The Keen Marketer

I’ve learned that the best way to work with prospects is to take the consultative approach.

You must provide value way before you can pitch your business opportunity.  The old way of selling your opportunity is the old way of network marketing.  That model comes from a very selfish mindset, even if the belief help by the prospector is one of wanting to help people.

People hate being sold to but they love buying.  ONLY if it’s their idea!

The key is to assist the person in any way you can.  But for you to provide value you must have learned how to do this in the first place.

You must never stop learning so that you can be ahead of the masses.  This will translate into something that you can teach and bring value to your prospect.

You share your experience with your prospect and continue to move forward all the time.

Set your business opportunity up so that your prospect will be the one to mention it first. While connecting with the person and getting to know them, you will be able to continue adding value and the prospect will be more open to hearing about your opportunity.

Look at it this way.  You want to get to the point where they will be calling you and coming to you.

So providing value first is the key that will make your prospects come running and the building of a list of quality leads prepared to come on board will explode.

Learning is not hard but it takes time and yes money.  But if you’re not ready to invest in yourself, your success will be very shortlived.

Getting the necessary training with someone that will teach you simply but effecitvely how to market yourself can be life changing.

It came to me in the middle of the night that all network marketing entrepreneurs should have affiliatitis.

So what is affiliatitis? First of all it is a term which I believe I made up.  At least I have not heard it or read it anywhere else on the web.

If you are marketing online,  you are surely an affiliate for someone else’s product.  That’s one of the most efficient ways of making extra income to subsidize your true up-front network marketing business.

You at least don’t have to spend hours producing a product that people will like because all the work has been done for you and all you do is promote it, sell it, make some money and truly practice leveraging.

However, there are some internet users that, when they see the URL in the search bar as being an affiliate URL, will circumvent the affiliate link and go directly to the site in question.

Once there, if they buy, then the commission is paid to the owner rather than the affiliate.  Well, I must say that I really don’t agree with that practice.

If the owner of the product is allowing for affiliate sales in order to promote his product more widely, then the credit should go to the person who has given you the “headsup” on that product.

When circumventing the affiliate who introduced you to the product, you are in essence saying that all the work they did to even get you to look at the product, was of no value.

So affiliatitis should be a quality that every appreciative and honest network marketing or online marketing entrepreneur should possess.

We all need validation.

I had to laugh when I read Mike Klingler’s article on this topic.

He was referring to network marketers who knew how to market on the internet versus network marketers who didn’t.  But he qualified this by saying that many network marketers, also don’t know they don’t know.

is that confusing enough for you.  Let me clarify.

He meant that there are many who just don’t know that they can market on the internet.  Don’t forget that the old of network marketing process has always been to approach your warm and cold markets, etc.  So these distributors only focus on offline techniques of marketing rather than online.

But they can learn right? It may even be that the person is more talented in building their MLM business online than off.

If the distributor never discovers they can learn to market online versus offline, they are more likely to quit at an earlier stage.

But learning what you don’t know about network marketing online may just be that secret which unlocks a whole new world for them that will generate all the leads they want without running after them.

Now doesn’t knowing exactly what you need to do to be successful in your MLM business spur you to want to go ahead and do what you need to do?

Wouldn’t you invest the time, energy and yes, money, to learn how to do it?

It’s a foregone conclusion that you would then have success.  But if you don’t know what you need to know about network marketing online, your business is not growing.

The really big key here is to acknowledge that you don’t know that you don’t know. There’s no shame in it.  Until he learned how, neither did Mike Klingler.

So what to do? Learn from the best, from the ones who have been there and done that.

To get the help you need to grow your business, click for step-by-step Internet Network Marketing Training.

Watch Mike Klingler and Ann Sieg as they talk about network marketing coaches and how they can market their time.

Does attracting prospects rather than running after them fit your personality better?  It does mine.

But to be able to do so you must decide who you want to attract, what these people need and how you can fill that need.

If you’re in network marketing, you obviously want to attract people to your opportunity  as well as sell your products.

