Mlm | - Part 3

Not Everything Is A Scam

I was reading this article in my local paper this past Sunday. The article was about how someone was looking for a job online and came across an advertisement for a Google work-at-home business. Apparently the ad had used the name of a very prominent newspaper in order to make it look legitimate.

It would seem that there are some unscrupulous people that are part of a growing trend on the Internet where they use fake stories and the names of respected news entities so that they seem like they are legitimate work at home opportunities.

Honestly, I don’t know why this would come as a surprise to anyone that they thought it warranted an article in my newspaper. I mean, I get at least 3 emails a week offering me some amazing work at home opportunity where I can make a ton of money. I don’t believe it for a second.

I really appreciate that there are people exposing these scams because I think that it’s important to know that there are people out there willing to take advantage of others in the name of making a dollar. However, what I don’t like is when these good intentioned people go on to make a totally ridiculous statement like: “If someone asks you to pay to learn how to make money, that’s the tip-off to the rip-off” That’s what was quoted as having been said by Bernas (I’m assuming they were with Google but it wasn’t very clear).

How ridiculous is it to think that someone is going to teach you something for free. In the same paper that I was reading this article in there was an ad for Bartending School. The ad clearly stated that they would show you now to make money (as much at $35hr). When you check out the website, it’s pretty clear to me that you will have to pay to learn how to become a bartender and make that money.

There was another ad for Real Estate School where you can get your license FAST. And there is the implied reference to making a lot of money with a real estate license. And by-the-way, you have to pay for the education.

The point is that you have to know what it is that you are looking for. If you are looking for a JOB, why would you click on a work at home business? Being a business owner is definitely going to cost you money, whereas, being an employee usually doesn’t.

I also believe in the saying that you get what you pay for. If someone is going to teach me something (like: mlm sales), I want to be sure that I get what I pay for. Learning is not free; you have to pay for it one way or another. That being said, even some of the high priced network marketing training programs out there are very expensive and don’t really deliver on their promise of showing you how to make money from home. Do your homework folks. It’s a dog eat dog world out there and there are those that will take advantage of you and still sleep soundly at night.

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Amy Howard, September 29th 2009 | Tags: mlm, network marketing, work at home, work from home
Posted in Uncategorized

What Is Your Commitment To Your Network Marketing Business

I would like to tell you that growing a successful network marketing business is easy and it really can be if you have the right tools and skills in place but no matter what, you still have to be committed to your home based business.

I had a student who recently decided to quit prospecting. Now here is a little background: I have been working with her helping her to memorize her prospecting script. I even gave her leads because I knew that she was strapped for cash. We also talked about how she should set up her schedule so that she could have at least 2 hours to dial every day.

Here’s what happened: on her first day of prospecting, she dial for about 1.5 hours and had one invite to a presentation. Now for a first timer with this script and on the phone, I thought she did pretty good. Not great but okay. You see for the 1.5 hours she dialed, she only made like 20 phone calls. So out of 20 phone calls, she got 1 invite.

On her second day – she dialed for 1 hour and made 40 phone calls with 0 invites. She did better at dialing the phone but couldn’t manage it for more than 1 hour.

On her third day – she dialed for 40 minutes and made 20 phone calls with 0 invites.

On her forth day – we spoke and I told her that she wasn’t going to be able to talk to anyone if she didn’t pick up the phone and make the calls. She said she knew but she got yelled at yesterday when she called someone during their dinner time. “You know” I said, “that’s going to happen from time to time and those people have the option of not picking up the phone during their dinner” We talked a bit longer about how why she was in this and her numbers. (I wrote a post a while back about Hitting Your Numbers that you may want to check out.)

On her fifth day – her husband asked her how much longer she was going to do this without making any money and she quit.

Let’s look at what she actually did to grow her business. She memorized a script (sort of), she got on the phone for less than 5 hours and made fewer than 100 dials. Does that sound like someone who is committed to growing their network marketing business?

What is Commitment?

According to Urban Dictionary, commitment is what transforms the promise into reality.

It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions and the actions which speak louder than the words.
It is making the time when there is none.
Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year.
Commitment is the stuff character is made of; the power to change the face of things.
It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.

Let’s explore this a little further. When I read this definition, I think that commitment is one’s persistent pledge to a certain action. Think of it like a marriage. When you marry, you vow to be with that person for the rest of your life no matter what.

