Should you rethink your MLM strategy?

The three letters, MLM, can either make you shout or make you shudder. We've all heard the promises made by the successful "upline" managers that try to recruit people with their promises of quick and easy money. The truth is, however, quite different. I learned through trial and error, and want to share my experience with others who are being fed a "tall tale."

Let me start by sharing my personal story. For the last twenty-eight years I have been in Information Technology, mostly working in the Financial industry. Once downsizing and outsourcing began negatively impacting the IT and Financial industries, I knew I had to explore other opportunities to support myself. While working at an insurance company, a co-worker approached me and started telling me about the multi-level health and wellness company she was working with. At first I was like, "oh no, not another one". You see, back in the 1990's, I had attempted to work with a multi-level marketing company, and despite the quality of their products, I had no success with them.

Being the eternal optimist, however, I decided to try the product. It was a health juice, and since I always feel that you can never be healthy enough, I was open to it. She persuaded me to sign up as a "Marketing Executive" as the distributors are called, and since it wasn't very expensive, I figured, "why not?" Needless to say, I did nothing as a distributor and even stopped drinking the juice for a while, even though I experienced its health benefits.

In April 2007, the consulting assignment I was working on was abruptly cut short due to the company's budget problems, and I decided that I would give multi-level marketing another chance.

I went to the hotel presentations, I put an ad in a local paper, I had business cards made, I dropped off my business cards at stores, I used the 3 foot rule and talked to anyone I met about the health juice, and still no prospects. Well, I did get one person who was interested via my ad in the paper, but after drinking the juice for a couple of months, she got caught up in family issues and dropped off. This brings me to October 2007 - yes - I had wasted another 6 months not knowing what to do with an MLM.

Then, as luck would have it, a friend sent me an invitation from Myspace  to create a profile page. I'd heard about Myspace, but what I'd heard made me believe it was just a networking site for kids. I decided to give it a look, and discovered that it wasn't just for kids, and that a lot of network marketers were using it to promote their businesses and were very successful at it.

I started reading other people's profiles and realized that I needed to learn "Marketing" to be a network marketer and really make a business out of my MLM. The more research I did, the more I realized that my upline manager was not steering me in the right direction, nor did he know anything about the new Web 2.0 marketing. He was the person who still strongly advocated the 3 foot rule and told me that I had to go out and 'meet more people' and talk to them about the 'business'. However, what I read about MLM in the 21st century totally contradicted what my upline manager was saying, so I decided to study what the really successful people were doing.

Let me take a moment and share what I've learned with you.

The most important thing to remember is that it's about your prospect and not about you. Too many people don't realize that when their focus is not on the prospect, he/she knows it. We all need to make money, but when it's JUST about the money, the prospect runs. The key here is to understand that you are there to 'serve' your prospect/audience. Whatever your product or opportunity is, your prospect will not be interested unless you can 'communicate' the benefits of it and have them understand the value that they might gain should they purchase the product or join the opportunity. 'Servant-hood marketing' is the only type of marketing that appeals to a prospect.

The most successful type of marketing is called 'permission marketing'. This is when you present your product or opportunity via newspaper ads, flyers, and on the Internet and allow prospects that 'want' your product or opportunity, to approach you. The most effective method used in permission marketing today is the web. With the advent of my space, Face book, You tube, and user-driven web pages, there is a plethora of ways to get your product or opportunity to the masses and allow them to get back to you if its something they need or want. In turn, this allows you to be able to concentrate solely on those people who are seeking the benefits that your product or opportunity affords. Using the old 'three-foot rule', you might have approached people who would never want the benefit or your product or opportunity, and you would be wasting their time and yours, spinning your wheels, presenting benefits that are falling on deaf ears. Permission marketing will get back for you, the friends and family who are avoiding you and screening your calls because they are tired of being pitched about your product and opportunity !! It's an easy and effective way of reaching people who really want to make extra money part-time, or eventually go full time in Network Marketing.

If you want to succeed in the Network Marketing Industry like I did, you can start right now by going to my website at http://www.bestmarketingwithjudyt.com and downloading my FREE E-Book. I can be reached at jatmentor@gmail.com with any questions you may have.

- Judy Tarasek