Top leaders agree—this book will help you build the biggest business possible!
“I love this book! Reading this earlier would have saved me hundreds of hours. It's the real deal, truth, what everybody needs to know about this business. I will be using this with my team.”
—Eugene Hong, YOLI
“I hate this book! Because I should've written it . . . but it wouldn't have been this good. Direct Selling Success is the ultimate textbook on building a successful business.”
—Erick Gamio
“Freaking awesome—a goldmine of information. Duplication is the key to any successful Direct Selling business and Gage is the master at teaching it.”
—Zach Bradley, President, ZYIA Active
“I hope every Direct Selling CEO and executive reads this book!”
—Art Jonak, Founder, Mastermind Event
“This book is awesome! It shows you what true leadership is about, and could be written only by someone who has lived it. Our profession has never had a resource so powerful to help you reach success.”
—Dan Higginson, Founder, Synergy Worldwide
“I could not recommend this book more and am grateful Randy wrote it. Too many books on Direct Selling have been written by people who really haven't had the success they claim or sustained success. Randy Gage has had massive success in the business and sustained it for several decades. This gives Randy insights and expertise that very few have and even fewer share.”
—Dana Collins, Arbonne
“Direct Selling Success is undoubtedly the best guide if you are building a team! Randy gives you a clear path and, most importantly, a proven path that will help you achieve your goals. Every time I read one of his books, I feel a sense of peacefulness that reassures me that we are doing things right.”
—Lily Rosales, FuXion Biotech
“Whether you are old school or new school, this book is for you. I love that Randy teaches how to incorporate what is new and working with the fundamental principles of Direct Selling. Through real-life experiences and his crazy, genius way of explaining things, he makes it easy to understand and duplicate.”
—Jeremiah Bradley, CEO, Nimbus Performance
“Dream. Struggle. Victory! Wherever you are in your building process, this book will help you dream bigger, conquer your struggles, and claim your victory. You might disagree on some points. We sure did. But that will help you do the critical thinking required for your ultimate success.”
—Hilde Rismyhr Saele and Ørjan Saele, Cofounders, Zinzino
“This is the Bible of Direct Selling! Randy's energy, passion, and scientific approach jump out at you from every chapter.”
—Jeff D. Higginson, CEO, International FuXion Biotech
“If you are a professional networker, or just starting out in the business, this book is indispensable!”
—Jairo Bernal, General Manager, OMNILIFE Colombia
“I'm truly excited about this new book. If you're ready to transform your business and add digits to your income, this is the book to not just read, but reread over and over. Make sure your team does, too. People who implement the real-world truths contained within will achieve promotions and income levels that may have been beyond them otherwise. Randy Gage is the real deal.”
—Wes Linden, member of the Direct Selling Hall of Fame and author of the bestseller 79 Network Marketing Tips
“The immense wisdom contained in these pages—if you'll commit to taking these lessons to heart—can make you both a much more effective leader and help you rise to the highest level in your company. Really. You'll want everyone on your team (and by everyone I mean everyone serious about building a rewarding and lucrative business) to read this book, make a study of it, and, most importantly, apply its game-changing advice.”
—Bob Burg, coauthor of The Go-Giver and The Go-Giver Influencer
“Randy wrote the ultimate guide to understanding our profession on every level. If Direct Selling was a religion, this would be its Bible.”
—Jaime Lokier, author of Leadership Networks (Redes de Liderazgo)
“Randy is always thought-provoking, engaging, and interesting. His insights are not complicated rocket science but practical advice that anyone can use to build their business. I particularly like the chapter ‘Leadership Landmines That Kill Growth.'”
—Steve Critchley, Utility Warehouse
“An amazing, amazing book. Randy Gage once again is helping us to see the future of our profession. It's not a book that's up-to-date, it's up-to-tomorrow!”
—Dr. Hedi Khezrzadeh, Viaveta Company
“I love this book. There are so many resources teaching techniques from 30 years ago. This is a refreshing take—the real-world, relevant, step-by-step process to be successful today.”
—Sam Higginson, Former National Director of Sales, Rodan + Fields
“Simply an excellent tool for success in the business. Prospecting, presenting, building customers, enrolling, duplication, and becoming an effective leader . . . a recommended inclusion in your distributor kits!”