Is A Home Based Business Like A Marriage

Are you married to your home based business? I guess the answer to that question is inside of you. Why did you get involved with your network marketing program in the first place? For me, I got into network marketing after I lost my job of over 10 years. I never wanted to feel that sickening sensation again. The only way I knew how to make sure that never happened again was to become my own boss.

Your first home based business may not be the one for you.

I know that divorce happens and so is it true with multi-level marketing. My first networking venture was with a company whose only product really couldn’t stand up by itself at least not for the kind of money they were looking to get for it. So, I left that company but I didn’t join another MLM until I knew what to look for in a network marketing company. (You can listen to a podcast of “Choosing A Network Marketing Business” if you aren’t sure what to look for in a MLM company.)

One thing never wavered though and that was my commitment to owning my own home based business. If you want to know why every successful network marketer tells you that you have to have a big reason “WHY” it’s because of this: Without you having a serious commitment to your network marketing business, you will always find a reason not to work at growing your home based business. You may say that you want to earn a certain amount of money working from home but your actions will say something else.

Are you a Committed Network Marketer?

Anyone in business should ask themself this question: Are you willing to take the necessary action steps to make success happen? If you don’t know how to do something, are you willing to learn how to do it? If one marketing method isn’t successful, are you willing to try something else? Are you willing to give up something in order to reach your goal? Or, are you the type of network marketer that just dreams and wishes for success but doesn’t know how to get it and “hopes” it will find them someday.

Will You Get Your Wish?

You can keep wishing, hoping, and even praying for success but unless and until you are committed to taking the necessary action to reach your goal, you will never actually get there. However, if you do whatever it takes for however long it takes, you will achieve your dreams.

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Amy Howard, July 20th 2009 | Tags: grow home based business, home based business, mlm, network marketing, network marketing business
Posted in Uncategorized

8 Days To MLM Sales-Day 1, Identify Your MLM Product

Because my passion is helping network marketers to grow their business, I talk to many that just aren’t where they would like to be with their home based businesses. A lot of times I hear that MLM’ers just aren’t getting any kind of support from their upline leaders and sometimes I hear just the opposite. The marketer is getting all kinds of support but nothing is working for them. I thought I would give my readers that are struggling in their network marketing business a way to increase the sales of their MLM products or services in just 8 days.

Now I intend to give you enough information so that you can be making sales in as little as 8 days. Of course, you may take longer (I had a learning curve too) but everything I am going to share with you when put together will help you to sell your MLM products or services. If you read this and say to yourself that Amy has lost her mind because she is showing you how to make sales using “old school” techniques, then keep reading because everyone has to start somewhere and I would like to see network marketers make more money than they spend. That’s why I will explain the why and the how of the techniques that I use and teach. So, let’s get started shall we?

Day 1- Identify What MLM Product You Want To Sell

Most of the MLM companies that we get involved with have more than one product or service. For example: Pre-Paid Legal has both an Identity Theft protection service as well as a pre-paid legal service. Now luckily with PPL you really only have to choose between the two MLM services but there are other companies that have dozens to choose from. Let’s take ACN for example (I have a lot of students in this MLM company) ACN has phone services; VOIP, Cell Phone, local and long distance plans, and the much wanted Video Phone. ACN also offers a satilite TV service, a burglar alarm service, and Internet services. Now that’s a lot of services to choose from.

Luckily for me when I first got started in network marketing, my company only had one product. However, instead of being taught to market that product, I was taught to push the opportunity. The thing about trying to sell the opportunity is that there is always a better opportunity. So, even if you do find someone to join your business, they will leave in about 3 months when they aren’t making the 6-figure income your upline leaders and MLM company said they could be making.

So, how about we actually market the product instead of the opportunity. Besides, can you really say that you are an expert at making money from home when you haven’t made a dime? You can, however, be an expert in your product. You have used the product, you know the benefits of using the product, and you know what the product can do for people.

Why Choose Just One MLM Product

The main reason that I want you to choose just ONE product is so that you can focus on just the one thing. Once you have this one thing mastered, you can introduce other products. The best way to sell your MLM product is to be an expert in that product. By focusing on just one of the products that your network marketing company offers, you can know everything there is to know about that one product. You don’t have to be an expert at everything all at once. Don’t worry about the compensation plan, or the business builders that everyone says that you must have. Just worry about being the expert at one thing and that is just ONE MLM product.

