Originally, a pipeline was a pipe or system of pipes designed to carry something such as oil, natural gas, or other petroleum-based products over long distances, often underground. (For some reason not entirely clear to me, a pipeline carrying water is not generally referred to as a pipeline, instead . . . → Read More: Pipelines]]>

What Is A Pipeline?

Originally, a pipeline was a pipe or system of pipes designed to carry something such as oil, natural gas, or other petroleum-based products over long distances, often underground. (For some reason not entirely clear to me, a pipeline carrying water is not generally referred to as a pipeline, instead being called water pipes, water mains, or aqueducts.)

Near as I can tell, this was then generalized to: a system through which something is conducted, especially as a means of supply. So you could have a manufacturing pipeline, or a food pipeline, etc.

This more general definition then morphed into a popular expression for things that are in process. For example,“There are over 10,000 condo units in the pipeline, in various stages of construction or conversion.” Or “I’m not worried about apartment move-outs this summer because I have a number of prospects in the pipeline.”

Why Do We Use The Phrase “Pipeline”

In any business, there is a sequence of steps that one has to go through to get the final product. These steps can then be likened to a pipeline.

For instance, in putting together a marketing campaign, one might first come up with some bright ideas, these would then be presented to the client, who would pick the idea that they felt best represented their company or product, then someone would come up with ideas of pictures, videos, etc. to represent that idea, all the way to the final roll-out of the campaign to the public it is intended for.

In my electronics repair business, the pipeline started with someone bringing in their broken electronics for repair. Then we would diagnose the problem and give them an estimate. After the customer approved the estimate, we would order the parts needed for the repair. The parts would come in. We’d install the parts, test the item for proper operation. Create an invoice. Call the customer. Customer comes in, pays, picks up his electronics and goes home happy.

So pipeline is a handy phrase to describe the process or the sequence of steps that one has to go through to get the product that one is aiming for.

The Pipeline & Network Marketing

In network marketing, since we are marketing a product, we are moving our company’s products into the hands and homes of consumers. Whether it’s vitamins, water, legal service plans, or home decorations, nobody makes any money unless someone buys that product.

The customer pipeline begins with the methods you are using to interest people in your product. Once a person has expressed interest in some form, he is in the pipeline. You give him more information. You might give him samples. Go to a meeting to learn more. He comes out the other end of the pipeline as either a customer or a non-customer. To keep customers coming out of the end of the pipeline, you have to keep putting new people in at the beginning of the pipeline.

No people entering the pipeline, no customers coming out of the pipeline.

Lots of people entering the pipeline, lots of customers coming out of the pipeline.

The Pipeline

If you chose your company/product well, you have a great product at a competitive price that your customers use and reorder or buy more of. This creates residual income, every time someone uses up their stuff, they buy more and you make a little bit each time.

As you continue to add customers these add up to a stream of income that you don’t have to create from scratch each day/month/year.

This becomes similar to the gas pipeline for the oil company, as long as the product is moving through the pipeline, the oil company makes money.

Lou Abbot has come up with a great little video based on a book by Burke Hedges that illustrates this in a very entertaining way.  I recommend you go watch it. When the site opens, scroll down the page to step 1 and click on “View the demo!” Click “START” on the next page. Go here to click over to it.

Make it a great week!

Have you ever wondered how to ask someone to look at your business, . . . → Read More: Training That Makes Sense]]>

If you’ve been around the block a few times in network marketing, you’ve probably realized that most training in network marketing consists of personal anecdotes, “run the numbers,” success stories of how others did it, hoopla, rah-rah and motivation; but darn little real training.

Have you ever wondered how to ask someone to look at your business, or even whether you should invite them to look at your business, or how to start a conversation?

Have you ever decided that there must be something wrong with you because you see others having success, but you’re not? Have you ever wanted to scream in frustration because no matter how many trainings, calls, meetings you attend it just isn’t happening for you?

Tim Sales has a course that he has written that answers all of these questions and much, much more. This is the first training that I can honestly say: “YOU NEED THIS.” Unless you’re already making more money than you can ever possibly spend, this can improve your game. Check it out at Professional Inviter.

