Some of you know that I am a volunteer offensive football coach at my local high school in the fall.  I love the strategy of the game and it is one way I have an opportunity of giving back to our community.  Many kids have no other way to learn about winning in life other than through sports.  I think everyone should know something about football if they are going to win the MLM game. 

The school I coach at has only 300 students.  We have enough kids that turn out for football to field a team, but not enough to have a separate offensive and defensive platoon.  Which means most of our kids play both offense and defense.  Since we are at the small end of the AA spectrum we tend to play schools that are as much as twice our size.  

The larger talent pool often gives our opponents a great advantage, at least on paper.  To win our games a few things must happen offensively.  We need to play mistake free football.  We need to mix our plays well to keep the defense on its heels.  And, we must control the time of possession.  It is critical for us to be on the field offensively at least 65% of the time. 

The reason we have to control the clock is because we play what is known as iron man football.  Again, our kids have to play both offense and defense.  In my opinion, playing offence requires less than half the energy that playing defense does.  On offense you control where you are going and what you are doing.  Offense is more fun than defense.  Scoring is not only fun, it energizes you.  Not to mention, football heroes are almost always offensive players.  As the song goes, “you have to be a football hero to get along with the beautiful girls.” 

On defense your whole game is about reaction and trying to stop the other guys from making you look bad.  It requires lots of energy.  When you want to stay fresh, you have to stay on offense.  When you are playing bigger, faster, stronger schools, you have to keep their offence off the field to win.  So what does that have to do with MLM? 

Calling offensive plays in MLM 

Here are just a few offensive plays in MLM; Prospecting, Showing the plan, Sponsoring, Attending meetings and functions, Listening to conference calls, Using the product line, Being on autoship, Building a retail customer base, Investing in books and audios, Attending generic training seminars, Setting and achieving your goals and…Teaching (by example) those that look to you for leadership to do all of the above also. 

These are all offensive plays because they give you energy, they build your business and your income, they are fun, and they keep you positive and headed down the field towards the goal line.  They keep you focused and you have complete control of all these actions.  When you control your actions, you control your numbers and therefore you control the outcome.  In other words, you win! 

Calling defensive plays in MLM 

Here are the defensive calls in MLM; Worrying about whether your downline is doing enough to build your income, Constantly calling the home office to solve all yours and your team’s problems, Worrying about backorders, Spending more than 20% of your time in management mode, Discussing problems with your team members, Deciding whether you should be on autoship or not, Deciding whether you are going to let this month’s autoship go through, Deciding whether to go to this next meeting or function, Deciding whether or not to be on the next conference call,  and…there are a bunch of other inactions you can concern yourself with that just flat wear you out, but I think you get the idea. 

The minute you begin to play defense in MLM is the minute you begin to kill your business.  Once you start playing defense, doubt starts to creep in.  You will begin to question whether you are with the right company, if MLM is viable or not, or whether it is all worth it.  I promise you, every MLM opportunity that you have ever quit, that action was preceded by you switching from playing offensive to playing defensive.   

No one quits when they are on offence! 

When ever you begin to have doubt creep in…ATTACK!  When ever you begin to question your company’s pay plan, product line or home office support…ATTACK!  When ever you see your downline begin to lose enthusiasm…ATTACK!  There are almost no problems in your MLM career that can’t be solved by sponsoring a new person!  Stay on offense.  ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK!

About The Auther