Network Marketing Today:A Brighter Future

Surfing through Google® today, I found an interesting article from Fast Company about Network Marketing.
Here's a little taste:

Any business model that has achieved this kind of success probably has lessons that all business people can learn from. We define this family of business models as a method of distribution in which people are paid for sales volume generated by people they have recruited into the distribution network. 20% of American adults reported they are now (6%) or have been (14%) a direct selling representative -- defined as "the sale of a consumer product or service, person-to-person, away from a fixed retail location." In 2000, 55% of American adults reported having, at some time, purchased goods or services from a direct selling representative. Read more ...

When you start to think that no one is interested in your program, that your leads have hit the proverbial dead-end, consider the findings of this article. Around 80% of American adults have NOT been involved in Network Marketing / direct selling! Hello.....McFly......80% NOT involved - ever. That's only in the United States!

Another snippet from the story:

The most prominent examples of direct selling companies include Amway, Avon, Mary Kay, Nu Skin, and Herbalife, which recently went public. In 2003, U.S. total direct selling sales totaled more than $29 billion, or almost 1% of the over $3,397 billion for total U.S. retail sales (U.S. Census Bureau).

Numbers don't lie here. Remember this statistic that next time someone has concerns about marketplace saturation.

Network Marketing Today:How About Something Different (Repost)

Note: The post first appeared one year ago today on a different blog that I author. I chose to repost as I was clearing some old papers in my office and found my notes I used to compose it. Given my current mode of thinking, evaluating my approach to my business, and the distance traveled since the original post, I thought I'd share it again. I hope you enjoy it.

There are millions of people in the home-based business, network marketing industry today and the trend certainly suggests that many millions more will likely find themselves joining at least 3 at some time during their lifetime. Although this can be reassuring to the fledgling network marketer, there are some basic questions that come to mind.

What are people really looking for when they decide to embark on their own home-based networking business?
This is an important question you should seek to answer. Understand one thing, you cannot answer it for the person you are trying to recruit. You must learn this answer from them. You will need to develop the skills to hear what their real reasons are for considering leaving their comfort zone.

Why do so many people quit a home-based business so quickly or so often?
There are so many variables to consider when answering this question. Here are some things that may be contributing factors.

• Not making money soon enough
• Negative responses from "warm list" contacts
• Vanishing upline
• High priced training programs
• Over-priced products and/or services that are difficult to market
• Pressured into joining through hype or hard selling techniques
• Failed to make personal connection to others in the business
• Pressured by upline to meet unrealistic quota
• Unrealistic expectations of prosperity
• Never taught the "how-to" aspect of business building
• Unable to contact corporate support and leadership
• Alienation through "title-based" achievement system
• (you fill in the blank)

I am sure that you could come up with several other reasons based on your experience. Here are several questions I had to ask myself when I faced a crossroad in deciding to leave my old business. If you find yourself at the fork in the road about continuing your present business or venturing into a different business, consider my questions.

• Do you feel that you are having to hype your business in order to get peoples attention?
• Do you feel you can honestly present your company without hype?
• Does your current business employ a hard sell technique?
• Does your business promote an ongoing education program that is affordable?
• How about a home-based business that lets you actually spend time at home while building it?
• Do you feel your success comes at the expense of another person's effort?
• Do you feel your upline is profiting more on your effort than you are?
• How often do you find yourself having to sell your product or service at cost to gain a sale?
• Does your business encourage the concept of "delayed gratification"?
• What is the quality of your personal relationships with people outside the business?

There are always alternatives and choices you can make to change your situation. If you find that you are not satisfied with representing a business that compromises your personal values, I suggest you seek the ones that don't. There are thousands of companies in the market. I assure you that, if you seek it, you will find one that best suits your needs. It took me more than 5 years of personal and financial frustration before I found a company worthy of my highest personal values. I sincerely believe that you can do the same.

Network Marketing Today:Coaching

I find myself at a crossroads in my business growth and development. Lately, I have been looking into a few different coaching/mentoring programs. There are certainly many to choose from and I would caution one to consider the scope of the training in conjunction with the desired results.

