Jeff Noud on Providing Benefits that MLM Prospects Really Want
Jeff Noud was struggling with what it really took to build a successful network marketing business. Suddenly, it clicked for him. Here’s his story.
Thank you so much for this interview, Jeff! You have a lot of valuable information on your blog on how to build a successful network marketing business that I want to learn more about. So, let’s get started!
Where were you born and raised, what did you want to become when you “grew up”, and what did your parents do for a living?
I was born in Belleville Illinois, quickly moved to a town in Missouri called Washington where my father got a job as highschool teacher/coach which he held for 25 years.
My mother was a stay at home mom, when I was really young and a waitress for most of my life after age 10 or so. So…I pretty much grew up in Washington.
I never really had a solid “occupation” that I wanted to grow up to become. I wanted to become a professional soccer player, but that really wasn’t an option living in the US at the time. Soccer really didn’t have a professional presence yet.
I never put much thought into choosing any one career path, so after college I joined the Army and went around the world jumping out of helicopters. I served during peacetime so it was pretty cool. Got out in 1999 and quickly went to work as a carpenter building residential homes.
~
Was there any Entrepreneurship in the family?
Nope, I don’t think there was any of that going on at all. My father always had some grand ideas about starting a business but nothing ever panned out…
I was really just taught the standard “get good grades, keep your nose clean, show up on time and do your best.” There was never any talk about learning the ins and outs of running a business.
~
When did you realize that your career wasn’t going to provide you with what you truly wanted, and when did you discover network marketing?
2009, when the housing market crashed in 2008-09…that put a quick halt to my career as a residential carpenter. I mean there was absolutely no work in that field what-so-ever!!! Believe me, I looked long and hard.
I have never been out of work before in my life and it was my first experience with having an employer drop you on your head. I ended up losing my home, cars and was forced to move to a new location.
Quite a bad experience all around, but I now see it as a blessing because it made me start to look at alternatives to being an employee.
I found myself reading a ton of books on entrepreneurship and listening to a ton of audios. I discovered network marketing around 2012-13…my sister in law introduced my wife and I to a company and we joined right away.
I was already actually looking for a company to join at the time, although I don’t think they knew this… I had been trying to pick the right opportunity for me and my family…but I couldn’t really make a solid decision. So when it fell in our laps, we just kind of jumped on it.
What were your first couple years like in network marketing and what was the biggest hurdle you had to overcome?
I hit the ground running really hard…made my names list, memorized the contacting script and booked appointments. The goal was to expose the idea to 15 people per month…belly to belly..at their house with their spouse.
I was able to hit that goal every month for 8 months straight. I built a large organization and moved up the ranks very quickly. After my initial warm market push, the bottom slowly fell out as I ran out of people to talk to and the people I had recruited either stopped trying or burned through their names as well…thus I was caught between the proverbial rock & a hard spot.
If I was going to get this thing moving again I was going to have start getting into the cold market….which meant.. I had to learn a new skill set….in short I had to learn how to market myself. Now, all of my new personal recruits come from the cold market.
My biggest hurdle was learning to read between the lines, example: Just because someone tells you they are super excited and are going to make the business their number 1 priority and are going to work it hard…really doesn’t mean they actually will. I had to learn patience and how to love people right where they are in the process and not to expect too much.
~
A lot of new distributors take the advice from the company on how to promote the products, why is this something you oppose?
I wouldn’t say I oppose all of it. Most (if not all) companies teach the basics of network marketing really well…Make a list, contact the list, show the idea, follow through and get them started. Nothing wrong with that…
What I am opposed to is the leadership of a team or company being what I call “method-myopic”. They are so focused on only one method of building the business that they actively shoot down or even shun those who would step outside of the company norm.
Listen, there is no one way to build the business & we all have a bunch of different skills we can bring to the table. For instance; one of the reasons I was able to build so quickly right out of the gate is due to the fact that during college I worked as a telemarketer selling long distance plans.
So I already had the necessary skills I needed to book appointments with people…
Asking someone that maybe hasn’t had a conversation on the phone with anyone other than their spouse in the last month to make calls to book appointments is a recipe for disaster.
Also, it’s a great way to get someone to quit really quickly.
Plus, I am a big proponent of using your time wisely. The “old school” way of building which companies exclusively teach can be the biggest time suck and most expensive way to build your business you could ever do.
There is nothing like booking an appointment over at the prospects house about 1.5 hours away from where you live, driving over at the agreed upon time… only to find out they forgot or had something come up and didn’t call you.
So do the math: 3hrs of drive time, 1/2 tank of gas, huge amount of frustration and nothing to show for it. You didn’t even get to work on your presentation skills.
By using some savvy marketing strategies and the internet, I estimate I could reach over 200 people with my presentation in that same amount of time spent.
