The gold’s already in your downline

These past few weeks I’ve been sitting in the back office with several leaders from our team. The same exercise each time: we scrolled through the whole downline, name by name, sorting into two piles: who’s still ordering, and who’s gone quiet. With one leader the quiet pile grew to more than 450 names: people who hadn’t ordered in over a year. And not one of them had left in anger; life got in the way, the LRP ran out at some point, and nobody noticed.

Sound familiar? Maybe the feeling behind it is familiar too: you’re the only one in your team who’s really building. Everyone waits for you, you pull, you motivate, you drag. The question I hear most often about this: “How do I get my people building?”

My answer this month: send them gold hunting. The easiest gold mine there is already sits waiting: the people who once said yes and went quiet. Someone who’s been quiet for a year still knows you, and the cupboard is probably still well stocked. For a team member who’s never opened a conversation on their own, there’s no easier place to start. And if you don’t have a downline yet, you do exactly the same with the list everyone already has: your friends and old connections. Open the guide at the bottom of this page and see what I mean in practice.

Kintsugi, repairing with gold. When a precious bowl breaks you don’t throw it away; you gather the shards and dust gold over the seams until the crack becomes a golden vein. A name gone quiet on your list is that kind of crack. And the book says what the gold is: the people you rebuild with, and the intention you bring.

And repairing is allowed to start small. Officially someone counts as reactivated as soon as they place a single order after 12 months of silence, however small. From the month after, that volume counts towards your TGV for 12 months, the team volume that opens your deepest payout levels. Maybe you’ve noticed there’s been less left in your AR balance since the new compensation plan rules. A TGV that’s too low is often the reason: you’re being paid on fewer levels. Gold hunting is the easiest way to repair that, and if you go at it with a plan and clear ground rules, you activate your team partners along the way; that makes your organisation futureproof.

One of the leaders I built those lists with put it honestly: keeping everyone motivated and pulling them along wears you down. So don’t work the list yourself. Split it: every active leader gets their own people, because they know the faces. Agree a rhythm together, 5 to 10 a week, and talk the replies through in your leaders’ meeting. Two groups wake up at once: your quiet customers and your leaders.

If an account has since been cleared away, you simply enrol them again, with everything a new enrolment brings: the new-member promotions and Fast Start. The exact mechanics are in the appendix. And a serious warning belongs right here: don’t make the mistake of thinking: “Ha! I’ll message all these people myself and enrol them myself too!” Then you’re back in the same trap, pulling all the work towards you and taking away your team partners’ chance to truly own what they do and build. Make the gold hunt a team effort and make it fun: a kick-off at your place, a WhatsApp group where you talk through the replies together, share tips and above all celebrate the wins.

And: go for no! “Go for No!” by Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz isn’t just a brilliant book I’d recommend (thin, read in an afternoon), it’s above all a good, healthy mindset for anyone working in network marketing: turn your goal around and count your no’s instead of your yeses. Look at it that way and you’re no longer afraid of no reply or a no, and in gold hunting both simply come with the territory. And don’t forget to have the people who say no removed: you want active accounts in your team, not dead weight.

The first contact with the people in your gold mine doesn’t have to be a big thing. One message, from your own name (or personally from your team leader), to one person at a time, no offer and no link:

“Are you actually still using your oils, or are they sitting in the cupboard?”

That’s all it is. We tested exactly this line last summer, and the replies were honest and warm. The answer also tells you why someone went quiet: disappointed, budget, forgotten, the contact faded, or a season of life that took all their attention. Each of the five asks for its own tone. And when a reply comes in, ring them or send a voice message; an enrolment link is the quickest way to put the conversation straight back to sleep.

Pick one name from your own list today and send that one line. And if you’re feeling brave: tomorrow, hand one team member their own ten names.

All the ranks and numbers stay up to date in the online appendix, and every abbreviation is explained in plain words in the glossary.

Missed the earlier editions? Catch up in the newsletter archive.