I have tried a couple of the "free" sample sessions in my research thus far. In the absence of an experienced, objective mentor; I think a professional coach may help one advance their business dramatically.

Be forewarned. You will likely hear things that ruffle your feathers. You may be faced with dealing with issues, deep psychological issues, that have been your obstacles in achieving success.

I heard a statement in a session last night that I had not heard before.

"Your money zone is in direct proportion to your comfort zone."

If you are not prepared to have your comfort zone challenged; if you are not prepared to stretch; if you are not prepared to confront internal programming - professional coaching may not be the best use of your money. But - if you believe that you are the leader that people are looking for, that YOU are looking for, and that you are worthy of a level of success greater than you presently enjoy; you may want to consider it.

Network Marketing Today:Goals

Have you set your goals yet? I mean, seriously and explicitly defined very specific goals and objectives with a date of achievement? Here is a clip from an article that appears at myGoals.com about goal setting.

Serious Goals for the Serial Entrepreneur
It is the entrepreneur's cliche' cash-out: idling away lazy afternoons on a white-sand, tropical beach. Success certainly affords, among other things, an excuse to relax and enjoy the fruits of one's labor.

But as many dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneurs have discovered, there is only so much time you can spend fly fishing or lounging in a hammock before the urge to do something new starts gnawing deep down. Soon enough, everything around you suggests a new or overlooked opportunity. Every cocktail napkin becomes a sketchpad or whiteboard. Or that great idea, long stowed away, keeps you awake late at night.

Indeed, success also provides resources, credibility, experience and - —most of all - —the confidence to attempt things. The only thing harder for an entrepreneur to pass up than a good idea is that same idea coupled with the knowledge that "I'm good at doing this sort of thing."

Entrepreneurs therefore need no prodding or motivation to get up and try something new. It just happens. They can't help it. Read the rest of the article.

Of the many goals that I have set for myself, one that I have borrowed from Jeffrey Combs....
...............to become psychologically unemployable.

Network Marketing Today:Seek alternatives

I just recently purchased a copy of Kim Klaver's book, "If My Product's So Great, How Come I Can't Sell It?". I have read about 60 pages so far and should finish by the end of the weekend. I cannot yet offer a complete review of this material but I must say that it has already begun to change the way I look at my business. I have either read or listened to other selections in Kim's training library. If you are seeking an alternative to the same old tired approaches or scripts or systems that account for the unacceptable failure rate in the business, by all means check out Kim Klaver's work.

We all started in this business because we were seeking some more than what we had. More time with our family, more money to save or start a college fund or our retirement (or just to pay our bills). We were seeking an alternative to the servitude of working for someone else. We were seeking to provide more value to our community, to the market at large. We were seeking to improve the quality and direction of our life.

There is no magic formula to being successful in this, or any other, business or career. What I think Kim consistently presents so effectively is that a more honest, common sense approach will net much more positive results. One of the things that I have enjoyed in her work is this - she conveys the simplicity of this business, she presents the facts honestly, identifies the negative elements, outlines a common sense alternative, and doesn't pump sunshine as a solution.

Kim routinely offers training through various outlets and maintains a great blog and web site. Have a look sometime and see for yourself.

Network Marketing Today:Take the lead

Now you could read this headline one of two ways, I suppose. Does Stone mean that one should step up and take a leadership role in the growth and development of your business? -OR- Is this a goofy way to discuss the importance of using leads in building your business?

Guess what - I mean both.

I currently find myself involved with an organization whose participants have very little experience in using leads. I admit that my experience is also somewhat limited. For the past couple of months I have put myself on a crash course of learning about the leads business. I have chosen for my personal mission to bring more acceptance of using leads, for my personal business and those I am working with now.

I am hosting a presentation soon that will be the start of the education process for those wishing to see their business expand. It's nothing groundbreaking but it is my commitment to working with those that want a partner to assist with the process. I find, in my organization, that the single biggest reason why people are not using leads is FEAR. There is fear of being rejected, fear of not knowing what to say and how to respond to questions, and even fear of the next step in the process.

