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[Melanie McDonald Contribution Level: 1]

Hi all, just wanted to introduce myself to the Arbonne thread. I am an Independant Consultant in Australia - I joined when the company launched in July. Looking forward to chatting with consultants around the globe!

[Michele Rosborough Contribution Level: 1]

Hi there,

How are you doing & welcome. What is your name & what part of Australia are you in? It's one of my favourite countries/continents, in the whole world....great people. Loved diving on the BR up by Cairns, one of my favourite memories.

How are you doing with Arbonne, lots to talk about being a 'new market'.

Anything we can do to help?

Michele

[Melanie McDonald Contribution Level: 1]

Hi Michelle

Thanks for the welcome! My name is Melanie and I am from Melbourne. It is very exciting to have Arbonne in Australia - I guess it comes with its ups and downs. No-one has heard of it - which can be good - but also takes a little longer for people to trust the product as they have never heard of it! I have 2 business builders here, so slowly slowly I go. I have also just had a baby 3 weeks ago - so my hands are full! But really want to make a go of this business.

Any tips/advice from afar are very welcome! Oh - also we only have limited product and resources in Australia - we dont get access to Arbonne University or weekly learn and burns yet - so a little restricted there training wise.

How long have you been with Arbonne? How are you going with it?

[Michele Rosborough Contribution Level: 1]

Melanie,

Boy, you do have your hands full!

Anyway spoke to head office here in the States about Arbonne University and Learn & Burn for the Australian market and it dawned on me the UK market also. Since the UK only started selling on November the 4th, I reckoned that they didn't have access also, which they don't.

Anyway Head Office said that it was going to be available at the 'start of next year'. Ha! being Irish I wanted to know was it the real start or an Irish start.....like JUNE :laugh: No specific answer, but was also in contact with the Australian office so will try to get you some updated info when I receive it.

Let me know what you need in the mean time as there are consultants here that email 'what they do' PDF's to everyone so that will be of some help.

PM me with your valid email on this and I can attach some stuff for you, give me specifics of what you need though to start off, as I have a ton of stuff.

What exactly are you doing at the moment that you sponsored two BB's? What products do you have already yourself. Particularly in a new market when people don't know 'Arbonne' from my three legged dog....I would go with samples (more to this) and the puppy dog system (hate that name).

Anyway let me know what you need... and will be happy to help.

Again, any other Arbonne reps jump in here and give her what she needs.

Cheers,

Michele

Post edited by: Michele, at: 2007/11/21 06:11

[Anne Marrinan Contribution Level: 1]

Hi, Eileen from Australia here.

I just wanted to comment on the "puppydog" system that was mentioned.

I am hearing horror stories about that method of business building and how many great US Arbonne businesses came unstuck wth it.

As I understand-and PLEASE correct me if I am wrong-but the system involved a prospect being loaned a complete RE9 kit to try, then when she tried and liked it-bought a kit from the sponsor and then purchased three more kits for herself which she then loaned out to three warm market leads and away we go.

I can see how this system put large amounts of volume thru the businesses but I can also see HUGE pifalls-and I'm sure this is why it all came badly unstuck.

What happens when the lead returns the kit and doesnt want to get involved? Used kit-try again-this one is interested but doesnt want to buy the kit, just get other product-so no duplication. Or even worse-new consultant that has purchased 4 kits(one for herself and three to work with) ends up with 4 kits(used) and no-one who wants to spend that amount of money(initially)to get involved in Arbonne. The whole thing starts to unravel as consultants run out of leads willing to commit to 4 RE9 kits at a go.

Personally I dont have a problem if someone wants to build using this method-as long as they understand that there will need to be other business buiding methods used alongside the puppydog because its not a one size fits all kind of system. And to rely solely on people making a 4 RE9 kit commitment to the business isn't going to be possible for many otherwise great prospects.

Here in Australia it appears that the method most encouraged is the "party-plan" /"gathering" system as well as networking events, one on ones etc.
I can't say I am particularly enamoured with party plan(if I was I would have joined a party plan company not an MLM company:ohmy:)but I can see that it is a fairly time and cost effective way of doing business. There is the opportunity for retail sales, people can see how you do the busines etc. The only challenge here is that "parties" are not as mainstream as they are in the states-culturally we arent into them in the same way as in the states so this method of business building is quite challenging here. Saying that-if you can get the presentations/parties-great-go for it.

But to be honest-one of the biggest reasons I have become involved with learning about marketing online(notwithstanding the very frustrating compliance regs:angry:) is that I need alternative marketing methods for my team. MLM as an industry is about flexibilty and I need to be able to offer people different marketing options other than trotting out the "get your 100 names", "hound friends and family" etc. I feel Arbonne is better than that!!

And now that we are a truly global company-we need to market globally and as I can't wait for the company to realise this-it's up to me to take responsibility and learn how to do it for myself and my team.

I'll now climb down off my little pulpit and wish all fellow Arbonners every online marketing success!!!:blush:

[Michele Rosborough Contribution Level: 1]

Hi Eileen,

First of all your very welcome. I only spent 6 weeks in Australia once but loved it! Anyway onto your topic.

Horror stories - yes I have heard a few here. When you start with Arbonne as you know there are a couple of options for purchasing product, but (1)the RSVP being the most popular for both wholesale customers and business builders. (2) Then there is the option to purchase as you mentioned 4 kits etc. offered at a considerable discount also. I can't even remember what the price was because I didn't do it.