So, I don’t hate “old school”…I still help people through their names list and I’m not opposed to working it with them. There just better be a plan for what happens after the warm market has been tapped out.
When did you discover that the network marketing leaders were doing it the right way, and what were some of the first few things you implemented into your business that they taught?
I started doing research on different methods of building right about at 1yr into my first company. I started following leaders like Ray Higdon (huge influence on me), Todd Falcone, Eric Worre, Ty Tribble, but the one who started it all was Ann Sieg with her Renegade Network Marketing system.
I started implementing some of her techniques right away, I stopped looking for people to join my business and started looking for people who are looking for me…shortly after I started my own blog and videos.
~
What are the 4 things that prospects really want?
They want to have these 4 questions answered:
Is this for real? Meaning…is this something that is legit.
Can they do it? Will they be able to actually do the things necessary to make it work.
Will you help them? Are you going to just sponsor them and then become a ghost or are you going to spend the proper time with them to get them up and running.
Can you lead them? Are you a person worthy of being followed and if so…why? Do your words match your actions…
~
I love your blog! How old is it, how many posts are on it, and what is the daily traffic like to it on a daily basis?
I started my blog in February of 2015… I have gone through many changes and second guesses in the process. I bounced between a generic product central theme (ie..if you’re in a health and wellness mlm, then blog about health and wellness) and a generic mlm training blog…finally settling in on the training blog because it offered the most flexibility.
Presently I have over 70 post and probably 60 videos on the blog which gets around 500 unique visitors each month. I am a long way from being a huge success on the internet…but I am growing and recruit weekly from my internet efforts.
Plus I just love the whole idea of sharing ideas and insights with other people… Lord knows that this business is hard enough if one of my blogs points someone in the right direction and leads to their eventual success…that’s just awesome!
What has been the best way to get traffic to your blog, and what type of SEO do you implement on it?
Social media, it’s really the only way I can see to get steady traffic to your blog outside of doing some crazy SEO stuff or spending a ton of money…especially if you’re not that well known yet or can’t produce daily content.
Social allows you to share your (high value) stuff for next to no cost and gets you great traffic.
I try to produce articles and content around some key words and phrases inside my niche market…but I don’t dwell on the SEO stuff….I’m not a computer wizard by any stretch, but I am conscious of it.
Each and every article I post has 3 keywords that I center the body of work around…I use a couple of great plugins that help with all the SEO stuff surrounding those keywords: SEO Pressor and Yoast SEO.
~
What is your favorite social media platform right now for generating leads, and how do you do that?
I love this question, because I can imagine most everyone would say Facebook. I however prefer LinkedIn, in my opinion…it is by far and away the very best social platform for recruiting people into your business.
I get a lot of traffic from Facebook, which is great…but I get a lot of phone calls and private messages in LinkedIn… and that makes a huge difference.
Now, you got to know what you are doing on Linkedin…and it all starts with building the right network of people. I have a very specific way that I build my network and it has really made a huge impact.
~
What is your favorite book right now and why?
Hmmm, I have several…but if I had to pick just one right now…it would be the “War of Art” by Steven Pressfield.
He really exposes all the little things that hold us back from our goals and dreams in a very different and incitement way. Loving this book!
Other books in the rotation at the moment are: “Dotcom Secrets” by Russell Brunson, “NO BS Social Media Marketing” by Dan Kennedy / Kim Walsh-Phillips, and “Advertising Secrets of the Written Word” by Joe Sugarmann
~
What are your goals for 2017?
Double my downline and income by December 20, 2017
~
What is your favorite quote and why?
“If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.” – Latin Proverb
I love this quote, hey…sometimes things are not going to go your way…sometimes the business is not going to grow as fast as you want it to.
If you’re a leader it will never grow as fast as you want it to…so get out and push that train up the hill. It really reflects my total attitude about growing my business… I might not know how to do something…but guess what I will find out how to do it…and I will master it.
~
Thank you so much for this interview, Jeff! This has been an EPIC interview!
For more information about Jeffrey, please visit his Powerful Network Marketing Blog HERE.
Other Awesome Interviews:
Jordan Adler on a Beach Money Sequel
Bill & Michelle Pescosolido on Social Media Branding
Tom “Big Al” Schreiter on 44 Years Building MLM
Dale Moreau on Becoming a Selfless MLM Leader
Sourav Ghosh on Branding You with Digital Marketing
Brett Chatfield on Empowering Mindset Strategies
Miguel Fuentes on Being the Best Instagram Leads Expert
Sincerely,
Erik Christian Johnson
~
The post Jeff Noud on Providing Benefits that MLM Prospects Really Want appeared first on Erik Christian Johnson.