A Practical Guide For Network Marketers

A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR NETWORK MARKETING

Here is a list of basic ingredients and preparatory knowledge that you need to consider, combine and implement into your routine if you want to see results in your business. You have to figure out the amounts, fill in the blanks and add your special touch. This is a primer on pure machinery and knowledge to grow your business, not a motivational treatise.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• There is no holy grail when it comes to producing success. There is no miracle “system”, “secret” or “key” that can guarantee you anything. You increase your odds of success when you apply yourself to work systematically and repeat essential critical activities such as: consistently sharing the benefits of your product(s) with as many people as you can on a regular basis through advertisement, following up with prospects, making yourself available for any questions, keeping in touch with your teammates, teaching others how to apply the things that have worked for you from trial and error. Be skeptical of “success coaches” who want you to purchase their “secrets”. Free enterprise is great and there are a few who do offer some helpful nuggets along the way, but more often than not you find yourself poorer and lost in a morass of endless rhetorical meandering that often leaves you still wondering where the magic wand is.

• Everyone cannot do Network Marketing. Becoming a networker requires either inherent or acquired skill, much like becoming a doctor or a statesman (with maybe a little less cost and time). It requires education and repeated effort. You don’t just get good over night either, but you can learn rapidly if you’re already naturally talented in people skills or willing to discipline yourself. Unfortunately there are plenty of people who just don’t have the patience or resolve to make it in this industry. You might have already guessed that not everyone can be the top CEO or president of a corporation. But as with all job opportunities, if you work hard enough you just might get there.

• Working hard does not guarantee your financial success, it only enhances the probability of it. And just as it is unfair to criticize any industry for not producing a 100% “success” rate, network marketing cannot be blamed justifiably as a faulty or illegitimate structure. This is why talking about a 95% or 97% failure rate (or whatever it may be) is meaningless. There will always only be a small percentage that reaps the biggest rewards – all you can do is determine that you will be a part of that small percentage, and exert every effort to achieve your goals.

• Network marketing isn’t easy. It may operate on a simple platform, but it is very hard and mentally exhausting work. It is probably the hardest thing you’ll ever have to do. You will be grossly underpaid at the beginning and grossly overpaid in the end.

• Your product should have unique characteristics. If it is similar to other available products on the market, make sure that it has a “superior” quality that can survive the competition. If this is not the case, you are in an uphill battle because there’s no incentive for someone to buy what you have over a cheaper and more widely available version online or at a local store. Ensuring better-quality products also makes your business “hurt proof” because at the end of the line everyone benefits even if they don’t make money.

• Compensation should be fair. The product may be superb and you may wish to be a customer, but decide if whether or not the income you can generate will be able to justify the effort you are putting into making a business out of it. Find out how much you will be getting paid based on how many customers you get or volume you produce.

• Consider the stability of a company. Everyone will have varying standards for what they consider a solid and ethical company, but make sure it is debt free and that it has an infrastructure to last. Having a reliable track record is always helpful and comforting. A great product and compensation plan doesn’t necessarily mean the company is going to last, although they are certainly indispensable.

• Do not think you will encourage business building by giving away your prospects to a friend, family member or anyone you are trying to motivate. Not even if it’s your very best friend. While everyone should be interested in helping humanity with the product or service they are offering, you cannot continue to help others if you destroy your own profitability beforehand. Save the charity work until after you’re making enough to survive. This business operates based on individuals being motivated enough to find their own people for development, because you can’t possibly build everyone’s business. If you invest time in those who are not motivated and willing to work for their own business (by getting their own prospects), the whole thing will collapse and you’ll end up discouraged.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

• Lead with your product, NOT a business opportunity. Your network marketing business and hence profitability are only as strong as your product or service, so if you cannot keep enough little guys ordering WITHOUT having to constantly lure with promises of wealth, then you’re already in the wrong company and it’s probably leaning toward a scam – it doesn’t matter how great of a leader you are, you will eventually get exasperated you until you quit, jump to another “opportunity” or resort to writing some ungodly “how-to-become-successful [in that which I most likely have not]” book.

• Advertise constantly, or forget about having a business. The problem with most people is that they will only try a few methods of reaching out to new prospects and then give up once they are not having the success they had hoped. Imagine if wal-mart decided that they were going to close down because their advertising one year didn’t yield the kind of revenue they were hoping? Or any business for that matter, giving up because their ad campaign failed and their profits plunged for the year? You have to keep trying different things. You can’t bank on one method to be your only hope. It’s about trial and error. If your attempt failed, don’t blame the product or the business, blame the way you presented it.

