The Keen Marketer

I know that network marketing is all about the product, but sometimes, you may have so many products in your tool box that you may get bogged down and discouraged in trying to present all you have to a prospective buyer.

The key is to focus on a specific product.

There are several advantages to doing this:

1. you will learn more about that specific product
2. you will relieve your stress of trying to know everything
3. you will be doing your client a big favor

Learning more about your product should be easy.  If your company is providing you with excellent tools, then you will have access to audio or video recordings that will teach you all you need to know.

Being stressed out while giving a presentation is not the ideal situation for you or your prospect.  Knowing your product relieves the stress associated with giving a good performance and a calmer you will translate to a clearer presentation.

As your client gets a really clear picture of what you are educating him on, he will be able to make a more informed decision concerning his need for your specific product.

Stay focused on answering the person’s needs and show him how your product can answer those needs.  It really isn’t hard when you’ve done your homework.

A  good tip is to always give options and ask for opinions.  Everyone loves to give their view of things and approaching with new product info is not different.

Who would have thought that “GRATITUDE” would be so important in network marketing?

Without gratitude your associates may be feeling a little used if all you do is ask of them without sometimes giving back to them.

Gratitude will unlock the fullness of your life and it will turn:

1. denial into acceptance
2. chaos into order
3. confusion into clarity
4. problem into success
5. unexpectedness into perfect timing
6. states into perfect events

Now I didn’t come up with those beautiful words.

They’re from my upline leader who has just reached millionaire status today and she was expressing her gratitude to us for being there for her.  Happiness is directly connected to the flow of the heart and although it may show our vulnerability, it also strenghtens us as individuals.

This is the kind of team I belong to.

So don’t forget to show your gratitude to those that are part of your networking family.  It’s through gratitude that you will knit your team into a close group that is caring, generous and long lasting.

Events play a big part of our lives.  There is a day that celebrates our birth.   There is a day we dress up and scare others.  There is a day we give chocolates to the person we love and there is a day we give presents to everyone.

So events are a big thing.  This is especially true in network marketing.

Daily events are ongoing.  You may be attending a daily training call or meeting with your downline or a prospect.

Weekly events mark the week with maybe a call where a VIP is being interviewed.  You could learn more about the product or the business.  You could also be having home presentations where you are able to reach more than 1 person at a time.

In fact I am having one this next Monday evening and I expect a packed house.  Can’t wait.

Monthly events are very useful and should be attended on a regular basis.  There you will find others who are like you.  You will identify and feel the passion, the comraderie and the visions of others.  It’s also a good time to bring a prospect along so they can also feel the energy of the event.

There will be training tips and event product tasting and freebies.  It’s also great fun!

Monthly events inspire you and push you to go past your comfort zone.

But you live too far to go regularly to a monthly event?

Well, I live 10 hours away from mine.  In that case, why not make your own?  Get your people together and do what networking is all about.  Reach out to the community and put posters up so that many can view them.

You have a whole month to get it together.  Have your associates commit to helping this process happen.  And occasionally, you will be able to drive those 10 hours every few months to attend a company event.

The biggest event is the yearly convention.  I have already committed to going to mine next August.  Will I see you there?

Albert Einstein said:”If you’re going to live a happy life, tie it to a goal and not to people or things.”

This philosophy especially applies to network marketing.

Goal setting is something you have to do right from the start for yourself and teach your business partners as well as your product users to do the same.

If you want to achive what you want in life, no one else is going to do it for you and therefore, before you even share or work with people, you must set a goal.

You need to know where you are before you get where you want to go.  When travelling, let’s say you’re going to the Caribean, you will need to plan what plane, hotel and itinerary you will have.

Your business in network marketing needs the same attention.

It’s not enough to just build but if you follow the  S.M.A.R.T. formula you will be achieving.   So how does it work?

S: your goal must be specific. if you want to achieve a certain amount of commission, name what that amount is and what you have to do to get it

M: your goal must be measurable. How much time will you commit each day in order to achieve it?  If 2 hours a day is what you can give it, that’s fine but you will need to see whether the goal you set is achievable with only 2 hours a day to devote to it.

A: you need to share your goal with someone so you can be accountable to a live breathing person.  Even if you don’t reach it within your desired time line, you will have at least committed to it in the first place.  Telling someone else keeps you motivated.  No one likes pie in the face for not trying.

R: your goal needs to be realistic.  This one goes hand in hand with measurable.  If you’re goal is too large to achieve in the short time your set, there is a possibility you might get discouraged and give up.  Just be realistic taking your experience and time under consideration.

T: give yourself a timeline.  Without a deadline, you cannot measure how far you are getting.  Want to enroll 5 persons next week?  Then make it your goal and give yourself a number to go by.

Your goal will change often and you will have more than one.  It’s a good idea to break them down into time intervals, let’s say every 3 months and review accordingly.

To help you set goals that qualify under our S.M.A.R.T. umbrella, your company will have provided you with tools to facilitate setting up product and business goals.  The next step is to put it all into action because a goal without a plan is just a wish.