Here’s Tim in an excerpt from the introduction:

Inviting Basics – Introduction

“Hello, Network Marketing Professional. My name is Tim Sales. My purpose and intention with this training pack is to teach you the skills or increase your skills at inviting people to look at your network marketing business.

…

“Inviting is the ability to ask someone to do something. You invite someone to go to dinner, you invite someone to play golf, and you invite someone to look at some information. This training package specifically addresses you inviting someone to look at your network marketing business.

…

“There is nothing more important in network marketing than inviting. See, if you can invite well, you can put your prospect in front of good presenters and good presentation tools (like videos, audios, websites – things like that). But if you can’t invite well, you’ll have a tough time in network marketing. So the information in this training pack is critical to your success.”

Take Your Skills To The Next Level

Since starting this course, I am having more fun than I thought possible in network marketing. I’ve always read and heard that if you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong. Well, I was doing it wrong. Tim shows you how to do it right!

Go to this link: Professional Inviter. Really, you need this.

Quote

“Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.”  – Mohandas Gandhi

The more I thought about this, the truer I decided it was – at least it was true for me. It was almost one of those epiphany moments – hell, it . . . → Read More: Motivated By The Future]]>

I read an article last week which said that someone who wants to be at cause is motivated by the future.

The more I thought about this, the truer I decided it was – at least it was true for me. It was almost one of those epiphany moments – hell, it was an epiphany, it explained to me why we’re always being asked to figure out our why for doing the business.

Almost every network marketing book you’ll ever read tells you to find your why. I just started reading a book about the habits of successful sales people, and one of the first things he talked about was knowing why you’re doing what you’re doing. Every training or fast start meeting I’ve ever been to has talked about finding your why. Every network marketing company training manual I’ve ever read has talked about finding your why for doing the business.

Do you sense a pattern here? Why are we always being asked to do this? I always kind of had it chalked up as a motivational trick – a way to keep us moving. It is, but it is so much more than that…

We are motivated by the future. We don’t work hard now to get what we already have – or if we do, we’re in a serious rut, and need to change something sooner rather than later. We work hard now to fix in the future whatever it is we don’t like about now.

After years of attending network marketing meetings and trainings, I’ve heard a lot of different whys for doing a network marketing business.

• put my kids through college
• bring my husband/wife home from the job he/she hates
• be able to be full-time parents
• to travel
• to get out of debt
• to make something of themselves
• to be someone that people look up to
• to have the house of my dreams
• to have the car I’ve always wanted
• to be able to take care of my parents
• time freedom
• to be able to go where they want when they want
• to live where they want
• to work with the people they choose to work with

Do you see how these are all future things? They are all things that these people want in the future for which they were willing to work hard and sacrifice for today.

Now I get it. This explains the reason for all this attention to figuring out our why which I used to think was slightly, ummm, silly…

We are motivated by the future – what do you want in your future? The first step to putting it there is knowing what it is. The second step is knowing that you want it there, and knowing that you want it there so badly that you’ll work your butt off to put it there. So badly that failure is not an option.

We are motivated by the future.

Take Charge of Your Future

If you’re a newcomer to network  marketing and want to learn more of the reasons that network marketing is such a powerful method to help you achieve your why, check out Brilliant Compensation (it’s free).

To learn how to increase the odds of achieving your why by picking the right company, go to www.AlansMLMTips.com and sign up for the “7 Days, 7 Insider Secrets” email newsletter. (This is free too!)

Lead – To show the way to by going in advance. To guide or direct in a course.

Leader – Somebody who guides or directs others. Someone who is responsible for or in control of a group, organization, country, etc.

Leadership – Capacity or ability to lead. The ability to guide, direct, or influence people.

Lead . . . → Read More: Leadership]]>

Defining It

Lead – To show the way to by going in advance. To guide or direct in a course.

Leader – Somebody who guides or directs others. Someone who is responsible for or in control of a group, organization, country, etc.

Leadership – Capacity or ability to lead. The ability to guide, direct, or influence people.

Lead comes from the Old English word meaning “to travel.” Leader, also from Old English, means “one who leads,” in other words, the one who guides or leads the travel. If you consider your business as a journey to success, who do you want to guide your journey?

Why Is It Important?

