What I Learnt from Kleeneze in 2010

It's the start of a new year, and I'm finally back to my normal levels of energy after the bug-ridden weeks of December 2010. I'm fired with enthusiasm, I have a couple of dozen leads to follow up and I have already put out 400 books since Sunday afternoon.

And of course, there's the Kleeneze conference to look forward to on Saturday 8 January, 2011.

It seems a perfect time to look back at 2010, work out what I've learnt so far in my first five months as a Kleeneze apprentice and put in place my targets for 2011.

Personal discoveries:

1.  I can go the extra mile when I push myself to; I've done that on several occasions, including last night, when I walked non-stop in the dark and cold night for three hours, despite having painful feet, to collect and deliver catalogues.
2. I really enjoy walking for hours, even dragging an overloaded catapuller trolley, regardless of the weather.
3. I'm happy and comfortable talking to strangers whilst out delivering catalogues.
4. I love meeting dogs and their owners.
5. Dogs love meeting me. I've made friends with collies, staffies, labradors, alsatians, boxers, various terriers and a completely mental saluki crossbreed. Most think my catapuller is a toy for them to play with.
6. I'm not so good at phoning leads. There always seems to be a reason to put this off. Now, this isn't just procrastination (I'm good at that, too, when I want to be), this is more like psychological resistance on a massive scale. I'm pretty sure it harks back to when my ex walked out, leaving me with £20000 of debt, maxed-out credit cards, no way of paying the mortgage and loads of unsympathetic collection agencies threatening legal action. That's no excuse from now on.
7. I find it easy to be enthusiastic about Kleeneze - this has more to do with how easy it is to make a retail income than my reasonably upbeat personality.
8. I'm getting fitter.
9. I am nowhere near as organised as I should be. That has to change in 2011.
10. I am capable of earning £50 per week extra with minimal effort, poor organisation and sporadic tracking.
11. I should be earning a heck of a lot more, and I will be in 2011.

Business Discoveries - Retail:

1. Hitting the 10% volume profit level is extremely easy once you put in sufficient effort.
2. Sufficient effort is around 200 - 300 books delivered each week regularly over a 4 to 6 week cycle. Note, I don't have the time to do catalogue presenting and many of my customers will not open the door after dark, when I deliver my catalogues. I firmly believe that the personal approach is best and am aware there is a higher per-catalogue income when the catalogue is presented.
3. Even at Christmas time, the majority of my orders were for regular Kleeneze products.
4. It's extremely easy not to notice when a customer forgets to put their address on their order.
5. It is not so easy to find the customer afterwards.
6. It takes up to 4 visits to get 95% of your catalogues back. Leaving a note stating when you will return to collect the stragglers is vital.
7. It can take a couple of visits before you can hand over their goods to the customer. It's essential to let them know in advance by phone or thank you slip when you will deliver their order.
8. It is perfectly possible to destroy a catapuller through regular use over a five month period, especially when you're delivering and collecting 400 catalogues a week.

Business Discoveries - Team Building:

1. No matter what you do, some prospects will agree with you right up to where you ask them to sign the distributor agreement. Then they'll avoid your calls as though you're a debt collector/their ex/Satan and all his little imps.
2. Some prospects lie. Some don't understand what they've seen, what they've read and what they've been told. It's up to you how you deal with it. Taking this personally is not the right way to deal with it.
3. A steady flow of leads is no use if you're too scared to call them. If you've got the collywobbles over talking to prospects, then treat this like going out in the rain to deliver catalogues - get prepared (learn or use a script until you can fly solo), get equipped (phone, pen, paper, contact details, etc.) and get on with it. In 2011, I intend to take my own advice on that one...
4. Always ask for referrals. If the person you're talking to doesn't want to join your team, see if they can suggest someone who might. If they do want to join your team, see if they can suggest someone to join with them. Always remember points 1 and 2. 
5. I should take every opportunity to ask people to join my team via my Kleeneze website.

Well Done, Karen and Pete Flitton

This deserves a wider audience: Generosity helps Poorly Children. A true example of the Christmas spirit.

Christmas Comes Early for the Kleeneze Lady - Online Catalogues!

Running my Kleeneze business just gets easier - we now have online catalogues on our own mykleeneze.com websites. Hop over and take a look - what a Christmas present for all of us distributors.

I can't wait to let everybody know!

Thanks to all at Kleeneze HQ for making this happen. Merry Christmas to all of you. Here's to a Wonderful New Year.