—Sunny Ooi, Former CEO, Malaysia ORGANO
“It's a new world in Direct Selling and this book reveals what you need to succeed in our changing profession, with proven methods and insights that will educate and inspire you to create your own global empire.”
—Lisa Jimenez, MEd, author of Slay the Dragon
“Thanks to Randy's books like this one, we have managed to build organizations made of thousands of people in more than 20 countries. I highly recommend it if you are building big!”
—Luca Melloni, FuXion Biotech
“This business isn't rocket science, but Randy Gage will have you working your business like a NASA engineer, launching your success like an Atlas Rocket!”
—Michael Smith, Chief Operating Officer, Crescendo
“For both new kids and veterans, this book is Gage's current and complete nuts-and-bolts manual of how to truly succeed in this business. A proven expert in both principle and practice, Gage dissects the secrets of networking success with timely advice on using social media and building long distance. If your simple dream is to build a networking organization that thrives based on duplication, then let this book be your Bible.”
—Christopher Cooper, Regional Director, Jeunesse Global
“Randy has done the research, experimented, and tested his theories in the business-building lab, and he knows the formula for success in this business. If there were a Nobel Prize for Direct Selling, Gage would have it. Read the book. Or spend 30 years figuring it out for yourself.”
—John Milton Fogg, member of the Direct Selling Hall of Fame and author of The Greatest Networker in the World
“A brilliant roadmap for creating and breeding success in your business! Simple enough for the newbie and peppered with advanced strategies for the six- and seven-figure earner—or those who would like to be.”
—Terry Petrovick, Founder, Happiness to Success
“Randy Gage has his finger on the pulse of the business and inspires us to be better leaders and people. Not only does he walk you through what's going wrong in your business, he shows you how to fix it in no-nonsense, easy-to-understand terms.”
—Vickie Dickson, doTERRA
“This is a book everyone who is serious about being successful must read. Randy shows you what it takes to achieve success in this business, the truths you need to know and apply to create leverage and duplication. Randy's experience has not only led him to have great success in this business, but he also has written a couple of seminal books about it. This is one of the most valuable to date.”
—Jorge Meléndez, host of the Anquiro podcast
Cover image: © RLRRLRLL / Shutterstock
Cover design: Wiley
Copyright © 2019 by Randy Gage. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.
Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Gage, Randy, author.
Title: Direct selling success : from amway to zombies / Randy Gage.
Description: First Edition. | Hoboken : Wiley, 2019. | Includes index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2019014767 (print) | LCCN 2019015536 (ebook) | ISBN
9781119594512 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781119594567 (ePub) | ISBN 9781119594550
(paperback) | ISBN 9781119594512 (ePDF)
Subjects: LCSH: Direct selling. | Direct marketing. | BISAC: BUSINESS &
ECONOMICS / Marketing / Direct. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Marketing /
Multilevel. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Entrepreneurship.
Classification: LCC HF5438.25 (ebook) | LCC HF5438.25 G344 2019 (print) | DDC
658.8/72—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019014767
For all the people who still believe in the power of a dream. . .
So why did you decide to work a Direct Selling business? I mean really?
Was it because you wanted to become a millionaire? Earn one of those exotic supercars? Be one of those people on stage holding a six-foot-wide check with a big number on it?
Let’s get real.
Personally, I joined this business to get rich. I had been broke my whole life. I hated being poor and desperately wanted to become wealthy. So that’s the real-world reason I began. And there’s nothing wrong if you joined for the same reason.
In my case, I was so desperate to get rich that everything I said and did was filtered through that perspective. So I looked at candidates the way wolves look at a sheep at lunchtime. Even the people I had sponsored got the vibe that my only concern was how much money they were going to make for me.
Not really a winning formula…
You’ve got to see candidates through a prism of how you can help them. You’ve got to approach the business with the mindset that if you help your team members to reach success, your own success will be assured.
I believe wealth is actually created only two ways:
This is good advice to follow for your Direct Selling business. This means you have to flip the focus from you to your potential customers and team members.
For most people, their focus starts off very me-centered. You’re thinking I need more customers, I need them to buy more, I’ve got to recruit more people, I have to find more leaders…
But that stuff is all about you. None of it is relevant to your candidates or team members.
