Recently I conducted a survey on Network Marketing and what people think of the industry. I received some interesting information. I will be sharing the results in several upcoming blog posts.
This was a simple survey with only 31 responding; however the consensus was that 65.4% of those surveyed had, or is having, a positive experience with Network Marketing. What I found even more interesting is that there were 29 different companies mentioned by the 31 participants.
The entire purpose of the survey and the additional information that I am gathering is for research for an upcoming book that I will be writing. You see, I am an Independent Distributor of Mia Bella candles and I LOVE my business, the products, and my team. However, every time I turn around someone has some negative comment to make about Network Marketing as a whole. This is VERY frustrating to those of us that have legitimate businesses and I think being stereotyped is one of the hardest things I have had to deal with since I started my own business.
I have been in the business now for over a year. I have discovered that the majority of ALL negativity comes from people that joined a company because they thought they were going to get rich quick as if a magic wand had been waved over their heads instead of having to WORK to earn their riches.
The bottom line is, it works IF you work it.
I am considering the topic of specific companies for my next blog, but I need to read between a few lines first.
While doing research for my book, Don't Fall In Love With A Corporation; It Can Not Love You Back, I have found that way too many of us idenitify ourselves by our careers. What happens when you are impacted by corporate downsizing if your identity is that of your career? Yes, I realize a professional can move on to another corporation and remain in corporate America, however what if that is not your desire?
What if you want to take the risk of not getting back into corporate America and start your own business? How do you do that if you don't know what your identity is outside of corporate America? Even family and friends identify us by what we do. I'm known as the small town girl that left small town USA to "make something out of myself" in corporate America. Some even call me "a wheel", which still cracks me up.
Leaving corporate America, no matter what the reason, can be a traumatizing event so it is my desire to be sensitive to those people as they find their new identities. I would like to motivate others to believe that they can do better; that this situation can actually be a blessing. The corporation is not the enemy, it is your catalyst!
For this tip I will use mobile phone service as the negotiation example.
If you are looking to lower your monthly cost for your mobile phone service the first thing you should do is look at the history of your current account to get a base line for where you are and where you need to be. You need to know what you have spent over the last year.
Now that you know your base line spend make a list of all of the services that you require such as free nights and weekends, unlimited week day minutes, call waiting, and etc.
Once you have a clear understanding of your base line spend and your needs start making a list of the companies that offer these things. Next take the list and start contacting those companies! You may be thinking, I like my current provider, I have no desire to change. No problem! Get your offers from several companies and then go back to your current provider and say, listen I love my service from your company; however I can not justify paying xyz% more to stay with you when I can switch and save money. More than likely they will see things your way and do whatever it takes to keep you as a customer.
You should know that these companies have retention departments with the sole responsibility of retaining current customers.
Remember, NEVER tell a company what you are currently paying! You may be paying $200 a month currently and they may be able to offer you $100 a month, but will possibly offer you a plan for $180 with the premise that you are getting a better deal than you currently have...just not the best deal.
Some companies will even pay your early cancellation fees in order to gain your business. This usually comes in the form of a rebate.
In conclusion, you can use this same strategy with your residentual local and long distance services as well.
Not all people are born negotiators, that is why we have different personalities (some passive some aggressive) so with this in mind I, a known negotiator from birth, am setting out to help all of those non negotiators out there.
Tip #1 Negotiating The Purchase Of An Automobile
Did you know that there are questions that an automobile dealer asks you just to find out how much you know about negotiating? Did you know there is ONE questions that you can ask over and over to get the best deal possible?
The questions the dealer will ask you: 1) How much car can you afford? What are you looking to spend? 2) What monthly payment are you looking for? 3) Do you have a trade in?
The ONE question you should respond with is, what does that have to do with the price of the car? You see, when you ask a dealer for the price of a car that should be answered with an exact answer. If the car is twenty thousand dollars, then the car is twenty thousand dollars. So when the dealer says, what are you looking to spend? Your response should be a simple, what does that have to do with the price of the car? What are you looking for in a monthly payment? What does that have to do with the price of the car? Do you have a trade in? What does that have to do with the price of the car?
Dealers make money on car purchases in many different ways so if they can not make it in one area they will make it up in another. For example, if you answer the dealers question, what are you looking to spend, the dealer will know what price to quote you. Believe me, that price will include a handsome profit. When they ask, what payment are you looking for, they are trying to find out your comfort level with a payment and will work the interest level around that figure that YOU gave them. Finance companies give automobile dealers a percentage of the financing. When they ask, what are you trading in, they are again trying to manipulate the figures to their profitable advantage. Have you ever traded in a car and thought, wow, they did not allow me much on my car? Do you know why? Because they already know what they can sell your trade in for and are figuring their profits prior to you even making the deal.
