7 Tips for Network Marketing Success

You probably have an image firmly planted in your mind of what network marketing (also known as direct sales or multilevel marketing) is all about--housewives buying and selling Tupperware while gossiping and eating finger sandwiches, or a high-pressure salesperson trying to convince you how easily you can become a millionaire if only you and your friends and their friends and so on would buy and sell vitamins with his company.

Both of these images couldn't be further from the reality of network marketing. It's neither a hobby nor a get-rich-scheme but an opportunity for you to earn money running your own part- or full-time business. It is like most business you need to know your market and your products that relate to that market.

But what does it take to succeed in this industry? First you will need to know the industry so that you can choose wisely.

There are six key elements you should be looking out for [when selecting a company opportunity]. Number 1: stability. How old is the company? Number 2. Is excellent and unique products or services that consumers will use and need more of that is not readily available from every corner shop.

Number 3. Is the pay plan-how even and fair and generous overall is the distribution of the wealth of the company? This is really crucial as the pay plan represents exactly how you'll get paid-or not get paid. There are really only two questions to ask [regarding this. How many pennies out of each sales dollar will be given back to the distributors each month, and the type of plans that you will be using. This is very important, because many plans are design to benefit the company. “I myself is very weary of force matrix, 2up and breakaway plans unless they combine another plan.

Number four is the integrity of the company and the management. As much as possible, [investigate] the experience of the CEO, [their] experience in the network marketing industry, and their background. [Have] they been successful in other companies in the industry? Do they have a good reputation? This can easily be predict by the way they choose to reward their distributors.

Number five is momentum and timing. What new innovations are the company coming up with to attract new customers?

 Look at where the company is now, and where they want to be in the next 10 years what's going on with the company, it's growing.

Number six is support, training and business systems in place?. You may have [chosen] a great company with excellent management, products that make a difference, a pay plan that's uniquely fair and very generous, and momentum and stability, but if you don't have a system in place that works to train new distributors you have backed a looser.

Practice what they teach. [To succeed,] you need to be willing to listen and learn from your mentors. The way this industry is structured, it's in the best interests of the [MLM veterans in your company also call up-line to help you to succeed, so they should be willing to teach you their system. Whatever your mentor did to become successful, should be duplicatible, but you have to be willing to listen and be taught how to follow the systems.

The higher-ups. It can be called various things, but the general term is the "upline," meaning the people above you. How supportive are they? Do they call you? Do they help you put a plan in place? Are they as committed to your success as they are to their own? You should be able to relate to [the people in your upline] and be able to call them at any reasonable time to say "I need some help." The much support that you can you get from the people above you in the company is very important.

Take up the lead with your downline. There's a term in the network marketing industry called "orphans"--when somebody is brought in and then the person who brought them in is just so busy bringing in other people that they don't spend the time to teach and train [the new person]. You should be prepared to spend at least 30 days helping a new person that is in your business, training them, supporting them and holding their hand until they feel confident to be able to go off on their own. You really need to ask yourself, are you willing to do that? Are you able to do that? This is really about long-term relationship building. It's not about just bringing people into the business and just moving forward. It's about working with these people and helping them to develop relationships. 

On the net. People are utilizing [the internet] as their main marketing tool. You can set up your site with autoresponders so when you capture leads, the autoresponder can follow up with that but you still need the personal touch if you want to run a successful business.

One of the greatest keys to success in this industry is follow-up. Many people will have someone call them who are interested or they'll call the person and say they're interested, but then they don't follow up with it. Automation on the internet has allowed a much more consistent method of following up.

The only drawback with the internet is people who utilize it to spam. If there was one thing I could put forward to say, "Do not do" when utilizing the internet as a marketing tool, it's spamming because that can give a very bad reputation not only to you but also to the company you're working with.

Don't quit your day job...yet. Never leave your full-time position unless you're absolutely certain that the income that's coming in with this company is going to be there. [Be sure that] you've been with the company [for awhile] and that you know it's a stable company, and the income that you're earning is equal to or greater than the income you're earning from your job before quitting.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77700#ixzz2kHaATYPZ