48 hours to Train a Successful Partner—or Lose Them Forever

Congratulations! You’ve just sponsored a new partner. You’re thrilled, already dreaming about the contributions this person will make to your downline.

Finding someone of this caliber was no easy feat: serious, motivated, and ready to commit. Your happiness knows no bounds; their potential seems limitless. Naturally, you decide to give them a few days to settle in—after all, nobody appreciates feeling pressured right from the start.

The last thing you want is for them to feel smothered. Instead, you opt for a refined approach, allowing them first to digest the material you’ve provided. You plan to reconnect in seven days at the mid-week meeting, where they’ve promised to bring several friends. This will be an excellent opportunity to delve into the finer details of the business.

From hero to zero

Your new partner, let’s call him Jim, has meanwhile gone to bed, planning to read the material the next day without any rush. He has a whole week to ramp up. Starting tomorrow, he’ll begin to assess his friends’ interest in the business.

However, the following day brings the typical challenges faced by most new distributors: his best friend outright ignores his pitch, his wife looks at him with a mix of perplexity and anger, questioning his judgment, and a work colleague advises him to abandon the folly, claiming to know others who’ve earned nothing from similar ventures.

Feeling overwhelmed by negativity, Jim reaches out to you that same evening, in dire need of a pep talk. His enthusiasm has waned, and his morale has plummeted. But you’re not available—you’re out prospecting for another new partner, and your phone is off.

Jim goes to bed fraught with doubts, pondering, “Perhaps things aren’t as promising as I was led to believe,” as he drifts off to sleep.

Just 24 hours since you brought him on board, and your “rising star” is already contemplating a retreat. And you weren’t there to guide him.

The Day After

How does someone who faced nothing but discouragement the day before start their day? With a prevailing thought: “Hopefully, today won’t be as bad as yesterday.”

From the get-go, he’s set himself up for defeat. And so it goes for Jim, who has lost that vital spark of enthusiasm so crucial for a new partner. He lacks not only the “technique” to effectively handle objections or to pitch the business correctly but even the will to try.

Despite his fears, he’s determined to uncover the truth: whether the previous day was just a bad episode or a grim reality. He calls a friend he hasn’t spoken to in ages:

• – “Hey… It’s Jim! How have you been? Oh, that’s great! Listen, there’s something I’ve been looking into… it seems interesting… I mean, I’m kinda curious about it… just exploring, you know?”
• – “What’s it about?”
• – “Well, I’ll explain… So…”

Jim’s conversation meanders on for half an hour, during which he offers up every piece of disjointed information he can recall. 

The outcome—a mix of insecurity, unpreparedness, and uncertainty—is guaranteed. As expected, his friend’s response seals Jim’s failure in this approach. 

Consequently, in 92% of cases, individuals decide, “This NM business isn’t for me.”

Perhaps he’ll confide in you, or maybe he’ll keep it to himself. Either way, Jim has already thrown in the towel. 

He’s convinced he’ll never make money or achieve success by the fourth rejection.

To you, Jim has become just another inactive partner. 

And whose fault is that? Yours, in a scenario like this.

48 Hours. Not a Minute More.

From the moment someone becomes a partner, you have 48 hours to arm them with all the essential information about the business and prepare them for reality.

There are only two outcomes: either you successfully create a champion or lose them forever.

In these 48 hours, you must:

• 1) Provide your new partner with basic information about the company, products, and earnings plan.
• 2) Make it clear that following a single work system is crucial, and deviating from it spells failure.
• 3) Simplify the first step of the work system, promising to explore further steps later.
• 4) Insist on scheduling their first few appointments together with you to prevent them from discussing the business prematurely on their own.
• 5) Prepare them for rejection, explaining that nine out of ten people will say “No.” It’s a common experience, especially at the start, but that one “Yes” will become their first success. Inform them that initial meetings are merely to gauge interest. This way, they’ll be less disheartened by rejections and more thrilled by acceptances.

All this guidance is crucial. In simple terms, never leave your new partner to fend for themselves in the early stages. Your support is critical. Without it, they’re likely to fail (92% chance), not because of the opportunity itself but due to the overwhelming negativity they encounter and their own unrealistic expectations for immediate success. Remember, even many successful NM leaders started off slowly.

Just Two Days

I’ve often seen people acknowledge the importance of not letting these initial 48 hours slip by. Yet, many fail to adhere to this timeframe, finding excuses to extend it to 72 or 96 hours.

But by then, it’s usually too late. A new partner who has faced too many rejections and discouragements is hard to motivate again.

You can cultivate motivated, fast-duplicating frontlines that create an explosive growth effect in your organization.

The only requirement is to “activate” them within 48 hours. No more.