Take a serious look at your product or service line. Ask yourself: What exactly are the benefits to my customer? Not just a general, feel-good promise like “These nutritional products will improve your health.” I’m talking about specific, tangible, unique, measurable, and demonstrable benefits your customer will enjoy.
Then you want to be thinking about the benefits the business offers. These include:
However, you must keep in mind this important point: Not all benefits matter to all people. So if you just do a “data dump” with your candidates, you won’t be as successful as you could be. You’ll do much better actually finding out your candidate’s particular situation and what specific benefits are most compelling to her.
Here’s the great news…
If you follow the advice in this book, you’ll be able to weave all these important elements into a robust, successful business, doing the right things. You will be able to enjoy the monetary and recognition benefits and know that you are solving problems and creating true value.
Know that this is not a feel-good, rah-rah book. Actually, I do hope it makes you feel good about what you’re doing and your ability to do it successfully. But the main purpose of this book is to be used as your textbook for becoming successful (or more successful) in the business.
You’ll discover specific and tangible ways to find great candidates, qualify them, move them into a compelling series of presentations, recruit the right ones, train them, develop them, and then lead them to success.
This stuff works in the real world today, even with all the changes in regulation, social media, the Internet, mobile apps, replicated websites, and economic upheaval.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, this book is the natural sequel to How to Build a Multi-Level Money Machine. Because the world has changed so much, I felt that instead of a new edition of the old book, it was time to start fresh, with a clean canvas.
The ever-increasing role of e-commerce, technology, and social media has impacted the business on a scale almost unimaginable even five years ago. The regulatory environment has become more complex and certainly more negative. And the public perception and portrayal of the business, which had experienced a positive swing for many years, has taken a steep slide downward.
This new book also differs from its predecessor in construction. The original book took you through the process of starting and building your business incrementally. Direct Selling Success is written to be a dog-eared textbook for you. It’s broken down into chapters by necessary skillsets. Mark it up. Scribble notes in the margins. Fold down a page corner for quick reference. Highlight important points.
Then when you’re asked to make your first presentation on stage, confronted by the idea of calling a scary candidate, or dealing with a renegade leader, you can come back to a specific chapter and get advice you can immediately apply.
Important Note: I have included five bonus chapters on high-level leadership. For you guys who are new to the business, I am strongly recommending that you initially skip Chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 (and proceed directly from Chapter 12 to Chapter 18). Those chapters are about complex leadership strategies and would probably overwhelm you if you read them now. It would be much better to come back and read them after you have been in the business at least two years.
In the chapters before them, you’ll discover how to spend your time productively, develop leaders, and, most importantly, empower those leaders to develop new ones. You’ll come to a clear understanding of a fundamental, profound truth about Direct Selling:
You will find I’m not big on motivational clichés and weary, over-used platitudes. I believe that if you can show people specifically how they can accomplish a desired goal—they will motivate themselves. This book is a GPS for leading your people to success.
By the time you’ve finished the book, you will:
Our profession is now past the 60-year mark and facing greater challenges than ever before. But with those challenges come even greater opportunities. We are going to need to reinvent ourselves. This book is my contribution to that effort.
In this business, you can earn a lot of money, win those trips to exotic locales, and drive those gorgeous bonus cars. You really do have the chance to create your freedom.
But that’s the thing about freedom. It’s never free…
Freedom is the byproduct of dedication, perseverance, and hard work. You must be willing to pay the price and do the work. If you are willing to do that, this book will guide you through exactly how to do it.
I didn’t write the book to challenge your dreams—but rather to help you realize them. And I certainly didn’t write it to change you. Instead, to help you discover and unfold into who you are really meant to be. You’re about to embark on a magic carpet ride of challenge, adventure, and growth. Relish the journey.
I’m humbled and honored for your trust and accepting me as your “surrogate sponsor.” Together we’re going to do some great things.
Dream big, act deliberately,
—Randy Gage
Key West, Florida
January 2019
What is the greatest secret for creating success, wealth, and overall prosperity?
Famed Greek mathematician Archimedes best revealed that secret when he said:
When he spoke those words, he was illuminating the awesome power of leverage. Leverage truly is the number one secret you can use to create success, develop wealth, and manifest prosperity.
The most prolific entrepreneurs on earth draw on leverage to create prosperity. Famous industrialists like John D. Rockefeller, J. Paul Getty, and Andrew Carnegie used it, as do modern-day success stories like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Oprah Winfrey.