Does this mean you will be jumping on every person you meet to see if they’re interested?  Of course not!  That’s not how you attract these prospects to you.

You must first ask yourself what kind of person might be interested in joining your business or buying your product.  It’s about knowing the kind of things these people would be interested in , their problems and how you can help solve them.

Why?

You want to give people what they need and want before you get what you want.  So you have to get to know them, their hopes, their dreams, their wants.

But you want to do all of the above without running after your prospect.

You  must first start with asking the right questions before even looking:

1. Who is your target market?
2. What do they look for, talk about or think about?
3. What are some of their problems?
4. Can you help them solve these problems

These questions can be asked without even having met anyone yet. Because if you don’t know who your target market is, how do you expect to market to them and give them value.

So “who is your target market?

Let’s say you are selling weight loss products.

You are looking for people who first of all want to buy, but you can’t do this unless you know who you’re selling to.

So for a weight loss target market, would you not say that it would be people who are overweight, first?

But don’t stop there. You have to get more specific:

• people who have purchased products before
• people who may have family members that are overweight ie: children
• people with their own unique concerns, such as baby boomers dealing with weight related problems

The above is just a simple list which can be further dissected to really focus on a specific niche within the weight loss industry. It’s up to you to think about what these people are feeling, thinking and wanting.  It’s all about them and what you can do for them.

Thinking about your target market in this way will keep you focused and the leads you will generate will be better qualified because you will have done part of the work yourself.  Then it will be more likely that these leads can be lead to buy your product or opportunity in the future.

To learn more about identifying your target market check this out.

Are you someone that believes anything you are told?

So if you were told that having a network marketing business is the key to fulfilling your dreams and that anybody can do it, you would believe it. Right?

Well, you would be right in believing it, because network marketing can be done by anyone who wants to.

There are, however, 2 very critical aspects that a person needs to be able to do so.

Number one, you must have skills.  Now skills can be learned by anyone who applies themselves.  Most network marketing companies have training where you will be able to learn these skills.

It takes determination, application and practice.  A good training program should teach you all the aspects of network marketing the old way.

Why do I say that?

Well we know that network marketing the old way, where you approach family and friends and do cold calls, does work.   And that may be how you would like to run your business. So you need to at least know that this type of network marketing is what is generally being taught.

If you choose not to go that route, you will have discovered the most talked about aspect of the “new” network marketing strategies on the net, that of attraction marketing.

That’s what I chose.

And that brings me to the second aspect I wanted to bring out here.  Your MLM business will be a great success but you will need to have customers and business builders.

You attract customers by applying the concepts learned in attraction marketing.  You attract business builders by showing them a system that eliminates cold calls and uncomfortable approaches the old way of network marketing relies on.

This relationship starts to blossom and creates confidence which then leads to you generating the leads you want for your network marketing business.

It isn’t very complicated.  With skills and an audience, there are no limits to what you can do to be a great network marketing success.

But you must have the desire to never stop learning.

So your network marketing business is  doing great but all of a sudden your company has this major lawsuit slapped against it and will have to shut down.

Horrors, all those beautiful cheques you were getting will soon be history.

What is a person to do to insulate themselves from just such a scenario?

The funded proposal is the life line and savior of all smart network marketing entrepreneurs.

With a funded proposal you market a product related to what you may be selling.  For example , you are selling some kind of juice that helps people have more energy.

You could create in informational product teaching people how they could gain extra energy by doing “3 Simple Things To More Energy” and offer it free.  It doesn’t have to be a report, it could be an audio by an expert in health and energy or even a video.

You will be collecting leads generated out of  interest in the niche you are specializing in. These will be primed to hear more of what you can offer even if you have to switch company in mid-stream.

In simple terms, the funded proposal is a method used by savvy marketers to generate leads by offering something that will help them improve their lives or business.

A person may have several funded proposals to generate extra income.

How can this save you from your company’s lawsuit and possible closer?

You may be losing all the perks you were getting from your company but you won’t be losing what you have built, a targeted list with people ready to listen to what you have to say or offer.

