Guideline to Running Successful Home MLM Business Meetings

By: Ray Higdon http://RayHigdon.com

This is a guideline to help those of you wanting to run home meetings for your MLM or home based business. This comes from a lot of experience and will help you avoid a lot of mistakes.

Has the Internet replaced Home MLM Meetings?

Without a doubt, no, it has not. Home meetings for your business can be very effective and the in-home presentation is a very easy way for your team to duplicate. For those with a large following on the Internet, you can certainly focus more on webinars or recorded videos but for the teammates you bring into your team that do NOT have that following, the home meeting can really be effective. I do a mix of online and offline as I see that is the best way to serve my team and their needs.

20 Tips for Running a Home Business Meeting

Do not put out expensive food and or mixed drinks. Doing this makes no difference in signups from my experience but makes you not as easily duplicated as some people will not want to spend the amount of money you spent on refreshments. Beer and a little wine with maybe crackers is fine but do not go overboard.
Respect your guests. If you have a prospect that is there on time but another prospect is texting you that they are on their way, start the meeting on time. It is very common for people to be late to these meetings and if you punish those that were on time, and reward those that are late, you are showing you are not a real business professional.
The owner of the house is the opener and the closer of the meeting. You may have upline there to present the MLM opportunity but the home owner is to introduce them and to also close out the meeting. The intro should be short and sweet and the closing should be a testament to how serious the person is about building the business and boldly passing out applications and encouraging people to sign up. Keep in mind the guests are signing up with the home owner, not the upline leader.
Be a good teammate. If you are supporting someone else’s home-based mlm business meeting and you are a guest, be respectful to them. This could be a whole blog in itself but here are some quick tips. 1. If you are going to text on your phone or check facebook during the meeting, sit where no one can see you as the guests may not know you are a teammate already. 2. Do not talk about how you had guests that were supposed to come but cannot make it or how upset you will be if they do not make it. 3. Do not interrupt the speaker. 4. Never, ever take a phone call in the house when a meeting is going on.
Be a good host. Be super excited about the people that DID come rather than talk about those that did not make it. Especially do not openly talk to the upline how you tried to get more people and express your disappointment. It makes the guests that did come feel like losers.
If this is your first home meeting, call it a grand opening. If you bought a franchise or started a restaurant, wouldn’t you hold a grand opening and invite all your friends and family and warm market? Why not with this business?
Do not let people know you do weekly meetings until they sign up. You never want to invite a prospect by telling them that you do the meeting every week. The reason is they will see that they have an unlimited amount of weeks to show up, every event is special, market it that way.
Help your new teammates. If someone enrolls at a home MLM group meeting, go ahead and schedule their home meeting. There is no time when a rep is hotter than at initial signup, get them going immediately and they will keep that excitement.
Allow guests to sit closer to the presenter if you are already a member.
Ask for the business. After the presentation directly ask your guests if they wish to enroll and get started. Do not beat around the bush, do not ask them what they think, ask for the business. So many people fail to do this and once they are out the door your chances of enrolling them decreases by 10-30%.
Keep inviting. Have a small house and you have 10 confirmed guests? Invite 10 more as on average about half will show up. A packed room where people are standing is actually a great thing as it says you have something hot going on.
Don’t be negative. If you are the home owner or an existing rep of the company, a home meeting is NOT the place to talk about anything negative. Get on the phone with your upline after the meeting or the next day but never in front of guests.
Follow up with the people that didn’t show using this tactic:
I call up the people that I invited to attend an event that said they would but did not show and this is what I say:

Me: Hey there ______, I just called to apologize.
Bum Prospect that doesn’t do what they say they are going to do: Oh, apologize? Why?
Me: I want to apologize that I did such a poor job explaining the details of the meeting we had last night. We had a bunch of people join the team and these are people that would be underneath you in your business if I had done a better job explaining how the meeting actually worked.
Bum Prospect that doesn’t do what they say they are going to do: Oh…
Me: Well, I have several new teammates I have to jump on the phone with and welcome but I will be back in touch, take care!

Hehe, how many of you are smiling right now?

You see, it is all about posture and positioning, I don’t care if someone signs up or even shows up but those that do not are going to feel like they missed out and chances are they will ask me about it later.

But, this is MY BUSINESS, no one takes my power and no one should take yours!

Here is the normal conversation that rookie network marketers go through:

Rookie: Hey _____, where were you last night
Bum Prospect: Oh, I had to trim my mustache and clean my aquarium, sorry I missed it
Rookie: Dude, I had my upline from out of town there and I told them I would bring someone, why would you tell me you would make it and not?
Bum Prospect: Calm down crazy person, stop pushing me your damn pyramid scheme!
Use the power of leverage with anyone on the fence. This works better in certain compensation plans. If you have someone close to signing up, and your compensation plan is fitted for this, encourage them to join before your home meeting as anyone that joins in the meeting will fall under them. People can sit on the fence forever, unless they have a reason to make a decision quicker.
Follow up with every guest. Make sure you note or write down every guest that attends and follow up with them the next day. Ask them what they liked most about what they saw and if they are positive, say “sounds to me like you are ready to join!” and be quiet. If they respond positively, take their application over the phone.
Understand that more of the people you know would rather come to your house than to a hotel or someone else’s house.
If you have no upline around you, do not be afraid to play a video. Keep in mind that network marketing is NOT really about selling the startup package, it is about selling the idea that that person can do the person. If all you do is press play, your guests will certainly believe they can do the same.
Be a professional. If someone is negative after the meeting, do not attempt to convince them amongst other guests. Just calmly reply, ‘Cool; it’s not a fit for you but thanks so much for coming!’
Don’t get discouraged. Do you know how many people showed up to my first home meeting? ZERO! I could have quit easily, but I didn’t. If you have not done multiple meetings with hardly anyone showing, you simply have not done enough of them.
Alternate the location. If your meeting is getting stale, alternate the location and add a lunch or head to someone else’s home or have a different speaker.

Wow, that Was a Lot of Home Business Meeting Tips Huh?

You will see that some of your best people will come through home meetings and some of your best team duplication will also come from home meetings. Add these to your arsenal if you desire to be the full package in this industry.