Kleeneze Works, Even When You're Ill

For the past 3 weeks, I've struggled to keep going. I admit it. No matter how buoyant a distributor's personality, there are times when you have to run as fast as you can just to stay still.

In my case, as with many others at this time of the year, my family got knobbled by the seasonal flu that's doing the rounds. So I spent 2 weeks trying to cope with a full time job, a 90 minute round-trip commute and my Kleeneze retail targets, as well as ensuring that my sons were being looked after to the best of my abilities. Building a team was not on my list of priorities. Surviving each day was.

Just as they started getting better (this year's flu seems to hit people with a week of the usual symptoms followed by two weeks of bronchial problems), I got the darned bug myself. For four days, I struggled in to the day job, dreading every minute of that 45 minute each way trip. On the first day, my youngest son got clipped by a car on his bike ride back from school. He was extremely lucky and got away with scrapes and bruises; he walked his bike home before the shock set in. I took a day's holiday to keep an eye on him; I'm not sure who ached the most. By day 5, I'd got to the point where I crawled out of bed, phoned in sick and crawled right back again. It's now day 13 and although I no longer feel like death warmed up, the bronchial phase has led to my office manager suggesting I go home sick again.

So what has this to do with Kleeneze working for you?

Simply this: both I and my youngest son followed the same basic principles - to only commit to what we knew we could deliver, to do what we said we'd do when we said we'd do it, and to revise our planned activity to suit the new circumstances.

I delivered ordered goods, put out far fewer catalogues than normal, but ensured I got my 10% bonus volume by week 3 of the period, as per my goals.

My youngest son, despite the flu and his injuries, turned up to do his paper round every morning, regardless of how ill he felt, because he knew the newsagent was short-staffed. I'm so very, very proud of him.

The great thing about a good network marketing company is that, if you are diligent and consistent, results happen when you least expect it. I currently have a dozen people to contact with more information about building their own Kleeneze business, many of whom came in directly via my Kleeneze website, all due to the effort I put in before the seasonal flu took hold. I'll be talking to them over the next few days, sending further information and discussing their joining my team. 2010 was good - 2011 is going to be even better.

Originally posted on It's Not An Attitude.

Christmas Costing Too Much? Join My Team and Earn Now!

Interested? Send me your details via my website, and I'll send you a free DVD and some more information.

Have a great Christmas.

Catalogue Distributors and Team Leaders Wanted

Need to earn more? Need extra money to pay bills? How about an extra £50 - £250 per week, part time?

I'm looking for enthusiastic, hard-working team members who are prepared to spend between 8 and 20 hours per week building their own business. Full support and training provided. No experience necessary.

You will be delivering and collecting catalogues in your local area, processing orders and delivering those orders to your customers. You must be over 18. Team leader positions are available to suitable candidates.

Fill in your details on my Kleeneze website and I'll work with you to turn your ambitions into reality.

Kleeneze Lady Hurt by Blanket Dropping

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction - Isaac Newton

I learnt that at school, 35 years ago. I learnt it again last week.

Kleeneze are currently running a number of distributor challenges, all designed to improve distributors' sales and maximise product movement. That's exactly what you'd expect from an ambitious and dynamic company that wants the best for both its shareholders and its distributors.

The net effect in the local area I am trying to build a reputation in has been negative, unfortunately.

Due to many distributors trying to get 4 weeks' worth of sales done in 2 - 3 weeks, I have spent the past two weeks being told by regular customers that:

1. They've already ordered something off Tina/Ian/Alastair/Chris/Melissa a couple of days previously
or
2. They're sick and tired of receiving catalogues this week and can I please not leave any more.

I have 3 hours per evening to do my best; this month I appear to be competing against at least 3 full-time distributors who are blanket dropping a couple of thousand catalogues per week. Last week we all converged on the same dozen streets. My sales plummeted.

So I should be totally downhearted and ready to give in, right?

Wrong.

My sales were 50% of my targets, based on previous retail spend in this area. I still received orders for over £200. That's a minimum retail profit of £40 for this week and I'm only £180 away from my 10% bonus with 2 weeks to go.

I will keep finding customers, I will retain them through good customer service and referrals and, when others in my area give up, I will still be there.

Which leads me to the title of today's piece and it has nothing to do with my sales targets. The hatchback hinges on my venerable Volvo are no longer interested in keeping the boot lid up as I load catalogues into the back of the car. Residents in a very snowy sidestreet were treated to the entertaining sight of "Car eats Distributor" as the lid descended. I now have a nasty bruise near my lower spine - anybody got the phone number of a decent mechanic?