General Update

Update on This Blog
The main reason I'm writing this blog is to share my experience, and the experience of others, with distributors in our team. I certainly don't profess to be an expert in network marketing, website design, direct selling etc. - but it is possible that some of my experiences could be helpful to others, even if it only helps them to avoid making the mistakes I did when starting out.

Most of the feedback I've received has been very positive - thank you all very much - but because I'm so greedy I would like even more. What I would really appreciate very much is if you could leave your comments telling everyone what your experience is.

It may be different from mine, you may agree or disagree with what I've said, you may think I've taken leave of my senses. Great! Take a couple of minutes and enter a comment to tell the rest of the team what your experience and/or opinion is - you could be doing us all a BIG favour.

Congratulations
Congratulations to Abdul Al-Mudhhafar who has just got his sixth customer and achieved QE status only a few short weeks after joining - some of which was the Christmas holidays. Enjoy the CVC Abdul, next stop SE!

Referrals
You know that I like marketing on the net, but it's not the be all and end all in this type of business. Last week I got a phone call from a nice retired gentleman in Dorchester who was interested in saving money on his gas and electricity.

Now I've never been to Dorchester and I don't know anyone who lives there. I had to look up a map of England so I could check who the gentleman's "local" provider was for electricity. After getting his details I asked how he had come to contact me - I wanted to know if it was Google, MSN, Yahoo etc.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he had been personally referred by one of my customers in Edinburgh. My Edinburgh customer signed up 18 months ago and she and the gent from Dorchester speak on the phone once a year around Christmas. It was cold when he phoned and, as they are both senior citizens, they were having a good moan about the cost of heating their houses. She told him how to save money and gave him my details. Serendipity or what?

Or what actually. I keep records of my customer's addresses and, whenever there's an especially good new service released I send them letters with a new brochure describing it. I had sent my Edinburgh customer a brochure describing the new More Talk options in October, telling her how she could get free calls to people she knows.

Of course, I do this whenever a customer signs up but I also keep customers updated with new developments. So T+ was (fairly) fresh in her mind and my details were to hand. Now I have a new customer.

It's also worth noting that my new customer in Dorchester was originally interested in gas and electricity only as he had "a great deal" from Sky for his phone. I mentioned that T+ were bringing out their new line rental deal in February and that, since he was signing up anyway, wouldn't he like the convenience of one bill paid by direct debit for all his utilities?

It was enough to make him look at the phone service and it turned out he could save another £5 a month. Not a huge amount to be sure but, coupled with the single bill, it was enough to make him go for the phone.

I also made sure that he was aware that his friend in Edinburgh would shortly receive a gift voucher for Boots as a small token of my appreciation for referring him. Additionally, I advised that I only offer this for senior citizens - because the only thing better than getting something for free is getting something for free that isn't available to all and sundry.

Finally I advised him to make sure that anyone he referred to me mentioned his name. I hope I don't have to wait 18 months for my first referral from Dorchester - but if I do then that's okay too, I can be patient when I need to be.

So think about this:

• Always ask your customers for referrals. Even if you don't get them immediately you might get them later.
• Keep in touch with your customers if you have their contact details. Don't pester them, but let them know about any new services that become available from time to time. Even if they don't want them themselves they may know someone else who does and they will have your contact details to hand if any of their friends are complaining about their bills.
• Never underestimate the attraction of a single bill for utilities. Some people will go for it just for the convenience, even before you start talking about savings.

Now think about this:

Some of you have signed up energy only customers since Express Day. Annoying isn't it? Well why not send them details of the new T+ line rental option when it comes out next month? You'll double your CVC and effectively get a new customer in your Genie.

