Meet our Special Guest
August 1998 Special Guest
Kelly KalcheimPublisher
Network Marketing Tip Of The DayWe invited Kelly to be our inaugural Special Guest for three important reasons:
- What she has to say always makes such good sense and is so relevant to building a successful network marketing business, regardless of which company you’re with.
- We think you should consider subscribing – heck, we think you should just subscribe! – to Network Marketing Tip Of The Day. It’s a fabulous resource.
- Kelly’s our kind of network marketing professional – intelligent, articulate, honest, ethical, gracious, resolute, thorough and persistent. A solid example.
But don’t take our word for it. See for yourself. Note the terrific, practical applications at the end of her article. Great stuff, and typical of this excellent daily column.
THUNDERBOLTS
by Kelly B. Kalcheim & Gina ReaTHUNDERBOLTS: "Something beyond your control, a phenomenon that one day strikes you, your team, your business, your city, even your nation. It rocks you, it blows you into a crater. You have no choice but to take the hit." – Definition by Pat Riley, Head Coach, Miami Heat, NBA Basketball Team.
A thunderbolt strikes. You didn't see it coming. And there is not a thing you can do about it. It happened. And it happened to you.
It's what happens after the thunderbolt that matters. Yes...your attitude about it.
Thunderbolts can hit anyone, and here's an example of one thunderbolt that recently struck our industry:
One of the largest and fastest growing networking companies [in the USA] was hit with a HUGE thunderbolt that had the potential to have a very negative impact on the company. They introduced a new product to the market...with a big flair and a lot of fanfare. A celebrity endorsement...the whole shot. They had record sales within the first couple of days that the product was available. And then ....kaBOOOM. A thunderbolt! The management found out that some of the product had not been formulated according to the terms of their contract with the manufacturer of the product, and many of the bottles that had been sold were not up to spec, did not meet the company's standards.
Two things happened:
1. The company corrected the situation with their manufacturer and made it "right" with their distributors by letting them know that when the adjusted formula was ready they would refill ALL of the orders for the product (not just the bottles that were not up to par)....and at no cost to the customer or the distributor.
2. The distributors decided to maintain their belief in the company and the management's integrity...and then they went about their business of marketing the other products in their product line, all of which were still readily available, until the new product was ready to ship.
This says volumes about thunderbolts and your attitude about dealing with them. Take the hit, do what you can to fix the damage, and KEEP ON BUILDING YOUR BUSINESS. Getting disgruntled, kicking the ground (or the dog <kidding>) and grousing about how lousy it is that this happened will NOT do anything...except perhaps destroy your morale and possibly do severe damage to what you are trying to accomplish.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS:
• Get upset, if you must, in private. Write pages and pages in your journal to vent your upset and grumble about everything that just happened.
• Then get over it. And move on. It's just a challenge. It's not the end of the world...or even life as you know it.
• Begin immediately to fix whatever aspect of the thunderbolt that you can. If if will have an effect on your distributors, contact them. Get in touch with any of your customers who may be affected. Most people will appreciate an honest explanation and a sincere guarantee of restitution and would prefer that to a bunch of excuses.
• Give yourself some positive reinforcement to counteract the thunderbolt's effect. Sometimes just a shift in focus is all that it takes to get you back on track and moving in the direction you want to go.
RESOURCE: "The Winner Within" by Pat Riley
QUOTE: "Sweet are the uses of adversity." – William Shakespeare
About the Author
Kelly B. Kalcheim, a former executive with MGM Studios, has a history as a successful Network Marketer and published author, and brought the first prepaid motion picture phonecard to the market. She co-founded the well-respected online column, "Network Marketing Tip of the Day" (NMTOTD), which was recommended by John Milton Fogg in the February '98 issue of Upline® magazine as “hands down, the best I've ever seen.” Visit the NMTOTD website at: http://pw2.netcom.com/~bultpruf/nmtotd.html
1998 Copyright. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed without the express written permission of the authors. Reprinted by The Profit Clinic with permission of the authors.Our Special Guests’ articles are archived in our Library for permanent reference.
©1998 The Profit Clinic. All rights reserved. This page updated 9 October 1999.
