Is Your Network Marketing Business an Incubator or Launching Pad?

Years ago when cassette tapes were hot technology, I was listening to a training by Art Jonak and Big Al Tom Schreiter, and I remember them saying, “Don’t worry if someone is sleeping in your business. One day they will wake up, and when they do, you want them to wake up in your organization!”

The leverage a prospect has, at first glance is obvious: money, and being able to choose his/her provider of services. To the amateur or new MLMer, it seems as though the prospect has all of the power and all of the leverage. Hence the strong arm tactics, high-pressure closing techniques, begging, and the I’ll-do-anything-to-get-the-sale approach of the vast majority of sales people and network marketers.

Copyright 2008, by Karen Hurd Enterprises, Inc.

Retention.  It’s the magic word in network marketing, maybe a more important issue than prospecting. It’s the Holy Grail of network marketing. For the majority of MLM distributors, retention is elusive. High drop rates are discouraging. It’s the easiest business in the world to start, and the easiest to quit.

Retaining your downline in network marketing has a significant impact on your income and your time. It costs more to sponsor a new distributor or customer than to maintain one.  No one wants a revolving door business.  Many, however, are resigned to the high attrition in MLM.  You’ve heard “throw mud on the wall and see what sticks”. That approach is a response to the revolving door – recruit them faster than they leave in order to build big.
 
Retention in your downline is 5 things:

1)Who the people ARE

2)The quality of the company/service/products/comp plan

3)Your sponsoring process – based on hype and speedy sign ups, or are you looking for real business partners?

4)Your training system – does it teach your team how to avoid pitfalls? Does it teach them how to sort through candidates while maintaining their self-esteem?
Does it teach them how to work with people?  How to target their marketing?

5)Your leadership style

You can change #2 by changing companies. You can change #3 and #4 by evaluating your results and making necessary changes. You have the most control over #5 by working on yourself. You can do NOTHING about #1 except to identify who you’re working with -not by their words, but by their actions.  MLM attracts a lot of people who really want at-home JOBS not businesses.  So you can’t retain the  “I -really-wanted-a-job types.  There are people who do not have any perserverence for this, no matter how simple/easy you make it, and you can’t retain them either. There are those who do it when they feel like it, and not when they don’t. You have precious little control over that. You can only work with with those who are willing to be coached and who are willing to do the stuff. You can only identify them by their actions.

I have tried to work with the uncoachable, done therapy with the unmotivated. I let them go now.  NO they are not “losers” as some would call them. They have a different path, that’s all.  And the path of  my business is not for them. The sooner I can identify them, the more fun my biz is, because I’m not trying to turn frogs into Princes. I let the frogs be frogs if they want.  

I DO have some things in place to quickly identify the most likely candidates, and a process for closure for those who wish to back out. I am more rigorous in sorting my potential partners before  they join.

Remember only 10% of the population will do a business. 3% of the population are self-starters.  So you might want to look at who you are approaching.  Not everyone who needs money or lifestyle will do multi-level marketing. Retention begins with your prospecting and sponsoring style.

 
About the Author:
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Karen Miner Hurd has owned a home business since 1988 when she
retired from her Public Relations career to stay home with her
children. Her secret passion is Foxtrot books. To learn more about
her current business venture, so you can work at home visit:
The Freedom Project
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One of the reasons why I believe MLM gets a bad name and is accused of hype – is that MLM or network marketing is promoted to the wrong people about 80% of the time. It’s promoted as a part-time work at home job to people who really just want a steady pay and flexible hours.

1) Network marketing is not a job. It is a business system for entrepreneurs who want to have their businesses at home instead of another location, like an office. The vast majority of networkers still promote MLM as “You can make thousands of dollars in just a few hours a week”! You can do that…just not right away. Depending on your company and business system that could take 90 days or 9 months. People who want at-home jobs expect to be paid a set amount of money every week. It’s call a paycheck, not an override.