Just make sure you have something of value to share.

Since I decided to go against the trend of old time network marketing where you run after your friends and family and call people that just bang the phone down in your ear, I’ve been a lot happier.

But I did not decide to go this path until I discovered what attraction marketing was all about and how the internet would play the biggest role in creating this attraction magnet for me.

Although most of the information I came across was easy to assimilate and put into practice, the one I found myself struggling with the most was writing effective copy for advertising, landing pages and sales pages.

But I have learned, and it should be plain as the nose on your face, that the most important of your ad is the headline. No matter where your ad is displayed, if the headline is weak, you won’t get results.

Next comes the content.  A few short sentences continuing the headline’s direction should emphasize the benefits.  Some ads may need more than a few words so it’s always good to use bullet points that detail the benefits for the problems your ad says it will solve.

Calling your reader to action rounds off a great ad, especially if they follow through by clicking your link to more information or an optin page.  You have to tell them what to do or they just might go on to the next ad and forget about yours.

Now I know that the above doesn’t go into all the details of writing good ads.  I am still learning and good copy writing is a never ending challenge no matter how good you are.

I am fortunate to be a member of a community that specializes in training individuals interested in improving their skills in all aspects of marketing online.

Especially brilliant is their section of videos which takes you step by step through all the aspects of writing with pull.

I’m excited to have such expertise at my finger tips because learning is what I love to do.  Writing great copy is especially good for my network marketing business.

It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, there will be certain phases you will have to go through before reaching total success.

In life, you experience growth, well so will your network marketing organization.

See if you can identify where your MLM organization is right now.

1. “Do Not Drop, Fragile Phase” This first phase is basically the hardest one to get through.  You’re new to the business, you’re learning how to do everything and making mistakes too.  You are developing your belief and trust that this industry will work for you and be that vehicle that will make all your dreams come true.  You also will encounter a lot of obstacles that will test your resolve and your faith.  To stay strong and on track will be your greatest challenge.  Most people quit right here, will you?
2. “Lets add cement to Solidify your organization” phase has you starting to grow more solid and consistent in getting paid regularly.  During this time, leaders in your network marketing organization will start to show their talents and your volume will become solid and steady.   Unfortunately, this is where the majority of people quit network marketing, while the rest have already quit during phase one.
3. “Time to see the big bucks rolling in” confirms that you are now maturing your business to the point where both your leaders and you are making some really good money. In this phase, your leaders will exhibit different phases too as they start to grow their organizations bigger and bigger.  Your MLM organization could number in the thousands by now.  This phase also reflects how good a trainer you have been by how well your leaders have duplicated your actions.  Hopefully, they will no longer need your help.  This point is also where millionaires will start to show up and you will be one of them.
4. “Growing your wealth to become rock solid” phase is where your wealth or residual income continues to accumulate no matter what you do. Many get close to this phase but never achieve it as they lack the necessary leadership skills that will complete this level to make it a really rock solid phase that never quits.

Have you identified the phase you’re in yet?  Don’t forget that really solid training, tools, and support from an excellent and involved trainer can make the difference between staying at phase 2 and pushing through to become a rock solid network marketer that enjoys the fruits of her hard work.

Getting your prospect to pay attention to what you are saying can be a trying event.

There are doubters everywhere and when you are presenting to a prospect, you will always come across some that look at you with great skepticism.

Of course you don’t want to waste your time with prospects that fail to see how they can improve their position, but out of these doubters, there are bound to be soon to be believers.

But what if you could ask your prospect a question that would basically hit them between the eyes and really make them think?

This question is so powerful that you would instantly be able to tell from your prospect whether they are someone you want to have in your team or not.

So what is this revelation question? It’s very simple.

“What if it worked for you-how would that change your life?”

Remember that Network Marketing is a simple business so why complicate the issue.

What better question to ask your prospect to make them think about their future, to rekindle that dream buried deep within them?

Always Keep It Simple Sally!  Join a winning team that keeps your dream alive!