Networking - Excuses, Obstacles, Rewards

If you are in business, your mission includes reaching out to prospects that have a need you can fill. If you want to keep the doors to your business open, you can’t hide under a rock or in a cave and expect prospects to beat a path to your secret lair. You have to reach out in effective ways to let people know who you are and how you can solve their critical problems.

One of the easiest and most immediate ways to market your business is through personal networking. You can hire a business development person to do this for you. But if it’s your business (no matter if you have 0 employees or 110 employees) you still need to get out there and take a pulse on the market, make connections and create the opportunities.

Not everyone is a strong advocate of networking. It takes some effort, commitment and time. I talk to a lot of people who have a myriad of excuses why they can’t do networking. I agree there are plenty of excuses and obstacles to keep all of us away from live networking completely. See if you recognize even a few of these:

It takes time away from work

It takes time away from my family

It costs too much

It’s too far way – inconvenient, wrong direction, I don’t know how to get there

I get stuck in rush hour traffic to get there

There’s no parking/Parking costs too much to attend

I don’t like the food/There’s no food

I don’t drink/ I don’t golf/There’s no beer/wine

I don’t know anyone going

I’m not a member

I don’t know what to say

I went once, it didn’t work for me

I admit that on occasion a few of these slip in to my self-talk too.

On the flip side, there are terrific rewards for investing the time and effort in networking. See if any of these benefits sound appealing:

It’s fun and friendly– people are there to meet new people, to explore connections and set up follow-up meetings.

You meet many people fast – so often isn’t it timing that makes things come together?

You meet people who in some way are pre-qualified for your product or service by being members of the group or attending that particular meeting.

People who attend networking events have an agenda and they will tell you why they are there – the openness and directness is so productive.

Something leads to something – whether you are looking for clients, vendors, professional services, a new job, or contacts at a particular company; if you put it out there, you are bound to get a few hits (6 Degrees of Separation Theory). If you keep your product/service a secret, no one can know how great you/your company are.

Practice/refine your elevator speech – here’s an event where you’ll get to practice in front of a group at least once, and 1-on-1 at least another few times around the room. You get to do it in the time it would take to introduce yourself to one new prospect from a cold call.

Professional friendships – attending networking events regularly, you will build up rapport with people as they get to know, respect and trust you.

Get your nose out of your day-to- day business and get a pulse on the marketplace – clients won’t come to you unless they know you can take away their pain. Networking gives you a chance to assess the market and know where the trends are headed.

The most important time to network is when you don’t need clients or a job. It takes a good six months of networking actively and consistently to see an impact, which is where the consistency comes in.

Now here’s the newest form of networking that is taking off around the globe – online networking. If you have not plugged in to any of the online groups you are missing out. Many have a free option. Here are a few strong ones I belong to:

www.linkedin. com

www.ecademy .com

www.meetup. com

If you’d like to join my network on any of them, send me an email and I’ll send you the invitation link. The key to effectiveness online is to stay in touch – at least touch base every 6-8 weeks.

These online networking groups are more responsive in many ways than a lot of the forums and email lists. On many of them, if you respond or engage with people, you increase your self worth in the eyes of the group.

There is a difference. Online, you are casting a broad net, less selectively. In live networking, you can be very selective in choosing which group you attend and who you speak to in that group.

Networking can become addictive, once you get over the excuses. Remember, it’s only one step in the process. You still need to bring people through your marketing funnel.

Network Marketing MLM Genealogy Leads; Why And Why Not?

Working MLM genealogy leads can be an effective method of building your network marketing business. This is because one of the biggest hurdles that you face in recruiting has already been overcome for you; getting the prospect to buy into network marketing as a legitimate business model. All because of your MLM genealogy leads.

However, it is common knowledge that MLM genealogy leads is far from perfect. The person you call on a genealogy list may be very happy with their current opportunity and not open to looking at anything.

They could be a wholesale customer or not working the business. They could be inactive and may even be out of the industry altogether.

One of the biggest threats to working MLM genealogy leads is the Do-Not-Call Registry. Recently, the number of phone numbers registered under Do-Not-Call Registry surpassed 100 million. That number is significant, because the Registry has only been in operation for over two years.

Apparently, these people are getting wiser into the kind of marketing being offered everyday. Some of the opinions based on generalizations and experience may be.

One study run over 100,000 MLM genealogy leads through the DNC scrubbing process. It was found out that approximately one-third of the people on the list were on the Do-Not-Call Registry.
In the North Eastern states, that number even reached up to over 50%.

