Hey You!
I had a link to my Send Out Cards website in a previous blog. I know that a couple of you checked it out – hey, it’s a free couple cards you can send On Me, so why not have at it!
I have been in a few MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) companies in my day. It’s usually pretty frustrating, frankly. I would wind up paying the $100 or so over being a Wholesale Customer (it’s never a lot) to have the ability to “build a team” in the MLM. (But usually, I was joining because I loved using the product, and believed it could benefit others.) Being a “Distributor” allowed me to benefit from not only someone buying the product from me, but also if they wanted to sell the product, too.
Unfortunately, usually I wasn’t all that keen ‘splainin’ (Lucy) to folks how they could sell essential oils and vitamins, or face cream, or vibrators (yes!) and make themselves a business of it. It was a LOT of work going to folks’ houses, doing demos, and the like. Sure – I loved it, but I’m a natural ham and salesperson. Most folks would buy the products, but NO WAY would they want to schlepp lubricant and dildos around from house to house themselves…
The idea of MLM is that you make money when other people (that you have brought into the system) make money. But the whole “Ra-Ra” aspect, meetings, etc. just was not Me.
Anyway – a while back, I was introduced to the concept of Send Out Cards by a gal I know through networking groups. Then, I heard about it again, in a podcast that I listen to pretty often. So I decided to check it out.
I was pretty sure that the cards would be cheesy or flimsy, or they would go out with a postal “mark” not a stamp, or the promise of “uploading my handwriting” would be just so much hoo-ha. Nope! I have been SO SURPRISED!.
This company is the real deal. The cards are great. They’re just like Hallmark cards (maybe even better). The whole system really does sell itself. You can store business or personal folks in the system, and then set up “Campaigns” to your clients (you know, like we’re all taught… “touch every client at least once every 3 weeks…”). Birthdays. Anniversaries. Spouses’ Birthdays. Kids’ Birthdays. The calendar even pops up with “what’s up” for that week, when you log in. If it’s a birthday and you click on it, you get a link to the birthday cards! It even stores a picture of every card you send and what you said in it attached to the “Rolodex card” for that person, so you never again have to wonder what you sent, when, and what you said!
You can even insert photos into the cards – and they REALLY look good, too. Heck, you can make your own “trifold” with photos in it and description! I just did one for a friend, where the front was her dancing at my wedding – the inside fold was her about 8 months pregnant – and the inside-inside was one of her son’s photos that she recently sent all of us on email (he just turned one). This card cost me something like 40-60 cents to do (yes, with glossy, the photos, etc.) and 41 cents to mail. When she called me, she said that she hadn’t even printed out any of her son’s photos – so now she has my card of the photo that she took (the inside of the trifold) up on her fridge!!!
In my other MLMs, there were usually meetings in person (that were always a pain to get to, and usually over some limp pizza). Ra Ra Ra, sell more vibrators! Ra Ra Ra! In this one, there are calls that you can call into (or not) once a week, that last for 1/2 hour. Afterwards, you get a transcript of the call (if you want to read it) and you can click on it to listen to it on a website, too. No fuss, no muss.
The transcript below is from my “upline” Jordan Adler . He is legendary – he wrote a book called “Beach Money” on MLM. This call was last night. I don’t think I could have said it better — so I will let him say it. Again — if you’d like to try out the system — just click above or, of course, you can email me and we can walk through the “finer points” of it together.
++++TRANSCRIPT OF CALL WITH JORDAN ADLER APRIL 14, 2008++++
SENDOUTCARDS IN PERSPECTIVE
What makes SendOutCards unique?
SendOutCards is like no other program in the Network Marketing Profession for two main reasons:
1. SendOutCards satisfies the greatest human craving . . . the need to love and be loved. Did you know that babies will die if they don’t get love as an infant? We carry that need throughout our whole lives. We feed the greatest human need. . . The need to love and be loved.
2. SendOutCards is the greatest personal development program in existence today. Not only do we have training that teaches people how to attract success, but we have an active system that will allow people to actually create the success that most other programs only talk about. Those of you that have been sending unexpected cards out each day know exactly what we are talking about
OUR TRACK RECORD – SUCCESS IN THE NUMBERS
SOC Revenues:
2004 – $250,000 2000 Distributors
2005 – $2.5 Million 4000 Distributors
2006 – $10 Million 18,000 Distributors
2007 – $24 Million 40,000 Distributors
2008 (projected) – $50 Million 100,000 Distributors
We are still a small Network Marketing Company. A big Network Marketing Company will do over 1 Billion Dollars per year and will have over 2 million Distributors in the US alone. It typically takes a healthy company 8 to 10 years to reach this point. We are starting our 5th year as a Network Marketing Company. The top earners typically will JOIN a company in its 4th-10th years. Can you imagine if one of them join your organization in the next few years? This can only happen if you are actively working your business.
A SIMPLE APPROACH
Many network marketing companies are built on a foundation of hype and fear of loss. I know this because each day I get calls from excited distributors that have been told by their uplines that they need to recruit ‘Jordan Adler’. Do you know that I am unrecruitable?? Here’s what they say in their e-mails and phone calls to me:
“Get in now or you are going to miss out!”
“We have by far the best program in the industry . . . you need to leave your company and join us. Everyone is coming over!”
“Our compensation plan blows all the others away!”
“We will put people under you if you get in to our group!”
These are statements made by overzealous distributors that are in a scarcity mindset. Many companies and distributors build this way. This is the approach that gives our profession a bad name.