There are certain things that have to be done or need to be done. It is generally up to the leader to make sure that these things get done.

In network marketing, leaders lead by doing what needs to be done. They make the phone calls, recruit, sell product, send out the emails, train, motivate, set goals and targets; in short, they guide the course of their team or group.

If you’re unwilling to make phone calls, or hand out videos, or send out emails; what are the chances of anyone on your team doing so? Slim and none would be my first two answers.

Great Quotes About Leadership

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.  – John Quincy Adams

Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.  – Albert Schweitzer

Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.  – Dwight D. Eisenhower

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them. – John Maxwell

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.  – Stephen R. Covey

Network marketing is called network marketing because we market through a network.

By utilizing our networks, we’re bringing customers, customer gatherers, people who get other people interested in the company, and market exposure to their company and products.

By doing this, they make it possible for someone to start . . . → Read More: Word of Mouth]]>

Why Is It Called Network Marketing?

Network marketing is called network marketing because we market through a network.

By utilizing our networks, we’re bringing customers, customer gatherers, people who get other people interested in the company, and market exposure to their company and products.

By doing this, they make it possible for someone to start with no business experience and yet have the potential to become very comfortable, and even wealthy by learning on the job and applying what they learn.

Why Do They Do This?

With the use of our networks, the company can get lots of exposure, lots of customers, and lots of profits (if they do it right).

By so doing, they eliminate most of the expense of PR firms, marketing agencies, branding agencies, market research firms, focus groups, etc.

Then they can take all that expense that they’re eliminating and pay that money to the field of sales reps and marketers that are bringing the customers to the company.

The more people you bring to the company who gather customers, and the more customers you bring to the company, and the more leadership you provide, the more handsomely you’re going to be rewarded.

Why Does This Work?

Because of the power of word of mouth. Here’s what one writer has to say about word of mouth: “In our business lives, positive word of mouth generates referrals and referrals generate business. So, word of mouth is one of the most important marketing tools that can contribute to our success. What could be better than a customer mentioning how pleased they were with a service you provided to others who may need this service? Free advertising… that’s what word of mouth is.”

Here’s another: “Media Guerilla points to interesting research from Intelliseek that finds that consumers are ‘50% more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations from their peers than by radio/TV ads.’ ”

And finally, “Even more important than its credibility, reach, speed and ability to break through the clutter is its power to get people to act. In study after study with almost every category of buyer, word of mouth has been shown to be what is known as the proximal cause of purchase – the most recent thing that happened before purchase. In other words, the purchase trigger. People tend to make major purchases on the advice of trusted peers or experts.”

What Role Does Advertising Play?

The whole role of advertising in network marketing could be called finding new launch points for word of mouth. In other words, you advertise to find someone who will start a word-of-mouth campaign among his/her friends, family, acquaintances and business associates.

If you’re good at networking and getting referrals, you may never need to resort to advertising, but that’s the subject of another article.

Helpful Information

To learn more about the brilliance of the how you get paid for your word-of-mouth avalanches, check out Brilliant Compensation.

To learn more about how to determine if a company is a good candidate for word of mouth to catch on, go to www.AlansMLMTips.com and sign up for the “7 Days, 7 Insider Secrets” email newsletter.

Quote

In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product and profits. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two. – Lee Iacocca

I want you to meet the author of one of my favorite motivational books. It’s called “The Slight Edge – Secret to a Successful Life,” by Jeff Olson. I was introduced to this fellow as a speaker at a convention I attended. Awesome speaker and I later found out, a brilliant and captivating writer.

Jeff was born . . . → Read More: The Secret To Success]]>

Introduction

I want you to meet the author of one of my favorite motivational books. It’s called “The Slight Edge – Secret to a Successful Life,” by Jeff Olson. I was introduced to this fellow as a speaker at a convention I attended. Awesome speaker and I later found out, a brilliant and captivating writer.

Jeff was born in New Mexico, and graduated from the University of New Mexico. He worked for Texas Instruments for 5 years, then left to form a company called Sun Aire, making that company one of the largest solar companies in the U.S. within 4 years.

Since  then, he has gone on to build three different sales and distribution forces into multimillion-dollar organizations. He is a fanatic about personal development. And here is an excerpt from his book:

The Winning Edge

The Slight Edge is the process every winner has used to succeed since the dawn of time. Winning is always a matter of the Slight Edge.

