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   November 2002

Product Development Technique
Mentor Programs


As usual I almost always do something myself before I try to teach it to someone else and this topic is no exception. I started my mentor program back in January so I now have 10 months experience to tell you about. And yes, even though this is not a physical product, it is a product.

What are the benefits to you?

  • Mentor programs are a way to help more people in a cost effective manner, my consulting fee is nothing to sneeze at. This allows me to attract more participants to the program because it�s a bigger bang for the buck

  • It's an additional Revenue Stream for your business.

  • You can multiply yourself. When you are on the phone with many people your knowledge is being sold at a cheaper rate, but in more volume. Similar to doing a speech with potential customers in the crowd.

  • You create better results for people because you are with them over time This in turn will create an ever expanding group of people who will promote you more enthusiastically and credibly because they actually got good results.

  • A mentor program provides a group of people under your control for back end product sales � They are a more qualified and ready group for back end product sales and recommendations. (You better be darn careful not to recommend something that is junk or you will lose their loyalty.)


Benefits for Mentees

  • Access to a credible source that really cares about their success.
    Help with the hundreds of decisions that face them.

  • Networking. -- Many mentees are making deals with other mentees because they have a complimentary idea.

  • Synergy � Part of the program to this point is that I talk to mentees while other mentees are listening. A tremendous number of ideas are presented in any one session. When I�m talking to Joe, Dan is listening. When I talking to Dan, Joan is listening, etc.

  • Discounts � on things they were probably going to purchase from me anyway.

  • Freebies

Income Potential

  • Pricing -- Corporate mentoring can command a higher price from $4500 per year to $15,000 a month or more. Small business mentoring can be $2500. Individual mentoring can be $1000 or more a year. All these figures are just made up but they are generally representative of the relative amounts you can get depending on your market. Your notoriety, the service you're offering and many others factors will determine how much you can charge.

  • Pre-requisite Sales -- My mentees must have about $300.00 worth of learning materials before they are allowed into the program. This helps to insure their success and keeps them from being lost and wasting time with simple ideas they could easily learn on their own.

  • Back end Products � Mentees are prime candidates to purchase other products and services from you and to recommend your products and services to others.


How to Get Mentees

  • Recruitment � Try to get the "right" kind of mentees.
    Here is my overriding principle- Your mentor program will help quality people get better and achieve more. It is unlikely you will take non-quality people and turn them around. (I�m not doing any kind of judging of people here. I just know that certain types of people have little chance of success in my program.)

  • Put notice on your website http://www.GreatInternetMarketing.com/mentorprogram.htm

  • Put notice in your Ezine

  • Tell people about it in person

  • Tell them about it on the phone

  • Use affiliates to recruit for you (You must be careful that they don't recruit people that have little chance of success)


Payment

I originally started out letting people pay monthly. I found that this did not work because people were spending their last nickel to join and thinking they were going to be rich at the end of the month. They didn't have realistic expectations and they didn't have the money to build their sales system.

Now people pay for six months or one year in advance with no refunds. I have found that this makes for a much more committed mentee who is infinitely more likely to get good results. I feel like I'm doing them a favor by pre-qualifying them because it does neither one of us any good if they don't get results. Sure I get some short term cash flow, but the long term effects of people telling others that they didn't get results (even though it wasn't my fault) will hurt my program.

Occasionally I will cut deals, but I make the people write all the checks in advance and I tell them I'm going to deposit them no matter what happens. I try to avoid making these deals because the accounting is a hassle and IN GENERAL I get a lesser quality mentee who is more likely to drop out. But if I think a person is really serious, I'll make exceptions.


Communication with mentees

  • Mostly email announcements

  • Sometimes it�s easier to call with an answer to one of their questions than to type it.

  • The only mail I use is to mail them a tape of any sessions they may have missed.


Here's what my mentees get

  • Welcome Email and teleconference schedule

  • Initial two hours of phone consulting spread out over two or four calls

  • Unlimited email access to me for questions

  • Two TeleConferences a month (this may increase to three or four as program grows.

  • Discounts 25% off all products and services.

  • Freebies � Teleseminars, Books, PDF files,

  • Private membership site (this e-magazine you are reading)

  • Discussion board http://www.GreatInternetMarketing.com/forums


Scheduling:

Theory- If I booked myself solid on the phone and I only told someone what I know from the past, yes that would be helpful to them, but think of this. If I didn�t leave anytime to work on my own system and learn new things, my value to the mentees would DECREASE over time. So I must leave time to both rest my mind and to learn new things.

On my mentee and consulting calls I try to book one call mid morning and one call mid afternoon Monday through Thursday. This gives me the rest of the time to work on my own things and room to fit in urgent situations for my clients and mentees. Since much of my speaking is on the weekend, I leave Fridays open to work on my stuff, rest my mind a little or to travel.

I alternate mentee teleconferences from 1:00 PM Eastern time to 8:00 Eastern time. They are usually on Wednesdays, but that is not carved in stone. One time I had to reschedule the call because I had to fly that day.

During the 90 minute call, I do a topic for about 30 minutes and then I interview individual mentees for the rest of the time. The topics aren't in any order. I just pick something that I think they need to know about.

Right now, here are the fees for my program.

$1500.00 six months plus pre-requisites
$2500.00 year
$3000.00 per month unlimited phone consulting

If you would like to join visit http://www.GreatInternetMarketing.com/mentorprogram.htm

 

Other upcoming topics

  • Product packaging

  • Ebooks

  • Mentor Programs

  • TeleSeminars

  • Consulting

  • Video Tapes

  • Webcasts

  • Radio Shows

  • Videoconferencing from home

  • Streaming audio courses

  • Streaming video courses

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