Network Marketing Success: Part 1
I have to admit, Network Marketing success, has been a business concept with which I have had a love/hate relationship. On one hand I have worked for corporations for over 15 years which until recently, have earned me a very lucrative living. On the other hand, even with the regular paycheck, I've always had the the desire to own my own business as it meant freedom and independence to me. I've been looking at home opportunities for a long time. Network marketing opportunities are everywhere! I tried Merle Norman, Mary Kaye and some nutritional thing I've forgotten the name of. All with the same results. Very excited at first, a few people in my downline from friends and family, and then a gradual loss of interest and then no interest. My poor sisters! Network marketing prospecting made my stomach churn. And you know what? I just don't relate to the "fulfill your dreams" positioning..I guess I'm either too pragmatic or I've been a marketing professional too long. Network marketing success to me means smart marketing and having a solid marketing system as your foundation....not pitching dreams. However, the world of network marketing opportunities changed when Amazon.com came up with a brilliant strategic marketing idea; pay a referral fee to anybody on the Internet who sends customers to Amazon.com. They launched an "affiliate program" encouraging millions of web page owners to provide links to the Amazon website. And it worked! This is the power of leverage which has created a new era of network marketing opportunities in which non-sales oriented people through new systems and technology can enter into entrepreneurship and achieve financial freedom. And of course, with today's challenging economic climate, timing is right for home-based businesses. My time to take the network marketing success challenge had come! The most compelling advantage to embark on the network marketing opportunities train as another stream of income for yourself, is that income can be residual. Meaning, that multiple streams of income come from a growing group of "downline" distributors and with products such as nutritional supplements, ongoing orders from each customer. Gone are the days when you had to deliver products, attend boring meetings and do a lot of face to face selling. Network marketing prospecting is an internet marketing strategy. The key to Network Marketing Success is YOU! You are the one providing a "solution" to a problem; NOT a business opportunity. Network Marketing today is a problem solving business which starts with building YOU as a brand. That means that you need to think differently than how most Network Marketing companies train you to think. You need to sell yourself, not the opportunity. You need to support your network marketing prospects with a marketing system; the system that will help them be successful. And, you need to do this through educational marketing; not traditional sales methods. In some ways, it is very aligned with being a VP of Marketing managing a growing marketing organization. Which is good news! Starting a new business can be very stressful, if not for some downright fearful. It's hard to know where to start when every network marketing company says they can "make your dreams come true"! As we used to say in college...quack, quack, quack. Network marketing prospecting has to be easy, not tiresome or frustrating. We want our friends and family to stay that way! So the best solution you can give someone who is interested in starting their own business is information in an educational context that guides and directs them on how to do it. You be the leader, the expert and direct your organization. And you need to help your team gain confidence in their network marketing prospecting. Most people who sign up with a sponsor do so because of their relationship with the sponsor, for the same reasons that many of us go to work for a new boss. The key to success is: You have to sell yourself, BEFORE you sell the opportunity! Sound familiar? (if not, see my pages on Content). You have to PRE-SELL! Ken Evoy's mantra. The foundation of SiteSell.com's success. Pre-Selling. The secret to your network marketing success is not just the network company you choose to represent, but the marketing services you can offer your prospects to help ensure THEIR success. Now, where do the Marketing Services come from? Especially since I just mentioned that the majority, if not all network marketing companies today train you the same old way; sell your friends and family, make a list, work it...blah, blah, blah. Been there, tried that, didn't survive. I don't consider myself a super sales person and I don't particularly like to sell either. But marketing? Yes, that I have a passion for. Network Marketing can be fun and very creative and there is a methodology to it that anyone can learn if you are willing to look beyond the company's "training" program. Marketing brings prospects to YOU...no Sales needed! If you want to be successful in a home based business, Network Marketing is a great option IF you choose the right product, company and Marketing partner. I think the combination of a network marketing product that you can be passionate about AND a Marketing system that helps drive qualified Traffic to you, is the ideal scene. Unfortunately, as I will discuss next, choosing the product is fairly straightforward, but choosing a company that really helps you with Marketing and bringing prospects "to you" is another story.
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