One of the most highly anticipated events at the Summer Olympics is the men’s 100 meters. The winner of this quadrennial event can lay claim to being the fastest man in the world. At the 2004 Games in Athens, American Justin Gatlin ran a blistering 9.85 in the final heat to win the gold. The silver medalist, Portugal’s Francis Obikwelu, ran 9.86.  Yes, that’s one one-hundredth of a second slower – a very Slight Edge.

Do you know what makes the difference between a .300-hitting baseball star with a multimillion-dollar contract and a .260-plus player making only an average salary? Less than one additional hit per week over the course of the season. And you know what makes the difference between getting that hit and striking out? About one quarter-inch up or down the bat.

No golf fan who watched the 2004 Master’s tournament will ever forget how it ended: Phil Mickelson, winner of more tournaments over the past ten years than anyone else, with the exception of Tiger Woods, was left with a twenty-foot putt on the eighteenth hole of the final round. Miss it, even by one inch, and he would head into a playoff with the number two player in the world, Ernie Els. Make it, and he would finally silence the critics and win his first major. The putt rolled in and Mickelson had his green jacket.

Over the course of the tournament’s four days, Mickelson shot a 279, six strokes better than two-time Master’s champion Bernhard Langer did. The difference? One and one half strokes per day better than Langer does. The Slight Edge.

And it’s not just in sports. It’s in everything.

In 1998, a book called The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko, became a runaway best-seller. What so amazed readers was the fact the people profiled in the book were incredibly ordinary, everyday sorts of folks, with normal and even mediocre-level jobs, who had created extraordinary wealth by a truly remarkable, unexpected, amazing strategy. It consisted of – you guessed it. Doing little, mundane, ordinary, insignificant, everyday things with their money.

…

No matter in what arena in life or work or play – the difference between winning and losing, the gap that separates success and failure, is so slight, so subtle, most never see it.

Superman may leap tall buildings at a single bound. Here on earth, we win through the Slight Edge.  ©2005 by Jeff Olson. All rights reserved.

What’s Your Slight Edge?

If you’ve never considered network marketing as a business before, I urge you to watch Tim Sales’ video called Brilliant Compensation where he outlines the beauty of this method of business.

I also recommend that you sign up for the “7 Days, 7 Insider Secrets” email newsletter at www.AlansMLMTips.com, for some important pointers for any type of business.

If you understand both of the above, my current pick is Sundance Global, see my post from a couple weeks back for all the reasons I feel this program fits the “7 Days, 7 Insider Secrets” criteria. Then go here to watch a short video, sign up and order your free food. Let this be your Slight Edge for today!

Alan Eames

818-207-7688

Our mission is to help YOU earn FOOD and MONEY! Share our incredible message with those you care about the most. We are helping millions become FOOD and FINANCIALLY independent.

People are . . . → Read More: Unbeatable Offer From Sundance Global]]>

FREE FOOD, FREE Sign Up, and FREE Website NOW!!

For 28 years, Sundance Global has been improving the foods families
can depend on in good times and hard times.

Our mission is to help YOU earn FOOD and MONEY!
Share our incredible message with those you care about the most.
We are helping millions become FOOD and FINANCIALLY independent.

People are accumulating food supplies and reserves for different reasons.
Our lives are dependent upon having quality food to eat.

Having nutritious, long-lasting food reserves provides YOU a SAFETY NET.

So many people are challenged with . . .

• Unemployment
• Unforeseen Hardships
• Poor Economic Times
• Shift in Politics
• Natural Disasters
• Lack of Independence
• Debt

FOOD IS THE NEW CURRENCY!
Better than gold or silver . . . great for bartering!

Today and up to OFFICIAL launch on 10/20/2010, Sundance is offering . . .
FREE Sign Up, FREE Website, and yes, FREE FOOD!

Please go to the pre-launch website and secure YOUR FREE position NOW!

Then, order 6 FREE meals to enjoy!

Isn’t that an unbeatable offer?

Click on this link:
AlanEames.MySundanceGlobal.com

By acting TODAY, you are among the first to order your FREE FOOD — a $20 value!

