What is Network Marketing?
Network Marketing is usually a choice people make as a career because of the flexibility to work when they want, with who they want and where they want. It gives the option to run your own business on a self-employed basis with a proven system to help generate an additional income. Most people join a Network Marketing company by signing an agreement to sell products and services under their name and their terms and agreement. It is run similarly to a mini Franchise. A proven successful system but without the expensive sign-up costs of a full franchise. In most cases the sign is free, but you may have to invest in products or services.
Why do we use it?
The reason most companies use Network Marketing system is that it is a cost-effective way to market their business offerings. This method is also known as referral marketing, affiliate marketing or ‘word of mouth’ marketing. Network Marketing is also known as Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)because it pays commission at different levels of teams in your organisation. It takes responsibility away from companies from making huge costs from employing people. The Network Marketers are known as Distributors, Agents, Consultants or Representatives depending on which company they join. The main reason people use this method to do business is that they can run their own business with a license to work with these companies so much cheaper. It also gives them many benefits like a proven method, no stock to hold, products are shipped direct the customers, commission paid directly to the Distributor’s account. The training and customer services support is from the company and the company take responsibility for anything that is faulty or wrong. In the main, it is a very popular option and most people can get started without major credit checks, the need to borrow money from banks or the other usual headaches that most people have when setting up their businesses.
What are the challenges with it?
The biggest challenges I have found in my 30 years’ experience in this industry is the duplication process. Signing people may be an easy task but prospecting people has been the main challenge for most. We talk about signing people we know and those we don’t. In most cases, people struggle to recruit from the ‘cold’ market. With the ‘warm’ market we lose many friends and family members who cannot see how we see the potential in the business. We use the term for them as ‘Dream Stealers’. If Distributors struggle in enrolling new members, they will not be making good commission also if they are committed to a monthly auto-ship cost, this can start costing them more money to stay active rather than earning from their MLM business from general growth with additional Distributors or Customers. Due to these challenges, most people in MLM industry jump from company to company and never really stay in them long enough with the consistency of activity to build strong teams. This industry, unfortunately, has had for many years a bad name for it as people relate to it as a ‘Pyramid Scheme’ and that is illegal. In most cases, people don’t have the facts but say so much incorrect stuff that puts people off doing the business. So, it can be disheartening in some cases and people quit.
Why does it work for some and not others ?
The main reason for most people to be successful in this industry boils down to many things. There are factors, like the right support from their ‘Upline’ (the person who recruited them) also that they had enough personal money in place to keep them going whilst they build teams. These people are also very consistent in their activities with massive action and soon they find themselves in leadership roles. This elevates their profile and people want to join them because they are successful. The methods are simple but it takes a lot of hard work to build strong teams with hundreds and thousands of people in your organisation. The main thing that keeps people going in this business is the incentive to get residual income, (do the job once and get paid over and over again, a bit like royalties as Authors, writers singers etc…get) from repeat business and a good retention rate. There is so much I have learnt through my experiences over these years that I decided to put these experiences together and share them to help people avoid the pitfalls of the minefield. I want to show them how to prospect successfully, to create good retention of Distributors and how to help teach them to duplicate effectively. I want to teach them how I achieved global success in this industry creating thousands of people in my organisation generating sales revenue in excess of 250,000 per month. In my courses, I want to educate and equip people to understand why presenting powerfully, confidently and professionally can help make all the difference and how to succeed in this industry. This is only the tip of the iceberg of this industry.
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