"I know that in Network Marketing, 'the only way to fail is to quit.' But I’m having trouble convincing people in my Network about that. How do I get them to stay involved long enough to start seeing some success?"

     This is one of those truly great "Great Questions" that comes up again and again, and there are lots of great ways to answer it. Making sure your people are motivated by helping them stay clear on what their own personal goals are . . . making sure they have the tools they need and know how to use them . . . making sure their efforts are supported by 3-way calls and meetings until they’ve got their "sea-legs" securely under them - all these are sound approaches. But there’s another answer -- one that’s perhaps more basic and essential. Let’s take a nuts-n-bolts, run-the-numbers, practical look at the conditions you’ve got to create for your people to get involved and stay involved.

     There are two things which prevent most Networkers from achieving success: (1) they don’t make $300 per month quickly enough, and (2) their downline doesn’t either!

Surprised? You’re not alone.

     But the truth is that $300 is the income-earning threshold below which there is no Network Sales Organization - because there are simply no Networkers to make one.

     People who make $300 a month in this business stick around. People who don’t ... don’t. It’s that simple.

Networking Enemy #1 : Attrition

     No one in this profession likes to talk about attrition. Why Not? Because it undermines the profession’s primary positive benefit that we recite in our prospecting routines. You know the rap: "You sponsor 10 people, and they sponsor 10 people, and they . . . and pretty soon . . ."

     Now, how successful would you be as a prospector if you said instead: "You sponsor 10 people, and then 9 drop out, and then the one who’s left sponsors 10 people and nine of THEM will drop out, and then . . ."

     Doesn’t sound like much of a positive pitch, now, does it? But it is the truth, or at least, it has been for most Networkers.

     Statistically, attrition rates in Networking average about 80 to 90% per year. That means 8 or 9 out of every 10 distributors drop out of their organizations (and most out of networking altogether) within a year or less of signing up. Factually, that’s no different than mainstream business startups, where 8 or 9 out of 10 fails within the first year!

     But what really hurts is that 80 to 90% of your efforts are lost . . . before they’ve had the chance to be successful. As Dayle Maloney says, "The problem with most Network Marketers is that they quit before payday."

     But what causes this drop-out rate? And what can be done about it?

     Ask open-ended questions like that and you’re bound to get long, equally open-ended answers.

     CEOs and distributors alike have given us all sorts of philosophies on why distributors leave our profession. But to find the truth, let’s rephrase the question:

     At what point do Networkers NOT drop out of their organization?

     Specifically, how many dollars per month in compensation does an MLMer have to earn before a high percentage does NOT drop out? Just about all we spoke with answered ‘$300 to $400 a month, sustained for at least 2 or 3 months.’

     And "by when" do they have to make that amount? 6 to 9 months is best, with 1 year being the longest time allotted. And if they don’t? They leave the organization at a rate of 80 to 90% per year.

     And if they do achieve $300 a month? They stay on board and usually become even more successful.

     So why don’t most Networkers ever get to the $300 per month level?

     Answer: Poor prospecting and sponsoring, lack of knowledge about this industry and how Network Marketing really works, all of which leads to unrealistic expectations.

     The common "pie in the sky, get rich quick" approach can set up your new distributor for failure almost immediately, because the truth is that 98% of all Networkers DO NOT EVER reach those soaring heights of success and certainly not within just a year.

     This creates a "lottery" mentality that in turn creates delusional dreams about what this business has to offer . . . and then dashes them.

     We have a common misconception in this business that $300 is such small potatoes, it’s not even worth mentioning.

     There’s the wonderful story about a man who went into the business with the goal of making $300 a month. Not $10,000 or $20,000. Just $300 a month.

     The man achieved that goal fairly easily and stayed at that $300 income level for a number of years. He didn’t seem very ambitious so he was asked about this.

     As it turned out, the man had taken his initial $300 and accelerated the mortgage payment on his home, paying it off in record time. He then used his free-n-clear equity to buy a second property, rented it out, and applied the "extra" $300 in the same manner he had with his own house. In less than 5 years, he ended up owning 5 income properties and was virtually financially set for the rest of his life. All by virtue of the $300 a month he had earned in Networking.

Enter the $300 Solution

     Now what would happen if you told your downline (or yourself) that the first step to MLM success is to get to that $300 a month level within 6 to 9 months or even a year? What would happen to their expectations now?

     What would happen if you told them the real truth about this business: when a distributor reaches a monthly compensation of $300 per month he/she will not drop out! This is a point of no return!

     When they get to that $300 level, you and/or your group MUST recognize and acknowledge their level of achievement. After all, in this recognition business, $300 a month is a "rite of passage." Call it a coming of age and celebrate it like a birthday. This sets up a great expectation for your entire group.

     Imagine for a moment that you told your downline that the amount necessary to achieve the no-going-back level was $2000 instead of the real $300 level? The $300 milestone would go by unnoticed, as their expectation is $2000 for the first level of real success. But share the $300 Solution with them and make a public celebration out of every distributor achieving this level, and they will not drop out, because they have learned to expect that distributors earning $300 monthly do not quit. Once they learn the truth about this business, they will operate within that truth! It will become the law of nature in Network Marketing Sales.

     Note also the difference in their attitude when they achieve only $150 per month.

     Within the old paradigm of "getting rich", $150 would have left them feeling like (and therefore being!) a failure.

     Now, when they reach $150, they’ll say, "I’m half-way home!" What a difference!

     So, how do we get to that magical $300 per month benchmark? You and your downline are half-way there already, because you are now armed with the knowledge of the $300 Solution

     If you want more of your people to stick with it and with you, too inject the $300 Solution into your teaching and training routine. Don’t be afraid of scaring off those "heavy hitters". Those folks will quickly see the virtue of a system that has hundreds and hundreds of part-time Networkers all earning enough to STAY IN BUSINESS.