2) A home business takes heart, energy, perservence and a degree of risk. In a business, you are responsible for your success, no one else. A work at home job takes only time and energy. People wanting at-home jobs are not prepared for the responsibility of a business because it’s not what they want. All the motivational tapes and contests will not matter if they don’t want it in the first place.

3) Why doesn’t your new distributor want to make a prospect list? Probably because a home job doesn’t require him/her to create his/her own work by creating a client base. Entrpreneurs intuitively understand the need for prospecting. Home-based employees do not. They will however, gladly help you take care of YOUR prospects.

4) Is your new distributor who is turned off by talk of goal-boards, dreams, or vision-casting? A job doesn’t require that kind of mental or emotional energy. There is no “big picture” or the “whole story” in a job. If you marketed your opportunity in terms of a job, you will have distributors that won’t come to meetings, listen to tapes or do any of the training. Why? Because they want a job, not a business!

5) A home-job is defined. Even with “action plans” or “success blueprints” home-businesses are open-ended by nature. You cannot guarantee how many appointments you will set, how many orders you will get that day and so on. You can only guarantee your activity level, not the result of each indvidual action.

If you want distributors, market to entrepreneurs. Do not hide your opportunity under “help wanted” or work-at-home ads. As you are sorting through people, you are looking for entrepreneurs. If you want to increase retention in your network marketing business, market to those people who are most likely to stay in the first place.

About the Author:
Karen Hurd has been a maniac all of her life. She lives in Virginia with her husband and 5 children. A former public relations executive, Karen has been in Network Marketing since 1988. She is an internet marketer, writer and coach.
She is also a Napoleon Dynamite fan.
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To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://www.coolbiz4u.net/
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The dirty secret in the home-based industry, is that the network marketing systems have been broken for a long, long time. The MLM or network marketing industry has a 90%+ failure rate, and it often blames the distributor. The system of advertising and prospecting that built the industry; home parties, prospect lists and cold lead calling, are not as effective in the 21st century as they were when the industry began in the mid-1950′s.

The problem is NOT the average distributor. The problem is that the MLM system has not changed or kept up with the changes in society. What worked in 1964, or 1985 doesn’t work today. The problem is NOT that the distributor doesn’t affirm enough, believe enough, or try enough. The problem is that very few people want to do presentations like home parties, or call their kid’s soccer coach from the 3rd grade, or talk to Uncle Bob about the “opportunity of a life time”, or spend $5,000 buying leads and learning how to cope with rejection.

The average distributor does not want to become what most MLM trainers and
uplines still teach. Yes, those techniques still work some of the time, and work
very well for some of the people. They fail for most distributors most of the time. And the irony is that network marketing is a business model designed for the average person. The system sucks, not the distributor.

The average person uses the internet now. When they want to learn something new, they don’t call Aunt Jane and ask her if there are any home parties that she may know about. They do a Google or Yahoo search and look up websites. They use Instant Messaging, or My Space. The precious little time that people have for socializing and being with family, they don’t want to spend at a product presentation or a hotel meeting. I don’t either.

So instead of trying harder, or teaching your distributor that they need the thick skin of the rhino, change the system you teach to prospect and build! There are several generic internet systems that teach people how to market their MLM business online- without cold calling or wasting big money on leads. The principles of the power of relationship that is network marketing’s strength don’t change. The when and where those relationships are built does change.

The best of those systems use a funded proposal idea where you and your distributors create several streams of income while you build prospect lists. This allows your distributors to create cashflow that is then used to reinvest into advertising their primary business. If you’re a smart network marketer, harness the power of the internet. You’ll be able to create a 90% success rate, instead of a 90% failure rate. Imagine what a 90% success rate would do for the MLM’s reputation.



About the Author:

Karen Hurd is a former Public Relations executive. She began
her network marketing career in 1988 so that she could stay
home with her children. She lives in Virginia, with her husband
and 5 children. She is a writer, wellness coach, and film maven.
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To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://www.coolbiz4u.net/
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