Here’s typically what happens . . . with very little actual interest in the product or service, people get nervous and sign up because they are afraid they are going to miss out if they don’t sign up right away. They get on an autoship and when their upline doesn’t fulfill on their promises by putting people underneath them OR when they realize that it’s not that they won the lottery (and they actually have to do some work), they drop the autoship and then everyone’s income goes down. At this point, people begin to lose their belief and they either quit our profession altogether and badmouth network marketing OR they look for the next manic opportunity.
Most of the time, implied in this is that somehow the company or the compensation plan is responsible for someone’s success (or lack of it) in the business.
In reality, there are many great companies and in most companies with a viable product and plan, anyone that puts in the work can make money and create a residual income. It has very little to do with the company. Yet some present it as if its the company and the comp plan that will determine someone’s success.
By the way, there are professionals in all companies. Usually they are the ones that have been around for a while and have built solid self-sustaining organizations. They are focused on great long term relationships vs hype and get rich quick approaches.
How are we different?
We believe in an abundant universe vs one with limited resources. We don’t need to hype anyone into joining us by promising them they will get rich overnight. In fact, those making the most money with us focus on how our service will enhance the life of another human being.
When I started with SOC, I had no interest in making any money. In fact, I was so excited about the service that I just started using it to send out thank you cards and thinking of you cards. My phone started ringing. I showed others how it worked, by having them send a card. A few were interested. I signed them up and taught them to do exactly the same thing. I started to imagine hundreds or thousands of people signing up just because it was such a cool service that everyone needed. My few people started to introduce it in exactly the same way.
We did no opportunity meetings. We did no online video presentations, we did no compensation plan trainings, we did no recruiting conference calls.
We simply show others the system by having them try it out (we coach them through sending a card) . . . if they like it, we show them how they can sign up and get $120 each time they train someone else to do the same thing. It’s that simple. Over and over again.
It doesn’t matter if someone is involved in another opportunity. In fact, that’s even better, because they have a great reason to use us to build better relationships, retain their customers and get more referrals. We don’t EVER try and get someone to stop what they are doing because we have a better deal.
There are many great opportunities in the marketplace!
We believe that you get back what you send out. If you send out positives on a daily basis, you’ll get back positives many times over. You reap what you sow. If you send out to give, the universe gives back!
Marketing is sending out to get. Appreciation is sending out to give.
We believe that appreciation wins over self promotion every time. Think about it . . . when you get something in the mail that has a ‘sales offer’ like ‘20% off your next tire rotation’, where does it usually end up? That’s right . . . in the trash.
When you get something in the mail that has a photo of some people that you know thanking you and telling you that you are appreciated, where does it end up? Usually on your desk or on your refrigerator door. As soon as you put a logo on it, it’s more likely to end up in the trash.
What’s the real opportunity here?
The greeting card industry is a 7.5 billion dollar industry and it has been flat for years. Hallmark and American Greetings have spent millions of dollars trying to get it to grow. Nothing has worked. The average customer spends about $3 per month on cards. What’s the usual process?
1. They think of someone
2. They go to the store
3. They burn an hour & pick out a card (or not!)
5. They don’t have a stamp or a pen
6. The card gets put on the counter
7. 2 months later, the card gets put in a drawer and never gets sent
In SendOutCards, the average user spends about $49 per month on cards that are 1/5th the price. Why? Because we make it easy and inexpensive to send cards conveniently right from your desk. Our customers send cards every day! Think of someone . . . send a card. Think of someone . . . send a card. Can you see that by making it easier, we could turn a 7.5 billion dollar industry in to a 10 or 20 billion dollar industry?
Do you realize that we are only doing about 30 million dollars per year and we could build a billion dollar company just on the cards that DON’T GET SENT by Hallmark or American Greetings!!
So why is there no competition??
You would think after 5 years, we would have a few competitors. Well American Greetings and Hallmark both tried what we are doing and spent millions of dollars on advertising doing it. After a few years, American Greetings shut down their internet card (like us) division. Their cards were over $3 each, but you could send them through the mail just like us. The problem was, they couldn’t get anyone to use them!
Kody figured out that the only people that typically sign up with us are people that have sent a card because someone coached them through it (hint, hint).
Here’s the reason I believe we have no competitors. A few guys hear that there is this company called SendOutCards that’s doing well and growing like crazy . . . .they think, “Hey, there has to be some money in that!” [give to get] “We pick up a few machines, set up operations, come up with an even better plan and we’ll start taking people from them!” [Focus on scarcity]
So they go into the boardroom and figure out that it’s going to cost about 2 million dollars just to start up, and then they can’t figure out how we are making money at .62 per card! They figure that it will take them years to break even, so they throw in the towel. “Give to get” will never work for long term success.
IN SUMMARY
When I joined the company, we were doing about 200 cards per day on one small xerox machine. Cards were being stuffed into envelopes by hand (Jodi – Kody’s wife was doing this). Today almost everything is automated and we are typically doing about 30,000 cards per day. I envision 2-3 million distributors doing 1-3 million cards per day in the next few years.
The operation today is 40,000 square feet with 60 employees. We have 3 – $600,000 I-Gen Machines (there is only one other company in the world that has 3 and they are in Japan). It’s like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory!
We have a unique culture that stems from Kody’s vision to make millions of people senders of cards. We understand the impact that we can have on the lives of those around us simply by expressing our appreciation in cards sent out on a daily basis. One card has the potential to change someone’s life. Millions of people sending out one heartfelt, unexpected card each day has the potential to change the world. When we have 300 people at a Treat ‘Em Right Seminar, each write a card, and then just a few of them read their cards, you can feel the energy shift in the room. This is something each of you must experience for yourself. This energy expanded out to millions of people has the potential to shift a generation and eventually move mountains.