• Set workings hours for yourself. If you can do it full time, great, if not, then decide which days and which hours you will be working, even if you can only do one or two hours a day. You have the goals, so you know what you’re aiming for.

• Forget about your family and friends as people who are going to contribute to the prosperity of your business. The idea that you can become successful at network marketing simply by recruiting family and friends in your organization is as absurd as believing that if you opened up a restaurant, your family and friends would be able to keep you in business. If you happen to be fortunate enough to have a family member who does do something, then work with them, but don’t consider family or relatives your bread and butter.

• Look for customers. Not elusive “heavy hitters”. The individuals who build a business based on initially valuing the product will stick with you until the end, and the so called professional “heavy-hitters” looking to rake in a bundle of cash on a wave of enthusiasm will be the first the leave. Your customers make most of your business anyway, therefore make sure that your product is strong enough to be worth buying even if there is no compensation plan attached to it. This also makes it harder for “mlm jumpers” to take their organization with them to something else promising greater wealth. No successful business will last if its gospel is only about “getting rich”. A limited appeal to greed is alright, but at the end of the line there has to be a product that keeps people coming back for more, regardless if they will get paid or not.

• Learn everything you can about your product and business. This is your business, and therefore it is your responsibility to understand why the products are worth buying, how they will benefit the potential customer, how they are better than similar products and why you are in the company that you are in. You may need to consult those who have been in the business longer to get some of your answers, but if you can’t then at the end of the line you are the one that has to take charge and understand it all.

• Be a servant to your teammates/customers, and stop dwelling on the money. Rather than thinking in terms of upline or downline, realize that you need to focus on simply helping your teammates to become successful. Their fruits will be your fruits. Sure you’re in it to make money, but you won’t prosper from worrying about how big your paycheck is going to be, but by getting good at what you do and repeating it.

• Take a break if you are feeling discouraged or burnt out. Quitting does not solve anything unless you’re in the wrong company (sometimes defined as: products without unique characteristics, poor compensation, and management instability). Even if it’s the best company in the world it’s natural to get down for whatever reason (usually from massive rejection) and feel as though our business will never develop or grow as we expected. Especially when the person you were sure was going to turn your business around ended up being a complete dud. Even experienced networkers have dismal moments and challenges on different levels. The best way to deal with this is to take a nice healthy break and then come back again with full force.

HOW YOU CAN DO IT

• Before you do anything you need to get organized in your plan by putting first things first. All of the following activities are going to be crucial in acquiring both customers and business builders.

1. LEARN Educate yourself on the product you offer, both for your own knowledge and for being able to tell others why they need it. Understand your own reasons and how to explain why your product and business are “superior” or “better” than any existing competition (if there is any).

2. EXPERIENCE Use your own product so that you can have a personal testimonial to its effectiveness or validity.

3. SHARE Apply the learning and experience you have acquired by telling others why they too should use your product, and teach them to repeat the process. This is the act of duplicating yourself. If the person cannot see the value in your product after you’ve explained why it is important, there is no point asking if they are willing to try or buy it.

Essential Business Building Tools

• Get business cards. This is one of the first things you should make. It should be attractive and feature your name, title and have a description of your product or what you do.

• Computer access is necessary. Most people own a computer, so this isn’t a big problem.It’s indispensable for any home-based business.

• Develop or use a duplicable website system to take away the burden of your business builders or customers having to manually explain the overall value of the products or the business to every person they come in contact with. It gets everyone on the same page and will appeal to the masses of customers in your business who may only be interested in casually sharing the products or even wanting a little side income. The website system should have a certain demarcation between the product(s) and the business opportunity, so that it appeals to everyone. But don’t separate them so much that the customer isn’t aware that they can also share the product(s) and receive monetary compensation. Your company may already have the perfect system and all you need to do is make sure everyone is plugged in. Not everyone will be able to have the perfect website system to offer to their team right away, depending on what is available. If you don’t, try to make do with what you have until you feel that the cost of creating it will be justified proportionate to your business growth.

• Have Plenty of Materials, and keep them handy at all times with enough information about your products and business. People don’t just get convinced by word of mouth. They need to look at information and convince themselves.

Prospecting Methods

• First there is your warm market. These are people you are already familiar with. Be it friends, acquaintances or family. This is the most accessible group of people, but don’t expect that they will see the value in what you have to tell them. Once you run out of these people you have to resort to other ways, some of which may require a small investment. The goal is to keep it as budget-friendly as possible while maximizing results.

