Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas, where you can break the bank, or end up broke, or where you dress for success yet you can lose your shirt on one hand of poker.

Listen to the audio version of this article here:

In a casino, there’s a rule everyone knows, that “the ‘house’ always wins” and yet they gamble anyway, just for fun! But, is it fun losing it all anywhere else in life than the casino floor? Why would we take this philosophy anywhere outside the Disneyland of win, lose or draw?

Would you take uncalculated business risks with the precious, few marketing dollars you’ve managed to allocate, investing in things that maybe will bring you new business, putting it all on “red 7” and praying “daddy needs a new pair of shoes?

I didn’t think so. Neither would I.

So why, then, would you gamble on pitching to a prospect you don’t know that well, or that you’ve talked to for only a minute or so? That’s what you’re doing when you start detailing the bullet-point features and benefits of what you’d like to sell them.

This is what you’re doing when you pitch, pitch, pitch to anyone who’ll let you sit and talk, talk, talk. But because you don’t know anything about odds in sales, you pack it all into your pitch and you fail, fail, fail!

But here’s a story I’ll tell you about someone who compelled me to delineate the ins and outs of just how he failed to get me to buy, by taking a gamble that I would like his pitch. And how he kept betting on that pitch instead of me, a sure thing, and lost it all.

And, better yet, I’ll tell you why, so you can see, not only what he did wrong, but what he actually should have done, the thing that would have actually gotten me to buy.

And I really would have too!

You see, WHY he failed is also the reason WHY people buy when they do, and WHY you fail a majority of the time and “the house always wins” the time you don’t mind this one, cardinal rule.

Why do salespeople “bet it all on Red 7” when odds are against it?

I’m not going to lie. I don’t have the answer to this question, but I have some logic, a couple of rules of thumb and a short story about it that will make the question most irrelevant, as the real question should be, “What SHOULD you bet on to succeed?”

I’m not a gambler. Never have been. I can’t seem to put up any dollar amount of so-called “play money” that I don’t mind risking, a philosophy a good friend of mine who likes to gamble told me, who also, incidentally, wins a lot of the time.

Not me. I’ve always tended to lose.

But this gamble was taken by a telemarketer way back in the late 1990s, who got a hold of me by phone and had me in the sales pitch equivalent of a wrestler’s “headlock” trying to “pin me” into submission to buy. It wasn’t that he was using force, though, so much as the fact that he was taking a gamble that I was interested or had use for what he was pitching about his product.

In the 1990s, cell phones were new technology and very few people had them. You basically had a landline telephone on which you had to have a “Long Distance Carrier” for non-local phone calls, for which you paid so many cents per minute. The industry was as competitive then as the mobile phone industry is today, in fact, it was way more vicious than it is today.

There were three main brands of carriers: AT&T (the top brand) and then two competitors, MCI and Sprint. It was quite a cut-throat industry, way more than cellular is today, and you would constantly get telemarketing calls, with salespeople trying to convince you to switch, giving you the best deal around.

Having prior worked as a long-distance telephone operator and for the local phone company as well, I had a lot of knowledge about this, something this guy hadn’t accounted for. I had some time, so I decided to have a little fun and see how good he actually was.

And if you’ve been following my writings, recordings and training, you know I also like to hear pitches. It’s a great investment of time.

Would you like to hear how he did and what I did in response?

How I shut down a salesman’s pitch and then taught him a valuable lesson in sales

I picked up the phone one afternoon at my desk and a young man was on the other end, obviously calling from a telemarketing center. He wasn’t so “scripty” that I wouldn’t give him the time of day the way I grew impatient and even hung up on some robotic, script-reading phone salespeople in the past.

He was warm and pleasant and asked if he could have a minute of my time, that he was calling from MCI long distance and wanted to ask me a few questions about my current carrier. I thought he was off to a good start and could communicate well so, I deemed it a valuable investment of my time. Who knows? Maybe I’d learn something, right?

His only question was to ask me who my current carrier was, to which I responded that it was AT&T. He immediately went into his MCI pitch about all the things that made MCI better. But they were all based on price and how much savings I could enjoy by switching.

I was a little saddened by this since he didn’t make any effort to prospect me outside of asking who my current carrier was and I knew he blew the sale with me right there. But I let him hang himself with just a little more rope I gave him to really dig in on his pitch, which was really to see if maybe he may have gotten a clue and figured out what was wrong.

He didn’t. So, then this happened…

How did what this phone salesman didn’t know about me make him lose a possible sale?

All he asked me, mind you, was WHO my current carrier was.