If you are planning to call MLM genealogy leads, protect yourself by having your list scrubbed against the Do-Not-Call Registry. Many companies are already providing this service. Just make sure that you are dealing with a reputable one.

Even with these downsides, there are still plenty of reasons to work MLM genealogy leads. They are very inexpensive when compared to most MLM lead sources. If you happen to land a big player, it can be the best thing that could ever happen to your business.

It can be noted that MLM leads are the lifeblood of many network marketers.

Over the years, MLM leads have become a key component of building a downline. As the demand for MLM leads has grown, the quality of MLM Leads has suffered.

Many lead capture pages are designed to get anyone to fill out the form. Some list brokers have sold their MLM leads several times, causing the people who filled out a form inquiring about a business opportunity to get bombarded with phone solicitations.

Some of these people who are on MLM leads put down false information, register with the Do Not Call Directory, and will say they never filled out a form. This is done just so they will be left alone. But in reality, they still are interested in a business opportunity. They just want it at their own time and when they are ready for it.

There are many ways to grow your business. Working MLM genealogy leads is one of the major methods for this. There are also many types of leads, as well as a plethora of leads companies.

No lead list is perfect. There are drawbacks and benefits to each one. Put yourself in charge of your leads. Know whom you are buying them from; see if they are really MLM genealogy leads, the conversion rate, and if they are DNC scrubbed. This will definitely minimize any future headaches.

Being smart about your genealogy leads. They are a good business move.

Network marketing for positive thinkers with realistic goals

The world of Network Marketing has been around for more than 50 years and started with entrepreneurial innovation that most referred to at the time as dreaming.  But, as Walt Disney Studios can attest, dreaming, a little talent and a lot of courage can make those dreamers into revolutionaries and geniuses in a world bleak with skeptic “reality” concepts.

Network Business Affiliates are professionals who truly believe in their dreams as much as they believe in their products, and thus sell honestly what they really believe in.  Positive thinkers are the secret elite that make internet marketing the big success that it is.

Positive thinkers have emotional motivation that springs from personal goals that are powerful and unwavering.  In short, positive thinkers are inspired to sell because they not only like what they sell; they need to sell, in order to be complete.

This emphasizes the most important aspect of network marketing; it is grounded in realistic goals.  Everyone can see problems and criticize their own personal problems, but how many people can change the word “problem” into the word “challenge?”

Having realistic goals means looking at the world in such a way that nothing can stop you.  In the world of sales, unless you have that outlook on life, defeat becomes imminent.  The point is to never give up and always keep focus.

To those who sell, success is the only important goal, but success, if it is structured properly, uses the way we think about getting there as the key to unlocking our deepest dreams into a real world of personal fulfillment.

Network Marketing
Dreamers are just like everyone else.  Walt Disney classified his creative teams into three different kinds of people:  dreamers, realists and critics.

Whichever one of these three types of people was missing in a creative team, Disney would take up himself, like a role play.  This administrative technique made Disney what it is today, and just goes to show how important dreamers really are.

Without the dreamer, nothing could essentially be created with any level of spectacular quality.  And that is the essential key issue to Network Marketing Online.  What do you possess, be it product or speech, that is spectacular?

People have heard and essentially seen the same old speech 1,001 times and it is not getting any better, so what is it that you can say, that people will stop and go: “What?”… “Oh wow!”.  Only dreamers can do that.

Only they possess the critical skill to create something so dynamic and interactively universal, that it grabs the attention of a potential client like some polemic issue from the news.

Online network business affiliates don’t need to be sensationalist-like news reporters.  They just have to be inside their potential client’s reality long enough to get their attention in a way that no one else ever has.

As the market of online gaming grows, astronomically in fact, that seems to be getting more and more challenging.  This is why there is a niche in marketing for the dreamer.

Do dreamers really create new and miraculous concepts, strategies, ideas and things that have never existed?  Not really, what they do is “re-manage” already existing ones with a “twist” of human subjectivity.

Network business affiliates that go above and beyond what already exists do so with that very twist of human subjectivity that is as easy as closing one’s eyes, breathing deeply enough to focus on just “one thing” and then letting go.

That is how Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and that is the strategy that makes online business really work.  “It just came to me,” Edison said, and that is what successful marketers do in order to overachieve online, they just let it come to them, and it does.

Positive Thinkers
Emotional motivation is the key to making sure that a home business is successful.
Without emotional motivation, that is, personal reasons why a person should be selling, keep on selling with more and more reasons that build self-esteem and create self-confidence, things can start to get bleak.

Emotional motivation is everything.  So what builds that kind of motivation?

Positive thinking.

