzle Line(r) message]. Call it and if you like what you hear let’s talk!”

And here’s another tip to get great results … stay and help Sue make those calls. If you do, you insure they get done and you are there to provide encouragement for Sue!

Finally, Step three is to get them advertising for new leads. This is critical because eventually their warm market will dry up or one of their friends laughs at them. If they haven’t seen how easy it is to generate new, excited prospects they may quit. So in step three you want to get a commitment from them to begin advertising for new prospects. Usually, one of the easiest ways to do this is to get them handing out SizzleCards(r) that you give them that night. They are ready to go and gets them active as quickly as the very next day.

Until next time, we’ll you at the top!

… Beatty Carmichael

Most of us would. But let me ask another question: do you believe your success is a numbers game? You see, agreeing and believing are two different things. Sort of like the tongue in your cheek versus the tongue in your shoe.

When someone tells me they believe in something, I listen to the tongue in their cheek but I watch the tongue in their shoe. If they believe, they take action. If they merely agree, there is no action. So, let me ask you another way, and answer honestly to yourself: do your actions prove you really believe success is a numbers game?

I’d like to focus on this for just a moment. What do we consistently see in people who believe their success is a numbers game? They prove it with their actions, don’t they?

If they use leads, they buy 200 to 300 a month. If they use SuccessCards, they get out hundreds a month. If they use newspaper ads, they run many ads a month. In other words, they believe it’s a numbers game and they fuel their system with enough numbers to get success.

What about you? Are you doing enough numbers to make your business successful?

It doesn’t matter whether you want to build your business online, offline or both. What matters is that you don’t fool yourself. Numbers in, numbers out.

So in the final few moments I wanted to focus on what type of numbers it really takes.

First, how many methods do you use to find prospects? Are you using just one — such as only buying leads, only running ads or only using SuccessCards — or are you using a number of ways each month? To be successful you must use at least 3, and ideally about 5, reaching out methods every month. You must use enough methods to find the people you need to talk to.

Second, how many exposures of each method do you do? If you buy leads, are you only buying 20 or 30 a month — or are you buying 200 to 300 a month? If you run ads, how many ads are you running — just one a month, or 5 or 6? If you hand out SuccessCards, are you handing out just 10 or 15 a month, or are you getting out 100 to 200 a month?

One of the biggest reasons people fail is they fool themselves. They think they are working their business hard when in reality they aren’t — and they fail. So don’t get caught fooling yourself. If you aren’t doing at least 3 to 5 reaching methods every month, with sufficient exposure of each one to be successful, don’t expect the results that doing it could bring.

So, what should you do? Treat your business like a business. Sit down right now and determine what reaching out methods you’ll use, and how much of each one you’ll do — then commit it to writing and do it. Do it each month without fail. If you do, you’ll be on your way to the top!

… Beatty Carmichael