Had he asked me WHY I was with my current carrier, he would have found out the wealth of information from me that was a veritable diamond mine of my “go-buttons” and his only possibility of getting me to switch! (which admittedly and even to this day I contend he could have done despite the following…)

First, what he didn’t know (and I didn’t feel compelled to volunteer) was that I had once worked for MCI, not for the company, but for a data and teleservices division of American Express in Tucson, Arizona. This group provided long-distance operator services for MCI at the time.

Yes, I was MCI long-distance operator number 680 back in the day!

What my training as an operator had done was educate me on the entire industry, how long-distance service works, and what the various companies could and couldn’t provide. And, in training, we were taught that AT&T was still king when it came to the types of services only they could deliver. And they were around forever, before the law stepped in to break up their monopoly a decade or two before.

This isn’t what I withheld from him, however, while he was talking, not letting me get a word in edgewise, telling me about the tremendous savings he calculated I would get, frustrated (I could tell) that he seemed not to be getting through to me and that I “just didn’t get it” in terms of value.

So I let him finish. It was finally quiet

Then I told him this:

“I totally see that there would be a lot of savings and I want you to know I appreciate that you’re looking out for my bottom line but, I have to tell you, I’ve been with AT&T for several years, and I use them because they have the best service out of all of them, and I’m willing to pay more for it.”

Now it got REAL quiet. And then quieter. And still quieter…

I could almost hear him thinking. But what I was listening to, I realized, was his “thinking” short-circuiting. I was breaking down his “sales machinery” and getting through to the guy himself.

Yes, I could feel his disappointment, mostly in himself, as if he had just almost won a race and was overtaken at the last second in a heart-break defeat. But, strangely enough, I knew I had broken through.

I didn’t give him the sale, but this one thing I did give him likely made him thousands!

Now, I’m not saying I went easy on him, but I wasn’t rude either. I gained a few takeaways from this experience and left him with a bunch too, and I made doubly sure he would cash in on it on the next customer and every one after that!

In this short call, he probably got the entirety of my full-length prospecting system, the lucky devil! (lol) But, seriously, I’m sure he took it to the bank in this and all future jobs he took after.

What did I say? I merely reviewed the call with him and told him where he went wrong. In his defense, it wasn’t entirely his fault. He was a good “salesman type” and had the right personality and outgoing sense required of such a job. But he was working with a company whose only way of competing with AT&T was in price, or at least that’s what they hung their entire marketing campaign on and what they were telling their salesmen to say.

I let him know that he needed to find out a lot more from people and that THEY would tell HIM how to sell THEM. If you ask people enough about their relationship to a product like yours, you start finding all the answers.

Scripts are never necessary beyond that. And pushy, “hard-sell” (poor excuse for, hardly selling at all!), pile driving your pitch home never did anyone any good anywhere, even if you were selling pile drivers to pile driver operators who had broken pile drivers. Even THEY might not buy from such a sales rep.

He appreciated the advice and I can tell he was going to make it. I know for sure he never made the same mistake again.

And I can pretty much guarantee, he never “gambled” again and instead went ahead in the direction of a sure thing in each sale he attempted thereafter.

A jackpot of sales advice coming from the sales gambler who lost big…

The house doesn’t always have to win in life. You don’t have to play.

Just don’t gamble is the moral of this story. Learn how to prospect the right way and you increase the odds in your favor exponentially with each new thing you find out.

You can turn the odds on the house and break the bank. Find out something useful about how the person feels about the general subject matter and survey what types of issues he may have or if he even considers these issues, as I cover in my last two articles “How to Sell to People Who Have Settled for Less and Don’t Want to Change“ and “When You Offer Help But People Aren’t Buying“ all to find out the difference between how he thinks and how you do.

If my telephone sales buddy had just done this, he wouldn’t have pitched a shortcut but would have taken the scenic route to get me on the same page. Only then could he have brought up his pitch and sold me.

However, if he had done it exactly right, he wouldn’t have had to do the asking.

I would have asked HIM what he could do for me and plead my case to him for purchasing the service. Honest, it’s true.

Leave the gambling in the casinos, bet on the sure thing when you sell.

I can’t promise you’ll win at cards or craps, but I can tell you there’s a “can’t-lose” jackpot waiting for you when get out there and prospect.

Maybe you “have to be in it to win it” to cash in at craps and roulette, but you’ll have to stop gambling altogether on your sales to win big.

Odds are in your favor you will. Just ask my accidental apprentice!

Want to become better at prospecting and selling in 1 hour? Get hold of my 1-hour Accelerated Audio Training “Stop Pitching and Make Way More Sales” here!

“No, I’m good.”

“I’ll just learn live with it”

“Well, that’s life!”

Assuredly all of these are examples of rebuttals you may have heard from prospects in your years of peddling your wares to people whose aversion to your pitch puzzle and confuse you.

