Last night I visited a network marketing forum. I've never done that before but I wanted to see what other networkers talk about. What are they concerned about? What do they want to know? But also, what can I learn? (One never stops learning. . .) And, since I spend most of my time with distributors in my company, I thought it might be fun to meet some folks in other companies.
I registered and scrolled through some of the posts. There was a question posed by a self-proclaimed newbie. He said he didn't have a lot of money to invest in his business, and wanted to know how he could earn his first $500. I posted a response which was well received by other members.
As The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling used to say, "Submitted for your approval. . .", here's what I said:
"Some people have more time than money, so use what you've got. Also, why $500? Right now, you need to get something to happen, even if it's signing up one distributor or earning $25. A small success will lead to bigger successes. Build your belief and the money will come.
Here are some more tips:
1. Start with a warm market list; contact everyone you know and get a tool (DVD, web site, etc.) into their hands. Ask for their opinion. If you were opening a shoe store or restaurant, you would invite everyone you know to come see what you offer.
2. Training: go to events, get on conference calls. MLM is different and you need to immerse yourself in learning.
3. Focus on activity, not results. Have enough activity and over time, the results will come. If you focus on results, you'll ride an emotional roller coaster. If you set activity goals and reach them, then every day is successful.
5. Get a workout partner. Someone who will hold you accountable to the activity goals you set.
6. Do three-way calls with upline. Your job is to deliver the information (always use tools) and if they are interested or have questions, get them on the phone with someone else. It's all about third party.
7. Show up. Get around others in your business on a regular basis. Associate with people who have what you want and can serve as models for you.
8. Personal development. Work on yourself more than anything. Read, listen to tapes, practice approaches and responses and everything else.
9. Commit to a year. "The first 18 months are crap," said Art Williams. Prepare to go through whatever it takes to make it.
10. Have fun. Yes, you'll get out of your comfort zone, but if you're not enjoying the business, if it's not fun and exciting, you're doing something wrong. Enjoy the journey!
When you focus on the fundamentals and have a long term perspective, instead of focusing on the short term ($500), you'll increase your chances of success for the long term."
Categories Network marketing/MLM, Prospecting & Recruiting by 
A few weeks ago, on a Wednesday, at around 11:30am, I was scheduled to meet with a member of my team who was here in southern California for a few days. She was in San Diego, on her way to Los Angeles, and we chose to meet at a restaurant just off the freeway in Orange County where I live.
I got to the restaurant first, took a seat near the hostess station and waited. A woman sat down next to me, apparently waiting for her party to arrive. I saw some paperwork in her hands and recognized the name of the network marketing company on the brochure. I started chatting with her and she proceeded to take a sample of one of her products out of her purse. Before she could get into her pitch, the couple she was waiting for arrived. Off they went to their table to discuss business.
A few minutes later, a man came in, carrying a notebook. In the clear outer sleeve he had inserted the cover of a business opportunity magazine I recognized, featuring his network marketing company. He told the hostess he was meeting someone and asked to have a look around the restaurant to see if they had arrived. I later saw him doing a flip book presentation with his guest. He was showing him the comp plan.
My associate arrived and we got a table. After we were seated, I told her what I had seen while I was waiting and my conclusion that network marketing was "taking over". Okay, I didn't use those words, but I recall thinking that here we were in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, in a not very crowded restaurant, and there were three of us here who were in network marketing businesses.
I think that means something.
It means the world is a different place than it was twenty years ago, or even ten, at least here in southern California. Of course everyone knows southern California is where everything happens first, so if you live somewhere else, be aware of what's coming to your community.
It's a good thing.
Categories Network marketing/MLM by
Why do some people succeed in network marketing and others don't? Ultimately, it's the amount of one's activity, as I wrote about previously. Differences in belief or philosophies drive different levels of activity which deliver different results. But according to a Stanford University study of human behavior, there's another factor explaining the differences in performance we see in all aspects of life.
The factor, uncovered in the study of four year old children, was simply the ability to delay gratification. The ones who could delay their gratification had better social lives, were more intellectual, better off financially, and were happier than those who couldn't.
The study is discussed in "Don't Eat The Marshmallow Yet!: The Secret to Sweet Success in Work and Life" by Joachim de Posada, Ph.D. and Ellen Singer. Here's the book description at Amazon.com:
"Arthur is a chauffeur who is intellectually gifted. Jonathan is no less bright than Arthur, equally hard-working, and a billionaire. So why is Jonathan in the back seat of the limousine and Arthur in the front? What explains the difference between success and failure? And what does it mean to you and your children?
"Joachim de Posada, a world-renowned motivational speaker, found the answer in a landmark Stanford University study of children who were able to delay gratification-in the form of a marshmallow they'd been given to eat-with the promise that they'd be rewarded with an additional marshmallow if they resisted eating the first for fifteen minutes. Ten years later, the children who held out had grown up to be significantly more successful than those who had eaten their marshmallow immediately.
"Posada saw that the key difference between success and failure is not merely hard work or superior intelligence, but the ability to delay gratification. "Marshmallow resisters" achieve high levels of success while others eat all their marshmallows at once, so to speak-accumulating debt and dissatisfaction despite their occupations or incomes. But it doesn't have to be that way. Using a simple parable and real-life examples (including basketball great Larry Bird and major league baseball catcher Jorge Posada, Joachim's cousin), this life-changing book shows readers how the moves made today can pay off big tomorrow-if they just don't eat the marshmallow…yet!"
