You might ask me, "Bob, do you have someone in Tulsa who gives meetings?"
You ask this because you want to send your person to a local meeting so s/he can learn a little about EcoQuest and see who's active in their area. It's possible that you will complicate my ability to give you the right answer by adding this,
"I know EcoQuest is a Christian-based company, so I assume there will be someone in Tulsa who won't mind if my person goes there. Whom do you know in Tulsa, Bob?"
For starters, this request has nothing to do any religion or philosophy. I'm going to NOT "fix you up" with a Tulsa meeting. I'll advise you take care of your own person. I'll say, "Treat him like he's the first EcoQuest dealer in the state of Oklahoma. Think of it that way."
And I won't send random EcoQuesters to your meetings in your town, either. Here is what 35 years of working in MLM has taught me:
1. Multilevel marketing is not a "local" activity. Sponsoring is permitted without regard to location. People become linked by family and friend relationships, referrals, advertisements, work dislocations, and what have you.
2. Experience has demonstrated many times that the best successes emerge when people do not live near their sponsor. In some ways it is a hindrance to be trained locally.
...(A) Initiative is far more important than training. Training, in fact, is highly overrated. Working EcoQuest is not rocket science. Your new guy has to demonstrate a simple home appliance, tell an interesting story about our company, persuade his friends and other prospects that there's money to be made, and learn a few operational procedures (all of which can be taught from afar).
...(B) People who are doers, do. People who are students don't do nearly so much. Self-discovery is an excellent training vehicle.
...(C) People have egos. It seems convenient in the first few days or weeks to have a local tutor, but eventually the person on the bottom must lead, make decisions, try his own new ideas, and be in charge. However, the guy on the top does not want to relinquish those things. Thus, it helps when a person is on his own!
...(D) The local prospect pool is smaller than the national prospect pool. If we suggest that people should be trained locally, we limit the ultimate size of a person's group. I know many EcoQuesters who work mostly in and around their city. That's their choice, but it's a limiting choice.
...(E) Methods differ greatly from group to group. If I send your new guy to a leader in Tulsa, there is a possibility that he will be taught some techniques, attitudes, and even some "facts" that you disagree with. Those Tulsa people are a little strange!
...(F) Problems often come up. When groups are mixed there is a chance that the new person will begin to ask, "Can I be transferred to this local group so I can get better training?" Many bad feelings can be created. Everyone loses, and the integrity of networking suffers. Imagine how you will feel if your guy gets off to a hot start and two weeks later he says, "Don up here is really doing a lot for me and it doesn't seem fair that he is not benefiting. I think I'd be better off transferring to this group, and I don't think you're going to be doing much for me anyway."
...(G) Obligations. I don't have time to train EVERYONE in Orlando. I have to work with those who are cooperative, with the producers, and with my group (where I have a direct responsibility). It becomes very hard to ask someone who shows up from another group to stop calling and stop wasting my time. What if he is annoying, pushy or demanding? How do I get him off my back? I already have more than enough work, and -- as a believer in the Golden Rule -- I'm not going to put this pressure on a leader in Tulsa. It is not just a matter of just letting someone "sit in" on a meeting. Believe me, it's not that simple.
3. We live in the Communications Age, the Computer Age. I can recruit someone in Seattle and talk to him just as quickly as I can talk to my neighbor. Phone contact, email, websites, and faxes operate at the speed of light. Mailed newsletters take only a day or two longer to reach New York than to reach across town.
All things considered, I want you to think of your guy in Tulsa as the first dealer in his state. He might meet some locals and maybe he'll be invited to their functions. That will be okay. But let's not rush it.
There are exceptions to all these points. You can relate a story about someone who was helped and nothing went wrong. But don't say my points are not valid ... even if your original point of view was different. If you say, "yes, but," I'll fall back on my years of experience.
People with very small goals might be better off with a local sponsor. But people who want to be Key and Master Managers ... people who want to make full or part time careers with EcoQuest ... can be recruited from anywhere.
The quality of a sponsor ... and the caring ... DOES matter, but where he lives does not matter in the way you think. Most of us sign up with the first person who sells us on EcoQuest and we hope for good sponsorship. But whether it works out that way, we cannot be certain.
We're not obliged to sign up with the first person who excites us about EcoQuest, but that's what we typically do. It's stressful when a prospect is approached from two directions at once. But once sponsorship is decided, your sponsor and upline are like the family you have been born into. You stay there and make the most of your circumstances. If you become unhappy with your sponsor, the best thing to do is to vow that you will do better with your own people.
I don't like it that some people sit at home and make 100 phone calls a day without taking into consideration how they will help the next five people they recruit in Charlotte, Chicago, Costa Mesa, Clovis, and Calgary. But it's a permitted strategy. I'm not going to encourage this kind of recruiting by setting their people with meeting givers in all of these locations. It would make a sad situation worse. [Note: Some aggressive recruiters DO help their remote people. Don't misunderstand what I just wrote.]
The Law of the Jungle eventually prevails. The people who can figure out EcoQuest and make it happen are going to survive. The ones that need their hand held are going to fail.
EcoQuest offers such a broad umbrella of training that this whole email is almost unnecessary. We have conference calls, Success Institutes, website support, emails from the company, meetings and seminars in all parts of the company, and so forth. If a guy needs a meeting in Tulsa he should give it himself. He'll learn more and further his career more that way.
Here's the truth:
Most of your career is spent with your downline,
not with your upline.
Sincerely,
Bob Giddens
