Multi-Level Marketing Training - Week 3 

By the time you reach Week 3, your new distributor should have a good grasp of the product and the sales presentation. It is now time to focus them on the compensation plan and how to get the best out of it.

If you have a good compensation plan, then it should be paying your people for the activities you want them to do. For example, you may have a 15% retail bonus. This is aimed at rewarding personal sales. You may also have a 15% volume bonus that kicks in when they make a large volume of sales. These commission elements are geared towards personal sales and are aimed at rewarding your network well for achieving high sales volumes.

I am sure that you have many other compensation elements aimed at recruiting and training new members. I am also sure that the compensation plan is complex and requires a great deal of time to explain, especially if the person you are explaining it to needs to understand it well enough to teach it themselves.

The better your distributors understand the compensation plan the more likely they are to build their team in the way you would like it built. It is the sponsor's job to take them through each compensation element and show them how they can make it work for them. The goal is to help your distributor maximize their income by leveraging the rules to their benefit.

It is important to note that if your network is abusing the compensation plan, you have an ill-conceived plan. In other words, your plan is rewarding them for doing things they should never do. If this is the case, don’t blame the distributors - change the plan and plug the loopholes.

During compensation plan training, the sponsor should explain a compensation element and then get the distributor to explain it back. Only when the distributor has a comprehensive understanding of the element should the sponsor move on to the next element.

It goes without saying that the sponsor needs to have a comprehensive understanding of the plan and if they don’t, it is the company's responsibility to bring them up to speed. 

Commissions are only one part of the compensation plan. Promotion and demotion are other elements that affect a distributor's income. Your distributor needs to have a clear understanding of how to rise through the ranks and the corresponding rewards. They also need to understand what will cause them to be demoted. This will provide them with the insight to focus on the activities that are necessary to maintain their rank and income.

Once the sponsor has successfully trained the distributor in all the nuances of the compensation plan it is time to discuss the opportunity meeting. In most companies, there are three levels of opportunity meetings:

1. The one-on-one meeting that is normally held in a coffee shop.
2. The home meeting where several people gather at the distributor's home to learn about the opportunity.
3. The venue-based opportunity meeting where large numbers of people gather to hear about the opportunity.

The opportunity presentation never tries to explain the compensation plan. The opportunity presentation is focused on outcomes, possibilities and delivers a high-level overview of where the money comes from. In the opportunity meeting, you would discuss the product, income potential, upcoming incentives, ranks and statuses and your involvement in charities and other social responsibility activities.

Your distributor will not be equipped to present the opportunity yet. Your new distributor should not try and explain the compensation plan to a prospect at this point. There is an old saying that goes “If you know it all you are an expert and if you tell it all, you are a bore”. The quickest route to failure is allowing an untrained distributor to share the opportunity. Presenting the opportunity will be dealt with in Week 4. 

For the moment, all you want your new distributor to do is invite their prospects to a meeting. In the case of a one-on-one meeting, the sponsor will meet with the distributor and their prospect and will present the opportunity on the distributor’s behalf. The home presentations would normally be run by a team leader and the venue-based meetings would be run by a senior team leader. The sponsor should teach the distributor how to invite a prospect to the meeting in such a way as to guarantee their attendance. Getting the prospect to the meeting is half the battle, convincing them to join is the other half.

Edification

The term edification within the multi-level marketing industry means to build someone up. A major part of the invitation process is edification. When a distributor invites a person to an opportunity meeting it is essential that they edify the person who will be doing the presentation. They need to tell their prospect about their sponsor/team leader’s achievements, how amazing they are as a leader, and what a great person they are to work with. By the time the prospect meets the leader in question, they should have formed a positive impression and have high expectations. At the first meeting, the sponsor will edify the distributor, building them up in the eyes of their prospect. The psychology here is that if I tell you how amazing I am, I am bragging - and no-one likes a brag and they seldom believe their claims. If a third party tells you how amazing I am, especially if the third party is a trusted friend, you are likely to believe them, and I am likely to rise in your estimation before we have ever met. When a distributor edifies their sponsor, they provide the sponsor with a great deal of credibility. Now, when the sponsor tells the prospect what an effective and amazing distributor they are joining with, the claim has weight and is believed.

The distributor edifies the sponsor to lend their words credibility and the sponsor edifies the distributor to ensure the best chance of successfully recruiting the prospect.

The sponsor should spend time explaining edification to the distributor and they should take the time to practice it. The verbiage needs to be natural, truthful and credible. 

Signup Process

The last task you need to train in Week 3 is the process of signing up a new distributor. If a prospect decides to join, you need to strike while the iron is hot. The sponsor needs to ensure that the distributor understands the signup process, costs, expectations, documentation and any other relevant processes. Signing up a new member should be a smooth and painless process. If the signup process is clumsy, the prospect will feel uncomfortable and may decide not to join.

Week 3 training recap

1. Teach the compensation plan so that the distributor can maximize their earnings
2. Teach them how to invite a prospect to an opportunity meeting
3. Teach them how to complete the signup process efficiently. 

If your distributors can master these three skills in Week 3, they are well on their way to succeeding.