Categories Book Reviews, Network marketing/MLM, Personal Development by
To some extent, our world has lost trust. At a time when people have serious reservations about business, when they are shaken by the misuse of people’s trust and poor ethics in business and government, we tend to go back to the basics. That’s what network marketing is all about. The microcosmic essence of network marketing is trust, built one person at a time; once you have established trust, then the geometric progression takes over.
—Nido Qubein, president High Point University, North Carolina
Categories Network marketing/MLM by
In network marketing, surveys show that the number one reason a distributor signs up with their particular sponsor was because they "liked them." People do business with people they know, like and trust.
In the cold market (people who don't know you), your objective shouldn't be merely to get information into the hands of your prospects, it should be to build a relationship with them. Get to know your prospects and help them get to know you. A great way to do that is by putting up a personal web site.
Don't panic. A new web site builder, weebly.com, makes it incredibly easy. In fact, with no experience whatsoever, you could have your own web site up and running in a matter of minutes. And it's free (although they recently introduced an upgraded service.)
Weebly gives you
- A free web site (no advertising)
- Free hosting
- Easy as pie web site builder and designer
- A free Blog
- Templates you can use to be online today!
There are other choices. Google has sites.google.com which allows you to do the same thing. You could also set up a free blog at blogger.com or wordpress.com.
These services require no technical knowledge whatsoever. You can quickly and easily create a site that introduces YOU. Of course you can add information about your company and business opportunity and links to your company web site, but the focus of your personal web site should be on you and your story.
You should do this even if you're brand new in your business. Your rank doesn't matter. The purpose of the site is not to impress people with how successful you are, it is to allow them to get to know you.
- Tell your story: why you started with your business, what you want to accomplish, your "why"
- Talk about your family and your life, your hobbies and interests.
- Post photos of your children, vacations (or vacations you would like to take)
- Talk about charities you work with, or want to; what matters to you
- Make your personal web site just that, personal
Your personal web site will allow your prospects to know the person they are dealing with. It's the first step towards building a relationship with your (future) customers and business partners.
Go to weebly.com or sites.google.com or blogger.com or wordpress.com and set up a free account. Start with a one page web site. Your name and contact information, your photo, a link to your company web site, and one or two paragraphs about you. You can add more later, if you want. But put something up today so that the next time you speak with a prospect, you can send them to your personal web site to find out who you are.
Categories Blogging & Blogs, Internet marketing, Network marketing/MLM by
Network marketing for smart people basically means treating your business like a real business. I've posted an article by that title in the article section of this web site.
It's unfortunate, but most people don't treat their business like a business. After all, most people have never been in a business and don't know what it means to do so. That's why we sometimes tell new people to "treat it like a job". They understand what that means–show up every day, get your work done, get help if you need it, and so on.
Failure to treat one's business like a business leads to high attrition rates, rampant discouragement and blame, and the media saying things like, "network marketing is a scam" or "nobody makes money in network marketing". No, network marketing is not a scam (although there are scams in network marketing), and most people don't make money because they don't treat their business like a business.
Take a look at some headlines I recently saw in a business opportunity magazine:
"$15,000 a month. Just mail the 2 letters I give you!!!"
"TOO DAMN EASY!"
"We do 90% of the work. You collect the cash."
"Ground floor opportunity. Get in now, spots are filling fast!"
"We take all prospect calls. We answer all questions. We make all follow-up calls. We close all the sales. We ship all the products. We send you the paychecks."
Do these sound like "real" businesses to you? Do you truly believe that you can make money in a business where you don't have to do any work or you just mail out a couple of letters?
I don't think you do. You wouldn't be reading this blog if you did. But many people do believe it. That, or they get so caught up in their desire for easy riches they act like drunken soldiers on shore leave–they just can't help themselves.
Every day, people start businesses representing companies that make these kinds of assertions. But not just network marketing businesses. Variations of these kinds of promises abound throughout the world of business opportunities. Google "business opportunities" or "home based business" or "internet business" and you'll see so much garbage, it's a wonder anyone ever finds a legitimate business, and no surprise that network marketing is so maligned.
Treating it like a business starts with doing one's homework and using some common sense. It would be nice, however, if common sense were a little more common.
Categories Network marketing/MLM by
"Network marketing for smart people" means exactly what it says. If you are intelligent and want to be the best you can be in network marketing, you've come to the right place.
This is a thinking person's web site, a place to come when you "want to know".
But it's also for people who, while they may not think of themselves as particularly intelligent in an academic sense, want to go about building their network marketing business in an intelligent manner. If that's you, then you too have come to the right place.
We all want the same things. We all want to be successful and we want to do it as quickly as possible. We want to build residual income that lasts for a lifetime, and we want to have fun in the process (although we all define "fun" differently). We are not afraid of hard work but we're also looking for anything that can give us an edge.
I've been accused (ask my wife) of thinking too much. I guess I have to plead guilty. I analyze things, sometimes ad nauseum, and I am something of a perfectionist. Twenty years of arguing for a living might have something to do with it. But I have done well in my network marketing business despite my ways or, as I like to think, because of them.
So, whatever your style of learning or method of operation, you are welcome here.
I've arranged this web site so that longer articles are in their own section, while shorter, more timely posts are in the blog, arranged by date. This is the first post.
To read the articles, click on the "Articles" tab and then click on one. To learn more about me, start with the first one, Why I started a network marketing business. You can also read my "About" page.
You can subscribe to this blog via RSS, and to my newsletter, The Ward Report, through the subscription box on any page or here. You'll get a gift when you do.
I look forward to hearing from you. I haven't decided what I will do about comments, but you can always reach me this way.
All the best,
David
Categories Network marketing/MLM by