Do not misunderstand me, if automobile dealers did not make a profit they would not be in business. This is not about putting a dealer out of business, this is about a win - win for you and the dealer. The dealer makes an acceptable profit and you get an acceptable price for the car. You must understand that automobile sales people are most often paid on commissions based on the profits that they generate for the dealer so the higher the profit the bigger their paycheck. I would dare to say that if you called a dozen dealers and asked, would you rather make a percentage of something than nothing they would all say something.
Associated Press May. 31, 2007 DALLAS - Dell Inc. said Thursday that earnings fell slightly in preliminary first-quarter results, and the computer maker planned to lay off more than 8,000 employees over the next year as part of an ongoing restructuring.
I have been speaking to some of my online friends recently about corporate downsizing and I posed the question, could it happen to you? Boy, was I shocked at the number of people that have the same mentality that I once had..."won't happen to me, I have job security, they need me". Dell, is a profitable company. Do you think those 8000 people thought for one minute that their jobs were in jeopardy? No, probably not, they're in love with a corporation that can not love them back.
As mentioned in one of my first blogs, I am not bashing corporate America; however I would like for people to wake up and smell the...hmmm...tempted to put a bad word here, but I'll just say, WAKE UP! There will always be a need for people in the corporate world, but if you're in that world you better be looking out for number one no matter how well the business seems to be doing.
Wishing you all much success in whichever field you choose!
The number one leading CEO based on company performance makes less than the one's that have shown no improvement, a decrease in earnings, or very little improvement.
Jeffrey P. Bezos of Amazon.com leads all executives based on delivering the most value for the money. Bezos' annual salary is 1 million per year and has shown a 32% annual return to the shareholders. What is wrong with this picture? Nothing really! What we have here is a man that does not exhibit corporate greed and thus, I believe, is the reason for his company's success.
Notice I said, what is your company's CEO worth? Not, what does your company's CEO get paid?
Scott Decarlo wrote an article Top Paid CEO's showing the salaries (including stock options - exercised - and all other benefits) of several CEO's of publicly traded companies. The article mentions: 1) Oracle chief Larry J. Ellison - $183 Million (REMINDER, THIS IS ANNUAL, IN OTHER WORDS, EARNINGS FOR ONE YEAR that we are referring to here) 2) Frederic M. Poses of Trane - $127 Million 3) Aubrey K. McClendon of Chesapeake Energy - $117 Million 4) Angelo R. Mozilo of Countrywide Financial - $103 Million 5) Howard D. Schultz of Starbucks - $99 Million
Now this is one of the problems that I have with these facts, people blame the CEO for making these outrageous salaries when in fact nobody but the Board of Directors is to blame. They are the ones that make the choices for the CEO's and they are the ones that offer the packages to them. The CEO's are not to blame, hell if someone offered me a hundred million dollars to run a company that I knew absolutely nothing about, I'd take it. Why not? There are no repercussions if I fail. What ruin my reputation? I may not be able to get another CEO position? What a shame! I'll be sitting on some island somewhere drinking a Manhattan after I've laughed all the way to the bank. In all seriousness, I'd like to think I would take the moral high road, but "they" say, everyone has a price.
So you see, it is not the CEO's that are idiots, they are geniuses! The companies' Board of Directors are the idiots! They bring the CEO on board and say, this is what you get paid even if you do nothing, make things worse, or heaven forbid make the company a huge success.
I worked for a company that paid a CEO millions and the company was in worse shape when he left than when he came on board to "turn things around". To this day I hear people refer to him as the idiot that created the downfall of that company. But, is he really? He's probably sitting on a mountain top somewhere enjoying the view from his multi million dollar home, so is he really the idiot?
The sad part of all of this is the "peons" (I was one for YEARS) in the corporate world have no input whatsoever about these decisions. The board of directors make the decisions and the rest of the company is forced to accept it or move on. But how many of us move on? Not many. The majority of us stay and complain about the incompetent idiot, but yet continue to draw that corporate pay check UNTIL the new CEO brings in their own leaders (and I use that term lightly). At which point the new leaders begin to "clean house" by replacing us (the true loyalist) with people that they know that could care less about the company as this is just another stepping stone for them.