• “Referral-based” marketing is one of the most effective ways to find new prospects, it doesn’t cost anything and it usually happens over the phone. This means that everyone you know has contact with someone you don’t know. If you are not successful in convincing the person that what you have is valuable, always thank them for listening to you and then tell them how passionate you are about what you’re doing and if they happen to know anyone who would be remotely open-minded to what you’re sharing. You will find that the chances are very high they will give you a referral or two. This is the way to keep opening up doors to endless possibilities with prospects.

• Business card, leaflet/mini-card advertising is going to be one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal to reach out to people who may be interested in what you have but don’t know about it. Make sure there is a summary explanation of your product and/or business plus contact info (name, email, website, phone number).This is relatively inexpensive and way to get your product or opportunity out there. The content can focus on business or product or both. I recommend trying both and then focusing more on the one that produces the most results. Also, expect to have to distribute many hundreds or even thousands of these before getting one or two calls or emails out of it. Places to distribute them would be: car windows (between the rubber and glass on the driver side door window, not the front windshield), magazines

• Door-to-Door advertisement can be highly effective with minimal costs. This is the way many local businesses get the word out and create awareness in the community. You can try door-hangers with information about your product/service or you can greet the people at the door. Tell them your name and who you are and briefly what you do. Hand them some material and let them know that they are free to contact/call you if they find it interesting. Also say that they are free to mention your services to anyone they know who might be interested. Make sure you get a permit to go door to door, if applicable.

• Internet socializing is another powerful way to find people. There are literally hundreds of social networking sites that you can make yourself available on. Some are specifically for network marketing. Take time to make some friends with similar interests, and if you are on a site with a forum that is geared toward home-based businesses and networking, get in contact and compare notes with whoever would be interested in doing so. You can even post a few advertisements for your business in advertising sections of forums, but don’t put all of your emphasis on this. Everyone wants to believe that their business is the best one and that everyone else should join them because theirs is better, but sometimes all you can is get an agreement to mutually take a look at what the other one has. Rather than trying to convince the person that they should join you, simply compare products and compensation plan as well as talk about the stability of your respective companies and maybe share helpful tips along the way. You will both have an opportunity to talk about your side and if you find that you’re both content with where you are at, there was nothing to lose. You would be surprised how many people are simply in a certain company because they don’t know any better, and they didn’t realize that there were other options out there. Network marketing is like any other job market. Some products are more comprehensive and some compensation plans pay more than others.

• Cold-calling people from “prequalified lists” is another market often tapped, although you may find that it is a very arduous and often fruitless endeavor. Rejection is going to be overwhelming, no matter how you approach these people. Some people have limited success. I wouldn’t recommend it personally.

A few other, less budget friendly, prospecting markets would be newspapers, magazines and radio.

Prospecting Protocol

• If you are fulltime in network marketing you should be making 25 real contacts per day (125 per week), and if you are falling short at least make sure you are doing everything in your power to achieve that amount. If you have a different number in mind, set it according to your goals and stick to it. A “real contact” is a person who has shown interest in either the product or the business, not merely someone you have talked to on the phone or spoken with. After speaking with a prospect, evaluate whether the person is a green, yellow or red.

Greens = are prospects demonstrating positive interest in knowing more about either your product or business. Greens should be scheduled for follow-up as soon as possible and no more than a week out unless they specify otherwise.

Yellows = should be determined by those not opposed to looking at what you have but may be delayed in their interest. Sometimes they won’t seem want to know more right away, but would be worth talking to at future times.

Reds = persons who should not be contacted any further, as it's unlikely they are of any value to your business.

• Following up is critical. After speaking with a prospect over the telephone make sure you set up an appointment to call them back at a time that works for them. In a social setting, simply mention that you will be calling them or emailing them some time soon to get their feedback.

Expressing Yourself

• The safest overall approach is to just be natural as though you were sharing a good movie or book without financial interest vested. Mention that you recently learned of something and that you think they probably deserve to hear about. Don’t be tense, just relax and smoothly transition the conversation. Don’t sound overly excited or intense about it, but make sure they notice you are genuine and passionate about it.

• If they seem skeptical, get on the same page and acknowledge that they have good reason to be skeptical, as there are a lot of scams out there. Mention if you were skeptical at first also. But let them know that a product has to be judged on its own merits, not impressions. Be sure to mention that you are going to send them something to look at. A brief email with information on key things that makes your product worth looking at, or a website with information, will do. Then tell them that you want to get their opinion and feedback on it. If they do not call or email you back, wait a few days and then call again.