Listen to the audio version of this article here:

Something struck me about something a colleague said to me over lunch the other day.

She said, “people have JUST no need of change these days” when talking about the “next generation” of people she’s met in public and worked with lately.

It resonated with me instantly but, I didn’t ask myself why because I already knew exactly why this happens. I realized, however, most “sellers” don’t realize this thing I have “always known” and apply in my prospecting and selling. It’s one of those things I knew but sort of “didn’t know I know” it.

That left me no choice but to write this short article about it.

Did you ever try to give someone something they didn’t want, try to tell them something they weren’t willing to hear or make your best effort to get them to make a beneficial change only to be outright refused?

Ever been denied a sale by someone who obviously needs you or what you provide?

Has anyone ever refused you on something you offered to markedly change their situation for the better?

It would almost be fine if it just ended with that and if that’s all we had to overcome.

But what of those denials when you did everything right, when you’ve had a textbook discussion with someone, with them tracking with you the entire time, only to have them turn you down despite it having been “so obvious they were about to close?”

How about those brilliant pitches you’ve done that didn’t miss a beat and even had your prospect intrigued and engrossed in conversational rapport, only to end up with your parting ways?

Those are the real heartbreaks, aren’t they?

What conclusions did you draw from this?

As I mentioned in my prior article “When You Offer Help But People Aren’t Buying” sellers often conclude, “you can’t win with some people” to explain away such types of sales failures.

But please understand that this doesn’t make you a failure. It simply makes you someone who doesn’t know the exact reason why people refuse you when they do.

And it’s not a lack of understanding of technique. It’s a lack of understanding of prospects (i.e. people) and what makes them tick, especially regarding the subject matter of what you do and what help you can offer. As I discussed in that prior article, helping them makes sense to you but isn’t yet in the cards in their estimation for reasons you didn’t find out about.

It’s the difference between how each of you thinks on the subject which blocks results. They don’t think like you do… yet!

But, the good news is that it’s something you can understand and navigate around it if you just learn what I’ve observed to be the true cause of “people saying no” at the close: LIMITS!

When you sell someone, you’re asking them to make a change but, did you ever think that maybe they’re not looking for one?

“You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you can get what you need…”

Immortal words of Mick Jagger fronting the Rolling Stones. A morsel of “wisdom” many fans have probably taken to heart. But, I can tell you from experience, not to the bank, I’m certain.

“… and, if you can’t be, with the one you love, honey, love the one you’re with” echoes in refrain the voices of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash indelibly in people’s minds which, quite possibly has influenced many to take what they’ve been given and not wish or hope for anything more.

And, when taken in proper context, there’s no argument as to whether it’s good advice when it comes to a long-term mate, the implied simple meaning of the lyrics. In the eyes of the beholder, it could be the best advice ever or a good rule of thumb. But, even then, is it really a good one?

In absence of understanding of the opposite sex, it’s logically become a guiding principle for some.

Similar colloquialisms pepper our culture as “take what you can get” or “don’t be someone you’re not” or even “know your limits” (the worst offender of sales everywhere, incidentally), and these often act as limiters to people getting any farther along toward an ideal situation in any given circumstance of their life.

Then there’s the old “what can you do?” or “play the cards you’ve been dealt” proposition.

From what I’ve noticed in the thousands of interactions with prospects I’ve had, people tend to adopt these “truisms” in a moment of epiphany about some little thing and be affected so profoundly that it becomes their everything.

But, adopting these “life’s little advices” can come with the danger of allowing people to never wish for better than they have in all other areas of life, and block them from receiving help with things that would have elevated them into far better conditions.

And this reveals a leading line of reasoning or justification for limits people set for themselves…

A little thing I call “SETTLING”.

Who wouldn’t want to make a change for the better? Oh, wait… everyone!

Signs of “settling” are everywhere.

Shooting for your “choice college” and settling for “the one you got into”, wanting to pursue an art career but taking a job to “fall back on” and dating or marrying “within your league” to name a few of the most common. Deciding against taking a promotion because of your own doubts and insecurities. I’m sure you can think of countless others.

You’ve likely noticed this before but, have you ever wondered why?

Well, I did. Always have. It’s blocked me from selling one time too many for me not to get intensely curious, and I’d be surprised if it hasn’t done the same for you.

And so I figured it out. “Settling” (when it comes to your prospective buyers) is a manifestation of perceived limits people have set which turn out to be totally penetrable if you know the following…

I keep mentioning my last article because it covers the subject of people perceiving your help to be a swindle. because they have “no place to go” beyond where they are. But, if you examine it closely, their opposition to the idea that you could help them is just a manifestation of these limits they’ve set, based on their basic lack of understanding of the subject you’re discussing.