Internet Advertising - The New T+ Recruiting Website

The New Distributor Recruitment Website
Have you had a look at your new Telecom plus recruiting website? If you have qualified then you will find it at the address below – just replace the last 6 digits with your own ID number. If you haven’t qualified yet then have a look at mine by clicking the link below.

http://www.telecomplus.org.uk/688609

I think this site is great – we’ve been crying out for something like this for ages. There’s a lot of information here that anyone interested in becoming a distributor will find extremely useful, and the ability to signup on line is great.

What's The Best Way To Use The New Website ?
Having said that, I won’t be using this website as my first point of contact with potential distributors. The things that make it so good for use at the back end of the prospecting process are, in my opinion, exactly the same things that would make it less effective at the front end of the cycle. It has too much information, and too much going on in general, for use where the need to get your message across quickly is essential.

Of course, once the potential distributor has established that he/she is interested, then you know that they will be prepared to take a little time digesting the wealth of information available and the new site is perfect for this type of visitor.

So for the moment at least, I’ll be sticking with my old, very simple gateway page, collecting email addresses, putting them through the autoresponder emails and then directing the interested parties to the new website somewhere at the back end of the process.

Where exactly in the process the prospect should be directed to the site I’m not 100% sure just yet. I’d be interested to know what others are trying and what success is resulting from different methods.

A Little Experiment
Last week I experimented a little. Whenever I got an email request for an information pack I responded by sending them a link to the new website. I made it clear to everyone that the website was quite new (just in case there were any teething problems) and I also told them that, if they preferred, I would send them out a “traditional “ information pack by post.

I think the results were very encouraging. I had two people come back to me and ask for an information pack to be sent out by post after they had viewed the website, one person who didn’t understand the opportunity having viewed the website and one person who has now signed up online as a distributor.

Benefits For Everyone
The whole process was much faster and cheaper than mailing out a lot of packs as I normally do. I received questions and feedback by email much more quickly. The new distributor who signed up online appeared in my Genie within 48 hours – and I am hoping that they will also receive their pack earlier than normal, allowing them to get started as soon as possible. Overall, I feel this process is much more efficient and beneficial to everyone involved :

• Information is sent to all interested parties much more quickly.
• You will save money on postage and get rapid feedback - which will help you focus
  your efforts where you’ll get the best return.
• Anyone who is interested can signup online and get their new business up and running more quickly.

All things considered – everyone’s a winner. This is going to be an invaluable aid to recruiting new distributors on the internet. And it’s free!

Internet Advertising - A System That Works

My System For Recruiting Distributors
This is a long post but it's an important topic. I have tried to provide a reasonable overview and I will return to some subtopics in more depth in future posts. Try to understand this concept - if you want to recruit distributors on the internet it's important.

Some of you will already be familiar with the system I use to recruit distributors on the internet as many of you have joined Telecom plus having been through this. There are a number of component parts - all of which are important - but I do think of it as a system and I definitely try to take a holistic approach when I consider any modifications.

Although it looks very simple, I have developed this system over a period of time, testing different variations and trying out different tweaks here and there. I suppose it took me about 6 months to get it firing on all cylinders - and I'm sure it can be improved further (feel free to make suggestions or tell me if there were any bits you really didn't like).

The main component parts are as below:

1. A very simple website which gives brief details of the Telecom plus opportunity and invites interested parties to enter their email address so that they can receive a series of emails describing the opportunity.
2. An autoresponder which contains a series of 9 emails. The autoresponder sends these out to registered recipients at predefined intervals.
3. Me. I answer emails and phone calls from people who have been through the email series and who find themselves sufficiently interested to ask for further details. I send out information packs when requested and distributor signup forms as required.
4. Traffic generation. It is necessary to drive traffic to the website in order for the system to work. There are many ways to do this, some are free, some cost money.

It would be possible to write a book on any of the topics above - some people already have. I will discuss each item in greater detail in further posts, but for the moment I'm just going to give a very brief description of each.

The Website
You can find my recruiting website at http://www.utilityteam.co.uk. This is a very simple, one page website and you will often hear this type of site referred to as a "splash page" or a "gateway page". It is specifically designed to load very quickly and to have all the important information on one screen with no requirement for the viewer to scroll up and down or left/right in order to view the information.