1) Ready-to-eat meals with proprietary recipes
2) Ultra, high-quality ingredients (no MSG, no trans fats)
3) Incredible taste
4) Easy preparation
5) Convenient portions and packaging . . .
AND a 15+ year shelf life!

We know with the current economic situation your cost of food will continue to rise and shortages are a real possibility!

The compensation plan is generous and easy to understand.
Benefit from the lifetime Founders Pool . . . ONLY for the people who build
an organization during our pre-launch period of NOW to 10/20/2010.

This is exciting and there is urgency in getting started.

Sundance Global has 60,000 product users who will be integrated
into our NEW Sundance Global organizations.

I urge you to secure your FREE position TODAY
and order the FREE 6 meals of food.

Then YOU can decide YOUR best course of action . . .

• Build a winning team!
• Become a satisfied customer.
• Help others you care about start a solid FOOD SAFETY NET just like you.

You’re joining an experienced, dynamic organization . . .

• Proven team-building system!
• FREE training!
• Ongoing support!
• Career professionals teaching you the business.

I encourage you to join with me in Sundance Global . . .
. . . . . and change YOUR life forever!

Click on this link:
AlanEames.MySundanceGlobal.com

Now . . .
Isn’t that truly a no-lose,you-can-only-win, irresistible offer?

And, if my years of experience, success, and analysis of the industry is at all on track, you can win BIG!

Alan Eames
http://alaneames.com

818-207-7688

For those of you who weren’t here last week, I made a comment comparing the network you’re building in your business to real estate. My exact comment was: “Think of it like real estate. Once your network reaches a certain size, that network becomes an asset that continues to generate income whether . . . → Read More: Rooms For Rent]]>

What?

For those of you who weren’t here last week, I made a comment comparing the network you’re building in your business to real estate. My exact comment was: “Think of it like real estate. Once your network reaches a certain size, that network becomes an asset that continues to generate income whether you work or not.” (For the whole article, you can go to Don’t Trash Network Marketing.)

I realized on further pondering that that is actually a very apt analogy. Plus it capitalizes on a very similar analogy made by Tim Sales in his amazing video Brilliant Compensation.

Why Real Estate?

Real estate investors look for properties that can return a positive cash flow, whether it’s a house, an apartment, commercial or industrial properties.

Do you think that real estate investors think that 100% of their properties are going to be fully rented and paid every month? Whether it’s waiting for the right tenant to arrive, remodeling before the tenant moves in, having to deal with a tenant that’s not paying, or whatever, they know that there is a certain amount of time with any property where that property is not generating any income.

The commonest solution is to have enough properties so that if some of them are not generating any cash flow, the other properties keep the cash flow happening.

And?

So if you’re building a network marketing business, the people you recruit are your “properties.” They are what are going to build your cash flow.

Do you think that all of your “properties” are going to produce sales and recruits every day, every week, every month? They’re not, so what should be your solution? More “property,” i.e. more people in your network.

Let’s paint an example. Let’s say that, on average, everyone that you recruit, recruits 2 people, period. But out of 10 recruits, 1 of the people goes to town and recruits 1 person every month. To keep the math simple, let’s say the people who recruit 2 do so in their first 2 months. Further, let’s say you are one of the guys/girls who are acquiring 1 “property” per month. Here’s how the numbers of “properties”  might go. 1^st month – 2 (you and your first); 2^nd month – 4 (you and your first plus both of you recruit another); 3^rd month – 8; 4^th month – 14; 5^th month – 22; 6^th month – 32; 7^th month – 44; 8^th month – 58; 9^th month – 74; 10^th month – 92.

After 10 months, you have 92 people in your network of whom exactly one is doing something every month, yourself. But, you had things happening all the time. Every month there were new sales and new recruits. And you had your first “property” that begins generating cash flow every month. At the end of the second 10 months, you’ll have another 184 people plus your 3^rd and 4^th person doing something every month (another for yourself, one for your first every monther) . At the end of the third 10 month period, you’ll gain another 4 people who do something every month (one for you, one for the first guy, and one each for # 3 & 4).