In other words, you’re pitching when you should be (1) consulting their understanding (or lack of it) and, (2) adjusting and expanding their understanding of the general subject in the direction of getting them to think the way you do.

That lack of understanding has to do with, once again, an optimum state, condition or way of being. Not knowing the true potential of something, and for lack of understanding of basic purpose, structure and function, people are led to draw conclusions that, on that subject, they have already achieved “all there is” to be had. And that means they think “this is the way it is” and that’s all.

And that, in itself, is THE limit.

Understand that if you’re convinced the ceiling is five feet from the floor, you’ll never even try to reach for six or more feet above you. And, you won’t think much of people who talk about eight-foot ceilings and multiple-storied buildings.

That is the anatomy of what I lovingly call “settlers” in my prospecting adventures, escapades and general selling shenanigans.

I don’t care if it’s someone’s state of health, state of mind or state of their roof, car or iPhone.

When you make an offer to improve these in some way for them, in absence of full understanding of purpose, structure, function, mechanics, etc., etc., you are met with a resounding, if sometimes insulting “NO!”

People don’t seem to need, want, desire, clamor for, or, in general, have any interest in changing. They don’t even want to discuss it. But if you can expand their view of the general subject, the good news is, not only is the “sale” easy, it’s unnecessary. This is prospecting at its finest.

So, how do you sell to ‘settlers’ who balk at change?

My friend brought up an interesting point, one which was worth exploring in depth and which I cover in great detail of how to handle in my special audio training hour and transcript, “Stop Pitching and Make Way More Sales.“

Her point being “people just aren’t so in need of change these days” and mine being along the lines of figuring out just why that is so we can DO something about it. By bringing it up this way, she reminded me that people, when confronted with this attitude, tend to back off of or abandon the sale altogether, all for the lack of knowledge of its anatomy.

And, oh, does it have one alright!

What can you do? While it’s not the full rundown of everything to do, which I cover in my more extensive audio training, there is a little advice I can give you here to point you in the right direction…

Realize first, it’s not that they don’t want change or wouldn’t. It’s that they don’t believe in change or that it’s possible from thier limited beliefs on the subject, beliefs which MUST be expanded before change can be discussed.

Their view of the situation MUST be expanded to include a wider spectrum and broader parameters of the mechanics of the general subject.

To a potential Chiropractic patient for instance, they must become aware of the purpose of the human body, its structure, function and, most importantly, its purpose. Once someone understands this, a Chiropractor has someone who thinks like he or she does, and therefore limits fall away and a person practically (and quite usually) asks for a solution.

If you install or replace roofing, do mold remediation, repair automobiles or fix computers, your prospects are no different. It’s a difference of base understanding of the subject matter between you and them that places the barriers to the sale, with their limits set based on their limited knowledge.

Enlightenment of how these things (human bodies, the mind, roofing, mold, car engines and computers) should work, their purpose and optimum structure and function open your prospects up to way more than listening to your sales pitch.

It expands their view of the situation they’re in, showing them there is someplace to go beyond where they are now, and THAT is what sparks the need for change. And your work with what I am suggesting here is what will fuel and drive it forward toward a close you won’t even have to make.

For, if you do it right, there is no pitching necessary, and the person will be asking you for advice and recommendations, closing YOU on helping them.

And who would say “NO!” to that? All you need to do at that point is learn how to say “YES!”

I’m confident you can at least handle that!

For more information, please visit the bookstore here.

Right?

We’ve all heard (or even said), “you just can’t win with some people” and believed it.

But did that morsel of information ever resolve a single “impossible” sale?

Not even close. It’s more of an explanation than a solution. So, what is it worth to even expend the energy to utter the words?

Listen to the audio version of this article here:

We don’t want an explanation. We need a solution! But how can you possibly make the impossible sale when it seems so true that you just can’t win with someone?

There is a good reason this happens and, as with anything, understanding the true cause can open the door to changing the situation. And, factually, the self-proclaimed “helpless” can be helped if you understand just a couple of basics about it.

There are ways to turn this situation around if you spot for yourself this one thing I’ve observed in over 50K people I’ve interacted with and observed. I’ve overcome it and so can you for learning the following…

This is an age-old problem, not germane or exclusive to sales…

People have been seeking a solution to this for ages, longer than product sales have existed. Or, shall we say, ever since anyone had to convince or persuade anyone else to do anything, believe in something or subscribe to some point of view other than their current own.

Many theories, philosophies and so-called “methods” have been forwarded, suggested, tried and even enforced over the last hundreds, even thousands of years.

Whether it was some prophet asking people to understand a new way of living or being (or ordering it by decree), a leader trying to get the support of his followers or expand his membership, an influencer seeking subscriptions to some philosophical view or to incite action, there have been these methods of persuasion.