The information itself is pretty minimal - just enough to intrigue the viewer so that they enter their email address so they can find out more.

The Autoresponder (or the email messages if you prefer)
If you don't know what an autoresponder is it is simply a program which sends out preloaded emails to people at predefined times. You load your messages into the autoresponder and specify the time lag - message1 goes immediately, message 2 goes one day after that, message 3 goes one day after that ... - and then you just sit back and monitor the number of sign ups you get.

You need to establish a relationship with people before they will "buy" and these automated follow up messages will do that for you. There are many studies which suggest that you need to make contact seven times to maximise your chances of converting. Many of these studies are made by autoresponder owners of course - but there is plenty of independent evidence to suggest that follow up is absolutely essential.

Manual Follow Up
At some point you will be asked to provide further information. The prospect may phone you for a chat but an email asking for information to be sent in the mail is more common. Always respond to the email request, thank them for the enquiry and let them know that it's being dealt with. Ideally, tell them when you will mail the pack out to them so that they know it's on the way and when it will arrive.

By doing this you let them know that they're dealing with a real person, and of course you should treat them like a real person also. Whilst people are receiving my autoresponder series I think of them as "prospects". The minute I have a request from them they become "interested persons".

I always try to personalise the letter that accompanies the info pack as much as possible. If you know their title, Mr., Mrs., Miss etc. - use it. For the address I always use their title and highlight their name in bold, whilst in the body of the text I am less formal and use "Dear FIRSTNAME" as a greeting.

I have a fairly standard letter which lists the contents of the pack and contains a few pleasantries. If the interested person has given me any information about themselves I will try to use it if it's appropriate. For example, if they have an address within an hours drive of one of my existing distributors I might mention that I have an experienced distributor in their area who would be ready to help them get started. If they have told me their profession then I might mention it especially if I know of successful distributors in the same line of work. But don't force it or overdo it - people can always sense these things I think.

Driving Traffic to Your Site
This is an enormous subject, there are huge amounts of information on this on the internet. I will certainly return to this again (and again) - but for the moment here's a very brief summary of the two main methods I use.

TRAFFIC EXCHANGES
If you don't know what these are then you could consider them to be like a club. Everybody in the club has a website and they agree to look at other club member's sites in exchange for return viewings of their own site. Most exchanges these days will send one visitor to your site for every two sites you view, but there are others that operate on a one to one ratio.

Most traffic exchanges are free, though many offer a "pro" upgrade where you can get a better viewing ratio, inclusive visits without surfing etc. There is a strong north American bias to the exchanges and you will see lots of affiliate programs.

Some people will tell you they don't work but I can tell you that some of my best distributors have joined up through traffic exchanges.

PAY-PER-CLICK (PPC) ADVERTISING
Go to Google and do a search on something - any old thing it doesn't matter. Now look down the right hand side of the page and you will see lots of small boxes containing "classified ads" which relate to the search term you entered. If, instead of clicking on one of the sites in the main body of the page, you click on one of those boxes, you will be taken to a related site - usually commercial, where the site owner is selling something or offering a service related to your search term.

The site owner has paid for your click to get to that site. There is no fee to display the ad, you only pay for the clickthroughs to the site - hence "pay per click".

Some people will balk at paying for a click to their site - but it's a very effective technique. Think about it. The visitor has already indicated that they are interested because they entered an appropriate search term. To use T+ parlance they have "qualified" themselves in advance. Personally speaking, I would rather pay 25p to get one visitor to my site who is definitely interested in what I'm promoting than put 25 fliers that cost 1p each through the doors of people who haven't asked for them.

It's A Two Way Street
When you're in the early stages of your T+ business cycle you will, quite naturally, be keen to get as many new distributors as you can. Be aware that the above system is doing two things. It is presenting information to your prospects so that they can make a decision of course, but it is also sorting out the wheat from the chaff from your viewpoint.