With Direct Selling, everyone has the opportunity to apply leverage—just as the wealthy do—to create financial freedom and security. Every new distributor can build a solid customer base and a team of entrepreneurs—all producing residual income for themselves. Before long, your business can start spreading exponentially.
But how do you successfully build a viable Direct Selling distributorship? Allow me to share with you one of my favorite affirmations, one I use frequently:
The reason I use that affirmation so much is because I need it so much. Because it goes right to the fundamental essence of personal growth and how to become successful:
Once you truly understand this, your whole world changes. Because you stop looking for excuses from external sources (the economy, the Prime Minister, your ex-spouse, etc.), and you turn your attention inward.
Let me suggest something you might find shocking and probably have a hard time believing. Most of the opinions, ideas, and rules you live by are lies.
They are the residue of past, limiting beliefs you haven’t yet released. You were most likely programmed with those beliefs before you were 10 years old. And for you to succeed in Direct Selling, you’re going to have to eradicate those beliefs. And then replace them with beliefs that actually empower you, instead of hold you back.
No, you don’t get the results in an instant. You still have to make the decision, take the action, and go through the process.
But your world has explicably changed, because you’re courageous enough to make that decision to start. That changes everything forward from that point.
If you’re looking for reasons why something won’t work, you’ll never find a shortage of them. However, if you approach this business with the expectation that you’re going to succeed, you dramatically improve your odds of actually doing that. Your mindset is critical—which is why I’m beginning the book with this topic.
Essentially, it’s pretty simple to build a successful business in our profession. But don’t confuse simple with easy. It’s never easy.
There will be dropouts, no shows, and potential superstars who flame out in 30 days. You’ll be competing against sleazy recruiters, Ponzi schemes, and other money games. You’ll face frustration, rejection, and perhaps ridicule. And you’ll face something much, much worse: your own self-doubt.
To persevere and still be here for the victory in the end, you’re going to have to pay the price. Pay it gladly. Because the cost of living your dreams is high. But the cost of giving up on your dreams is much, much higher.
You’re joining a business that millions of people around the globe have utilized to improve their lives. And I’ve seen the proof…
I’ve done new member orientations in Skopje, Macedonia; conducted Leadership Institutes in Zagreb, Croatia; and sponsored the first woman to ever qualify for a bonus car in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
I’ve seen people ride trains for 40 hours to come for training in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and show up to an event in Trujillo, Peru—via mule. I’ve seen the passion in the eyes of people pursuing their dreams from San Diego to London, La Paz to Sydney, Moscow to Memphis, and Seoul to a trailer park in Pensacola. Thousands have done it. Millions more are doing it.
I wrote this book to give you the best chance of replicating their success. Please think of me as your surrogate sponsor, here to guide you through the process.
Of course, this all comes back to you…
And what you do with the information you’re about to receive. You’re going to face challenges and face doubts. You’ll be tempted to quit a hundred times.
Will you choose to be a victim or a victor?
You can’t be both. You have to decide. The greatest honor you can give the force that created you is to become who you are truly meant to be. So if you’re up for that, let’s get after it.
Before we delve into what it takes to succeed in this business at a high level, let’s run through some of the things you might think you need—but actually don’t.
Here’s what you don’t need to be successful in Direct Selling:
Let’s unpack each of these, and allow me to share my thoughts on each.
You don’t need experience, because no one is going to ask you to quit your job and instantly replace your income. I’m going to recommend that you start part-time, working 10 to 15 hours a week, keeping whatever job you currently have. Just work the business as a side hustle, and see where it develops from there. You’ll have no pressure, and you can learn and earn as you go along.
The real success in our business comes from duplication, employing the concept of leverage. So a lot of the time, coming in with preconceived ideas or experience can actually hold you back. Personally, I prefer to work with people who have no experience in the profession, because we don’t have to go through a massive unlearning process.
Because I’m a high school dropout who became wealthy in this business, I don’t think degrees and accreditations are necessary. But it’s not just me. There are countless stories of successful people with no degrees. Most of the theoretical stuff they teach in business school doesn’t apply here anyway.
Success in Direct Selling comes from empowering a large group of people to consistently perform a few simple behaviors on an ongoing basis. So you certainly don’t need four years of higher learning to do that.