Such methods have ranged from “persuasive speaking” to positive suggestion, from subliminal messaging to outright hypnosis. And from “power sales talk” to idle small talk designed to create rapport with and “positive influence” over a prospect. Even bald-faced lies, propaganda and trickery. All to varying result, but none sweepingly successful by a long shot.

Yet, All have led to at least SOME success.

But no one ever seems to expect to have to “sell” someone on helping them, and when someone doesn’t want help, thinks help isn’t in the cards or deems you a swindle or cheat for offering it, something is up for sure, whether you see it or not.

There is something there to be understood and it’s quite simple actually.

Let me explain…

How does pitching or offering help to a prospect make you seem like a crook, a liar or just plain crazy?

Easy.

It’s so simple, you not only missed it, but you may feel a little foolish not having thought of it. I know I felt that way when I realized it.

It has to do with something I call “optimum condition” and people’s varying views of what that means.

And by “varying” I mean from person to person but, mostly the difference of definition between your prospect to you.

When a Chiropractor, for instance, is dealing with a patient to whom he is about to recommend treatment, the patient having a skewed view of what “optimum” means (i.e. a view different than the doctor’s) a roadblock to the sale is imposed.

That’s kind of obvious but, why?

Well, think about it. If the patient thinks “optimum” to be the state his health is in now, what does that make your offer of help?

Outside of wellness or healthcare, what about something more everyday in nature? What of a car, a computer or even a state of mind? How about a machine, an appliance or a mechanical device?

Logically, if you don’t know how something should operate in its optimum, if you don’t know its true purpose and what it’s fully supposed to do, you not only won’t know how to fix it, you likely won’t know there is anything wrong with it in the first place.

And, if there is “nothing wrong” with it, whatever it is, what does that make any offer of help to make it better?

Viewing it this way, we can most certainly see how our best, most genuine offers of help, profitable to us or not, can be perceived as a scam.

Do you see it now?

If your body, in your perception or from your level of understanding, is “already at its optimum (the best it can get), what would you think of anyone offering to help you with it.? You would not only reject help outright, you would think the “offerer” of help a thief, a liar, or, at the very least, completely bananas!

Wouldn’t you?

Haven’t you?

Can you recall a time you were on the receiving end of this and concluded it yourself?

Doesn’t it make you wonder whether the person was that bonkers after all?

It’s mindboggling to think about but, I think you will find it checks out.

Help doesn’t mean the same thing in every context and thinking so blocks sales…

“Help” turns out to be in the eyes of the beholder, and is also a situational proposition.

This is the most fundamental part of it that, actually, when you understand it thoroughly, opens the door to someone developing interest in it where they may have had little or none before.

NOW, we’re talking sales advice here!

It’s so fundamental and basic because of the fact that there is no blanket, across-the-board view of it. It’s simply situational in nature.

And it has anatomy…

While I won’t get into detail, and whereas I break it down into very useful components in my forthcoming audio training hour on the subject, just understanding the general nature of it here can markedly increase your sales by sharpening your powers of observation of where someone is at on the subject on which you’re trying to influence them. And this little “help” conundrum is just the key to figuring that out.

People find help valuable, needed, and desired in some situations while it’s unnecessary, unwanted or even absurd in others. One may accept or desire help with a flat tire or a marital situation but not help with a health problem, mental anguish or even a financial one.

Let’s take things from your prospect’s perspective.

Not understanding the subject surrounding your problems can lead you to believe there is no way out and this is what we face when we are confronted with someone who doubts our offers of help and why sometimes it is accepted. I cover this in my prospecting training, where I reefer to it, “how to crawl inside the head” of your prospect.

What do you do when someone refuses your help?

The best rule of thumb?

Stop pitching or selling immediately. It’ll go nowhere at best and fast.

And you’d be lucky if it just went nowhere, for there is much lower to go than a mere refusal of your help.

There’s a spiral of decline that travels beyond impossibility, through no longer trusting you, all the way down to thinking you a criminal for even suggesting otherwise than “living with it” or “finding some way to deal with it” in your recommendations.

Here is the importance of systematic prospecting.

Getting a hold of my hour-long, audio training and transcript “Stop Pitching and Make Way More Sales” from the bookstore, you can start to plumb the depths of what it takes to get a prospect in the right state of mind.

This is the importance of what I call the “Screening Process” and how it’s the long, more effective road (not a shortcut) you MUST travel if you want hope of making the sale during your eventual pitch, with the prospect in full agreement with your recommendations and desiring to move forward.

What accomplishes it is what I cover in the training about “getting the person to think like you” before you ever bring up the product, and I very concisely tell you how in that brief training.