Those who think positively are always set for the best.  They have their minds set on success without even having to work on it.

All a positive thinker needs to do is make a goal and go for it.  But how do they do it?  Things just can’t be peaches and strawberries 24 hours a day, seven days a week!  Or can they?

Most people who have a distinct positive outlook on life are those who tend to be somewhat spiritual in the way they look at the big questions in life, or maybe not, maybe they are just upbeat with life in that they have some personal reasons that make them happy-campers all the time, 24/7.

But the truth is, taking life’s so called bummers and turning them into promising and exciting challenges is not as easy for some people who just tend to wallow around in the muck.

Positive thinking means orientating your language patterns and, consequently, your thought patterns into the same thing as before, but with a point of view that is certainly exciting and empowering.
As an example of positive thinking, take a look at the word “problem” then the word “challenge” which one is more empowering?

The inspiration to sell comes from dynamic and motivating language that can never be kept down.

Empowering ways of talking and thinking are the first and most critical steps to home business networking, because all the motivation comes from inside your own person.

Personal empowerment is the fountain of inspiration from which the muses leap to our beckon call and from which the very inspiration to sell is born.
Success is the goal, thinking is the key.  Within that realm lies the reality of online business networking that works.

Network Marketing For Believers And Non Believers Alike

There are thousands of experts out there who will tell you how to succeed with network marketing. Some of them really do know what they’re talking about, even if their message is often delivered in that rather ‘consultant speak’ manner that makes so many of us cringe and shy away.

After many years of watching the rise and fall of ‘the next big thing’ here are a few observations for any would be online marketer to think about - more a case of how not to go about things, which, hopefully, might save some of us a lot of pain.

1) You get very little in this life for free - if only everyone would accept this simple truth, the network marketing arena would be a happier place. By free, I’m not just talking in monetary terms either. There is no doubt that the internet is still a place where you can find success with minimal initial outlay, but for the most part, the people who have had the greatest success are those who have put a lot of thought and/or effort into their business, along with some investment. You also have to add the downright dishonest folks, who are prepared to make a buck at anyone’s expense and have little or no conscience about what they do - trust me, there are plenty of them out there circling too!

2) A business means a product or a service - you cannot sell thin air to people, other than the downright stupid ones. When the next flash website catches your eye and promises you all the wealth your little heart desires, remember that they know what buttons to push to ignite your interest and talk has always been cheap. If nobody is expected to sell anything, there won’t be any money will there? So, on to the next step....

3) It’s staggering what some people can be convinced will make them money. We mentioned products and services, and if we accept that they form the basis of any business, there is much more we have to accept. Before rushing into an online venture just because it says on the screen that millions of people want to buy what they are asking you to sell, think about it carefully. Would you want to buy what they are selling at the price they are selling it at? I mean, come on, you must have known people who have got involved in a network marketing company and tried to sell you on it too; vacuum cleaners, cleaning products, beauty products, miracle potions, timeshares, beef jerky, online shopping malls - the list is endless. I’m not saying that these products are not valid (well, maybe the miracles are pushing it a bit) but the likelihood of them making you rich, are, let’s be honest here - slimmer than a very slim thing! So let’s move on to what you’ll be given for free shall we?

4) A web page of your own to promote your business! Sounds great in theory for people who don’t know much about websites or marketing and they just can't seem to get enough of them. I know we all have to learn and start somewhere but I say this because if it weren’t true, we wouldn’t be seeing these awful pages with a low resolution grainy photo of the ‘marketer’ either sitting in their dingy little living space peering in a hopefully vacant way at their monitors or, even worse, a cell phone snapshot of the site ‘owner’ with their little rat like dog. Remember the old saying, 'would you buy a used car from THIS man?' It applies here in spades. Like it or not, in this world, image is everything, so think about yours and that of the business you are trying to promote. Showing me a video of some smug fool in a rented sports car does not make me want to be like him, nor does it inspire any belief in what he might be doing. Remember that in advertising yourself and your business, your audience have a huge variation of aspirations and are looking for someone to provide what they need - bragging shamelessly about your own success makes many people want to hit you upside the head rather than aspire to your not so lofty ideals. If you want people to trust you and your business, get yourself a domain name, learn how to build a website of your own and you are already many steps ahead of thousands of affiliates and would be marketers. Oh, and when you write your ad copy, please, please, please....proof read everything. Badly written and misspelled copy makes me click elsewhere faster than anything and if people try to tell you differently, don't believe them - your professional image takes a huge battering if your writing is below par.