I stopped wishing when I started with my networking company because all the tools I needed were there to guide me on to success.

There are many compensation plans out there and one very lucrative one is the binary system.

It’s a very simple concept to understand.  You have two legs to stand on and therefore you are working on two teams that are deep and not spread across.

When introducing this plan to a prospect, it’s always a good idea to explain it properly,  emphasizing the fact that both legs should be built with equal strength.

There is a misconception with many business owners that if your upline is working one leg, you only have the weak leg to build.  This may work for a while to create volume and quick commission cheques.

But when it comes to how many you have personally enrolled, you will be quite lopsided and weak.  This condition will hold you back from attaining certain levels.

Companies that are well aware of this misconception will head this problem off by offering bonus incentives for achieving certain levels which require you to be balanced on both sides before you can cash in.

Therefore, you are doing your new associate a favor by letting them know right away the advantages of building and supporting two teams.

In the end you are doing yourself the biggest favour since you will be building self-sustaining leaders that will do the same with their recruits and all will contribute to your bottom line and allow you the freedom you want for life’s better things.

I always keep coming back to this rule and that is “TRAINING” is the key to success.

If you have a network marketing business and are locked into selling only one product then you’re job is a bit harder than someone who has products that will cover more benefits for people.

Take for example, if you are talking to someone that has been involved in selling, let’s say a liquid health juice. This person may not be open to looking at sharing another health product that may have meal replacements in it.

Not because the meal replacements are no good but simply because that is not what the person is used to doing.  They are knowledgeable about their liquid product and that’s what they know.

Now, if you are fortunate enough to also have a liquid product in your tool box, then you will be able to relate more closely with this person.

Always look at where the person is coming from first before diving in with what you have.  Also if you are trying to get them to look at your liquid product, it better damn well be superior to the one they are pushing.

• So Rule # 1, know your products

• Rule #2, identify where the person comes from

• Rule #3, show them how they can make more money with yours because you have a better compensation plan and product.

• Rule #4, teach them how to do the same with others, which will explode their business.

No one said that network marketing wasn’t simple. just that it isn’t easy.

It all boils down to having a strong team held together by impeccable training and everyone then has an equal chance for success.

When team building, you want to make sure that your new people get off on the right track right from the beginning.

The key is to make sure you plug your people in and you keep them plugged in.

How do you do that?

There are a few ways you can approach this question.

One very simple solution is to create a profile on a social bookmarking site such as Facebook or Twitter. You then invite your clients and associates to join you and that way everyone is interacting and can stay connected.

The other method is to start an email newsletter that has different information for clients versus those who are in the business.

To get your list started, on the very first day you sign up a new associate, forward the email to your upline leader and several other leaders so that they can add this person to their list.  Your new associate will be welcomed by several people in the new family.

More than just staying connected, this strategy can prove to be a life saver for a business builder that may have lost their upline support and find themselves floundering to find help.

You can also categorize your list by state and provinces as email providers may not allow sending emails to really large lists.

I find that Gmail has a really easy interface to send emails to groups.  I’ve started to keep my lists there and find it very flexible.

Remember that it is structure that creates freedom and not letting your people get lost is what will keep that residual income dribbling into your bank account for many years to come.

As I’ve said before, it all starts with the training.

Today’s tidbit pertains to the right use of a very special tool: 3-way calling.

A favorite one to use is the 3-way calling feature.  We all know how that works.  You get a prospect online and then you call a 3rd party, someone in your upline, and everyone is linked so that a more experienced person can add their 2 cents  to better inform the prospect.

This is great for 4 reasons:

1. It makes more efficient use of your time because you’re not driving miles to get to your prospect.
2. It’s cost effective because you’re not having to pay for gas with today’s prices and pay for a coffee or lunch if you’re meeting at a restaurant.
3. It’s the right use of leverage as you are leveraging other people’s efforts and time
4. It’s duplication put into practice.  You are showing your new recruit right off the bat how to leverage.

Now all the above points are very valid and point to the value of the 3 -way call.  However, there is one more aspect of 3-way calling I would like to bring to the table.

Many of us may be thinking that we should be using the 3-way call with only our up-line associates since they are the most experienced and most successful.

But we would be missing the whole purpose of the 3-way call benefits.

What about the prospect’s needs?

If your prospect is looking at only wanting to be a product user, then consider doing a 3-way call with another person in your downline that may have had similar needs.

Putting these two people in touch in a 3-way call is actually brilliant as your associate will be able to identify with this prospect in ways you may not be able to.

Another positive aspect of going down instead of up  is the fact that it edifies your associate as a person in whom you recognize value for their opinion.  It also makes them feel important.

Everyone is equal, so it’s not necessary to go up all the time.  Going up however is more important when yu are looking at signing up a person who is really interested in the business.  Then putting them in touch with a wonderful up-line leader is great.

It all starts with great training and a great team.