After 30 months, 2 ½ years, you have 8 “properties” generating cash flow every month. Let’s just say for the purposes of the analogy that each “property” generates $100 in cash. Okay, so after 2 ½ years of blood, sweat and tears, you have $800 in cash flow. I can hear you thinking, “oh, wow…”

Bear with me, after another 10 months, at the 40 month mark (3 year and 4 months) you have 16 “properties,” $1600 a month, better, but really, for 3 years of work? Okay, 10 months later, 50 months (4 years, 2 months) you now have 32 “properties” bringing in $3200 per month. Another 10 months (5 years now) and you have 64 “properties” bringing in $6400 a month. 5 years and 10 months, you have 128 “properties” and $12,800 per month. Stop me when you get excited.

Okay, not bad, but 5 years?

All right, name me some other occupation where, with no education in the business at the outset, you can earn this much or more in that time frame and have it turn into residual income to boot.

And who’s to say that you couldn’t double your efforts or increase your effectiveness and do it twice as fast? It has happened.

So, How Many “Properties” Do You Want To Buy?

If you’re considering joining the network marketing industry and haven’t made up your mind yet, check out the video by Tim Sales called Brilliant Compensation.

If you don’t have a company yet, or you’re looking for a better one, check out www.AlansMLMTips.com and sign up for the (free) “7 Days, 7 Insider Secrets” email newsletter.

If you already have a company, and need tips and how to’s on marketing, check out John Eberhard’s RealWebMarketing Blog.

Here’s a couple blogs that I like that are specifically on network marketing:

http://www.marcus-baker.com

http://karyrogney.com

Hope you’re enjoying your Labor Day weekend! Have a good week.

Quote

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.  – Conrad Hilton

When you sign up to start your new business, you are probably very excited. You’ve got this jazzy new product with which you’re going to take the world by storm. You’re going to make a ton of money, because everyone is going to want this. You start making your . . . → Read More: The Key Challenge]]>

When We First Met

When you sign up to start your new business, you are probably very excited. You’ve got this jazzy new product with which you’re going to take the world by storm. You’re going to make a ton of money, because everyone is going to want this. You start making your list of who you want to show your new business to, you can’t wait to go out and show somebody what you’re all excited about.

The Morning After

So now you’ve made a few presentations and you feel comfortable with giving it and things are really cooking for you and everyone is signing up. Well, okay, some people are signing up. Or maybe… my friend took pity on me and signed up with me after I told him I’d done sixteen presentations and no one had signed up yet. Or worse yet, sixteen presentations and nobody signed up. Could you keep going at that point?

Thomas Edison, according to legend, figured out hundreds of ways to make a light bulb that didn’t work. Ever the optimist, he said he hadn’t failed, he had just eliminated 899 wrong ways of building a light bulb. He carried on and eventually found a way that worked, providing a good source of light and a decent lifespan for the bulb. Where would you have said enough is enough?

Another is an individual who went to work as a salesman for a company, he made presentations every day, but no sales. After a month of no sales, the owner wanted to fire him so he could find a line of work he was more suited to, but he begged the owner to let him continue. To make a long story short, on his 106^th presentation, he made a sale. After that he started making occasional sales, then more sales; after two years he was the best salesman for the company. How long would you have kept going with no sales?

The Key Challenge

The key challenge is remaining consistent in the face of failures, disappointments, and let-downs. Do you want it bad enough to follow through and continue doing the promotional and lead-generating activities that will eventually create the income you dream about.

If you believe in the product and the company, have a big why for doing the business, focus on the main thing and can be consistent about it, you will be a winner.

To find a company and a product you can believe in, go to AlansMLMTips.com.

If you already found a company to work with, find a mentor or an upline who can train you, get trained and be consistent in applying what they teach you.

If you’re already trained, be consistent in applying what you learned. Be consistent in learning more: about the industry, about leadership, about training others, about every facet of this wonderful industry.

Quotes

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.   — Aristotle

Success is all about consistency around the fundamentals.  – Robin Sharma

The secret of success is consistency of purpose.  – Benjamin Disraeli

If you’ve read some books on network marketing, you will probably have noticed that very few, if any, of the books out there mention what marketing is. Does anyone else find this strange?