It is this that creates people who live better, improve, maintain and prevent, ending up living a wellness lifestyle and wanting to help others do the same. These are the people that work with you to help everyone they know and do it willingly and on their own origination.

Anything less is just that: LESS!

And, this applies to any industry, product, service or ideal someone holds true, right or wrong it may be. Whatever it is you sell, if you can grasp this concept of a person’s view of help and use it to gauge where they are on the subject in general, you will know how far you need to go and how hard you have to work to get them on the same page.

That’s the only time selling works.

If people were to think like you do on the subject, how difficult do you think the sale would be?

The good news is it works EASILY. VERY easily!

So easy, when done right, you don’t have to “sell” or pitch at all.

And, as for the close? Even someone who didn’t think anyone could help them will ask YOU for your help.

All you have to do is sit back and let them.

That’s what a REAL, true, bona fide close is made of. And, it never consisted of anything else.

In lieu of my full-length work on the subject in an upcoming training on overcoming this impossibility people feel about your ability to help them, this short dissertation can actually give you a turnaround of how you work toward your closes, how you qualify people and how far you actually are from the close.

So can my hour-long audio training and transcript, “Stop Pitching and Make Way More Sales”.

But, meanwhile, what can people’s lack of hope give you, best of all?

Ironically, HOPE.

There is hope for the hopeless and knowing you can change it is a most hopeful prospect for you, helping more people, especially these ones who previously didn’t believe and whom you didn’t believe it was possible to convince.

So, go on. Help yourself to what I’ve given you here. I hope it’s helped you.

I have hope it has!

For more information, visit the book store for more training materials on the subject.

NOTE: This article was originally released in 2005 in response to a surge of solicitations I received from MLMers who discovered what I do and who I represent.

Listen to the audio version of this article here:

A recent trend has developed within the Chiropractic sector, a spur off the beaten path of standard practice promotion and expansion strategy, largely due to economic downturn.

While oppressive regulation, declining insurance coverage, and the like can be to blame, purposeful motivations by Chiropractors have become all but non-existent, supplanted by the barest survival strategy.

Defeated by the idea of “supplemental income” is the will to fight for proper compensation.

Hence, an all-out invasion of Multi-Level Marketing (or MLM)* has beset struggling Chiropractors causing a vital problem to be ignored.

It All Starts With Seeming “Good Intentions”

While it can be good financial practice to have diversified sources of income, it’s obvious that one must ensure each source earns profitably. More vital would be the fact that no source should tax or strain any other, i.e. it’s fatal to make a new company you start utilize the resources of your existing one.

Multi-level Marketing, MLM or Network marketing have similar basic structures. In this business model, a distributorship is formed around a product whereby users become distribution points.

The concept is that one profits from his “down-line” meaning the levels of purchase and distribution below his. The larger the magnitude of the network, the larger becomes the profit.

Why Chiropractors and Their Consultants as a Target?

Whereas building a network on individual sales grows one’s network gradually, finding someone who is in contact with multitudes of people or prospects provides more rapid results. It’s on this principle that chiropractors are targeted by health product multi-levels.

It is this intent which has put me and Screening Experts in the watchful cross-hairs of multi-level enthusiasts, with many politely declined, very profitable offers received by me within the last three years alone.

Obviously if one can note the exponential factor of signing up one doctor as a distributor, calculating how many patients he may sign up under him, one would be foolish not to further multiply the product times the number of Chiropractic practices a Chiropractic management, consulting or coaching company, like I and Screening Experts, represent.

Admittedly, it is difficult to ignore the dollar signs.

With the knowledge that this model prolongs the “poor-compensation-for-care” issue, I have resisted such offers to this day and will continue to do so, short of any applicability to our purpose and true practice growth strategy.

This Is Not a Campaign Against MLM or Network Marketing

In all fairness, MLM as a strategy and business-building tool is quite valid, and it’s certain many products so distributed are worthwhile.

As for a supplemental income plan, it can be an easy way to so earn extra potential income.

It is only the idea that a doctor may like the business plan better than the product and tax his practice, using it for distributorship resources, that is brought into question.

Witness the many valid, non-MLM nutritional supplements on the market that can enhance patient care, not to mention setting up a sort of “down-line” that is ripe for referrals.

Why Is the Idea of Residual Income Pressed So Forcefully?

Residual income is a point that is often pressed by the sales pitches for the top multi-level marketed products. While a valid point, it can become twisted into an argument that anyone who has a “nine-to-five” or runs a company (such as a Chiropractic clinic) is a chump for not working smarter.

They argue that such a clinic may earn, but has no residual income. While this may be true in some ways, it is certainly not because there is no profit to be earned by Chiropractors. It is, rather, that such income potential is not recognized.