Certainly you should put your best foot forward when presenting the information, but if you are honest and truthful about the opportunity then you will soon get rid of the timewasters and get rich quick brigade. There's nothing guaranteed to eat into your own limited time than a disgruntled distributor in your downline so be honest with your prospects, in your email messages, your telephone conversations and any other communications you may have.

What you want are motivated, self starters in your team. Ambitious people with targets, goals and big ideas are great. Daydreamers who think the world owes them a living because they just got broadband installed will drain your energy and swallow up your time before you know it.

What you really want is another half dozen people below you who share your vision and who will work the business to get what they want out of life. Use the system above and you just might find them.

More To Come
I will expand on some of the topics above in future posts - but that's more than enough for now. Thanks for reading this far.

Internet Advertising - Some First Thoughts

Internet Advertising
Advertising on the internet is incredibly easy. You can quite literally be up and running in a matter of minutes. There are lots of adverts which can be downloaded from the T+ Extranet, banners, text ads etc. and you can use these anywhere you want as they are pre-approved.

However, there is one fundamental concept that you need to understand before you use the internet to advertise for either customers or distributors - nobody ever buys anything the first time they visit a website. It doesn't matter how good your website is, how compelling your offer is or how good your prose is - they will not buy on the first visit. Think about it, and try to recall your own online experience.

Some years ago, on the recommendation of a friend, I visited Amazon for the first time. I had heard a lot of good things about it from my friends and colleagues and I was intrigued. I was certainly impressed by what I saw, the site was well laid out, information was clear and the prices were good. I didn't buy anything though - not on that visit. Later on I went back to the site and made my first purchase and I am now a regular customer.

So I went to one of the best websites on the planet, I was already interested and I had plenty of first hand recommendations from satisfied users who were personally known to me - but I didn't buy anything. Why is that? Simple - it's perfectly normal behaviour that's why, in fact had I bought anything on that first visit I would have been flying in the face of conventional behaviour - on the internet or in the real world.

It's the equivalent of window shopping, or you could consider it as research if you like. Just be aware that this is the way the vast majority of people surf and view websites - and plan accordingly.

The only way that you're going to make a sale is if the visitor returns, or if you have further contact by some other means. there are a number of ways to do this, two of the best methods are as follows:

1. Make the content of the website so interesting and compelling that your visitor will want to return.
2. You take the initiative and keep in touch by sending your visitor information by email.

Both of these methods work very well, and should be used together if possible.

The slight problem with the first method is that you need to have control of the website content - which is not the case for your T+ hosted website. You also need to know that they will return to your website. If they haven't got a link to your site then they might just go to Google and type in "telecom plus" as a search term. The chances that they would find their way back to your site by this method are vanishingly small.

The second method requires that you persuade the customer to give you their email address and their permission to send them emails. I use this method to recruit distributors.

I have a very simple "gateway page" which I advertise and where interested parties enter their name, email address and city. The email address is fed into an autoresponder which automatically sends a number of follow up emails containing preloaded messages to the prospect.

It sounds complex but it's not really. The advantage of this is that, once it's all set up, it's pretty much automatic. All I have to do is drive traffic to the website, answer the questions and queries which come from the prospects and sign them up when they confirm that they want to go ahead.

It's very effective - I have had over 1500 people sign up for my email messages since 01/06/04. I now have a team of over 40 distributors, most of whom have been recruited in this manner.

You can view my gateway page below:

http://utilityteam.co.uk


I think that's enough - but more on internet advertising later.

Welcome to the Utility Value Blog

Welcome
Welcome to the Utility Value blog. For those of you whom I haven't had direct contact with, my name is Hamish Hayward, I live in Edinburgh with my wife and 2 boys (Dan and Sam, AKA the gruesome twosome) and I've been a T+ distributor for over 18 months now. If you're reading this then the chances are that I'm in your upline somewhere.

