“Duplication” is the big buzz word when most people talk about building huge downlines.  It sounds good, but there’s a fundamental problem with “duplication” from a marketing perspective.
Say that you opened up a McDonald’s restaurant franchise.  Do you think that the McDonald’s corporation would let another restaurant open right next to you?  Probably not.

Duplication may have been great when huge downlines were being built in local communities through home meetings, but in the new internet age, there are way too many choices to starting a home business.  Being a “duplicate” of your upline or having “duplicate” downlines will kill your business fast.

Duplication leads to commoditization.  Do you place extra value on a commodity?  No, you don’t.  Commodities compete on price.  Does the average person care where they buy gasoline for their car?  No, they just want the cheapest option.

Commoditization leads to a “lowest cost wins” business mentality.  This is not what you are interested in.  Having a downline that is full of people seeking the lowest cost business opportunity will not result in a large revenue stream.  You should want to recruit and create leaders.

How do you recruit and create leaders?  You become a leader.  You anti-comoditize yourself.  Stick out from the crowd and don’t approach things like everyone else.

• You are in control, not the prospect.
• Be willing to let the prospect go.
• You have the power to ALLOW people to join your business.
• Don’t waste your time by taking on duds because you are emotionally attached to the prospecting process.  Objectively evaluate prospects to determine if they are right for the business and if YOU want to work with THEM.  Not the other way around.

Avoid the hype and stand out from the crowd.  If you emotionally sell a prospect on either your opportunity or product, you’re going to have to keep selling them on it.  Emotional sales also lead to buyer’s remorse, because people realize later that they made an emotional decision rather than a rational evaluation.  Let them evaluate it all they can.  Give as them as much information as they need to make a decision, but be willing to let them go if they won’t pull the trigger and get signed up.

People get distracted by the tools and flashy websites.  The only reason to have tools and websites is to amplify your effectiveness when it comes to prospecting.  In fact, usually the best performing websites are the “ugliest” by artistic standards.  They are there to serve a function–that’s it.

There is only one of you.  Make yourself count.  Be the best version of YOU possible.

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Ah, the 3 foot rule.

“Every person within 3 feet of you is your prospect.”

WRONG!
WRONG!!
WRONG!!!

This is so unbelievably false.  Why on Earth would you want to start a business relationship with just anyone that happens to be around?  Remember from the last newsletter, the goal of interacting with a prospect is to determine, as quickly as possible, whether or not they are a good fit for your business.

What does it say about your business if you think that literally everyone is your prospect?  Proponents of the 3 foot rule will tell you that everyone wants to quit their job or make extra money.

So what?

A want to do something is very different from having the skills, determination, and perseverance to make it happen.

This is what your prospecting should be.  You should be talking to people to qualify if they have the skills, determination, and perseverance to make it happen.  And really, it’s just the last two.  Skills can be taught to any person that is willing to learn.

Traditional stalking, ahem…I mean, prospecting aside, the 3 foot rule is rearing it’s ugly head on the internet.

I was talking to a fellow networker about how some people just don’t get it.  There was a topic on the BetterNetworker.com forums about how many friend requests you are allowed per day on MySpace and Facebook before you get banned.  Clearly the people asking were using some sort of automated friend-adder software and spamming the heck of about 200-300 people per day.

What concerned me is that a bunch of people jumped in saying how they don’t care if they get banned or how they have 5-10 different accounts so they can get away with it, or about how being banned is “just the cost of doing business.”  What was troubling is that I found this on a forum dedicated to attraction marketing in the networking industry and techniques specifically designed to avoid this type of behavior.

I was reminded of something that someone once told me.

Most spammers don’t think they are spammers.

This is basically people still employing the 3 foot rule, but now they’re using internet technology to increase their range and their scope.  Using these skills in person will just make people will just blow you off.  On the internet, you create a record for anyone and everyone to see.

If you’re serious about building a long-term business, then you should be putting your best foot forward constantly.  Good videos, good articles, good blog posts.  Build a profile that makes you a leader.  Anyone can use friend-adder software, and if anyone can do it, then it’s not a skill that’s going to position you as a leader.

P.S. If you want to get the exact roadmap to becoming a networking leader, then watch each and every one of these free videos.