We work in an industry called network marketing, or multi-level marketing and nowhere within the industry does anyone . . . → Read More: If It’s Network Marketing,]]>

Why Aren’t We Taught How To Market?

If you’ve read some books on network marketing, you will probably have noticed that very few, if any, of the books out there mention what marketing is. Does anyone else find this strange?

We work in an industry called network marketing, or multi-level marketing and nowhere within the industry does anyone explain what marketing really is. I have read a couple blogs where other people have noticed this lack, but it’s actually pretty humorous that this seems to have gone undetected for so long.

Kind of like a dog groomer not knowing what grooming is (caring for an animal’s cleanliness and appearance). Or an airplane pilot not knowing what pilot means.

Seems sort of silly when you apply it to other industries, doesn’t it?

What Is Marketing

Let’s start with the easy, my Encarta Dictionary says marketing is “the business activity of presenting products or services in such a way as to make them desirable.”

The Oxford Dictionary says “the action or business of promoting and selling products or services , including market research and advertising.”

From BusinessDictionary.com we get “As a practice, it consists in coordination of four elements called 4P’s: (1) identification, selection, and development of a product, (2) determination of its price, (3) selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer’s place, and (4) development and implementation of a promotional strategy.”

Now, if you look over those four elements, in network marketing we are left with number four as the only area we normally have any control over.

The purpose of marketing is to create a want or a desire and to sell something to the people in whom you’ve created that want or desire.

So What Is Sales

This is another oddity that I’ve noticed in network marketing, we’re selling a product or service, but we’re not supposed to say that’s what we’re doing, we call it sharing or telling a story.

So let’s define sales and selling. Sales is the exchange of goods or services for an agreed-upon amount of money. That seems safe enough, I have a car, you want the car, offer me $2000 for it and I agree. You get the car, I get the $2000.

Okay, selling; the process where the salesperson ascertains, activates, and satisfies the needs or wants of the buyer to the mutual, continuous benefit of both buyer and seller.

Or, as I like to put it, selling is a conversation designed to help the buyer acquire what he needs or wants.

I think the problem arises, and where most people’s dislike of sales as an occupation comes from, is most of us have experienced the salesperson who did not have the intention to help, but only wanted your money, and would do pretty much anything to get it.

I used to hate sales, with a passion, but since I found and understood these definitions, I actually like selling. It’s enjoyable helping people acquire what they need.

What Does This Mean?

Once you’ve joined your company, what do you do? You have to market yourself and your company/product/service/opportunity.

The almost universal method that we are all taught in network marketing is to make a list of friends, family and acquaintances, the longer the better. Then learn how to approach these people and present your company/product/service/ opportunity. I don’t know that this is the best method of marketing, it certainly is easy enough to learn and practice will improve your skill at it.

You can apply the three-foot rule and talk to anyone within three feet of you. This requires developing a speedy method of communicating what you’re all about to a stranger or good skills at developing conversations with strangers.

You can hand out business cards or flyers to people in shopping malls or grocery stores. You can post flyers, you can put ads on Craig’s List, start a blog, there are probably hundreds of methods of getting your name in front of other people.

A whole new world has opened up in the form of social media, Facebook, Twitter, Linked.com, MySpace, etc. These are valuable ways to market yourself and your company very cheaply.

The whole point is to get your information in front of someone who’s interested so that they can act on it.

The best way, in my humble opinion, is to find or pick a certain type of people, or a certain occupation, or people in a certain location, find out by asking people what they think is good, bad or indifferent about green apples (or whatever product/service/opportunity you’re asking about). Ask enough people and a pattern will emerge. Use that pattern to your benefit and grow your business.

Marketing Is Valuable

People spend years learning marketing and business colleges teach it for one reason, it’s good business. Network marketing companies depend on you for the majority of their marketing and they pay very nicely if you figure it out. Are you interested enough to figure it out?

One of my favorite blogs for marketing is the RealWebMarketing Blog, written by John Eberhard. He writes about once a week on topics of great relevance to what we are doing as network marketers. I urge you to check it out and add more knowledge about marketing to your arsenal along with the motivational and inspirational to keep you going and growing.

Quote

If you’re attacking your market from multiple positions and your competition isn’t, you have all the advantage and it will show up in your increased success and income.  – Jay Abraham