When you join a Direct Selling company, you have an entire sponsorship line that has a vested interest in your success. They will actually come down in the group to train and work with you for free. This makes having experience or a degree considerably less important than they would be in traditional businesses.
Beginning a Direct Selling business requires a minimal investment. You don’t need a physical location, employees, or a large inventory. You can start this business for literally a fraction of what traditional businesses cost to launch.
Maybe most surprising is that you don’t need selling skills. That’s because no one is going to ask you to knock on the doors of strangers, make cold calls, or use high-pressure closing techniques to convince people to buy your products.
We produce literally billions of dollars (pesos, pounds, yen, rubles, and many other currencies) in sales every year. But this astounding amount of sales is created by conversationally marketing the products to friends, family, and neighbors. People you already have relationships with, who can benefit from your product or service.
You learn how to discover needs, then solve problems and add value through what you offer.
The big difference in our business is the leverage. Leverage is one of the great wonders of the world—not unlike compound interest—because it allows you to escape the trap of trading hours for money. And when you employ that leverage, following a simple, duplicable system, you might create an organization that produces literally millions of dollars in sales—even though you don’t know any closing techniques or perform any of the normal behaviors you’d associate with a salesperson. This is why I call our business model Leveraged Sales, a concept we’ll talk about more in the next chapter.
So now that you know what you don’t need to be successful—what does it actually take to succeed?
This business has produced some of the most remarkable and inspirational success stories you’ll ever hear. Practically every company has its “rags to riches” stories of everyday people who went from poor or modest beginnings to living the lifestyle of their dreams.
From single mothers on welfare to people with disabilities, from pizza delivery drivers to the young man in Taiwan who rode his bicycle to opportunity meetings—people have rediscovered their dreams and made them happen through Direct Selling.
Across the profession, you will find striking similarities in the ultra-successful people in all companies. These common traits are the prerequisites for long-term success in the business. Let’s explore exactly what the commonalities are.
They stopped buying the gloom and doom portrayed in the media and reconnected to the vision of greatness we all once had for ourselves.
If Morpheus were to offer them the red pill or the blue pill, they would always choose the trip down the rabbit hole rather than the safety of the Matrix. Because they know that in today’s world, risky is the new safe. And the people who are playing it safe are actually at the greatest risk for a life of mediocrity.
They reject herd thinking and practice discernment. They are curious by nature and open to challenging their most deeply held foundational beliefs. They are not cynics, but they are skeptical of conventional wisdom. They question authority and want to know the reasoning behind a premise. They know any beliefs they have that serve them will survive a healthy skepticism, and any beliefs that don’t stand up under scrutiny need to be replaced.
They don’t look for the free lunches and get-rich schemes. Far from running away from work, they get up, throw the sheets off the bed and actually look forward to work. They love challenge, growth, adventure, and helping others while helping themselves. Because they love their work so much, they don’t need a 12-pack and a Netflix binge to escape from their job. They have discovered how to merge work and life into a lifestyle they love.
They recognize that real duplication comes from teaching skills much more than selling skills. They follow a formula that allows large numbers of people to replicate their actions.
They have a passion for lifelong learning and set aside daily time for quiet reflection and self-development.
Initially, my biggest mistake in the business was thinking that success would come from changing others. I soon learned that success comes from changing oneself. The actions you take and the examples you set create a ripple effect that impacts everything around you in a positive way. To change the world—you must first change yourself.
They weren’t born a leader. Nobody appointed them to the position, and they couldn’t care less about titles, hierarchy, or conformity. They are called to lead from the small, still voice in their soul.
They lead because they have belief. Belief in a better way, belief in contributing to others, belief that prosperity is everyone’s birthright. And they know their conviction comes with a responsibility to share that belief with the larger community.
The rules of the corporate world don’t apply in Direct Selling. In this business, you get ahead not by beating out other people or holding them down, but by helping them to grow. The more people you make successful, the more successful you become.
A corporation has room for one president, a few vice presidents, more middle managers, and then many workers at low-level jobs. In Direct Selling, we encourage everyone who desires to be a leader to strive for leadership positions. There is no limit to the number of people who can reach the top of your compensation plan.
Now that you know the attributes required to be successful in Direct Selling, let me show you why the old paradigms of Network Marketing/MLM have to die—and how we’ll move forward with a better model…