• In everyday social settings where chatting occurs, you can even direct the conversation by being spontaneous.

Example Phrase:

"Can I ask you a crazy question? What do you think about)…--put your own words here--?"

OR:

"Can I ask you an out-of-the-blue question? Are you familiar at all with (or: ‘do you take…’) ----?"

With this approach you are trying to find out if they are interested in the type of field that concerns your product, and if they take something similar, that is your opportunity to ensue with an explanation.

Example Phrase:

"You know it’s interesting because I used to take (or: I used to use/I used to think)----, until I discovered (/found out)…---talk about your product here and how it’s better or innovative---."

You can always modify the exact words you say depending on the situation, but ask open-ended questions (i.e. “how do you feel about…?” etc) and keep the friendliness and concept intact.

Always be sure to hand them your business card or a mini-card/brochure/leaflet before you part ways.

If you don’t have an opportunity to get into a conversation, here is an example phrase for handing out leaflet/mini-card:

“Oh, by the way, could you do me a favor? Could you give this to someone you care about? Thanks!”

Note: you will find that very few people ever refuse this kind of approach.

And here is an example phrase for handing out your business card:

“oh, I just had some new business cards made and I feel this urge to give it to someone, do you mind?” (OR: “…and I just really feel like giving it to someone”).

• When you are contacting a referral (obtained from the referral based marketing technique) over the phone, make sure that you sound friendly and mention the person who referred them.

Example phrase:

“Hi my name is ---, I don’t think you know me but the reason I was calling was because I was talking to [your friend?] ---, and we happened to be chatting about…and somehow your name came up as someone who might be curious to know more about what I was sharing, so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to at least give it a shot…, and btw if this is a bad time for you I apologize, I can certainly call back another time!”

If it is a bad time for them make sure you get a specific time for a future appointment to talk.

Be warm and friendly, never forced.

• Make sure you are not acting desperate when you’re trying to tell someone why you think they would benefit from your product or business. You end up looking as unsuccessful as you obviously are. Probe their interest level and look for every opportunity for a conversation. When in social situations you can make general inquires like, what they do for a living, etc. They may reciprocate these questions which will give you an opportunity to briefly divulge what you do, but don’t be long-winded and be attentive for clues that they might want to know more. Depending on what your product is, they may be familiar with something similar (but hopefully inferior) to what you’re offering.

• Avoid being pushy with unreceptive people. Just as you aren’t going to convince everyone to think the same way that you do, you are not going to be able to help everyone see that what you have is valuable. You will only be instrumental in helping them to decide on their own. People do not want to be convinced anyway; they want to feel as though they convinced themselves (even if you are responsible for it).

Business Maintenance

• Keep in contact with your organization by communicating regularly. Don’t leave your business builders and customers hanging. You should be calling key teammates at least once or twice a week, and make it a habit to give occasional courtesy/checkup calls to customers (especially the closer ones) and ask them if they need anything. Make sure you let everyone know that they should feel free to call you for any questions or help they might need. And if you don’t know the answers, tell them you will get it for them.

• Conduct conference calls or recommend existing ones and make sure your business builders are getting as many customers on as they can. Having one or two (maximum) short conference calls a week, or every other week, is plenty. Having too many will overwhelm people to the point where they no longer want to get on. Ensure that they are bringing new people on to listen and ask questions so that they aren’t letting the calls go to waste. If you are the one giving the presentations, have a brief overview of the product and then have one on the business. All customers interested in only products can get on the one call (or half of the call) and those interested in the business can get on the other call (or other half of the call). That way you aren’t making anyone feel pressured.

• Send out periodic emails to anyone willing to be on your mailing list for updates or encouragement, but be careful not to overdo it. It’s easy to overwhelm your organization and even business builders with too much information. Keep your emails to a minimum, make sure they are important announcements. Send out a “reconnection” email every so often to as many customers as possible, if you have lost track from keeping in contact. This will be more necessary as your organization becomes larger and it is harder to keep in touch regularly with all of them.

• Balance maintenance with prospecting. It’s essential that you don’t focus too much on either recruiting or maintenance but establish some kind of equilibrium between the two. You should be doing about 30% maintenance and 70% prospecting.

ENDING COMMENTS

As you can see, rather than some magic formula, achieving profitable goals requires an accumulation of real disciplined steps that you must take. Sacrifice and a little capital investment is the only way to grow a successful and thriving business. Resolving to do whatever it takes to succeed, despite instances of failure, is as much a reality in network marketing as any other pursuit in life. The good news is, you have the choice and the possibility for limitless rewards.