Helping your affiliate team members in the generations below your PSAs can be a little challenging. Assisting individual members requires MORE THAN sending out group mailers. Group mailers are great for those who are "plugged in." Individual attention is necessary and even critical in the faceless, anonymous world of the internet. The effort may seem time consuming, but consider the rewards as you build leaders in depth.
FACE IN THE CROWD
Most people join a business on the internet because they prefer the anonymity. They want to join without person to person pressure. They tolerate the emails that seem to be scripted and/or automatically generated in some fashion. However! There comes a point when most people are ready to find out about the man behind the curtain! They are ready for inter-personal interaction.
The forum posts in SFI are well populated with affiliates who bemoan the lack of contact from their up line members, and many of the posts complain of only getting group mailers! One of my favorite quotes comes from Cavett Roberts (who has addressed thousands of network marketers in his lifetime), “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” The only way to help someone feel like they are more than a face in the crowd is to single them out. Fortunately, you can comfortable do that by making a personal contact with them.
GETTING YOUR COMMUNICATION PAST THE BARRIERS
Unfortunately the only way to do this is through the Genealogy Mailer. There comes a point when all of the marketing generated hype and all of the email campaigns from every guru on the internet is as annoying as the steady drone of traffic on a main artery boulevard in the city. Even these communications (auto-generated) “try to” appear to be personalized. The recipient knows the difference, and frankly (much of the time) it insults their intelligence. So how do we make the more personable connection through the Genealogy Mailer?
First of all, select ONE team member to receive your correspondence. And then, do this one by one. You may be tempted to personalize a form letter, but don’t—not this time. It is worth the effort to inspire people in depth to build their business to a leadership level! Their dreams depend on it—and so does the success of your business. SHOW YOU CARE!
Granted, it would be easier through our outside email. Coming through the Mailer definitely looks like a systematic event. However, putting careful (more personable) wording in the subject field, and making observational remarks about the recipient’s history with SFI (it can be seen through their profile) within the body of your note will demonstrate that time and attention is being given to them. THIS SHOWS THAT YOU CARE!
Go one step further: let them know that you wanted to take the time to personally touch base with them. There was even a time when I misspelled their name and sent the message—in my horror, and wrote them again (immediately) and apologized and explained to them that I work my SFI business late and I mistyped or misspelled their name! You know what—I received a reply from that person! My point is, don’t be afraid to be human here. After all (this bears repeating), how many affiliates bemoan the lack of personal contact. So, again, don’t be afraid to be human—we all need the human touch!
Close your note with genuine interest and concern. Sure you can try to reward them for contacting you with T-Credits—but in essence that misses the nature of this type of contact. Let them know you will look for their reply. Share your anticipation of their reply AFTER you leave some sort of open ended question (again, one that demonstrates you truly are interested in them as a person in business).
Not everyone will respond. Some may still see it as a scripted letter; others may not even open it. But some will respond. In fact more will respond to your efforts than if you made no effort at all. One day, that team member may credit you for their success and the realization of some of their dreams!
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