Arbonne has always said that people should be trying and buying any product before they decide to go into business and this is clearly re-iterated all the time. Yes I did hear of a few businesses that were operating agressively (it was concentrated I believe in one State) in that option (2) was the only option they were giving to prospective consultants. Let me just say that these consultants were given a formal warning by Arbonne and told if they continued this practise their businesses would be terminated by the company.

In any industry you get a few people like this that think they can somehow quicken the pace, it is neither duplicatable nor a nice way to do business and if that (buying 4 kits) was the only way they were training their downline then needless to say this is not going to much benefit. When people present (buying 4 kits) as the only way to get into this business it is categorically false. In fact the only thing you do need is your distributor kit, you don't even need to purchase the product but yes Arbonne puts incentives in there to purchase at substantial discounts within your first two months.

It's fine if one wanted to concentrate on the 'puppy dog' system (because it has worked very well for somepeople) but at least all options should be made aware to prospective consultants prior to starting. Personally I'm not a fan as I have neither the time nor the inclincation to be dropping off/collecting kits.

Now to address the second part of your observations - "If the lead returns the kit and doesn't want to get involved" - This is simply a cost of doing business - not everyone is going to be interested irrespective of what people sell, so one moves on.

As regards the party plan. This is part of MLM - it is only one method by which to market within the MLM industry. Arbonne doesn't describe itself as a party plan company at all but it is a method that many consultants use themselves because its more of an efficient and effective use of their time instead of direct face to face but it is only one method.

As you mentioned one of the great benefits of the party plan is that prospective consultants can see how this business works. Prospective consultants can imagine themselves doing this easier than talking direct face to face. It's a gentle learning curve for them.

Of course this all comes down to the person sponsoring them to show that there is an easy and duplicatable 'circle of business' if you like.

Introduce yourself at a party.
Get them to host a party.
Get bookings/referrals from that party.
Tell them that is the start of their business if they want it to be.

Led by their sponsor in training, support and guidance it seems to an easier course for people.

At the end of the day it's not the product - any product can be marketed so long as there is an identifiable need. What we are really marketing here is a duplicatable system for them to match, double, replace, increase their traditional linear income.

Is is all done by 'party plan' no. There are various methods from direct face to face, networking groups (proper ones), trade shows/community shows, local events, sponsored draws, colleges.

As regards online yes I find it restrictive that ethical people are not allowed to fully market online Arbonne going global will have to address this at some stage.

A few of us were talking about this very subject in another thread. One of the methods I use are forums in other countries whether they be general forums on a topic of interest to me or ex-pat forums. For instance you could begin a relationship with other Australians that are based in England or Canada or the US.

I have got retail sales in England from this and am currently working on getting a few of them to the upcoming meetings in the UK. I'm doing the same here in the US with Irish ex-pats who live here and again the same from here into Irish chat forums. So Arbonne isn't there yet but at least when they are I will have established a 'know you, like you, trust you' from the participants so that when Arbonne does go in I can easily approach people and they will be more receptive. (It's the long game but one I'm prepared for)

This is just one method. Go anywhere on this site and you will see advice on article marketing, using MS for getting leads and income so whereas we may not be able to directly advertise Arbonne on the net yet, there are ways around that while staying in compliance. Predominantly though at least for the moment it's a direct contact market.

One more thing on the 'party plan' method. When I first moved here to the US the only person I knew was my husband so when I sat down to make 'the list' I frequently laughed out loud with my list of about 15. I sat looking at this list for a long time thinking what am I going to say to these people? So I decided to use (not in the negative sense of the word) them for their lists if you like. Everyone supposedly has a cirle of influence of 250 people Sure but mine were 3000 miles away in a country where Arbonne wasn't marketing yet.

So rather than bombard them I did a business launch, they tried the products, some bought some didn't - none of them so far or may never be interested in the business but they provided me with a lot of referrals which is how I started first. LOL I still consider myself starting as I only used the products for about 6 months before I decided to start building.

Anyway what I now do (because most of my customers were once strangers to me and me to them) I use third party validations and testimonials in everything whether it's product or business.

I also carry two packs with me everywhere I go. Again I don't assault strangers! Rather if someone asks what I do, I do a 10 second commercial for myself and depending on what their original comment was they get a product pack or a business pack (with 3rd party info. in both).

So this might be another method to work your local market. The way I do any of my methods are a bit slow, I guarantee I won't be seeing ENVP for a few years and that's fine with me. The main thing for me is I am building solid, making money right now, can see with crystal clear vision how it is working. I have always made it my mission to provide great customer service and this is really what works! The repeat business is fantastic with very little effort in comparision to hunting new customers all of the time. This is important for Australia as once the rest of the product range is released there, you will have your existing customer base to market to in addition to new customer that have different needs.

Anyway I made a long story painful with all of this so I hope I wasn't too long-winded and that some of it was of benefit to you.

Any help you need or questions, just ask.

cheers,

Michele

p.s. Pick up a copy of Bob Burg's - Endless Referrals - Great book.

[isabelle mah Contribution Level: 1]

Hi There you should promote your business and what you do more. This is the first time im hearing about Arbonne. I've promoted what I do in the travel industry and have received a few responses from that site CHECK IT OUT