Every practice, factually, has more residual income potential than any MLM out there just on patient reactivation and referrals alone, let alone services and modalities chiropractors have not yet conceptualized as valuable which could be earning them a great deal more.

Further, if everyone is busy earning income, who will be out there helping the sick become well and keeping the well from becoming sick? Obviously, some professionals need to take responsibility for others, a concept many MLM participants fail to understand.

The True Test That Reveals if a Practice Has Been So Invaded

As for the products themselves, all a doctor or clinic director must do is to examine whether or not his initial interest was factually for the benefit of his patients, or if it was for the geometric progression one visualized in using a patient database to set up a network.

This is the acid test from which you can glean an instant answer, if you can be honest enough with yourself to confront it.

What Can Be Learned From This and Used to Your Advantage?

As for the MLM model itself, it can be learned from and utilized in one’s own sphere.

Imagine having lunch with a friend who says he is suffering from back pain.

You respond, “Evan, I am involved with something that helped me with that exact problem.” Continuing, you enlighten him about a tremendously effective product, formulated from a special ingredient, originating in the plains of the Midwest, which has been nature’s “best kept secret” for better than a century [since 1895].

You explain that it’s not only eliminated the worst of your symptoms, it’s improved your overall health and enjoyment of life and you are revitalized. So much so, you became a distributor, drastically improving your livelihood, happiness and prosperity as well as that of those you know and love.

In trying it himself, he becomes excited too and elects to become a distributor.

Before long, he is spreading the word to his friends, getting them similarly involved. A colossal network of distributors develops a down-line of thousands hence earning you some such title as “Master Director”.

What MLM company is this? Of course, it’s Chiropractic – started by a health guru doctor named “Palmer”, the OG who inspired multitudes of people like you to make it their main pursuit in life, fueled by similar passion.

This is not fiction or delusion.

This is your life’s work and a very successful model of how to promote what you do.

Screening Experts was founded on this principle, of one person receiving a miracle of Chiropractic care and so getting others to do the same.

Calculate what would happen if every patient you have ever treated were to respond this way. You would have it made!

If you still need to do the math, visit the bookstore and order a copy of my definitive manual “How to Recruit and Deploy a Patient Referral Army” to learn how to do this, simply and easily, and how you already have an army working for you that you didn’t even know about.

This is way more contagious than anyone would notice when they have their heads buried in the depressing ledger reflecting, not the injustice of oppressive enemies, but of our own lack of understanding of how to make people think like we do and value it and therefore make more sales, get paid what we’re worth, to do what we do, to live out our purpose.

As I discuss in the “Referral Army” manual and field guide, while you have been distracted by the financial bottom line, people are out in the trenches, taking grenades for lack of training on how to spread the word. And they are dying out there, losing their last ember of passion to help others for such failure.

This army is a “downline” you already had and were too preoccupied to notice.

Stick to What Has Worked for More Than a Century

The answer to the repeated attacks on this brilliant profession has been a steadfast front and communion of doctors standing up for it, ensuring it will endure.

The downtrends of reimbursement are sufficient now to where they can no longer be ignored.

Get the right answers to supplementing income that include getting yourself reimbursed or paid properly and in the correct proportion to the life you restore for your patients.

Do not devalue yourself. You are still the hero you set out to be.

Learn how to prospect and sell properly, and get paid like it. And may you never have the need for “supplemental” income.

There I was, sitting in the Courtyard Marriot conference room in Newburgh, NY, a guest at a meeting of a local MLM** group, feeling confident in my basic purpose to help people with wellness, secure in it being my life’s work, having been invited by someone who insisted I attend and find out about the company after having learned that I work with and had a personal network of thousands of chiropractors.

Except, all the while and despite my “guest prospect” status, I was yet being made to feel like a chump for doing what I do when, instead, I could be “living off of residual income” in amounts far greater than I was already making.

Listen to the audio version of this article here:

No one could seem to understand why I couldn’t get interested in the products this company sold, (instantly, having just found out about them) and wouldn’t immediately jump on board as a distributor, interested in making more money than I could waste as the sole appeal.

Talk about a breakdown in prospecting. But more on that in a minute…

Now, you would think that would be enough to get me to leave. And I would have been completely disinterested and left except for the fact that they had a Diamond-level distributor there from neighboring Eastern Connecticut as the keynote speaker, off whom I couldn’t take my attention.

It was the only thing that made the meeting tolerable.

Now, outside of the fact that, if you’re interested in me for your MLM because of my connections, it would be absurd to then browbeat me for being a schlep for running a successful enterprise, passionately, on my own, to get me, by some twisted if misguided logic, interested in your group. This was not just a prospecting and sales error of the cardinal kind but a total reversal of everything it means to properly sell.