If you find yourself in a somewhat similar situation, I suggest that you must grab hold of your belt loops, talk to some of your stronger members of your organization, and schedule time to do some 3-way lead calls. Take the lead and take some leads. Invite your teammates to listen while you make the calls. After a few calls, talk about how the calls went and encourage feedback from those you are training.

Even if you don't have much confidence, if your team sees you stepping out and jumping into the fray, they will gain in their own belief that they too can make these calls.

Has anyone had this type of approach or experience? How did it work for you? Inquiring minds, ya know?

Network Marketing Today:Channel the negative effects

To piggyback on the last post:

As networkers, we will encounter more than our share of resistance, more than our share of negativity, and certainly more than our share of rejection. One of the biggest challenges we face is how we respond in situations that can reach deep into our psyche. A previous negative experience by a prospect can seem to be an insurmountable barrier to cross.

For the professional networker, we have, no doubt, had many negative experiences ourselves. This could be our most valuable asset when we present our opportunity. Our experiences should allow us to have greater empathy for others that have encountered difficulty in their Network Marketing past.

If we can tap into our memory without letting it drain our energy, connect with our prospect through common experience, and offer a solution to allow them to overcome their disappointment - I believe we can give people renewed hope.

Network Marketing Today:A Balanced View

From MLM Blog -

MLM Blog: Never as Good or as Bad
It is both easy and wrong for Network Marketers to ignore the negative aspects of the industry when they should be learning from the negative in an attempt to get better at what they do.

It is also easy and wrong for anti-Network Marketing folks to ignore the positives and paint all companies with a broad brush. Read more...

Network Marketing Today:K.A.R.M.A.

Scott Adams of MLM-Lead-Success wrote this excellent essay in which he defines his approach when calling leads.

Dear Entrepreneur,

Do you ever wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Does the rest of the day just follow suit? Have you ever thought that your attitude towards the day might just be coming back to you through misfortunes and bad things through out the day?

Well it happens and it is called KARMA.

KARMA is defined as if you put a negative out there it will come back to you in the form of another negative. So you could say you get back what you put out there.

So lets relate that to your calling of leads.

If you put out a negative presentation you get back a negative result commonly phrased as "I am not interested"”, "“Is this a pyramid scheme"”, "“Is this MLM"”, or "“does this cost anything"”. So how do you create a positive presentation in order to get back a positive result?

Let call the process of creating an effective phone presentation the K.A.R.M.A. of Phone Presentations.

Read more.

If you are just entering the world of business development through the use of leads, be sure to read Scott's article. It will save you mucho frustration and will allow you to embrace the process with more enjoyment and productivity.

Network Marketing Today: Growing Your Business BIG

Here is some tremendous advice from new blogger friend, Shelley Penney of "Net"Nuggets.

It is naive to think one can grow a successful business on the backs of their friends and family

That is a quote from a very wise friend of mine in the Network Marketing Industry, but don't you think it is valid right across the board? I really don't believe in "making a list of your friends and family" unless of course, you want to. The fact is, it really doesn't matter HOW you get your business leads, the only thing that matters is that you get them. Some ways of prospecting are suited for certain people, and in fact there are so many different ways to meet people who are looking for what you've got that there is rarely a need to step TOO FAR out of your comfort zone. However, if you are a very shy person, you may have to take a bigger step than most.
Read more.

Shelley has compiled a wonderful list of ideas for anyone seeking to build a big business and join the ranks of the professional networker. Great job Shelley and thanks for the nice note.

Network Marketing Today: Specific Intent

I wanted to title this post, "Goals - Don't live life without them".

Whether you are or will ever be involved in Network Marketing, whether you and I will ever have the opportunity to work on a business project together, or whether you'll ever finish all those tasks on your "honey-do" list; you will have to accept the responsibility of setting some goals. You cannot live your life without goals. This is true whether you chose them consciously or subconsciously. When you make yourself a sandwich, you are fulfilling the goal of sustaining your existence. You may not deliberately select the goal of feeding yourself but the process by which you acquire the skills and resources to prepare a meal is the end result of many cooperative and corresponding goals.

