Sustain Your Buisness with and Updated Contact List

“If you build it …”
It’s impossible to have a successful referral business without a contact list, and that’s perhaps the main reason this activity is Critical Activity number one. Your contact list shouldn’t be something you write down once at the beginning of your business. Think of your contact list as your GPS system—without a healthy contact list, you’re left asking, “Where do I go next?” or “What do I do with my business today?” For that reason your contact list should be a living, breathing document. Names should be regularly moving off your list and onto your business report, and new names should be taking their places. Your dreams and goals will remain dreams until you pull out a piece of paper and plan out how to get there, and your contact list is the ‘how’ to that ‘why.’

In today’s market, everyone is concerned about wellness. Daily newspapers are littered with headlines about aging, heart disease, cancer, fitness, and nutrition. It’s likely that every person you know will be thinking about how to improve his or her health or wellness at some point during the day, which means that there’s endless opportunity for the expansion of your contact list.
Before you begin furiously scribbling names down, here are some ideas to keep in mind:

• A contact list is simply a list of names of people whom you intend to contact—friends, family, acquaintances, colleagues, babysitters, teachers, neighbors and community leaders. As you build your contact list, put everyone you know on it—everyone. This doesn’t mean you have to contact everyone, but just having them on your list may help jog your memory for someone you forgot to add.

• Don’t leave a name off because you’ve disqualified the person in your own mind. Who knows where your next enrollment (or even your next Director) will come from? For example: college students are a popular demographic to drop from the list, but really, who needs a little extra income on a flexible schedule more than a strapped-for-time sophomore? Who could use a little more energy or a healthier diet than a fast-food-eating freshman?

• Anticipate acceptance rather than fearing failure. Chances are that if you take the time to approach someone about Melaleuca, they’ll have the courtesy to at least hear you out. If you’ve accepted the opportunity, why would someone else reject it?

• A name with a phone number is infinitely worth more than a name without. After you’ve amassed your list of names, look for phone numbers to add to it.

Bull’s Eye
You don’t need to spend money to find new customers—just get out of the house. The best way to meet new people is to purposefully place yourself in situations where you are forced to meet, greet and mingle—places you’d have gone to meet new friends anyway. It can be a book club, a quilt club, a yoga class or a parents association for the stay-at-home mom. Or it can be an aerobics class, a golf club, a professional association or a community organization for someone working full-time. The options are limitless.
Finding people to add to your contact list shouldn’t be a hit-and-miss affair. You know what appealed to you about Melaleuca, and that will help you make it appealing to others.

“Look for like-minded people you can relate to,” says Corporate Director Mark Atha. “Clubs or associations that you’re already interested in are great places for you to meet your best prospects—people who are like you. If you’re running around trying to enroll everyone and just getting lucky now and again then you’re building by accident.”

Find a target market to approach. If you’re a stay-at-home mom who loves using Melaleuca’s safer Ecosense cleaners, contact other stay-at-home moms who you know will understand your concerns for your children. If you’re a distance runner, join a club and find other runners you know can benefit from the cardiovascular power of ProvexCV and Phytomega. Your love for Melaleuca products will resonate with people who have similar goals and ideas.

Take It Everywhere
Whether your list sits in a notebook or a dayplanner, take that list with you everywhere you go—even if you’re just running an errand. Instead of having to remember dozens of names, you’ll just have to remember to grab your list when you walk out the door.

“At first, I would write down people’s names on the back of envelopes, on the back of receipts, in my children’s book bags,” says Executive Director Paula Lampley. “First off it didn’t look very professional. If you’re a mom and you’re busy, you never can find it. Finally, I got a reporter’s notebook. When I get someone’s business card, I tape it in there.”

Keep your contact list looking professional and keep it glued to your hip. This is one way you can show prospective customers you’re serious about the business, and that it is a business and not just a hobby. President and CEO Frank L. VanderSloot counsels, “Create (your contact list), add names to it on a daily basis, and keep it with you always.” The day you leave your notebook at home could be the day you meet your next leader.

Filling the Pipeline
The Compensation Plan now rewards leadership development like never before; thus, you won’t want to miss an opportunity to find a leader. With regard to identifying potential leadership, Executive Director VIII Laraine Agren says, “I look for someone who’s outgoing, who smiles and who talks back.”

Everyone deserves a spot on your contact list, but when you’ve identified someone you think might lead a lifelong organization, set him or her apart with an asterisk, a star or a more detailed note. Then ask yourself what he or she did that caused him or her to stand out as a leader to you so you can better identify leaders in the future.

“There are all kinds of ways to identify potential leaders,” says Corporate Director Mark Atha. “Who do you know who knows everybody in town? Who do you know who always volunteers for things? Talk to the kinds of people we want to have as leaders in our business.” Even ‘strictly customers’ in your organization can be a great source of referrals to add to your contact list—particularly those who’ve converted their homes to Melaleuca products. Follow-up meetings are great opportunities to ask current customers for referrals. Even if your customers aren’t interested in building businesses, they probably know someone who is.

Your contact list can be the wellspring of your success if you tap into it and update it every day. Keep it with you wherever you go, but above all, keep the names on your list moving.

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