I had a call from one of my team this morning and it took me right back to my fledgling days of Network Marketing. It was from Joanne and she was in a bit of a state.

"John, I have tried everything but I just cant phone these people, is there another way? Could you phone them for me?"

I had to smile as I recognized that state of panic and fear. I calmed her down and asked what is was she feared the most. Now I must point out that Joanne has got off to a great start in the business and has all her lead generation and follow up in place. In fact she has pretty much got all the online parts of her business sewn up but we have found a weak point that needs to be addressed.

So I asked her out straight.

"Joanne what is it your fearful of?"

"John, don't you know! I don't want REJECTION"

Once again I was taken back to my first period in this industry and this was a time when the Internet wasn't an option for lead generation. Back then it was advertise offline, work your circle of influence (and then work it again) and follow cold calling scripts when phoning your leads.

When I first started my enthusiasm took me through and I called with great gusto. I got my posture right and I called and called. Each time I got an answer I would rush through my script making sure I didn't miss anything, bringing them closer and closer to the sale. I got to the end (when I was lucky) and then was presented with a big fat NO.

After a while the thought of picking up the phone sounded harder than picking up a block of concrete. Every bad association I had with my cold calling was associated with that phone and I grew to hate it. So I knew exactly how Joanne was feeling.

You have to love the phone in this business but sometimes you can adjust your process to make that love affair stacked more in your favor. I just needed to remind Joanne about this.

"Joanne, what is the purpose of the call you are so concerned with?" I asked knowing full well what the answer was.

"John, this person has just signed up under me and I need to call them to introduce them to my team and explain how to navigate around the back office. I really don't like this part of the process so can't you do it for me". You see we have now set up the entire process so the first call that needs to be made is when someone calls you or joins the business.

"Joanne, remember when you joined the business and I gave you a call, how did you feel?"

Well of course she felt great and was really happy an actual human being had made the effort to call her. After all everything up to this part had been entirely online so the human interaction was the part that made her realise this was a business she wanted to stay involved with.

Needless to say we got through this 'most difficult call' and Joanne has started to disassociate her fear of the phone. Regardless of how you set your process up you need to love the phone, as it is the difference between a mediocre network marketing business and 7-figure income a year type of business.