Setting goals is primarily a volitional act. It assumes one had the cognitive ability to form and understand complex concepts and abstractions. The goal setting activity presupposes that one is seeking some level of improvement in the condition or circumstance of their life. It further suggests that the goal-setter deems themselves worthy of achieving the desired object and have the essential capabilities to accomplish it. So what happens? Why does it seem that people experience a "disconnect" from their stated goals and their success?

I think part of it, perhaps a major part, has to do with the lack of specific intent. At times, we may negotiate with ourselves over the commitment we need to have to reach our fullest potential. We may choose partners in our business that do not share a similar dedication. As we grow toward our objectives, we can diminish our most productive energies by not allocating our time effectively. We find ourselves trying to help everyone and lose much of the energy we need to make substantial inroads.

Be specific in your goals. Define them so clearly that you can see them in your mind's eye. Be specific in your actions. Each step you take should be a step forward. Measure the results to best gauge your progress. Be specific in your expectations and your responsibilities.

Network Marketing Today: Independence

The American Independence Day. We celebrate the birth of our nation, the ascent of our freedom, and we honor the men and women that risked everything to make it a reality. Can you imagine what your life would be like today had it not been for those committed and courageous people?



For many people, the choice of joining a network marketing company rests on their wish to achieve some level of independence. These folks wish to have greater control over their time, where they spend it and with whom they spend it. Your networking business will not give you more time, but it could give you more choices on how and where to spend that time.

What does "independence" mean to you? What would you do with your time if you had greater control over where you would spend it?

Network Marketing Today: Start Now

"Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right'. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along."

Napoleon Hill

Thanks to Motivation Articles, Essays, Tips, and Advice.

2005 is now just past the half-way point. How would you evaluate your progress in your networking business thus far? Are any of us in the position we planned to be? Probably not, right? Here's some great news! ( I just saved a bunch of money by switching to ....)

Seriously now.

We still have six months to move in the direction of our chosen goals and objectives. The time to start this process is TODAY. I have seen too many people that are getting ready to get ready. Getting all their ducks in a row, as they say. Funny thing about ducks, once the first one starts moving, the others naturally follow anyway.

Conditions will never be perfect. In fact, it is more likely that it will be harder to take action the longer you wait. Yes, you will make mistakes. Yes, you will fumble through some activities as you gain greater knowledge and improved personal skills. The learning process is not without discomfort and insecurity. Mastery is not merely the memorization of particular skill but more the commitment to act with and upon the best judgment you now possess.

Do not wait. Start now. Start today. Your greatness awaits your decision to meet it.

Network Marketing Today: The Basis

What is Network Marketing? This from Wikipedia:

Multi-level marketing (MLM) (also called network marketing (NM) or matrix marketing) is a business model which utilizes a combination of direct marketing and franchising. Typically, independent business owners (IBOs) become associated with a parent company in a contractor-like relationship. IBOs receive remuneration for shopping within their own business, for selling products and for expanding their network of people ("downline") doing the same. An IBO receives a percentage of the profits generated by the network of all IBOs introduced to the system by him or her, and also of the profits generated by the people introduced by those IBOs, and so on. A points system, where the points represent the volume of products sold through the IBO network, tracks rewards.
Read more -

Network Marketing presents an opportunity to enter business ownership, to sow your entrepreneurial "wild-oats", to seek and achieve your independence from traditional employment. Make no mistake, Network Marketing is a business, a huge business. When pursued correctly, by that I mean, with honorable intention and ethical conduct, a career in networking can be extremely rewarding. In terms of both financial benefits but also in your own personal development.

Your Network Marketing business will cause you to stretch, to acquire and expand your skills and talents. Your paradigm will be challenged and you will, through time, learn to develop new disciplines that will serve you in other aspects of your life. You will likely grow into a more actualized leader and mentor.