Yet this woman spoke and I listened, interestedly. I looked around. I observed.

And I learned something very valuable which had nothing to do with their business (or mine) per se, a lesson I would take with me and would be a valuable addition to my skill set.

It was a lesson in motivation, passion and purpose and a lesson that is the make-break between making it and not in any business anywhere!

What I learned from sellers who “sold out” on their own purpose…

What did I learn from this one particular meeting and presentation?

Well, it wasn’t what an amazing business it was, nor was it how I could make killer money at it (as I had been told repeatedly by my colleague who brought me there).

And it wasn’t just about this very influential speaker who held my attention and everyone in the room (including the people who were already involved in the business).

It was about the difference between her and my colleague and all the other “lower on the totem pole” reps that were in attendance.

You see, I was riveted at hearing her speak, much the way I am at some of these “Real Estate With No Money Down” seminars I speak about having attended in my audio training recording “Stop Pitching and Make Way More Sales” where I attend them, not because I am interested in real estate or better income, but to see the master sellers at work, learning their methods for free and getting a free lunch to boot!

But it quickly became clear, in looking around the room, that the others were riveted too, only for vastly different reasons.

What I observed and concluded was that they were looking for some trade secret to slip out as she spoke, something they could latch onto that would get them into her league as, indeed, they were QUITE out of her league.

They continued to just stare and listen in awe of her. I really took notice of this. They were drinking in every word and had forgotten all about the guests they had brought.

But, no secret sales technique would ever explain it, despite how many times they heard her speak.

It wasn’t her magic closing lines or charisma that made her a top seller for the company. Sure, they were assets. But it was her passion, her commitment and, most importantly, her PURPOSE!

And that was what I immediately observed to be the difference between HER and THEM, and between MYSELF and THEM: PURPOSE.

She had the same passion for what she does as I have for what I do.

She was selling her PURPOSE and I was busy selling MINE. And the others?

Well, they were SELLING OUT on theirs!

What’s the difference between a sales giant and a sales failure?

Now, in true ME style, I got a lot of bang out of having attended this meeting with an organization I ended up having no interest in joining. As insulting as it got (and their pitch really was along the lines of “you’re a chump”), I left considering it a valuable investment of my time.

I made a few prospects of my own. (I’m always looking wherever I interact!) I ended up with some great story-telling material (I’m a storyteller from way back, in case you haven’t noticed lol) I even got some online content written about the experience, including an article, an open letter to Chiropractors, to reject MLM products and instead, hack that model for their own practices. (one of my most famous articles yet!)

And then there was this takeaway lesson: PURPOSE!

What I learned that day not only forwarded my sales ability into the stratosphere but helped me debug so many others as well. I was able to really see what it not only took to sell successfully but the most basic element blocking anyone.

I realized there are no bad sellers ANYWHERE.

There are just “SELLER-OUTERS” who are trying to “sell” things that have nothing to do with their basic purpose. And that is the worst kind of criminal selling (in my opinion) there is.

It’s basically insincere (if only to yourself) which, of course, comes across that way to others.

How do you know if you’re a sales giant or a giant sell-out?

The woman who spoke at the MLM meeting? She talked about how much she LOVED the products of the company, what they had done for her and how much she adores the company itself and what they’re about. It was about as genuine as it gets.

The only thing I insisted upon at the conclusion of the meeting was that someone get me on the phone with HER and her only, that this was the only way I would even consider getting on board.

She graciously obliged and did a call with me a few days later.

Not surprisingly, she wasn’t pushy, nor did she in any way think less of me for what I do, my purpose, my plans or anything about me and my organization. If anything, she treated me as a respected colleague and I didn’t at all feel like a prospect.

Some would say it’s because she was so high up she had nothing to gain. But I learned a different thing that day. Her attitude toward me is what got her to those heights.

Everyone else was looking for a shortcut.

And there is your difference. If something is your purpose, sales are effortless and people want to be involved who are like-minded. And you attract them regularly.

If your sales are anything less than that, now you’re talking about selling out.

What specifically are you selling out on?

That’s entirely up to you and who you are as an individual.

I bring it down to one question: Who are you really?

That leads to further self-inspection. What is it you want to accomplish? What did you always want to offer the world?

And, those are the easy questions!

The hard questions?

Beyond that, you have to look at what you’re doing and selling now and measure it up against what you found out about yourself.

Honestly, this is the most vital yet overlooked part of sales of any product anywhere.

And it is the difference between selling and selling out!

Watch for my featured upcoming audio training and transcript “Selling Out Selling On Purpose” coming soon!

**If you don’t know what MLM is, it’s short for “Multi-Level Marketing” and is an organization that sells products via a network of direct salespeople who earn commissions on the product and those they recruit to sell product “underneath” them.