The product is what you will be selling and it is selling the product that will make you the money. All the other stuff will come after you master this one. I am a runner and I have ran a half marathon but I can tell you right now that I don’t like to run, I do like to eat though so therefore I run. Do you know how to run a half marathon? I didn’t either at first. I first had to learn how to run one mile before I could run 13. That’s what I want to teach you how to do. Sell just one of your mlm products, become an expert at selling that one product, then you can do another and another.

Once you start making money by selling the product, you will be amazed at how many people will suddenly want to know what you are doing. Think about this. If you got involved with your MLM company because of the money making potential, did you see that potential from an associate that hasn’t made a dime or were you looking at the heavy hitters at the top and saying to yourself that you wanted what they have?

How To Choose Your MLM Product

Hopefully, you see the benefit to marketing just one of the products that your network marketing company offers. Now you may have a really tough decision to make. How do you choose which MLM product to market? They are all good. I’m going to give you a few tips that you can use to narrow down your choices.

Tip #1 – Does your MLM product have exclusivity?

It doesn’t have to be so new that no one has ever heard of such a thing. You don’t have to be first or even one of the first. If you choose a MLM product or service that has never been done before, you actually have a lot more risk than when you have a product that has been proven. If you have an older proven product with a new twist, well then you may have something. What I suggest avoiding is a product that everyone seems to be doing. Of course, if everyone else is pushing the business opportunity, you may be the only one marketing the actual product.

How do you know if you have exclusivity? Do an Internet search. Put in your what your product is (ie, skin care, phone service, greeting cards, etc.) and see what comes up. Count how many ads come up, that is your competition. The more people marketing your product, the less exclusive it is.

Tip #2- Does the MLM product have something to do with health, wealth, or love?

Is it something that a prospect would seek you out for or do you have to do a lot of explaining to get the prospect to understand? There are primarily 3 product categories that you can base your business on; Health, Wealth, and Love. Products that fit into the health or love categories are easier to sell because they are emotionally based. People will buy them because they want better health or more love. The wealth category is going to be your toughest sell.

Tip #3 – Do you have a passion for you MLM product?

Is it a great product? Did you get amazing results from using the product. If your passion is more about the opportunity than the product, you may want to find another product. You should be passionate about your product because it works not because it makes you a ton of money. If you have the passion for the product, your prospects will also have a passion for the product and it will show up in the form of good commission checks.

Tip #4 – Is your MLM product affordable?

You don’t want to choose to market something that no one can afford to buy. I don’t want you over analyze the price too much. People do buy luxury cars and spend a lot of money to do it too but you don’t see the masses going out to buy them either. If the benefits of the product outweigh the cost, you have made a good choice.

Tip #5 – Is there a demand for your MLM product?

You can have everything else but if there isn’t a demand for your product, you won’t make any sales. How do you know if there is a demand for your product. One way to know is to do an Internet search. Put in your what your product is (ie, energy drink, legal service, vitamin supplement, etc.) and see what comes up. If there are a lot of choices, then the chances are pretty good that there is a demand for the product. Remember though that you don’t want so much competition that everyone is fighting over the few customers that are looking for the product.

Tip #6 – What is the commission on selling the MLM product?

It really doesn’t make sense to go through the marketing process, if there isn’t enough profit in it for you. You are in business to make money. Your compensation should be at least 20% but not so much that you begin to wonder why they are paying so much. You want your MLM product to be legitimate and if a MLM company is paying something like 70% in compensation, then you may want to ask yourself why. If they are paying just to get the lead, it may be okay. I see a lot of affiliate programs that pay out huge commissions because they want the lead so they can make money on back end sales.

Okay, I’m tapped out of tips on how to choose a MLM product. That’s it for Day 1. If you are involved with a network marketing company that has a bunch of products, you will have some homework to decide which one you want to market. If you only have one product, then you will be all set for Day 2 for our “8 Days To MLM Sales” course, where we will be discussing how to identify your target market.

Day 2 – Identify Your Target Market
Day 3 – Create A Prospecting Script
Day 4 – Prepare A Presentation That Converts Prospects Into MLM Customers
Day 5 – Create A Closing Script That Eliminates Objections
Day 6 – Warming UP, Why Practice Makes Perfect
Day 7 – Getting Targeted Leads
Day 8 – Putting It All Together For MLM Sale

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Amy Howard, June 4th 2009 | Tags: increase MLM sales, mlm, MLM companies, mlm product, mlm training, network marketing training
Posted in "8 Days To MLM Sales" Course