This one network marketing secret could save you years of frustration in doing network marketing. When I first got into network marketing, I came from a background of teaching. I loved teaching and got pretty creative at it. I figured what I lacked in effective sales and marketing skills, I could compensate for through great teaching. After all, people did need to understand the "plan", how the company worked and compensated one's efforts. What I discovered was that I had nobody to teach without first selling them on my business opportunity or on my products. How was I going to learn the skills of effective sales and marketing? I did not even like sales. I thought this opportunity was not really about sales! I had been told that "We just share about the products. The products are so good that they actually sell themselves!" In this article, I would like to face some of the hard questions that actually face the whole network marketing industry. How do we define "sales" and "marketing"? Are they the same thing or are they different? Then, what does "effective" mean as opposed to "efficient". Why is there such a lack in traditional MLM of effective sales and marketing? And what is the answer to learning skills in sales and marketing, particularly for we who are timid and find rejection painful? Is there another way of doing sales and marketing that is both effective and "user friendly"? What Do I Mean by "Effective Sales and Marketing"? Here is a definition of sales I read recently: "Sales is an exchange of goods or services for something of value. Basically anytime money changes hands. In reality, it is much bigger than that. The art of selling is really the ability to influence others in the way they think or act. A better term might be: The art of 'persuasion.'" So what then is the meaning of marketing? The same writer says, "I like to think of marketing as creating a situation where people can buy on their own....In order for that to happen, the most important thing to remember is this: Good marketing is about tapping into needs that already exist." She goes on to explain that there are many different activities that come under the umbrella of marketing. There are online ways of doing it and offline ways of doing it such as direct mail, classifieds, copy writing, websites, etc. Do you begin to see an answer to my quandary emerging from my definitions? How to sell either products or an opportunity without having to approach people and give them a "pitch". When you tap into needs that already exist, you do not have to persuade. They are already persuaded. It is sufficient to educate them on your products or on your opportunity and they will want to buy. This lead us to reflect on the meaning of "effective" and how it relates to "efficient". Efficiency has to do with how you perform a task. You do it well or with excellence. Effectiveness has to do with doing the right tasks and getting results. It is doing those activities which will best help you realize your goals. Measuring Traditional Network Marketing Against the Standard of "Effective Sales and Marketing" Traditional network marketing tends to focus on the quality of their products and their compensation plan. I was told that "We have the best products out there!" And the more I investigated, the more I was convinced that in certain areas of health and beauty products, we did have a very high quality of product, maybe the best. They also focused on the compensation plan. We had people in our company who were actually successful in building their own business who were experts in finance. They had studied all the different compensation plans and concluded that our's was far and away the best. I'm not an economist, but I believed them. Now what I discovered was that believing that we had great products and believing that our company was one of the best if not the best, did not do zip to equip me or enable me to move products and become successful in business myself! Our sales and marketing plan was basically approaching people one-on-one. Approaching family members, friends and then "new friends" that I made on the spot. Our small group sessions on products was just that. We shared things we learned and experienced about the products. We learned little about the "how to" of sales and marketing. The whole task of marketing, finding people who needed our products or opportunity was hopelessly ineffective. The company and the "tried and proven system" was efficient but not effective. We were doing marketing one at a time and with people whom we had to approach. They had shown no sense of need or desire for what we had. Most of them could care less. A New Approach to Effective Sales and Marketing for Network Marketing Ann Sieg uses this illustration to show the difference between the traditional approach to sales and marketing of network marketing and the new approach she has pioneered called "attraction marketing". She talks about a race to go from the Empire State Building to the Golden Gate Bridge. There are one set of people who get their bikes in first class condition and themselves in good shape. They are ready to bike across America. They are very efficient. Then you have another group who decide to use cars. She points out that even those with second rate cars will far out distance those on bikes. These are effective at reaching their goal. She states the principle, "It is always better to be effective than it is to be efficient." She goes on to show that by harnessing the internet, rather than approaching one person at a time, you can approach hundreds and even thousands at a time 24/7. And if you do it right, you can find those who are looking, those who have a need for what you are offering. You let the internet, through it's various automatic response systems, to sort and sift your prospects. By the time they talk to you, you have only highly qualified prospects. Furthermore, they are coming to you rather than you chasing after them. They see you as a professional and as an expert and they are seeking your counsel. To coach someone in finding what they are looking for is not distasteful to me or most people who hate sales. In taking seriously the buyer, listening, understanding what they need, you become their advocate. They may find that what you offer fits what they are looking for or maybe not. In any case you have made a friend, perhaps for life, whom you can serve again and again. Ann Sieg puts it this way, "A prospect that comes to you is infinitely more qualified than anyone you could ever approach yourself." I discovered that not only had Ann discovered something that could help me, but she and her team had developed a whole training system to equip MLMers like me in the "how to" of doing it, with no matter what network marketing company one may be in. I recommend you read further about this kind of marketing,"attraction marketing".
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