You can contact me by email or phone, details as below:

email: hamish.hayward@blueyonder.co.uk
Freephone: 0800 083 4995

I'm putting this on the web so that I can share some of my experiences, and the experience of others, with everyone in our team. I am finding that, now the team has grown to a large number of distributors, I am having the same discussion several times with different people - which I don't mind, but it occurs to me that some of the others not involved in these discussions may also benefit if the information were made available somewhere.

I would intend to publish something at least once a fortnight - but this can vary if there is enough interest and suitable topics arise. As this is the first issue, it is possibly a little longer than normal. I will try to be concise in future.

This also serves as a record which can be referred to as and when you wish, and you can refresh your memory if you need to. I do hope it proves useful and if anyone has any suggestions about suitable topics for discussion and review please feel free to get in touch or leave a comment.

Unlike some of the other facilities available, I would intend to address the realities of being a T+ distributor warts and all. T+ is a fantastic opportunity for us but, like any other business, it's not perfect. I certainly don't want to get into any moaning sessions but I do believe that we should acknowledge any problems, meet them head on and then find a way to work round them, rather than pretending they don't exist.

I am a hardnosed, Scottish engineer, I do not believe that everything will be alright if we think happy thoughts and count our blessings. The power of positive thinking doesn't do a lot for me, but the power of turning off the telly and getting off my backside has produced results in the past.

Think about what you want to achieve, get yourself a positive action plan and implement it. Then you won't have to play mind games or indulge in the latest transatlantic psychobabble to persuade yourself that you're doing alright. If your plan doesn't work, if the wheels come off, review it and try something else. Just take action.


Congratulations
David Baker Townsley has just been promoted to Senior Executive. He's a great guy, full of good ideas and a total pro who has a strong, very active team in the south-east. I think that's a brilliant result - huge congratulations to David.

Dave Lawlor and his wife Jan joined on Express Day and just qualified by getting their sixth customer. I remember talking to David on the phone before he joined and he was a little concerned about the sales side of things - not sure how he would do. It certainly doesn't seem to be holding the Lawlors back though - well done guys and enjoy the CVC.


Happy Hunting
January and February are great months for picking up both customers and distributors. Everybody wants to make savings and get their finances back on track now that the season of good will to all men, rampant consumerism, flamboyant excess and unalloyed greed (the holiday formerly known as Christmas) is behind us.

Likewise, there are plenty New Year's resolutions which involve telling the boss where to get off, getting a new job and/or starting up in business, earning an extra few quid etc.

And that's where you come in - but you have to tell them you can help or they'll be none the wiser - and you'll be no better off yourself.

• Next time you hear someone mention how much they shelled out at Christmas offer to help them get their finances back on track by signing them up as a customer. You don't have to run through a big sales pitch there and then - maybe you could just give them your business card or web address and then bring it up with them later. Use your judgement - but make it your resolution to bring the subject up as often as you can.

• If you're already advertising for distributors, consider raising your ad budget for January and February. You will get a better response during these months. Maybe you will have to reduce it later in the year - but there's every possibility that the extra revenue you generate will make this unnecessary.

• If you're not advertising for distributors start now. The new recruitment website, available from the extranet for those with hosted sites, is much better than anything we've had before. Put it on a traffic exchange and get some visitors, spend a little money and use a Google Adwords or Overture pay-per-click campaign. You could put an ad in your local paper, or download an ad from the intranet and put it in the window of you newsagent. Do something - anything.

Future Topics
I would intend to cover internet advertising, traffic exchanges and pay-per-click advertising in future. Other suggestions (or contributions if you like) would be gratefully received.

That's It
Enough. Stop.

Have a great year in 2005.

Regards,

Hamish

http://www.utilityvalue.co.uk
http://www.utilityteam.co.uk