5) Which leads on to a quick thought about offline promotion. Maybe you’ve seen it too - ’Want A Part Time Income Of $6000 Per Week?’ plastered across the trunk of a twelve year old automobile. Erm…need I say more. If the driver of a top of the range Bentley did it, maybe you’d believe them, but then you’ll never see such a display. In the same vein, all those flyers taped to light poles or slapped on your windshield while you're at work. What am I getting at? One word - desperation. It will not inspire people to flock to an ‘opportunity’ because it smacks so loudly of desperation and the fact that by believing your sales pitch they too may well be reduced to wandering parking lots at night, furtively slapping flyers on windshields. Hardly a business success model is it? You are demonstrating only one thing with these tactics - your own lack of funds or willingness to even invest in effective advertising. Keep your offline efforts professional too. If that means restricting yourself to business cards and small ads so be it, your credibility will at least be intact.

6) OK, time for a little positive relief. There are some good opportunities to be found online. I don’t know about them all and space prohibits a long list of the good, the bad and the ugly here. When you do find something that you think can work for you, don’t be afraid to try it. As the saying goes - if you think you can do it, or if you think you can’t, then you’re absolutely right. Take time to learn from people already involved and try to find out just how much help you can expect. A good network marketer understands the need to help others in his organization and thus enhance his own business and income - there should be no ‘secrets’ and people have to be team focused. The vast majority of people give up on network marketing because they never get any support from the ‘team’ who recruited them in the fist place

7) Once you’ve taken the plunge and start to work on your program, don’t be disheartened after the first week with no visible results. No matter what anybody tells you, it will take time. If you’re looking to give up your day job, sit on the beach and watch the cash flow into your account while you sip Pina Coladas then perhaps network marketing is not for you.

8) The hardest aspects of network marketing are advertising, marketing and recruiting. These will take up more time than anything else, especially if you are on a tight budget. There are countless solutions on offer; some that work and some that don’t and you will also spend a lot of time sorting through them. This is where having a helpful up line will pay dividends, so get involved with the team and find out how they do it. Overcoming the skepticism of potential customers/members will also be a regularly occurring theme in your days. It’s a fact you just have to accept and it’s thanks to all the cons that have been perpetrated in the past. Never resort to that old enemy, desperation. Many programs now make things a little easier with matrix builders that help you to grow your business without recruiting hundreds of people yourself, but this still relies on the need for an active and effective team working to gain new customers.

9) Give all your strategies time to pay off, but if they’re not working, try new methods. Doing the same old thing day in and day out will produce the same results. When you get new sign ups, help them as much as you can and don’t jealously guard your knowledge, no matter how hard won it may have been.

10) If you want to change your life, network marketing is a viable model for doing so despite the high failure rate. It will take work and it may be frustrating, but people do succeed and there is no reason why you shouldn’t be among them.

Network Marketing Can Make You Money

When it comes to starting a home business, few people think about getting involved in a network marketing home business.  But, that needn’t be the case any longer.  A network marketing home business is an ideal way to use your business experience and expertise, and start a successful marketing business venture from the comfort of your own home.

Network marketing home businesses are also known as MLM businesses, or multilevel marketing businesses.  There are numerous recognizable brand names that fall in the genre of network marketing businesses.  The most popular brands are Mary Kay cosmetics, Tupperware and Amway.

Getting involved in a network marketing home business usually involves a small upfront fee for products and supplies, and the success of the business is then up to you, the salesperson.  You earn commission on the sales you make, and you have the potential to make as much as you want.  Often in a network marketing home business, the key to success is in the business name: networking.  Networking is the act of meeting and greeting people and telling them what your business is all about.  It is absolutely crucial, in a successful network marketing home business to get off the couch, get off into the neighborhood and network with as many people as you possibly can.  Good networking is the most important aspect in starting your business off on the right foot.

Network marketing home businesses require relatively little startup capital, and can be a great way to make money, meet new people and refine your sales and marketing skills.

Network Marketing, The Business Model

Network marketing is a multi-billion dollar business. As a business model, it is taught in major universities around the world. The Wall Street Journal stated, “…between 50% and 65% of all goods and services sold in this millennium will be through network marketing.” It is a business model that is perfectly suited to the “information age.”

What is this “Business Model?”
Network marketing is a way of doing business that is different from the “traditional” model used by most consumer packaged goods, food and drug companies. It is one of the most promising income opportunities in American today. It is the idea of many people each doing a little work, as opposed to a few people doing a lot of work. To quote J. Paul Getty, the world’s first billionaire, “I’d rather have 1% of the efforts of 100 people than 100% of my own.”

