21st Century MLM Survival Guide - Part 1

Posted by khai
July 7, 2008

You may have heard this often - “I’ve been scammed by those stupid pyramid selling, MLM companies”

It happens quite often actually, but the problem doesn’t usually lie with the nature of the business nor the ‘unscrupulous’ company.

To be brutally honest, most people who gets themselves into network marketing are just plain ignorant about the way network marketing works and are clueless when it comes to choosing the ‘right’ network marketing company that is suitable for them.

Look at it this way. There are tons of movies released on a weekly basis. Unless you are a movie buff, it would be ridiculous to catch ALL the movies out there and ‘hope’ that the movie turns out to be a good one, don’t you think?

People are getting smarter. They know better than to trust the trailers anymore. They prefer to get their information from trusted friends and the right movie critics before even stepping into the cinemas.

So what more when it comes to investing your time and money into a business (network marketing IS a business after all)!

It is important to evaluate a company based on feasible business decisions. I’ve paid my for my mistakes because I didn’t know any better but I am sure that the information here is helpful enough to educate you on how to make a wise decision and survive in the 21st century MLM jungle.

I’m writing a series on network marketing survival and today, I will talk about the mind set behind a successful network marketing rep and a failure.

So, what is expected of me when it comes to network marketing?

Buyer beware… people ignore this term when someone joins a network marketing company.

People usually sign up under heavy sales pressure or because of hype. Don’t mix your business decisions with your emotions because that is a sure fire recipe for disaster. In reality, network marketing is NOT for everybody. You have to be very clear what you want and ask yourselves these qualifying questions:

(1) Are you a people’s person?

Do you like to meet people and talk to them? Are you willing to spend time training them? Are you prepared to approach other people and prove to them that you are able to lead them? You may rely on your upline to do all the talking for you initially, but you must be prepared to talk like a leader and earn their respect. Otherwise you are building your upline’s business and not your own. A truly successful network marketing rep is willing to help people and ensure others succeed.

(2) Are you prepared to commit time to your business?

Network marketing is not a business that will help you generate residual income overnight. Your sponsor may brag about the leverage their team can offer, but they won’t build your entire business for you. Your people come into your network because they trust YOU and only YOU. Do not be naive to believe that your downline will grow by itself because it is wishful thinking. Be prepared to commit a minimum of 20 hours a week to your business.

(3) Are you prepared to commit some MONEY into your business?

Here is another point that people miss out. They think that they can build an entire business with an $80 starter kit. Sponsors who tell you that they started with almost no money down is probably giving false hope at best and lying at worst. Be realistic - are you entering at a reasonable entry level? You need to invest some money in your products to reflect BELIEF in your product (not to mention have some ready stock to sell or give away as samples). Are you prepared to pay autoship? Are you prepared to pay for gas even if the oil prices are going up? It’s a business and you must do whatever it takes - otherwise, your downline will duplicate all your bad habits.

(4) Are you prepared to invest in your own education?

Your growth in your business is the result of your growth as a person. A person who is NOT interested in personal development is NOT stagnant but is regressing in reality because the rest of the world is constantly moving FORWARD! So relatively speaking, because you are standing still, everybody will be moving ahead and you will be left behind. A person who is not motivated can never motivate others. Be prepared to buy books, tapes and attend network marketing seminars to improve your education.

(5) Are you prepared to memorize the compensation plan?

A lot of network marketing reps fail to pay full attention to their network marketing compensation plans. They believe that you have to be an expert mathematician in order to decipher the ‘Da Vinci’ code of their company’s comp plans. If you want to go all the way in your business, you must be prepared to memorize and understand your comp plan. Besides, if you want to be in network marketing for the long haul, downline placement is extremely critical! You have to differentiate between a Binary and a Unilevel. You have to understand the quotas of your company’s bonus payouts if you don’t want to lose a few hundred (or thousand) dollars because you were not aware. All in all, you will lose a lot of money if you don’t know how your comp plan works.

(6) Are you ready to be a product of your product?

Once again, product investment is extremely important. Don’t ask your sponsor if you can join as a rep at the minimum entry level. You are NOT showing others that you are committed! If you want to make money in network marketing, you must have products in hand and the belief and confidence to back up your claims about your company. You must be prepared to consume your product more than the monthly auto-ship level. After all, if your downlines see you use a lot of your product, they will emulate you and you will have a larger sales volume.

Now that we are very clear what is expected of us, we will have a clearer understanding how to go about in our network marketing career.

In the next few installments, we will talk more about more important factors that will determine our success in network marketing. Stay tuned for next week!

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About the Author:

Khai is a network marketing analyst who specializes in online traffic generation, direct-response copywriting and has great great interests in dissecting MLM compensation plans. He has authored many network marketing e-books and has generated thousands of dollars on autopilot MLM income on the Internet.

Check out his site for more information about making money online.

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