I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Network marketing is a business built on relationships. No relationships, no MLM business, no long term residual income. But how do you build solid relationships with the right people? The answer is MARKETING.
Marketing is the tool you use to put yourself in touch with qualified people. The vast majority of network marketers don’t know how to market. As Mike Dillard of Magnetic Sponsoring fame says: “This is an industry of promotion pursued by people who have no idea how to promote.” Most network marketers are running around like untrained salespeople, pitching their business to anything with a pulse. And they are failing miserably.
In the third book of the Rich Dad series, Rich Dad’s Guide To Investing, Robert Kiyosaki brilliantly points out the difference between sales and marketing. Sales is done person-to-person, marketing is done through a system. You can only talk to so many people and be rejected so many times before you get worn out. But if you have an effective marketing system that does the prospecting for you, this is a completely different game.
The perfect marketing system has 5 elements. They are…
- Targeted Lead Generation
- Automated Follow Up with Prospects
- Relationship Building between You and the Prospect
- Sponsoring and
- Training
Targeted Lead Generation
Too many networkers are failing because they are targeting the wrong people. They are trying to painting mental images of the dream lifestyle to people who are perfectly happy to sit in front of the TV, watch sports all day long and drink beer. Let them be – the commercial television stations would all go out of business otherwise.
You can’t make anybody desire anything. They either have it or they don’t.
Talk to qualified people only – people who already want to own their life. Put your message in front of people who already have dreams, goals and want to be successful. These are people who are going to build the business.
How do you do that?
Promote YOURSELF (not your product, or company) as someone who can help your prospect become more successful in this industry. People in network marketing a crying out for leadership because they just can’t get any from their own upline. People join people, not companies or products, so study people and reach out to them.
Leaders are readers. They’re always looking for information that can help them be more successful. So direct them to a website that captures their contact information in exchange for something valuable like a great ebook (the “Success In 10 Steps” ebook, for example). That way, their options are to give you their contact details or leave.
Automated Follow Up with Prospects
Once you capture a new lead, you must start building a relationship with them straight away. If you don’t, your marketing efforts have been wasted. Following up with prospects is very important, but it can be tedious job to try and get a hold of them at the right time. Besides, you may be on a nice cruise while your marketing system is hard at work!
That’s why you need an autoresponder system to follow up with your new prospects for you. Send them an email every day or two to kindle the relationship with words. You need to know your target audience, so you can go into their minds and anticipate their questions and answer them in print. That way, they can trust you because you know what you’re talking about.
One-on-one Relationship Building
This is the most important element of the marketing system. Network marketing is a relationships business. This is a step that a lot of “new school” networkers using generic online training systems on the internet don’t do. They don’t pick up the phone and call their prospects.
They would rather sell their leads on the generic lead generation system that has a monthly subscription so they can make an affiliate commission from them. This happens all the time. But what they don’t realise is they are trading long term residual income for short term profits.
Retaining people is absolutely key to success in this industry. Yet, this industry has a 95% drop out rate because uplines have failed to build good relationships with their people.
This is the part where you reach out to people and show that you care about their success. You get to know your prospect and they get to know you. This is also where you decide whether you want to work with the prospect or not. Ask them the tough question: “Why are they building home business?” and make sure it’s a damn good reason, which leads to the next step…
Sponsoring
Make sure you’re sponsoring people who are going to build the business no matter what because they have such a burning desire to be financially independent. That’s why their “Why” is so important. Don’t qualify people on their credentials, qualify people on their level of desire.
Most people are being trained to be recruiters, not sponsors. A recruiter only knows how to “close” people into the deal and move on to the next prospect. Recruiters never really know the people they sign up and that’s why their retention rate is so dismal. Their relationships are non-existent.
One of the beautiful things about network marketing is you get to chose the people that you work with. As an employee you don’t have that privilege. So only sponsor people who you would befriend for the rest of your life – people you would want to take along on a 1 month cruise.
Training
No training equals no network marketing business. You’re not just here to make friends – the people you sponsor must duplicate the results of your own marketing efforts. Teach your people about people and teach them how to promote themselves.
Plug people into this system over and over again, watch them grow into leaders and you can own your life.
If you have a single system that takes people through these 5 steps, you are well on your way to success. If you don’t have them all, you absolutely must find a way to incorporate the missing steps or develop them yourself.
I am very fortunate in that I’ve found such a system that has these 5 critical elements so that I didn’t have to spend years building one for myself. See this amazing system for yourself.
To your MLM success,
Wayne Wu
P.S. I would love your input! If you have an opinion that would contribute to this discussion, please leave me a comment below.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
The current economic condition in the US is not one that will foster true growth in MLM. Sure, relationships are important, but in order to really get to the top, you need NUMBERS. Nothing more, nothing less. For each person you recruit, you lose 3. It’s a constant battle, and the only people who really make it are the ones who are already there, OR the ones who get in at the beginning of any program. If the product offering is unique enough, it will help that person to be MORE successful, but the product in and of itself will not GUARANTEE success.
The tips you’ve provided are interesting when applied in network marketing, and while they may work for some, just like you say, it is the DESIRE of the individual which matters the most in seeing their efforts come to fruition.
Hey Sean,
Thanks for posting, but I cannot disagree with you more! What you say is very much the exact opposite of what I talk about on this blog.
I can’t really comment too much on the economic conditions in the US being one that foster’s MLM growth or not, but it seems to me that the MLM industry is very much alive and well, unlike many others. In fact, there’s been huge growth in this industry over the past 3 years.
I’ve said over and over again, this is NOT a numbers game. If you treat it like a numbers game, you will have the drop outs like you say. Every successful leader who has built an organisation that stands the test of time has built it on relationships.
As for the people who really make it are those who are already there, how did they get there in the first place?
And timing can play a role in your long term success. Yes, there are some “household name” MLM companies where it would be quite tough for a new guy to get to the top. But if it was true that the only way to make it is to get in at the beginning, there wouldn’t be so many people hopping from new company to new company in search for the next big thing.
Wishing you a prosperous life,
Wayne
Hey Wayne,
Great stuff! These tips show true marketing. As a matter of fact, I just wrote and blog post about the difference between marketing and sales. It’s funny how a lot of people know the times but they either believe they’re one in the same or they just purely don’t know the difference. It’s great that you explained the difference. I use to buy leads and I did get worned out from all of the rejections. You really have to be strong willed before you can do that lol.. Other than that it’s a waste of time. Thanks for sharing!!
Sherman
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