Rather than using the customary distribution process of moving products from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer, network marketing companies use a network of independent marketers to move products directly from the manufacturer to the consumer. Further, the cost structure of a network marketing organization is different than a traditional packaged goods marketer.

With a traditional company, millions of dollars are spent on advertising to entice consumers to buy that company’s products instead of the virtually identical product from another company. With a network company, the advertising expense is channeled into sales commissions for distributors who promote the product through “word-of-mouth” advertising, i.e. by telling other people about the product. In the traditional business model, money is spent BEFORE the sale in the form of advertising; in the network marketing model, the money is paid AFTER the sale in the form of commissions. Which model seems to make the most sense from a business standpoint?

With network marketing, you have two sources of income: (1) direct commissions from sales you make yourself, and (2) commissions from sales made by people you introduce to the business, called residual income. You can invest your time and money once and get paid multiple times for the effort. It means getting paid for the work of others. In traditional sales, you may be a great salesperson and have a few dozen good customers and earn your income from all their purchases. However, you probably have to nurture these customers and spend most of your working time making sure they are buying from you and not someone else.

In network marketing, you can build a downline of 100, 1,000, or even 10,000 people, most of whom you will not know nor ever have contact with. This is because the majority of the people in your downline will be people who know somebody, who know somebody, who know somebody, who know you. By having a downline that is working with you, and for you, you can multiply your efforts many times. The earning potential of a downline of 1,000 people, each putting in only one hour a day five days a week, represents 20,000 hours of work in a month. It would take one person 10 years to produce the same amount of work. That’s the power of a network.

Perhaps Robert T. Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series, said it best. “The richest people in the world look for networks. Everyone else looks for work.”

It is estimated that more than 50,000 people start a home-based business every week in the United States. The average person owning a home-based business earns more than $50,000 a year (often working part-time), while the national average annual household income is less than $45,000 (and most of those people are working at least 40 hours per week). Additionally, a home-based business owner can qualify for many legitimate tax breaks, and tax experts suggest that the average person can save between $2,000 and $10,000 on taxes every year just by starting a home-based business.

How is this possible? Well, consider these two tax structures: a wage earner first earns income, then pays tax on that income, and then pays for expenses with after-tax income. A business owner first earns income, then pays for expenses, and then pays tax on net income after expenses. In other words, a business owner can legitimately reduce the amount of tax he or she has to pay because business expenses are paid with pre-tax income, not after-tax, income.

Network marketing is a $36 Billion industry in the United States. More than 20 per cent of the estimated one million millionaires in America today have earned their fortunes over the previous six years through network marketing. Worldwide, there are over 3.5 million millionaires, and more than 700,000 have made their millions via network marketing. Conservative estimates are that network marketing in America is creating 40 new millionaires every month from average people. This means that a person’s greatest chance of financial success is through “networking.” Again, Robert Kiyosaki observed, “If I had it to do all over again, I would choose network marketing.”

For people who are interested in starting a home-based business, supplementing their income, and providing greater security for retirement and for their children and grandchildren, network marketing is an obvious choice.

Bruce Bailey, Ph.D.

Network Marketing - Selling Information

The invention of the World Wide Web, and its introduction into our lives, has created a vast global market place. Of course, it's possible to sell everything from cars to DVD's. The other item you can sell is information, and that's probably the most valued commodity of all.
  
The creation and marketing of information has never been easier, cheaper or faster. The information can be issued throughout the world at the touch of a button, making for high profit margins. The era we live in today is known as the Information Age, and it taps into the emerging economies such as China and India as well as the established ones.
  
So what information can be sold? First, locate a need in the market and think of ways to distribute the information. Information can be bought as e-books, a web site, or downloadable software. Information on special interests, in the form of articles, reported surveys or user group newsletters all have a demand. Everything from 'How To Manuals' on home made wine to analyzing stock market movements.
  
Selling information is a very straightforward concept, without the need to spend ages getting a product through Research and Development, and then into an expensive production stage. You don't have to carry stock, so no boxes of engine parts or whatever will be cluttering up your attic. You just need a good idea, a computer, and basic computer knowledge. This is a business you can set up for next to nothing.
  
A good web site where your customers can log in and receive a prompt efficient service is vital. You need a secure site, which will process orders, payment and delivery. Looking after the customer online is just as important as working through any other medium, and they will expect delivery in a timely manner. Shipping the orders can really eat into the time, and therefore profits of a conventional business, so another advantage of selling information online is the simple ability to send everything via email.
  
The best thing is you can do all of this, sitting in your pajamas and drinking your coffee!